Capítulo 20: Demons, Gods, and the Spread of Visions Across the World
"Oh my God!"
"Monsters this terrifying exist in the world? I must make sure this news spreads across the entire globe!"
"This is a miracle of the gods! There have been divine manifestations in the shrines of this country!"
"I have to get firsthand coverage of this!"
Journalists from newspapers all over the world who were stationed in Tokyo had taken refuge inside the shrines. Trembling with fear yet brimming with excitement, they snapped photographs of the demons outside, writhing under the suppressive radiance of the divine light.
"My Lord! Demons truly exist… Then gods must exist too! How else can we explain such an utterly unscientific miracle?"
A priest clutching a Bible mumbled prayers incessantly. Though he had dedicated his entire life to the belief in God, this was the first time he had witnessed an actual miracle—even if it came from the gods of another land.
"Look! What is that? It's flying in the sky! What an incredible power!"
"And those people, wielding swords like legendary heroes from myth—what is going on? Are those divine blessings too?"
Scenes of the Demon Slayer Corps members who possessed "Visions" slaying demons and healing the wounded were all captured by these international reporters.
Under relentless questioning from the reporters, the shrine priests eventually puffed their chests with pride and divulged bits of information about "Narukami" and the "Visions," leaving the foreign journalists from Europe exclaiming in awe.
The Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, advancing from eight different directions, cut down demons relentlessly as they closed the encirclement toward the Kōkyū.
Though Tokyo had indeed become a city of demons in name, the actual number of demons was far fewer than they had expected.
Even if Muzan Kibutsuji tried to create demons as frantically as possible, it was impossible to turn an entire city's population into demons. Compared to the vast number of humans, the number of demons was still pitifully small.
The demons created by the Twelve Kizuki's efforts to mass-produce lower-level demons numbered fewer than ten thousand.
The number of civilians killed and eaten by the demons hadn't exceeded the number of demons themselves. Most of the casualties had been among the soldiers and patrol teams fighting against the demons.
"Insect Breathing: Dance of the Centipede - Hundred-Legged Zigzag!"
Shinobu Kocho advanced at incredible speed, her movements leaving an illusion of a centipede's shadow trailing behind her. Each demon she passed seemed as though it had been shredded into pieces by the enormous phantom centipede.
"At this pace, we'll reach the Kōkyū soon, Sister," she said.
"Indeed," replied Kanae Kocho. "After all, we have our Visions. On top of that, Lady Fox Spirit has already established the great barrier suppressing the demons. Those caught within the barrier have completely lost their ability to act."
As she spoke, Kanae Kocho used the power of her Vision to heal those wounded by the demons.
People who had lost arms or legs to demon bites, or even those whose stomachs had been torn open, were restored to their original state one by one.
Those who survived the ordeal wept with gratitude, treating Kanae Kocho as if she were a goddess.
In Shintoism, all things in the universe were considered to be gods, and many local deities worshipped across the land were, in fact, yokai of various forms.
In all eight directions, each Hashira was guided by their respective Kasugai Crow as they pressed onward, killing demons without pause.
Though each Hashira had already slain over five hundred demons, none of them felt fatigued.
Under the effects of the barrier, the demons were utterly powerless to resist. Killing them was as effortless as cutting through vegetables.
This didn't even account for the "Vision holders," who were even more devastating. Some had already reached the Kōkyū.
"Looks like I'm the first to arrive."
Tengen Uzui stood on the stone bridge leading to the Kōkyū, the faint glow of his Vision at his waist radiating softly. Invisible soundwaves spread outward, and in an instant, he grasped the situation in his surroundings.
The reason Tengen Uzui had reached the Kōkyū, the area most densely packed with demons, faster than anyone else was that he didn't need his eyes to see. His heightened senses allowed him to perceive everything across an expansive range, leaving no demon hidden from him. There was no need to waste time searching for his targets.
At that moment, inside the pavilions and courtyards of the Kōkyū, countless demons were feasting on human corpses. Judging by their attire, these were once maids and servants who had worked in the homes of these aristocratic families.
Amid the chaos, numerous ordinary women had been captured and dragged here. Their terrified screams echoed endlessly through the halls.
Tengen Uzui, himself born into a noble family of shinobi, was no stranger to the depravity of the aristocracy. Even as demons, the nobles' twisted behaviors hadn't vanished with their transformation.
They chose to feast on only the finest—children and women.
In Tengen Uzui's eyes, this country had long been corrupted by its aristocracy. Their decadence had led to its downfall, yet no one had been able to address the problem.
Now, with these aristocrats turned into demons, it fell to him to personally put an end to their atrocities.
In the past, even laying a hand on the imperial family or a regional noble would have cost him dearly—incurring the wrath of the entire ruling class. But now, killing them was not only necessary but unavoidable.
"Four Upper Rank demons, and seventeen Lower Rank demons here in total. What an absurd number. If this were before yesterday, let alone this many Upper and Lower Rank demons, I wouldn't have even been able to take down a single Upper Rank demon."
"For my first time using this move, let's see how many demons I can kill at once!"
"Sound Breathing: Fourth Form - Constant Resounding Slashes!"
Tengen Uzui's dual chained blades spun wildly in his hands, the glow of his Vision shining brilliantly at his waist. Waves of crescent-shaped purple energy, two meters wide, surged toward the gate of the Kōkyū.
Boom! Rumble!
The city's moat, walls, and the pavilions atop the walls were instantly obliterated by the purple crescents.
The demons inside the pavilions were blown apart, their bodies utterly reduced to fragments. The soundwaves left by Tengen's attack ensured that their shattered forms could never regenerate.
"This is one of those so-called demon hunters I've heard about? I've heard of the Ubuyashiki family. To dare intrude into the Kōkyū and offend our Emperor Tianhuang… I'll eat you alive!"
An Upper Rank demon, clearly one of higher status, charged forward, leading a horde of demons toward Tengen Uzui.
The battle began. Empowered by the strength of his Vision, Tengen Uzui was now more than ten times stronger than his previous self. He even surpassed the legendary swordsman, Yoriichi Tsugikuni, from five hundred years ago by a small margin.
Five centuries ago, Yoriichi Tsugikuni had cut through Upper Rank demons as easily as slicing vegetables. For Tengen Uzui, now wielding the power of a Vision, the result was no different.
As Tengen Uzui fought, the other Hashira also began engaging in battle across the Kōkyū.
Even foreign journalists, heedless of the danger, trailed behind the Demon Slayer Corps to capture photographs of the scene.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo Bay, aboard a sailing ship:
Kamisato Ayato held a frozen Muzan Kibutsuji, who had been rendered immobile, now an ice sculpture. He leapt from the ship as Kamisato Ayaka used her Vision to create a thin layer of ice on the water's surface. The two swiftly dashed across the frozen sea toward the harbor.
Kamisato Ayato remarked, "Good thing the Guuji sent us here to wait in ambush, or he might have escaped."
"Still," Ayaka replied, "I don't think Lady Guuji possesses powers of foresight. This must have been a tip-off from the god from Celestia to our Guuji."
In Chiba Prefecture, not far from Tokyo, a small yet bustling medical clinic had its lights still burning late into the night.
The doors to the operating room opened, and anxious family members rushed forward.
"Lady Tamayo, my father, he…"
"Don't worry, your father is now out of danger," Tamayo reassured them, her calm voice and gentle demeanor putting their minds at ease.
Saving yet another life brought Tamayo, a demon herself, a deep sense of joy and fulfillment.
But just then, the clinic doors were flung open with a loud bang.
"Lady Tamayo! Lady Tamayo! Something big has happened!"
Tamayo frowned slightly and chided, "Yushiro, why are you being so frantic? If you frighten the patients and worsen their condition, who will take responsibility?"
Though Tamayo was a kind, motherly figure, Yushiro knew very well that she could be terrifying when angry. As one of her subordinate demons, he could feel her displeasure acutely.
After a brief moment of fear, however, Yushiro's mind began to wander back to Tamayo's beauty. Ah! Even an angry Lady Tamayo is so breathtakingly beautiful.
Tamayo sighed at his reaction. "Now, what's the matter, Yushiro, to make you act so recklessly?"
"Here, Lady Tamayo, take a look at this!"
Yushiro handed her a newspaper. Tamayo took it, her expression shifting from calm to stunned, then confused, and finally, utterly shocked.
"Muzan Kibutsuji turned the imperial family and high-ranking nobles into demons, attempting to transform Tokyo into a city of demons? He fought against the military within the city?"
"And in the end, the gods intervened, suppressing all the demons in Tokyo under divine light?"
What on earth was going on?
In her human years, Tamayo had been a highly skilled doctor. Muzan Kibutsuji had forcibly turned her into a demon, compelling her to endlessly experiment in his quest for a drug to overcome the sun.
As someone who had served closely by his side during that time, Tamayo knew Muzan's personality better than anyone else.
Could someone as cowardly and paranoid as Muzan really carry out something this audacious?
After all, even five hundred years ago, when Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the creator of the Breathing Techniques, had died, Muzan was so terrified that he hid for a hundred years.
She couldn't wrap her head around why Muzan would engage in something so outrageous.
"Where did this news come from?"
"It's spreading everywhere now. Practically every newspaper has made it their front-page headline," Yushiro said excitedly. "There's even news about Visions and the descent of Lady Fox Spirit! Look here, Lady Tamayo."
Yushiro began pulling out newspapers from different publishers and laying them in front of her.
"I see now. If this is true, then it makes sense," Tamayo said, realization dawning upon her as she read through the articles.
Though Muzan was cowardly, he was also utterly terrified of death.
If the gods had truly descended with the express purpose of killing him and had bestowed powerful blessings upon the Demon Slayer Corps—blessings so potent they could even track demons—then Muzan would have acted out of desperation.
To avoid being exposed and executed by the gods, he would have done exactly this: frantically creating more demons to cause chaos while secretly plotting his own escape.
"This time, Muzan Kibutsuji has caused a catastrophe of unprecedented scale," Yushiro said with an excited fervor. "He's turned nearly all the nobles and members of the imperial family within the shogunate into demons. The country is now being temporarily managed by the shrines. And now, nations from all over the world are inquiring about the gods, Muzan Kibutsuji, the Visions, Lady Fox Spirit, and the existence of demons."
"The whole world knows about Muzan Kibutsuji?" Tamayo muttered in disbelief. And what was this about "Visions"?
"That's not all," Yushiro continued. "According to the announcement made by the chief priests of the shrines, tomorrow at noon, there will be a public trial of Muzan Kibutsuji hosted jointly by the shrines and the Ubuyashiki family."
"A trial… for Muzan Kibutsuji?"
Tamayo's expression grew serious.
"I don't know the full details yet," she said, "but with everything escalating to such proportions, I must go and see for myself whether the one being judged is truly Muzan Kibutsuji."
Even though Muzan frequently changed his appearance, as someone who had once served closely by his side, Tamayo was confident she could recognize him at a glance.
"I'll prepare a carriage for you immediately, Lady Tamayo," Yushiro said eagerly.
Not only Tamayo, but even the Upper Rank demons, who were still unaware they had been abandoned, were utterly baffled.
What was going on? Muzan Kibutsuji had turned the imperial family and high-ranking nobles into demons in Tokyo, started a feast of carnage, fought the military, and in the end, managed to make the entire world aware of it all?
That didn't seem right. Was this something that Lord Muzan was even capable of doing?
After all, they had often been reprimanded for eating humans too brazenly, with Muzan warning them that such actions would draw too much attention. If they didn't listen, he would not hesitate to kill them.
And now Muzan Kibutsuji himself had been captured? He was to be publicly judged tomorrow at noon?
Could this really be true? Or was it some elaborate shogunate plot targeting demons?
True or not, the reality was grim—if the Demon King were to be killed, they, as demons cursed and controlled by him, would perish alongside him.
So whether it was real or not, they had to find out.
But there was one enormous problem: they had no idea where Muzan Kibutsuji was now.
The trial was set to take place at noon tomorrow. But even if they did find him, just the sunrise alone would be enough to reduce them to ashes.
Dawn gradually broke.
The first rays of sunlight spilled over this sleepless city.
The once-bustling streets were now sparsely scattered with blackened patches of ash, remnants of burnt demon bodies. Here and there lay severed limbs and chunks of flesh, and in the corners, abandoned rifles.
Golden shell casings and the faint scent of gunpowder littered the streets, a testament to the events of the night before.
Meanwhile, the thousands of shrines across Tokyo were surrounded by crowds of people. It was evident just how vital these sacred sites had been for the populace during the night's terror.
While the ordinary citizens of Tokyo began cautiously stepping back into their daily routines, the city's newspapers were in a frenzy. Printing presses roared at full speed, and the freshly printed editions were handed directly to eager newsboys.
"Extra! Extra! The mastermind behind the imperial family's transformation into demons and the Tokyo Night Parade of a Hundred Demons—Muzan Kibutsuji, the thousand-year-old Demon King—has been captured!"
"Extra! Extra! Today at noon, the thousand-year-old Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji will be judged by the priests at Sawamaki Shrine!"
"Extra! Extra! Following the trial of the Demon King, the chief priest will make an announcement to nations across the world!"
Exhausted from a night of fear and hiding among the ruins, people wearily emerged onto the streets. Hearing the cries of the newsboys, they raised their hands.
"Give me a paper!"
"I'll take one too!"
Within moments, the newspapers were sold out. Across the country, people learned of the events that had unfolded in Tokyo.
"He's been caught? That cursed Demon King has been captured?"
"Yes, I heard he was caught by two celestial beings who descended from Takamagahara. We'll get to see them too!"
"Even so… what does it matter if that damn Demon King has been caught? My son, who worked in the Kōkyū, was eaten by demons. He's gone forever!"
"Though those who were killed by the demons cannot return, we can still pray to the gods for our loved ones' happiness in the next life."
"I suppose that's all we can do. May the gods bless us. May Lady Fox Spirit bless us. May the celestial beings bless us."
"Let's go. I want to see the Demon King judged by the gods!"
Noon.
In front of Sawamaki Shrine, under the blazing sun, Muzan Kibutsuji was bound to a tall wooden post. A large umbrella had been propped above his head to shield him from the sunlight.
Just recently thawed out and regaining his consciousness, Muzan was utterly bewildered.
Everywhere he looked, all he could see were endless masses of people. A vast crowd of humans surrounded him, and around them, a ring of demon slayers stood guard.
Wasn't he already aboard the ship bound for a foreign land across the Pacific Ocean?
As fragments of recent memory resurfaced in his mind, his face turned pale.
He had boarded the ship. But as he heard someone call out to him, he had turned around—only to see those two celestial beings who had descended from Takamagahara.
And then… nothing.
After that, he remembered nothing.
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