Chapter 42: Cracks in Loyalty

Chapter 42: Cracks in Loyalty

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In a dark cave under a mountain, Akaza lay there, taking a small nap. Suddenly, his eyes opened as he looked at the entrance of the cave.

Growl.

A large brown bear with two small cubs was charging towards him in a frenzy. Its body was easily three metres in height, with claws as big as two large human heads—an intimidating sight for anyone.

Except Akaza.

Before the bear could reach him, it was sliced into pieces alongside its cubs by shockwaves shaped like slashes of a sword.

Showing clearly that Akaza's mercy towards human females didn't stretch to animals.

Akaza looked at the sliced pieces of the bear before clenching his only remaining hand. Suddenly, a menacing presence filled the cave with enough pressure that even the remaining parts of the bear were crushed into minced meat.

"Heh!" Akaza's laughter echoed as he felt his newfound power.

"I can now shape my shockwaves into even deadlier sword slashes," he declared confidently.

Having enjoyed his moment of amusement, he slowly rose to his feet and stepped out of the cave into the enchanting full moonlit night. The soft glow of the moon illuminating his battle-scarred form.

His body was filled with injuries. One of his hands was completely severed, with half of the shoulder missing, and there were big gashes in both the neck and thigh.

"Even with one hand, my power has only increased after my limitation was removed," Akaza said.

After his last fight, he felt something break in his mind, as if he were liberated from something.

"I don't feel the instinctive fear towards Muzan-sama now," Akaza said with a lost and conflicted look. He didn't know how to feel about it.

He had been loyal to Muzan for centuries, but after recent events, he began to see him in a different light. Suddenly gaining freedom from something that had chained him for centuries was a difficult thing to understand.

But the most crucial reason for his change was the vestiges of memories he started remembering. Every time he tried to close his eyes, the face of a sickened girl appeared in his mind, calling a name... Hakuji?

He didn't know who she was, but just seeing the girl's face brought contentment and happiness to his heart. It was different from the happiness he felt when fighting a strong opponent. It felt more pure.

It was also the reason he had been sleeping in this cave—as when he dreams, her face comes to his mind, talking to him.

Suddenly, his surroundings changed, and he was teleported into an endlessly large extra-dimensional space of wooden rooms, endless halls, and moving corridors with a warped sense of gravity.

Landing on a platform, Akaza looked around himself and awaited Muzan.

*Click, click.*

Sounds of footsteps were heard as Akaza quickly kneeled down, waiting for Muzan to speak.

"Akaza..."

Looking up, Akaza faced Muzan to relay the failure of his mission, but his voice choked in the middle of forming as he glanced at the figure of Muzan.

Long gone was the visage of a handsome man or a beautiful mature woman; what he saw now was...

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Ace opened his eyes, exhaling a mouth full of turbid air. As he felt the dawn's sunlight entering his body, absorbing and healing him.

It had been five days since he had awakened from his unconscious state, currently absorbing the light of dawn to accelerate his healing. Without this, relying solely on his body's natural regeneration would have left him practically crippled.

"At this rate, even with absorbing sunlight, it will take at least 10 days more for total recovery," Ace thought. His body had taken quite a toll and sustained significant damage during the fight.

Now that he was clear-headed, Ace reflected on the events during the Infinity Train more closely.

First—It was the presence of all the Lower Moons. This shouldn't have happened according to canon story & Muzan's personality. What could have triggered this change? He definitely didn't care about them as they were just fodders for him.

Second—Each of them was buffed up to Lower Moon 1 level. It seemed that not only did Muzan let them go, but he even provided them with more of his blood to raise their level. This further proved that this Muzan is different from the original one.

Third—The demons were more cunning than he expected. They were able to devise a way to achieve continuous revival of their bodies. He didn't know how many times they could do this, but he knew if they could regenerate even after being cut by his glaive—something even Akaza with a much higher level of regeneration couldn't achieve—they surely could heal many times.

Fourth—The change in Akaza. When they were fighting him, there was a sudden spike in his fighting spirit after his hand was cut by me. His entire aura and fighting style had changed. He wasn't able to perceive his Emotion Body at that time due to the tension in the fight, but something surely changed in him.

As Akaza was always a wild card, having the potential to survive even after his head was separated, similar to Muzan, this was the reason Ace wanted to kill him personally. If he was killed by his glaive, he surely wouldn't be able to regenerate. Not even Muzan would be able to do that.

If Ace had any scepticism about the changes in the canon story before, after this arc, he was convinced that the story was vastly different here.

The Upper Moons might be even more powerful this time with whatever Muzan is trying to do with them.

Fortunately, Akaza had not become more powerful; otherwise, Rengoku and I would have been done for that night.

So from this, I can conclude that Muzan hasn't completed whatever he is doing.

Hmm…

If we follow the canon story timeline, Tanjiro and the others will recover here for at least one month, and then undergo three months of training before heading to the Red Light District to fight Daki and Gyutaro with Uzui since there was a season change between these two arcs.

So, a total of four months of training time if everything goes along with the canon. But Ace wasn't sure after the changes.

There surely will be twists in these. Either they will encounter more than one Upper Moon during the Red Light District arc, or even the whole arc won't happen, and Muzan directly attacks them tomorrow.

He will need to prepare all the necessary things they will need to fight them.

"Did Kanao return?" Ace asked, looking to his left side.

"She is on the way; she will be here tomorrow," Yuki said, who was also meditating by his side.

Kanao had gone with Rengoku, acting as his medic, since he was not completely healed and needed medical attention.

"Hmm... Can you call Shinobu? I need to ask her something," Ace asked.

"Sure," Yuki easily nodded and ran into the house in quick steps and brought Shinobu with her.

"Hey! Good Morning!" Ace greeted her.

"Good Morning. So what happened?" She asked as she and Yuki sat down near him leisurely.

"Did Ubuyashiki call for any meeting?" Ace asked.

"Yes, Oyakata-sama did call a meeting this Sunday," Shinobu nodded.

Ace nodded and then asked, "About the Demon Slayer Mark?"

"Yes, Rengoku hurried to the headquarters due to this," Shinobu confirmed.

"Do you know what it is?" Ace asked again.

"No, other than its enhancing strength aspect. Only Rengoku knows, and he will explain about it in the meeting," Shinobu reiterated.

"Hmm… let me come to the meeting too; I can explain its details," Ace suggested.

"You have also awakened it?!" Shinobu exclaimed.

"No, but I was pretty close to it," Ace clarified. He had been close to awakening it, but something felt missing at that time, and he lost that chance. However, he could still explain its details from what he learned by reading the manga.

"Okay! But you have to take care of your health; your body can't handle any amount of work now, especially the organs," Shinobu advised.

"I will take care of it, don't worry," Ace said with a smile and then asked, "and are you taking care of your health?"

"Yes, I am; there's nothing wrong with me," Shinobu replied.

"You sure, but the dark circles around your eyes don't seem to agree with it," Ace said, looking into her eyes.

"Oh! those… I was just not getting proper sleep these days due to bad dreams," she explained.

"She has been dissecting that demon body all night since they recovered it, and she didn't even have a good sleep for a week straight," Yuki chimed

from the side.

"Hey!! Don't snitch on me" Shinobu complained.

"Akaza's body?" Ace asked.

Shinobu nodded and said, "With an Upper Moon demon's blood, I can make better poisons to kill them."

"Just using wisteria flowers doesn't have that much of an effect on an Upper Moon since they are closely related to the demon originator."

"So, I have been searching for the correct combination of chemicals that will be able to form bonds with wisteria and quickly decay the cells in a demon's body," Shinobu explained.

"Did you succeed?"Ace asked.

"Sadly, there are countless sets of combinations and trials I will need to do before I can get the correct formula. So it will take some more time."

Shinobu replied.

"Only if I can get the sample of other Upper Moons, I can narrow down the correct formula," She murmured under her breath.

"Hmm, I can't get the other Upper Moons' blood now, but I think I know someone who can help you in the research," Ace said.

"Huh! Who?" Shinobu asked, surprised, since she didn't think there was someone who also actively researched Demon Physiology like her.

"Do you really want to know? I don't think you will like her," Ace asked again.

"Why did you even mention it then? Just tell me."

"Okay, don't be mad then."

"The one who can help you is a… beautiful Demon Lady," Ace revealed.

"..."

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