Demon Slayer: Upper 0 seems to be a waste

Chapter 292 Confused

This world is actually quite strange.

At least for Rinko.

The little head always seemed unable to understand most things in this world.

"This world is actually very simple."

Akaza once said this.

"Ghosts eat people, and people kill ghosts."

It's that simple, just one sentence.

A sentence that seems to be an ironclad rule of this world.

So simple, so straightforward, and it has been so for hundreds of years.

But Rinko couldn't understand it.

why.

It's quite normal for ghosts to eat people.

But it seems a bit strange that a human would kill a ghost.

Because it's reasonable for ghosts to eat people.

Ghosts need to survive, and their food is humans, so they eat people.

Just like humans need to eat vegetables, rice, and meat, they need to eat a lot of things and drink water in order to survive.

In order to survive, humans have to eat so much food and kill so many creatures.

Humans also need to hunt. They need to kill other animals to obtain food in order to survive.

But why can't humans understand ghosts?

Even ghosts kill in order to survive.

Such a simple truth, yet humans cannot comprehend it.

Humans are complex beings, which makes the world complex as well, and makes ghosts feel very strange.

At least it made Rinko feel that the world had become strange because of it.

Cats on the roadside will crush the skulls of mice and kill birds that have fallen to the ground in order to survive.

Stray dogs will fight over food in their mouths and chase after fleeing rabbits in order to survive.

They are all striving to survive.

Both involve plundering other lives for food and ultimately killing other creatures, yet humans can forgive such behavior.

Humans find cats agile and dogs brave. They may even take in these animals, and some may even teach them how to kill other creatures, training them to become better hunters and kill more animals.

So why is that?

When a demon kills to survive, when a demon eats the dead to survive.

Humans would roar, pick up stones, raise blades, open their mouths to rebuke, roar, and curse.

They would say they want revenge, and that ghosts are unforgivable.

They are doing the same thing; they can forgive smaller cats and smaller dogs, but they cannot understand ghosts that are even more similar to them.

why.

Why do people kill ghosts? They don't even do it to eat them.

It's just about killing.

Humans are truly strange beings.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Humans are strange creatures.

Rinko still believes this to this day: different people have different complexities. He has met so many people and known so many people, but to this day, he still cannot understand any of them.

How is good and bad distinguished? Is someone who raises a knife at him considered a bad person? What if that knife wasn't aimed at his neck but at a dummy behind him? Is someone who extends an unarmed hand at him considered a good ghost? What if those unarmed hands easily break his ribs?

Was Shinobu Kocho good or bad to him? She was so gentle, so attentive, so patient in accompanying him, talking to him, sharing with him, and keeping him there. Wasn't that a good thing?

But where did those medicines, those syringes, the blood that was drawn go? What did the injected liquid represent? What was the meaning of that endless slumber? Were those things really not bad?

Rinko didn't intentionally want to think about these things. He always had a lot of questions, too many to answer. He couldn't find the answers to most of them, so he would just discard them. If he couldn't find the answers, he wouldn't think about them anymore. In short, he would just keep moving forward.

So Ubuyashiki wasn't entirely wrong.

Lin Guang thought.

Because he is indeed moving forward, moving forward while discarding something.

But he didn't think of himself as the fool who covered his ears and closed his eyes.

If I absolutely had to use a metaphor...

he thinks.

He was more like someone carrying a bamboo basket on his back, constantly moving forward.

An empty bamboo basket, large and light. He didn't know when it had appeared on him, but it had been there since he had memories. Rinko had even gotten used to the bamboo basket before that, and so he carried it on his back.

At first, there was nothing inside, just emptiness, and Rinko just kept walking forward, ever forward.

Then, whatever he encountered, saw, or thought of, the bamboo basket gradually became heavy, and he put everything into that bamboo basket.

He kept moving forward, the bamboo basket gradually filled, getting heavier and heavier, more and more; that was the weight of memories, the diamonds of recollection.

He traveled so far that his journey could not be measured by clear time, leaving footprints on the endless road, each one clearer than the last, as the bamboo basket behind him grew heavier and heavier.

He didn't know the limits of the bamboo basket, nor did he know his own limits, so he just kept moving forward, carrying it on his back, until someone reminded him.

Say.

You can't just carry all this on your shoulders and keep moving forward.

Rinko thought, why not?

He can.

Just keep moving forward.

'You can't. If you keep carrying all that on your back, you won't be able to move forward.'

That was the voice's reply.

He didn't know whose voice it was, nor did he think it was a good suggestion.

If you want to take everything, you'll eventually lose everything.

He didn't understand what it meant, nor did he care. Rinko thought he would carry everything forward and just keep going.

But the small light has its limits, as does the large bamboo basket. He can keep walking forward like this, but the bamboo basket will eventually be crushed by the ever-increasing weight.

broken.

So the bamboo basket developed a hole, and things started to fall out and get lost. First, it was the smallest, the earliest, and the least noticeable items, and then gradually, more and more of the later items started to fall out as well.

The more he finds, the more he loses.

But he didn't know that he was busy moving forward, busy picking up a lot and collecting even more.

Then, at some point, when he saw something familiar, he suddenly realized that he had seen something similar before, and he wanted to take it out of his basket.

Only then will we realize it belatedly.

The basket was already worn out.

That basket could hold nothing anymore.

broken.

Everything has fallen off.

It's as if his heart has also been torn open.

It can't be filled.

Everything was lost.

Rinko doesn't actually like to think.

He doesn't like to think.

But most of the time, problems don't arise out of thin air.

Just like this moment.

These seemingly meaningless, divergent thoughts actually originated from the simple bottle beside me.

A few minutes ago, the bottle was handed to him, wrapped in the handkerchief Tianyin had given him, and tied in the simplest way possible. The edge of the handkerchief was used as a rope to tie it to his belt and hang it.

This isn't a very stable situation, regarding the bottle and the handkerchief, but Rinko doesn't really care about it.

But as his body tilted and leaned back, the medicine bottle swayed, and the water gurgled—so softly, so faintly, like the fabric rubbing together—yet it sounded like that crack echoing in his ears again, so loudly.

Instability is not important.

Instability can mean insecurity.

Glass bottles are fragile and easily broken; they cannot withstand such insecurity.

Rinko didn't care about the glass bottle or the broken glass, but because this fragile, easily broken glass bottle came from Shinobu Kocho, he became concerned about it.

The brief half-second was used to think, not to hesitate, but simply because a better solution had not yet been found.

Untie the handkerchief.

Two slow seconds.

He thought about it.

Rinko recalled the wooden box behind her, containing a small bag. If she wrapped it in a handkerchief and placed it inside, the butterfly and the bottle might become stable. She could put them on her chest instead of hanging them on her belt, and perhaps then they would be safe.

Rinko turned around naturally.

The boundary of the shadow moved in his silence and disappeared in his thoughts.

The sun has set.

Silence returned to the room, but this time Rinko didn't care.

The room was quiet, but his mind was filled with sounds, which he tried to suppress.

He remembered a lot, and he should have remembered even more, but he didn't remember perhaps even more.

But even these things seem enough for him to cherish as memories.

He remembered how Shinobu reached out and placed the butterfly in his palm.

I remember the girl smiling under the moonlight.

He remembered her drifting into his world like a butterfly.

That seems sufficient.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Rinko, what are you thinking about?"

Silence enveloped the place, but Ubuyashiki was not one to be unable to tolerate silence.

Otherwise, this place wouldn't be so quiet, at least not for so long.

Lin Guang thought.

Why would a man speak at this moment?

he does not know.

Is it because he's always so noisy?

Was it because the rustling sound of him wrapping the medicine bottle was too trivial?

Was it because he bumped into the wood when he moved it towards the crate?

Because of what?

"Just curious."

This is an incredibly accurate conjecture that even ghosts would find unbelievable.

Rinko blinked, his face expressionless, but it would be a lie to say he wasn't surprised. He wasn't lying, but he certainly didn't want to praise Ubuyashiki.

"I'm thinking about a lot of things."

"I see."

Aren't you curious?

"If you're curious, Rinko, will you tell me?"

"..."

Does that mean you don't know how?

"No."

"Then I'll ask. What's Rinko thinking?"

“I’m wondering why none of you are urging me to take my medicine. Ren always makes me take my medicine on time, saying it will help her. But this time, she didn’t tell me about taking medicine, and none of you are urging me.”

It's not a lie; this is indeed one of the questions Rinko is thinking about.

"Ah, perhaps, Shinobu wanted to say goodbye to you."

"bid farewell?"

"It's just speculation."

A very strange guess, a very strange answer.

Humans are complex, and so is Ubuyashiki.

At that moment, Rinko belatedly realized that he had also become troublesome. He was thinking about so many things, speculating, deducing, analyzing, and arguing with words. This was something he would never have done before, or at least he was unwilling to do. Before, he would just listen, then he started asking questions, and now he was refuting.

Is this progress? Is this growth? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

He was thinking again, and new questions arose.

Perhaps it's Ubuyashiki's fault. Being with this man, he can't do anything else but sit here and keep thinking. Because the man never says anything clearly, never explains anything, always just leaves behind an ambiguous statement that seems to make some sense, but Rinko's mind just can't understand it.

When he asks a question, he only gets more confused in the end.

Why do humans kill ghosts?

Without warning, without any prior indication, and without any connection whatsoever, this question just popped up.

Ubuyashiki did not respond.

The sun has set, and not long ago the moon rose. Now, darkness has descended, and with it comes not only shadows.

There are also guests who haven't received an invitation.

A long-awaited meeting.

It wasn't actually that long, but some things are hard to explain. Like now, when Ubuyashiki fell silent, when Tenne turned her head, when Rin felt the intense throbbing in her chest, it was as if something had clenched her heart tightly in an instant.

He looked up, and in the moonlight, a man in a suit walked towards him step by step. Bathed in moonlight, he dispelled the clouds and mist, and the toxins carried by the wisteria flowers were absorbed and vanished in an instant.

It was an almost unbelievable sight.

Those eyes shone brighter than the moon in the darkness.