"If you kill me, your brother dies too!"
The moment those words left Kibutsuji Muzan's mouth, Yoriichi Tsugikuni's hand stopped instantly, followed immediately by his wide-open eyes.
*(He stopped...?!)*
Muzan let out a sigh of relief in his heart, but the next second, he was overcome with regret.
Not for any other reason, but because he felt Yoriichi's emotions suddenly flare up, and an oppressive aura more than twice as heavy as before rushed toward him like a tsunami.
Muzan had never felt death so viscerally. Every hair on his body stood on end and goosebumps erupted all over his skin; this feeling was far more intense than that previous question: *"What do you take human life for?"*
*Crap, did I say the wrong thing?!*
*o(╥﹏╥)o*
*No, no! Muzan didn't even know why he said that; it was just a subconscious instinct for survival, aaahhhhh!*
"What did you say?"
Yoriichi's ice-cold tone carried a suppressed fury as he interrogated the Demon King standing before him.
*His own brother? Michikatsu Tsugikuni? He will die too? What does that mean?*
Even though he knew the Demon King's words could not be trusted, the mere mention of his elder brother made Yoriichi inevitably hesitate.
As Muzan watched Yoriichi in front of him, he could feel the pain in his body beginning to subside significantly, and the wounds of all sizes on his body gradually healing...
*That's right, just like this! Stall him!*
Though he still didn't fully understand what was happening, Muzan certainly didn't want to get his head chopped off the moment he opened his eyes.
"I said... your brother, Michikatsu Tsugikuni. He will die too."
Kibutsuji Muzan said word by word.
Looking at Yoriichi's incredulous face, for some reason, remarks that completely bypassed his brain suddenly spilled out of Muzan's mouth—
"Your elder brother has already turned into a demon. If you kill me, he will die too."
"...Hahaha, what is that expression? Swordsman of the Demon Slayer Corps?"
"You don't think I'm the one who turned him into a demon, do you? On the contrary... it was he! He begged me to turn him into a demon of his own accord!!"
Kibutsuji Muzan straightened his waist, feeling the pressure of the blade against his neck lessen considerably.
"Yoriichi Tsugikuni... how pathetic. You can't even protect your own elder brother."
"....Impossible."
After hearing Muzan's words, Yoriichi's state of mind was thrown into turmoil for a split second, and it was precisely this brief moment of distraction that gave Muzan his opening. He swiftly twisted his waist and kicked toward Yoriichi's temple, though it naturally missed completely. Still... Muzan had achieved his goal. With a backward leap, he put distance between himself and Yoriichi, taking the opportunity to heal the wound on his neck inflicted by the Nichirin Blade back to perfection.
*(That was close, that was so close. Good thing bringing up Michikatsu Tsugikuni worked.....)*
*(?? Wait, Michikatsu Tsugikuni?)*
Muzan suddenly froze.
*(Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba????)*
Only now did he realize that he was caught right in the plot of the anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, and on top of that, he had turned into Kibutsuji Muzan himself!!!
*ε＝ε＝ε＝(#＞д＜)? No way————!*
Even though he liked Muzan as a character, actually *becoming* Muzan was a whole different story!
Clearly, the fact of turning into Kibutsuji Muzan > the mystery of why he time-traveled.
"A demon's words cannot be trusted."
Yoriichi murmured, looking down at the Nichirin Blade in his hand, before quickly regulating his breathing to charge at Muzan once again.
Seeing this unfold, Muzan had no intention of sitting ducks and letting himself be slaughtered, so he unleashed his ultimate killer move—
Split into a thousand pieces and run!
Ah... as for why he used this particular move, Muzan himself had no idea. He only felt that every cell in his body was resisting a fight with Yoriichi, single-mindedly fixated on escape.
Yet perhaps because he had just crossed over, Muzan's control over [Muzan's] body was not particularly polished; before he could flee very far, more than half of those thousand chunks of flesh had already been hacked away. Muzan realized that at this rate, it was only a matter of time before Yoriichi caught up.
"What do I do, what do I do..."
Muzan's five brains thought rapidly until a lightbulb went off with a ding, inspiring a brilliant idea.
*(Kokushibo, get over here right now!!)*
Muzan called out mentally to Kokushibo, who had turned into a demon not long ago. As luck would have it, Kokushibo wasn't very far away. After just a brief moment, a figure wrapped in black and purple blocked Yoriichi's path, followed instantly by monstrous, towering demonic pressure.
*Good, good, saved.*
Muzan breathed a sigh of relief. If Kokushibo had been even a split second slower, he might really have died under Yoriichi's blade.
*(You know what I want you to do. Don't die, Kokushibo.)*
Those were Kibutsuji Muzan's final words before he vanished into the dark night.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Yoriichi stared blankly at the figure that had suddenly blocked his way.
"Br-Brother?"
.............
The night always lingered like a venomous snake, flicking its tongue as it watched the poor souls unable to find their way home.
Deep within a certain mountain cave, a rich stench of blood drifted out. Following the shift in perspective, one could vaguely make out a person sitting in the depths of the cave... no, they could hardly be called human anymore.
It was a lump of humanoid flesh, its muscular form currently writhing and slowly regenerating.
Bones, muscles, blood vessels, internal organs...
Little by little, meticulously repairing themselves.
*(This hurts so much...)*
It was none other than Kibutsuji Muzan, having narrowly escaped with his life.
He sat on the ground, panting heavily, slowly absorbing the scattered chunks of flesh back into his body to mend his battered form. Though he still didn't quite look human, at least he resembled a humanoid creature now.
Muzan still struggled to comprehend whether this was a dream, even though the sharp, vivid pain constantly stimulated his brain, telling him: this is no dream, this is reality.
Staring at his fully restored hand, Muzan furrowed his brow tightly.
*Why did this happen?*
He could sense that his body was extremely weak, and the willpower required to command his physical form was wobbling unsteadily. Most importantly, he felt as though a certain sense of [Control] had grown hazy, and amidst that blurred control, a thread had abruptly snapped, leaving Kibutsuji Muzan unable to perceive [its] existence anymore.
*What was that? A demon?*
A demon had broken free from his control.
"Hiss—"
Unable to ponder much further, Muzan felt as though his brain was about to explode. He clutched his forehead and began trying to regulate his body's regeneration speed.
*(Ding-dong! Host has successfully completed the mission: [Survive from Yoriichi Tsugikuni]. The system and its rewards are now unlocked for the host.)*
At that moment, a mechanical voice rang out inside Kibutsuji Muzan's head.
"?"
He jolted, quickly lifting his head to scan his surroundings, only to find the area completely empty and devoid of life.
*System... host?*
*He really did cross over!*
Kibutsuji Muzan felt an impulse to both laugh and cry; on one hand, it meant he wasn't dreaming, and on the other, he was rejoicing over having a cheat code. As a lifelong otaku who read web novels year-round, he was more than familiar with the concept of a system.
*(What reward?)*
He asked inside his mind.
*(Ding-dong! Congratulations to the host for acquiring a random reward: Robust Physique A+)*
*(Now pulling up your attribute panel:)*
*(Name: Kibutsuji Muzan*
*Gender: Male*
*Identity: Demon King*
*Special Ability: Robust Physique A+)*
*(.......)*
Gazing at the panel materialized out of thin air before him, Muzan frowned slightly, his gaze lingering on the "Special Ability" section.
*(What is a special ability?)*
*(Replying to the host: Special abilities refer to extra abilities acquired through the system. After all, as the Demon King, Kibutsuji Muzan already possesses a wide variety of abilities inherently, but the special abilities granted by the system can stack on top of the host's original capabilities.)*
*(Is that so....)*
Muzan pondered for a moment, grasping the significance of the system's reward.
Much like this Robust Physique, a Demon King's physical fitness was already far superior to an ordinary human's, but this special ability would stack directly onto that baseline. This explained why Muzan suddenly felt his body become even more robust, his recovery rate enhanced, and his defensive and offensive power elevated to a whole new level.
*(Reward levels are divided into four tiers: S+, S, A+, and A. Please complete more missions, Host, to unlock additional abilities~)*
*(How do I get missions, then?)*
*(Randomly~)*
*(.....)*
After that, the system fell completely silent.
Muzan sighed, staring at his fully recovered body and falling into deep contemplation.
*Fine, I really crossed over.*
*And right into the body of the ultimate villain.*
*Heh.....*