When he faced Tsugikuni Yoriiichi, Kibutsuji Muzan trembled.
For the first time since becoming a demon, he felt fear. He prepared for death in an instant. The moment their eyes met, he realized it was impossible. Seeing that expressionless face lit with killing intent, he immediately discarded any thought of fighting to win. He had no choice but to run. If he fought, he would definitely die. Kibutsuji Muzan's strategic command was always 'treasure your life.'
Kibutsuji Muzan tried to run!
He couldn't run!
He was cut down as he was. It was despair.
Even with a demon's physical abilities, he couldn't repel him; that guy's movements surpassed everything about him. At the time, Kibutsuji Muzan had just turned the opponent's older brother into a demon. It seemed that had touched a nerve. Kibutsuji Muzan barely realized that he had overwhelmingly won the competition for stepping on Tsugikuni Yoriiichi's nerve.
He thought the older brother disliked the younger brother, so their relationship wouldn't be good, but that was a miscalculation he hadn't seriously considered. For twins, isn't the gap in fondness too severe? He wanted to hit his past self who was humming after turning a swordsman who could use Breathing into a demon. He thought he'd caught a sea bream with a shrimp bait, but it was like a fishing boat ramming into him.
It's a misunderstanding. It wasn't forced. He was turned into a demon by mutual agreement. Even if he explained, Tsugikuni Yoriiichi wouldn't listen. Rather, his anger only grew. The black sword seemed to burn red. Huh, is your killing intent the color of blood?
Moreover, Tsugikuni Yoriiichi was convinced that Kibutsuji Muzan was the one who stole the young demon slayer's—Young Moon's—corpse. By intuition.
This was also like stepping on Tsugikuni Yoriiichi's tiger's tail. Kibutsuji Muzan had boldly broken a record in the Tsugikuni Yoriiichi tiger tail jump rope competition. He's ruined, is he trying to raise not his rank but the number of heads taken?
This was a fact that neither Kibutsuji Muzan, nor the one called Young Moon, nor even Tsugikuni Yoriiichi knew until Young Moon died, but Yoriiichi had vaguely taken a liking to that boy.
After the boy died, when he absentmindedly sat on the veranda, he felt sorrow at the weight that disappeared from his lap. Because he and the boy were a pair who clashed their passions together, blowing on the flute his brother made, that loneliness of that passion having vanished.
He wanted to give the corpse a proper funeral. He wanted to place his hands together at the grave. But since the corpse was stolen, he couldn't achieve that either, and he couldn't cry before an empty grave. Because the boy wasn't there and wasn't sleeping. Since he went into Kibutsuji Muzan's stomach, he couldn't become a thousand winds either.
Tsugikuni Yoriiichi, extreme rage.
Deeply pissed-off hardcore mode.
Kibutsuji Muzan, who escaped from Tsugikuni Yoriiichi who became 'absolutely kill Kibutsuji Muzan man,' is amazing.
That he succeeded in the thirty-six stratagems of running away by spouting sophistry to shake the opponent's heart and dull their movements can only be called a miracle. Bringing up the brother's story to provoke made the anger greater but also disturbed his swordsmanship. Excessive anger disrupts the mind. It was a tactical victory.
Afterwards, Kibutsuji Muzan felt a chill whenever he recalled Tsugikuni Yoriiichi's face. It was fortunate that Kokushibo had a heteromorphic appearance with six eyes. If the same face as Tsugikuni Yoriiichi had remained, his heart would have been in a state of seizure every time he saw that face.
But still, if you look closely, you can glimpse that form. This is, to put it in a Heisei-era style, threateningly saying "Did you notice…" after showing an ordinary scenery photo. Thanks to this, Kibutsuji Muzan cannot stare at Kokushibo's face for long. Like a scary story where you understand the meaning later, fear arrives with a time delay.
His life was saved, but his heart suffered a fatal wound. He needed counseling. But the friend he could honestly pour out his heart's wounds to was in his stomach. He wants to cry. Kibutsuji Muzan has no friends.
Thus, Kibutsuji Muzan, who gained Tsugikuni Yoriiichi as a natural enemy, trembled in fear that this was dangerous. The Demon Slayer Corps's strength, which he hadn't even paid attention to until now, was increasing day by day starting from Tsugikuni Yoriiichi's joining. They devised techniques like Breathing Styles and began to possess power to face demons equally.
Thinking 'For now, until Yoriiichi fulfills his natural lifespan, 50 years, no, considering that guy's extraordinary specs, add 10 more years,' he held his breath for 60 years. Until he confirmed that guy's death through Kokushibo's eyes, Kibutsuji Muzan couldn't rest his mind from anxiety.
The demon progenitor's wariness subtly continued even after Yoriiichi disappeared from the world. Because the principle of the world is that if you see one of those pitch-black things, there are thirty more. There was no guarantee that a second or third Tsugikuni Yoriiichi wouldn't appear in the future.
That's dangerous.
He had to dismantle the Demon Slayer Corps before their strength increased further. And he also had to hurry the search for the Blue Spider Lily, and furthermore, obtain a demon art that overcomes sunlight. If he encounters a threat on the level of Tsugikuni Yoriiichi next and gets chased by that guy until dawn, he'll definitely die this time.
Frankly, he didn't want to increase demons anymore, but it wasn't the time to pick and choose between cold or hot rice. If the current demons couldn't overcome sunlight, he had no choice but to test with new demons, and to disrupt the demon slayers, he needed some disposable pawns. He also needed manpower to search for the Blue Spider Lily.
But basically, demons are a rabble. Because they eat each other, they can't form groups, and they have no common purpose other than revering and following Kibutsuji Muzan. Unlike the Demon Slayer Corps who advocate overthrowing Kibutsuji, demons have no motivation. Those demon slayer bastards are raising morale by putting forward the existence of 'Pillars,' what a difference.
Thinking about what to do, Kibutsuji Muzan had a flash of inspiration.
Wouldn't it work to create a position of strength for demons like the Pillars?
Thus, the Twelve Kizuki were formed. This produced unexpectedly good effects.
As special ones in Kibutsuji Muzan's eyes, demons yearned for that position, and if told that more blood would be shared with those of higher ranks, demons also desperately caught and ate humans.
Thanks to the rule of challenging superiors proposed and introduced by Kokushibo, the eldest son of a Warring States-period samurai family, those who entered the Twelve Kizuki didn't get conceited and constantly strived against each other. If their strength was weak, they tried to compensate with other things, and they also worked hard to search for spider lilies to gain Kibutsuji's favor.
And the Demon Slayer Corps also couldn't help but pay attention to the demons making a loud racket rather than the secretly acting Kibutsuji Muzan. If they could reduce the Corps's strength while causing disruption, it was a cheap price. It was nothing but a good thing.
However, still, neither the Blue Spider Lily nor a demon that could overcome sunlight appeared. He couldn't even find the first character 'U' of Ubuyashiki. 'I tried but it didn't work out' won't do. Produce results, produce results. Do you think this is a child's errand?
Kibutsuji Muzan was irritated. Demons are unreliable after all, he thought, and devoted more time to medicine research. But the medicine to overcome sunlight lacked both time and manpower to research alone.
He needed a smart assistant with knowledge and skill. He wanted to turn such a doctor or pharmacist into a demon. A human who wanted to become a demon for that reason would be good. Like not wanting to die from a collapsing illness or wanting to live forever with a young appearance.
Kibutsuji Muzan searched everywhere and finally found a human who met the conditions.
The name of that female pharmacist lying on her sickbed was Tamayo.
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Immediately after sharing his blood, as expected, the woman went mad.
Letting out a beast-like roar, she first bared her fangs at the husband by her side. The man, his eyes wide at his wife's transformation, had his nape bitten off and died meaninglessly. The woman sat atop her husband, who had more than twice her physique, and devoured his flesh.
To the woman who became a demon, that was no longer the husband she swore to spend her life with, but merely prey.
After glancing at the woman filling her stomach with a crunching sound, Kibutsuji Muzan turned his footsteps. He has no hobby of observing others' meal scenes. Thinking he'd come back to talk once the woman's stomach was full, he left the hut.
The sky covered with thick snow clouds, a cold, dead darkness even though it was day.
Such climate was appreciated as he could move around without worrying about the cursed sunlight.
The woman who regained her reason would despair at the fact she ate her husband. She might curse Kibutsuji Muzan. But what does that matter?
It was none other than that woman who put the demon's blood to her lips saying she didn't want to die. All responsibility lies with the woman herself. It's the woman's fault for not seeing through that sweet talk has another side. In the first place, the wish to live was granted. She obtained eternal beauty and life, what is there to be angry about?
Not pitying the woman who ate her husband, he was descending the mountain while thinking that.
"Mom!!!"
The familiar voice captured by the demon's hearing came from the mountain path he had just left, from the place he had just departed, leaving behind the man's corpse and the demon woman.
A voice he had heard tediously when Kibutsuji Muzan was human, heard very briefly about a hundred years ago, and hadn't heard since until now. The voice of his dear friend, whom he was finally beginning to forget after losing twice, from up there.
Kibutsuji Muzan ran up the path he had just descended. Slipping on the piled snow. Forgetting the method of leaping up at once with a demon's jump, he climbed the mountain as if remembering being human. His exhaled breath was rough and scattered white, the trembling was never from the cold. No way, no way, no way no way.
There's a smell of blood. Not that of the man who was the husband, which he just smelled.
Kibutsuji Muzan knows that thick scent that isn't unpleasant but soft, even faintly feeling sweet. He knows it well enough to want to cry.
Crunch crunch crunch
There's a chewing sound.
Crunch crunch crunch
No one's voice can be heard.
Crunch crunch crunch
A disgusting smell of blood.
Crunch crunch crunch
A red staining the snow.
The pure white hair scattered on the blood-stained snowfield,
the emptied red eyes,
the horribly gouged nape
were telling of his third death.
The agony he had been forgetting over a hundred years now invades his chest again.
But, but but he truly didn't know. He thought the second you he saw a hundred years ago was a once-in-a-lifetime miracle. He didn't know a third would be born for him like this. If he had known, he wouldn't have done this! He wouldn't have turned this life's mother into a demon either! He wouldn't have let you die!
Ignoring Kibutsuji Muzan who collapsed on the spot, the woman who had eaten more than half of her own child's innards staggered to her feet. With ghost-like footsteps, she descends the mountain. To the village, to the hunting ground, to fill her empty stomach, the woman will still continue to devour. By the time her sanity returns, everything will already be too late.
Between himself, who ate his friend with sound mind, and the woman who devoured her family in madness, which one is truly more beyond salvation?
What remained after the woman disappeared was only a corpse from which the soul had already departed.
Kibutsuji Muzan had, three times, killed his only friend.