After completing the test at Mount Fujikasane, Kanao immediately headed to the Ubuyashiki estate.
It was to report the results of this Final Selection to Kagaya, the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps.
The estate garden was serene. Only the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and distant birdsong broke the silence.
"Flower Hashira, Tsuyuri Kanao. I report the results of the Final Selection."
Kanao knelt properly and bowed her head. The blind Kagaya listened to her voice with a gentle smile.
"You've worked hard, Kanao. How was this selection?"
"A total of 15 passed. That's over three times the average number of passers in previous years."
"Fifteen people… That's astonishing. It seems the method you proposed was effective."
Kagaya's voice held genuine joy.
"It was the result of prioritizing survival ability over strong demons. However… individual combat skills still need verification. More training will likely be necessary."
Kanao added coldly. Her report was thoroughly objective.
It was true that the Demon Slayer Corps' strength had increased, but she judged that it wasn't yet a level that could threaten the Akatsuki Trading Company.
"I see. I trust your judgment. Please continue to guide the children well."
"...Yes. Sir."
Kanao answered briefly and withdrew. Kagaya's gentleness always made her uncomfortable.
Unlike Akira's, she disliked his attitude of trying to gently embrace her.
Many in the Demon Slayer Corps look up to him like a father and follow him.
But to her, Father was only Akira.
Meanwhile, the passers returned to where their masters and families waited.
Tanjiro, both body and mind in tatters, was climbing Mount Sagiri leaning on a staff.
"Master… Nezuko…."
As he reached the mountain entrance, a familiar hut came into view.
And in front of it, Urokodaki Sakonji wearing a tengu mask had stopped chopping firewood and stood still.
"I'm back…."
Tanjiro muttered weakly and knelt as if collapsing. His clothes were torn and covered in dirt, but he had returned alive.
Urokodaki threw down his axe and ran over to hug Tanjiro tightly.
"You… came back alive."
His voice was trembling. To him, who had lost many disciples to demons, Tanjiro's survival was an unbelievable miracle.
Then, the hut door burst open. A girl who seemed to have kicked off her blankets.
Nezuko, with a bamboo muzzle, stumbled out walking.
The girl who had been sleeping for nearly two years had awakened miraculously timed with her brother's return.
"Ne… Nezuko!"
Tanjiro raised his painful body and ran to Nezuko. Nezuko also ran toward Tanjiro and hugged him.
The siblings embraced each other and rolled on the ground, crying buckets.
"I'm glad… I'm really glad… Waaah!"
Urokodaki also watched that scene and wiped the hot tears flowing behind his mask. Mount Sagiri was filled with the joy of reunion and warm warmth.
But behind that peaceful reunion, a huge whirlwind of fate to come was waiting.
Akatsuki Trading Company, changes in the Demon Slayer Corps, and the awakened Nezuko. The gears of the story had just begun to mesh.
And time passed, early 1913.
Tokyo Asakusa.
That place seemed to have forgotten the concept of night. The colorful electric lights pushing back the darkness, the roar of streetcars running under spiderweb-like wires, and the laughter of modern boys and girls in Western-style clothing.
To Tanjiro, who had lived in the mountains burning charcoal, this place was a dazzling and alien wonderland that made him dizzy.
"Amazing… It's so bright even though it's night."
Tanjiro, carrying the wooden box containing Nezuko, held her hand tightly, afraid of losing his sister.
"Nezuko, a quieter place will come up if we go a bit further. Let's rest there."
Tanjiro avoided the crowd and found a small food stall in a corner of the street.
He ordered a bowl of warm yamakake udon with steam rising.
At the moment when the tension was about to ease, Tanjiro's movement to pick up chopsticks and drink the broth froze stiffly.
Sniff.
Amidst the dust and food smells of Tokyo, the sweat smell of people, a single smell forced its way in.
It wasn't just a fishy blood scent.
A cold that chilled to the bone, malice like a rotten swamp bottom, and… two years ago, that night when snow fell. The very smell that flowed over the corpses of his family.
Clang!
Tanjiro didn't even hear the sound of the udon bowl falling and breaking on the ground. His reason flew away. Only instinct whipped him.
"It's here…!"
Tanjiro covered his mouth and gasped for breath as he rushed out into the street. He didn't even have the leisure to mind Nezuko. An intuition that if he lost this smell, he would regret it forever moved his legs.
"Please move! Coming through!"
Tanjiro roughly pushed through the crowd and advanced. The smell grew thicker. At the end of this disgusting smell stinging his lungs, the bastard was there.
And finally, Tanjiro caught sight of a man's back. A gentleman in a white fedora, black suit, wearing an elegant coat.
Tanjiro grabbed the man's shoulder roughly and turned him around.
The man slowly turned his head. Skin pale to the point of whiteness, eyes tinged with red, and vertically split reptilian pupils.
Kibutsuji Muzan.
The progenitor of all demons, the culprit who massacred Tanjiro's family.
But what entered Tanjiro's eyes was an unexpected sight.
"...What's the matter?"
In Muzan's arms, a pretty little girl was hugging him, and next to him, an elegant lady stood with a worried expression.
"Oh my, dear? Do you know him?"
"No, I don't know this child. He seems to have mistaken me for someone else. Judging by his attire, he must have come from the countryside and gotten confused."
Muzan was too composed. There was not a hint of killing intent in his voice, and his expression was that of a kind family man.
Tanjiro's breath caught in his throat.
'Is he pretending to be human…? That bastard? With the same hands that killed my family… he's holding a human child?'
Shock, anger, and disgust mixed to the point of nausea.
He wanted to draw his Nichirin Sword right now and cut Muzan's neck. But he couldn't.
Because the child he was holding, the lady next to him, were clearly humans who knew nothing.
"There seems to be some misunderstanding, boy."
Muzan stared at Tanjiro with cold eyes and turned smoothly.
Before Tanjiro could say anything, Muzan's fingertip brushed past a passerby's nape and scratched it.
It was a very small wound. But through that gap, Muzan's concentrated blood was injected.
"Ugh, uwaaah?!"
A passing man suddenly grabbed his neck and screamed. His blood vessels swelled as if about to burst, and hideous fangs protruded from his mouth.
The man who turned into a demon lost his reason and pounced on a woman next to him, biting and tearing.
"Kyaaah!! A m-monster!!"
"Help!!"
The peaceful street instantly became a chaotic mess. People screamed and ran away, and the demonized man rampaged craving blood.
"No!!"
Tanjiro gave up chasing Muzan. He couldn't ignore people dying before his eyes.
He threw his body to tear off the demon and tried to subdue it.
Taking advantage of that confusion, Muzan disappeared into the crowd with his fake family leisurely.
"Kibutsuji Muzan!! Don't run away!! I'll chase you to the ends of hell… I'll definitely cut your neck!!"
Tanjiro's desperate scream echoed as if tearing through Tokyo's night sky.
Then it was. Amidst the approaching police and the rampaging demon, a strange and beautiful flower scent spread.
A hallucination of gorgeous flower patterns obscuring vision.
"This way. Poor person."
A woman in a fine kimono, Tamayo, and the youth Yushiro protecting her appeared from the mist.
They calmed the confused Tanjiro, subdued the demonized man, and took him away into the darkness of an alley without anyone noticing.
And all this chaos was watched by two shadows from the second-floor terrace of a high-class Western restaurant across the street.
On the table was a glass filled with red wine, and Akira was leaning on the railing looking down.
Next to him sat his Servant and partner Nobunaga.
"Hoh. That red-haired brat, not bad. Declaring war without cowering before the progenitor of demons. I like his guts."
Nobunaga propped her chin and raised the corner of her mouth as if interested.
"But Master, I just can't understand. Why not cut Muzan's neck right now when he's so exposed? We could go down right now and tear his limbs apart."
To Nobunaga's question, Akira slowly took a sip of wine.
His pupils were chasing not Tanjiro, but Muzan's back disappearing into the darkness.
"Cutting Muzan's neck is easy. If I put my mind to it, I could make him kneel at my feet right now. He could take revenge. But Nobu, that's not hunting. It's simple slaughter."
Akira's voice was colder than the night wind.
"My first target isn't Muzan's life or such. It's cutting his legs."
"Legs?"
"Yes. Nakime. The master of the Infinity Castle."
Akira spun the empty glass and explained.
"Muzan that bastard is a coward. If he feels even a slight threat, he can always escape to the Infinity Castle, a subspace. Nakime's searching ability and spatial movement ability are the strongest in this worldview. As long as she exists, it's hard to completely kill Muzan. Moreover, if Muzan dies carelessly, we lose the talent that is Nakime."
"Haha, as expected of Master, you're greedy. You're aiming for something more precious than the enemy's heart."
Nobunaga laughed as if pleased with Akira's ambition.
"So the plan is?"
"It's simple. Before driving Muzan to the extreme, first kidnap Nakime and make her mine. Muzan who loses the Infinity Castle is a rat in a trap. No matter how much he hides in the Tokyo bottom, it's within my palm. There's no place to escape on my hand."
Akira's gaze changed to that of a predator.
"If I attack Muzan now, Nakime will just summon him to the Infinity Castle. And to the farthest place from me. Then I can't catch Nakime."
"Then how will you lure out Nakime? She's stuck deep in the Infinity Castle."
"The opportunity will surely come. During the Upper Moon gathering."
Akira took out a small curse doll from his pocket. It was a doll in the shape of the bizarre old man with horns on his forehead, Hantengu. The doll was tightly wound with red threads.
"I've already placed a curse deep in Hantengu's soul. He's a puppet moving as my eyes and ears without realizing it."
Akira looked down at the doll and smiled creepily.
"Next time one of the Upper Moon demons dies, Muzan will get angry and summon the Upper Moons to the Infinity Castle. That's the opportunity. I'll share Hantengu's vision to pinpoint Nakime's exact location."
"And then?"
"Immediately, Hokusai will open space to kidnap Nakime. Before Muzan notices, before the Upper Moons react. If I bring Nakime and brainwash her with my blood, the Infinity Castle will become the new headquarters of the Akatsuki Trading Company."
Nobunaga nodded in admiration.
"As expected of the Master of this Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. Muzan is pitiful to the point of sympathy. He has no idea that the key to open his own bedroom door is already in your hand."
"Pitiful, my foot. That bastard is just the most expensive and sturdy toy in my toy box. If I break it all at once, it's not fun, right? I'll cut off his limbs, break his wings, block all escape routes… and then slowly, very painfully kill him in despair. After all, he's the one who killed my family I don't even remember now, and turned the Shinsengumi that our Okita cherished into demons."
Akira set the wine glass down on the table.
"What about that Kamado Tanjiro?"
"Not interested. But, if he moves as scheduled. If he causes the Mugen Train incident, then Akaza who can't be found will come out. If I kill Akaza then, Muzan will definitely summon the Upper Moons. Sun Breathing or Nezuko, not my job. But, I'm grateful for this one thing."
Akira slowly stood up. He smiled a bloody smile and looked outside.
"Because he pulled up Tamayo, whom I couldn't catch until now, to the surface. Her medical skills are on a level comparable to medical Servants. Asclepius will surely covet her as an assistant. If she joins us, the pharmaceutical field of our Akatsuki Trading Company will become the best in the world."
"Another talent kidnapping, huh."
"I sent the kids. Muzan won't take action directly. He ran away scared after seeing Tanjiro's hanafuda earrings. Even if he sends a Lower Moon or Upper Moon, it's fine, I sent three."
"Three, meaning the weakest in our house?"
Finally, they had found Tamayo, who had been sought for so long. To bring her, they gave a chance to those at the bottom of the household hierarchy.
Ubume, Kumonojo, and Kumoeimon were dispatched to bring Tamayo.
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