A piercing sting. A chill that cut straight to the bone.
Facing killing intent this vivid, and a power that blazed like the sun itself — what Muzan felt, in that moment, was a terror no lesser than the terror of Yoriichi Tsugikuni's blade.
And so, Muzan made the most important decision of his entire life.
The moment Jonathan heard Muzan's answer, he immediately turned around — sweeping a quick read of the surrounding environment as he did.
Check condition. Check terrain. Confirm everything was in his favor.
After that, all he had to do was activate Time Stop—
But the moment The World began to manifest, just as Jonathan was preparing to freeze time, a sudden gust of wind hit him.
In the very instant his eyes landed on Muzan — Muzan, without a single word of warning, detonated himself. In one heartbeat, countless fragments burst outward in every direction. Jonathan's pupils contracted sharply — and then—
"ZA WARUDO!"
Time stopped.
Without a moment's hesitation, Jonathan surveyed the more than three thousand fragments now scattered across his frozen field of vision. His brow furrowed. The World and his own fists alike blazed with a mountain-yellow Ripple.
"Sunlight Yellow Overdrive!"
The Ripple erupted outward like a detonation — weaving and threading its way through the countless drifting fragments.
Five seconds later, Time Stop ended. Jonathan surged forward immediately. Countless fragments let out shrieks as if caught directly beneath the sun — but still more of them scattered, fleeing in every direction.
Deep within the chaos, Muzan's mind reeled with shock.
How?! What just happened?! Why have over two thousand, six hundred fragments already vanished?!
He had no choice. Muzan gritted his teeth and kept running.
The truth was — in all the years Yoriichi Tsugikuni had still been alive, Muzan had, in every sense of the word, been fighting desperately just to stay alive.
Concretely: terrified that his hiding place might not be concealed enough — that Yoriichi might somehow find him — he had trained his self-severance technique again and again, honing his ability to shed limbs and escape on nothing but fragments.
In the decades spent waiting for Yoriichi to finally die, Muzan had perhaps made no progress on anything else — but on this one technique, this art of cutting off one's own tail to survive, he had reached the level of a true master.
Zero-frame activation. A dramatically increased fragment count. The ability to keep splintering himself into finer and finer pieces even mid-flight.
As long as he was at full readiness when an encounter began, this technique could be triggered in an instant. He had originally prepared it specifically for the nightmare scenario of accidentally stumbling into Yoriichi — and now, against all expectation, he was using it here.
And yet — even split into nearly four thousand fragments — he could still feel it. The bone-deep breath of death creeping toward him.
Like a gentle breeze blowing against his face. Like his entire life flashing before him in a single heartbeat.
He began splintering further still.
With everything he had — run.
But the Sunlight Yellow Overdrive kept hammering into him, relentlessly — and Muzan could feel it clearly now: something invisible was striking him too, landing blow after blow across his being, making his life flash before his eyes ever more vividly with each passing second.
He tried to lose his pursuer in the dense forest — darting between the trees — but Jonathan simply cleaved them down with brisk, direct force, every obstruction in his path felled without a single moment's delay, and came crashing forward.
Muzan was barely holding back the urge to spit blood.
Within just ten short seconds, he realized — his fragment count had dropped further.
But then Jonathan's assault began to slow. Muzan's heart leapt with desperate relief — only to plunge straight back into wariness in the very next instant.
Wrong. This is a trap.
Thinking fast, he quietly merged a portion of his fragments into the earth itself, while the rest continued fleeing onward. Jonathan, meanwhile, continued clearing fragments as he moved — and turned it over in his mind.
According to what Anthony had said — it would be better to keep at least some of Muzan alive.
He still had uses for Muzan.
The problem was... how exactly does one keep something like this alive?
Looking at the Muzan fragments still drifting before him, Jonathan fell into brief silence — then sent a message to the group chat at speed.
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: @Lord of the White Holy Throne — I've beaten Muzan to within an inch of his life, but the problem is he's shattered into far too many fragments. How do I actually keep any of him alive?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: That fast? Oh — he blew himself into fragments and bolted, huh... You've been chasing him for a while now?]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Yes.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Then don't bother — this guy's almost definitely already stashed a few fragments in some corner you'll never find. Just wipe out everything you can still see.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Besides, after you've knocked him around this badly, he probably won't dare show his face for another few decades. No need to stress too much about it.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: When the time comes, we'll just personally deliver Muzan a warm welcome. Once Yoriichi Tsugikuni is resurrected, the three of us can go together.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Understood. Got it.]
Closing the group chat, Jonathan turned back to face the still-considerable number of fragments remaining before him. With the rhythm of his Ripple breathing steady and even, he launched his attack once more.
Then — let this be a lesson burned into Muzan's very bones.
......
"What's going on over there?"
Ubuyashiki Kagaya gazed at a mountain peak in the distance, its slopes blanketed in dense forest. Trees kept falling on its hillside, and the thunderous booms that rolled off it at irregular intervals made his brow crease. He turned his head, looking to the person at his side — Kanroji Mitsuri.
That sound had not stopped for a full ten minutes.
"My lord, I'm afraid I don't know," Kanroji Mitsuri replied, shaking her head.
Ubuyashiki Kagaya closed his eyes — a brief, quiet moment of thought — and then let out a slow sigh.
"Go and take a look, then. Kanroji Mitsuri — would you mind checking on the situation over there?"
He opened his eyes, his gaze settling on that direction:
"It may be a powerful swordsman... or perhaps a sage of some kind. If possible, assess the situation. If they don't seem to have any ill intent — you may even bring them back with you."
Kanroji Mitsuri nodded, and without further words, set off at once — moving at speed toward the mountain.
All around her, the sounds of crashing and impact grew clearer with every step.
So clear, in fact, that they sent a chill running through her despite herself.
Like the roaring fury of a mountain god.
At long last, after the considerable journey, the sounds finally seemed to fade — and Kanroji Mitsuri reached her destination.
She came to a light, graceful halt — and stopped dead.
Sitting there in the midst of it all was a man covered in what could only be demon blood, handsome features calm, blue hair catching the faint light around him. Scattered all around him were the shredded remains of countless demons — all vitality burned away from them, as though they had been seared directly beneath the sun.
"Muzan... I cleared everything in front of me, at least. But he still got away, hm?"
Jonathan murmured quietly to himself — then lifted his head, noticing Kanroji Mitsuri standing before him with something close to surprise.
"And you are...?"
"Um, uh, well — that is..."
Kanroji Mitsuri blinked. For a moment, her mind had gone completely, utterly blank.
In the end, only one sentence made it past her lips — asked almost as if something else was moving her mouth entirely:
"Would you be willing to come with me? Our lord would like to meet you."
____
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