Chapter 431: With All Due Respect
Eternally Seventeen: Come to think of it, the invitation quest said the newcomer ran into a vicious demon — so that means the newcomer's world runs on supernatural power? A ghost world of some kind?
Eternally Seventeen: I mean, the second you hear "vicious demon," a haunted world's the obvious guess, right?
RawrSoFierce: Not really a ghost world, no. The demons in Tanjirō's world — Demon Slayer — aren't quite like the traditional ghost image people have.
RawrSoFierce: They're weak to sunlight like you'd expect, sure, but they exist because of one guy named Muzan.
RawrSoFierce: He can inject people with his own blood, and anyone injected turns into a demon. Or just dies on the spot, depending.
Eternally Seventeen: I see... his own blood turns ordinary humans into demons, huh. Sounds a bit like a zombie or vampire setup.
Eternally Seventeen: Suddenly feel the urge to cross over there and grab him for study.
RawrSoFierce: ...Pfft, casually grabbing an entire world's final boss for research, sure.
RawrSoFierce: Though with your strength, old hag, if you actually went to that world, you could probably crush the so-called "final boss" with one finger.
Eternally Seventeen: Eh?? The newcomer's world is that weak on the supernatural front? I figured it'd at least be around One Piece's level.
RawrSoFierce: ...One Piece's top fighters can blow up an entire island. If Demon Slayer had anyone at that level, they could steamroll the whole map without much effort.
Eternally Seventeen: You know an awful lot about this, huh. Did Admin-sama actually watch the whole show?
RawrSoFierce: Only a few episodes, honestly. Got the power-scaling rundown from spoiler-happy people in the comments section. Cursed be the spoiler crowd.
Kaguya-sama: Poor One Piece world, reduced to the group's go-to power-scaling yardstick yet again.
Edward Newgate: Gurararara, Admin's got that one wrong, actually — One Piece's current top strength can blow up a star these days.
Edward Newgate: My own goal these days is to train every division captain on my ship up to a level rivaling the other three Emperors. Once that's done, I can finally retire.
Admiral Kizaru: Sengoku-san's mentioned wanting to bring every Vice Admiral in the Navy up to old Admiral-level strength too, I think.
Crazy Diamond: I remember Sengoku-ojii-sama saying Marine HQ alone has a dozen-plus Vice Admirals. Add the other branches, and that's probably twenty or thirty total.
Crazy Diamond: Twenty or thirty people at Admiral-tier combat strength — that's more than enough to walk away from the World Government and set up shop independently!
Edward Newgate: Gurararara... honestly, old Sengoku's already got the strength to break from the World Government as things stand. So long as Kizaru and I stay out of it, he could steamroll the whole world with nobody able to stand against him.
Wandering Little Planet: Jealousy's tearing me apart, when do I get to be a legend like the rest of you?
Eternally Seventeen: Little Sphere here, casually able to blow up a planet, doing its daily routine of pretending to be pitiful.
Eternally Seventeen: If your title tag didn't already say Tier 1 heavy hitter, the newcomer might've actually fallen for that act.
Wandering Little Planet: But I really am weak, though... sob
Street-Corner Illustrator: If I hadn't been in this group for over half a year now, I might've believed that nonsense myself!
Kamado Tanjirō: ...Um, I finished reading the pinned announcement. There's genuinely something this incredible out there in the world?
Kamado Tanjirō: A lot of the terms in there I don't really understand, but it all sounds... really impressive somehow...
My True Form Is Cola: Of course the Dimensional Chat Group is impressive, that's not even up for debate!
WolfKingOfQingQingGrasslands: Finally cracked the new invention! This king really is a genius. Though credit where it's due, Mr. Stark helped out quite a bit.
WolfKingOfQingQingGrasslands: With this new invention, this king's mech armor is about to hit a whole new level.
Kaguya-sama: ...Wait, didn't you say you could tear apart your own armor with your bare hands already, Wolffy? Why bother upgrading it further?
WolfKingOfQingQingGrasslands: This one's for the group's newcomers, obviously. New members' strength grows slowly, so technology's exactly what fills that gap.
I'm Rolling In It: Technology is the only true path to invincibility. Everything else is heresy!
Kaguya-sama: Feels like Mr. Stark's about to start digging himself another hole again.
"..."
Meanwhile, in the Demon Slayer world, Tanjirō stared blankly at the chat, feeling completely unable to keep up with these veterans' train of thought.
Technology, inventions, armor, machines — he couldn't understand a single word of it.
And yet somehow it all felt genuinely impressive regardless. Maybe this was what people meant by "sounds important even though I don't get it."
Wait — hold on. His benefactor had said Nezuko had turned into a demon. If that was true, didn't that mean she'd end up like the demon he'd fought earlier, needing to eat people?
Tanjirō's expression shifted sharply as the weight of it hit him.
But the pinned announcement had described all sorts of remarkable things the Dimensional Chat Group could apparently do... surely there had to be some way to turn Nezuko back into a human? Hm... probably?
He wasn't entirely sure, and he wasn't sure whether it was even appropriate to bother the group's senior members with something like this.
In the end, he worked up the courage to ask anyway.
Kamado Tanjirō: ...Um, may I ask if any of you senpais in the Dimensional Chat Group know a way to turn a demon back into a human?
Kamado Tanjirō: It's like this — my little sister seems to have turned into a demon. Is there any way I could turn her back?
Kamado Tanjirō: If any of you could... could turn Nezuko back into a human, I'll do whatever it takes to repay you!
Eternally Seventeen: Turn a demon back into a human? Hmm... with all due respect, what's so great about being human, exactly? A demon can live for hundreds, even thousands of years without much trouble — isn't that a lot better than a human's rushed handful of decades?