People in Demon Slayer: The Journey That Began with Demon Slayer

Yosuke mocked, "Why didn't you draw your sword? Did you give up?"

Kokushibo did not answer Yosuke, but instead took out a short flute from his pocket.

Yosuke frowned as he noticed that Kokushibo was holding Yoriichi Tsugikuni's piccolo.

Yosuke used a large amount of blood to form a blood sphere, enveloping Yosuke and Kokushibo within it.

"You probably want me to say something, right? Now you can just say whatever you want to say, don't worry about Kibu Muzan!"

Kokushibo finally spoke again: "You should already know what Kibuy Muzan wants with the priest clan, right?"

Yosuke nodded: "I suspect that Kibuy Muzan wants to use the bloodline of the priests to compensate for his fear of sunlight."

"That's right, that's what Muzan Kibutsuji was thinking, so all the Upper Moons are currently lying in wait, doing their best to find the whereabouts of the priests."

Kokushibo's words showed absolutely no respect for Kibu Muzan, which greatly surprised Yosuke.

Yosuke was very puzzled. What had Kokushibo gone through during this time to cause such a drastic change in his personality?

Unable to contain his curiosity, Yosuke asked, "Kuroshibo, what exactly happened?"

"I am no longer Kokushibo, but Tsugikuni Iwakatsu." Kokushibo looked at the short flute in his hand and began to tell Yosuke his story.

"During my battle with you, I was teleported away by Mado, and by chance I found Yoriichi's grave."

"There, I finally saw my own heart clearly. I spent my whole life pursuing power, only to find that it was not what I truly wanted. How ironic."

Kokushibo's words were sincere, but Yosuke didn't quite believe them. After all, Kokushibo was Muzan Kibutsuji's subordinate, and no one could be sure whether Kokushibo was acting to gain Yosuke's trust.

"Really... So what are you planning to do now?" Yosuke asked tentatively.

"Not much, as usual." Kokushibo's expression remained unchanged. "As long as the Priest Clan exists, being found is only a matter of time. By then, when Kibu Y Muzan becomes the ultimate being, it will be too late."

Yosuke asked in surprise, "You mean, you want to become an undercover agent for Kibuy Muzan?"

"I'm not exactly an undercover agent. I'm still its subordinate, but this understanding only extends until Kibuy Muzan finds the priest clan."

Sensing Kokushibo's murderous aura, Yosuke couldn't help but ask, "What will you do if Kibu Muzan finds the priest clan?"

Kokushibo said with an extremely cold expression, "I will slaughter the priest clan and shatter Muzan Kibutsuji's dream of becoming the ultimate being. Besides, I have already done it once."

"Did you do it once? What do you mean?"

Kokushibo said calmly, "On Yoriichi's grave, a blue spider lily has bloomed."

"What?!" Yosuke was utterly shocked. The blue spider lily, which had been missing for nearly a thousand years, had actually been found by Kokushibo.

"Where is the Blue Spider Lily now?!" Yang Jie, unable to verify the authenticity of this information, hurriedly asked.

"Now the blue spider lily is in Yoriichi's grave. So much time has passed, it may have withered completely."

Kokushibo continued firmly, "I will not allow anyone to obtain the Blue Spider Lily. Demons should not exist in this world!"

Yosuke breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the blue spider lily hadn't been obtained by Muzan Kibutsuji, perhaps withering was the best outcome.

However, Yosuke still couldn't trust Kokushibo. No one knew what Kokushibo was thinking, or whether he had truly found the Blue Spider Lily.

Yosuke continued, "Did you find any clues about the Shinto priest family in the abandoned buildings belonging to the Demon Slayer Corps and the Ubuyashiki clan?"

"There's some information about the priestly clan written on a piece of paper," Kokushibo tossed a piece of paper to Yosuke.

Yosuke caught the paper and examined it carefully. There was only one sentence written on it.

When the line between humans and ghosts becomes blurred, the gods will bestow new divine pronouncements, and from then on, the supreme deity will appear in the world carrying these pronouncements.

The information seemed like a riddle, and Yosuke had no clue what to do with it for a while.

"Will you tell Kibuy Muzan this news?"

"I will tell Kibuy Muzan, and I will also help him find the priest clan. I have already said that I will eliminate anyone or anything that can make a demon fearless of sunlight without mercy!"

Kokushibo looked at Yosuke indifferently: "Even if you kill me now, it won't make a difference. When I die, the memories in my mind will be fed back to Kibu Muzan, and it will still know this news."

Yosuke extended an olive branch to Kokushibo: "We now have a way to break the curse of Kibu Muzan. The curse in Kamado's blood has been broken. You can join us, and we will break the curse in your blood so that you can fight Kibu Muzan with us."

Kokushibo directly rejected Yosuke's invitation: "I will not join you. I do not trust you, Yosuke Ubuyashiki. The only person I could trust has long since passed away. Besides, if I could do it, I would not hesitate to kill you."

Kokushibo turned around, tore a gash in the blood sphere that Yosuke had created, and strolled away, showing no concern that Yosuke would kill him.

Just as Kokushibo was about to leave, Yosuke stopped him: "Kuroshibo, if you've accomplished all of this, what about you?"

Kokushibo paused, a hint of warmth lurking in his otherwise cold voice.

"I will go find Yoriichi. He must be waiting for me. As his older brother, how can I abandon him and let him leave alone?"

Chapter 96 Obanai Iguro

As Yosuke watched Kokushibo's retreating figure, his eyes glazed over for a moment, as if he saw Yoriichi Tsugikuni in him.

After Kokushibo left, Yosuke entered the building that had once housed the Ubuyashiki and the Demon Slayer Corps.

Because the buildings are all made of wood, they have been damaged and broken after hundreds of years of wind and rain.

On the ground lay a rusty, mud-covered Nichirin sword, along with some pieces of paper that hadn't completely rotted.

However, most of the writing on these papers has disappeared, making them completely worthless as references.

The only clue we've found at Mount Akabane is the piece of paper Kokushibo gave to Yosuke.

When Yosuke returned to the Butterfly Mansion, he discovered an unexpected person.

Serpent Pillar? Obanai Iguro.

Moreover, Obanai Iguro came to the Butterfly Mansion to find Yosuke.

Among the Pillars of the Demon Slayer Corps, Obanai Iguro and Sanemi Shinazugawa disliked Yosuke the most. Now that they chose to take the initiative to find Yosuke, Yosuke couldn't help but feel a little curious.

Inside the room, Yosuke and Obanai Iguro sat facing each other.

Obanai Iguro spoke first to Yosuke: "The Pillars have already heard from the Lord that you are searching for the priestly clan. I have some information about priests, but I don't know if the priests in my memory are the same priestly clan you are looking for."

Yang Jie composed himself and gestured, "Please explain in detail, and I can determine the truth of the matter."

Obanai Iguro took a deep breath, as if what he was about to say was extremely difficult for him.

"I was born into the Iguro family on Hachijojima Island. The Iguro family has existed for nearly four hundred years. It is a family that only gives birth to girls. For 370 years, no boy has been born. The number of family members has always been kept at around fifty."

"This is an extremely shameless and ugly clan. The way they maintain the lineage of the Igu family is by deceiving others, getting them pregnant, and then cruelly killing them."

"The Iguro family has always lived off the money they stole after a snake demon killed others."

"The snake demon's favorite food is babies. In return, they will sacrifice their own children to this snake demon that loves to eat babies."

"I was imprisoned shortly after I was born. As the only boy in the Iguro family and born with heterochromia, I naturally attracted the interest of this snake demon. Because of the snake demon's perverse sense of humor, I survived temporarily under the pretext that I was too young."

"However, also because of the snake demon's perverse tastes, I was required to 'have the same appearance as a snake,' and my family cut off my mouth, completely disfiguring me."

Obanai Iguro unwrapped the bandages from her face, revealing a shocking wound near her mouth.

“I overheard my mother, sisters and other relatives talking in the prison cell. I was born because my mother deceived a priest who came to Hachijojima by accident.”

After re-wrapping the bandages around her face, Obanai Iguro continued, "Because after my mother became pregnant, she killed the priest. After seeing that my mother had given birth to a boy, the rest of the family also wanted to have a boy, so they searched all over Hachijojima for a priest, but found nothing. That's all I know."

After pondering for a moment, Yosuke said, "Could you take me to Hachijojima?"

Upon hearing that Yosuke wanted to go to Hachijojima, Obanai Iguro frowned: "It's no use you going now. The only survivor of the Iguro clan is my cousin."

Obanai Iguro was extremely reluctant to return to Hachijojima, because after he fled, the snake demon killed almost all of his clansmen in a fit of rage.

The surviving cousin also constantly blames Obanai Iguro, believing that all of this was caused by Obanai Iguro. She argues that if Obanai Iguro had obediently been eaten by the snake demon, none of this would have happened.

While fleeing, Obanai Iguro also thought about what would happen to her people if she escaped.

However, Obanai Iguro still escaped because he was unwilling to be devoured and die as a sacrifice by the serpent demon. He wanted to live, that was all.

Iguchi Obanai is still blaming herself for what happened to her people.

Yosuke sensed Obanai Iguro's resistance and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I didn't take your feelings into consideration. Just tell me the location of Hachijojima, and I'll go there by myself."

Obanai Iguro was speechless for a moment, then said firmly after a moment of contemplation, "I will take you there. Without my guidance, even if you find Hachijojima Island, you will not be able to find the Iguro family's ancestral home."

Because of the long journey, Obanai Iguro needs to return to the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters to report his itinerary. The departure time for Hachijojima is tentatively scheduled for three days later.

Tanjiro and his two companions had fully recovered from their injuries and were taken by Kyojuro Rengoku to carry out a mission for the Demon Slayer Corps.

Without Tanjiro and his two companions making a ruckus, the entire Butterfly Mansion fell silent.

These past few days of troubles have made Yosuke, who is feeling somewhat depressed, start drinking again.

Yosuke was drinking alone in the courtyard of the Butterfly Mansion.

Upon seeing this, Osamu also took a jug of sake, sat down next to Yosuke, and they drank together: "This is the first time I've seen Lord Yosuke so troubled."

Yosuke sighed, "No one can live a carefree life forever."

Osamu smiled and said, "I believe that anything can be easily solved in the hands of Lord Yosuke."

"I'm not a god, there are always things I can't do."

Yosuke felt powerless in the face of all the unexpected events that had just occurred.

"God? I have never seen a god, nor do I believe in any god. When I was in trouble, I prayed to a god, but the god never answered me. However, when I was most confused and helpless, only Yosuke-sama answered me and saved me. In my eyes, Yosuke-sama is like a god."

Yosuke smiled and shook his head: "Chi, you overestimate me."

"This is just my honest opinion. I admire Yosuke-sama very much. Even though time has passed, Yosuke-sama has never been confused and has been fighting for his goals."

Yosuke looked at the moon overhead, downed the wine in the flask in one gulp, and said with a dazed look in his eyes, "I have also been confused, and in fact I am also very selfish. I want to kill Kibuy Muzan not for the sake of humanity, but only because of the mission and responsibility I bear."

When I first became a ghost, I also wanted to live freely and do whatever I wanted. It was my mother who warned me and brought me back to my senses.

Even now, I still clearly remember my mother saying to me, "Yosuke, we brought evil spirits into the world, so we have a responsibility to eradicate them. This is our responsibility, and also our sin."

Zhi smiled and said, "Lord Yangjie's mother must have been a very gentle yet resolute person."

Yosuke recalled every detail of his mother, Ubuyashiki Mikako, and a nostalgic smile filled his face.

"Yes, my mother has always been a very gentle person."

Chapter 97 Hachijojima

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Obanai Iguro arrived as promised, bringing one more person with her.