Interlocking, inverted buildings drifted slowly through a space where gravity had lost its balance.
Deep within the Infinity Castle.
Inside a laboratory filled with precision instruments.
Muzan Kibutsuji froze at his workbench. The glass vessel of blue liquid in his hand shattered with a sharp crack, scattering shards and liquid across the expensive wooden floor.
Muzan stopped breathing entirely.
Through the link of his cursed blood, an unbearably vivid sense of despair shot along his neural network and pierced his cerebral cortex.
It was the final sensation Lower Rank Five, Rui, had sent back before his death.
There was no pain of torn flesh, only a hollow nothingness, as though even his soul had been gouged out in an instant.
Unable to regenerate.
Those words were like a rusty dagger, punching a hole through the laws of immortality Muzan had prided himself on for centuries.
Muzan's pale face instantly twisted. Veins bulged across his forehead, and his flesh twitched uncontrollably.
The absolute terror of Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the swordsman with the sun earrings, had lain buried in his marrow for centuries. Now, an even more savage power dragged it violently to the surface.
That power again.
That monster who could sever the very laws of existence.
Muzan clamped his fingers around the edge of the workbench, gouging ten deep furrows into the hard marble.
Extreme terror sent his flesh out of control. His right suit sleeve suddenly tore apart, and his pale flesh writhed violently, briefly deforming into a revolting mass covered in sharp teeth and eyeballs.
For the first time in centuries, he could not even maintain his human disguise.
"Nakime."
Muzan's voice was hoarse and distorted, carrying a hysterical chill.
"Summon every Lower Rank."
"Immediately."
A clear note from a biwa rang out from the depths of the space.
The scene twisted.
The central hall of the Infinity Castle.
Four figures fell from above, crashing onto the cold tatami.
The surviving Lower Ranks, One through Four, had been forcibly transported there by the power of space.
They had no time to straighten their clothes. Instinctively, they sensed the terrifying pressure in the hall, so intense it seemed capable of freezing the air. All four demons dropped to their knees, pressing their heads firmly against the floor as they trembled.
On the raised platform ahead.
Muzan had already taken the form of a cold, severe woman in a black kimono.
He looked down at the worthless creatures beneath the steps. His dark red, slit-pupiled eyes held no warmth, only pure brutality and murderous intent.
The hall was deathly silent, save for the Lower Ranks' rapid, frightened breathing.
"Why are the Lower Rank demons so weak?"
Muzan spoke coldly, his voice echoing through the hall.
The four demons below trembled even harder.
"What exactly are you afraid of?" Muzan descended the steps one at a time in his wooden sandals. "Rui is dead. He couldn't even probe that monster's abilities before being chopped to pieces like vegetables."
Lower Rank Four tried to explain.
Muzan gave her no chance.
A thick, barbed whip shot from his kimono sleeve, instantly piercing Lower Rank Four's skull.
Blood sprayed everywhere. The demon turned to ash without even letting out a scream.
The remaining three demons watched in horror.
Muzan had turned his fear of Yaha into a merciless purge of these failures. Yaha's consecutive instant kills of the Lower Ranks had led him to decide ahead of time that their ranks no longer had any reason to exist.
A massacre unfolded in the Infinity Castle.
Lower Rank Three tried to turn and flee. Before he could take even half a step, an invisible repulsive force pinned him to the floor. The barbed whip swept across him, cutting him in half at the waist.
Lower Rank Two desperately banged his head against the floor and begged for mercy, promising that he would kill that Demon Slayer.
Muzan raised his hand without expression and clenched his fingers in the air. Lower Rank Two's head exploded.
The heavy stench of blood spread across the tatami.
Within mere minutes, only one demon remained in the hall.
Lower Rank One. Enmu.
Enmu knelt in a pool of blood. He neither begged for mercy nor tried to escape.
He raised his head and watched Muzan approach. A sickly flush spread across his pallid face, his eyes filled with a fanatical delight in death and abject flattery.
"To die by your own hand would be the greatest honor." Enmu's voice trembled with undisguised excitement.
Muzan stopped.
He stared at this Lower Rank, who radiated depravity, and the raised barbed whip paused in midair.
"You are somewhat interesting." Muzan gave a cold snort.
He slit his finger with a sharp nail. A thick drop of dark red blood fell and hovered before Enmu.
Wild with joy, Enmu opened his mouth and swallowed the drop.
Immense power erupted inside him. His flesh tore apart and reformed. He curled up on the floor in agony, yet laughed with excitement.
"Find that aberration who can bypass regeneration." Muzan turned away, his voice icy enough to chill the bones.
"Kill him."
Muzan paused, the dread in his eyes fully exposed.
"Send the Upper Ranks as well. He must be torn to pieces."
The highest-level kill order was issued within the Infinity Castle.
The conflict had officially moved beyond the Lower Ranks and escalated to the Upper Ranks.
Back on Mount Natagumo.
The heavy stench of blood gradually faded, and the night wind swept over the charred remains scattered across the ground.
Yaha turned around. The black cursed markings on his face receded like the tide, disappearing beneath his collar once more.
The dark red glow faded from his eyes, and his pitch-black gaze returned to its usual infuriatingly dull, dead-fish look.
He pulled his hands out of his pockets, rolled his wrists, and slowly walked over to Giyu.
Giyu knelt on one knee in the muddy water. His tattered uniform was soaked in blood, his face pale as paper, and his chest heaved.
Yaha stopped before Giyu and looked down at him.
"What a pain."
Yaha sighed in annoyance.
He raised his right hand, and a soft, dark red glow lit up his palm. It was the form cursed energy took when Reverse Cursed Technique was forcibly distorted.
Yaha slapped Giyu on the back.
The blow was hard enough to send Giyu stumbling forward.
Giyu was just about to speak when an intensely warm, overpowering force surged into his body.
Wounds deep enough to expose bone healed before his eyes. Broken ribs rejoined, lost blood was rapidly replenished, and even his aching, spasming muscles returned to peak condition.
Just three seconds.
Aside from his torn clothes, Giyu was completely restored.
Feeling the miraculous healing within him, he stared blankly at his hands.
Water Breathing could not do this.
Neither could the Demon Slayer Corps' medical techniques.
Giyu raised his head and looked at Yaha's familiar face.
It was the same face he had seen on that snowy night two years ago, only more mature, with a sharpness around the eyes that made it difficult to meet his gaze.
But that brutality with which he had crushed a Lower Rank, that coldness that treated all things as ants, was nothing a human should possess.
Giyu's fingers tightened around his sword's hilt.
"Yaha." Giyu's voice was dry and hoarse.
Looking at Yaha, he finally could not hold back the fearful question weighing on his heart.
"Are you still my little brother?"
Everything around them was quiet, save for the wind rustling through the leaves.
Yaha had been about to yawn, but the question stopped him.
He lowered his head and looked at Giyu's perpetually expressionless face, at those eyes filled with unease and fear.
The corner of Yaha's mouth twitched.
He suddenly raised his hand, curled a finger, and flicked Giyu hard on the forehead.
The sharp sound echoed through the woods.
Giyu covered his forehead and stared at him in bewilderment.
"I'm not your little brother." Yaha shoved both hands back into his pockets, his tone utterly obnoxious. "I'm your damn father."
Giyu opened his mouth.
Yaha gave him no chance to speak.
"Listen up, poker face." Yaha's gaze turned cold, carrying an authority that allowed no argument. "Even if I become a man-eating demon someday, even if I slice this world to pieces."
He leaned forward slightly and stared into Giyu's eyes.
"If anyone dares touch you, I'll cut them into mincemeat. That will never change."
Giyu stood frozen.
The block of ice called fear in his heart was smashed to pieces by some fierce, overbearing force.
He looked at Yaha, and his tense shoulders slowly relaxed.
"Understood," Giyu said quietly.
Just as the brothers shared this rare moment of relief.
A harsh beating of wings suddenly came from the sky.
An enormous Kasugai Crow swooped down from the clouds and circled above their heads.
"Urgent message!"
"Urgent message!"
The Kasugai Crow strained its hoarse throat, its piercing voice splitting the night sky.
"The Hashira Meeting has been moved forward!"
"Specially authorized Corps member Tomioka Ye Yu, report to headquarters immediately for an audience with Oyakata-sama!"
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