Chapter 159: Oh, Luminary Hashira, We Adore You, Ya!
On the other side of the compound, Natsuya was giving Sabito and Giyu a tour of
his "Command Center."
Having grown up reading manga and watching anime where every major faction had
an underground bunker or a high-tech ops room, Natsuya had naturally decided to
build his own secret base now that he was a Hashira in the North.
The primary requirements were a hidden entrance and reinforced structural walls.
The interior of the hall was austere, bordering on solemn. Just like the
exterior, the walls were stark white with dark brown support beams. Aside from a
few Kakushi working tirelessly in front of a massive tactical sand-table and
wall-sized map, the room contained only a few plain wooden desks and document
stacks.
Sunlight filtered through the high windows, casting golden lances across the
empty floor.
"Well? Has it got 'Main Character Energy' or what?" Natsuya crossed his arms,
looking quite proud.
"This design..." Sabito muttered, trying to find polite phrasing. "It's very...
unique. Quite different from anything at Headquarters."
Natsuya grinned. "I based the aesthetic roughly on the Seireitei, mixed with a
bit of Las Noches flavoring."
Seireitei? Las Noches?
The two boys exchanged a blank look. They racked their brains, but no region or
martial arts clan in Japan matched those names. They quietly assumed it must be
some obscure architectural style from overseas.
Wisely, they chose not to ask. After all, Natsuya came up with bizarre terms on
a daily basis; questioning them was a waste of processing power.
Giyu's gaze drifted across the hall, eventually landing on the wall directly
facing the entrance.
A massive, hand-drawn map covered the entire surface. It was a chaotic web of
red X's, black dots, blue wave-lines, alongside meticulously dated timelines and
strange strings of numbers and English letters.
"What are those numbers?" Giyu asked, pointing at the margin.
"File indices," Natsuya replied, gesturing toward the opposite corner. "See that
door over there? That's the Archives. It contains detailed dossiers on demon
behaviors, regional clusters, and various Blood Demon Art variants."
"Whoa..." Sabito looked genuinely impressed.
Natsuya puffed out his chest. "As the saying goes: Study the history of previous
raid groups, and your wipe rate drops by half."
"Besides, I've been trying to reverse-engineer Muzan's operational timeline
using the dates and locations of these conversions."
If he had enough data points, he could theoretically map out a regression
analysis—predicting the Demon King's travel habits, preferred hiding spots,
local proxies, and psychological profile.
Of course, Sabito and Giyu didn't understand the concept of a "regression
analysis." They just assumed their Senior was playing 4D chess while the rest of
the Corps was playing checkers.
"Anyway, ignore the map," Natsuya said, waving a hand. "Look for the door marked
with your assigned room. Shiro dropped off your schedule earlier—management says
you're bunking in the east wing."
"Alright. We'll go unpack," Sabito nodded.
Giyu, however, had already wandered off toward a small reading desk by the
corner. Resting on top of it was a thick stack of bound reports.
"What's this, Senior?" Giyu asked, flipping the cover open.
"Mission reports and debriefings," Natsuya called back over his shoulder as he
headed toward the kitchen. "Written by the local Slayers after their patrols. I
make the new recruits read them so they don't walk into obvious traps."
Hearing this, Giyu's curiosity was piqued. He and Sabito had both executed
plenty of solo missions by now, but they had never been asked to write or read
formal operational logs.
"Mind if we take a look?" Sabito asked.
"Knock yourselves out," Natsuya waved dismissively. "Just don't fold the pages."
With that, the protagonist vanished into the pantry to prepare ingredients for
dinner.
Left alone in the corner, the two boys crowded around the desk and began
flipping through the pages.
The first few reports were standard military-style entries: location,
timestamps, squad composition, tactical execution, and post-battle cleanup. They
were dry, objective, and meticulously detailed.
As expected of the Karakuraza standards, Sabito thought approvingly.
However, as they turned deeper into the stack, the nature of the "reports" began
to shift dramatically. The official margins had clearly been co-opted into a
shared journal—or rather, a chaotic fan-club message board.
- [Kokonoe Natsuya is my religion! Forever an absolute fan!]
- (Written in neat, feminine handwriting, followed by a lopsided, poorly
drawn heart).
- [Seiko-san, please let me assist you on the next patrol! I promise I won't
hold you back from earning praise from the Luminary Hashira!]
- (Neat and polite, clearly written by a disciplined recruit).
- [Stop yelling at Kugisaki-san during drills! She cursed at me for three
hours straight yesterday, and it's all your fault, Senior!]
- ( Messy handwriting, covered in tear stains).
- [The Luminary Hashira personally adjusted my breathing rhythm today! He even
patted my shoulder! I'm officially retiring from the dating market—I am
never washing this uniform again!]
- (Written in massive, bold strokes, underlined three times).
- [SPECIAL SERVICE SECTION 9 RULES THE WORLD!!!]
- (Written in the largest font possible, followed by a cascade of
enthusiastic 'AGREE!' and 'AGREE~!' notes scrawled in the margins by a
dozen different hands).
Giyu's eyes scanned the unhinged, overly passionate scribbles. His expression
shifted from baseline curiosity to mild shock, and finally settled into a
profound, unspeakable complexity.
He quietly closed the report binder, raised his head, and looked at Sabito.
"Sabito..."
"Yeah?"
Giyu's voice was deadpan. "I think... the people here are a bit too
enthusiastic."
Sabito let out an awkward, dry laugh, his eye twitching slightly. "Well... the
Slayers in the North are just... very lively! Yes! It's a sign of high morale!"
High morale? Giyu thought. That looks like a cult.
"Do you... do you think we should write something in here too?" Sabito asked
hesitantly, driven by some strange peer pressure.
Giyu immediately slammed his hand over the cover of the binder.
"No. We are going to pretend we never saw this. For our own dignity."
Sabito hesitated, then nodded solemnly. "Agreed."
Just then, footsteps approached from the doorway. Natsuya strolled back in,
holding a steaming tray of snacks.
"Hey, you two. Quit reading the patch notes and come help set the table."
"Coming, Senior!" Sabito shouted a bit too quickly, snapping away from the desk.
Giyu silently followed, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the floor, terrified
that Natsuya might read the "Fan-Club Manifesto" written all over his face.
☆☆☆
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