Tengen Uzui strode forward with his head held high, and behind him followed three… "creatures."
They wore gaudy, cheap kimonos, their faces caked in thick white powder, with rouge smeared across their cheeks like overripe fruit.
Tanjiro had two absurd hair buns tied atop his head. The scar on his forehead had been buried under layers of powder, making it look strangely unnatural as he awkwardly tugged at the hem of his kimono.
Zenitsu looked even worse. His yellow hair had been forcibly pinned up, his lips painted a garish red, and tears had carved two streaks through the thick powder on his face, leaving him looking utterly despairing.
As for Inosuke… although his face was plastered with makeup, his thick neck and the muscles bulging beneath the kimono, combined with his fierce glare, made him look like a cross-dressing brute straight out of the mountains.
Silence.
A suffocating silence.
"Pfft—cough, cough!" Kyojuro Rengoku suddenly turned his head, covering his mouth as his shoulders shook violently.
Sanemi Shinazugawa's eyes twitched violently. He turned his back on them and forced out a single word through clenched teeth. "Indecent."
Obanai Iguro even raised a hand to cover the eyes of the white snake around his neck, as if afraid of tainting his pet's vision.
Rin looked at the scene, its sheer visual impact almost overwhelming, and couldn't help rubbing his brow as the veins on his forehead throbbed.
"Tengen, I take back what I said earlier." Rin sighed. "Not only is your sense of aesthetics a disaster, but your infiltration plan is a complete joke. These three monsters wouldn't even make it through the back door of Yoshiwara before the madam kicks them out like beggars."
"What do you know?! This is a flamboyant look I carefully designed!" Tengen Uzui shot back indignantly. "With a little polishing, they could definitely fetch a good price!"
"Forget it. Let's just leave before this burns itself into my memory. If I look any longer, I'll have nightmares tonight."
Rin couldn't bear to look at the three disasters any longer. He walked straight past them and headed out through the main gate of the Butterfly Mansion.
The Yoshiwara Entertainment District—the city of indulgence and sleepless nights—was already shrouded in a heavy gloom.
And deep within that dazzling red-light district, a slaughter belonging solely to demons and hunters was about to begin with Rin's arrival.
...
After leaving the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters, the group of five set out for the Yoshiwara Entertainment District in Tokyo.
On the dirt road leading into town, Rin walked at the very front with his hands in his pockets. He deliberately kept a full ten-meter distance from the four behind him and sternly warned them not to come any closer.
He couldn't help it. The scene unfolding behind him was simply too painful to look at.
Tengen Uzui walked in the middle, enthusiastically explaining the essentials of infiltration to his three "newly recruited kunoichi."
Behind him, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke shuffled along in tiny, awkward steps, desperately tugging at the hems of their gaudy, low-quality kimonos.
Tanjiro kept blinking rapidly against the caked makeup weighing down his eyelashes, making his eyes water and smear black kohl into raccoon-like rings. The two exaggerated rouge spots on his cheeks had migrated downward with every awkward step, now sitting unevenly like a lopsided clown blush.
Inosuke's kimono strained heroically across his shoulders with every breath, the cheap silk threads audibly creaking like they were one flex away from surrender. The wide obi belt refused to sit properly over his barrel chest, bunching up into awkward lumps that made his torso look like it had swallowed three melons whole.
Even with lipstick on, Inosuke's thick neck and domineering, bow-legged stride couldn't hide his boar-like mentality.
As for Zenitsu Agatsuma, he wore a crooked hair bun, his face as dark as a pot, muttering curses under his breath the entire way.
"Listen up, you useless trash!"
Tengen Uzui suddenly spun around, pointing at the three of them. "In the Yoshiwara Entertainment District, I am God! You are nothing but the lowest dregs under my command! If I tell you to go east, you don't go west! Even if I tell you to be dogs, you'd better bark flamboyantly, understand?!"
"Understand my foot!"
Zenitsu finally snapped. He yanked the hairpin from his head, threw it to the ground, and pointed straight at Tengen Uzui as he shouted, "You tasteless, muscle-brained idiot! You dress us up like this and say you're going to sell us to a brothel?! We're swordsmen of the Demon Slayer Corps—why should we listen to such nonsense?!"
"Why?" Tengen Uzui scoffed, crossing his arms. "Because that place is the largest entertainment district in all of Japan. Men who go in can only be customers chasing pleasure. There's no way for them to investigate what's happening behind the scenes. Only women can infiltrate the inner circles of the oiran and the house madams."
Tanjiro quickly restrained the furious Zenitsu and asked seriously, "Mr. Uzui, what exactly are we investigating in the Entertainment District? You mentioned earlier that your capable subordinates lost contact there. Were they gathering information on the Upper Ranks?"
"Exactly."
At the mention of official business, Tengen Uzui dropped his carefree demeanor, his expression turning uncharacteristically serious. "In a place like the Yoshiwara Entertainment District, countless courtesans and customers disappear every night, all brushed off as 'elopements' or 'runaways.' It's the perfect feeding ground for demons. I've long suspected that one of the Twelve Kizuki is hiding there, so I sent three exceptionally skilled kunoichi to infiltrate ahead of time."
"They went undercover in Ogimoto House, Kyogoku House, and Tokito House respectively. But a few days ago, all of their regular communications suddenly stopped. Even the Kasugai Crows haven't been able to locate them."
Hearing this, Tanjiro's expression grew solemn. "I understand. So your subordinates are in danger, Mr. Uzui. We'll definitely do everything we can to rescue them! May I ask their names?"
"Suma, Makio, and Hinatsuru." Tengen Uzui lifted his chin slightly, his tone filled with undisguised pride.
"I've memorized them!" Tanjiro nodded firmly.
"By the way," Tengen Uzui raised three fingers, a smug grin spreading across his face as the jeweled ornaments on his headband glinted in the sunlight, "they're not just my subordinates. They're also my three legally wedded wives."
A light breeze swept across the dirt road, stirring a few fallen leaves.
The scene fell into dead silence.
Rin, walking ahead, suddenly stopped and glanced back. He knew someone was about to lose it.
Tanjiro blinked, his mind struggling to process what he'd just heard, unable to respond for a long moment.
Inosuke, on the other hand, didn't care at all. He snorted loudly through his nose. "Who cares about wives or husbands! As long as we get to fight! I'm going to tear all the demons there to pieces! Pig Assault!"
And Zenitsu Agatsuma…
He froze on the spot, eyes wide as saucers, his mouth hanging open wide enough to fit an apple. He stared fixedly at the three fingers Tengen Uzui was holding up, his entire body beginning to tremble uncontrollably.
"W-Wives?"
Zenitsu's voice seemed to squeeze out from the depths of his throat, sharp and trembling. "You're saying you have wives? A-And… three of them?!"
"Of course. I'm a flamboyant man. Isn't it only natural to have three wives?" Tengen Uzui nodded as if stating an obvious fact.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME—!!!"
____
12 Advance chapters:Patreon/slept01