Stagnation…
This word perfectly embodies the deepest desire of Muzan Kibutsuji, the demon king of Kimetsu no Yaiba.
Why cherish such a concept?
'Doma's envy is logical, but ultimately futile,' he thought to himself, as he picked up his tools once more.
For Muzan, perfection is synonymous with stagnation at its core.
Why should something perfect ever need to change?
An idea diametrically opposed to that of another scientist, namely Mayuri Kurotsuchi.
After all, perfection equates to no innovation or evolution whatsoever.
A disgrace for minds like Mayuri and Doma.
Yet, Muzan yearns for this ultimate state.
However, that was his mindset until Doma's speech and words to his children.
Muzan's pale hands were no longer as lively after hearing Doma's words.
Was he on the wrong path? Is stagnation truly synonymous with perfection?
Should he not… take up again the aspirations of the person he wanted to become on his deathbed in the Heian era?
Because of the words of someone consumed by envy like himself, Muzan's resolve wavered.
Unconsciously, he began to faintly yearn for something he and his mother had once desired for his life.
Running and laughing under the sun with friends.
Broken.
A vial cracked after Doma's infuriating laughter echoed in the demon king's mind.
"Nakime! Take me to Enmu," Muzan ordered, having noticed his troubled state.
'Should I… try?'he thought to himself, stepping elegantly out of a Tokyo alleyway.
The demon king had set out to find the aspiring Kizuki with an unusual purpose.
Muzan longed to reconnect with his former self and understand if stagnation was truly the solution to the heavy void in his heart or if he wanted… something more.
…
"Now that my temporary boss is off on vacation, we can speak more freely," Doma declared after tearing the papers to shreds.
He would have liked to reduce them to dust with his ice, but mental exhaustion was becoming a bit taxing to bear.
The Paradise of Vanity is a power similar to Rimuru's Great Sage in several ways, but it lacks its own consciousness and cannot yet be automated.
Doma had to manage it in every aspect, even after twenty years of training.
Sure, he had made some improvements on certain limitations since his appointment as the Sixth Lower Moon until now, but he hadn't progressed much due to his Blood Demon Art: Vector.
The latter consumed nearly all of his mental focus.
Thus, he could stay under the sun for five hours, but the limitation of not being able to use other powers had not yet been "completely" overcome.
Doma could barely perceive Mori's schemes due to this inconvenient situation.
'In fifty years, I might be able to withstand ten more hours under the sun, and in another twenty years, reach the twelve hours of an entire day… a total of seventy or eighty years,'he estimated mentally.
He couldn't predict the outcome of his training with precision, as his progress was slowing more and more.
The more he mastered the manipulation and control of his powers, the slower his evolution became.
This phenomenon had also manifested in his feeding habits.
The nutrients from men no longer truly suited him, and Doma understood why his manga version only fed on women.
It was simply cold logic, with no perverse intent behind the act, contrary to what some female Demon Slayer fans might believe.
This version of Doma simply didn't want to waste time consuming something in ten seconds when he could devour a similar prey with greater gain in the same amount of time.
"Why do you call the ancestor of demons your temporary boss?" asked Gyutaro, raising the question Mori himself wanted to bring up.
Doma unfurled his fan with a graceful motion before hiding the lower half of his face.
This nonchalant gesture was familiar to both men but always annoying to witness.
Their furrowed brows were welcomed by Doma, as he wanted to lighten the heavy atmosphere caused by his situation.
'I don't want your pity, but your soul for my future,' he thought to himself.
"That will bring upheaval to both of your lives" he said in a falsely gentle tone.
A clear attempt to ease the tension, which was growing dark again.
"What is that question?" Mori, tired of letting his father steer the conversation, decided to get to the point.
'Tch, what a little buzzkill…'After complaining mentally, Doma decided to answer without wasting more time.
After all, he wanted to rest too:
"If I said I could escape Muzan's control… would you be willing to cooperate in my future coup among the demons?"
The information was so shocking that the room fell silent, until Gyutaro raised a crucial issue tied to their condition as demons.
"Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be forced to work for him? Otherwise, why all this fuss with Muzan and the paper notes?!" the young man said, his voice rising slightly in confusion.
"He's right. Why fear being caught when you plan to kill him anyway? If you lack strength, we can join forces with the Ubuyashiki clan," Mori added, his expression serious.
Unfortunately, the ice demon's reaction was far different from their expectations.
Doma looked at them with the same gaze he reserved for the cult fanatics when they spoke of their problems.
'Why am I surrounded by people who never see the bigger picture?'he sighed mentally.
"*Cough*… okay, I'll have to refresh your memory. First, I'm a demon. Have you forgotten your reaction to that news? Yet you both know the benefits of my actions."
Doma couldn't act like Tanjirō and Nezuko, as he had already devoured humans and had no intention of stopping to become a vegetarian like Tamayo.
'A blood-based diet will never provide the strength gains as quickly as human flesh does,' he thought, not hiding his helplessness.
Upon hearing these words, his son looked away, embarrassed.
Gyutaro, on the other hand, simply scratched the back of his head, ashamed as he recalled his past behavior.
"The second reason is my desire to assimilate the Ubuyashiki clan through slow but steady infiltration of my followers within it."
Doma wasn't afraid that his plan regarding the Ubuyashiki clan would be leaked by Mori.
The Eternal Paradise Faith had already infiltrated a large part of the Demon Slayer Corps by this time.
Mori himself embodied the success of this plan: the cult now counted a Hashira among the forces of the Ubuyashiki clan.
'I was hoping Mori would get closer to the Rengoku family, since Taiga and I have a strong connection with them, but…'
The Rengoku family had no direct-line daughters at this time, and the current heir was a vengeful young man actively hunting Doma.
According to Taiga, the Rengoku family had no real information on Doma, aside from some speculations about his rank among the Kizuki and his area of activity.
"Y-you used me?" Mori clearly took the news badly, but Doma merely shrugged.
"The original plan was to make Gyutaro a Hashira, but you delayed that with your actions, so I improvised," Doma's reasoning wasn't illogical. Mori had gotten himself involved in the former security team's activities before joining the Demon Slayer Corps.
No one ever forced him down that rabbit hole.
"The final reason preventing me from acting against Muzan is stupid but logical… he knows where I live, tch," he said, clicking his tongue in annoyance.
Doma wasn't afraid of a war or a potential defeat in battle, but it would be inconvenient at this time.
The demon didn't want to face his former boss without a backup plan or overwhelming strength.
After all, the logic of war is simple: you either win everything or lose everything.
Doma couldn't fight openly without a real guarantee of victory.
'It's better if I wait for Tanjirō's generation for an easy win, but I should already find that damn flower or Tamayo.'
Doma didn't understand why the flower was so hard to find when he was using humans to locate it.
Especially since the cult had become very influential and didn't lack manpower.
The demon suspected a supernatural influence from a third party, namely the world of KNY.
"If that's real, it would explain the System's words and Muzan's inability to find that flower… I should focus on Tamayo first." That thought was the only truly reliable one.
"I understand, Father… I agree to cooperate," Mori said, and Gyutaro agreed without a hint of hesitation.
"But why do you seem so desperate for my cooperation? You seem to have planned so much already, haven't you?"
Doma gave a smile of the "as expected of my son" variety before speaking in his usual tone.
"Ara ara~ you hit the nail on the head. I need your cooperation to speed things up." (Translation: I could do it without you, but it'd be a hassle.)
"What does he need to do, for you to go to such lengths to explain the whole situation to us?" Gyutaro cast a suspicious glance at his benefactor.
"Hmm… it's simple, but a bit embarrassing to ask. Alright, I'll do it now since you insist: Mori-kun? Could you… die for me, please?"