Tanjiro, calm down!

Hundreds of years ago, when Tamayo was nineteen, Muzan had deceived her and turned her into a demon. After her transformation, she had gone berserk and killed her own husband and young children.

Driven by her hatred of Muzan and her immense strength of will, she had briefly broken free of his control, then performed medical experiments and modifications on herself to reduce her craving for human blood. Now, she could stay sane by periodically drinking small amounts of bagged blood obtained through blood donations.

Yushiro, who stood beside her, had once been gravely ill and on the verge of death. He was the only person Tamayo had successfully turned into a demon with her own blood in two hundred years, and he likewise fed on bagged blood to satisfy his hunger.

After hearing Tamayo's explanation, Tanjiro looked enlightened. They drank blood without hurting anyone, which explained why they did not smell like ordinary demons.

"Miss Chinatsu, I can tell you aren't a demon, but you give off a faint trace of a demon's scent. And this young girl is a demon, yet her scent is even fainter than ours. Please tell me, what exactly happened to you?"

Tamayo spoke with utmost seriousness. If Yushiro beside her had not stopped her, she would have prostrated herself before Chinatsu and Tanjiro right then and there.

Normally, asking someone to relive painful memories was extremely rude, but Chinatsu did not mind. Those memories often resurfaced in her dreams anyway. She had already "gotten used to them."

Chinatsu then began recounting the tragedy that had befallen the Kamado family. Even Tanjiro did not know the details of this part of the story, and he listened quietly beside her.

Perhaps because those memories were so deeply etched into Chinatsu's mind, both Tanjiro and Tamayo felt as though they were there themselves as she spoke, experiencing that same helplessness.

There had been no way to fight back. Their enemy was the Demon King, someone at the very pinnacle of this world. Someone of that caliber had slaughtered the Kamado mother, who was weaker than an ordinary adult man, and a group of children. Just imagining it was enough to inspire despair.

Tanjiro clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, his already red eyes turning an even fiercer crimson.

Unforgivable! Unforgivable!

Beside him, Tamayo pressed her lips together. Her hatred of Muzan was scarcely less intense than Tanjiro's.

Once they understood each other's circumstances, the two sides shook hands, made peace, and became friends.

Tamayo was a doctor who had been researching a drug capable of killing Muzan. Her efforts were by no means futile. After all, Muzan had not been born the Demon King. He had originally been human, until he encountered the most absurd figure in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba-a doctor.

After a series of treatments, that doctor had successfully transformed a frail human into the cold-blooded king of demons.

"Um... Chinatsu? Could you give me a little of your blood? And some of Nezuko's, too. Just a tiny bit of each... I'd like to study it..."

"Of course. No problem."

"Thank you both so much!"

Chinatsu took the blood-drawing tool from Tamayo, drew some blood, and handed it back. Tamayo examined the blood carefully, but on the surface, she could see nothing that distinguished it from an ordinary person's.

The blood revealed nothing, but Chinatsu herself did. The tiny cut she had made to draw blood had already begun to scab over. Although it could not compare to a demon's regeneration, it was still a speed no ordinary person could possibly achieve.

"That's unbelievable."

Watching how quickly Chinatsu's wound healed, Yushiro could not help blurting out a comment.

After taking a blood sample from Nezuko as well, Tamayo said she hoped they could collect blood from some powerful demons for her if they had the chance. It would help advance her experiments.

Wanting to turn his younger sister back into a human as soon as possible, Tanjiro accepted the quick blood-drawing knife Yushiro handed him and gave Tamayo a solemn nod.

Just as Tanjiro opened his mouth to ask whether Tamayo had any further thoughts on Nezuko's condition, he suddenly froze.

A distinctive scent drifted into his nose from afar. Despite the distance, he could still smell it.

This was only the second time he had smelled that scent. The first had been when his family was massacred.

Muzan! Muzan! Muzan!

Tanjiro's breathing suddenly grew rapid. Clenching his fists, he sprang to his feet and turned toward the source of the scent.

There was no mistaking it. That strange scent that had lingered in his home after the massacre belonged to the Demon King, Muzan!

Tanjiro instinctively lifted his foot, ready to charge straight toward the scent. But just as he was about to rush off, Chinatsu stood as well and caught him by the shoulder.

"Tanjiro, calm down."

"Chinatsu! That's Muzan! That Muzan!"

"So what if it's Muzan? Do you think you can get your revenge as you are now? It looks like you've misjudged your own strength because you haven't encountered any truly powerful demons yet," Chinatsu said calmly, looking at Tanjiro.

The original owner of this body had personally experienced the crushing pressure of Muzan's power, and Chinatsu knew full well how strong he was in the story. In the original, when Muzan encountered Tanjiro, he had ultimately held back, left the scene, and sent two demons under his command to test Tanjiro.

But it only took one unexpected turn. The gap in their strength was far too great. If Muzan acted a little more recklessly and tested Tanjiro's strength himself, it would probably be "one basic attack, instant kill."

"Now isn't the time. Let's keep building our strength for a while longer. We will avenge them. We will."

Chinatsu's words gradually calmed Tanjiro down. He took a deep breath and sat back down on the floor.

"You're right, Chinatsu. He's the Demon King, an enemy even our teacher couldn't handle. As we are now, we have no chance of winning," Tanjiro murmured softly, his head lowered.

"But, Chinatsu, I've never actually seen that demon called Muzan. What exactly does he look like?" Tanjiro asked again after a moment of silence.

Chinatsu paused for only a second or two before almost blurting out, "Michael... Jackson?"

"Huh?"

Not only Tanjiro, but Tamayo and Yushiro beside him also looked puzzled.

"Who is Michael...?"

Tamayo indicated that, despite having lived for so long, she had never heard the name Michael Jackson. Was he someone Chinatsu and the others knew, or perhaps a relative?

Chinatsu cleared her throat awkwardly. Never mind that this was a fictional world-even if its culture had been completely identical to hers, Michael Jackson had not been born until 1958. This was still the Taisho era. He had not even been born yet...