Murata finally came to his senses. Though he thought this method was utterly absurd, a Hashira's orders were iron law.
He scrambled to pick up his sword to bolster his courage, then borrowed another's authority to roar at the still-bewildered villagers:
"Did you hear that?! Lord Void Hashira's decree! Prosperity through labor! Build tomorrow with your own hands! Hurry up, grab your tools, and get to work!"
"Anyone who slacks off... anyone who slacks off, I'll... I'll report them to his lordship!" He truly lacked the courage to threaten them with a whipping, so he could only invoke Kirishima Bupai's name.
"..."
Silence was tonight's Cambridge...
The air froze for a moment.
With the arrival of the Kakushi Squad, the fifty-odd people in the area around the village entrance were all rounded up and brought under control through the threat of the whip.
Then, under Kirishima Bupai's icy gaze and the scourging of his scabbard, which cracked beside slackers' feet every so often,
an unprecedented campaign of "forced reform through labor" began in full swing in Suzuran Town!
"Yoshi! You're all mighty fine citizens!"
Kirishima Bupai stroked his chin in satisfaction, pointing his scabbard at several farmers who had once kowtowed to the setting sun.
Their faces were miserable, and they were clearly extremely unwilling to go along with what he was doing...
Yet they had no choice but to shakily swing their rusty hoes and begin trying to turn over the hard, compacted soil.
"Hmm? Don't want to be upstanding citizens anymore?!"
Crack-!
Whenever their movements slowed, or their eyes began to wander as they thought of paradise, a sharp whistle through the air would crack behind their backsides.
"Go to work!!!"
Crack-!
Like the most ruthless drill instructor, Kirishima Bupai stood on the field ridge supervising. Anyone who resisted received a savage beating.
Meanwhile, Murata ran back and forth through the fields, drenched in sweat, dodging swinging hoes while shouting, "Harder! Dig deeper! Yes! Just like that! Think of the rice you'll have after the harvest!"
Reclining on a lounge chair with one leg crossed over the other, Kirishima Bupai occasionally lent a hand.
His scabbard lightly tapped the ground, and invisible spatial power trembled faintly, instantly softening large stretches of compacted earth.
Murata and the farmers forced to work watched, dumbstruck. That soil-turning efficiency would have made even draft animals weep!
A group of gaunt believers, like a flock of sheep being herded along...
Under Murata's shouts and the Kasugai Crow's goading, they pushed creaking, battered handcarts, bringing back what little timber and stone they had managed to find outside town.
"Quick! Quick! Patch up that broken wall!" Murata shouted, pointing at a collapsed courtyard wall, his voice already hoarse.
Someone tried to slack off by collapsing, and Kirishima Bupai appeared beside him like a phantom.
Crack!
The scabbard whistled through the air and struck the stone beside him with precision, sending fragments flying.
The man was so frightened that he jumped three feet into the air, instantly brimming with enthusiasm for labor.
The few villagers who had originally remained relatively normal were first bewildered by this "bustling" scene of reform... They found it unbelievable...
But that disbelief did not last long. Under Kirishima Bupai's sweeping, icy gaze, they too silently joined the labor force.
Most of the Kakushi Squad simply treated the villagers' injuries and did a little ideological work on the side. As for the demon deep within town?
Slaying demons was Lord Void Hashira's job! They were only support personnel and did not have the nerve to investigate.
Under the whip's instruction, what echoed through Suzuran Town throughout the day was no longer the chanting of "the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss."
In its place came the dull thuds of hoes digging earth, the creaking groans of handcarts, and Murata's hoarse shouts.
Even more startling, the crow spoke!
The Kasugai Crow's raucous curses, along with the occasional heart-stopping whistle of the scabbard cutting through the air, sharply increased their stress.
When the last glow of sunset vanished beyond the horizon, the whole of Suzuran Town seemed to have been drained of its final ounce of strength.
All the believers and villagers subjected to forced labor, no matter how fanatical or gaunt they had been before, now lay like heaps of mud beside the field ridges, beneath the eaves, and next to the handcarts.
They were covered in dirt and sweat, their arms so sore they could not lift them, and even breathing felt like an effort.
Intense physical exhaustion washed like a tide over nerves numbed by the cult.
In those hollow eyes, alongside exhaustion, a trace of human hunger finally appeared.
At that moment, Kirishima Bupai noticed a little crimson liquid flowing out with their sweat.
That stuff was not ordinary blood, but a Blood Demon Art. Previously, these villagers had either been preaching or hiding indoors, and the Blood Demon Art's infection had become deeply entrenched.
Now, however, forced by Kirishima Bupai to spend an entire day baking in the sun, they had been almost completely freed of the Blood Demon Art.
"L-Lord Hashira... they... they seem... too tired even to recite the cult's lines..."
Murata himself was too exhausted to straighten his back. Leaning on his sword like a cane, he gave his report between gasps.
His gaze toward Kirishima Bupai was filled with awe and a hint of disbelief that this could actually work.
Just then, an indescribably overpowering aroma, like an invisible hook, instantly burrowed into the nostrils of everyone present.
Almost simultaneously, everyone's stomach let out a thunderous growl.
Even the believers lying like heaps of mud struggled to raise their heads.
The emptiness in their eyes was replaced by a more primal, more powerful desire: the desire for food.
In the clearing at the center of town, a huge pot had been set up at some point, with firewood blazing beneath it.
Standing before the pot was none other than the cold, ruthless Lord Void Hashira, Kirishima Bupai.
He had taken off his signature white-and-gold cloak and wore only the Demon Slayer Corps' dark uniform, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing the smooth contours of his forearms.
At that moment, what he held was no longer a Nichirin Blade, but an... ordinary spatula?
But what followed was anything but ordinary!
Kirishima Bupai moved so quickly that afterimages appeared, his handling of the ingredients carrying an indescribable rhythm and precision.
The kitchen knife became a flash of silver in his hand, instantly breaking the ingredients down into perfect pieces of identical size and thickness.
Into the pot, stir-fry, season... His movements flowed like water, as though he were performing an advanced sword technique.
Every toss of the pot carried tremendous force, and every sprinkling of seasoning was as precise as a spatial cut.
More wondrous still, as the spatula flew, faint, deep-blue spatial ripples shimmered around the ingredients.
The flames seemed guided by an invisible force, licking the bottom of the pot evenly and fiercely.
The ingredients heated with unbelievable uniformity; the spices' flavors were instantly released and perfectly blended!
Void Breathing · Secret Art · Spatial Harmony Cooking Technique!
Murata and all the villagers stared, stupefied! How was this cooking?
This was clearly an artistic performance at the pinnacle of sight and smell!
In mere moments, an enormous pot of steaming, colorful... super hodgepodge was complete, giving off an aroma that made their very souls tremble!
That aroma seemed to possess magic!
"It's wisteria! I added wisteria!"
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