That Super-Flashy Man Showed Up Too

Several days passed, and the lights of the Entertainment District shone as brightly as ever.

The Sound Hashira, Tengen Uzui, a powerful Hashira who lived by the creed of "flashiness," was conducting a flashy infiltration operation with his three carefully selected "beauties"-Tanjiro Kamado, Zenitsu Agatsuma, and Inosuke Hashibira.

After a few twists and turns, Tengen finally planted the three youngsters in separate establishments, where each began searching in his own way for clues about demons and missing women.

With the assignments settled, Tengen Uzui stood atop a relatively tall brothel, surveying the bizarre, dazzling chessboard below with the keen gaze of a director inspecting his stage.

His sharp senses picked up something distinctly out of place-

A familiar energy signature, but... an incredibly lazy one, tinged with listless despair.

Tengen raised an eyebrow above his eyeliner. With a few light leaps, he reached the edge of a secluded warehouse roof farther away.

There, he witnessed an exceedingly unflashy sight-

A tall, burly figure lounged carelessly against the moss-covered ridge tiles, holding half a packet of mame daifuku she had swiped from who knew where and mechanically stuffing them into her mouth.

Several empty rice-ball wrappers lay scattered beside her, along with... sunflower seed shells? Tengen had no idea what those were; sunflower seeds had yet to be introduced to Japan at the time.

It was none other than the Sapphire Star, who had been missing for days, leaving the entire Demon Slayer Corps frantic as they searched half of Japan without finding her!

"..."

Even the worldly Sound Hashira could not help feeling several extravagantly dark lines descend across his forehead.

He cleared his throat and landed silently a short distance from the Sapphire Star.

"Hey..."

Tengen Uzui folded his arms across his chest.

"Lady Sapphire Star, the Master even praised you as the Sapphire Star who would light our way. Vanishing without a word like this is seriously unflashy, you know?"

The Sapphire Star could not even be bothered to lift her eyelids. She kept chewing her mame daifuku and gave a muffled grunt to acknowledge that she had heard him.

Read, no reply. Ice-cold!

Tengen: ...

Tengen sighed, dropped his teasing expression, and turned serious.

"The Master personally ordered everyone in the Demon Slayer Corps to search for you. Our members have been looking for almost a month! Hikigusa's eyes were practically bulging like a rabbit's! That Purgatory fellow nearly set his house on fire! Even Mr. Tomioka, who wears a gloomy face all day, volunteered to search the valley where you were last seen several times." He paused.

"Everyone was worried about you. We thought some powerful demon... or that one you were looking for... had..."

"Not dead," the Sapphire Star finally deigned to say, her voice muffled and sticky with mame daifuku.

She shifted laboriously, stuffed the last bite of mame daifuku into her mouth, then slowly sat up, revealing a face that practically screamed, "I'm miserable" and "I'm fucking pissed."

"Just lost the fight."

"You call that losing?" Tengen's jewel-like eyes lit up.

"You drove off Muzan and Akaza! That was a tremendous victory unlike anything we've seen in a thousand years. How could such a flashy achievement possibly count as losing?"

The Sapphire Star scratched her head irritably, turning her already disheveled hair into a bird's nest.

"Muzan, my ass! All I ran into were Akaza and some small fry called Doma!"

"That Akaza was a first-rate escape artist. He could blow himself into mincemeat! I had to chase him for days, and that Doma ran even faster!"

Tengen's thoughts: ??? What Doma? What was she talking about??? Wasn't it Muzan and Akaza???

"And then! It got even more infuriating!" The Sapphire Star slapped her thigh hard enough to rattle the tiles.

"Guess what? That bastard Akaza could transform! First he turned into a beautiful woman here in the Entertainment District, and a drunk almost groped him!"

"And I actually fell for it! Then the fucker opened a portal and zipped right through!"

"...That is one flashily enormous amount of information." Tengen needed a few seconds to process everything.

This warrior from another world seemed to have mistaken Muzan for Akaza, and Akaza for Doma. Was the legendary Demon King no different from an ordinary member of the Twelve Kizuki in Lady Sapphire Star's eyes...?

He raised an eyebrow. "So you're lounging around here doing nothing because...?"

"I'm lying in wait!" the Sapphire Star declared, glaring.

"There's still a demon's presence here! It'll show itself sooner or later! Like hell I won't outwait it!" She hammered the tiles, sending sunflower seed shells flying.

"The second it shows its face, I'll follow its scent! I'll shove the Scoutflies right into its mouth and see where it can run then!"

Seeing how determined the Sapphire Star was to settle the score, Tengen could not help chuckling.

"Heh, I see. Such flashy... or perhaps tenacious fighting spirit. Well, that couldn't be more convenient."

"Huh? What's convenient?" The Sapphire Star looked up at him.

"We infiltrated the Entertainment District because women have been mysteriously disappearing here lately. I suspect a powerful demon is hiding here." Tengen pointed toward the glittering neon lights of the Entertainment District below.

"Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke have already infiltrated separate establishments to investigate. We may very well be after the same target!"

"You dragged the three little guys here too? You're kind of a bastard..." The Sapphire Star rubbed her chin.

"It's fine. Don't worry about me. We'll work separately so I don't interfere with your original plan. I trust those three boys to get the job done."

"Hmm... All right, Lady Sapphire Star. Oh, one more thing. The Akaza you encountered that day was probably Muzan Kibutsuji, and the one you called Doma was probably the actual Akaza~"

With that, Tengen tossed a smoke bomb at his feet and vanished in spectacularly flashy fashion.

"Holy shit??? Goddammit, don't leave!" The Sapphire Star sprang to her feet, but Tengen was already nowhere to be seen.

"I knew there had to be a reason that bastard regenerated so much better than the other demons! His meat was a lot worse, too. So he was Muzan all along!!!"

The Sapphire Star went red with rage.

"Muzan Kibutsuji! I've memorized your face! The next time I see you, I swear I'll beat you bloody!"

Meanwhile, Muzan, who was hiding in a room in the Infinity Castle to rest, sneezed countless times in a row.

"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!!! Nakime, open a door and steal me some towels! Achoo!!"

The Demon King lamented that ever since those walking calamities had terrified him into a funk, his constitution had only grown weaker. If he did not find the Blue Spider Lily soon, he feared he might become the first demon to die of a cold.