Kny •《Bury Me, My Love》

5. Comeback Of A Dead Man

Night had fallen upon the Underworld.

In Hell, there wasn't much difference between day and night. The days were dark and dull. The night sky lacked any stars or beauty.

It simply kept some of that faint, anemic glow from earlier, allowing any demons to still see decently even without a torch.( I don't wanna give them night vision )

A crowded place like the red forest, however, would be shrouded in complete darkness... if not for the faint glow of the mushrooms still growing among the weed.

The lush plants hid most of the light sources, though, creating distracting shadows everywhere.

That maze of a place was a nightmare to navigate during the night. Like a dark and sober version of a psychedelics-induced bad trip.

And it was even worse because Rengoku wouldn't shut up.

Inosuke clenched his fists as the other kept chatting as if they were going through a simple walk on the park.

Kanao was far from them, soaring above, watching in case Douma tried to leave that place.

On the bright side, her absence meant Rengoku wouldn't have even more encouragement to keep talking nonstop.

On the other hand, Inosuke was forced to endure the endless conversation all by himself, as they both walked through the bizarre cannabis forest.

Rengoku went on the front, one of his hands raised high. Inosuke had suggested that he should try using his Fire Marionette technique to snatch Douma... even without knowing exactly where he was.

Just flying around while looking for the slayer in that dark maze would be useless, thought Inosuke.

They couldn't sense his presence anyway, after all. And if Doum was as smart as he appeared to be so far, he'd stay out of sight and not make a single noise - he could even have already noticed Kanao flying nearby.

He was trapped - that is, if Inosuke indeed had guessed correctly and Douma was somewhere in that forest. Rengoku's technique would soon find where he was hiding, they hoped.

Kanao had sweetly suggested that the three of them should just blast the entire place using their powers, and then the slayer have nowhere to hide.

Kanae had never told them explicitly to not explode Douma, after all, nor to bring him without more missing limbs... but Inosuke had a feeling that the uppermoon three would be disappointed to receive a scrambled body inside a box.

(Kanao had insisted that giving Kanae a "meat jigsaw puzzle" would be fun and 'educative', but luckily, no one agreed with her.)

Besides, Kanao's plan would probably end up creating a giant crater near the First Prison, and the demon king himself would awake from his slumber to throw a fit complaining about "environmental damage" and other things no demon cared about.

And making Hell even uglier than it was already would further ruin its pitiful real estate value.

Clearly not discouraged by Inosuke's lack of response, Kyojuro kept talking:

Inosuke slapped the back of his head. It made a pleasant sound - the sound of a slap very well done, fueled with pure, unfiltered spite.

Kyojuro's invisible techniques broke as he nearly tripped over his own feet, and they stopped walking.

Rengoku patted the dirt off his clothes, and offering him a sardonic smile.

The smile disappeared, and Rengoku brought a hand to his chin, deep in thought: