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My name is Chihaya. A commoner living in the capital.
No parents. No siblings. Just one older sister, Hagi, who shares no blood with me at all.
We live together in a cramped little hut inside the city, keeping things simple, keeping things quiet. The neighbors are poor, but they're good people , they look out for us, and that's enough to get by.
Hagi, though, has never been satisfied with just getting by. She's sharp, she knows people, and she doesn't sit still. It didn't take her long to hear that some noble family was hiring cleaning maids. So she grabbed me by the arm, tucked a package of sweets under her other arm to bribe the steward, and marched us straight to the noble family's back door.
Except when we got there, there was no steward. Just a boy.
He wore hunting attire. Fair skin, striking face, the kind of hands that had never touched a hoe in his life. Hagi pulled me to a stop at the corner of the wall and pointed. "Look. That's the young master."
The young master of a noble family. I'd expected something remarkable. Turns out he had two eyes, one nose, and a mouth that was,
"Enough!"
He'd heard us. He spun around and crossed the distance in a few sharp strides, stopping right in front of me. His eyes were bloodshot, furious, like he wanted to tear me into pieces.
"How long are you going to mock me!"
Ah.
"What's wrong?" I said, perfectly calm. "Isn't it a good story? I gave you a healthy body. You can walk in daylight again. The least you could do is accept it graciously."
Everything around us went still.
Then Hagi froze beside me. Cracks split the ground at our feet and spread outward, and the world crumbled into dust.
What was left: endless dark. And the demon snarling in front of me.
He was genuinely hideous. Mouths had split open all over his body, gaping and wet, like something that had learned to walk but never learned to stop being wrong. I sat in the dark, propped my chin on my hand, and looked at him. Honestly, it was hard on the eyes.
I snapped my fingers.
"Fine. If you won't be a young master, go farm."
The scene shifted. Fields outside the city , fields I hadn't seen in a very long time. And there was Muzan, wearing a patched-up peasant's coat, holding a hoe, looking like he wanted to commit violence against the concept of agriculture.
I almost regretted that cameras don't exist in mental worlds.
Almost.
Watching him struggle in here was entertaining enough on its own. He was fighting on two fronts at once: resisting my erosion, and working to break down the drug Tamayo had left in him. He had nothing left over to manage what was happening outside.
So I took over his connections to the demons. Completely.
While we were locked in our little war, the environment had shifted around us , or rather, around everything. We were inside Muzan's Infinity Castle now. Every Demon Slayer Corps swordsman outside had been pulled in with it, dropped into the middle of whatever new demons Muzan had been building up.
But the moment he'd ordered Nakime to use her ability, he'd also handed Akaza her location.
Akaza, who was no longer under Muzan's control , because Muzan couldn't spare the attention. Akaza, who had my blood. He found Nakime and forced it down her throat.
I was too busy holding Muzan down to take control of Nakime myself. But she froze anyway. Stood rigid and couldn't use her power.
The Infinity Castle runs deep underground. Whatever Nakime is, the Castle lives through her , kill her, and the whole structure collapses. Kagaya and I had planned for this. If I couldn't get to Nakime in time, Daki would bring Yushiro to her. He'd take control, shift the Castle up to safe ground.
So far, no one had died. The training had held. The coordination had held.
Kiriya was running command in Kagaya's place, and he was doing it well , rear support, first aid, reinforcements, all of it tight and clean.
The ordinary demons weren't the concern. The concern was Kokushibo and Douma.
Kokushibo had been fast. The instant I reached for his connection, he severed it, cutting himself off from Muzan before I could get through.
I turned that over in my mind.
Had Muzan planned for this? Had he anticipated I might try to turn his demons against him, and quietly given a few of the Upper Ranks a way out?
Probably. But he could only have prepared so many. I checked the positions of the Upper Ranks I still couldn't reach and took control of the nearest ordinary demons instead, routing them toward the fights as observers.
As for Kokushibo himself , I wasn't worried. He was the strongest Upper Rank, and he had Akaza and Gyutaro on him, plus Himejima and Shinazugawa. And two others who had very personal reasons to be there.
Ritsu. Muichiro.
The demon I was riding was about to throw itself at a group of Corps members. I yanked its attention hard.
It spun around and bolted.
Everyone in the vicinity stared.
A sharp whistle cut the air. I had my Stand drop and roll, got it upright fast, and turned to find Iguro and Kanroji.
They were running cleanup , moving through the Castle, cutting down dangerous demons, pulling out Corps members who were outmatched.
Iguro's eyes locked onto me immediately, wary and ready. I gestured at him. His expression shifted, just slightly.
"Lady Chihaya?"
"Eh—" Kanroji stared at me in open horror. "Miss Chihaya, you've gotten ugly!"
...Does she know what a priority is?
That's what she leads with?
Tsk. Muzan and his mass-produced demons, not a single one of them capable of speech. I was stuck making hand signals and hoping for the best.
Fortunately, Iguro's quick. Literary types always are , they parse abstractions faster than anyone.
"You've seized control of the demons from Muzan?"
I nodded. Then shook my head.
A crow dropped from Iguro's shoulder. There was a talisman stuck to its head, an eye pattern drawn on the paper, and when it opened its beak, Kiriya's voice came out:
"Lady Chihaya. The last intelligence we had was that Muzan wrapped you and Miss Tamayo together and appeared to be attempting to digest you. What is your current status?"
I nodded and gave them a thumbs up.
Muzan wasn't trying to eat me anymore. At this point, he'd gladly cut off every part of himself that had ever touched me and throw it as far as possible.
Kiriya processed that instantly. "So you currently have the upper hand. You have enough capacity to observe the outside situation through ordinary demons, but you can't fully direct them yet?"
Another thumbs up. The Ubuyashiki family brain never quits , even at eight years old.
"Understood. By your position, the nearest fight is Upper Rank Two. That's where you're heading?"
Yes. Kokushibo's side didn't worry me. It was Douma and Kaigaku that needed eyes on them.
Kiriya was already ahead of me. "Current status: Shinobu, Kyojuro, Giyu, and Sabito are engaged with Upper Rank Two. The Blood Demon Art is proving extremely dangerous — the fight is stalled. Tsuyuri has moved to reinforce. Tengen, Iguro, and the others are handling Castle cleanup and Corps rescue. Kamado and their group—"
His voice caught.
Then, faster: "They've located Upper Rank Six. They're in a standoff now."
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