N-A-A Chapter 3 Milk, isn't it amazing?
Chapter 3 Milk, isn't it amazing?
On the pristine snowfield of his dream, Tanjiro Kamado gripped the hilt of his Nichirin Blade tightly.
"This is how to leave..." he murmured, his father's illusory figure appearing and disappearing not far away.
To wake up in a dream, one must "die" in the dream.
Tanjiro took a deep breath, slowly raised his sword, and held it horizontally in front of his neck.
Just as he was about to exert his strength, an extremely sudden and intense feeling of dizziness attacked his consciousness without warning.
The snowfield before him, his father's figure, and the Nichirin Blade all twisted into strange and broken blocks of color at this moment, before collapsing into nothingness like glass.
"Hoo-ha—!"
Tanjiro suddenly opened his eyes and sat up from his seat almost like he was being launched into the air.
The view was no longer filled with pristine white snow, but rather with the flickering light of kerosene lamps and the somewhat oppressive dark red ceiling of the train carriages.
"Tanjiro, calm down, you're awake."
A deep and steady voice came from the side. Tanjiro subconsciously gripped the hilt of his sword and turned around, only to see a pair of familiar pink eyes filled with tears.
"Waaah, waaah!"
Midouzi was anxiously standing in front of him, her hands still clutching the hem of his clothes.
Seeing her brother wake up, she breathed a sigh of relief, let out a joyful hum, and affectionately nuzzled Tanjiro's forehead.
"Nezuko..." Tanjiro murmured to himself. He reached out and touched his sister's hair as if to confirm it, feeling the warmth of his palm, before he was finally sure that he had returned to reality.
Then, he looked at the person standing in the middle of the aisle.
It was a mysterious man whose entire body was covered in heavy armor.
The man was carrying a silver-white metal bucket, and his eyes appeared remarkably calm in the shadow of his helmet.
"It seems that although this method is brutal, it is very effective for someone with a strong will like you," the man said, his tone flat and without any emotion.
Tanjiro then noticed that several boys and girls dressed in ordinary clothes were lying haphazardly at the man's feet. They were tightly bound with thick ropes and were in a deep coma.
"This... samurai sir," Tanjiro stood up politely and warily, his hand still gripping the hilt of his sword tightly, "may I ask who you are? And what's the deal with these passengers...?"
"You can call me Pei Qi. I'm just a traveler who's been around the world. I noticed something unusual on the train when I passed through here, so I went to help."
"Besides, I'm not some kind of samurai."
The man put away the iron bucket in his hand with such efficiency that there was no redundancy whatsoever, and even his heavy armor did not produce a harsh metallic clang.
"These people are not ordinary passengers; they are puppets bewitched by demons."
"I just saw them trying to do something bad with awls, so I knocked them out as I passed by. To prevent them from waking up and getting in the way, I reinforced the area with rope."
Upon hearing this, Tanjiro immediately looked down and observed, and sure enough, he found that the children were holding strange little drills in their hands.
He felt a chill run down his spine, and a cold sweat of fear instantly soaked his back.
He quickly expressed his gratitude: "Thank you so much! If it weren't for Mr. Pei's help, we would probably be in our dreams now..."
"By the way, how did you wake me up? I just felt an unprecedented violent tremor in my dream."
"Your sister went to a lot of trouble." Pei Qi looked at Mi Douzi, a hint of approval flashing in his eyes.
"She realized you were in an abnormal sleep and kept trying to wake you up."
"At first she seemed to think of me as a hostile enemy, so to make her understand my intentions, I accompanied her in a not-so-pleasant chase in this narrow carriage."
Pei Qi didn't offer any further explanation. He turned around and nimbly walked towards his other companions not far away.
"Enough with the small talk. The ghost controlling the train has noticed my interference. We must wake everyone up as soon as possible."
Tanjiro quickly followed.
"Mr. Pei, I'll help too! Is it enough to just shake them awake?"
"Ordinary shaking is no longer effective; the demon's blood demon magic clings to their consciousness like a deadly poison."
As Pei Qi spoke, he produced a bucket of milky-white liquid, overflowing with a rich aroma, from thin air with a movement that Tanjiro could not see at all.
"Drink this." Pei Qi handed the bucket of liquid to Tanjiro.
"This milk is made using a special process. Whether it's poisoning, weakness, or this kind of mental illusion, drinking it will forcibly dispel all negative effects."
Tanjiro took the iron bucket, and its heavy weight surprised him.
He lowered his head and smelled an extremely pure and rich milky aroma, which felt like the clearest ice spring on a snow-capped mountain.
But the hesitation in his eyes hadn't disappeared, and he couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Pei, please forgive my intrusion... but is this really just ordinary milk? The demon's blood demon art is such a powerful and evil force; can mere milk really counteract such power?"
Pei Qi stopped and turned to look at Tanjiro.
Pei Qi explained, "You can think of it as a neutralizing agent that can eliminate all abnormal states. That's its power."
"Eliminate...abnormality?" Tanjiro didn't quite understand what the other person was saying, but he could tell that the other person wasn't lying.
"Are we really going to drink this whole huge bucket?" Tanjiro stared blankly at the iron bucket in his hand, which was big enough to hold several gallons of liquid.
"Given their current condition, Zenitsu and the others probably can't swallow that much liquid, right?"
"If you don't want to be killed in your dreams, this is just the smallest price to pay," Pei Qi said succinctly.
Tanjiro no longer hesitated; he knew that every second counted. He ran towards Zenitsu, who was lost in his reverie not far away, while Pei Qi approached the person with the strongest presence in the entire carriage.
Flame Pillar, Rengoku Kyojuro.
This swordsman, brimming with a sense of justice, sat upright at this moment. Even in his sleep, his breathing maintained a frequency that was difficult for ordinary people to achieve.
That was his breathing during the full concentration phase, his body was like a bowstring stretched to its limit.
Pei Qi tried to extend the iron bucket, but before he could even touch the other's lips, Rengoku Kyojuro's fingers had already gripped the hilt of the Nichirin Blade.
Clang!
The Nichirin Blade was drawn half an inch from its sheath, a crimson flash of light disappearing in the dimly lit carriage, instantly raising the air temperature.
Pei Qi dodged to the side with precise and composed movements, avoiding the feint that could have sliced through the rails.
He could easily subdue the swordsman, but that would require a wide-ranging contact, and he might destroy the wooden carriage due to excessive force.
"As expected of a 'Pillar,' this defensive instinct has transcended brain control and become muscle memory." Pei Qi took two steps back, observing calmly.
"In this state, unless I cripple him, I can't get the milk into his mouth."
"Mr. Pei, Mr. Rengoku, he..." Tanjiro had just given Zenitsu a sip of milk when Zenitsu cried out in his dream, "It smells so strong! I'm suffocating!" and began to struggle to wake up.
Tanjiro turned around and saw this scene, and couldn't help but worry.
"His mental defenses are too strong; forcing it will only cause the entire carriage to collapse." Pei Qi decisively stopped and put the iron bucket back into his backpack.
"Forget it, with his willpower, he'll break free on his own soon enough. We don't need to waste our time here."
Although Tanjiro didn't quite understand the term "forced removal," he could clearly sense that every time Pei Qi drank a bucket of milk, a faint white smoke would suddenly appear around the passengers.
The moment the smoke dissipated, the passengers' pale faces would quickly regain their rosy hue, as if they had leaped from the dead of winter into the warmth of spring.
One bucket after another.
Under Tanjiro's astonished and admiring gaze, Pei Qi ran through the entire carriage in just a few minutes with almost mechanical precision and efficiency.
Originally, Rengoku Kyojuro, the Flame Pillar who should have been the first to awaken and had the strongest physique, ended up being one of the last to awaken due to his amazing defensive instincts.
"Phew, all done." Pei Qi clapped his hands and put away the last empty bucket.
Despite producing dozens of buckets of milk from the void, he showed no signs of fatigue whatsoever.
"Tanjiro, go get your sword." Pei Qi's eyes, hidden beneath his helmet, looked into the distance, and he summoned back the Lower World Alloy Sword that flowed with purple light.
"The ghost behind the scenes must have sensed the changes on the train. Let's go and meet this ghost..."