On a rooftop tucked away in some obscure corner of the Entertainment District.
Sapphire Star's hair had become a bird's nest, sticking up in every direction.
"Tch..."
She sat on the rooftop, reluctantly cracking sunflower seeds and muttering complaints only she could hear.
"The way that Tanjiro kid works... is he scared the demons won't realize the Demon Slayer Corps is here to kick their asses?! That blondie Zenitsu... sure plays a mean electric guitar... That wild boar Inosuke... is actually pretty cute when he keeps his mouth shut... And what the hell is Tengen thinking? Instead of sending those three in undercover, he might as well bang some drums and shout, 'Muzan! Get out here and face your auntie!' It'd save everyone the trouble!"
She sucked on her last few precious sunflower seeds, one at a time. Over the past few days, she had found no clues about any demons; all her attention had gone to the racket those three little guys made.
"Goddammit... this dump doesn't even have a decent roasted-snack shop!"
Far away, inside Kyogoku House.
Tanjiro pushed open the oiran's door and witnessed a horrifying sight: Koinatsu was wrapped in bizarre sashes, yet there was no blood.
The words "Upper Rank Six" engraved in Daki's eyes made his heart clench, but seeing the innocent Koinatsu, the anger in the boy's chest instantly overwhelmed his fear!
"Let her go!" Tanjiro's furious shout rang with an unwavering sense of justice.
"Shut up!" Malice flashed in Daki's eyes, and a sash shot out like a venomous python!
Bam-
Tanjiro did not even have time to block properly before he was sent flying.
On the rooftop, Sapphire Star's ears perked up, catching the dull impact and the sound of a screen shattering.
"What's going on? Some juicy drama? Or did the fighting start?" She sat up a little straighter and popped another sunflower seed into her mouth.
Tanjiro struggled to his feet, forcing himself to calm down as his mind raced:
Absorbing people without a sound... it's the sashes! No wonder we couldn't find any clues!
The battle erupted! Water Breathing, Fourth Form: Striking Tide! Azure sword light clashed violently with the bloody sashes filling the air.
The sashes regenerated the instant they were cut, seemingly endless. After several exchanges, Tanjiro was already panting, and tiny chips had even appeared in his Nichirin Blade. Daki, meanwhile, remained perfectly at ease, wearing the mocking look of a cat toying with a mouse.
"Boy, tell me where your companions are, and maybe I'll spare your life. Look at your sword. It's already chipped. Whoever forged it must be a useless drunk."
"Shut up!" Veins instantly bulged on Tanjiro's forehead. "Mr. Haganezuka, who forged my sword, is an outstanding swordsmith! Don't you dare insult him!"
Just then, the distant rumble of a collapsing building and an inhuman roar drifted over. Inosuke had started his demolition work underground, too.
Daki's expression shifted slightly. "So your companions are making their move, too... You've made me angry! I'll kill you... huh?"
She never managed to finish the last syllable of her threat.
Her vision abruptly tilted and dropped.
Inexplicably, her own feet, clad in exquisite wooden sandals, appeared in her field of view.
"Huh? Huh?! What happened to me? My head... got cut off?!"
Her body swayed, then dropped to its knees with a thud. Her headless body's hands fumbled wildly before finally grabbing her head, which had rolled off to one side.
Several meters away, Sapphire Star had appeared without anyone noticing!
She slowly sheathed her sword and glanced at Daki, who held her own head in bewilderment.
"Tch. I thought there'd be some juicy drama! Turns out you're just the small fry of small fry. And here I spent days choking down rice balls in this dump, fighting off nausea. What rotten luck!"
Tanjiro was still frozen in the stance of his furious sword swing.
L-Lady Sapphire Star? When... when did she get here? One slash and... she really is so strong!!
"Waaah-!!!" Daki finally reacted to being called "small fry" and burst into earth-shaking sobs.
"You called me small fry! I'm an Upper Rank! Waaaaah!! Big broooother-!!! Help!!! A monster's bullying me-!!!"
"Shut up! Calling your big whatever won't help!" Sapphire Star snapped impatiently.
At that moment, a lump of sludge on Daki's back slowly coalesced into a human shape.
"Watch out!" Tanjiro shouted hoarsely.
Shing-
Great Iai!
A grating sound of flesh being sliced rang out, and a massive wound opened across the ambusher's abdomen-Gyutaro's.
"Urgh!" Gyutaro grunted, staggering backward under the force of the blow.
"No need to worry, Kamado boy. I noticed him ages ago. Just another small fry." Sapphire Star casually flicked her sword tip and sheathed it again.
Ignoring Sapphire Star's mockery, Gyutaro took his sister's still-sobbing head in one hand.
With a crack, he reattached it to her neck.
"My foolish little sister. Hundreds of years old, and you still haven't learned? Did you forget that lord told us to stay away from the Demon Slayer dressed all in blue...?" Gyutaro stroked Daki's head fondly.
"Waaah! I never even saw her! You didn't notice her either, big brother, and you're still scolding me! Waaaah!"
Daki cried even louder.
Boom-
Another part of the roof burst open in a flashy explosion of fireworks. Tengen Uzui's burly, athletic figure arrived in response to the commotion, making a forceful entrance with deafening laughter!
The exploding fireworks startled Daki so badly that even her sobbing hiccups stopped.
"Tanjiro! Beautiful work! All my wives have been rescued in style!" Tengen immediately spotted Sapphire Star facing off against the Upper Rank Six duo, whose heads had been put back in place. Even fiercer battlelust lit his face, along with a hint of amused surprise.
"Oh? Isn't this Lady Sapphire Star! You've joined the battle, too! What a flashy encounter!"
Sapphire Star slowly raised her middle finger. "Tch. Took you long enough, Lord Sound Hashira. That wasn't flashy at all!"
Utterly unbothered by her attitude, Tengen laughed heartily and pointed his twin blades at Gyutaro. "Hahaha! The trump card always arrives last! I, Tengen Uzui, am still the emperor! That will never change!"
"You talk too much. Two small fry here. Pick one." Sapphire Star had never lowered her middle finger.
Tengen gave her a courtly gesture of invitation, his tone respectful. "Oh, my, ladies first! Lady Sapphire Star, take your pick!"
Their blatant contempt, and the way they "divided up" the siblings as though they were objects, set the twin demons' fury ablaze.
Gyutaro's eyes bulged so hard they seemed ready to bleed. His hoarse roar made everyone's eardrums ache. "You damned Demon Slayers! You damned flies! Ganging up on us, are you?! Can you just-"
His words cut off abruptly.
Without warning, his vision tilted at a bizarre angle and dropped.
It was even more sudden, even more unexpected than what had happened to his sister.
Bewildered, he watched the world spin around him, then saw... huh?
Wasn't that his sister's flawless face? Rolling straight toward him?
"Huh?" Gyutaro's muddled brain could not quite catch up.
"Little sister? Didn't I just... put your head back on?"
"That's not it, big brother!!" On the ground, Daki's flawless head let out a heart-rending shriek.
"It's your head! Your head fell off, too! Aaaaaah-!!"
Thud!
Thud!
The two heads slowly rolled together with dull thumps.
Tanjiro's breath caught in his throat. Even the Hinokami Kagura flames on his Nichirin Blade went out.
"Tch. So much dithering. Pick, my ass! Kids choose. Adults take everything!" Sapphire Star sheathed her sword one-handed, her middle finger still raised. Clearly, she had unleashed that instantaneous attack.
Tengen Uzui was the first to recover, bursting into earth-shaking laughter utterly unbefitting a Hashira!
"Pffft, hahahaha! That's Lady Sapphire Star for you! She's in a league of her own! Let's give you a round of applause!" He actually started clapping, his palms smacking loudly.
Sapphire Star shot a sidelong look at Tengen, who was laughing so hard he could not straighten up, then stepped right in front of him as he continued howling.
"Goddammit, Tengen, having a good laugh, are you? Tell me... now that I've cut down these two brainless demons... is it your turn next, Lord Flashy Sound Hashira?"
On the ground, Gyutaro and Daki were still screaming at each other to hurry up and put their heads back on, their voices shrill and desperate.
Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke exchanged looks, unsure whether they should help Sapphire Star pin Tengen down or make a run for it.
But the one having the worst time was Muzan.
At that moment, Muzan-Muzan Kibutsuji, the progenitor of demons who made countless living beings tremble-was curled up deep inside the Infinity Castle, wrapped in a luxurious velvet blanket thick enough to serve as a fortress wall.
Several nights of bizarre nightmares-"Yoriichi chasing him with a sword," "Sapphire Star smashing down his door," and "Tanjiro asking what 1,000 minus 7 was"-had left him haggard and wasted. At last, amid Nakime's monotonous, lullaby-like biwa playing, he had managed to grasp a precious trace of sleepiness.
His heavy eyelids closed, and his consciousness was just about to sink into that hard-won, peaceful abyss free of hunters...
Shlick-
Deep in his bloodline, a hollow sensation, as though a piece of his soul had been gouged out, jolted him awake!
"Aaaagh-! Someone's killing demons!!!"
Muzan launched himself out of bed, cold sweat instantly soaking his priceless silk pajamas.
"Nakime!!!" Muzan's shrill voice trembled.
"Did I have another nightmare?! Just now, I think... I dreamed that Daki and Gyutaro... got offed?!" He seemed to be pleading for a denial, an answer that would let him lie back down in peace.
Behind the screen, Nakime paused with her biwa in her arms.
"My lord, it seems... it was not a nightmare. The connected presences of Upper Rank Six, Daki and Gyutaro... have vanished completely..."
Muzan froze, all color draining from his handsome face.
"Aaaaaah-!! Dead?! They're really dead?! My precious Upper Rank!!! Waaaaah-!!!" Muzan tore at his beautiful curls and rolled around on the bed, directing an enraged glare at Nakime behind the screen.
"It's all your fault!!! All your fault, you idiot! Why did you teleport that walking disaster Sapphire Star to the Entertainment District?! Huh?! You sent her right to Gyutaro and Daki! You're the culprit! Give me back my two Upper Ranks!!!"
Nakime's fingers tightened slightly around her biwa. She badly wanted to retort:
My lord... you were the one who failed to warn Upper Rank Six in time that Sapphire Star was lurking in the Entertainment District... Besides... you never said not to teleport her... But she would not have dared say any of that aloud even with a hundred times the courage.
"Nakime!!" Muzan's senses were extraordinarily sharp.
"Are you fucking talking back in your head?! Are you blaming me for not warning them?! You bastard!!!"
Bam-crash-!
In his fury, Muzan smashed his own bed to pieces with a single slap.
Only after seeing the wreckage strewn across the floor and fragments flying through the air did Muzan calm down a little. Kill Nakime? No! I still need her Blood Demon Art to hide in the Infinity Castle like a turtle! Beat her up? What if I break her? Infuriating! This is too damned infuriating!
In the end, all he could do was roar angrily:
"Useless! All of you are useless! Get out!! Get out of my sight! Just looking at you pisses me off!"
Nakime silently picked up her biwa and vanished.
Muzan's chest heaved as he stared at the fragments littering the floor, anguish and fear intertwining.
Losing both halves of Upper Rank Six hurts, but it isn't unbearable... As long as Upper Rank One is still here...
Thinking of Kokushibo, Muzan forcibly suppressed his anger and shouted toward the other side of the screen, "Nakime!"
An answer immediately came from behind it. "My lord."
Nakime had gone numb. One moment he wanted her gone, the next he wanted her back.
"Go steal me another bed. A softer one! Then tell me, just how much longer will that Kokushibo... take to return?! It's been days since I sent him to dig up that person's remains. Where is he?!" Kokushibo was his ultimate weapon. Absolutely nothing could happen to him.
Behind the screen, Nakime seemed to gather her words before answering respectfully:
"My lord, Lord Kokushibo, Upper Rank One... he..."
"What happened to him?! Tell me!" Muzan's heart leaped into his throat. It's over. Don't tell me Sapphire Star sliced Kokushibo up like a watermelon, too...
"...He returned to the Infinity Castle some time ago. However, without your orders, he did not dare disturb you, so he has been... guarding your doorway without leaving his post. Even now, he is there..."
"What the fuck-!!!"
Muzan shot up from where he stood once again.
He whipped his head toward the heavy blood-red curtain at the entrance. Sure enough!
Those six pupils were lowered, as though their owner knew nothing of the chaos inside or his king's raging tantrum. Or perhaps... he simply did not care.
"NA! KI! ME!!!" Muzan's voice had warped with rage, shrill and piercing. "You idiot! Useless fool! Waste of food! Moron!!!" He tried to find something more vicious to say, but anger had short-circuited his brain. "Kokushibo is back! Why didn't you wake me?! You made me... made me..."
Nakime wisely fled at that point.
Muzan's face turned red with pent-up frustration, and even the hand he pointed in the direction where Nakime had vanished shook violently.
He wanted to roar, wanted to destroy something, but looking at that "door guardian" by the entrance, he could only force all his rage, frustration, and fear back down his throat, nearly choking himself unconscious.
"Hmph!" Muzan gave an utterly unimpressive snort and tried to compose his face, hoping to reclaim a shred of the Demon King's dignity. Yet his eyes kept straying uncontrollably toward the silent shadow at the entrance before darting away again.
It's over... I've lost all face... That tight-lipped Kokushibo must be roasting me, his king, like crazy in his head...
Muzan wailed inwardly. For the first time, he felt that the Infinity Castle's eternal silence and blood-red hues were unbearably oppressive.
Sapphire Star... you walking calamity! What's so great about camping out in that crappy Entertainment District?! Just you wait! Sooner or later, I'll... uh... sooner or later, I'll... send Kokushibo to cut you down!
Before you continue