"Oh? You're awake already?" Enmu sneered. "You could have slept longer, you know. Why bother waking? Since you're someone that Muzan-sama values, I even gave you a pleasant dream. If I felt like it, I could've just as easily given you a nightmare where your entire family was slaughtered in misery. Tell me—would you rather dream that?"
He chuckled darkly and added, "Of course not. That'd be too painful, wouldn't it? Mm… then perhaps next time, I'll let you dream that your father has come back to life. How about that?"
Rage burned in Tanjiro's eyes, veins bulging across his forehead. His hand had already gripped the hilt of his Nichirin Blade, poised to strike at any moment.
"Yes, yes! That expression—it's beautiful!" Enmu said, eyes shining with sick delight. "What I love most is to show someone the sweetest of dreams… and then drag them into the vilest nightmare right after. The distortion in their face at that moment is the greatest delicacy. Watching humans crushed by misfortune, writhing in agony—it's simply irresistible!"
"Don't trample on people's hearts! I won't forgive you! Water Breathing, Tenth Form: Constant Flux!"
With a furious roar, Tanjiro drew his blade. The dragon-shaped torrent of strikes surged forward, howling toward Enmu.
"Blood Demon Art: Compulsory Hypnosis Whisper."
Enmu extended his right hand. From the gaping mouth on its back came a lilting murmur: "Sleep."
Tanjiro stumbled, consciousness faltering. But in the instant before collapse, his eyes snapped open again, and his sword cut fiercely toward Enmu.
"What—?!" Enmu's eyes widened in disbelief as Tanjiro continued swinging his blade. He unleashed the art again and again, forcing Tanjiro to fall into dream after dream, yet each time Tanjiro awakened instantly.
Realization dawned on him.
So that's it. Each time he's ensnared, he realizes it immediately—and cuts his own throat within the dream to awaken. Even in a dream, that kind of self-slaughter takes unfathomable resolve. This boy… he isn't normal at all!
Inside the endless cycle of dreams, Tanjiro was forced to relive the sight of his family's deaths—his brother's accusations, his mother's reproach, his father's scolding.
"My family would never say such things! My family… I won't let you insult them!"
With a furious scream, Tanjiro's Nichirin Blade cleaved through Enmu's neck. In an instant, his head flew free, tumbling across the roof of the train.
Yet Tanjiro did not relax. The feeling of his strike… was wrong.
The severed body did not dissolve into ash as demons should. Instead, Enmu's flesh melted and seeped into the Mugen Train itself.
"Now I understand why Lord Muzan takes such an interest in you," Enmu hissed, his head still held aloft by writhing tendrils of flesh. "Just your existence is enough to infuriate me!"
Seeing Tanjiro's shocked expression, Enmu's eyes glittered with perverse joy. "Yes, that look—that's the face I wanted to see! You must be wondering why I'm not dead, even after being decapitated, hmm? Well… I'm in a good mood, so I'll tell you."
"While you all slumbered, my body fused with this entire train. What you see before you might resemble a head, but it isn't truly one. That means all two hundred passengers aboard are both my sustenance and my hostages. Tell me, boy—do you honestly believe you can protect them all?"
"Unless… you do as Kagaya Ubuyashiki once did, and slaughter every innocent person aboard, weakening me that way. Could you? Could you massacre them all with your own hands?"
"Don't you dare insult Master Ubuyashiki!"
Fury blazing, Tanjiro slashed again, but Enmu had already melted deeper into the train, vanishing from sight.
"What do I do?! At most, I can protect two carriages at once—any more, and I can't guarantee their safety. Rengoku-san, Zenitsu, Inosuke… there's no time for sleep! Wake up, I beg you! Nezuko! Protect those who are still unconscious!"
Tanjiro's heart raced with panic. Then—
Crash!
Inosuke burst through the roof of a carriage, landing atop the Mugen Train with wild energy.
Tanjiro's relief was palpable. "Inosuke! This train is no longer safe anywhere—we have to protect the sleepers! The entire train itself has become the demon!"
At that moment, Enmu's flesh spread into the carriages. Countless tendrils surged forth, striking at the sleeping passengers.
"As I thought—just as I predicted! Truly, I am a leader worthy of praise!" Inosuke bellowed triumphantly, leaping back into the carriage. "Beast Breathing, Fifth Fang: Crazy Cutting!"
His blades tore through a storm of writhing tentacles, hacking them apart in a frenzy.
"I'll save every single one of them! Now kneel before me, and sing my praises—your savior, Inosuke Hashibira, has arrived!"
Nezuko fought alongside him, burning away tendrils with her Blood Demon Art, protecting as many passengers as she could. But there were too many—her guard slipped for an instant, and she was ensnared, bound tightly by two thick tentacles.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap and Flash!"
A bolt of lightning streaked across several carriages. In the blink of an eye, Nezuko's bindings were severed. Standing before her, sword still drawn even in his sleep, was Zenitsu.
At that same time, Kyojuro Rengoku opened his eyes. His face remained calm as ever, but fury smoldered deep within him at the chaotic scene.
"To think things deteriorated so far while I was dozing… shameful. For a Hashira, unforgivable! I feel like digging a hole and burying myself!"
In one swift motion, he drew his Nichirin Blade. His figure blurred into motion, flames roaring in his wake. With each strike, blazing arcs of fire obliterated the tendrils infesting the carriages.
Tanjiro stared, wide-eyed. "These… these flames, could it be—?"
Before he could even finish the thought, Rengoku appeared before him.
"Kamado boy! Listen well. I'll protect the five rear carriages. The blond lad and your sister will cover the next three. You and the boar-headed one—focus on those three as well, while finding the demon's neck!"
Tanjiro opened his mouth to explain that the demon had fused with the train itself, but Rengoku cut him off sharply.
"No matter what form it takes—if it is a demon, then it must have a neck!"
Leaving those words behind, he vanished again, already in motion.
Tanjiro quickly called for Inosuke. "We have to find its neck!"
But Inosuke had already done so. Using Beast Breathing, Seventh Fang: Spatial Awareness, he pinpointed its location at the very front of the train, where the coal was stored.
He charged forward, blades raised to strike—only to be ensnared by a writhing mass of tentacles.
"Water Breathing, Sixth Form: Whirlpool!"
Tanjiro arrived just in time, his blade spinning in a fierce spiral that shredded the tendrils binding Inosuke.
The Mugen Train howled with a terrible, ear-splitting scream.
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