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Muzan walked down the streets, gritting his teeth with such force that it could be heard from meters away. He was furious. Two of his Uppermoons have perished resulting in no Hashiras casualties? Preposterous! His servants truly are weak! If he is to rid this world of the Demon Slayers, he must strengthen his moons to the fullest degree.
Muzan closed his eyes, but that is not the end goal, if too much blood is pumped, there is a high risk of his top demons losing their intelligence, thus, making them completely unreliable to achieve his true goal: find the Blue Spider Lily. It is the only thing that could truly achieve true immortality for him. If it was found, he would be able to walk in the daylight and become the perfect being that he is so close to being.
His form pulsed and shrunk into the size of a boy, he has killed him a few months ago and has taken his place. He parades in a family as a Boy Genius to gather information regarding the location of the flower. He was so close! He could feel the power right in his reach! He has tracked down the location of Blue Spider Lily flower to be somewhere in the countryside near Saitama, but what hubris that thousands of demons have scowered and searched upon those lands, even missing the attention of the Demon Slayers for a few days that they were completely unable to find anything.
'Incompetent Fools! I cannot recount the amount of times my time has been wasted by those groveling pests!' A vein pulsed upon his forehead.
The books around his room has toppled over and formed a mess, his eyes read and dragged across the books, searching for a clue for the mystical plant, as he had for years now. He looked up for a split moment at the room and recalled his meeting with Akaza, Uppermoon Rank Three.
The boy was gifted, but refused to truly activate his potential, his complete lack of resolve in killing women always baffled him, but his failure to destroy the boy with the hanafuda earrings drove him over the edge and he was subsequently punished. He has never felt so disappointed at his third moon in all the decades he has been at his side.
The maid his parents hired entered his room and was complete shocked at the state of his room.
"Dear, what in the world happened here?"
Muzan had half a mind to brutalize her then and there, but for the sake of finding a cure for the sun, he had to keep up the facade and pulled out the cutest face he could muster upon his face.
"The pop quiz tomorrow is very hard! I have to study to make my parents proud!" He proclaimed.
The maid obviously fell for the ruse and was satisfied with the answer. "Just don't sleep too late. "She closed the door leaving the Demon king with himself.
'I have half a mind to kill her once I get what I need here. 'Muzan thought as he looked at the book once more. He was reading the section containing the Red Spider Lily, it belonged to the same family as the Blue Spider Lily, but completely useless to curing him in any capacity. The room grew quiet and silent, suddenly the candle next to him blew out.
Muzan looked over, he obviously did not need the candle for his research, but the way it blew out was odd. The candle was fizzled out as if a wind blew by, which would be impossible as no wind would even circulate in the room, or even detected by his senses.
He decided not to dwell on it and kept on reading, before the room goes dark as the rest of the candles fizzled out. He was alone but he kept on searching. Soon, he ran out of books, and decided to drink a glass of water before he was done for the day, but then, he heard something.
Muzan's ear received a cacophony of sounds, a song coming from a man's whistle, but it felt off, otherworldly and strange. The sound was not coming from anyone but seems to be from the room. His cells were on high alert he turned his head and there a man was. Next to him was a man sitting right on the chair, next to him.
His features were masked underneath a black cloak, but he could faintly see that the man was muscular but frail, he held elegance and stature, but lacked the arrogance and pride judging by his rather modest appearance.
He looked at him in confusion. He had prepared his claws and demon art to slice this man down for even daring to stare at him, but he felt as if he should explain how he was able to move so quickly, even catching his own senses offguard.
The man took a glass of water and drank it's with each gulping sound being more deeper than the last, then he spoke.
"Well well, if it isn't the boy genius himself?"
Muzan just realized he was still in the body of a boy, and responded accordingly.
"Why yes and you are?"
The man seemed to stop for a moment, then chuckled. " Me? We're not here to talk about me, we're here to talk about you. "
He quipped his eye, " what?"
The man smiled at him, a deadly and dangerous one.
" Come on, everyone knows you, the legend! The boy genius of town, who won competitions so easily that none could compare and who scored the highest academics this village has ever seen! But I have to admit, I caught onto the rumour that you were dyslexic a few months ago, that you couldn't even get out of the dumps, some would even say you basically changed overnight, that it was.. unnatural. ".
Muzan kept his calm demeanor but inside his veins threatened to burst out of his head. Does this hobo know who he is? If he does, he is either foolish or, both would result in the same answer. He analyzed the man infront of him and immediately noticed red flags. He does not seem to have a particularly strong fighting spirits in fact he does not seem to have one at all, a quiet room is the best he could describe it, even a lowly worm has at least something, and his arms, they are scared and withered with dark scars and wounds, his eyes glow red behind the cloak, and his skin color is nearly as pale as the moonlight itself.
He decided to attack now, his head contorted with veins as his whips lashed out at hypersonic speeds and power unseen before anyone upon the world, but then the unexpected happened, he stepped and bent his body and dodged his attack.
.
.
.
What?
Muzan's eyes widened into plates as he struck again with even more tentacles, but he kept on missing and dodging his attacks. Then, he suddenly grabbed them all, and straightened them, causing Muzan to stumble and he hit him straight in the gut which caused him to fly against the sides of the room, hitting a few books and causing cracks upon the brick wall.
'Who was this guy? ' Muzan thought, was he a Hashira? He must be if he was even able to respond to Uppermoons, let alone the demon king himself! Muzan kept on using more different and unique demon arts that seemed to have no effect upon his enemy who casually dodged everything he threw at him. He threw a whipping blood streak upon the cloaked figure when suddenly, he pulled out two red Nichirin Swords and caught the whip before it even touched him with the blades in his hands, the strength behind them was so great that it caused Muzan's feet to stumble back slightly before the man kicked him back to the corner creating another crack upon the room's infrastructure.
Muzan bit his lip so hard that it poured blood and immediately went back to fighting him down, using whips numbering in the hundreds sprouting all across his body. The man used his sword stood deflect all of them with speed unseen by any human for decades.
"Y'know, I have heard many stories that the Demon King was unstoppable, u killable and could level even mountains."
he man was able to grab him by the neck and whispered in his ear. "You're not living up to your reputation, Muzan Kibutusji." He then slammed him upon the ground and struck him across his body, with it inches away from his neck.
Muzan stumbled back yet again but felt horror gripping his soul, his wound wasn't healing, his regeneration of his body completely halted, but that was not what scared him. A wind blew past and unmasked his enemy, his eyes were fiery red, his red hair flowing with hanafuda earrings, it was the source of his nightmares, the first breathing user, it was Yoriichi.
Muzan's eyes dilated as hie began to hyperventilate upon the floor, his hearts constricted, his head producing so much sweat it looks like he as drenched in shining water.
"Do I look like someone you knew?" He asked with a tantalizing grin, as Muzan scuffled back in disbelief, his arms wide open and his legs in the same manner.
The man breathed in a gulp of air and sadistically chuckled. "I just love the smell of terror! It's intoxicating."
Muzan then felt his memories play out, now no longer deluded by his complexes or delusions, but the real truth, his time as a human, his time as a demon, his forming of the Uppermoons, his countless victims, all conjoined together to form a large mess .
"What's the matter, lives flashing before your eyes? " The man mocked with a smile that seemed completely out of place upon the face of Yoriichi. " Go on then, fight. " Muzan looked in true terror and did the one thing that he would have never done, ran as fast as he could with the man watching him from a distance.
He eventually locked himself in a room with the man's shadow looming behind the door as he opened, he could hear the instrument of a biwa play as the door upon the ground closed and brings Muzan with it, as the man smiles in excitement.
"A chase it is then. "