"Episkey!"
Goku cast healing magic on each of the injured Demon Slayers, stabilizing their heavily wounded bodies. To maximize the power of her puppets, the demon had completely ignored the limits of human anatomy.
As a result, many of the controlled slayers had suffered widespread fractures and internal organ damage. This was why most of them had lost consciousness.
Fortunately, their constant training with Breathing Styles meant their bodies were much sturdier than those of ordinary people, preventing them from dying instantly. While Goku's healing magic couldn't fix them completely, it could stabilize their condition. Once they were stable, the danger was mostly over.
Mita had mentioned that the Demon Slayer Corps had a specialized medical unit. As long as they weren't dead, they could return for two weeks of recovery and be back to hunting demons in no time.
The slayers with lighter injuries were restored to perfect health immediately under Goku's magic. However, there were a few who had already passed away; for those, Goku could do nothing.
"Goku, who in the world are you?" Mita couldn't help but sigh in amazement as he watched the boy save his comrades.
He now understood that Goku was definitely not just an ordinary person with a special constitution. But it didn't matter—at the very least, Goku was on their side. As long as he wasn't a demon, he was a friend and a candidate for the Corps.
...
In the distance, the female demon suddenly froze. She realized her connection to the small spiders had been severed. She could no longer observe the area or use the spiders to attach threads.
At that moment, a young boy with white hair and pale skin stepped down from the sky, walking along a thread above her.
"Mother, can you win?"
"Rui?" The female demon began to tremble violently at the sight of the boy, her face a mask of terror.
"You're taking quite a long time. If you don't hurry up, I'm going to tell Father." The boy's face remained expressionless.
The female demon was scared half to death. she quickly replied, "I... I can do it! Mother can protect you! Don't tell Father, please don't tell Father!"
Rui looked at her coldly, remained silent for two seconds, and then said, "Then move faster." With that, he turned and left.
Once he was gone, the female demon gasped for air, trying to suppress her fear. She manipulated her threads and roared, "Die! All of you, just die! If you don't die, I'll be the one who suffers!"
That boy wasn't actually her child; he was one of the Twelve Kizuki, the strongest among demons—Lower Rank Five, Rui. Rui was obsessed with playing "family" and placed extreme importance on family bonds.
He believed parents must protect children and older siblings must protect the younger ones, even at the cost of their lives. He had gathered several demons and granted them power to play the roles of his family members. Any demon who didn't follow his rules was cruelly tortured or even hung from a tree to be burned by the sun.
Since she was currently playing the role of Rui's mother, failing to deal with the intruders would result in a severe punishment. She no longer cared about anything else and sent a massive wave of puppets toward the area where she had lost contact.
The puppets from before were just the weakest ones. Deep in the woods, she had captured much stronger slayers, including her most powerful creation: the Puppet King. She would send them all at once to wipe out the slayers in one go.
...
Meanwhile, three low-ranking slayers—Mizunoto rank—had arrived at the foot of the mountain following the crow's orders.
One had a scar on his forehead and carried a box on his back. One was shirtless, showing off perfect muscle lines while wearing a boar-head mask. The last was shaking all over, looking absolutely terrified.
As they entered the forest, they took a different path and encountered another demon—Rui's "older brother," who had a human head and a spider's body. His Blood Demon Art used poison to turn people into human-headed spiders under his control.
...
"Something's coming!" Goku suddenly turned to look deep into the dark woods.
A dozen Demon Slayers clutching Nichirin Swords emerged from the darkness. Behind them loomed a headless demon, three meters tall and rippling with muscle.
"Even Yoshikawa and the others have been turned!" Mita cried out in horror.
"Is there a Twelve Kizuki here?"
The ranks of the Demon Slayer Corps were divided into eleven levels. At the top were the Hashira, followed by Kinoe, Kinoto, Hinoe, Hinoto, Tsuchinoe, Tsuchinoto, Kanoe, Kanoto, Mizunoe, and Mizunoto. The slayers they had just saved were mostly the lowest ranks—Kanoto, Mizunoe, and Mizunoto. But these new puppets were at least Kanoe rank like Mita, and the strongest was even a Tsuchinoe master.
To see so many high-level slayers turned into puppets, along with that headless giant, made Mita tremble. He suspected the demon in control was one of the Twelve Kizuki.
"What's a Twelve Kizuki?" Goku asked, interested in the title that terrified Mita so much.
Mita explained quickly, "The first demon in the world is named Muzan Kibutsuji. He is the progenitor and the strongest. The twelve most powerful demons under him are the Twelve Kizuki, divided into Upper Ranks and Lower Ranks. Only a Hashira can threaten them. So far, the Hashira have only killed Lower Ranks. Any Hashira who has encountered an Upper Rank has died."
"Muzan Kibutsuji... sounds like a good opponent!"
Goku decided that after visiting the Corps headquarters and sparring with the Hashira, he would go find Muzan and the Twelve Kizuki. Since he didn't know the names of the Twelve, they might be hard to find, but Muzan had a name.
He could just go back to Hogwarts and borrow a magical owl from Hagrid. Hagrid said messenger owls have tracking magic; as long as the person isn't using a cloaking spell, the owl can find them anywhere. He would just follow the owl to find this Muzan.
Killing Muzan would stop new demons from being born, which seemed like a good thing to do.
***
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