The Demon Queen

Changing Times

Even though we tried to hunt down Tamayo, we had no success. It was as if she had completely ceased to exist, disappeared without leaving a single trace behind her. And because she had escaped Muzan's grasp, there was no kind of surveillance whatsoever we could use to track her location. It became exceedingly frustrating for us both. The only benefit that came from it was that Akaza, Hantengu, and Gyokko had killed many Hashira in their searching for Tamayo.

"One by one, we'll knock them off," Muzan had said.

It soon occurred to me that despite killing Hashira, neither I, nor Muzan, nor any of the other demons came across one of the Ubuyashikis. The family running the Demon Slayer Corps remained hidden somehow, similarly to Tamayo, as if having slipped away into an alternative dimension. It wasn't a concept that was unheard of. Muzan and I had done exactly that in concealing the Castle. But it took an immense amount of power to successfully do such a thing, and it didn't sit well with me that a demon like Tamayo, or the Ubuyashikis, were capable of it.

When I mentioned it to Muzan, he found it unsettling. He didn't like the idea that the enemy had reached a similar height of power as us. He then proceeded to interrogate me on the exorcism techniques my family used, all to which I had few answers. I couldn't clearly remember everything I had been taught or exposed to by my family, and it was all so long ago that it was probably outdated. It was nearing 1000 years since I had any contact with my family, and they must had expanded and altered their techniques over so many generations, especially given the circumstances of the curse I had put them under.

Muzan then interrogated Kokushibou on the location of the headquarters of the Demon Slayer Corps. Similarly to me, he couldn't provide any pertinent information, since he had been out of touch with the organisation for about 500 years. He could only say that the headquarters used to be at a castle surrounded by a forest of wisteria trees.

"it's not a location we are able to reach, Muzan-sama," he said. "In addition, I would guess that the Ubuyashikis moved somewhere else since I had been there, especially after I, one of their members, was reported to have become a demon."

Kokushibou was right. None of us had a tolerance to wisteria that would allow us to search a forest. Even setting the forest afire to destroy the trees would be dangerous to us because of the mass of burning wisteria spreading throughout the area in smoke. As well, such a fire would catch too much attention.

It all turned out that the current situation had no one to blame but Muzan and I. We focused on nothing but hiding from Yoriichi and creating a personal army of powerful demons. We acted mainly defensively, not offensively, and because of that, the Demon Slayer Corps as a whole had the chance to become more and more powerful.

It was our fault.

It was our mismanagement.

And it was even our underestimating the Demon Slayer Corps' power.

Naturally, I didn't mention any of this to Muzan. I agreed with all of his views that the Demon Slayer Corps was a gang organisation of evil monsters, and that everything that every went wrong for us was due to their wrongdoings alone. At least I did actually agree that the Demon Slayer Corps was a gang of monsters, but I fully recognised that from their point of view, I was the monster.

In fact, I was proud to accept the role of that monster.

I also became very glad and grateful to still be alive and to have been able to witness all the changes happening in the country. The new technologies and clothing styles in Japan were fascinating to me. I found myself intrigued by the railway connections being built that would allow faster travel around the country. The new clothing styles coming from the West also sparked my interest.

Kokushibou was strongly against the changes. Despite his time as a human having been almost five centuries ago, he still remained in support of the samurai class that he came from. He even wanted to go and support the revolution against the new changes, but was forbidden to do so by Muzan. Muzan was very clear about his policy of not interfering in human politics.

Meanwhile, Gyutaro and Daki found the situation to be hilarious. They relished in seeing a group of upper class people lose their positions in society. However, they weren't interested in anything besides that. I was a bit disappointed when I told Gyutaro about the railways and he responded with, "Eh, I don't care about that, Scarface."

Muzan seemed to appreciate the developments, but saw no reason to be excited about them. He also remained rather old-fashioned in that he didn't want to modernise anything in the Castle, nor did he want to incorporate any Western art or furniture.

Kokushibou was extremely relieved about that.

However, Muzan did want to keep up to date with the expectations and norms regarding clothing styles for upper class people. He wanted to adopt whatever would make him appear as a wealthy gentleman from the outside. As more and more upper class men started to wear suits, Muzan decided that he and I should as well. Of course, I gladly supported his decision.

That was what led us to getting expensive suits tailored for us, and to Muzan taking a liking to a particular white fedora hat.