"The price? You should already know what that entails, shouldn't you?"
Li Ke didn't look at Mai Shiranui. Instead, he observed Shinobu Kocho with great interest, as her attitude made it explicitly clear that she was ready to submit to whatever terms he set.
"Yes! No matter what you desire! As long as it does not require me to betray my master or join the demons, I will agree to your demands!"
Shinobu spoke with absolute gravity. Her entire motive for joining the Demon Slayer Corps had been revenge, but the moment her sister died, she realized that no matter how many demons she slaughtered, it would never fix her loneliness; the presence of her family was what truly mattered. Failing to protect her older sister was the greatest mistake of her life.
"Alright then. In that case, let's head into the room and take off your clothes! Today, I'll make a proper woman out of you. But let's get one thing straight beforehand—I'm not the type to settle for just one wife."
Li Ke flashed a brilliant grin in the sunlight, accompanying his blinding smile with a highly confident thumbs-up. The sheer audacity of his words nearly caused Mai to trip over her own feet.
Shinobu blanked for a mere fraction of a second, then nodded firmly.
"Understood."
To her, her own physical body had never been something she treasured. Because she lacked raw physical strength, she had resolved long ago to turn her own flesh into a weapon, purposing it to poison the exact demon who had murdered her sister. That monster had commented on how delicious her sister had been; she knew that if it ever crossed paths with her, the younger sister, it would never pass up such a delectable meal.
Since her baseline combat abilities were inferior to her sister's, this sacrifice was the only way she could guarantee her revenge!
For this reason, she had dedicated every aspect of her existence to her mission, disregarding her own future for the sake of a greater cause. She viewed her own life as a tool to be used, and if this agreement could change the fate of her family, she considered it a necessary path. Long-term safety and personal health were secondary to the possibility of restoring what had been lost.
If Li Ke required her devotion, she would offer it without hesitation. If this pact meant that her sister could have another chance at life, then no personal cost was too high for her to pay.
"Don't you dare agree to something like that so easily!"
Mai suddenly lunged forward, throwing herself directly between Li Ke and Shinobu, her expression completely collapsing into utter disbelief.
"Are you serious?! How can you just throw yourself away like that?! Are people in the Taisho era seriously this open-minded?! Isn't this supposed to be a conservative time period for women?! How can you agree to this so casually?! And this guy literally just flat-out told you he's going to have multiple wives! Are you seriously going to marry a scoundrel like him?! Look at him! He's literally staring at my chest right now!"
Mai yanked hard on Li Ke's shirt, violently exposing his shameless, perverted nature to Shinobu right then and there.
Shinobu looked somewhat blankly at Mai Shiranui, whose reaction was utterly massive. In her mind, only close couples who were having a lovers' quarrel would behave this way. After all, no matter how firm her resolve was, Shinobu was still a person of the Taisho era and possessed a degree of traditional modesty.
In reality, Shinobu was also incredibly shy about this, but since it concerned her older sister and other critical matters, she was absolutely determined to secure this pact with Li Ke.
"I am sorry, Miss Shiranui, but I must make this transaction with Lord Li Ke," she said, offering a small, polite bow to Mai as she explained the reality of their current world. "Besides, men taking multiple wives and concubines is not uncommon nowadays. There are even many instances where a wealthy man marries multiple women from the exact same family. This is no longer the era of the samurai; it is a new age."
Due to the rapid societal shifts of the Taisho era, the traditional samurai class had completely collapsed, allowing the status of wealthy merchants to skyrocket. Shinobu had personally witnessed numerous families falling into sudden poverty, leading to situations where sisters, or even a mother and her daughters, would all marry the same wealthy man just to survive.
Therefore, while she found it somewhat embarrassing and unpleasant, it was by no means an unacceptable compromise for her.
More importantly, she had to do this. Even if Li Ke lacked the power to resurrect her sister permanently, she would have still agreed to let him court her simply to tether a powerful ally to the Corps' cause. Of course, without that resurrection ability, whether a perverted scoundrel could actually win the heart of a girl who was actively seeking her own death remained a massive question mark.
Because of this, she felt it necessary to apologize to Mai, who had arrived first. Watching the raw dynamic between Li Ke and Mai, she was entirely convinced that the two were already an item; their explosive, uninhibited closeness made it glaringly obvious that they were mutually in love.
If Li Ke could read her mind right now, he would have burst out laughing. While he and Mai had indeed shared an intimate encounter, the "closeness" Shinobu was currently witnessing was just a standard modern social distance—even if it did look a bit too scandalous for this slightly old-fashioned era.
"Huh? Why are you apologizing to me?"
Mai looked completely bewildered, utterly failing to comprehend why Shinobu was bowing to her.
But at that moment, Li Ke's patience ran out. He grabbed Mai by her ponytail, hauled her to the side, and naturally wrapped his arm around Shinobu instead.
"Hey, hey. Miss Shinobu and I are a match made in heaven—two beautiful people destined to be together. What kind of monster are you, standing here and buzzing in our ears? We might be friends and allies, but if you ruin my chances of getting a wife, I will absolutely dropkick you! Keep bothering me, and I'll drag you down to a basement to do this, that, and the other thing to you."
Li Ke bluntly stated his motives. He traveled between dimensions for the sole purpose of chasing girls; his absolute driving forces were lust and gaining power!
Fixing the broken worlds was just a convenient side hustle!
If Mai kept sabotaging his plans, he was genuinely going to beat her up!
He didn't care about age or gender—if anyone pissed him off, he would give them a relentless thrashing without a shred of hesitation. He was the ultimate practitioner of true gender equality!
"You've completely given up on being a decent human being, haven't you?"
Mai narrowed her eyes, firing off a deadpan retort. She was truly at a total loss with this guy.
"Well, yeah! This is my true nature!"
Li Ke's hand slid downward, reaching for Shinobu's chest. Unfortunately, because Shinobu was so short, the angle was awkward. The physical height difference made it look less like a romantic embrace and more like Michael Jordan standing there casually holding a basketball by his hip...
Well, a heavy shot put, more accurately.
Li Ke gave her a firm squeeze. Instantly, an indescribable sensation flooded Shinobu's entire body. Her hand reflexively flew to the hilt of her Nichirin blade, and a sudden, sharp surge of killing intent spiked through the air!
Even though the gentle, manufactured smile remained plastered on her face, Li Ke could feel through his Haki that, for a split second, she genuinely wanted to hack him to pieces!
Shinobu noticed her own slip in composure as well. She awkwardly scratched her cheek, her face flushing crimson from a mix of embarrassment and the lingering, intense heat of Li Ke's palm.
"I am terribly sorry, Lord Li Ke," Shinobu murmured, her voice tight as she tried to master her racing heart. "I am still not used to this... I suppose I wasn't fully prepared. Please grant me a brief moment to compose myself, and then you may use my body however you wish. I apologize. I have truly never experienced anything like this before. For as long as I can remember, a stranger placing their hands on me like that only ever meant one thing—that I was about to die."
She genuinely wasn't ready. For years, she had blocked out any thoughts of romance or men, let alone the idea of allowing someone to casually fondle her. While the physical sensation of his touch had triggered a strange, unfamiliar spark within her, the overwhelming subconscious response was pure, visceral terror. Her instincts were screaming at her to draw her sword.
In her deeply hardwired psychological expectations, the only entity that would ever shamelessly grab her body like that was a demon who had defeated her and was preparing to consume her flesh.
"Uh... completely understandable, completely understandable."
Connecting the dots with her tragic backstory and fragile physiological state, Li Ke immediately caught on to why she reacted so violently. He let out a sigh and reluctantly withdrew his hand, allowing her stifled killing intent to slowly recede. This wasn't a conscious choice on Shinobu's part; it was a lingering psychological symptom from a girl who had long ceased viewing herself as a human woman.
"Hahahahaha!"
Seeing Li Ke forced to back off, Mai Shiranui couldn't help but burst into absolute hysterics. She had honestly believed there was no stopping this perverted scoundrel from abusing his miraculous powers!
"What are you laughing at, you brat?! Keep it up and see if I refuse to advance the energy costs for your return home!"
Li Ke shot an annoyed glare at Mai as he marched toward her, leaving a quietly self-reproachful Shinobu standing by the door.
Mai's laughter choked for a split second as she remembered that escaping this reality required Li Ke's active system intervention. But an immediate realization crossed her mind, and she crossed her arms, letting out a confident, mocking chuckle.
"Hmph, as if I'm scared of you."
Wisely deciding not to push her luck any further on that specific topic, Mai shifted her focus back to the business at hand, looking over at Shinobu.
"But seriously, the most critical issue right now is figuring out exactly what the hell is happening to this world, right?"
Hearing her drop the attitude, Li Ke also turned his gaze back toward the Insect Hashira.
Shinobu had already smoothed out her uniform and adjusted her butterfly haori. Hearing Mai's prompt, she gave a firm nod.
"Very well. I shall explain the current situation to you both."
Shinobu invited Li Ke and Mai back into the tatami room, serving a fresh round of tea and traditional sweets before sliding the screen shut and addressing them properly.
"I assume you both possess a baseline understanding regarding our traditional enemies, the demons, as well as those strange, otherworldly monsters?"
Both Li Ke and Mai nodded in unison. Shinobu took a sip of her tea and opened the briefing.
"The source of the current crisis traces back to an event not too long ago. The various Hashira of the Corps gathered at our headquarters to handle a unique trial regarding a demon girl named Nezuko. We ultimately agreed to temporarily tolerate her presence within our ranks. But immediately after that meeting concluded... those alien monsters suddenly manifested across the country."
A heavy, dead-serious look settled over Shinobu's face.
"These monsters are incredibly powerful; standard physical attacks are practically useless against them," Shinobu continued, her tone dropping into a grave register. "Only fire, high-grade steel, and gunpowder can inflict actual damage on those creatures. Even then, an ordinary swordsman lacks the raw power to pierce their hides. Worse still, their baseline abilities are utterly bizarre. When we fought demons in the past, we could usually count on bringing home wounded survivors. But against these entities, a single nick or a drawn-out engagement spells a guaranteed death sentence for our squad members."
She paused, the weight of her words casting a visible shadow over her features.
"The monsters can release fungal spores or writhing parasitic tentacles from their bodies. Once these elements invade a human host, they become entirely impossible to purge. No matter how advanced your Breathing Style is, it cannot eradicate the corruption. It forces you to watch as they consume your body from within, mutating your flesh into a horrific caricature of life. Furthermore, if a person lacks supreme mental fortitude and spends too much time near these creatures, their mind and body begin to twist. If they fail to return to civilization and engage with other humans in time, they inevitably warp into feral, rampaging psychopaths. For now, we've verified that Breathing Styles can effectively slow down the mental degradation and delay the corruption process."
Shinobu let out a long, weary sigh as she took a brief sip of her tea.
"But that isn't even the most catastrophic development. The true nightmare begins when night falls. Every single night, a new tier of entities manifests on the streets. Unlike the alien monsters that suddenly fell from the sky, these are entities from our own local folklore—apparitions like Onibi and shifting spirits. The higher the human population density, the more frequently these phantoms emerge. While they lack the overwhelming raw strength and parasitic properties of the alien invaders, they possess an identical ability to transform humans and drive them into utter madness. They march down the avenues in massive, organized processions. If any human is caught looking at them, leaves a lantern burning, or wanders onto the open road, they are instantly dragged into the march and never seen again. We tried to probe their capabilities, but the entities are far too formidable. Even we Hashira dare not provoke them recklessly; by the time we recognized the danger, multiple squad members had already vanished without a trace while trying to scout this Hyakki Yagyō—the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons."
"Fortunately, as long as you refrain from breaking specific taboos—such as peering at them from between your legs, through the gaps of your fingers, or through a Kitsune no Mado finger window—these specific phantoms won't manifest outside their designated hours and boundaries. At night, if you simply pretend you cannot see them and bar your doors and windows tightly, you will remain safe. However, they will actively deploy tricks to catch your eye and force you to acknowledge their arrival. Oddly enough, small, isolated villages with minimal populations have completely avoided this particular parade. Yet, over the past few weeks, all the surrounding settlements lacking the means to migrate here have mysteriously warped into 'monster villages' or developed severe structural anomalies. Because of this, despite knowing that massive crowds naturally attract the Night Parade, the majority of the population still chooses to cluster together in these port cities."
Finishing her lengthy briefing, Shinobu poured a fresh round of tea for herself and Li Ke, taking a quiet, soothing sip.
Li Ke's brow furrowed tightly as he processed the data. From her meticulous description, a stark, uncomfortable reality materialized in his mind.
These entities weren't just rampaging blindly—they were actively ranching the human population of the Demon Slayer world!
There was a very high probability that they were pooling humans together into massive urban pens to streamline a massive harvest, or to make some impending global ritual far easier to execute down the line!
'The properties filtering over from that 7 Days to Die shard are getting ridiculously twisted... These cosmic horror-infused variations truly are the most sickening anomalies to deal with.'
Li Ke was a purist when it came to classic horror lore, which was precisely why he held a deep-seated distaste for modern, over-hyped interpretations of the Mythos.
But looking at the chess board right now, a Cthulhu-esque corruption was the only framework that accurately explained this systemic madness.
"According to the core data fragments transmitted by the collapsing 7 Days to Die world, it was forced to sever its own dimensional limbs precisely because an outside force was trying to forcefully assimilate it," Li Ke murmured, aggressively cross-referencing his systemic logs with the local intelligence to map out the underlying conspiracy. "The cosmic horrors described in those data dumps perfectly align with what Shinobu just Detailed. This means the entity invading the Demon Slayer universe right now is the exact same cancer that fractured the wasteland world in the first place."
Beside him, Mai Shiranui's expressions shifted into a mask of pure dread as her mind chased the logical conclusions of the data.
"If that's the case, then this entire port city is basically just..."
She choked on her own sentence, the sheer scale of the calculated slaughter proving too horrific to utter out loud. Shinobu tracked her gaze, offering a soft response through her perpetually hollow, manufactured smile.
"An artificial livestock pen for humanity, correct? The leadership of the Corps arrived at the exact same conclusion. That is precisely why our remaining squads are launching near-suicidal scouting operations—to break this invisible fence before the harvest begins."
Shinobu let out a quiet sigh, her gaze flickering with a rare trace of personal frustration. Because systematic testing had already proven that her highly specialized wisteria poisons were completely useless against these alien mutations, her personal combat effectiveness had effectively plummeted by seventy percent. Consequently, the High Command had sidelined her from the front lines, reassigning her to domestic sweeps to locate hidden traditional demons.
Yet, despite her efforts, an Upper Moon had managed to nest right under her nose, which was the exact reason Lord Ashikaga's butler had called her away for a severe reprimand earlier.
The political pressure was mounting, but her analytical mind had already cataloged the strategic value of Li Ke's presence. Even if she discarded the deeply personal miracle of her sister's revival, securing a covenant with an anomaly who could reliably bring back fallen scouts meant the Corps could finally harvest definitive intelligence from the Hyakki Yagyō without losing their finest warriors permanently.
The moment she confirmed the absolute validity of his resurrection technique alongside his overwhelming raw physical strength, a singular, game-changing realization solidified in her mind.
That singular realization was this: Li Ke might very well be another Yoriichi Tsugikuni. He was a peerless warrior abruptly granted to this era by the heavens themselves, born with the sole purpose of turning the tide against the dark.
"So that means your current situation is extremely passive?"
Li Ke voiced the question, genuinely curious about how they managed to maintain any semblance of order under such suffocating conditions.
Shinobu, however, shook her head.
"Not entirely passive. It seems the heavens themselves harbor a deep loathing for these abominations. Whenever someone manages to slay one of those monsters, they can feel their own strength actively increasing. Either their Breathing Style becomes smoother, or their chronic illnesses and injuries recede slightly. Although the casualties from hunting them are still catastrophic, it has kept us in a state where we can actually fight back."
Shinobu laid out yet another highly guarded secret.
It was a critical piece of intelligence; these monsters were far beyond what an ordinary human could handle. If word of this "slay-to-grow-stronger" mechanic leaked out to the general public, it would trigger an endless wave of reckless, vengeful people charging blindly into the night to gamble their lives. The Corps had seen far too much of that behavior already. Every year, countless recruits mastered the basics of a Breathing Style and immediately rushed off to challenge powerful demons, and their endings were almost universally grim.
"I see..."
Li Ke rubbed his chin, instantly deducing the underlying mechanics of this phenomenon. It was simply the World Energy bound within the cosmic horrors fusing into the flesh of whoever delivered the killing blow, likely paired with some sort of localized blessing from the consciousness of this universe.
As for any deeper lore, Shinobu didn't volunteer it, and Li Ke didn't pry. It wasn't the kind of high-level intelligence a recruit who had been around for all of ten minutes should be asking for anyway.
"In that case, I don't have any more questions."
Li Ke nodded at Shinobu, glancing out the window toward the rapidly sinking sun before a confident smirk played across his lips.
"But I have to admit... I'm highly interested in witnessing this so-called Night Parade of a Hundred Demons myself."