"What do you take life for?!"
That familiar challenge, those almost overlapping figures, and that Nichirin Blade glowing red awakened the fear Muzan least wanted to remember, yet which had long since been carved into his soul-Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
Muzan immediately severed his mental connection with Hantengu and sent the desk in front of him flying.
In the otherwise empty study, Muzan stood rooted to the spot, his face bearing an anger he had forced up in an attempt to conceal his terror.
Only after an unknown length of time did Muzan's heavy, slightly trembling breaths settle down.
Only then did he notice a woman standing at the door, looking at him with concern. She was the "wife" of his current assumed identity.
But beneath that seemingly concerned gaze was fear she was desperately trying to hide.
The aura Muzan had unleashed earlier had left the woman with the suffocating sensation of facing death, as though what stood in the study was not her husband, but a monster ready to devour someone.
Soon, the woman's eyes widened. She realized that her impression had been correct: what stood in the study really was a man-eating monster.
But she had realized it too late.
Muzan knew better than anyone just how panicked and terrified he had looked when he remembered Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
To him, such a disgraceful display was a stain that had to be erased.
Thus, as a witness, his "wife" had already been sentenced to death the moment she appeared before him.
With that being the case, he no longer cared about exposing his identity. One arm transformed into a hideous tentacle of flesh and blood, its tip a maw filled with sharp fangs. That enormous mouth slowly opened and swallowed the woman whole as she stood frozen in terror.
After