Chapter 85
Chapter 85
Thankfully the rest of the trip was without any further incidents even though I could catch flashes of people running through the forests surrounding the road, we weren't challenged or otherwise brought any further inconveniences until we had to all dismount from our carriage after we arrived at the large mansion.
I took in the beautiful Japanese's architecture's mansion plus its courtyard, and I could only mentally lament how this whole damn place was laced with bombs and Nichirin metal shards to act as fragmentation grenades. So basically, when Kagaya decided to blow this place up it would be leveled and lost.
"Are the buildings in Europe as nice as this Jake." Nezuko asked me quietly as we made our way into the mansion and as she asked that question, I could tell the rest of the family and even Giyu were listening closely.
Hmm well on one hand I have never been to 1900 Europe but then again plenty of the great architectural moments have survived from the older times. "Yes though most of our buildings are more focused on defense as Europe was much more war torn than Japan, which has its castles as designated targets to fight for and establish their rule over the territory, but in Europe its more fighting to plunder resources honestly as all the nations have basically realized they can't hold enemy land forever when they speak a different language making it impossible to pacify the natives of the conquered land."
Giyu nodded to my explanation, and I was reminded that as a Hashira he wasn't just strong he was also likely highly educated for this time period as well as knowing a bit of politics as I am certain the government of Japan was funneling resources into the Demon Slayers as it wouldn't be all too difficult for a Hashira to capture a low level demon and show them off to the Shogun or Emperor, whichever was currently running the show at the time. And should they not send resources...
It would be a mighty pity if a demon found itself inside the castle where the shogun or emperor lived.
"Hes right. generally speaking, as most warlords want to bring the farmers and rich landowners within their own holdings to bring their clan wealth for a several generations rather than a single lump of wealth and the rebellion of the area's natives." Giyu confirmed my words.
Glad I was right as 1900 Japanese's politics certainly wasn't my forte...
We kept up a light conversation till we arrived in the back lot where there was a beautiful koi pond, and the gravel was even raked into what looked like whirlpool swirls. "Please don't kick the rocks around." Giyu muttered at the younger kids who were happily looking around and making a mess.
But I was too busy to bother admonish them as I could see all the Hashira walking outside from the door that led into the mansion and I could only hope to get such talent within my Familia as I saw them carry themselves gracefully.
"Good afternoon, Hashira." I nodded in respect as they all seemed to take me in.
"Good afternoon, Jake." A more jovial voice called out from the mansion and behind all the Hashira approached the master of the mansion and leader of this generation of the Demon Slayer Corps, Kagaya Ubuyashiki.
The Hashira then hopped off the porch and surrounded me though it wasn't entirely an offensive gesture as none of them had their hands on their swords plus they were all separated by me by a few meters.
Kagaya then with a sigh relaxed and sat down on his knees at the edge of the porch showing he was treating this as more of an informal meeting rather than him using the height advantage the porch gave to tower over me, so I met his gesture by making a well-padded chair pop out of my space ring and then ignored the clearly unnerved Hashira and sat down in my well-padded chair with a sigh of comfort.
"You will never find a more comfortable chair than this Kagaya." I spoke genially and I could see Kagaya match my smile enjoying the little byplay I made, saying how I had things he could never imagine for likewise be able to do.
"Oh, and with all my resources, you are sure of that?" He asked softly and he was basically stating how if I was so great and had such abilities and stuff why I would bother to come here to him.
"Yes, as the wood frame within this chair is made of Grand Treant wood and the padding is made out of Skull Sheep and lastly the leather is made from the remains of some minor dragons I have slain." The only lie I told them there was how the dragon skin actually came from infant dragons technically but in any case, no one would want to hear how infant anything was slaughtered wholesale to make a lazy boy chair.
The Hashira all looked at each other clearly thinking I was insane, but I had a trump card.
"You all don't believe me, do you?" I asked boredly and even Kagaya looked a little skeptical of my claims.
"Frankly I have never heard of such creatures other than dragons who haven't had concrete sightings for a thousand plus years." He shrugged and the rest of the Hashira looked at me already getting irrated by me speaking a bunch of nonsense even if I somehow did some magic to pull the chair out of nowhere.
I leaned forward in my chair and stared deeply at the blind face of Kagaya and laid out my trump card. "If I summon the corpse of a western demon demigod who slaughtered armies of warriors and doomed an entire civilization to extinction will you extend some trust toward me."
"Haha if you could do something so cool and flamboyant then we will certainly give you some trust!" Tengen Uzui, the Sound Hashira yelled out and I nodded at the flamboyantly dressed man and absently wondered what would happen should I make his dual swords magical, as he was my favorite Hashira honestly.
For a moment I hesitated but then mentally shrugged. "Alright fine but everyone back up and after I take it away you will need to remove the soil it lays upon and throw it into the ocean or something to disperse it. It's that cursed..." I warned and now they all took me more seriously as one such example of being cursed was in front of us all as the Ubuyashiki family was cursed for birthing the first demon, but Muzan and no other demon had anything to do with said curse, funny enough.
Seeing everyone move back enough and the whole Kamado family was escorted inside I pulled the Balrog corpse I have been saving and dropped it onto the ground with a loud crash as the dense bones of the Balrog pushed into the ground.
Now they certainly couldn't call this thing a demon from here in Japan as there was a tangible weight the corpse brought onto all the Hashira and other than the Stone Hashira Gymei Himejima, none of the Hashira would have been able to challenge the Balrog at all.
Lastly the malignant energies still pervading the corpse of the balrog were already smoking releasing a vile purple smoke that threatened to smother the lungs and make you collapse, thankfully I had my helmet on when I summoned it as I didnt know it would do that.
Kagaya coughed into his sleeve and waved his arm speaking quickly. "Alright Jake you win, please put away that abomination as I am certain it's not one of Muzans's demons..."
I quickly threw the corpse of the Balrog back into my space and ring just like I thought where the gravel was once nice and white, where I placed the Balrog had turned a vile black and was clearly corrupted by its aura or energy.
I felt it was likely that the bloodline of Muzan was probably able to see if demons carried the same bloodline as his own for example the upper moons Daki and Gyutaro made by Douma wouldn't carry the same blood as ones directly made by Muzan himself.
"Wait! if you were able to kill such a monster and deal with his evil energy, do you really think you could cure our master?" The Flame Hashira, Kyojuro Rengoku yelled out.
Considering I have fused elixirs made with the intent on surviving the pure miasma the original Behemoth back from Danmachi just in case such a being came around with Alfia's army I was pretty damn sure such a medicine would work.
Rather than making an empty promise or otherwise boast, I pulled out said elixir which glowed a holy silver light that was able to slowly make the corrupted gravel and soil slowly flake away leaving dirty shadowed gravel but was a much better site than the pure black diseased ground that was there previously.
"Although I am not sure where your families curse originates from, but this elixir was made to nullify the toxins and curse of something that could kill Muzan easily." I explained and having seen the corpse of the Balrog they had no choice but to simply swallow the words they clearly wanted to retort with.
"I will give this for you to use however you see fit and all I ask in return is for the Kamado family to be given asylum here where it is safe and lastly supply me information about the locations of demons as I am currently hunting them." I offered and it was in my own view pretty heavily in my favor as I could certainly get more of those elixirs but the information network the demon slayers spent centuries creating was priceless.
Kagaya Ubuyashiki simply chuckled to my offer and nodded his assent. "The Kamado family is welcome within my home though I request that Tanjiro and that other boy to train with the Flame Hashira to see if they can reawaken the sun breathing style and should you truly desire to use your supernatural talents to destroy my nations hated predator's, well I certainly welcome you to such a task."
Huh even better. Now I don't have to spend god knows how long beating the sun breathing method out of Tanjiro, he can just teach me it when he gets it straight in his head.
"Deal." I responded and we both shared a light bow and I turned to the Hashira's as Kagaya was obviously tired from our meeting and was contemplating whether he could blindly trust me to take the elixir.
"I look forward to working with you all in the field so for now let's get to know one another a bit." I offered an olive branch to the assembled Hashira.