Demon Slayer: Upper 0 seems to be a waste

After the battle, Akaza would find a lake or river to wash off the blood and dust on his body. At this time, Rinkou would be the one sitting on the rocks on the shore and watching.

Lin Guang felt that he was like a character in a story at that time. It was said that humans would peek at ghosts taking a bath, then have their souls hooked away and eventually be eaten.

But Akaza is not a female ghost, he is not peeking, and Akaza will not eat him, so the story seems to have changed.

Hmm. Sure enough, the story is only suitable for humans. If the one peeping in wasn't a ghost, but a human, and an adult male at that, he would probably have been eaten by Akaza.

Akaza walked up to the shore, all wet, and casually played with his short hair, scattering water droplets everywhere. He habitually looked for the shadow of the boy. Rinkou sat obediently on the rock, his eyes still fixed on the place where he had just been. It was obvious that he must have been thinking about something again and was distracted.

In fact, before, Rinko was more inclined to go and take a shower. Washing clean was not the goal, but playing in the water was. However, Rinko's physical fitness was indeed not strong enough. With the change of seasons and the arrival of snowy days, the temperature of the flowing water became colder, and when it was colder than Rinko's body temperature, he would become like a stiff little wood if he stayed in the river for too long. Akaza simply let him stay on the shore and watch the show.

Come to think of it, is the one he discovered before nearby?

----

The wind was cold and the snowflakes were drifting, but before they landed on the ground, they were blown away by the rising mist and turned into water droplets. The water droplets fell and dripped on the boy's head.

“Ah, it’s snowing…”

Lin Guang raised his head and looked at the snowflakes floating down from the gloomy sky. The thick dark clouds completely blocked the light, so that ghosts could rarely appear in the daytime.

"It's indeed time for snow."

Akaza raised his head following Rinkou's gaze and looked at the falling snowflakes. After just one glance, he withdrew his attention. It made no difference to him whether it was snowing or raining.

His gaze followed the falling snowflakes from the clouds to Rin Guang's body. It was very interesting that the boy who had died suddenly at dawn since the earliest memory he had had had no chance of falling into a deep sleep since then.

Perhaps the nutrients contained in the thin blood were truly amazing, so he didn't need to rely on sleep to relieve the pain, or perhaps the ice that night froze his brain and opened his mind, so that he no longer clung to dreams.

Let’s not talk about the process and just look at the result. The result is good. Now Lingguang will be energetic even during the day and doesn’t have to sleep like a dead person all the time.

Although they couldn't actually go anywhere after daybreak, chatting with two living people was a better way to pass the time.

What's more, the occasional cloudy day will give them some extra activities.

Just like today, the hot spring that the boy passed by inadvertently attracted his attention. Rinkou, who had never seen a hot spring before, immediately couldn't move his feet.

“It’s snowing and it creates a great atmosphere.”

The palm soaked in water stretched out, trying to catch the snowflakes as usual, but the palm soaked in hot water had already become warm, and the snowflakes were melted by the rising heat before they got close. The only thing that the hand could catch were cool water droplets.

"Does Akaza like snow?"

Akaza was already very familiar with being dragged into messy topics at any time. He changed from squatting to sitting, sitting on the shore and looking at the boy who was soaking in the hot water with only his head and one arm exposed.

"I wouldn't say I like it. Ghost hunters are much slower in the winter."

"That's what hates?"

The head turned to look at him. Akaza shook his head.

"Not really."

The drop in temperature in winter would make the human body more sluggish, and sluggishness meant being weaker, which he didn't like. But he didn't hate the snow too much either. The snowflakes that fell on his palm had beautiful octagonal patterns, and his technique also had such patterns, but he couldn't remember why it was like this.

"Then I still like him, but not as much."

"That's it."

Akaza never paid attention to these harmless little things. If Rinkou wanted to think so, let him think so. It would not have any impact on him.

The boy continued to talk to him in a random and incoherent manner, sometimes talking about snowmen, sometimes about hot springs, sometimes about rice cakes, and sometimes about stars. His unconventional thinking was never bound by anything, just like him.

Until the voice gradually slowed down and became lighter, Akaza lowered his eyes and looked at the boy with a dazed look, and raised his eyebrows.

The last time I saw Lin Guang in this state, he was "intoxicated" by the purity of the rare blood, but where could he get the rare blood in this place?

"My head feels like it's melting... It's so hot..."

The answer came to him. He wasn't drunk, but soaked in the hot spring for too long. Akaza had heard that humans would get dizzy if they soaked in the hot spring for too long, but he had never thought that ghosts would also get dizzy after soaking in the hot spring for too long. However, for ghosts, the temperature was indeed a bit high.

Thinking of this, Akaza reached out and pulled the boy out of the water. It was indeed unreasonably hot, and Akaza noticed it as soon as his hand touched the body.

Lin Guang's body temperature was almost the same as the hot water after being soaked in the hot spring, and it was even a little hot to the touch.

Akaza watched Rinkou slowly drain himself and even more slowly put on his clothes. Even so, his whole body was still in a smoking hot state despite the low temperature.

"Going to the river to cool down?"

Akaza's proposal was very direct. He didn't expect that chaotic head to respond, he just wanted to give a notification.

He tried to lift Rinko onto his shoulders, but the boy was completely limp, hanging over his head, his arms drooping with no strength at all. If he took even one step forward, Rinko would surely fall off him.

As a last resort, Akaza held the pile of mud on his shoulders in his arms and ran towards the nearby river. He could take a long step and his speed was amazing.

It only took a few breaths to get from the hot spring in the mountains to the distant river. Facing the cold wind, the boy's temperature eased slightly, but if he continued to fall like this, he would probably not be able to return to normal by tomorrow morning.

"Akoza...smells good."

"Ok?"

Rinko's voice was soft and vague, but Akaza's ears were sharp enough that he was confused not by what was said but by the reason.

Did the high temperature burn my brain?

"Akaza smells like winter..."

Well, now Akaza can be sure that his head is really hot and he has started talking nonsense.

The journey ended in a flash. Akaza walked along the river for a while, found a relatively deeper place, and put the boy who was in high temperature into the cold river.

The cooling effect of the cold water was quite effective, and almost as soon as he entered the water, the smoke from Rinko stopped coming out, and as time passed, the boy's spirits also began to ease.

"Awake?"

"Ah."

"Do you remember what nonsense you just said?"

Akaza lifted the wet boy out of the water, and the boy winked at him.

"Yes, but it's not nonsense."

?

"Akaza has a very cold smell, especially after washing, it smells like winter."

The boy looked at the older boy with innocent but firm eyes, and the two of them just stared at each other until the latter pushed the former back into the water.

"Sure enough, he's still not awake."