"Everyone, keep up!"
At the command of the nine Hashira, the elite corps of swordsmen sprinted after the owl. Thanks to their specialized Breathing Styles, these slayers possessed incredible speed—the Hashira in particular ran faster than a steam locomotive. Even as the owl soared through the sky, they maintained a grueling pace beneath it.
For those struggling to keep up, a flock of Kasugai Crows acted as a relay, passing location data back so the rear guard wouldn't lose the trail.
"Flying Nimbus!"
High above, Goku called out to the heavens. A golden, shimmering cloud streaked through the atmosphere and came to a halt right in front of him. He hopped on, and the Nimbus carried him alongside Juliet the owl.
Goku hadn't brought the Nimbus just to be lazy. After his massive breakfast prepared by Mita, he had briefly hopped back to his own world to retrieve his loyal cloud. His main concern was Juliet's safety.
Hagrid was deeply attached to his magical creatures; if Juliet got hurt or killed, Goku would feel terrible. By riding the Nimbus, he could stay right beside her and whisk her away the moment they found their target.
Below, the nine Hashira and the rank-and-file slayers looked up, their jaws dropping for the umpteenth time.
"To be honest... I'm starting to wonder if he's a god in human form," Tengen Uzui muttered, watching the boy glide through the sky.
Since the meeting with the Master, the Hashira had been briefed on Goku's capabilities: teleportation, sensory range, healing, and energy attacks that rivaled the strongest Blood Demon Arts. But flying on a cloud? In their culture, that was a feat reserved for the divine. Their confidence in the upcoming battle surged. If a god was on their side, how could they lose?
"Oyakata-sama was right. It's definitely not toward Tokyo!"
As they tracked the owl, they noticed their heading was nearly 90 degrees away from the city. This meant Muzan was nowhere near the massacre site. Had they rushed to Tokyo, they would have fallen into a perfect trap while the progenitor remained untouched. The owl had effectively neutralized Muzan's greatest advantage: his anonymity.
"Mita, you've done a legendary service for the Corps!"
They ran from morning until late afternoon, stopping only for a ten-minute calorie-dense meal. Finally, just before the sun touched the horizon, they reached a desolate, barren wasteland.
Juliet circled a patch of empty, scrubby grassland several times before daintily dropping the letter onto the bare earth.
"Could there be a mistake? There isn't even a shadow of a demon here," one of the slayers whispered, looking around at the featureless horizon. In the broad daylight, there was nowhere for a demon—let alone the King of Demons—to hide.
The Hashira, however, were more analytical. Gyomei Himejima, the Stone Hashira, stared at the spot where the letter lay. "Could it be underground?"
It made sense. An underground fortress would provide perfect protection from the sun and keep the King hidden from prying eyes.
"Then I'll just blast a hole straight down and see," Uzui offered, reaching for his explosive-laden blades.
"Wait," Rengoku interjected, shaking his head. "That will make too much noise. We'll lose the element of surprise and risk being ambushed."
"Let me check it first," Goku said, hopping off the Nimbus. He landed and sat cross-legged on the grass, closing his eyes to sense every spark of ki within a fifteen-kilometer radius.
"There's so much evil ki!"
Goku's eyes snapped open. "Muzan is definitely down there. But it's not just him. The Twelve Kizuki and a massive army of demons are all together under our feet."
He had sensed over a thousand signatures. A dozen of them were monstrously powerful.
"This is far from Tokyo... it must be a spatial Blood Demon Art," Shinobu mused, her expression darkening. This explained why Muzan could massacre a city while remaining leagues away. A demon in his service could likely bridge the distance instantly.
"What's the move?"
The Hashira stood in silence for a few seconds before a collective, steely resolve took hold.
"Goku-san, please take us down there," Sanemi said, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword.
They could have waited for nightfall for the demons to leave for Tokyo, making the hunt for Muzan easier. But they knew every hour they waited meant hundreds more deaths in the city. They wouldn't trade innocent lives for a tactical advantage.
"Okay. I'll go in first. In ten seconds, everyone should hold hands and grab onto this. It'll bring you straight to me."
Goku pulled out two sweaters. He laid one on the grass. These weren't ordinary clothes; they were the most powerful Portkeys Dumbledore had ever woven, capable of transporting hundreds of people at once. With 200 elite slayers present, the Portkey could handle the entire force.
"A... sweater?" The slayers looked at the pink garment on the ground with confusion. But given that they had just watched the boy fly on a cloud, no one dared to argue.
Goku took the blue sweater, locked onto one of the strongest ki signatures deep below, and performed a Side-Along Apparition to vanish from the surface.
*POP!*
"Whoa... so many rooms!"
Goku found himself standing on a wooden platform. He looked up, down, left, and right. The space was filled with an impossible, dizzying array of wooden rooms and corridors, seemingly stretching into infinity. Bridges connected the floating structures in a gravity-defying web.
It was a city of wood, built for monsters.