For a moment, Kagaya Ubuyashiki was completely speechless.
He didn't know how to answer Shuya's question.
And it wasn't just him. The Hashira who had been openly hostile toward Shuya also fell silent.
The entire courtyard suddenly grew eerily quiet.
Shuya calmly swept his gaze across everyone present.
Honestly, his overall opinion of the Demon Slayer Corps wasn't bad. They were a group of people who had been hurt by demons and banded together for one purpose: revenge against Muzan. What they were doing ultimately benefited humanity.
But toward Kagaya Ubuyashiki himself, Shuya held almost no goodwill.
For one thing, just as he had pointed out earlier, the Ubuyashiki clan had conveniently pinned their hereditary illness on Muzan as some kind of curse. Of course, that wasn't really worth criticizing. Muzan was the enemy—dumping every possible sin on him was fair game. At most, it was just adding a layer of personal vendetta on top of the righteous cause to strengthen their motivation.
What Shuya truly couldn't understand was this: whether their short lifespans were really the result of a curse or simply a genetic disease, they knew full well that their male descendants would die young. Yet they still chose to keep having children and passed the nearly hopeless mission of killing Muzan down to the next doomed generation.
To most people, that probably looked selfless and noble.
But perhaps because Shuya had grown up as an orphan, he saw it differently. To him, this so-called "leaving everything to the wisdom of future generations" was actually the height of irresponsibility.
Even doctors in hospitals, when they learn a pregnant woman's family has a history of genetic disease, will strongly advise the parents to think carefully before bringing the child into the world.
It wasn't like the Ubuyashiki clan was irreplaceable to the Demon Slayer Corps. Even without them, the Corps would still exist. As long as Muzan refused to give up his search for the Blue Spider Lily and his desire to overcome sunlight, he would keep creating more demons. The simple fact that demons had to eat humans to grow stronger guaranteed eternal conflict between humans and demons. There would never be a shortage of people who held grudges against demons.
They might call themselves the Demon Extermination Corps or the Demon Slayer Corps—it was just a different leader and a different name.
In fact, with the progress of modern technology, Muzan would eventually get crushed by it one day. If he was especially unlucky and happened to be near Hiroshima a few decades from now, the "little boy" would vaporize him without the Corps lifting a finger.
If that was all there was to it, Shuya could at least say he didn't understand but respected their way of thinking.
But when he looked at how Ubuyashiki ran the Final Selection—the entrance exam for the Demon Slayer Corps—he could only describe his feelings as: I don't understand it, but I'm deeply shaken.
They turned the selection into a battle royale. They threw a bunch of hopeful recruits into Fujikasane Mountain filled with demons. Instead of judging them on actual skill, they basically tested luck—survive and you're in.
In Giyu's generation, everyone survived and became official members except the strongest one, who died during the exam. Over the years, many excellent disciples trained by the previous Water Hashira had also died in the selection.
Yet the Corps never seemed to notice anything wrong with this insane system. They kept running the same brain-dead selection process right up until Tanjiro showed up and finally killed the Hand Demon that had been slaughtering their recruits.
To Shuya, it almost felt like the Master only considered those who passed the selection as his "children," while anyone who failed was just another corpse on the roadside.
He genuinely couldn't understand how an organization with such a ridiculous recruitment process had managed to survive for a thousand years.
Or was Muzan really that powerful? Did the tragedies he caused supply them with enough motivated recruits every single year?
Of course, Shuya hadn't said all of this just to mess with Ubuyashiki or make him uncomfortable.
His personal philosophy was actually very simple.
With strangers: only benefits matter, not right or wrong. The process doesn't matter—only the desired result.
With his own people: only right and wrong matter, not pure benefit. The result is important, but the process in between is even more important.
His real goal here was the future contractor he had his eye on—Shinobu Kocho.
It might seem completely unrelated to her, but the truth was that many people in this country carried a strange kind of samurai mentality. The Ubuyashiki clan had been the undisputed leaders of the Demon Slayer Corps for a thousand years. The image of the "Master" was deeply ingrained in everyone's hearts. He was the primary object of loyalty for the entire organization.
Shuya could never accept one of his contractors having a higher loyalty to someone else.
But surprisingly, even before Shuya could start chipping away at that loyalty, Shinobu had already begun to believe he really was her sister's ex-boyfriend. When he openly criticized Ubuyashiki earlier, she hadn't immediately taken a hostile stance like the other Hashira. That alone proved that her sister Kanae still held a far greater place in Shinobu's heart than the Corps did.
Now that he had confirmed that, Shuya felt much more confident about contracting her.
Everything else would be easy from here.
"Forget it," Shuya finally broke the strange silence. "You can take your time thinking about that question.
"However, I do acknowledge the Ubuyashiki clan's determination to eliminate Muzan Kibutsuji.
"So now I have two questions for you."
Shuya held up one finger and looked directly at Ubuyashiki. "First question: Are you personally willing to pay any price to defeat Muzan Kibutsuji?"
Ubuyashiki hesitated for a moment before answering, "If it's only me… then yes. I am willing to pay any price."
"Very good."
Shuya nodded and raised a second finger. "Second question: If someone like Yoriichi Tsugikuni appeared today—someone capable of defeating Muzan—would you be willing to fully support and cooperate with every single decision that person makes?"