"Cough, cough… I'm still alive. Didn't my hand get cut off?"
Somewhere in a forest, Vane opened his eyes, a bit unable to figure out what was going on.
He clearly remembered that his entire left hand had been severed by Muzan's tentacles, and then he took a lightning strike head-on and completely fell into darkness. Before blacking out he even experienced a whole series of flashbacks— in the Demon Slayer world, that meant the end of one's life.
Yet when he opened his eyes again, he suddenly found himself in this inexplicable forest.
"Did I transmigrate again?"
This wasn't Vane's first time transmigrating. If this was another one, then it would be his second run.
The first time, he went to the Demon Slayer world— the classic orphan start, then he was trained by the Demon Slayer Corps.
A year earlier he had followed a trainer who used Wind Breathing; later that trainer died to a demon, and he transferred to another trainer to learn Water Breathing.
Relying on strong learning talent, he combined the two breathing styles and created Frost Breathing.
You could say he had some talent, but not something heaven-defying. In terms of learning talent, Kanroji Mitsuri created her own Love Breathing based on Flame Breathing, and more importantly, she also had terrifying physical talent.
Tokito Muichiro was similar.
He himself had some learning talent, but his physical condition was a bit lacking. In the end, after the Flame Hashira died in battle and the Sound Hashira retired, the Demon Slayer Corps suddenly had two gaps at the Hashira level, and only then was he promoted to become the Frost Hashira.
He hadn't been the Frost Hashira for very long before it was already time for the Infinity Castle battle. When others were unlocking red blades and awakening marks, Vane was clearly struggling to keep up with the meta.
Fortunately, in the end he still fought with the resolve of losing an arm and gave Muzan two slashes, contributing his last bit of strength and officially taking his bow.
"I already went through the whole life-flashing montage. Resurrection isn't really possible, so it must be another transmigration. Just don't know which world this time."
Vane tried to get up, but discovered there was an extremely terrifying wound on his chest. In any world, that would be a fatal injury.
Yet right now he could hardly feel any pain, and the wound was healing rapidly.
"This is… a demon?"
This kind of visible-to-the-eye healing ability, as far as he knew, only demons had. Had he turned into a demon? But sunlight on his body wasn't causing any harm.
After a few more minutes, the wound finally healed completely.
"Overcame sunlight damage, but the healing ability is this bad. This demon blood level is kind of low."
Vane felt that if he really had become a demon, he must be the lowest tier kind.
Because he couldn't feel himself being particularly strong, and the healing ability was surprisingly poor.
"At least I can still use breathing techniques."
The Demon Slayer world's power system was actually relatively low, and he himself wasn't that strong there either. The chance that he had transmigrated into a world with a stronger power system was quite high.
Relying on demon blood and Frost Breathing, he wasn't sure if it would be enough, but it was better than having nothing.
"Not sure who left these injuries on this body. Better figure out the situation as soon as possible."
Vane finally stood up. By eye, he seemed to be only a bit over 1.6 meters tall.
Before he could decide which way to go, a small patch of space in front of him suddenly twisted, and soon the distorted space actually spat out a red-and-white Poké Ball— the kind that has multiple translations like "Pokémon," "Pocket Monsters" that red-and-white ball.
"Could this be the Pokémon world?"
Judging from the anime's presentation, the Pokémon world was much brighter than the Demon Slayer world.
Vane picked up the red-and-white ball and pressed it. A beam of light flew out of the ball, landed on the ground, and condensed into a solid form.
"What's going on, meow?"
Appearing in front of Vane was a bipedal Meowth, white-furred, with a rather large head.
And it was that Meowth that could talk.
After Meowth failed yet again to capture Pikachu and got blown away, a red-and-white ball suddenly appeared and stuffed Meowth inside. When it came out again, it was in Vane's hand.
You could only say that both the man and the cat were pretty confused right now.
...
About ten minutes later.
"So you also don't know where this is for now, meow! That's so strange, meow!"
Being suddenly captured by a Poké Ball made Meowth feel a bit uncomfortable, but what made it even more uneasy was that it had probably already left its original world.
"I won't lock you inside the Poké Ball. No matter what, our top priority right now is to figure out where this place is, Meowth."
Vane couldn't really remember the Pokémon plot anymore. That was childhood memory, and after messing around in the Demon Slayer world for several years, it had faded even more.
He only knew that Meowth and the others were always trying to catch Pikachu and always failing and getting blasted off. And Meowth, like Pikachu, was a Pokémon that stayed by humans without staying in a Poké Ball, so he absolutely couldn't casually lock it in one— it would be easy to lose favor.
"You're right, meow."
"My name is Vane. Let's follow this road and head out to take a look."
A man and a bipedal cat formed a temporary team and began exploring this world.
"This should be pretty close to the seaside, meow. I can smell the sea water."
Meowth's nose wasn't as good as canine Pokémon, but it was still much stronger than an average human's.
"Seawater exists in many worlds, but if we're talking about which world is more famous for it, it should be that one…"
The man and the cat advanced for a while. Soon they saw traces of human buildings, and also saw the blue sea in the distance.
"That's houses, meow."
"But why are they on fire? Something must have happened, meow. Let's hurry over and take a look."
...
"Quick, grab all the money. Set more fires. Don't be like that idiot Dolon who only thinks about killing people. These people all need to be kept."
"Everyone, hand over your money obediently, or wait to taste my big blade, Buri's!"
In the burning town, dozens of ferocious-looking men holding gleaming weapons drove a group of people out of their houses. Not only did they rob them clean, they also set their houses on fire.
"Please don't, Pirates, we can hand over our money, but please don't burn our houses."
The town mayor came forward, begging the pirates not to burn their houses. Their town was already poor. If the money was taken, they could still rely on the sea and the forest to get something to eat.
But if the houses were burned, there would really be nothing left.
"Get lost. If burning your house still needs your permission, then I wouldn't be the great pirate Buri with a bounty of 20 million Belly."
The Buri Pirates. Captain Big Blade Buri, bounty 20 million Belly.
Vice-captain Small Blade Dolon, bounty 10 million Belly.
Big Blade Buri killed the young and old depending on his mood; Small Blade Dolon killed without regard for age.
Buri had the typical pirate-art-style build: an incredibly burly upper body and very thin-looking legs below. Over three meters tall and paired with a big blade, to the small villagers he was like a humanoid monster.
Small Blade Dolon, by contrast, was only two meters tall— just a bit taller than ordinary people— with a slender build, using a short blade, clearly a speed-type.
Dolon loved killing people. Even though big brother had already given the order not to kill, after entering the town he still killed several villagers.
Just now he had only returned from outside the town, because he had chased a stubborn young man all the way into the forest outside.
The mayor wept bitterly. "If you burn our houses, we won't be able to live at all. Next time you come, who will you rob?"
"Captain, I think what this old thing says kind of makes sense."
"Get out of here. I'll burn them if I want. You're already so old and not worth anything. I'll chop you and let them see what happens when they try to stop me, Big Blade Buri."
Buri used his short but powerful legs to kick the mayor away, then raised his big blade and was about to give the mayor a "center part."
"Stop!"
Whoosh!
A stone tore through the air and slammed hard into Buri's head, making a sound: thud-buzz!
A big lump visibly swelled up.
"Ah! Who! Who dared to sneak attack me, Big Blade Buri!"
The stone was pretty fast, and he hadn't expected anyone to sneak attack him at this moment. The lump had almost swollen to the size of a second head.
"Since you sincerely asked, I'll kindly tell you."
The pirates followed the voice and looked toward the rooftop. Backlit, at first they could only make out a human silhouette.
"For the peace of the world… Meowth, move!"