Several days passed in a rare spell of tranquility at the Ubuyashiki Estate.
Seated upright on the veranda outside a tatami room, Kagaya Ubuyashiki held a warm cup of tea.
The report on the Demon Slayer Corps spread before him contained nothing but crisp black lettering on white paper-
Prominently marked on the report were the words "Casualties: zero."
The devastating injuries Muzan had suffered had cut the threat off at its roots. The remaining demons were like scattered fireflies, no longer capable of stirring up trouble.
More importantly, the Sapphire Star's pharmaceutical knowledge, so different from anything in this world, protected every swordsman who wielded a blade! This gift was quietly changing the bloodstained melody between humans and demons.
Oyakata-sama gently exhaled and slowly rose to his feet, sunlight pouring down upon him unhindered.
How long had it been since he had felt this way! Thanks to those strange medicines from another world, the chill of the curse entwined with his bloodline had quietly receded a little.
He could even stroll slowly along the veranda under his own power.
This hard-won peace came to an abrupt end on a seemingly ordinary afternoon.
Ubuyashiki was studying a budding camellia when the first faint tremor came. He paid it little mind.
Japan was, after all, a country where the earth frequently stirred.
Then the ornaments along the eaves began clattering wildly. The teacup on the table toppled, and Ubuyashiki stumbled as well.
"Kagaya!" Lady Amane hurried over.
With his much-improved health, Ubuyashiki just managed to brace an arm against a veranda pillar in time. He waved to indicate he was unharmed.
"That tremor was rather strong... the earth must be restless..."
In the days that followed, earthquakes came one after another, large and small, sometimes clustered together, sometimes far apart. At times there was only a hum beneath their feet; at others, buildings shook hard enough to set hearts racing.
People went from taking them for granted to feeling vaguely uneasy, and finally to outright dread-never in Japan's recorded history had earthquakes occurred so frequently!
When an urgent secret report from the northwestern border arrived on his desk, that ominous feeling finally took on a concrete, absurd form.
The report was scrawled in hasty handwriting:
"Confirmed! Mount Dayue in the northwest... abnormal changes... the mountain is indeed shifting! Not an ordinary subsidence or landslide... the entire mountain is moving as one!"
"Since observations began, within three days... toward the southeast... distance traveled exceeds three hundred zhang!!"
"Fortunately, the foothills are almost uninhabited, and the hunters have evacuated... however... all who witnessed this sight are terrified, calling it the work of gods or demons..."
Oyakata-sama tried to comprehend a phenomenon that lay far beyond common sense.
This was certainly not something an "ordinary earthquake" could explain!
Across the vast expanse of heaven and earth, an ancient, unfamiliar melody seemed to be taking shape, beginning to sound.
To be safe, Ubuyashiki swiftly dispatched two Hashira-the Flame Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku, and the Sound Hashira, Tengen Uzui.
At the foot of the mountain, Tengen Uzui looked at the spirited, vigorous Rengoku beside him and could not help asking for confirmation:
"Mr. Rengoku! Are you truly fully recovered?"
"Mm-hmm!" Kyojuro Rengoku's voice rang out like a great bell, full of strength. With his trademark dazzling smile, he thumped his iron-solid chest.
"I recovered completely some time ago! All thanks to the medicine the Sapphire Star brought! I feel stronger now than ever before! Hahaha!"
Seeing that he really was in remarkably good shape, Uzui relaxed.
The two hurried onward and soon reached the area where the report said the mountain had shifted. Even these two battle-hardened Hashira could not hide their shock at the sight before them.
Vast stretches of open ground had been forcibly torn apart, leaving enormous gouges where something had dragged across them!
The soil had been overturned, deep trenches crisscrossed the ground, and uprooted trees lay scattered everywhere. A clear, broad trail stretched from the distance straight to the mountain's foot.
Tengen Uzui frowned deeply and crouched, carefully running his fingertips over the exposed rock and soil along a trench's edge. He could sense no trace of a demon's chilling presence.
"Something's wrong... this definitely isn't something a Blood Demon Art could cause. If Muzan had the power to move mountains, he would've overturned the Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters long ago. Why bother sneaking around?"
Kyojuro Rengoku's smile faded too, and he nodded in agreement. "Mm-hmm! Uzui is right! Not a trace of demonic presence! The nature of this power is entirely different! It's more like..." He seemed to search for the right words. "...the earth itself woke up and rolled over?"
The two conducted a thorough search of the surrounding area.
Yet aside from those enormous gouges, they found nothing unusual. There were no signs of demons, nor could they find the source of the energy controlling all this.
Except for a faint, barely audible song.
They found nothing.
Tengen Uzui sighed. Seeing that dusk was approaching, he was about to suggest returning to report first. "Looks like that's all we can do today. Mr. Rengoku, let's-"
His words cut off as his gaze happened to pass over the towering mountain behind Kyojuro Rengoku.
Kyojuro Rengoku instinctively looked back.
Directly before his eyes as he turned, that enormous, dark mountainside-moved!
The rock face, covered in thick moss and the roots of ancient trees, split apart to either side, revealing a vast, unfathomably deep fissure!
Deep within that fissure, an immense golden eye suddenly lit up! It glared with the wrath of a divine guardian!
The two Hashira froze where they stood, unable to move even their fingertips. Only their pupils moved, contracting sharply in unprecedented terror.
The mountain... was not merely moving.
It... had opened an eye!
"Uzui! Move!!" Rengoku roared. Flame Breathing surged under the crushing pressure, forcibly breaking his paralysis as he grabbed Tengen Uzui!
"Damn it! Has this... mountain come to life?!" Veins bulged on Uzui's forehead as he snapped out of it.
Rumble-
A muffled boom came from deep inside the mountain. The entire cliff face shuddered violently, and countless house-sized rocks plummeted toward them like meteors!
Rengoku reacted like lightning, yanking Uzui aside. The two shot away like cannonballs, and a massive boulder smashed a crater into the spot where they had stood, sending dust billowing skyward.
Their figures blurred as they fled for their lives through the collapsing torrent of rocks and across the violently shaking earth.
Blazing sword strikes tore through the obstacles ahead, while sonic booms blasted falling rocks out of their path.
Once clear of danger, the two leaned against tree trunks that were still trembling, staring back at the mountainside with lingering fear.
The mountain stood silent again, as though nothing had happened.
And that ancient song continued to play softly.
"We must report to Oyakata-sama at once!" Rengoku's voice was low and grave. "This is no demon, but... a mountain come alive!"
Without another word, the two swiftly vanished down the forest path leading back to headquarters.
Deep within the Infinity Castle, in a dark bedchamber, Muzan had fallen into a rare slumber.
In his dream there was no Yoriichi, no Sapphire Star, only Muzan himself eating Blue Spider Lily hot pot and humming a cheerful little tune~
His long vigilance and recovery from severe injuries made him treasure this brief tranquility all the more.
Rumble, rumble-
The entire Infinity Castle began to shake, and a teeth-grating scraping sound rose from within the walls.
"Huh?!" The sleeping Muzan jolted violently. The jade bed beneath him, laid with expensive silk, suddenly seemed to lose its support.
"-Holy shit!!!"
With barely enough time to let out a shout, the king of demons tumbled off the bed in a series of ungainly rolls.
He scrambled up from the floor, his expression twisted, swept aside the curtains strewn over the bed, and roared into the empty hall:
"Another fucking earthquake!! Nakime!!! Why?! Why is even the Infinity Castle having earthquakes?! Isn't this inside your space?!"
In the shadows beneath the hall's vaulted ceiling, Nakime clutched her biwa. Faced with Muzan's towering rage, she kept her head firmly lowered and huddled in the darkness, not daring to utter a single word...
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