"Why? Its head was cut off, yet it's still not dead?" Tanjiro said in disbelief.
"Because that wasn't its main body, right~" Uchiha Nagi frowned and muttered in a low voice.
"That's right. Since it didn't die, its main body definitely isn't here," Rengoku Kyojuro said gravely.
Lower Moon One, Nightmare, the severed head slowly grew a new body.
"My body has long since fused with this train. You can't kill me. Well now, how about killing everyone on this train along with me? I'm so looking forward to it~"
Then Nightmare let out a coquettish laugh. "Can you protect everyone on the train? They're all in my stomach, you know. Hahaha~~"
With that, "Tony Teacher" Nightmare, with a perverted, delicate laugh, directly merged into the train. Rengoku Kyojuro didn't try to stop this process because that wasn't the main body; cutting it off a few more times would make no difference.
Clearly, Nightmare's plan was simple: use its demonic advantage to devour the hundreds of passengers on the train, thereby forcing Uchiha Nagi and his group to constantly run around saving people, depleting their stamina.
A demon's stamina was practically inexhaustible; at least, it could fight until dawn without issue. Human stamina, however, obviously couldn't last that long.
Foolish—
Uchiha Nagi scoffed. Using passengers as hostages? And then trying to win by exhausting their stamina? Only Tanjiro and his group would fight for ordinary people. The first lesson for a ninja on the battlefield was not to concern oneself with the lives of civilians...
"This is bad! He's making his move! We need to get down there quickly and save those passengers..."
By the time Uchiha Nagi, Tanjiro, and the Flame Hashira got down into the carriages, fleshy tendrils had already begun to appear on the carriage walls, then rapidly spread, intending to envelop and devour the passengers.
"Listen up! There's a way. There are eight carriages on this train." Rengoku Kyojuro held up five fingers. "I can protect the passengers in five carriages."
"Nezuko can protect one, that yellow-haired boy one, and the boar-headed boy one. The rest will be up to you. While protecting the passengers, you two can search for the demon's neck. No matter what form it takes, it will definitely have a neck."
"Young Tanjiro's strength is quite good. And with you, Uchiha-bro, your Hashira-level strength combined with Tanjiro's—the two of you together can definitely eliminate the demon."
At this point, Uchiha Nagi proposed a different method. "No, I have another way. What if we don't need to protect the passengers?"
With that, Uchiha Nagi formed hand seals, creating a large number of shadow clones.
A slight smile touched Uchiha Nagi's lips. "Obviously, he wants us to protect the passengers to drain our stamina and ultimately defeat us. How can we let him have his way? As long as the passengers are not on the train, we won't be so restricted."
If this were the Shinobi World, would a demon care about the lives of civilians? But now that he was mixed up with them, if he still acted with the cold-blooded ways of a ninja, he would definitely be ostracized.
When they had first woken up and seen those assassins they had killed, the others had clearly felt uncomfortable, their gazes towards him uneasy. It was obvious that if he disregarded the people on the train now, he would surely be alienated later.
A dozen shadow clones each picked up a passenger from this carriage—some clones even carried two—and then directly jumped out of the train windows.
Only after the high-speed train had traveled some distance did the shadow clones automatically dispel, and the passengers lying on the ground were already far from the train.
"Good idea~ Yosh!" Rengoku Kyojuro's eyes lit up. "Then let's get all the passengers out together, and then we'll all deal with this Nightmare demon."
Uchiha Nagi's lips curved upwards in a faint smile. "This is what you call hoisting oneself by one's own petard. By merging with the train, it also means its movements are not as flexible. Once it loses its hostages, it's just meat on the chopping block."
Comparing wits with me? Are you courting death? When you guys were still wearing split pants and playing in the mud, kids in the Ninja Academy were already playing with kunai and learning strategy.
Chunin and Jonin both required comprehensive skills to be promoted. Using different perspectives to deal with enemies on different battlefields was a basic skill for a ninja.
According to ninja battlefield thinking, since hostages were a burden, the first step was to find a way to deal with the hostages, not the enemy, thereby ensuring the mission could not fail.
So, Uchiha Nagi had immediately thought of how to deal with these hostages who were weighing them down. The first method was to ignore whether they lived or died—if Nightmare wanted to eat them, let it. He would just go cut down Nightmare.
The second method was to strike first and kill the passengers on the train himself...
The second was clearly not viable; otherwise, the Flame Hashira would turn against him. So, the first method: let them protect the passengers while he went to slay Nightmare?
Although Uchiha Nagi had transmigrated many years ago and couldn't remember too many details, he still recalled that Rengoku Kyojuro had expended too much stamina protecting the passengers on the train, ultimately fighting Upper Moon Three in an exhausted state and nearly killing him.
Since a big boss is about to appear, preserving stamina is key. Using shadow clones to carry those burdensome passengers outside is the right move.
"Flame Breathing, First Form: Unknowing Fire!"
A stream of fire rushed through five carriages. Wherever it passed, all the flesh that had sprouted from the ceiling and floor of the carriages was utterly destroyed, turned to ash by the Flame Breathing's swordsmanship.
And at the rear of the train, thunderous booms also flickered—it was Zenitsu...
"Tanjiro, you guys hold on for a bit! It'll be over soon!"
"Got it, Uchiha-nii!"
In just a moment, Uchiha Nagi cleared one carriage, then entered the second. He again used shadow clones to carry the passengers out of the train, then immediately moved to the third carriage...
[Hehe... The entire train is my body, and the two hundred plus people on board are my hostages. Will you watch them die, or will you choose to save them?]
[If you choose to save the passengers, then when your stamina is depleted, heh heh heh heh~~]
The "Tony teacher"-like coquettish laughter rang out once more. At that time, he would devour these few people. Hashira-level individuals should have a lot of energy, right? However, this time, his laughter stopped halfway.
Because he discovered that the passengers in the train were decreasing one by one. In a dozen seconds, one carriage of people was gone. In a minute, three carriages of people were gone.
[What's going on? What's happening? Where are the people? They're all asleep in their dreams; it's impossible for them to jump off the train themselves!]
[All... all the hostages are gone??!!]
Nightmare was stunned. Hadn't he painstakingly transformed his body to fuse with the train precisely because there were hundreds of hostages as food?
RUMBLE!!
Not long after, the train began to slow down...
Since the passengers were all gone, there was no longer any point in the train speeding along. What it needed to do now was kill these demon hunters.