Under the vast, dark, beautiful night sky, fireflies flickered, and the pristine, radiant full moon was inexplicably tinged with threads of scarlet. Drifting white clouds veiled the cascading starlight.
High above, a drone, anachronistic for this era, hovered silently, equipped with World Serpent's cutting-edge camera.
In the quiet world, the faint sound of a biwa strummed.
A cascade of notes, now rapid, now deliberate, like large and small pearls falling onto a jade plate.
Thus, the Demon Slayer Corps' core courtyard welcomed a few special guests.
"Isn't our first meeting, Muzan Kibutsuji."
In the reception room, Ubuyashiki Kagaya knelt before a low table, copying an ancient book with a brush.
Two delicate, adorable little girls ground ink at his side, while a beautiful, dignified shrine maiden plucked the strings of a koto. Their movements didn't falter in the slightest at the Demon King's arrival.
"Such an unsightly posture, Ubuyashiki."
Dressed in a Taisho-era suit, reserved for only the most elite, with a white tie at his chest, Muzan looked the part of a perfect gentleman.
Behind him stood eleven figures, their postures deferential.
Among the foremost two, one bore six ferocious, blood-red eyes, a sword with crimson patterns at his waist—Upper Rank One, Kokushibou.
The other, with peach-pink short hair framing golden eyes, pale skin etched with countless criminal tattoos, and a purple-red cropped shirt—Upper Rank Three, Akaza.
"All thanks to you, Muzan." Ubuyashiki Kagaya's smile carried a rare hint of wildness.
His words caught Muzan slightly off guard.
But these were trivial matters. Muzan strode forward briskly, reaching the low table and picking up the book.
The yellowed pages felt rough, their texture giving Muzan an odd sense of reassurance.
Information in such ancient books was almost certainly reliable.
Ubuyashiki Kagaya paid no mind to Muzan's actions, recounting the family's centuries-long feud with Muzan in a calm tone.
Muzan flipped through the book rapidly while listening to Ubuyashiki's tale.
The family's curse, born from producing the Demon King, left newborns frail and sickly, dying young from various ailments. The only way to sustain the bloodline was to pour every ounce of effort into fighting demons.
Even then, none lived past thirty.
Muzan's page-turning paused slightly, his face dripping with disdain and mockery, lips curling high. "All for such a reason? How laughable!"
In a thousand years, he, stained with countless lives, had never seen divine retribution or heard of true gods or Buddhas. To him, this talk of karma was mere attrition, a pure joke.
Clearly, the scumbag boss was too arrogant to remember Yoriichi.
Muzan fixed his gaze on Ubuyashiki. The latter seemed utterly unsurprised by his arrival, so composed, stirring a faint unease in Muzan.
But no matter what, the outcome was set.
Finally finding the blue Spider Lily he'd sought for a millennium, and discovering Ubuyashiki, the mastermind behind the Demon Slayer Corps that plagued him—two joys intertwined, doubling the delight, bringing more and more joy!
It was a dreamlike moment of bliss.
Blue Spider Lily plus Ubuyashiki—he couldn't stay calm!
Muzan decided to act personally.
Ubuyashiki deserved to die by his hand.
Perhaps it was his paranoia, but for the first time, Muzan led all Twelve Kizuki to ensure absolute certainty!
How could he lose with a dragon riding his face!?
"What's your dream, Muzan?" Ubuyashiki's sudden question puzzled Muzan.
He had no interest in wasting energy on that laughable karma nonsense. His scarlet slit-pupil eyes, laced with eerie blood vessels, grew frenzied, adding madness to their chilling aura.
"Let me guess—your dream is eternal life, isn't it?"
At that moment, Muzan's scarlet hand clenched, his blood flow halting for an instant.
"Hahahahaha!"
Muzan burst into wild laughter, as if channeling all his emotions into arrogance, his voice drowning out the cicadas, turning the serene night sky raucous.
"Exactly! And it's about to come true!" Muzan flung his arms wide. "Immortal, impervious to sunlight, an eternal existence!"
Crazed laughter, exhilarated to the point of fervor, Muzan jabbed a finger into his temple. "I'm so freaking high right now!"
A thousand years alive, Muzan had mastered more than one foreign language.
Ubuyashiki widened his near-blind eyes, straining to see the Demon King in his manic frenzy. His gaze remained calm, yet it burned with a millennium's worth of war.
"No, your dream won't come true. You don't understand what eternity means."
What is eternity?
"The unrelenting fury after loved ones are taken is eternal."
"The hopes and guardianship carried by survivors are eternal."
"The conviction of countless swordsmen to purge the world's demons over a thousand years is eternal!"
Ubuyashiki's words were serene but carried an unshakable conviction.
For a millennium, demons repeatedly crossed the line, unaware they'd awakened dragons meant to slumber.
Those burning, blood-soaked Nichirin Blades, those high-explosive grenades and micro-bombs, would surely incinerate the world's demons, bringing golden dawn back to humanity!
"Time to act!"
The moment his words fell, dazzling blade light flared like radiant sunlight.
Sun Breathing, Form One: Waltz!
Butterfly haori unfurled in the air, like wings gently flapping. In Kochou Kanae's hands, her peach-pink Nichirin Blade glowed sun-red, infused with breathing.
A delicate, ethereal blue-haired girl and a black-haired youth followed Kanae out. Reverie held a black rectangular device unfamiliar to the demons, emitting faint static.
A radio communicator.
With Transparent World, Kokushibou; battle aura-sensing Akaza; and the demon progenitor, Muzan.
Only Kochou Kanae, Reverie, and Shiraki could hide in the mansion undetected. Reverie was tasked with signaling the Pillars via radio the moment Muzan arrived.
Its efficiency far surpassed Kasugai Crows, ensuring the Pillars would rush to surround the mansion instantly.
Not a single demon would escape!
"How… is this possible!?"
Caught off guard, Muzan's scarlet slit-pupils surged with shock and a thread of fear.
One glance, and Muzan, with Yoriichi etched into his DNA, confirmed it—this person wielded Sun Breathing, Yoriichi's swordsmanship!
Unlike the soft, precise Flower Breathing, Sun Breathing combined the strengths of all breathing styles.
After all, the others were merely its specialized derivatives.
Because of this, none but Yoriichi could withstand such a terrifying breathing style, but Kanae, with 'her' power, had done it!
Her slender, delicate frame, with a waist so fine it seemed graspable, unleashed slashes far faster and stronger than expected.
Striking swiftly and unexpectedly, Muzan's arm was severed, blood spraying.
"Lord Muzan!"
"This…!"
"How is this possible!?"
The Twelve Kizuki nearby gasped in disbelief. A Demon Slayer swordsman injuring that lord—impossible!
The severed arm regenerated in a second, slowed only because Kanae used Sun Breathing; otherwise, it wouldn't have taken half that time!
Muzan's face darkened abruptly, veins bulging on his forehead, yet he clutched the bootleg ancient book like a treasure.
"Kill them!"
With that, Muzan retreated behind the Twelve Kizuki.
Something was off!
A sudden Sun Breathing user and Ubuyashiki's calm demeanor—this was likely a Demon Slayer Corps ambush using the blue Spider Lily as bait!
Killing Ubuyashiki himself was just for fun. Compared to the blue Spider Lily, Ubuyashiki was nothing!
Though Muzan scoffed at Demon Slayers without even Marks, caution urged him to slip away first!
The book being fake?
Muzan scoffed—impossible, absolutely impossible!
Joking aside, could a thousand-year-old Demon King fail to judge a book's age?
Once he got the blue Spider Lily, becoming an immortal, sunlight-immune ultimate lifeform, the Demon Slayer Corps would be swatted like flies!
At Muzan's command, six of the Lower Ranks among the Eleven Kizuki stepped forward, only to freeze mid-step, because…
A black-haired swordsman with a high ponytail slowly drew his blade.
The hilt seemed melded from flesh, its surface uneven.
The hilt and guard sprouted tiny eyes, rolling with a gurgle.
"Your swordsmanship… where did it come from?"
Crimson flame-like Marks burned on his left forehead and from his right jaw to neck. Kokushibou, like Muzan, was stunned that a Sun Breathing inheritor still existed!
That man he could never surpass, like a sun blazing in the sky, the 'monster' brother he loathed.
One condition of his alliance with Muzan was to eradicate Sun Breathing's inheritors in his stead.
Over centuries, Kokushibou had hunted down no fewer than a dozen such swordsmen.
Yet now, the Demon Slayer Corps still had a surviving legacy.
Kochou Kanae met those grotesque six eyes, their sickly yellow pupils clearly etched with [Upper Rank] and [One].
"Oh my, are those six eyes just for show?"
Kanae twirled her blade with Flower Breathing's forms.
Ahem, she was being recorded!
This was footage 'she' planned to post in the real world—she had to look cool!
"Or have you forgotten the overwhelming pressure Master Yoriichi brought you?"
Kanae's smile was gentle as a flower, her words impeccably polite, yet they turned those six demon eyes icy in an instant.
The eye-studded hilt was gripped tightly, as if frames were cut from a film, time abruptly leaping forward.
Moon Breathing, Form One: Dark Moon, Evening Palace!
Moonlight blazed, its clear glow chilling.
Scattered crescent arcs danced, large and small, spinning and soaring.
"Sun Breathing, Form Two: Clear Blue Sky!"
Her blade seemed to ignite with searing solar flames, like leaping prominences, eclipsing moonlight and staining the sky red.
This was a visual illusion from the "form."
As Kanae and Kokushibou clashed swordsmanship, Shiraki filmed up close, the other demons glaring at him.
They clearly mistook the camera for something like a Gatling gun.
Reverie tilted her head toward Muzan, about to flee the mansion, her lips curling into a smile.
"Muzan Kibutsuji, a little specialty from my hometown—a gift for our first meeting."
BGM blared: Mirages are like fairy tales~!
Her slender, fair hand tightened, clutching World Serpent's micro-remote bomb, its power capable of breaching a 40-meter Temple-class Honkai beast's defenses.
Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Massive fireballs erupted, the ground quaking violently, thunderous roars piercing the clouds. The mansion instantly transformed into a crimson inferno.
Yet in that crimson inferno, a mangled figure stood, his rage no less fierce than the flames around him.
"Ugh… Ubu… yashiki!!!"