"Demons"

Muzan regretted it!

He really regretted it!

He never should have dreamed of teaching anyone medicine!

Not one of these three brats bothered to study!

Those novel plots where you picked up some random little girl or kid and they turned out to be a genius disciple were impossible!

He couldn't teach them. He really couldn't.

They couldn't even read, and they wouldn't pay attention when he taught them anything. All they cared about was running around and touching everything they saw. They had nearly smashed the ceramic pot he used to brew medicine!

Teach them? Teach them my ass!

On the afternoon of the second day after he agreed to teach them how to treat illnesses, Muzan had just finished brewing some cold medicine for a neighbor. When he returned to the room, he found the three brats standing uneasily in a corner.

The bottles and jars on the wooden shelf behind them were untouched. Muzan frowned. "What did you do this time?"

The three children gave a couple of awkward chuckles and exchanged glances before slowly shuffling aside.

Behind them was the medicine Muzan had brewed for Imura's sore throat. Its container had been smashed, and the medicine had spilled all over the floor.

Muzan's first instinct was anger. Then the light left his eyes. Finally, he let out a long sigh and stepped aside to clear the way to the door. "All right, leave. My knowledge and abilities are too limited to teach you."

"Uncle, give us another chance! We know we were wrong!"

The three children put on pitiful expressions. As a man-eating demon, Muzan was utterly unmoved by their pleas. He grabbed them by the backs of their collars and tossed them out one by one.

The three little ones: இ௰இ

Muzan: (￣_￣)

He shut the door. With Imura due to collect his medicine any moment, Muzan sighed. I'll have to brew it again. Next time I move, I'm not becoming a physician. This job isn't suited to slacking off.

While he was brewing the medicine again, Imura's voice came from outside. It was a little hoarse, but still full of energy.

"Hey, you three came to pester the physician again? Did he kick you out?"

Imura lifted the door curtain and entered Muzan's house. "Doc, I'm here for my medicine."

Muzan kept working. "Those three kids spilled your medicine. I'm brewing it again. If you're not in a hurry, wait a while."

Imura found somewhere to sit, leaned against the wooden wall, crossed his legs, and chatted idly.

"By the way, it's been over ten years. How come you still look so young?"

Muzan glanced at him. "I take good care of myself, so the age doesn't show. Why? A grown man like you wants skin-care tips?"

"My wife keeps nagging me to ask how you do it."

"Stay up less and exercise more."

Muzan poured the piping-hot medicine into a jar and handed it to Imura. "Remember to bring the jar back when you're done."

"No problem."

After seeing Imura off, Muzan lay back down on the recliner in his room. More exercise was out of the question. He couldn't be bothered.

Did the mighty Demon King really need something as basic as exercise to keep himself fit?

Hell yeah! Time to slack off completely!

Night fell. Muzan listlessly took a book outside and settled into the rocking chair by his door to enjoy the evening breeze.

It was a good thing he wasn't human. This era had no air conditioners or electric fans. In the height of summer, the only ways to cool off were hand fans and the evening breeze.

He was enjoying the cool air when he suddenly glimpsed a dark shape flash past nearby. Immediately afterward, screams rang out from the direction in which it had vanished.

Frowning, Muzan slowly rose from his chair. People were already fleeing past him in terror. Someone noticed that he hadn't run yet, grabbed him, and urged, "Run! A demon's come out to eat people!"

Muzan: "???"

Wait, why didn't I know about this?

Muzan pulled free. "You go ahead."

With that, he headed straight in the opposite direction.

The man hurried after him but couldn't catch up. Frustrated, he turned around and kept fleeing.

Muzan leaped onto a rooftop and raced to the scene.

He hadn't sensed any of his demons nearby!

Besides, his demons wouldn't pick some random village and start feeding.

Standing on the roof, Muzan saw an enormous, hideous creature of uncertain nature. Its fingernails were long and sharp, and its crimson eyes and razor-sharp teeth all seemed to proclaim its identity-a man-eating demon.

Everyone who fell behind was ripped open from behind with a single swipe of its claws. Strangely, though, the creature only killed. It seemed utterly uninterested in the food already within its grasp.

Muzan hadn't known of anything like this among his demons, either. The thing was horrendously ugly, its features barely distinguishable. It was definitely not one of his subordinates.

Nor had the scumbag boss ever created a demon like this in his memories.

Muzan dropped down and kicked the creature that looked like a demon but wasn't one away. Turning to the villager who had nearly been killed, he snapped, "What are you staring at? Run!"

The villager silently gulped, scrambled to his feet, and fled for his life.

That ageless physician really was a master living in seclusion!

Muzan looked at the... creature he had kicked away.

He had deliberately held back, merely sending it flying and injuring it in the fall rather than killing it outright.

The creature seemed to possess some intelligence, though not much. Having sensed that Muzan was powerful enough to crush it to death, it struggled to its feet and tried to flee.

Muzan took one step and appeared directly in front of it. He brought his foot down hard on its head.

"Whimper..."

The monster beneath his foot whimpered as though begging for mercy. Muzan lengthened his nails and plunged a finger into its head.

Once someone became a demon, Muzan could read their memories and even alter them at will.

Muzan wanted to see this thing's memories.

How bizarre. Nothing this strange ever appeared in the original story.

As Muzan's blood invaded its body, the strange creature howled in agony. He kept it pinned firmly beneath his foot as it flopped around like a fish out of water.

Muzan browsed through its memories, then lifted his foot and took a step back. The howling creature suddenly exploded, splattering mangled flesh across the ground.

Muzan scraped the sole of his shoe against the ground a few times, took out a cloth to wipe his finger, and walked home at an unhurried pace.

The thing didn't have many memories. It hadn't been very intelligent to begin with, so there wasn't much it could remember.

Certain ideas seemed to have been implanted in it: it knew only that it was a demon, that it had to kill people, that it had to eat people if someone wearing a Demon Slayer Corps uniform appeared, and that it must not go out into the sunlight.

If it saw another creature that ate people, it had to flee.

Interesting.

Could this world no longer be simply the world of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba that I know?

Could there be other powers here?

What are they trying to do?

Ruin my reputation?

Decades had passed, yet fear of man-eating demons remained everywhere. It had even spread beyond Tokyo. But the demons under his command had never killed indiscriminately.

There were still so many members of the Demon Slayer Corps. Apparently, it wasn't that too little time had passed. Something was pulling strings behind the scenes.

Muzan washed his hands, a smile spreading across his face.

Interesting. Very interesting.

In the scumbag boss's centuries of memories, there had been no supernatural powers other than demons.

Was this a butterfly effect caused by my arrival in this world, or was something more frightening out there?

The people in this village probably all knew he wasn't an ordinary person now. He hadn't hidden anything he had just done from anyone.

Time to move somewhere else-and while I'm at it, get to the bottom of what these things that look like demons but aren't actually are.