"My instincts were right."
Tetsu no Sosuke sighed softly. "The only thing I don't know is whether Kibutsuji Muzan will come alone tonight or bring a whole group."
"What exactly is going on?" The Serpent Pillar's expression turned grave.
Tetsu no Sosuke gathered his thoughts. "I said at the start that, with the right approach, you can make someone reveal what's going on in their mind before they're ready. I saw something on Noro Kira's face today that put me on guard... and that led to all this. I've only just pieced together the whole situation myself. We still don't understand Kibutsuji Muzan very well. But the same may be true of him.
"From what I've learned, Kibutsuji Muzan either came here himself or contacted Noro Kira somehow. Either way, he learned what was happening here and... held back!"
He paused. "That's something I've found strange all along. Kibutsuji Muzan has a peculiar relationship with his subordinates. He's so cowardly it's absurd. He fears death and the swordsman who was once the strongest, but he also fears the demons he created. That's why he won't allow a single one to escape his control. He keeps them all in line through sheer terror... So when one of them slipped out of his grasp and was hidden away, why did he do nothing for so long?
"No, it wasn't that he did nothing. He simply acted in secret. Once outside the Rumble Hashira's home, and once at the Hammer Hut! Those were two of the Demon Slayer Corps' largest operations in recent years. Each time, Kibutsuji Muzan lost more than one of the Twelve Demon Moons. At the Hammer Hut, Upper Moon One died on the spot. Those two battles clearly made our enemy more cautious. So when he received word from