Deep within the Infinity Castle, the solemn strumming of a biwa echoes through the endless halls. Nakime plucks the strings with deliberate precision, each note weaving through the air like an eerie whisper of fate.
The sound is unsettling—calm yet foreboding, as if announcing something inevitable.
Then—
Pluck.
A single stroke of the biwa.
A ripple spreads through the castle. The walls twist. Space distorts.
And in an instant—
Akaza, Upper Moon One, appears.
His arrival is abrupt, disorienting, but his stance remains firm. His sharp, golden eyes scan the surroundings, his senses heightened. Something feels different. Something feels... off.
"Why was I summoned here?" he thinks, his brow furrowing.
He turns to Nakime. "Hey, Biwa Lady! Is there an Upper Moon meeting?"
Nakime's expression remains unreadable. Without missing a beat, she strums her biwa once more, her voice calm, almost indifferent.
"Yes. Lord Kokushibo has called for it."
Akaza's eyes narrow. "Kokushibo?"
His fists clench slightly. If Kokushibo himself had summoned them, this was no ordinary meeting.
Akaza tapped his chin, deep in thought. "Why would Kokushibo summon a meeting?"
His mind raced through the possibilities, but then—he froze.
"Could it be... an Upper Moon has died?"
The thought hit him like a bolt of lightning, and his eyes widened in shock.
Just as the realization settled in, a cold, mocking voice pierced the air.
"You were missing me, aren't you? Akaza-dono?"
A hand rested on Akaza's shoulder, cold and uninvited.
Akaza's body stiffened. He didn't need to turn around to know who it was.
The air shifted as Douma, the Upper Moon 2, materialized behind him. His rainbow-colored eyes glowed like cursed jewels in the dim light of the Infinity Castle. The smile stretching across his face was far from friendly—it was a grin of mockery.
Akaza's blood boiled.
Without a moment's hesitation, Akaza spun around, his fist aimed with deadly precision.
"Stay at your place, you sh*t!"
The impact was brutal, the force of Akaza's strike obliterating Douma's head in an instant. Blood sprayed in all directions.
But before Akaza could take a breath, the ground beneath them cracked open as he grabbed Douma's arm and slammed him into the floor. The impact shattered the floor beneath them, sending dust flying in all directions.
Douma's body writhed, but in a twisted, impossible way, he regenerated.
In an instant, Douma's head reformed, his eerie, unblinking eyes locking onto Akaza's with an almost childlike amusement.
Akaza's chest heaved with fury, his teeth clenched. "Tch…"
Douma, without missing a beat, unleashed a surge of energy. A powerful, cold wave of repelling ice shot outward from his body, pushing Akaza back with incredible force.
Akaza's feet scraped against the floor, but he stood his ground, eyes narrowed.
Douma laughs, his voice dripping with mockery.
"Oh no, I was just being nice to you. But you didn't care about my feelings, Akaza-dono. That's so cruel of you."
From above, perched on the crisscrossing corridors of the Infinity Castle, Eliza, the Upper Moon 4, observed the unfolding scene with mild amusement.
A soft chuckle escaped her lips. "Feelings? My foot."
Her glowing azure eyes pierced through the darkness, twin beacons of cold brilliance.
A smirk curled on her lips, her crimson lipstick glistening even in the dim light. She tilted her head slightly, exuding an air of detached elegance.
"He's lying." Her voice was like silk, yet laced with undeniable authority. "Douma… a man of feelings? That's the biggest joke I've heard in centuries. He's nothing more than a... nihilist."
Without warning—
CRACK!
A wave of frost crept up Akaza's arm at an unnatural speed. Before he could react—
SHATTER!
His entire forearm exploded into shards of ice, scattering across the ground like broken glass.
"You—"
Douma simply smiled, his rainbow eyes glimmering with mischief.
Akaza's teeth clenched, his fists tightening.
"So you want to fight, huh?" His voice was low, dangerous.
Akaza instantly regenerates his arm even faster than Douma's regeneration. Without any word—
He lunges at him.
In an instant—
Akaza's severed wrist hit the floor at the exact same moment as Douma's.
Blood splattered across the polished wooden surface of the Infinity Castle, staining it crimson.
They both stood frozen.
Even Eliza—who had remained composed this entire time—felt a flicker of unease.
For a brief moment, the only sound was the slow, rhythmic dripping of blood.
And then—
A figure loomed beside them, his presence overwhelming, suffocating.
Kokushibo
His six eyes glowed in the dim light, staring down at them with an eerie, unnatural intensity.
A shiver crawled down Akaza's spine.
Douma, for once, did not smile.
Kokushibo's voice cut through the silence like a blade.
"Akaza. Douma. What do you think you're doing?"
He didn't even look at them. Yet the weight of his words was unbearable.
The very air in the Infinity Castle thickened, pressing down on their bodies like an unseen force.
Their severed hands twitched on the ground—
Shlkkk!
Both demons regenerated instantly, stepping back without thinking, as if instinctively fleeing from death itself.
Douma lets out a chuckle, trying to break the tension.
"Oh my, Kokushibo-dono. We were just playing around—"
"This is not your playground."
The words came slow, deliberate.
Kokushibo's head tilted slightly, his six piercing eyes shifting toward them with a deathly glare.
A chill unlike anything before ran through their bones.
The Infinity Castle—though vast and endless—suddenly felt small.
Both Akaza and Douma averted their gazes. Neither dared to meet his stare.
Then—
Kokushibo's eyes turned upward.
His six glowing orbs locked onto Eliza, who had been watching from the corridors above.
Upper Moon 4, Eliza's entire body trembled.
It felt like something ancient and unstoppable had just acknowledged her existence—and not in a way she wanted.
The air around her froze.
In an instant—
She teleported.
Her figure flickered and reappeared beside the other two, instantly kneeling before him.
"Welcome back, Kokushibo-sama."
She kept her head down, refusing to look up.
Slowly, Kokushibo's gaze drifted downward, his eyes now focused solely on her.
Even without words, the message was clear—
Know your place.
The glow of his six eyes seemed to pierce through her very soul.
Kokushibo's voice was slow, deep, and absolute—
"Everyone. I declare… Upper Moon 5, Suiryu, is dead."
A sudden, crushing silence.
…
Akaza's expression darkened. "What?! Is Suiryu dead? How?! Who killed him?"
Kokushibo's six glowing eyes turned toward him. "Only he can tell what happened."
His gaze shifted past them.
Behind.
Akaza, Douma, and Eliza turned—
Whoosh.
Every candle in the Infinity Castle was extinguished at once.
Darkness swallowed the space whole.
The silence stretched.
Then—
From the abyss of shadows, two glowing crimson eyes emerged.
A presence so immense, so suffocating that even Upper Moons felt it sinking into their bones.
The crimson orbs moved forward.
Slow. Calculated. Unstoppable.
With every step, the air thickened—as if the castle itself recoiled from this entity.
Jigen.
Upper Moon 3.
The darkness bled away, revealing him in full.
His silhouette barely human, his very presence an abyss of malevolence.
The aura he emitted was unlike anything else—a void that consumed everything around it.
Then—
Jigen's gaze met Kokushibo's.
The air collapsed into something suffocating.
Two auras, impossibly heavy, clashed—each one pressing against the other like an unseen force of nature.
"Does he… know the reason for Suiryu's death?" Akaza wondered, uneasy.
Then—
Jigen lowered himself to one knee.
Kokushibo remained still, his expression unreadable, his six glowing eyes boring into him.
Then he spoke, his voice even colder than before. "Jigen. Tell me what happened to Suiryu. What exactly happened there?"
Jigen's voice was devoid of emotion.
"Lord Kokushibo… At Mount Kage, Suiryu fought five Hashiras—and he defeated them all."
A beat of silence.
Then—
"…But later, he fought a non-demon slayer."
Kokushibo's eyes narrowed slightly.
Jigen's next words shook the room.
"…A mist breathing user. And… he was killed."
The reaction was immediate.
"WHAT?!"
Akaza stepped forward, his face contorted in disbelief.
"A mist breathing user who isn't even a demon slayer? You're telling me this guy was stronger than five damn Hashiras… and single-handedly defeated Suiryu?!"
Jigen nods.
The weight of his confirmation made even the Infinity Castle feel colder.
Kokushibo stays calm, his voice calm yet sharp.
"Hmm... A mist breathing user. Not a demon slayer. Interesting."
His six glowing eyes bore into Jigen.
"…But how do you know so much about him?"
Jigen's voice was eerily calm. "Lord Kokushibo, that's because I defeated that mist breathing user… right after he killed Suiryu."
Kokushibo's six glowing eyes narrowed.
"So, did you kill him?"
Jigen slowly shook his head.
"I could have. In an instant. But… there was someone else with him."
Silence followed.
The air grew colder.
Even Douma, usually carefree, didn't dare to interrupt.
Akaza's eyes narrowed. "Someone else? Even you couldn't stop? Who could it be?"
Jigen's crimson eyes glowed ominously.
"The chosen one…
Yoriichi Tsugikuni."
A violent tremor ran through Akaza and Douma's bodies.
A reaction not of their own will— but of Muzan's very cells.
Their instincts screamed.
Their bodies remembered a fear buried deep in their blood.
Kokushibo's composure shattered.
"WHAT?! You fought Yoriichi?!"
Jigen nodded.
Kokushibo's voice rose, sharp and furious.
"HOW DID YOU SURVIVE?! WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT?! EXPLAIN EVERYTHING!!"
Jigen locked eyes with him.
His gaze—deep, knowing, and unfathomable—gleamed with an unnatural spark.
Then—
In a mere glance, he shared his experience with them all.
In an instant, the entire battle played out before their eyes.
The clash of blades. The burning radiance of Sun Breathing. The overwhelming, godlike presence of Yoriichi.
The memory seared into their minds like an inescapable nightmare.
The vision faded.
A deafening silence followed.
The Infinity Castle felt suffocating.
Kokushibo, usually unreadable, was visibly shaken, his breath slow and heavy.
After a long, unbearable pause—
"…Jigen."
His voice was low, yet boiling with restrained fury.
"Why didn't you inform me about him? Don't you know I've been waiting for this moment… for centuries?"
Jigen's expression remained unreadable. "Lord Kokushibo, I truly apologize for my mistake.
But I was testing his power… for you."
Kokushibo's six eyes flashed.
"Testing?"
A pause...
"Tell me then—what did you conclude?
Can any of us defeat him?"
A heavy silence...
Jigen's lips barely parted as he whispered—
"No one can beat that man."
A deadly chill passed through the room.
Kokushibo clenched his fists, veins bulging against his pale skin.
"No one?" His voice was dangerously quiet.
"Not even I?"
Jigen's crimson eyes flickered.
"Lord Kokushibo, I am not certain about you."
"…But to fight him, you must develop a power unlike anything seen before.
A unique, overwhelming ability that can counter the Thirteenth Form of Sun Breathing.
Or else… you know."
Kokushibo's six eyes darkened.
His teeth gritted. His fists tightened.
"…Alright."
A suffocating silence lingered.
Then—
Douma breaks it again with his fake grief. "I'm so sorry for Suiryu's death. He was really a good person."
Akaza glares at him. "Good person? He was even worse than you. I'm glad that he is dead."
Douma's eyes widened. "Woah woah! Don't be so rude, Akaza-dono."
Eliza speaks up. "He is better dead now." She folds her arms. "A person like him shouldn't even exist in our team."
"Even you too?" From a fake sadness, Douma bursts into laughter. "I thought only I don't feel emotions."
His grin widened—sharp, sinister.
Jigen suddenly turned.
Without a word—
He walked away.
His footsteps echoed through the castle. The tension in the air followed him, clinging to the walls.
"Allow me to leave now."
Before anyone could respond—
He disappeared. But his presence lingered.
His aura didn't fade immediately. It loomed in the air for a few moments longer—an ominous, fading shadow—before finally vanishing.
The demons stood in silence.
Each of them staring at the spot where Jigen had disappeared.
Confused. Uneasy. All except on—
Kokushibo.
His six burning eyes were deep in thought.
Not about Jigen.
Not about Suiryu.
Not even about the meeting.
His mind was elsewhere.
On one man—
Ren.
———————————————————————
At midnight.
The air was thick, rotten with decay.
Jigen stood alone in an abandoned, ruined wasteland. Crumbling structures loomed like forgotten gravestones, their skeletal remains stretching into the starless sky.
Everywhere—death.
Lifeless crows, twisted insects, stray cats with hollowed-out eyes—all scattered around him like remnants of a forgotten massacre.
A whisper passed through his lips—
"BLOOD DEMON TECHNIQUE: SOUL AWAKEN"
A sickening shift in the atmosphere—
The corpses stirred.
Twitching. Writhing. Awakening.
From their mangled remains, pale, translucent figures began to emerge—spectral husks of agony.
Their soulless voices rose in a fractured symphony of pain.
"DIE! YOU MONSTER! DIE! DIE! DIE!!!"
Each syllable barely above a whisper.
Their hollowed eyes burned with suffering as they were forcefully absorbed into his being—one by one—until their screams dissolved into silence.
Then—
A whisper echoed behind.
Soft. Deliberate. Too close.
"Oh… so you were here."
The voice brushed against his ear like a phantom breeze.
Jigen's crimson gaze sharpened.
Eliza.
"Why doesn't she mind her own business?" he thinks.
He rose from the ruins, maintaining a respectful distance.
Slowly, he turned to face her.
His voice was low, controlled. "I don't know why you're still here. However… is there anything I can do for you?"
She smiled, her crimson lips curled—a sharp, knowing smirk.
"Yeah… actually."
She raised her hand toward him.
"ERASE!"
Reality twisted.
His form glowed blindingly white—his shadows peeling away, unraveling, distorting.
Like an old painting being stripped layer by layer—his true form began to emerge.
Piece by piece.
Inch by inch.
His true form emerged.
A hand first—pale as bone, yet untouched by decay. The fingers—long, slender, unnaturally perfect—twitched as though they were learning existence anew.
Then, the sleeve of his robes materialized—black, endless, swallowing the surrounding. The fabric did not simply exist; it devoured.
His hair flowed next—dark, cascading in uneven waves, strands shifting unnaturally as if they carried the weight of countless lifetimes.
And then—
His face.
Crimson eyes, deep and abyssal, flared to life like dying suns—their glow so intense that the air around them seemed to warp, suffocating under their radiance.
Thick lashes framed them, making his gaze almost unbearably captivating… yet wrong.
His skin—pale, flawless, but disturbingly cold. Like the untouched surface of a moon that had never seen the warmth of the sun.
Even now, as his perfect face was revealed, there was no emotion.
No triumph. No anger.
Nothing.
Just a void—a face that should have belonged to a god… but instead, mirrored something beyond human comprehension... or devil.
The ground trembled beneath him, unable to withstand the sheer wrongness of his existence.
"Now you look better!" She smiles.
Jigen's eyes widened.
A slow, unnatural twitch ran through his fingers.
"Why you—"
And then—
He moved.
His fingers dug into his own scalp, sharp nails tearing into his flesh.
Scratching. Carving. Destroying.
Ripping apart the face that reflected in her gaze. The sound of flesh splitting filled the dead air, wet, raw, unnatural.
A grotesque mosaic of crimson.
Long, jagged gashes spread across his face like cracks on a shattered mask.
But it wasn't enough.
His fingers trembled, then burrowed deeper—digging, carving, destroying.
Dark blood—so rich it was almost ink—streamed down his face, dripping from his chin like cursed rain.
His once-pristine beauty is gone, replaced by something grotesque.
Yet, even as he ripped himself apart, his expression never changed.
No wince. No scream.
Nothing.
Only those dying sun eyes, watching as his own blood painted his hands.
Eliza's smirk vanished.
"Stop!" She lunged forward, her delicate fingers snatching his wrists in a steel grip.
For a moment, his hands twitched in hers, resisting, like a feral beast that had tasted its own ruin and wanted more.
Her azure eyes narrowed.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Jigen finally looked at her.
Blood smeared across his face like a twisted masterpiece. His lips parted slightly, as if he were about to speak—
But he didn't.
He just stared.
His expressionless face, now ruined beyond recognition, was somehow even more terrifying than before.
Blood trickled down his cheeks, staining his lips, his chin. His hair and robes—drenched in his own suffering.
His eyes, still burning—piercing through her.
More terrifying than ever.