"So what Lord Tengen means is... all your wives have gone missing?"
At a coffee shop on the streets of Tokyo, Kanae and Sound Hashira Uzui Tengen found a window seat and sat down, conversing with each other.
"Yeah."
Nodding lightly, Uzui Tengen spoke with a grave expression:
"Since last night, I haven't been able to contact any of them..."
The fact that Sound Hashira Uzui Tengen, who came from a ninja family, had three wives was no secret in the Demon Slayer Corps.
Rather, this flashy and flamboyant man had never thought to conceal this fact.
On the contrary, he was actually quite happy to show his young and beautiful wives to his friends.
According to unreliable rumors, Uzui Tengen had once taken Water Hashira Giyuu and his three wives to a hot spring together—the kind where they all bathed in the same pool...
Uzui Tengen's wives also deeply loved him. Not only did they leave their family with him back then, but they later joined the Demon Slayer Corps with him as well, active on the front lines of Demon Slayers.
Some time ago, since that Lower Rank Two escaped from Kanae and Giyuu's hands, Ubuyashiki took the opportunity to dispatch a large number of swordsmen to conduct a thorough search of Tokyo.
During this operation, several swordsmen went missing in Tokyo. The last place they disappeared was at a certain movie studio on the outskirts of Tokyo City.
Without a doubt, Demon Slayers couldn't just get lost on their own, so there must be demons operating behind this!
Since Kanae was already investigating intelligence on Upper Rank One at the time, Ubuyashiki sent Uzui Tengen over to be responsible for investigating this matter.
To avoid alerting the enemy, Uzui Tengen first had his three wives disguise themselves and blend into the movie studio to conduct investigations, wanting to wait until they had sufficient intelligence before formulating a subjugation plan.
The two sides had been maintaining regular communication through Kasugai Crows.
Until yesterday, all three of his wives lost contact.
This made Uzui Tengen somewhat panic-stricken, because clearly, his wives couldn't just disappear for no reason either, let alone all three together?
They must have also encountered demons hiding in this movie studio!
With no other choice, Uzui Tengen could only take action personally—both to subjugate the demons and to rescue his wives.
But the movie studio was so large; he alone was definitely not enough. So he decided to come find Kanae, who was also in Tokyo, to ask for help.
"Lord Tengen, you know I also have a mission in Tokyo. If it's just participating in the final subjugation, there's no problem, but if you want me to disguise myself and blend into the movie studio to conduct investigations, I'm afraid that's somewhat..."
"Yeah, I understand that."
To Kanae's polite refusal, Uzui Tengen was not surprised at all.
This was the result he had anticipated. He didn't come today to ask Kanae to investigate with him—he came to ask for people.
"Kanae, I actually want to borrow your two younger sisters..."
As fellow Hashira-level swordsmen, Uzui Tengen naturally also knew that Kanae had two younger sisters.
These two girls were young and beautiful—perfect for blending into a place like a movie studio!
Of course, having learned from previous lessons, Uzui Tengen wouldn't let them investigate freely in the movie studio this time. He himself would also infiltrate the movie studio and coordinate with them from the shadows.
"No."
However, Kanae refused without hesitation.
"I'm sorry, Lord Tengen, but my two younger sisters know neither Breathing Techniques nor ninjutsu and martial arts. Once they encounter danger, they have no ability to protect themselves."
"Please forgive me, but as their older sister, I absolutely cannot agree to let them enter such a dangerous place."
"I see..."
Hearing this, Uzui Tengen somewhat helplessly raised his hand to scratch his head.
It seemed he really could only write to the Master to request reinforcements...
"Kanae-senpai! Lord Sound Hashira!"
At this moment, three figures burst into the coffee shop.
They were Tanjiro's group.
"Tanjiro?"
"Senpai, what are you doing here? Is there anything we can help with?"
Running before the two, Tanjiro asked with a bright smile.
"Ah, Lord Tengen has a mission he wants to ask for my help with..."
"Oh~ it's you three..."
Turning to look at the suddenly appeared Tanjiro's group, Uzui Tengen slightly frowned.
As if suddenly thinking of something, he carefully sized up the three before him, then suddenly clapped his hands and grinned.
"Excellent! How about these three!"
"Huh?"
Hearing this, before Tanjiro's group could say anything, Kanae was stunned first.
"Them? Lord Tengen, are you sure?"
Generally speaking, the entertainment industry is quite appearance-oriented, but the Tanjiro trio before her could hardly be called handsome—they were quite ordinary at best.
With his two front teeth showing, a bit buck-toothed and shifty-eyed Zenitsu, and the fiercely scarred Genya with a strange chicken-comb hairstyle—not to mention him.
Even Tanjiro, who had the highest looks among the three, was just an ordinary boy next door. Aside from his clear eyes and that shining forehead, there was nothing else.
Most importantly, all three of them were fifteen or sixteen, at an age of simple minds.
Honestly, having these three kids blend into a movie studio to gather intelligence was indeed somewhat difficult...
"Haha! Don't worry, Kanae! With my peerless makeup skills! Absolutely no problem!"
To this, Uzui Tengen was quite confident.
As the most flashy man in the Demon Slayer Corps who understood makeup the best, he was quite confident in this aspect.
Although these three indeed didn't look very good, far from his own magnificent beauty, he believed that under his training, he could definitely make them the most dazzling guys in the entire movie studio!
More importantly, these three each had their own special skills. Among them, Tanjiro already had combat power comparable to a Hashira, with sufficient self-protection ability!
If it was these three, Kanae would surely feel at ease handing them over to him!
"I understand..."
Seeing this, Kanae finally said no more. She turned to look at the still confused Tanjiro trio and smiled:
"Lord Tengen, as long as Tanjiro and the others are willing, let them go with you."
"..."
On the other side, at the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters, the Ubuyashiki residence.
"To think they found Miss Tamayo so quickly..."
In the dimly lit inner room, Ubuyashiki lowered his head to look at the letter Tanjiro sent from Tokyo, his expression somewhat surprised.
"The action capability of these three children is truly astonishing. Should this be called coincidence, or destiny in the dark?"
"In that case..."
Setting down the letter, Ubuyashiki raised his head to look at Stone Hashira Himejima Gyomei sitting quietly before him, and spoke with a smile:
"Gyomei, I'll trouble you to make a trip to Tokyo. Go quickly to bring Miss Tamayo back."
"Please be careful—do not reveal this matter to others in the Corps for now. Wait until I have made contact with Miss Tamayo before making any arrangements..."
"Amitabha, your subordinate understands."
"Additionally, bring Kanae back as well. Regarding matters of Upper Rank One, she also needs to be present."