As the sun rose from the ruins of the pleasure quarter, numerous kasugai crows spread across the sky in all directions.
Some alighted before a tall monk chanting sutras, some on the windowsill of a girl mixing medicines, and some on the shoulder of a stone-faced swordsman sheathing his blade after slaying a demon.
The boy staring blankly at the sky came back to himself. The orange-haired youth teaching his younger brother swordplay showed a look of exhilaration. A scarred, white-haired man with a ferocious face looked thoroughly unwilling to accept it.
A man draped in lavish ornaments burst into loud laughter. The bandage-faced boy narrowed his heterochromatic eyes as the white snake at his neck flicked its tongue. A girl set down her half-eaten sakuramochi and covered her mouth in surprise.
The Demon Slayer Corps' kasugai crows spread the news at top speed that an Upper Rank demon had been slain.
In a manor hidden in the mountain woods, a long-haired man whose forehead was mostly covered in scars coughed in pain, flecks of blood spattering the bed.
But none of that stopped him from smiling with delight.
"For the first time in history, an Upper Rank demon has finally been slain! My sense was right: the gears of fate have begun to turn!
Muzan Kibutsuji will be cut down in our generation!"
...
After awakening his Mark, Tanjiro slew Gyutaro. Charles immediately followed up by taking Daki's head as well.
Watching the demons' heads turn to ash, Charles felt no sentimental pity.
Not having lived their tragic pasts, he had no standing or right to judge why they went astray. And he certainly had no right to forgive them on behalf of those they ate.
Going to hell together was already the most fitting end for them.
What concerned Charles more now was Tanjiro, who had awakened a Mark.
But Tanjiro's ability to describe things was a headache; Charles couldn't make heads or tails out of a pile of onomatopoeia.
So Charles simply examined Tanjiro's current physical condition himself.
As he had suspected, there was a special energy in Tanjiro's body now.
It was the product of natural energy mixed with life energy.
But because his body lacked a special organ like a mana source to regulate it, that energy was crudely burning through Tanjiro's life.
At this rate, never mind twenty-five; Tanjiro would be lucky to make it past twenty.
In exchange, he gained bodily functions far beyond human limits.
Charles could, of course, use potions to replenish life force, but that only treated the symptom. In the end, he had to find a way to control that energy to solve the root problem.
Perhaps because of differences between worlds, Charles's experiment to help Tanjiro develop a mana source failed. So he could only try implanting a supernatural organ.
The inspiration came from a special technique devised by a certain pioneer researcher of a shinobi world, so Charles named the finished product the Demon Slayer–style Curse Mark.
Simply put, it gathered the Mark's energy into a special talisman so it wouldn't erode life.
When a swordsman used a Breathing Style, stamina and natural energy would automatically mix within the mark and accumulate Mark energy for use in battle. If the energy ran out, he could also release the mark to burn a portion of life to obtain enough Mark energy.
In that case, a bit of potion to replenish the life force spent would suffice, without shortening lifespan.
Charles implanted the world's first such mark into Tanjiro, forming a corona-like flame pattern on his forehead.
The results were excellent: the burn on Tanjiro's life stopped, and the Mark's power continued to strengthen his body.
Recently he had begun challenging Constant with Sun Breathing. When he succeeded, he would surpass the original peak; reaching Yoriichi Tsugikuni's realm was not impossible.
For Charles, as expected, the Mark was the key to integrating the Breathing system with the mana system.
Tanjiro's Mark energy induced the same energy within him. After breaking through that painful threshold, dragon-flame markings surfaced on Charles's neck.
Unlike Tanjiro, his Mark energy began fusing with his mana under the regulation of his mana source.
By analogy, what he had grasped was akin to the sage mode of that neighboring shinobi world.
Suffice it to say, a power system that transcended the world's limits truly surprised him.
Just then, Stella returned with Nezuko.
According to Stella, once they reached Kyoto a kasugai crow guided them, and they quickly found the reclusive Tamayo.
As expected, Kagaya Ubuyashiki had long known of Tamayo's existence and even had an understanding with her.
Upon learning of Nezuko's condition, Tamayo readily agreed to help. In terms of hatred for Muzan, she was hardly behind the Corps' swordsmen.
By Tamayo's research, drastic changes were underway in Nezuko's body. The human portion was clashing with the demon blood, trying to eliminate the corrosive lineage's hold on her.
Most of the potions Charles supplied weren't helpful to this process; some would even nourish the demon blood.
Only certain antidotes could be used to suppress the demon blood, and even then the effect was limited. To help Nezuko return to being human, Tamayo would still need to formulate specialized medicine.
As in the original story, Tamayo needed high-concentration Muzan blood—that is, the blood of an Upper Rank.
Unfortunately, they had forgotten this when killing Gyutaro and Daki, so they could only go after the next Upper Rank.
Of the remaining five Upper Rank demons, four were nowhere to be found, but there was at least a lead on one: Upper Rank Two, Doma.
The other remaining Upper Ranks moved alone, and the original story hadn't revealed any fixed haunts.
Doma was different; he had a base in the human world and a public identity.
The island nation's peculiar views on gods had produced a plethora of religions, among which were groups that could fairly be called cults.
In these turbulent times, the anxious hearts of the people sought something to lean on.
Among these, the Eternal Paradise Faith, which claimed that faith in its founder would take one to the Pure Land, was a "perfectly ordinary" one.
It was called ordinary because there were many groups far more eye-catching, whether in the outlandishness of their doctrine or in their scale, than the Eternal Paradise Faith.
For that very reason, even the Corps' network hadn't been able to dig up much about it.
So Charles wrote a letter to Kagaya Ubuyashiki explaining the matter of searching for Upper Rank Two.
At the same time, he proposed preparing for the final battle.
In recent days, Charles had also received messages by kasugai crow that demon sightings were decreasing—Muzan Kibutsuji was pulling in his forces.
It seemed the slaying of an Upper Rank had made Muzan change his approach.
After cutting down Doma, it would be time to prepare for the decisive battle with Muzan Kibutsuji.
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