Inside the sword, Alex had already withdrawn from Tanjiro's body.
The mont his consciousness returned to Asuramaru's inner world, the system's prompts rang out one after another, crisp and rciless.
[Ding! Detected intense negative emotion from Lower Rank Four, Mukago, before death. Obtained 3,000 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Detected intense negative emotion from Lower Rank Three, Wakuraba, before death. Obtained 3,200 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Detected intense negative emotion from Lower Rank Two, Rokuro, before death. Obtained 3,700 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Detected intense negative emotion from Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji. Obtained 5,000 Emotion Points!]
[Total Demon Power obtained: 7,000. Thirty percent will be fed back to Sword Master Tanjiro Kamado!]
The notifications finally faded.
At the edge of the sea and sky within the sword's inner world, Alex stood in silence for a mont. Then the corners of his delicate lips lifted.
Muzan.
You truly are my one true love.
Not only did he provide rewards, he even delivered gifts straight to the door.
How thoughtful. How generous.
Alex was almost moved to tears.
Almost.
anwhile, within the Infinity Castle, Muzan Kibutsuji was nowhere near as moved.
He stood in the shifting labyrinth of doors, corridors, and impossible rooms, his face twisted with fury and sothing far uglier beneath it.
Fear.
"Useless," he hissed. "All of them… completely useless!"
Four Lower Ranks.
Four mbers of the Twelve Kizuki.
And yet, not one had succeeded.
No. Worse than that.
They had not rely failed. They had been slaughtered.
Muzan's fingers curled tightly. His nails dug into his palm, but he barely noticed the pain.
"What exactly is that thing attached to that boy? Why won't he die? Is it possession? A spirit? So lingering ghost?"
And that sword technique.
His thoughts froze there.
The flas.
The movent.
The rhythm.
Even if the world burned to ash and a thousand more years passed, Muzan would never forget that swordsmanship.
Sun Breathing.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni's Sun Breathing.
"But everyone who knew it should have been erased…"
The Kamado boy's earrings. The strange sword. The sudden surges in strength. The impossible recovery. The way his body changed. The way another will seed to take over.
Everything pointed toward one conclusion.
A conclusion so absurd that Muzan would have torn apart anyone else for daring to suggest it.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni had returned.
Perhaps not as a man.
Perhaps not even as a demon.
But he had returned.
Returned to possess that boy.
Returned to kill him.
Muzan raised one hand and covered his face, hiding the terror burning in his eyes. Beneath his skin, the scars left by Yoriichi's sword began to throb as if the wounds had been carved into him only yesterday.
His body trembled.
At that mont, only one thought remained in Muzan's mind.
He would not leave the Infinity Castle again.
Never.
At Mount Natagumo, the night wind blew through the ruined forest.
The battlefield was almost unrecognizable. Trees had been split apart, scorched black, or torn from the ground. Deep cuts crisscrossed the earth. Poison still hissed faintly in places where it had splattered against stone and roots.
Tanjiro lay unconscious at the center of it all.
Around him, the ash of demons drifted into the dark.
Among the figures that arrived, the first to reach him moved with feather-light grace.
A young woman in a butterfly-patterned haori touched down soundlessly beside him. Her hair was pinned with butterfly ornants, and a gentle smile rested on her lips, calm enough to seem untouched by the slaughter around her.
She was the Insect Hashira, Shinobu Kocho.
She crouched beside Tanjiro and tilted her head slightly.
"So this is the boy Oyakata-sama ntioned," she said softly. "Are you all right?"
Of course, Tanjiro could not answer.
Shinobu's smile did not change. Her fingers moved with practiced precision, checking his breathing, pulse, and visible injuries. Kagaya Ubuyashiki had warned them about this boy in advance, so she examined him with particular care.
A mont later, a faint trace of surprise flickered in her eyes.
His body was exhausted, but there were no fatal wounds.
Considering the scale of the battle, that alone was strange.
Very strange.
A second figure arrived soon after.
Fla-colored hair flowed behind him, red-gold eyes bright even beneath the moonlight. His haori fluttered as he landed, and his presence was as fierce and upright as a roaring fire.
The Fla Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku, looked down at the ground and imdiately noticed the ruined Nichirin Sword near Tanjiro's hand.
"The Nichirin Sword is destroyed!" he declared in his usual ringing voice. "But the other sword at his waist must be the special one Oyakata-sama spoke of!"
Tanjiro's ordinary Nichirin Sword had been badly corroded by the poison Wakuraba released upon death. Its edge was chipped and eaten away, its steel ruined beyond use.
But at his waist rested another sword.
Asuramaru.
The scabbard alone carried an unusual presence. It was quiet, yet it seed to draw the eye. Even sheathed, the sword felt anything but ordinary.
A tall, muscular man with jewels on his headband and twin swords on his back appeared beside Rengoku. His white hair glead under the moonlight, and his sharp eyes swept toward Asuramaru with interest.
The Sound Hashira, Tengen Uzui, raised a hand to his chin.
"Well now," he said, grinning. "That's one flashy sword. Even the scabbard has presence."
Unlike Rengoku and Tengen, Sanemi Shinazugawa did not waste ti admiring anything.
The Wind Hashira strode forward, scars stark against his skin, anger simring in every step. His eyes were sharp and violent, and his expression showed open disgust.
"I still don't get it," Sanemi said, voice low and rough. "Why would Oyakata-sama place so much hope on this brat? More important than Oyakata-sama himself? That makes no damn sense."
His gaze shifted to the wooden box nearby.
His killing intent spiked.
"And anyone carrying a demon should be cut down."
With that, he kicked Tanjiro's body, flipping the unconscious boy over onto his back.
"Sanemi," Shinobu said lightly, her smile still in place, though her tone cooled by a fraction.
Sanemi ignored her.
His eyes locked onto the sword at Tanjiro's waist.
"So this is the thing everyone's making such a fuss about?"
He reached down and grabbed for Asuramaru's hilt.
The mont his fingers neared it, black smoke seeped from the sword hilt.
The smoke twisted, condensed, and ford sharp thorns around the grip. If Sanemi had closed his hand a heartbeat later, those thorns would have pierced straight through his palm.
His reaction was fast.
He drew his hand back imdiately.
For the first ti, a trace of caution entered Sanemi's eyes.
"So this is the sword that can overturn the situation," he muttered. "It really is sothing else."
His gaze moved again, colder this ti, toward the wooden box.
Before he could act, another Hashira stepped forward.
Giyu Tomioka stood in front of the box without a word.
The Water Hashira's expression was calm and unreadable. He did not explain. He did not argue. He simply placed himself between Sanemi and the box, making his stance clear.
Sanemi's veins twitched.
He looked ready to say sothing sharp, but in the end, he held back.
Oyakata-sama had already instructed them beforehand. The truth would be revealed after they returned.
And whether Sanemi liked it or not, Tanjiro's performance had been witnessed by all of them.
According to the information they had received, four Lower Ranks of the Twelve Kizuki had gathered on Mount Natagumo.
For the Hashira, Lower Ranks were not impossible opponents.
But for a Corps mber of Tanjiro's level?
Killing four of them was beyond abnormal.
Shinobu stood and brushed a speck of dust from her sleeve.
"For now, we should bring him back," she said with a pleasant smile. "Oyakata-sama is waiting."
Her gaze shifted to Zenitsu and Inosuke, who stood a short distance away.
"You two as well. Please co with us."
Inosuke imdiately stepped forward with his twin swords raised.
"Who the hell are you people?!"
Zenitsu nearly fainted on the spot.
"Inosuke!" he hissed, grabbing the edge of the boar mask. "Look at them properly! They're from the Demon Slayer Corps! And they're terrifying! Their standing posture alone feels like it could kill !"
Inosuke snorted.
"Hmph!"
He did not apologize.
But at least he stopped pointing his swords at the Hashira.
Shinobu's smile remained unchanged. She turned slightly and called over two Kakushi.
The two mbers of the cleanup unit arrived quickly, dressed in black uniforms with cloth covering their heads and faces.
"Please carry this boy," Shinobu said gently. "Be careful with the sword at his waist. Do not touch it directly, or you may be injured."
The two Kakushi exchanged confused glances.
A sword that injured people when touched?
Still, they did as instructed.
One of them approached Tanjiro, carefully slipped an arm beneath him, and lifted him onto his back. As long as he did not touch Asuramaru itself, the sword showed no reaction.
Sanemi noticed.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"So it only attacks if soone touches it directly?"
"It would seem so," Shinobu replied.
Her smile was sweet, but if one stared at it for too long, it beca clear that the expression never truly changed.
Tengen leaned closer, studying Asuramaru with renewed interest.
"So no one but the boy can touch it? Flashy. Very flashy. I'm starting to like this sword."
Rengoku, however, was far more direct.
He turned his bright gaze across the gathered Hashira and Kakushi.
"We should finish matters here quickly! Oyakata-sama is waiting for us!"
His voice carried through the ruined forest like a command bell.
The others snapped out of their thoughts.
There was still work to do.
Survivors needed treatnt. Corps mbers needed evacuation. The remaining demons hiding across Mount Natagumo had to be found and eliminated.
The Hashira dispersed into the forest, moving like shadows and wind beneath the moonlight.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
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