Family heirloom, then turned into a demon girl

Chapter 102 Mission: 03-7 One-way Ticket Under the Scarlet Moon
There's something wrong with this mansion.

After Nero visited the Toyokawa family garden, she quickly came to this conclusion. The mansion was filled with the aura of demons, and although the people living there behaved normally, some "small details" revealed that something was amiss.

Nero's visit this time was under the identities of "the sister of the Pope of the Demon Sword Cult" and "the Saint of Fortuna." Through the arrangement of the store manager Yuze, the purpose of the visit was set as "to attract investors for demon research."

Nero had some knowledge of the research of the previous Pope and his researcher Agnes, at least enough to fool outsiders. However, the host sent by the Toyokawa family raised many questions that even Nero could not claim to fully understand, which was truly unusual.

It's unclear whether the person behind the scenes didn't notice or simply assumed Nero was just a naive person who didn't know much about the situation in Wano Country. However, Nero had learned one thing during his school life over the past few days: Wano Country hadn't seen a demonic attack in public for a long time, and people didn't have a deep understanding of demons.

So, there's definitely something wrong here.

So Nero took a deep breath and took the initiative to test the waters: "I have something to ask about the daughter of the Toyokawa family."

"A daughter? The Toyokawa family doesn't have any daughters."

Nero, dressed in a formal dress, maintained a ladylike sitting posture and said slowly: "I mean Toyokawa Shoko."

At this moment, the man sitting opposite Nero froze like a puppet.

Two points of red light shone from the depths of his eyes, quickly spreading and flooding the elegantly furnished room, blending with the sunset glow outside the window. This red light swept Nero up like a wave, swallowing him up in the ocean current.

When Nero opened his eyes again, she was still sitting gracefully on the sofa with her legs together and her hands folded. However, the lights were off, the sunset outside the window had dissipated, and the scarlet moonlight illuminated the window frame.

The man who had been sitting in front of Nero had disappeared. In his place, a young woman, wearing a black dress embellished with red silk and with long sky-blue hair, sat in the same position as Nero.

"Nice to meet you," the girl said. "I'm the Toyokawa Shoko you're looking for."

Her amber eyes reflected the blood-red moonlight, and she asked Nero aggressively yet gracefully, "Where did you get this name?"

Nero smiled slightly, stood up, lifted the hem of her bright red dress, and curtsied: "Nice to meet you. My name is Nero Fortuna."

Then Nero looked into Xiangzi's eyes and replied, "She was a classmate of Ms. Takamatsu Deng."

Suddenly, Xiangzi's eyes widened, and a stern look with suspicion flashed across his eyes: "That's strange. I don't know this lady named Gao Songdeng. I don't know..."

Seeing that Xiangzi was still pretending to be stupid, Nero interrupted her rudely: "Stop pretending, 'Oblivion' (Oblivionis)."

"Even if you erase her memory of you, I'm afraid you won't be able to do anything about the physical record, right?"

"...Is that so? So that's where the problem lies."

Xiangzi was silent for a while, then replied softly, "So you read Deng's notes.

"But even if the notebook contains the name Toyokawa Shoko, how did you know my current name?"

She gracefully stood up and, in a similar, skirt-lifting salute, addressed Nero. She asked solemnly, "And why have you come to see me this time? Please enlighten me."

A huge, pitch-black shadow rose beneath the crimson moon, blocking the moonlight outside the window. Nero calmly pulled his hat from his chest and replied, "I'll keep the first question a secret. After all—"

She donned her hat, and her dress instantly transformed into a jet-black tuxedo. Nero then drew his Yama Blade and uttered a cold laugh at Xiangzi, "After all, I'm a demon hunter." In that instant, Xiangzi vanished into thin air, dodging Nero's close-range blow. At the same moment, a jet-black beam of magical energy lifted the roof of the Toyokawa ancestral home, flooding the room where Nero was.

A moment later, Nero jumped out from the ruins and smoke. His golden hair had turned bright silver, and it shone like blood under the strange moonlight.

She stood in the middle of the ruins and slowly put on a half-face mask.

"I see... You are the 'Samael'?"

Hearing Xiangzi's voice, Nero looked in the direction of the sound and saw Xiangzi standing on top of a huge pillar under the red moon. The pillar had an uneven surface and was covered with creeping evil eyes.

It was a demon pillar. The demon pillar "Lamer," the former owner of the mask on Nero's face.

Nero's expression suddenly turned ugly: "You can read my memory?"

There was no way the Demon Pillar from the Type-Moon world could actually appear here, especially since Lamer was already dead. The Demon Pillar before Nero could only be a monster born from her memories.

Compared to his memory, it had not become weaker at all, and was a powerful enemy that Nero could hardly defeat even if he gave his all.

"You think so?"

Xiangzi stood on the top of the Demon Pillar and asked condescendingly.

"No." Nero quickly calmed down and shook his head.

If Xiangzi could really read Nero's memories, she wouldn't have been fooled by that misleading lie. The reason Nero knew Xiangzi's two names was not because she had read Takamatsu's notes or the information about her being a demon hunter, but because of memories brought from another world.

Then Xiangzi's creation of this monster in his memory should not be entirely due to his own strength.

"This world..."

Nero looked up at the red moon in the sky and realized that this world might not be simple.

This world, with a crimson moon hanging high above, was not the human world, but it was also distinct from the demonic realm. This world was filled with the aura of demons, and when Nero closed his eyes, he felt that demons were all around him, but he could not see any other living creatures.

Looking at the memory monster that Xiangzi created with the power of this world, Nero couldn't help but have a bold guess.

"This world is the source of your power?" she asked.

Oblivion, death, fear, love. The powers these girls possessed after transforming into demons belonged to the realm of consciousness and the mind. And this strange space that had drawn Nero into it seemed to replicate the entire new city, indistinguishable from the real world, yet devoid of any living creatures.

Then this place is undoubtedly a small world created by an extremely powerful, terrifying demon.

A world of consciousness and mind that exists on the other side of the world.

　I'll update one more chapter before the book goes on sale, pushing the plot to the point where Xiangzi and the protagonist start fighting. This is the first update of the day.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)