Demon Slayer: Upper 0 seems to be a waste

"Good morning, Lord Kokushibo."

Before the sun fully appeared and the moon set, in that brief darkest moment, Rinkou fell straight down in front of Kokushibo.

For a child, it is indeed a bit hard for a cat to catch a mouse in a mountain with a whole night as the time and the venue, but the opponent is a ghost after all, and Kokushibo thinks this should be no problem.

So he just walked forward, easily grabbed the back of his clothes, and carried Lin Guang towards the cave as if he was carrying something.

To Kokushibo, Rinko was an easy child to see through; he was easy to understand. Just as his appearance suggested, the boy was a pure child at heart. He would be nervous, reserved, and cautious around those who appeared older, always following their instructions. He would master anything Kokushibo taught him quickly, and if he couldn't learn, he would practice until he was allowed to stop.

Although Muzan said that he didn't expect Rinko to learn swordsmanship, Kokushibo still made an attempt, and Rinko studied very seriously. When he was not really cutting anything and was just learning the moves, it was still okay, but when he really attacked, the beautiful long sword was just a beautiful appearance in his hand, without any of the power it should have.

Moreover, Rinkou doesn't know any breathing techniques, no matter how you teach him, he won't be able to learn.

"My lungs feel like they're going to explode, Lord Kokushibo."

This was one of the rare times when Rinkou was learning and practicing breathing techniques and it wasn't directly related to the practice itself.

It was a long time later, when Kokushibo looked at Rinko who fell into a deep sleep because of the dawn, that he realized that the sentence he said at that time might have been his way of expressing rejection in a tactful way, or even asking for help.

He didn't understand at the time, but he gave up the idea of letting Rinko continue practicing breathing techniques because he could see that Rinko really had no talent.

It has to be said that Muzan is very good at judging people. The so-called requirement of self-preservation gradually became a real bottom line from a euphemism in the relationship between Kokushibo and Rinko.

It is indeed unrealistic to expect a ghost with almost no offensive and defensive abilities to become a member of the battle.

Rinkou is too weak. As a ghost, he is too weak. Even if we don't compare him with other ghosts, but compare him with the boys whose age can be estimated from his appearance, putting aside the special physique of a ghost, Rinkou can be completely classified as the lowest level.

If it weren't for the ghost, there's a high probability that Rinko wouldn't be able to survive until now.

This is what Kokushibo often thinks when he sees Rinko training. It's cruel, but also very realistic.

Fortunately, Rinko wasn't completely useless. Kokushibo had recently been training his reaction abilities. After abandoning combat and defense, this body retained other characteristics, such as being more agile, more cautious, more careful, and faster.

The biggest advantage of having a demon as an opponent is that it has a very high tolerance rate. Rinko will inevitably be injured in battle, but the injuries will recover quickly. This means that Kokushibo does not have to worry too much during training and just needs to attack. One of the purposes of training is to allow Rinko to develop faster regeneration abilities.

In addition to being beaten unilaterally, Rinko will also be forced to participate in a cat-and-mouse game. The venue is the entire mountain. Kokushibo will search after a countdown, and Rinko only has ten seconds to escape or hide.

At first, Rinko did not show his talent, and Kokushibo was able to easily find the escaped boy.

The turning point was that after a series of failures on the first night, Lin Guang realized the seriousness of the problem.

"How did you find me?"

This was what Rinkou asked when he was captured for the seventh time. At that time, he was hung upside down by one ankle, dangling in the air like a puppet.

"You ran too slowly...and your movements were too loud. Both the sound and the shape...were too obvious."

Maybe this sentence is the key to open the door.

Lin Guang immediately realized that if he just ran away, he would definitely be caught. It was impossible to win by competing in speed with someone who ran much faster than him.

So he was no longer just running away. He was still running, but he was not running around blindly. He tried to hide, learned to conceal his disadvantages, and play to his advantages.

A clever tactic, but one that works.

It only took him one month to go from being caught dozens of times a night to only being caught a few times a night.

Last night, when Kokushibo walked under the tree, he looked up completely out of instinct. It was not until his eyes met that he noticed Rinkou hiding on the branch above his head. He was silent and motionless. Even when he gradually walked into the area where he could be discovered, he did not panic. He remained calm and patient, and except for blinking when their eyes met, he acted as if he was a part of this forest.

That kind of strong mental quality and the ability to appear non-existent until discovered is a very unique talent.

Kokushibo rarely sees such beings, there are few people and even fewer ghosts.

If he could fight, this skill would be very suitable for launching surprise attacks, but Lin Guang can't do it. He is just good at hiding.

After quickly creating distance, use the momentary blind spot or distraction to make yourself disappear from sight, and use that brief moment to truly 'disappear'.

Kokushibo had always felt that this wasn't a strategy for fighting demons, but rather a method used against demon hunters. Demons could quickly destroy large areas, hiding in the forest. But if the forest was gone, even grass seedlings would attract attention. It was difficult for humans to do this, whether it was widespread destruction or reckless destruction.

Lin Guang remembered Muzan's words, his enemy was the ghost hunter, he needed to avoid the ghost hunter, and he only needed to pay attention to the ghost hunter.

A very simple child.

Putting aside other things and only looking at the results, Rinko's training is still very effective. At least last night Kokushibo only managed to accurately catch Rinko once.

Kokushibo will not completely lose Rinko's whereabouts. He can sense the approximate range, but the closer he gets, the harder it is to lock on.

It was like a flame. From afar, you could see a faint glow in the darkness, but when you looked for it with a torch, it disappeared completely. He hid himself in more inconspicuous places, more secret corners, his only goal being to avoid being discovered.

During practice, when there was no one or anything to distract attention and hide Rinko's presence, the person searching for him became the torch. Rinko considered him that torch.

------

The problem of self-preservation was quickly resolved after Lingguang realized the key.

But Kokushibo thought that there was no easier way to deal with the problem of eating.

Kokushibo doesn't really need to eat anything because of his talent and because he has his own standards for food.

But other ghosts couldn't be the same as him, so he thought at first that ghosts would naturally go looking for food when they were hungry. At that time, he could train Lin Guang's killing skills. Although it was not suitable for fighting, he should still be able to catch people.

The problem is that.

Lin Guang is not hungry and doesn't eat.

At first, Kokushibo thought it was a talent, but later found out it wasn't.

It wasn't so much that he wasn't hungry or didn't want to eat, but rather that the reason for his hunger and the food he ate were wrong. Lin Guang would stop when the mountain climbers lit a bonfire at night to prepare human food, his eyes sparkling. But when it came time to actually devour human flesh, he showed little interest.

Is it because you are a child that your brain sometimes doesn’t work well?

Whenever Rinko held the meat and chewed it slowly, Kokushibo couldn't help but have such doubts.

But even without eating, Rinko didn't become frantic or weak due to hunger. And once the sun rose, Rinko would fall asleep, sleeping so soundly that he wouldn't even open his eyes even if he was carried around.

This is a dangerous, almost fatal weakness.

Logically speaking.

In fact, it wasn't. When Rinkou fell in front of him for the first time, Kokushibo watched him gradually become smaller, until the large coat could wrap him up. At that moment, the person in front of him disappeared from his perception.

It was as if his eyes were deceiving him, but his eyes could see and his hands could touch, but the breath in his perception had disappeared.

Lin Guang is like some special fragile creature. Because he is too fragile, he is regarded as a target for hunting by too many people. Therefore, all he has learned and mastered in the process of growing up is just to try to survive without being noticed by anyone. He is walking on a different path from others, and he continues to move forward with determination.

------

Rinko stayed with Kokushibo for a year. When Muzan came to pick him up, Rinko had already learned how to hide in the mountains for a whole night without being caught. As for eating, he could only explain Rinko's special situation to Muzan, and it was obvious that he was not the only one who was troubled by this.

"Maybe he hit his head."

This is how Muzan finally evaluated it.

Kokushibo expressed his approval of Muzan's point of view, which went beyond Muzan's own expectations.