Butterfly Estate, early morning
Kaito woke up and reached out to his side. Empty. He sat up, pulled back the blanket, and a small smile crossed his eyes at the crimson stain on the sheet.
"Alright! New day, system sign-in!"
[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for obtaining a Dimensional Gate Sub-Gate (Gold)!]
[Dimensional Gate Sub-Gate: Can be permanently fixed in a world anchored by the Dimensional Gate, allowing free travel between the two worlds without requiring the Host's presence.]
'Gold tier! Permanent fixation, that's basically connecting two worlds together. As long as I anchor it somewhere worth developing, I can expand the Jura Tempest Federation across worlds.'
Previously, the Dimensional Gate could only be used by Kaito himself to ferry people back and forth. With the Sub-Gate, it could now be fixed in place permanently.
A shame only one had come from the sign-in. Using it here would be a waste. The Demon Slayer world had too little martial potential to be worth developing. Better to save it for somewhere with real promise.
"Excellent. Today is a good day."
Just as he was cheerfully muttering to himself, Kanae opened the door and walked in. She looked at him with a puzzled tilt of her head.
"What are you saying to yourself?"
Kaito caught one look at her and his mind immediately drifted back to the night before. He cleared his throat and glanced away.
"Nothing. You're up early. You should have slept in."
Kanae read his expression immediately. A mischievous light came into her eyes.
"Oh my. You weren't shy at all last night, Kaito-sama, so why the red face now?"
Kaito's ears went pink.
'In my previous life I was an otaku who had never even held a girl's hand. Where did that courage come from yesterday? Is this what having power does to a person?'
"I… that's… uh…"
Kanae watched him sputter for a moment, then took pity on him and let it go. She straightened her expression.
"Kaito-sama. Oyakata-sama has sent word that the Corps members and their families have begun preparing for the migration. He has also started liquidating his property and converting everything into supplies. Do you have any instructions?"
Kaito rubbed the back of his neck.
"Kanae, you don't have to call me Kaito-sama anymore. Just call me Kai-chan. That's what Rimuru calls me."
Kanae blinked. She thought of the close friend he had mentioned when describing his world, apparently a very small, very adorable Slime.
"Rimuru-sama calls you that? Then… Kai-chan it is."
"That's better. Oh, after breakfast I'm heading out alone. There are some people I need to find."
"Should I ask Oyakata-sama to help locate them?"
"No need, I'll go myself."
"Then I'll come with you."
"Your body isn't up to it right now. Rest."
He reached over, pulled her in gently, and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
Her face went pink.
"…Fine. Be careful, Kai-chan."
"Don't worry."
Unnamed Mountain, afternoon
"It should be somewhere around here."
Kaito drifted through the sky on Tenkuu, scanning the mountain range below. If he remembered the original story correctly, the Kamado family lived on a mountain much like this one. Not far from the foot of it was Okutama Town, where Tanjirou used to sell charcoal.
'That's right. I'm here for the Kamado family. I'm going to take all the little ones from the story with me. And it is absolutely, completely not because of how cute Nezuko is. I swear on the System's good name.'
[System: Hehe!]
"Found them."
A thin trail of cooking smoke rose from a clearing below. A middle-aged woman was working over a fire, and around her several children were playing or doing chores. The boy at the woodpile, Kaito recognised immediately. Kamado Tanjirou. And sitting quietly beside him: Nezuko.
'Don't say it. Don't say it.'
"Madam, you don't want to… pfft pfft pfft… almost said it! ( ( (; ꒪ ꈊ ꒪; ) ) )"
The whole Kamado family looked up.
"Um… young man, who are you?"
Kie Kamado stared at the young man who had appeared out of nowhere, clearly unsure what to make of him.
"My name is Kaito. Think of me as a traveller. You must be Mrs. Kamado. I have something I'd like to discuss with you."
"Something to discuss with us?" Kie looked even more puzzled. Their family sold charcoal. She couldn't imagine what business a stranger could possibly have with them.
"I'm planning to take your whole family with me."
"WHAT?! Take us?! What for?!"
Kie spun around at once.
"Tanjirou! Take your brothers and sisters and run! Go!"
"I'm not leaving!" Tanjirou planted himself in front of his mother, axe in hand, eyes blazing. "Don't you dare touch my mother!"
Kaito looked at the scene in front of him: Tanjirou gripping his axe, Kie brandishing a spatula, and a cluster of small terrified children pressed together behind them.
'…I really phrased that badly.'
"Wait, wait, I said that wrong. Let me explain."
The explanation that followed left the Kamado family staring at him as if he had started speaking a foreign language. Another world? Monsters? None of it made any sense to them.
That was, until Kaito picked up Nezuko and flew straight up into the sky.
After that, they believed every word.
[System: Put Nezuko down. I'll carry her.]
After a long discussion, the Kamado family agreed to go. They were already living in poverty, and following a man who could fly, to a world where things might be better, was not the hardest decision they had ever made. They simply chose to think of Kaito as something like a god.
"Alright. I'll take you to the Butterfly Estate first. Pack whatever you want to bring."
Once they had gathered their things, Kaito flew them over to the Butterfly Estate and handed them to Kanae before heading straight back out.
Kochou Shinobu watched him disappear into the sky and crossed her arms.
"Hmph. He bullied nee-sama yesterday and doesn't even have the decency to stay with her. Always running off somewhere."
Kanae laughed and turned to look at her.
"He has things to do, Shinobu. And speaking of which, if you like him, just say so. He won't find out on his own. I won't mind, you know."
Shinobu went scarlet.
"Nee-sama, what are you even talking about?! I don't… I never… hmph! I'm not listening to this!! ⁄ ( ⁄ ⁄ • ⁄ ω ⁄ • ⁄ ⁄ ) ⁄"
She fled down the corridor.
Kanae watched her go, rested her chin on her hand, and smiled quietly to herself.
"Ara ara. She has 'I like him' written all over her face. Only Kai-chan, that oblivious blockhead, could possibly miss it."
Meanwhile, Kaito ran from one end of Japan to the other, tracking down every significant person from the original story and persuading them, one by one, to pack up and leave. Wisteria doctors, swordsmiths, master craftsmen, not a single one was spared. Even Lady Tamayo, who had long since become a demon, found herself talked into it before she quite knew what had happened.
The following morning
Kaito stood before a crowd that stretched as far as he could see, swordsmen, physicians, blacksmiths, merchants, farmers, every trade and background imaginable. He pictured the look on Rimuru's face when he arrived with all of them in tow, and couldn't help grinning.
'Rimuru. This is the country I've brought you.'
"Everyone." His voice carried out across the crowd. "Today we say goodbye to this world. To the new one, forward!!!"
"Yeah!!!! *n"
Kaito opened the Dimensional Gate. A vast portal of white light bloomed slowly in the air before them, and the crowd fell into an awed hush.
"This is the Dimensional Gate! Let's go!!!"
They moved through it in an orderly stream, swordsmen, families, the whole of the Demon Slayer world in one long procession. Kaito stood at the back and watched them go.
When the last person had stepped through, he turned and looked back at the world one final time.
"Goodbye, Demon Slayer World."
Then he turned around and walked into the light.