Chapter 3: Chapter 2: The First Week
From the first day, he woke up in this world, Yiggrit had spent his time meditating for hours on end, every day, but that wasn't the bulk of it, he had more to be done.
Not only did he practice the use of voulge his newly acquired weapon, but he also started preparing in another way, by studying the area around and how to navigate it properly.
Through this, he got to know the area, and its inhabitants better, from what he could tell, the village he resided in was the one near the Kamado house, something he easily confirmed just by asking people.
Also, he was a new addition to the village, and from everyone else's perspective moved here on the same day he woke up in this world, thus he was received a bit warily.
The village seemed to have less than 200 houses, and the people were obliviously well aware of living here. So anything out of the ordinary was easy to notice, and for them, Yiggrit became the break from the ordinary.
Ignoring the looks he got on the streets as he passed by, Yiggrit was headed to a specific location.
"Look at him… He's so young, but I heard he lives alone."
"Are you sure it's a boy, that hair would suit a girl much better if that's the case, such a waste."
"I heard that he walks around naked in the snow."
"So young and already a pervert, we shouldn't have someone like that around."
"But wouldn't it be too harsh to send a kid off alone? If he's that young, surely he can still learn better."
"I don't know, I think he's cute, and look at his body, he's so muscular even at that age if we put him to work, it's sure to be the best for everyone."
In time, he got to a shop with a sign that had a bunch of small dots around a big dot, and he went in, finding a man inside, busy moving things around, there was a strong smokey smell all around.
"Hello… I heard this is the place to go if I want fireworks." Yiggrit said as he approached the man who seemed to be responsible for selling it.
"It is, what do you want, kid?" A gruff-looking man with a strong build and a bearded face responded to him.
"I need fireworks and I wanted to know how much for them," Yiggrit said with interest in his expression and a smile on his face.
"Kid, I don't know what joke you're playing at, but I'm trying to run a business, if you want to play pranks, go find other kids." The man simply continued doing his work as he answered uninterested in what the boy had to say.
"I just want to know how much. No jokes or anything like that. I don't even like pranks anyway." Yiggrit responded with a serious tone and an expression to match.
"… Ok. Smallhold fireworks are around 10 sen. If you want the large big ones, we can't sell that many, and each one is about 15 Yen." The man replied but didn't stop setting things up, it seemed he would be building more soon.
(Sen? What's that? Some old coin? But only 15 Yen? Isn't that too little?… No, the prices are probably in line with the current economy of the country…
(Unfortunately, I have no money, and I would like to avoid, using WTP if possible, plus I think I can solve this, and grind all at once.) He thought to himself a bit surprised, but he was sure it could be done.
"Do you take meat as payment?" Yiggrit replied with a question.
"… Hmph, if you manage to bring a whole boar or something like I'll give you a bunch of smallhold fireworks, but the large ones would cost you a lot more. Now, if you're done playing, get lost, I have to work." The man answered amused by the question, not taking it seriously at all.
Nodding his head, Yiggrit left the shop and began making his way back home, where he would get Voulge, and then go to the forest.
Once in the forest, he smiled and expanded his senses, being able to see an area of 25 meters radius from where he was standing.
There was a rather quick search, through the forest of the snowy mountain that soon came across a pack of wolves going through and getting ready to start a hunt, instead, they ended up as prey.
"Time to eat!" Letting Voulge out of the rags, Yiggrit decapitated one of the wolves, and his weapon began eating the body, meat, bones, and everything.
[You have killed an I Rank mountain wolf, and earned experience points.]
Blood sprayed and restated on the snow, and the blue-haired young man smiled. "I'm sorry it has to be this way, but I do take pleasure in this. It's already great to defeat opponents, it's even more fun to kill the ones you decide to end."
The Wolves didn't waste time and the closest of them quickly got to him, aiming for the neck as the rest followed all wanting bloody revenge for their fallen comrade.
Unfortunately for them, they were facing someone who was not to be meddled with, as lines of blood, and pieces of meat were flung around for the brutal dilaceration brought about as Voulge consumed a wolf as soon as it was cut down.
[You have killed an I Rank mountain wolf, and earned experience points.]
While that was happening the remaining four wolves reached him, one aiming for the neck, and another for the arm holding the weapon, while the last two wanted his legs.
"Urgh… That was too much, I should refrain from saying stuff like that." Yiggrit somewhat felt his words before went beyond the necessary, however, now was not the time for him to focus on that.
Stomping on the head of the wolf who wanted his head left leg, and choking to death the one aiming at his neck, the numbers allowed the other two to reach him, bitting his other leg, and the arm holding Volge.
[You have killed an I Rank mountain wolf, and earned experience points.]
[You have killed an I Rank mountain wolf, and earned experience points.]
"Flesh control is very useful against wild animals, you guys are at a big disadvantage." He said and his flesh tightened around the teeth of the wolves, stopping them from escaping or letting go at all.
Using this situation to his advantage, he then kills both of them and lets Voulge eat what's left.
[You have killed an I Rank mountain wolf, and earned experience points.]
[You have killed an I Rank mountain wolf, and earned experience points.]
[You have reached the required exp to raise to level 2]
"Good, though I should probably try to find animals I can sell in a small village, like rabbits, boars, and deer." He nodded his head and continued his hunt.
The Heavenly Body, and Demon Bloodline both enhanced his senses, and the prior specifically allowed him to have a sixth sense, that let him defect living things in his perception range.
So hunting was not hard at all, even in the snowy mountains where it was easy to get lost in the white, not to mention his 5 senses being sharpened beyond what could be considered normal.
The kills continued stacking as the days went on, and while he would let Voulge eat most of them, he had to stop it to save enough for him to get the fireworks.
At the end of his first week in this new world, he was level 5, as he had reached his first level cap, meaning he could not level up at all anymore, no matter how many enemies he killed.
There was also the work he did on the side, like cutting wood, helping carry heavy stuff, and other miscellaneous chores he mostly did whenever he was done hunting for the day, and after selling the meat he got.
All in all, he made 50 Yen in total from throughout the week, and he was at home counting it all, as he got ready to return to the fireworks store to buy the fireworks.
"Ok, I have enough to buy all the small fireworks in the store, and as many large ones as I'm allowed… I doubt he would sell me more than one, though since they are typically needed for festivals and small villages like this live honoring that kind of stuff." Yiggrit sighed as he petted Voulge who was covered in rags, and shook a bit like a puppy asking for more pats, but not enough to destroy the rags.
Knock! Knock!
While he was busy thinking about what to do next, there was knocking on the door, so he grabbed Voulge, and headed towards the door, ready to fight if it was necessary, he opened the door with a smile.
"Good afternoon! I'm very sorry to bother you, but I'm Tanjiro Kamado, and I heard from the villagers that they wanted to talk to you, but nobody knew how to approach you, since you are known here, and all…
"So, I offered to do it…. You have an oddly clean but unusual scent… Sorry, I didn't mean to sound weird, but I'm known for having the nose of a dog." A young man with dark reddish hair and a scar on the left side of his forehead, wearing rectangular earrings with a sunset-like symbol on them.
This caused Yiggrit to stop for a few seconds in confusion as he didn't think the protagonist would show up at his door, especially not over something mundane like this. Did he do something wrong without knowing? Or was this about that one time he went outside naked on the first day?
(Can he smell the demon blood in me? Well, he didn't encounter demons yet, so that shouldn't be the case. Can he even do that? It's hard to say, and what could the villagers possibly want with me?) He felt unease about this, but it was too soon to jump to conclusions.
"That's fine, I'm Yiggrit. However I have to ask, what's going on? Did I do something wrong? If so, I apologize in advance, I never meant to cause trouble for anyone." He expressed with a sincere smile, actually not wanting to pass off the wrong image or be a problem to others for no reason.
"I see, so you are a kind person. I was worried when Nezuko and Mother kept complaining about this young man who just moved in and was a massive pervert, but I'm sure it was all just a misunderstanding now. I can tell.
"Oh and I don't want to ruin the surprise when it comes to the villagers, you did do something, but I would not call it bad," Tanjiro responded with a pure smile, happier than when he first arrived, and even more relaxed like a weight was lifted off him.
"I wouldn't call myself kind, but I'm not completely inconsiderate." Yiggrit shook his head feeling as though such praise did not suit him at all.
"Don't be modest, and if you can right now, please follow me, the others are waiting." Tanjiro extends his hand at him with a soft smile.
"I can spare some time, I was going to the fireworks shop anyway." Yiggrit took his hand and gave a firm and strong sake with a confident smile.
From there, they both headed to what be considered the village square and stood there with a big sign that said. "Welcome and thank you for your hard work."
"Welcome!"
"Welcome!"
"Thank you for your help!"
Various voices could be heard thanking and welcoming him, as they had all come together to acknowledge all he did throughout his first week there. Not only that, it was basically a small festival with stands with food, and other things.
Even the rest of the Kamado family was there, though the Nezuko, and her mother, Kie seemed to avoid looking directly at him.
"I guess I left the wrong impression there…" Yiggrit forced an awkward smile and lightly blushed thinking about it.
"Don't worry about that, I'm sure if you sincerely apologize they'll forgive you." Tanjiro noticed where he was looking, and saw through his thoughts.
"Yeah…" Yiggrit wasn't so sure.
Just then an older-looking man came up to them and began speaking.
"Welcome young man, I heard a lot about how much you did throughout the week, not only did you guarantee a meat supply for a great part of the winter for a great number of us, but you also got rid of a lot of the nearby danger, not to mention all the labor you did. We could never thank you enough for your work." The old man said with a smile full of praise for him.
"Oh, Yiggrit! This is the village chief, and as you can see, I'm not the only one who thinks you are kind, even if you are a little perverted, I guess everyone has their flaws." Tanjiro said with a bit of excitement.
"You didn't have to do all of this. Thank you." Yiggrit smiled though Tanjiro's comment made him raise an eyebrow, he ignored it.
"Of course, we did. Just have fun, and enjoy. When people do something good for you, it's in poor taste to not accept it." The old man said giving him a small push to go and just have a good time.
(Aren't these people doing too much? It's only been a week… Are they using me as an excuse to party? I can't even be sure. Whatever, since it's already come this far might as well indulge it.) He shrugged giving up on worrying too much, he just started going easy.
The welcome party went well, and the atmosphere was surprisingly warm with everyone thanking and talking to Yiggrit at least once completely overwhelming him, as he didn't think of the greater effect his hunting to grind would have on the village overall.
Honestly, he was expecting them to question him, or to trouble him because of the indecent exposure incident, but none of that happened. Instead, he was getting thanked left and right, it felt so wrong.
"I don't deserve all this fuss, I wasn't even trying to help…" Yiggrit sighed as he sat down alone in a corner drinking some juice, after all, he could not drink alcohol and it was not going to be good for him to be, drunk anyway.
"Hey kid, what are you are you doing all alone? Did you forget the party is for you or something?" The fireworks shopkeeper found him, and sat down next to him, as the moon stood brightly above them.
"No. Just thinking." Yiggrit replied before taking another sip from the juice.
"Thinking, ye… Might I know what you're thinking about?" The fireworks shopkeeper asked.
"It's weird, I didn't help these people, I did a job for them. They are all talking about me being kind, and thanking me, but I wasn't trying to help, it just happened as a result of things I wanted to do." Yiggrit replied letting out a sigh.
"You know the people here don't care why you helped, right? It doesn't matter. That kind of small detail is something only those living a luxury life can afford to care about. What matters is that because of what you did people won't have to worry about how they'll get through this winter.
"Unless you're planning something evil, there's no point in even considering your intentions, the fact is you helped people, intentionally or otherwise." The shopkeeper answered as he looked at the moon in the sky.
"You make things sound simple, but it's never that simple with people. Then again, I appreciate it, I guess I was worrying too much." Yiggrit chuckled finding it funny.
"In a few months, I'll need to have everything ready so we can launch fireworks for the festival, and for an instant, they will overtake the moon, then fade out. This is to say, just burn as bright as you can while you can, cause once you fade out, that's it." The fireworks shopkeeper continues with a pat on his back.
"…." Yiggrit didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Let's go, oh, and I wanted to go to your shop after this." He got up and started walking back to the party.
"… Seriously, kid. Why do you keep coming to my shop? Do you really like fireworks that much? What do you even need them for?" The firework shopkeeper found himself curious.
"I guess you could say I'm not the biggest fan of the night, so I wanted to be able to light it up a little," Yiggrit responded.
"In that case, after this party is over, we can take care of that, I might even give you a bit of a discount, though this is a one-time thing, don't get it twisted." the firework shopkeeper said and their conversation continued casually.
After that, the party continued until it was time to go home, and things finally started dying down.
In the middle of all that, Tanjiro pulled him to talk to his family. More specifically the two he had already encouraged while the others were already long asleep.
"As I said, this is Yiggrit. I know you don't have the best first impression of him, but I believe he didn't mean to be improper." The red-haired young man said as he presented the blue-haired young man.
"Yes, again… I'm sorry for that incident, it was just an accident. Makes me feel bad things started on a weird note like that." Yiggrit put on a smile and did his best to be genuine.
"Hahaha! Well, after all this, I guess you're not a bad kid, so I believe it's ok, to let bygones, be bygones. Just be careful not to do it again, I would be disappointed if you did." Kie responded with far more understanding than he expected.
"… I don't know about that… While I appreciate the apology, I don't think I forgive you." Nezuko on the other hand, was unconvinced by him.
(This is still going smoother than I thought, so I can't complain.) Yiggrit was satisfied with the result.
"It's fair enough." He replied and he continued talking to them for a while after that.
In time, they had to go, and leave together, finally giving him time to be alone. So he sighed and went to the firework shopkeeper, to finalize the deal as they had agreed to prior.
The day of his first major confrontation approached, and he was doing whatever he could to be ready.