Train, Peril on Every Side! The Dragon Bares Its Fangs!

Aboard the Infinite Train, the night was black as ink.

Amid the monotonous clatter of wheels rolling over the tracks, Kyojuro Rengoku and Tanjiro handed their tickets to the conductor in turn.

Kashu's gaze swept over the conductor before him, whose entire body seemed steeped in dejection and exhaustion, and a flicker of suspicion crept into his brow.

Strange. Is the night shift really that draining?

Why do I keep feeling that something is off about this guy?

Suspicion aside, Kashu had no grounds to stop the conductor from checking their tickets.

After the conductor punched holes in Kyojuro Rengoku's and Tanjiro's tickets, Kashu handed over his own as well.

Click!

The soft sound of the ticket being punched rang especially clearly through the silent carriage.

Then, with heavy steps that seemed laden with lead, the conductor dragged himself toward the next carriage.

With some apprehension on his face, Tanjiro asked Kyojuro Rengoku about the secrets of Flame Breathing.

Kashu took back his freshly punched ticket, narrowing his eyes as a knowing curve formed at the corner of his lips.

So that's it. No wonder something felt wrong.

The problem isn't the conductor. It's the ticket itself.

The instant he had taken back the ticket, he had clearly sensed a murky ripple of energy spreading from it.

The enemy had attempted to infiltrate his body and impose some hidden influence on him.

Unfortunately, such a paltry trick was nothing more than showing off before an expert.

"A Blood Demon Art that uses tickets as a medium to control every passenger from afar?"

"This demon is fairly capable. Looks like this trip wasn't for nothing."

With a light twist of his fingertips, Kashu reduced the ticket to ashes in an instant.

When he looked up, Kyojuro Rengoku and Tanjiro across from him had already stopped talking and fallen asleep.

"So it isn't direct mental control, but a hypnosis-type technique?"

Thanks to Kyojuro Rengoku clearing out the carriage earlier, only the three of them remained inside. Kashu no longer needed to hold back.

A complex, precise exorcism rune swiftly took shape at his fingertips. With a light tap to their foreheads, the hypnotic effect of the Blood Demon Art shattered at once.

"Mm!?"

A frightened cry came from within the wooden box. The exorcism technique instinctively suppressed and terrified Nezuko.

Hearing his sister's movement, Tanjiro groggily opened his eyes and saw Kashu examining every detail of the carriage.

"I was... asleep just now?"

Kyojuro Rengoku rubbed his temples and rose to his feet before Tanjiro did, one hand already resting on the hilt of the Nichirin Blade hidden beneath his haori.

"Stay alert, Kamado boy! That must have been a demon's doing!"

"Kyojuro is right. The demon hiding on the Infinite Train can cast large-scale hypnosis."

"It must have relied on that ability to remain unnoticed by everyone else."

As Kashu spoke, he lightly knocked his knuckles against the carriage wall, his eyes taking on an amused glint.

Kyojuro Rengoku's expression hardened. "To cast such a wide-ranging Blood Demon Art, the one aboard the Infinite Train truly must be one of the Twelve Kizuki!"

At the same time, Tanjiro's nostrils flared. His expression changed drastically as he cried out.

"Mr. Kashu! Mr. Rengoku! The demon's scent in the carriage is getting stronger, but I can't find where it is!"

"No need to look."

Kashu suddenly clenched his fist and threw a fierce punch. The sturdy carriage wall exploded, revealing beneath it writhing, nauseating flesh.

"The entire Infinite Train is merging with the demon!"

"What!?"

Kyojuro Rengoku and Tanjiro both stared in horror at the living flesh, unable to believe their eyes.

When they looked down at the floor beneath their feet, a wave of visceral discomfort washed over them.

"Because it hadn't attacked before, even Tanjiro's keen sense of smell failed to detect anything unusual?"

Kashu ignored the writhing, proliferating flesh and fixed a sharp gaze toward the front of the train.

"Kyojuro, Tanjiro, inspect the other carriages and protect the passengers. Don't let the demon take them hostage. I'll go meet it up ahead."

Kyojuro Rengoku asked in a deep voice, "Is this part of the plan too?"

A cold, gleaming longsword appeared in Kashu's hand. Without looking back, he said,

"Yes. This is part of the plan too."

Before his words had faded, Kashu pushed off with his toes and vanished at the carriage connection like a phantom.

Tanjiro cried out in shock, "So fast! My eyes can't keep up at all!"

"Now isn't the time to marvel at that, Kamado boy!"

Kyojuro Rengoku's Nichirin Blade rang as it left its sheath, his breathing instantly adjusting to its optimal rhythm.

"I can protect the passengers in five carriages. Can you handle the rest?"

Tanjiro's gaze was firm as he nodded heavily.

"No problem! Nezuko and I can fight side by side!"

"Good! Then I'm counting on you two!"

With that, Kyojuro Rengoku lowered his body and, like an arrow leaving the string, charged with his sword toward the five carriages under his protection.

Unlike Kyojuro Rengoku, who raced through the train cars, Kashu had already broken through a window and taken to the wind.

His figure left an afterimage across the night sky as he shot straight toward the front of the Infinite Train.

In the blink of an eye, Kashu locked onto a bizarre figure dressed in a tailcoat.

"Here you are, here you are. I never expected such a splendid entrance."

Enmu tilted his head, a stiff, eerie doll-like smile on his face. He was not at all surprised by Kashu's arrival.

"You can resist my hypnosis and even fly through the air... Tell me, are you really human?"

"At least I'm not trash like you."

Kashu's eyes immediately fell upon Enmu's pupils. His left eye bore the words "Lower Rank," while his right bore the character for "One."

"Lower Rank One? Good. You should be qualified to relay information directly to Muzan Kibutsuji."

According to the information Tamayo had provided, the Demon King could control every demon under his command, and the closer they were, the stronger that control became.

Even from thousands of miles away, the Demon King could obtain certain crucial information and share intelligence.

As the foremost of the Lower Ranks among the Twelve Kizuki, Enmu could certainly share everything he saw with Muzan Kibutsuji in real time.

Yet upon hearing Kashu's words, Enmu's smiling expression froze before shifting into a sickly excitement. He spread his arms wide.

"Who knows? After all, who would dare guess at that lord's true thoughts?"

Kashu gave a dismissive snort. "No one dares guess? Then let's wait and see."

Before Enmu could speak again, the surrounding air abruptly solidified, and an invisible pressure brutally gripped his heart!

Dragon Breathing: Thunder Form: Light Fang!

In an instant, blinding lightning tore through the heavy night.

With overwhelming force and incomparable impact, Kashu crashed violently toward Enmu!

His sword shot forth wrapped in thunder, like the invincible sharp fang of a dragon biting its prey, slicing precisely and viciously through the demon's neck!

Scarlet blood erupted high into the air like a fountain, and Enmu's headless body collapsed limply.

Seeing this, a cold smile curled across Kashu's lips as he mocked,

"You really do love these little tricks. You've already merged with the entire train, yet you still want to fool me with this?"

"Oh my, you've already seen through it? How boring. I was hoping to see even the slightest hint of terror on your face."

A massive pillar of flesh suddenly proliferated from the outer wall of the carriage, scooping up Enmu's fallen head and reattaching it.

His doll-like face was filled with a teasing smile.

"But I truly didn't expect that a mere human could not only fly, but even release lightning like a demon."

"But regrettably! My body has completely fused with this train! You will never be able to kill me!"

In an instant, even more flesh pillars proliferated wildly from every direction, layering over one another until Kashu was completely engulfed.

On every pillar of flesh, enormous, bloodshot eyes opened one after another—hideous and grotesque!

Blood Demon Art: Forced Sleep, Sleep: Eyes!

This was Enmu's true killing move!

Its hypnotic effect was dozens of times stronger than the slow-acting technique embedded in the tickets!

No matter how swift this demon slayer's movements were, there was no way he could evade the all-encompassing lock of those gazes!

Just as Enmu secretly gloated, believing victory was already in his grasp—

Without warning, roaring flames erupted across those grotesque pillars of flesh!