The scene shifted violently.
Her consciousness was pulled deeper into memories that couldn't be her own. She stood in a moonlit forest clearing where demons surrounded a human family.
Father, mother, two small children huddled together in terror.
"Please!" The father stepped protectively in front of his family.
Arms spread wide despite his obvious fear.
"Take me, but spare them!"
"We're not here to feed," the lead demon replied with disturbing intelligence.
Its voice carried none of the mindless hunger Nezuko expected.
"We need them alive."
"Alive? But why?"
"The teacher has plans. Humans who understand demons make better converts than corpses."
The demons moved with coordinated efficiency. Binding rather than killing. Dragging the screaming family toward caves hidden in the mountainside.
Nezuko felt the memory-demon's satisfaction. Not from violence or feeding, but from successful completion of an assigned task.
"No!" she shouted in the dream.
Her voice cracked with desperate horror.
"This is wrong! You can't do this!"
"Can't we?" The memory-demon turned toward her.
Its human features twisted by predatory amusement.
"You did worse when you wore fangs, sister. At least we have purpose beyond mindless hunger."
"I never—I didn't—"
"Check your memories more carefully. The blood you spilled, the terror you caused. We're trying to evolve beyond that savagery."
The accusation hit like a physical blow.
It forced Nezuko to confront fragments of her demon existence she'd buried beneath layers of denial. Flashes of red-tinged vision. The taste of human fear. The satisfaction of the hunt.
Memories she'd convinced herself were nightmares rather than history.
"Let me go!" she gasped.
She felt her consciousness split between human revulsion and demon understanding.
"I don't want this!"
"What you want is irrelevant," multiple voices whispered in unison.
The sound came from everywhere and nowhere.
"You are what you are."
"I'm human! My brother saved me!"
"Your brother delayed the inevitable. Look at yourself, Nezuko. Really look."
Against her will, her gaze dropped to her hands.
Claws extended from her fingernails like curved obsidian blades. She could feel fangs elongating in her mouth, pressing against her lower lip with familiar sharpness.
"No, no, no..."
"Yes. You're coming home to us."
---
The dream pulled her deeper.
Into the largest chamber she'd yet seen. Hundreds of demons gathered in organized rows. Their attention focused on a raised platform where Akira stood like a general addressing her army.
The scope of the conspiracy stole Nezuko's breath.
This wasn't a handful of survivors hiding in caves. This was a coordinated network with military precision.
"The Corps believes demons are mindless beasts," Akira announced.
Her voice carried to every corner of the vast chamber.
"We'll prove them wrong by becoming perfect infiltrators."
A demon near the platform raised its hand.
"How long until we strike, Teacher?"
"Patience. First, we learn their weaknesses. Earn their trust." Akira's smile was predatory, calculating, terrifying in its cold intelligence. "Then we strike when they're most vulnerable."
"And the humans we've captured?"
"Perfect test subjects. We'll learn what makes transformation successful. What makes it... reversible."
Nezuko's dream-self recoiled in horror.
"You're experimenting on people!"
"We're advancing evolution," Akira corrected with clinical detachment. "Your transformation was accidental, uncontrolled. Ours will be intentional, refined."
"My brother will stop you!"
"Your brother is already helping us." Akira's laugh carried genuine amusement.
The sound echoed off stone walls like breaking glass.
"He just doesn't know it yet."
The assembled demons murmured their approval, a sound like wind through dead leaves. Their coordinated response revealed the depth of their organization, the thoroughness of their planning. This was no random gathering of monsters—this was an army preparing for war.
And somehow, impossibly, Nezuko found herself standing among them as if she belonged.