The Demon Queen

Ubuyashiki Kagaya

With Nakime's help, Muzan was finally able to pinpoint the exact location of the Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters. Aware of the wisteria trees surrounding the base, Muzan brought a medical cloth face mask with him and wore it as he sped through the myriad of toxic trees. Nothing was going to stop him from severing the heads of every one of the Ubuyashikis and bringing them to Sakura.

However, Muzan had to admit to himself that it was eerily strange how he and Nakime were suddenly able to locate the Headquarters. Although he wasn't completely devoted to finding the building until now, Muzan had tried over centuries to locate it and always failed. He futilely tried to work with Sakura, with Kokushibou, with Akaza, with Hantengu, and even with Nakime to find it. But suddenly, as if out of nowhere, the Headquarters was able to be found without much effort.

Could it be a trap? Muzan didn't know, but he assumed it to be a possibility. He didn't care. He wasn't concerned of any trap. He connected with Nakime so that her eye could see into where he was going and serve as an extra lookout for him. This way, he wouldn't be relying solely on his own senses when willingly stepping into the enemy lair.

When Muzan arrived to the Headquarter's grounds, a chilling sensation crawled down his spine. The estate was eerily familiar. It was as if he had been there before a very long time ago. The pond in the courtyard with the bridge over it, the garden with tall trees, the stone path leading to the mansion, the shrine decorated with gold and different colours of jade ... it all looked like nothing had changed since the Heian period ...

... since he had seen it all last.

Muzan stopped on the stone path and took a couple breaths to take it all in. Yes, he finally remembered the times he had been there before. One time was on a rare day that he felt well and begged his mother to take him to visit Sakura at her own house, and they spent the afternoon together by the pond. The other time was when he was older and sicker. He demanded the servants to bring him to the Ubuyashiki house so he could ask Sakura's father for permission to marry her, only to be laughed at and reminded that he was a "dying boy who already stank of the afterlife". The words he had long forgotten tauntingly returned to him, and for a flashing second, he was once again the frail, long-haired human man who clutched at his rapidly-racing heart and started coughing after so cruelly being denied the one he loved.

"I hope you drop dead right here, Kibutsuji Muzan, so my foolish daughter can no longer waste her time on you."

Yes, those were the words that Sakura's father, Kagaya, had said to him that day. What a convenient coincidence it was that the most recent Master of the Demon Slayer Corps also bore that name.

Muzan looked down to his body. His right hand was clutching his vest and shirt at the middle of his chest. That horrible memory had become so real to him, as if it had all happened the day before.

Muzan released his chest. He looked off past the pond towards the garden where he saw two white-haired girls chanting a children's poem and gently tossing a ball with each other. He couldn't remember if they were there as he came onto the grounds or not.

Surely they were. I just didn't notice, He thought.

Their auras were empty. It was almost as if the girls' bodies were only breathing shells without any soul inside of them.

These kids are creepy, Muzan thought. He looked towards the house and continued on his way. Pay them no mind. They'll die soon after I wipe their father from this Earth.

Muzan made his way into the house. Almost as if they were waiting for him, the current Ubuyashiki Kagaya and his wife were present in the closest large room from the courtyard entrance. Muzan stood at the doorway. Just knowing that Kagaya shared the same name as Sakura's father made his blood boil. In many ways, it was worse than knowing that this man and his associates wished them both dead. Muzan stared at the decaying, bandaged man laying on an expensive-looking futon with his wife sitting beside it.

"Kibutsuji Muzan," Kagaya spoke in an eerily calm voice. "I must say, I'm surprised that the only one I sense here is you."

Muzan said nothing.

"I was hoping to also meet Sakura, the one who detested our family so much that she would curse us to an eternity of this terrible illness."

"You obviously have no knowledge of the full story," Muzan said. "But it doesn't matter to you. You'll die this evening, anyway."

Kagaya slowly and weakly brought himself to sit up with the help of his wife. He was grotesque-looking, with every inch of his body covered in rotting flesh.

"You smell like a corpse," Muzan said. "The one who's dying here is you, not me. I've succeeded to live for 1000 years -- a lifespan unthinkable to you and all that came before you."

A serene smile spread over Kagaya's face. "Amane," he said to his wife. "Can you tell me what form this man has?"

"He looks like he's in his late twenties, with short, wavy hair and red eyes. He's dressed in contemporary clothing," she answered.

"I see. Thank you."

Muzan took a few steps forward. "What I look like has no purpose to a dead man."

"No, but I wished to imagine the picture of my dear ancestor with the mate she cursed us all for," Kagaya said, his voice bearing no bitterness or anger at the situation. "My sources have informed me of what she looks like, even if I never saw her myself -- a slender frame, slightly-wavy hair that extends past her shoulders, red eyes, and a face full of scars."

Muzan cracked his knuckles. "The likes of you has no right to speak of my wife. I will bring her your heads, so she may rest knowing that you've finally been annihilated."

Kagaya smiled. "Oh, Muzan, is that what you two dream of? A childish revenge on the descendants of those that didn't approve your marriage? I was hoping after 1000 years that you'd have matured more than that."

Muzan jolted to Kagaya. "After 1000 years, your revenge hasn't eased either." He grabbed his neck. "Rot forever in Hell." He effortlessly began to rip Kagaya's head from his body.

All of you will die, Muzan thought as Kagaya's blood rushed down his arm. All of you will die!

BOOM!