Hearing Su Yan's words, the hot-tempered Sanemi Shinazugawa immediately wanted to step forward and teach him a lesson. However, he was firmly held back by the Stone Hashira behind him.
Su Yan paid no attention to the others' reactions. Instead, he looked at Tanjiro and asked, "Tanjiro, tell me, do you have any objections to how the Demon Slayer Corps is handling this?"
"..."
Tanjiro was speechless.
Perhaps because he hadn't experienced being attacked by his demonized family like in the anime, he still lacked a real sense of the reality that his family had become demons.
He had agreed to come meet the Master of the Demon Slayer Corps mostly out of an inexplicable trust in them. He felt that since they were all people who had been hurt by demons, they would surely understand him.
Deep down, he had also held onto a sliver of hope that the Demon Slayer Corps might possess a way to turn demons back into humans.
But after seeing how these so-called strongest Hashira reacted to demons, he realized he was wrong.
Even though his family had transformed into demons simply because they wanted to survive, and they had never eaten a human, the Hashira treated them no differently than any other vicious demon.
If it weren't for his knowledge of the Hinokami Kagura, and the intimidating presence of Su Yan's female companion standing by, they probably wouldn't have given him any chance to explain, let alone suggest imprisoning his family.
They would have just directly killed his mother and two younger brothers who had already turned into demons.
"What about you, Nezuko?" Seeing Tanjiro hesitate, Su Yan immediately turned to Nezuko, who was clinging to his arm.
Nezuko shook her head and said crisply, "I don't trust them!"
If Tanjiro lacked a real sense of what demons were...
Then Nezuko, at the very least, had witnessed the terrifying, unresponsive state her family had been in last night after transforming.
So she could understand the Demon Slayer Corps' decision to imprison her demonized family members. In a way, it could even be considered a form of protection for them.
But...
Looking at the Hashira before her, Nezuko simply didn't trust them.
Handing her family over to a group of Demon Slayers who hated demons to the bone? Who knew if one of them would turn around and do something unforgivable to her family?
"Alright, I understand." Su Yan nodded and replied, "I'll handle this matter."
From the very beginning, Su Yan had never counted on the Demon Slayer Corps to handle Kie Kamado and the others.
This was obvious from their attitude toward Nezuko during the Hashira Meeting in the anime. Even though Nezuko had existed as a demon for two years without ever eating a human, the Corps still showed her no mercy. If it hadn't been for the two Water Hashira vouching for her, she absolutely would have been executed.
That was exactly why he hadn't sent Busujima Saeko back to Greed Island, but instead had her accompany Tanjiro and the others to the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters.
Su Yan had two main goals in coming to meet Kagaya Ubuyashiki.
First, to ask him for information about Miss Tamayo.
Second, to see if the Demon Slayer Corps could temporarily watch over Kie Kamado and the others until he found Miss Tamayo. Once he found and recruited her, he would hand the Kamado family over to her.
He wanted her to research a drug that could turn demons back into humans, or at least a drug that removed a demon's need to feed on humans.
Achieving either of these would be highly beneficial to him.
If he had a drug that could turn demons back into humans, he could ingest Muzan's demon blood in dangerous situations to transform into a demon, utilizing their immense regenerative abilities to heal his injuries. Afterward, he would simply take the cure to revert to a human.
This would perfectly solve the lack of healing abilities in their Nen skill set.
As for the benefits of a drug that removed the need to eat humans, that went without saying. A demon that didn't need to eat humans and wasn't afraid of sunlight—was that even a demon anymore?
That would be an ultimate lifeform straight out of JoJo.
But since the Demon Slayer Corps didn't welcome them, Su Yan naturally had no intention of forcing himself on people who were giving him the cold shoulder.
"I heard that the Ubuyashiki family of the Demon Slayer Corps has always believed that the short lifespans of every male generation are due to a curse brought upon the family by the Demon King Muzan?" Su Yan looked at Kagaya Ubuyashiki and asked coldly, "Is that true?"
"That is correct." Kagaya Ubuyashiki didn't know why Su Yan suddenly asked this, but he answered anyway. "Muzan Kibutsuji is a member of our clan, sharing the same bloodline."
"Because he became a demon and committed countless sins, our Ubuyashiki family was cursed in his place. That is why we are short-lived. This is something every member of the Demon Slayer Corps knows."
Hearing this expected answer, Su Yan blurted out, "Then why don't you just die?"
"Insolent! How dare you insult the Master like that?!"
As Su Yan's words fell, the Wind Hashira, Sanemi Shinazugawa, who had always viewed Kagaya as a father, could no longer sit still. He immediately broke free from the Stone Hashira's restraint and charged at Su Yan.
Smack! Bang!
After two crisp sounds, Sanemi Shinazugawa's body slammed heavily into a distant wall.
"So fast!" Seeing their comrade's fate, the other Hashira couldn't help but exclaim in unison.
Aside from Shinobu Kocho, whose stance remained ambiguous, the other Hashira immediately took up combat stances against Su Yan.
However, Kagaya Ubuyashiki gently raised his hand, stopping their actions, and asked, "Mr. Su Yan, could you please explain yourself?"
Su Yan voiced the doubt he had harbored for a long time. "It's very simple. Since you acknowledge and firmly believe that you are bearing the curse in Muzan's place..."
"Then why don't you just die? If everyone in the Ubuyashiki family dies out, there will be no one left to bear the curse for Muzan, right?"
"That way, when the curse on your bodies returns to Muzan, wouldn't you just have to do nothing and wait for the curse to kill him?"
"But what exactly has your family been doing for the past thousand years?"
"You've actually persisted in marrying and having children generation after generation, passing the heavy burden of killing Muzan onto descendants who are doomed to live short lives."
"For that, I have to praise you—you really have perseverance."
"But what I don't understand is, you islanders shouldn't value bloodline inheritance as strictly as we do in the East, right?"
"Even if the bloodline is severed, as long as there are people who inherit the family's will, they can take on the family name and call themselves by it."
"And from what I know, within the Demon Slayer Corps, there is also the tradition of Hashira taking in trained swordsmen as their Tsuguko, isn't there?"
"So I really want to ask, what exactly has your Ubuyashiki family been holding on to during this thousand-year feud with Demon King Muzan?"
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]