Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Volume 9

This volume is Volume 9 of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, with the subtitle "The Great Yoshiwara Infiltration Operation." Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke follow Uzui Tengen, the "Sound Hashira" and highest-ranking swordsman of the Demon Slayer Corps, to the pleasure quarters, where demons appear. Tengen's three wives are all female ninjas; they infiltrated ahead to gather intelligence but one after another lost contact. To find out the truth, Tanjiro and the others must, under Tengen's arrangement, disguise themselves as women and mix into the pleasure quarters, hiding their identities while searching for the demon's hiding place. But the investigation does not go smoothly, and the demon's lair cannot be found; just then, the demon's clutches reach the courtesans of the pleasure quarters. This volume continues the narrative rhythm after the previous volume's "Upper Rank demons" and the Hashira's operations, and formally opens the "Yoshiwara arc," regarded as one of the most popular sections of the whole work; the direct confrontation between Tanjiro and the others and the Upper Rank demons will continue in later volumes.