Flames swept across the hall, yet Doma merely flicked his iron fan and blocked the strike.
A keen interest rose in his rainbow-colored eyes.
"What's this? A Nichirin Blade, specially forged by those Demon Slayers to kill us?" He glanced at the sword cutting into his fan, then turned his gaze to the one wielding it. "Judging by the aura, this should be a human. Oh—one of the Hashira, perhaps? So you're the Flame Hashira who was recently said to have been killed by some nameless demon?"
His iron fan scraped against the blade, and with effortless ease Doma knocked the sword aside.
"Pointing something like that at an ally's head is quite dangerous. One little slip and someone could die." He said this lightly, yet there was not the slightest trace of fear on his smiling face. "Miss Huojianyue, is this your Blood Demon Art? It seems you used an exquisitely delicate method to preserve the bodies of the dead, turning them into puppets that can appear through your art. Splendid, splendid. What a truly marvelous ability."
"Tell me where Sui is," Huojianyue asked hoarsely.
"Would you kindly withdraw your Blood Demon Art first?" Doma replied with a smile.
The flames receded, and the swordsman dissolved with them.
Huojianyue asked again, "Where is she?"
"Osaka," Doma said after a brief pause, narrowing his eyes as he lied smoothly. "If that woman named Sui truly is your sister, then you had better hurry and find her. The last time I saw her, she was in the filthiest slum in Osaka. Even I had to marvel that such a beautiful flower could bloom out of a heap of refuse. She's probably been sold off by now. A woman that lovely would fetch a fortune."
"A woman sold off like that is hardly worth a fortune. She's just a plaything for men."
Sashes shot out of the darkness, weaving themselves into a bridge. A gaunt, eerie-looking man emerged slowly, carrying a provocatively dressed woman in his arms. The contemptuous remark had come from her. In her eyes was engraved the title Upper Rank Six.
Upper Rank Six, Daki.
"Why is some brat of a Lower Rank here in an Upper Rank meeting?" she sneered.
Upper Rank Six, Gyutaro and Daki.
Once brother and sister, now a pair of twin demons—among the mightiest of demonkind, the elite Upper Moons.
"Brother, what are you saying?" Daki frowned darkly. "What use could this half-grown girl possibly be to Lord Muzan?"
"Perhaps she has some special significance to him," Gyutaro said.
"My, my. Long time no see, everyone! It must have been, what, eighty years since we all last gathered?"
A lively voice rang out from a distant platform, accompanied by the clunk of something striking wood.
It was a grotesquely shaped demon, its lower half hidden inside a ceramic jar, only its scaly upper body and head exposed.
Its yellow eye, marked Upper Rank Five, and its green lips formed a nauseatingly hideous contrast. Purple fin-like ornaments covered its head. Its features were twisted out of place—its mouth where its eyes should be, its eyes on its forehead and beneath its mouth. While the others still retained something close to human appearance, this one was wholly monstrous.
Upper Rank Five, Gyokko.
A foul-smelling slime oozed from Gyokko's arms as he spoke in a shrill, glass-scraping voice. "And what did you think of the pot I sent you, Lord Doma?"
Doma narrowed his eyes. "That jar? I used it to store women's hands. I've grown quite fond of delicate, soft little hands lately."
"Pots are not meant for storing women's hands." Gyokko's warped face twitched. "Still, if Lord Doma is so fond of them, perhaps I shall send you more another day?"
"How tiresome... Gyokko can't even count properly anymore."
A timid voice came drifting down the endless staircase.
"We haven't met in one hundred and seven years. One hundred and seven... what an inauspicious number."
An ugly old man crouched among the steps, fleshy horns protruding from his head, wrapped in a black robe, trembling as he hugged himself.
Upper Rank Four, Hantengu.
Huojianyue's gaze swept across the gathered Upper Moons. She licked the blood from the corner of her mouth and wound a strand of spider silk around her finger.
"Is that all?" Akaza said. "I don't see Upper Rank One. So he finally died, did he?"
"The very first one I summoned was Upper Rank One," Nakime answered. "He has been there all along."
The moment those words left her lips, the entire structure of Infinity Castle trembled, as though some hidden mechanism had been set in motion.
Akaza turned his head.
At the far end of the shifting towers and layered corridors, behind a hanging screen, a samurai sat silently in seiza, his sword resting at his side.
Huojianyue rose up on tiptoe, only barely able to glimpse the man behind the curtain.
The peak of the Twelve Kizuki.
Upper Rank One, Kokushibo.
"I have been here from the start," a low voice said from behind the screen. "And Lord Muzan has been here as well."
Every door and window in Infinity Castle slammed shut at once.
Nakime's biwa gave out a harsh trembling note, and white lanterns lit up along the beams, illuminating a black figure standing atop a loft.
"Find it. The Blue Spider Lily."
Muzan Kibutsuji's voice was like an icicle driven into bone. The Upper Moons remained kneeling. Even the chattiest of them, Gyokko, bit his lip and kept silent. Only Doma lifted his head to look at Muzan.
"So there truly is news of the Blue Spider Lily. What a remarkable achievement."
Kokushibo spoke in a low voice. "Have we... confirmed the blooming period of the Blue Spider Lily?"
"It blooms only during the few days of the year when the sunlight is strongest," Muzan commanded from above. "Once that time passes, it withers immediately. The Blue Spider Lily most likely grows in land best suited to receiving sunlight. I want you to turn the earth over until you find it."
His gaze suddenly shifted to Doma.
"As demons, you cannot move under the sun. Those believers of your Eternal Paradise Faith should finally prove useful. You've raised all those humans—surely they are good for something."
Doma's iron fan snapped open. Reflected in his rainbow-glass eyes was the ghostly light of the lanterns.
"As you command. Though..." The fan abruptly pointed toward Akaza. "I suspect this martial enthusiast is far more interested in what comes next."
Doma had not even finished speaking when Muzan continued, already aware of the thought in his subordinate's mind.
"Find the swordswoman with those strange eyes and kill her. Her gaze irritates me."
"Akaza."
"Yes."
"The woman in the crimson haori. She wears wind-bell earrings."
"What a cruel request..."
"You mean to say you refuse to kill women?" Muzan cut him off coldly. "You've grown too self-indulgent, Akaza. You've spent centuries searching for the Blue Spider Lily and have not found even its shadow. In the end, it took a mere Lower Rank demon to bring me information."
"If you fail, I will replace you with demons more useful than you."
"Yes."
Akaza pressed his forehead to the floor. Sweat beaded across his skin, which had begun to crack under the strain. A single flicker of resistance in his heart had been enough to provoke Muzan's wrath, and the agony now tearing through his body was the price for angering the Demon King.
Doma had done it on purpose—bringing up the subject before Muzan, forcing Akaza to hunt down a woman, savoring his suffering.
Muzan, of course, cared nothing for the emotions of his demons. In his eyes, Akaza was merely the best tool for the task.
Strum—
The spider lilies painted across the loft screen closed like living petals, and Muzan turned and departed from Infinity Castle.
With each trembling note of Nakime's biwa, the Upper Moons vanished one by one.
"Do your best, Akaza-dono. Don't disappoint Lord Muzan's expectations," Doma said, idly waving his fan.
"Nakime," Huojianyue called out.
The black-haired woman on the high platform lowered her head. "What is it?"
"Send me to Osaka."
The frail girl slipped her fox mask back on, the eyes engraved with Lower Rank One turning slowly in the dim light.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter116)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 118
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 111
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 80
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 112
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 95
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 89
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 61
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 65
Uma Musume: From Beginner 61
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 37
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