Chapter 193: The Verdict
Demon Slayer Corps headquarters, meeting room.
The afternoon light filtered through the raised skylights, casting bright stripes across the table.
The Hashira occupied their places; some held a rigid, martial posture, others rested their eyes, and a few stared silently into their cups.
Kagaya sat in the head seat. Bandages covered the ulcerated area of his face, leaving visible a pair of blind but receptive eyes.
He tilted his face toward Shinobu.
"So then... he won’t hand over the Blue Spider Lily, nor allow independent research. Yet he keeps Muzan as his target and will cooperate to destroy him. Is that correct?"
"That’s right," Shinobu confirmed, keeping her hands resting on her knees. "His resolve to wipe out the Upper Ranks and Muzan remains intact."
"Intact?" Obanai’s voice rang out coldly from the other side. "How easy that sounds. He used to be human, and now he’s a demon. His nature has changed. Do you really trust his intentions?"
Shinobu kept her smile. "He cut off Muzan’s head. That shows which side he’s on."
"People change—and demons even more so!"
"In that case, let’s judge his actions as time goes on."
"And when he decides to turn against us?" Obanai countered. "What will we stop him with? Without the cure to return him to normal, even if we eliminate Muzan, we run the risk of having created an even worse monster."
Gyomei pressed his palms together in prayer and added: "A Muzan immune to the sun..."
"You’re jumping to conclusions!" Rengoku cut in firmly. "His group doesn’t consume human flesh. Marcus has a calculating, pragmatic mindset—he’s not some savage. Treating him as an imminent threat strikes me as a mistake."
"That’s exactly why." Sanemi, arms crossed, snorted. "Letting him act freely makes him a greater danger than Muzan. Muzan has clear limits."
"Excuse me..." Mitsuri, shrinking in her seat, spoke up timidly. "Our top priority is still Muzan, right? Demons attack people every day—debating about Marcus right now seems to me..."
"Mitsuri." Obanai interrupted her. His tone dropped in intensity, but held its firmness. "It’s not that simple. We’ll deal with Muzan, but we can’t neglect Marcus. He no longer belongs to our side. And besides, I will never agree to you going to Asakusa to keep watch on him."
"Huh?" Mitsuri was taken aback. "Why not?"
Obanai didn’t answer and looked away.
Giyū broke his silence in a flat voice: "Are you worried my little brother might try to eat Mitsuri?"
The blunt question made Obanai’s face tense instantly. He fixed his glare on him: "Given your ties to Marcus, you shouldn’t have a voice in this meeting... Being allowed to listen is already a concession."
Giyū returned the look without flinching: "If Oyakata-sama thinks I should withdraw, I’ll leave."
The remark, delivered in strictly neutral terms, was taken by Obanai as a challenge to his authority.
Who do you think you are? Do you actually believe you’re Oyakata-sama? Do you feel entitled to give me orders?
"Insolent!" Obanai exclaimed, slamming his hands down hard on the table as he rose to his feet.
The frustration over Marcus’s demands, combined with Giyū’s attitude, exhausted his patience.
"Enough."
Kagaya’s voice pacified the room in a second.
Obanai held back the impulse, immediately realizing he’d overstepped. He turned toward the head seat and bowed his head: "Forgive my lack of composure, Oyakata-sama."
"Rise," Kagaya replied without the slightest hint of reproach. "Let’s talk calmly, no arguing."
Obanai shot Giyū one last glare before returning to his seat.
Kagaya tilted his face toward Tengen: "Uzui, what’s your position?"
Tengen pulled his hand away from the back of his neck, leaned toward the table, and laced his fingers together.
He stayed silent for a few seconds before answering.
"Our opinion matters little..." he offered. "If Marcus decides not to hand over the remedy to become human again, we don’t have the ability to force him."
His gaze swept over each of those present.
"My reflexes have been trained since childhood. And yet, when he attacked Muzan... I couldn’t even make out his shadow. Realistically, as long as he stays in Yoshiwara, any one of us who tries to face him will end up dead."
"..."
A heavy silence covered the room.
Only the grinding of Obanai’s teeth could be heard.
But no one tried to dispute the statement, because they had no arguments to refute it.
Kagaya turned toward the other end of the table: "Muichiro, what do you think?"
Muichiro Tokito was resting his cheek on his palm, watching the leaves float in his cup of tea.
Hearing himself called, he raised his head with a vacant look.
"I don’t have many memories of him... but as long as he doesn’t eat people, I’ll abide by whatever Oyakata-sama decides."
With that said, he went back to focusing on his cup.
Kagaya nodded and fixed his attention on Shinobu.
"Just as before, the Stone, Wind, and Serpent Hashira refuse to ally with Marcus as long as he keeps the remedy and the Blue Spider Lily out of our reach. On the other hand, the Flame, Water, and Love Hashira prioritize concentrating our efforts against Muzan. Mist and Sound remain neutral."
He paused briefly.
"And you, Shinobu? Will you keep to your neutrality this time as well?"
"..."
Shinobu stayed silent.
An image of the residence crossed her mind: Pearl, Nezuko, Ivy, Urokodaki, Tanjiro, and the rest sharing the space so naturally. Despite her years in the Corps and considering the Butterfly Mansion her home, that atmosphere reflected a different kind of warmth.
She didn’t find it unpleasant to be there... In an environment like that, she doubted things would take a bad turn.
"Shinobu?" Kagaya called to her.
Shinobu looked up. Her smile remained, but her eyes reflected resolve.
"Last time, I didn’t know whether the transformed Marcus-kun was still the same Marcus-kun I knew..." she explained in a measured tone. "This time I went to see for myself. Aside from his biological nature, he’s still the same person. That’s why... I support the alliance, and I maintain that he should keep the position of Demon Hashira."
Unlike the others’ guarded stances, her backing of Marcus’s post sounded final.
Kagaya smiled faintly: "I agree with your judgment."
"Oyakata-sama?!"
Obanai looked at him in surprise, blurting it out.
Kagaya raised a hand to pause the reaction: "Obanai, listen carefully."
"First of all, while it would have been ideal to obtain the remedy, his refusal was within expectations. From a pragmatic standpoint, no one hands an ally a weapon that can be used against them. His position is perfectly understandable."
Obanai Iguro’s lips moved, but he chose to keep silent.
"Second, just as Kyojuro pointed out, Marcus is not the same as Muzan," Kagaya continued. "We can’t equate them merely because they share the same biological nature. That wouldn’t be fair."
His blind eyes swept slowly across the room.
No one broke the silence.
"Lastly..." his voice took on a deeper note. "We’ve been in this battle for a millennium. A thousand years of conflict between the Ubuyashiki family and the demons led by Muzan."
His tone stayed measured, but beneath that calm surfaced a note of contained conviction.
"Over all this time, our family brushed against extinction more than once. Muzan, meanwhile, passed through the centuries untouched, without us being able to so much as hold onto a precise image of his face. And yet, upon reaching our generation, the situation changed."
His voice remained serene, but beneath that calm a trace of excitement and emotion could be felt.
"Today we have nearly complete information on our enemy. The Lower Ranks have been eliminated, only four Upper Ranks remain standing, and Muzan’s head has already been severed once... And all this decisive progress we owe directly to Marcus."
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