Chapter 60: Immortal Oni? Do You Know Kibutsuji Muzan?
Kobe Hikaru received no answer. The creature wailed, a sound of pure agony and fury, its face contorting in a mask of pain. It seemed unwilling—or perhaps unable—to respond.
He stared down at the monster, pinned to the earth by a cage of jagged Bone Spikes. It was drenched in its own blood, a grotesque tableau of violence, yet it refused to die. A chilling thought began to crystallize in Hikaru's mind.
This thing possessed a terrifying regenerative ability.
It was neither a yokai nor an oni, at least not in the sense he understood them.
He carefully sifted through the memories of his past life, before he had been reborn into this world. The creature's appearance was a haunting echo of something he'd seen before: the deathly pale skin, the sunken eye sockets, the crimson, predatory pupils.
It had near-infinite regenerative power; not even a pierced heart could kill it. His spiritual power had caused it immense pain, but it hadn't been enough to grant it a final death. It was bloodthirsty, brutal, and self-aware, yet its consciousness was clearly shackled by bestial instinct.
And most, it was not a yokai or a ghost native to this era.
It possessed a form of immortality.
If his guess was correct—
Then this world wasn't just a fusion of Inuyasha and Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan.
It had been blended with another work entirely.
"Interesting," Hikaru murmured, his voice a low rumble.
In that single moment of clarity, he understood. This world was far more complex than he had ever imagined. More dangerous.
And, consequently, filled with far more opportunities.
...
Tsubaki stood at a safe distance, untouched by the carnage, watching the scene unfold. The monster was impaled, pinned to the ground by countless bone protrusions Hikaru had conjured, yet it was not dead. Its crimson eyes still darted about, swimming with a potent mixture of hatred and fear.
"What in the world is that thing?" she murmured to herself.
It wasn't a yokai. It wasn't an oni. Yet it possessed a healing factor that would put most high-level demons to shame. This was deeply unnatural.
Just as the thought crossed her mind, Kikyo appeared beside her, her arrival as silent and seamless as a falling shadow. The priestess, clad in her iconic white and red hakama, had her lustrous black hair tied back with a single ribbon. She held her longbow, and an invisible aura of glorious spiritual power radiated from her form, pure and untouchable.
Her expression was as cool and placid as ever.
"Are you alright?" Kikyo asked, her voice even.
Tsubaki gritted her teeth, the words catching in her throat. "...Thank you."
She had to force them out. The last thing she ever wanted was to be indebted to Kikyo. But the truth was obvious. If not for Kikyo's timely arrow and the Oni Samurai's sudden intervention, she would likely be a mangled corpse by now.
Kikyo paid her terse attitude no mind. Her gaze was fixed on the creature pinned to the ground.
"That thing..." she began, a slight frown creasing her brow. "I have never seen its like."
"It's not a yokai," Tsubaki stated, her tone sharp with certainty. "My barrier has a powerful restraining effect on all yokai, but it was completely useless against it."
"Nor is it an ordinary ghost," Kikyo added. "My Sacred Arrow can wound it, but it cannot purify it. The spiritual energy had no lasting effect at all."
Only brute force seemed to work.
The two priestesses exchanged a look, and for a rare moment, they were united in their shared confusion.
...
Hikaru ignored the two bewildered miko behind him. His attention was entirely focused on the monster before him. He was almost certain of his theory now. This creature, and the world it came from, was one he had seen in his previous life.
The name of that story was... Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
It was a world where the main conflict revolved around slaying grotesque, man-eating demons. However, unlike the yokai of Inuyasha or Nura, the demons of that world were not supernatural spirits. They were all descended from a single, progenitor demon—a human who had been transformed by a peculiar medicine.
This Progenitor of Demons could then create more of his kind by infecting humans with his own blood. The resulting demons possessed a form of immortality, their only weaknesses being direct sunlight and the special Nichirin Swords, forged from ore that had absorbed the sun's energy.
If this creature was one of them, it made perfect sense that a miko's spiritual power would be less effective. From what Hikaru recalled, the existence of their progenitor, Kibutsuji Muzan, was tied to something almost divine in its own twisted way. He was neither human nor demon in the traditional sense, but something in between—an existence not bound by the simple dichotomy of purity and impurity.
Of course, for a priestess of Kikyo's caliber, dealing with such a creature would not be impossible. Sealing it would be a simple matter for the woman who could contain even the malevolent will of Magatsuhi.
But Hikaru was still operating on a guess. He needed absolute confirmation.
"Can you understand me?" he asked, his voice cutting through the creature's pained gasps.
The monster's eyes darted wildly, finally locking onto him.
"Kill..." it rasped.
"I know you want to kill me," Hikaru said, squatting down to meet its gaze, his own eyes calm and unblinking. "But before that—answer me a question."
The monster fell silent, but its eyes spoke volumes. It was listening.
Hikaru knew exactly what to ask. If this thing was truly a demon from that world, then it had to know one name. The name of the man who created them all. The name that struck terror into the hearts of his own creations.
"You," Hikaru began, his voice low but carrying with perfect clarity. It slid into the monster's ears like a shard of ice.
"Do you know Kibutsuji Muzan?"
...
In an instant, the monster's body went rigid. It wasn't from the pain of the Bone Spikes this time. It was from fear—a pure, primal, and instinctive terror that seized every fiber of its being.
Its crimson eyes, once filled with hatred, suddenly blew wide with horror. It stared at Hikaru as if he were a god of death. But it was a demon itself! How could it fear anything more than what it was?
"You... how do you know that name!?" its voice trembled, cracking with disbelief. "How do you know... that Lord's name!"
That Lord.
Hikaru's eyes narrowed. He had his confirmation. This thing didn't just know Kibutsuji Muzan; it revered him with a terrified, cult-like devotion. Judging from its title for him, it was almost certainly one of the demons created by Muzan himself.
"Just as I thought," Hikaru whispered. He rose to his full height, looking down at the creature pinned beneath him.
At this point, the monster had completely ceased its struggles. It could only stare blankly up at Hikaru, its mind reeling in disbelief.
"You... who in the world are you...?" it stammered. "Why do you know that Lord's name... Could it be that you are also..."
"What I am doesn't matter," Hikaru interrupted coolly. He looked into those terrified eyes and allowed a small smile to touch his lips. Under the pale moonlight, the expression looked exceptionally eerie, like a hunter gazing down at prey that had already fallen into his trap.
"What matters is—" he said, savoring the moment. "I have confirmed what I needed to know."
The monster's body began to tremble even more violently.
...
In the distance, both Kikyo and Tsubaki had heard the name.
Kibutsuji Muzan. It was completely unfamiliar to them. But judging by the monster's visceral reaction, that name was no small matter.
"Who is that?" Tsubaki asked, frowning.
Kikyo shook her head. "I do not know."
Her gaze fell upon Hikaru's back. That lone figure, a silhouette of red and white armor, stood under the moonlight like a demon god who had just stepped out of hell. He knew that name. He knew the origin of this monster.
He... just how many more secrets was he hiding?
Kikyo still did not press for answers. But a seed of curiosity had been planted in her heart, blossoming alongside a quiet sense of expectation.
That Oni Samurai named Kobe Hikaru. He always seemed to bring her surprises.
[Shikon no Tama: Naohi: Favorability +1]
[Current Favorability: 52 (Trust)]
[It conveys a message to you: "The scent on that monster smells very bad."]
["But you handled it well."]
Hikaru glanced at the prompts appearing on his internal panel, a flicker of satisfaction warming him. Tonight's harvest had been even greater than he had imagined. It wasn't just a new ability he had gained, but new, critical information.
The world of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was also a part of this reality.
That meant Kibutsuji Muzan might exist somewhere in this land. The powerful Upper-Rank demons might exist. And, most tantalizingly, the Nichirin Swords that could slay them might also exist.
Danger and opportunity, coexisting in a delicate, thrilling balance.
"Interesting," he whispered to the night air. "This world is getting more and more interesting."
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