It had been a week since Akatsuki Trading Company's economic sanctions began.
The air at the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters was heavy with a different kind of unease, distinct from the terror of facing a demon.
No one was dying immediately. But like grit in a great machine, the entire organization was starting to seize up.
Ubuyashiki Manor, emergency meeting.
Before the ailing leader, Ubuyashiki Kagaya, sat the heads of each department with pallid faces.
Every report they laid out was stamped with red lines, signaling a state of emergency.
"My Lord, the comprehensive report from the supply unit."
The supply officer swallowed dryly and began to speak.
"On the bright side, the food reserves at headquarters will last for two months, perhaps three. Our members won't go hungry immediately, but…"
He paused, biting his lip.
"The problem is that our new supply routes have been completely wiped out. The supply of foodstuffs and daily necessities like rice, barley, miso, and soy sauce, which used to come in bulk, has all been cut off as if by magic."
"Wiped out? We've got more than a couple suppliers, haven't we?"
Wind Hashira Sanemi asked sharply, and the officer shook his head with a despairing expression.
"Rice wholesalers we've traded with for decades, vegetable delivery cooperatives, even the merchants who supplied charcoal—all of them have turned their backs as if by prior agreement. No matter how we pleaded, they just locked their doors and gave flimsy excuses like 'the goods aren't here' or 'the delivery truck broke down.'"
"Did you try offering more money?"
"Of course. We doubled the market price. But they… trembled as if they'd seen something more frightening than money."
The officer's voice trembled thinly.
"One merchant told us, 'If we deal with you, our shop will have to close down in this land.' They broke their contracts, even paying the penalty. This isn't just a shortage of supplies. Someone… is strangling the supply chain with a giant hand."
At those words, the room fell into silence. The invisible pressure of the enemy seemed to materialize, tightening around their necks.
The accounting officer beside him sighed deeply and took over.
"What's more serious is the financial issue due to inefficiency. With the wholesale routes blocked, we have to buy necessary items at retail prices from general consumer stores."
He opened a ledger.
"Before, we could get a bale of rice for 10 yen wholesale. Now, we have Kakushi members buying bags at 20, 30 yen each from market rice shops. Prices have tripled or quadrupled, but the quantity is woefully insufficient."
This was the real blow Akira had aimed for. With the loss of bulk purchase discounts and transport convenience, the Demon Slayer Corps' operating costs began to skyrocket exponentially.
"Transportation is also a problem. We can't secure carts or carriages. The transport union has also notified us that they won't carry our goods. In the end, Kakushi members have to carry everything on their backs, wasting manpower that should be used for support and information gathering on procuring supplies."
To cook rice for a hundred people, ten members had to spend the whole day roaming the market to buy rice and radishes—a farcical situation.
The Demon Slayer Corps was losing its function as a military force, turning into a giant errand center.
"The outflow of funds is too rapid. If this continues, the organization's finances will dry up before the supplies, including food, run out."
Kagaya's expression darkened. His insight had already pierced the cause of this situation.
'Akatsuki Trading Company… they've moved.'
He recalled the reports from members who had recently infiltrated the trading company's logistics warehouses under the pretense of searching for demon traces.
They returned empty-handed, but it had stirred the lion's whiskers.
"We… have pointed our swords at an opponent we shouldn't have challenged."
Kagaya murmured softly.
"This is a warning. Their way of showing that they can choke us without shedding blood."
"Those damn merchants, just because they have a bit of money, they're throwing their weight around! I'll go and settle this!"
Sanemi couldn't hold back his anger and stood up, but Stone Hashira Gyomei stopped him.
"Sit down, Shinazugawa. This isn't a problem that can be solved by force. They are using legal means within the bounds of the law: refusing to trade. If we attack them, we become nothing but bandits plundering civilians."
Thick tears streamed from Gyomei's eyes.
"Namu Amida Butsu… There are swords to cut down demons, but no sword to cut poverty and hunger… Truly tragic."
They wouldn't starve immediately. But tomorrow was uncertain.
The economic death sentence imposed by Akatsuki Trading Company was slowly and surely strangling the Demon Slayer Corps from within.
At the same time, at the Butterfly Mansion operated by Kanao. The scene here was even more desperate than at headquarters.
"Flower Hashira! We're out of bandages!"
"The disinfectant alcohol is gone! I went to the pharmacy, but they said they only sell one bottle per person…"
"The medicine is all gone! The wounded are clamoring for even painkillers…"
Kakushi members clung to Kanao, wailing.
Kanao looked down at the mountain of receipt bundles piled up.
They were items she had bought using her personal funds and the activity fee she received as a Hashira, going around nearby pharmacies.
Kanao pressed her forehead. The gauze and bandages that used to come in boxes from wholesalers now had to be bought bit by bit at retail prices from neighborhood pharmacies. The height of inefficiency.
"If there isn't any, deal with it as is."
Kanao's cold voice made the Kakushi members hesitate.
"Huh…?"
"The pharmacies are closed too. I can't produce alcohol out of thin air, can I? Tear up clothes, boil them, and use them for hemostasis. If there's no painkiller, have them bite down on something and endure."
Her attitude was calm. No, it had to be calm.
She had already heard the full story from her father. The fact that the Demon Slayer Corps had tried to steal from the trading company, and this was a just retaliation that cut off the supply of goods.
'Serves them right.'
Kanao sneered coldly inside. The price for doubting and even stealing from the trading company of the family that took her in had to be harsh.
It was natural for her father to be angry, and she sympathized with that anger.
"And… don't expect too much from me. I'm not a doctor; I'm a swordsman. The shortage of supplies is headquarters' responsibility, not mine."
Kanao turned away mercilessly. The sighs of the Kakushi members echoed behind her, but she did not look back.
The character for "exterminate" (滅) engraved on the back of her uniform. Today, more than ever, that character felt not like a will to destroy demons, but like Akira's will to bring down this incompetent, rotten organization.
Kanao was not the Flower Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps now.
She was a spy for Akatsuki Trading Company, a faithful daughter following her father's will, standing alone at the heart of the crumbling manor.
She fiddled with the talisman Akira had given her, hidden in her bosom, finding the only solace in this chaos.
"Speaking of which, who did they say was supervising this year's Final Selection?"
She was only interested in how the Final Selection, changing from this year onwards, would turn out.
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