Plans in the Demon Slayer World

What greeted Uchiha Zongyan's eyes was a vast sea of wisteria.

Vines drooped from the trees, clusters of wisteria blossoms hanging in layers across the entire slope. From the foot of the mountain to halfway up, purple blanketed the landscape like a flowing mist of flowers.

As the wind blew, the flower clusters swayed gently, and the sweet fragrance in the air grew stronger.

Zongyan stood before that expanse of wisteria, stunned for quite a while.

An image suddenly surfaced in his mind.

"When I watched anime in my previous life, I think I saw a scene like this..."

But he quickly shook his head, not daring to jump to a conclusion. What if it only happened to look similar?

Zongyan did not continue forward. He first looked around and found the tallest tree in sight.

He channeled chakra into his feet, climbed it in a few steps, and crouched on a branch to look down.

His Three-Tomoe Sharingan activated silently, a scarlet sheen slowly revolving deep within his eyes.

He surveyed the terrain on the slope. The mountain path twisted and turned, fallen leaves lay in a thick layer, and several patches of grass showed clear signs of having been trampled.

He was just about to jump down and investigate along the path when a faint sound suddenly came from deep within the dense woods on the side of the slope.

It was the sharp clang of metal, mingled with muffled grunts and the cracking of breaking wood.

Zongyan leaped down from the tree toward the sound, his feet making almost no noise as they touched the ground. He passed through a patch of low shrubs and hurried toward its source.

After pushing aside the last few branches and leaves blocking his way, he stopped behind a thick tree trunk and lightly leaped onto a high branch to take a look.

In the clearing before him, a boy wearing a green-and-black checkered haori gripped a katana, locked in combat with a six-armed monster.

The monster was a size larger than the boy. Its six arms took turns hammering down, each blow leaving a shallow crater in the ground and sending gravel and dirt flying.

The boy's movements could hardly be called fluid. Every dodge looked clumsy and desperate.

But Zongyan noticed that every time he landed, he could still get back up.

"Tanjiro! Watch out behind you! There's another one!"

A voice on the verge of tears called from behind a nearby tree. It belonged to a short, chubby boy whose legs shook like leaves as he clung tightly to the trunk with both hands.

"I know!"

The boy in the green haori answered without looking back. He rolled to the left to avoid the monster's lunge. By the time he rose with the momentum, a gash had been torn in the left sleeve of his haori, and beads of blood dripped from the cuff onto the fallen leaves.

"Y-you need to finish it off!" the short, chubby boy shouted again, his voice trembling badly. "There's one over here too..."

"Don't move!" the boy in the green haori shouted between gasps. "Stay crouched down and don't come out!"

Zongyan crouched on the branch and watched without rushing out.

He saw the boy in the green haori grit his teeth and steady himself, gripping his sword in both hands. Seizing the opening as the demon took a breath, he surged forward and slashed horizontally across the monster's neck.

The blade cut into flesh. The boy did not stop, following through with another slash that severed its neck completely.

The monster's body began to disintegrate, turning to ash that drifted away in the air.

The boy planted his sword in the dirt to support himself and panted heavily.

Zongyan jumped down from the branch, his footsteps making no sound at all on the fallen leaves.

Yet the boy still whipped around and tightened his grip on his sword's hilt.

"Who are you?" the boy asked warily, keeping his sword raised.

Zongyan looked at his scarred face, at the sword in his hand with its faint reddish sheen, then at the Hanafuda Earrings hanging beside his face.

He asked tentatively, "Excuse me... is this Mount Fujikasane?"

The boy paused, then nodded. "Yes. Are you here for the Final Selection too?"

Zongyan did not answer directly. He took two steps forward and stopped beside the ashes dissipating in the twilight.

He first lowered his head to look at the remaining ashes by his feet, then looked up toward the unbroken expanse of wisteria on the distant slope.

"...This is Mount Fujikasane," he repeated softly, as though confirming something.

Then he withdrew his gaze and looked at the boy. "How many more demons like that are on this mountain?"

The boy wiped the sweat from his face. "...A lot. At least, that wasn't the only one I've encountered."

He paused, his grip on his sword loosening slightly. "Which unit are you from? I've never seen you before."

Zongyan fell silent for a moment, then said, "I'm not with the Demon Slayer Corps."

The boy froze briefly, a probing look entering his eyes. "Then... why did you come here?"

Zongyan did not answer him.

He glanced at the wound on the boy's shoulder, took a packet of Wound Medicine from inside his clothes, and tossed it over.

"Treat your wound first."

With that, he turned and continued up the mountain path. After a few steps, he stopped again, turned his head, and said, "My name is Uchiha Zongyan."

Then, without waiting for a reply, he stepped deeper into the twilight.

From behind him, he faintly heard the boy call, "I'm Tanjiro Kamado!" Zongyan did not look back, but he matched that name to that face in his mind.

Zongyan walked along the mountain path for a while. After confirming that no one else was nearby, he found a sheltered spot behind a rock and sat down.

Leaning against the rock face, he went over everything he had just seen in his mind, then began muttering to himself.

"Mount Fujikasane... the Demon Slayer Corps... the Final Selection... Tanjiro Kamado."

"That confirms it. This is the Demon Slayer World."

He paused, then added, "What a coincidence. The very first time I opened a door, it brought me here."

He leaned back against the rock face, put his hands behind his head, and began sifting through the memories of his previous life.

"The Demon Slayer Corps in this world uses Breathing Styles. They use special breathing rhythms to push the human body to its limits. Their explosive power is certainly impressive, but ultimately, it's still within human bounds."

"For us ninja, they aren't all that appealing. The main issue is that their lifespans are too short."

After some thought, he added, "But that swordsmanship system is worth studying. Uchiha Swordsmanship combined with Breathing Styles might produce something new."

He rubbed his chin, his thoughts turning to the demons.

"In this world, demons seem to be the truly useful things."

"They have powerful regenerative abilities, and practically every one of them has its own special supernatural power. That six-armed demon just now lost an arm and grew it back in no time. Even in the Shinobi World, that would be a considerable fighting force. If I could control a group of demons and bring them back to the Uchiha..."

He paused, as though his own words had reminded him of something.

"Wait, controlling demons? Wouldn't I only need to bring Muzan under my control?"

"He's the source of all demons. As long as I control him, none of the demons under him can escape."

The more Zongyan thought about it, the more excited he became. He abruptly sat upright.

"If I had Muzan build up an army of a hundred thousand demons and brought the whole lot back to the Shinobi World, then..."

The more he thought about it, the more promising the plan seemed, and the corners of his mouth had already begun to rise without his noticing.