I just wanted to live a quiet life… and conquer the sun while I was at it 2 (DCAU, Muzan SI)
"Clark! Dinner's ready!"
"I'm coming Ma!"
I watch the ordinary six year old child make his way into the Kent Farm home from the shade of a nearby tree. I sighed as I lamented not thinking my initial plans through, there was really little I could glean from an iteration of Clark Kent/Superman at this age.
Should have thought through that piece of logic when I stumbled upon the Thomas and Martha Wayne death scene, after all, Bruce Wayne is typically older than Clark Kent by anywhere from a year to a decade.
Deciding to return to Kent Farm when everyone turns in for the night, I waited for the sun to go down completely, before exiting my hideaway and making for the main town of Smallville.
I went to the nearest pub and asked for a performance spot, which the owner allowed easily, as per usual, then went through a whole slew of songs and dance routines that were well received by the rural population.
I called it quits after an hour or so, indulging in a pint of beer over some casual conversation with the pub owner. A bit of smalltalk now and again helps me keep my connection to humanity.
"-looks like I'll be going through a rough patch this winter."
"Why'd you say that Bob?"
"It's that damn mad cow disease, that's what it is. No one's gonna pay for bad meat."
Huh, poor guy. Sucks to have your investment lost just like that… hmm, perhaps…
"Hello there. I can't help but here you have some unwanted goods…"
The man was somewhat skeptical about my desire to purchase sick cows and a bull, but considering the amount of cash I had on hand, and the fact that he wouldn't get a better deal elsewhere, we agreed upon a transaction that will take place tomorrow evening.
Late evening, when the sun was down, of course.
After pretending to be drunk along with the rest of the locals for a few more hours before taking leave and making my way back to the farm. With all the occupants asleep, I extended a tentacle of flesh and blood through a gap in the walls, with it, I made my way into Clark's bedroom.
With the eyeball attached to it and my view from the window, I could see that the Kryptonian boy was still fast asleep. Now then time to fetch me some sweet DNA-
-Youuuuch!
IT BUUUUUURNS!
I had to bite my tongue down in order to avoid screaming from the surprise pain.
All I did was touch a bit of his skin and the tip of my tentacle sizzled and was destroyed.
Oh joy, the boy is literally a walking talking battery of solar energy even at this age.
Steeling myself for pain, I attempted to retrieve a hair sample instead, the tip of my tentacle hardening and sharpening itself to the extreme as it formed a pair of mini-scissors.
Gotta love shape-shifting.
I made it quick and managed to cut a bit of his hair without his notice, the sample still burned my flesh, but not so much that my regeneration wasn't able to handle it. A few more seconds of careful retraction of my flesh was all it took for me to get my DNA sample.
It seems like his hair absorbs much less solar energy than the rest of his body at his current age, as the surface of my flesh ceased sizzling by the time I had the hair strands in my hand.
All the solar energies within seem to have been expended.
Making my way to a place where I could get some privacy (a remote, unused area), I dug a whole in the ground as I consumed the piece of DNA.
Diving deep into the cellular structure of Kryptonian hair showed that it was much more complex and somehow more dense than my own cells, which was an eye-opener to the knowledge that I and the old Muzan shared, but unsurprising.
Assimilating it for it's capabilities was much more difficult than I thought it would be. The sample was practically dead and too small for me to work with, at most, I could say I managed to get a very small solar energy absorption and metabolization function out of it.
I would need a more concentrated DNA sample to begin making any headway into Kryptonian DNA, but that just isn't possible at the moment. I need some proper protective equipment and laboratory if I were to conduct some proper research.
Not feeling particularly motivated to get out of my comfortable hole, I consumed more of the earth until I dug myself a nice underground bedroom, then I created my cocoon of flesh, a very Muzan-like technique to accelerate his healing while focusing on controlling his mental and biological processes.
Setting a 'wake-up' alarm for tomorrow evening, I dived deep into the memories contained within my body. This time I wouldn't be looking through further experiences of the various skilled humans I've consumed from this world, but rather, through the 'cellular memories' of those of the Demon Slayer verse.
When I entered this universe, I came in with Muzan's body at the end of the series, without the taint of Tamayo's special 4-in-1 poison. This meant that I also came along with the 'cellular memories' of everyone the old Muzan had ever consumed.
Which means that there's a ton of wasted knowledge and potential that Muzan never bothered to tap into due to his utter arrogance and belief that he was 'perfect'.
Thanks to my superior physiology (e.g. multiple brains), I could process information much faster than most beings, though I tend to assign most of my background mental processes on passive information collection and threat detection, rather than having it in the forefront of my mind lest I become overly paranoid and less human. However, now that I'm in a safe place, I could refocus all of that brain power into experiencing the memories of the slain.
My focus today was on Tamayo's knowledge of her Blood Demon Arts and various Demon Slayer's breathing techniques. Blood Demon Arts would come naturally to me as the progenitor of all demons, other techniques would take a much longer time to learn, however. As such, I decided to start with my former minion's memories, after all, Tamayo was one of the most skilled and knowledgeable demons that were produced from my shenanigans.
Tamayo's [Blood Bewitchment] Demon Arts were bloody (no pun intended) useful in my opinion! Illusions that work through the scent of the user's blood? Really useful, as Genjutsu users in the Naruto series would attest to.
But the ability to decrease a target's brain functions before making the recipient confess their lies and reveal their secrets? Fucking awesome!
Tamayo best girl! Even though she was the main reason why I was killed, but nonetheless, this is some real good stuff!
With most of my time spent on Tamayo's memories I only managed to get through a few days worth of Demon Slayers' memories, which is an acceptable result, considering that knowledge can only go so far and practice is what makes perfect.
My alarm rang and I broke out of my cocoon like a beautiful butterfly.
Okay, fine, I wasn't that beautiful.
While I was essentially a Japanese vampire I couldn't exactly sparkle in the sunlight.
Hmm, there's still a bit of evening sun left. Let's see if my solar energy metabolization can-
"YOUWCH!"
I shook my hand rapidly and smashed it against the earthen wall as if I was trying to put out a fire. Gods, it hurts even more than usual.
Well, guess that's what you get for learning an ability to absorb energies that are deadly to you at an even faster rate.
While parts of my body did gain a tiny bit of energy from that little exposure to sunlight, I spent more energy regenerating the damage done by the increased solar energy intake.
"Well then, back to square one."
I focused inwards and turned off the solar energy absorption capabilities of my cells, no sense in keeping that active.
Waiting for the sun to go down fully, I emerged from my pit and went to meet up with the man that was to sell me his diseased animals.
Upon collecting my purchase, I dragged my stupid animals out-of-sight, then injected them with my blood.
Just a tiny bit was enough to force a demonic transformation.
"MOOOOOOURRGH!"
"Yes, yeeees! Rise my demonic bovines! RISE!"
AHAHAHAHAHA! Yes, I have become Muzan, the Master of Mammals!
I shall infect all the world's animals and lead them in a quest to rid the world of humans! No longer shall animals have to suffer under the yoke of the filthy two-legged mammals!
Through my blood, I will connect with all the animals to suppress their most visible transformations to the last second, then unleash them upon the humans by executing Order 66!
On Muzan Earth, Cow Eats You!
Examining the now enlarged and fully operational demon cow, I cackled and clapped at my accomplishment.
"Good goooooood… henceforth, you shall be known as Darth Cows." Wait, there's a male specimen too... "Oh right, there's the bull too... you can be a Minotaur. I can't be half-assed to come up with a name and HOLY SHIT why do you have a huge bitch-breaking dick!?"
More importantly… why aren't my female cows turned into cute cowgirls!?
I understand that my personal biases and views can affect how my new demons are formed and behave… so the rapist bull-man physique makes sense, but the lack of pretty cowgirls isn't consistent with that train of logic!
Maybe the world is just out to get me, denying me pretty monster-waifus…
"Well, okay, that's enough of that. All of you are coming aboard the Muzan Express."
The demonic bovines were docile enough, as they lacked the intelligence and ego of human-formed demons, so they easily accepted my additional arms grabbing them tightly.
It was time to bring them to Muzan Kibutsuji's Zoo for Demonic Animals.
Time to bring them to the location of the future Fortress of Solitude, it was time to go to the Arctic!
I braced myself and pushed off the ground, after the initial burst of speed, I was averaging about several times the speed of sound.
More than enough to run over water.
I wouldn't have done this with my animal passengers if they had not been demonized as they wouldn't be able to withstand going past the speed of sound otherwise. But with demonic physiology? High movement speeds were a thing of the past.
Hmm… perhaps there is something to the idea of unleashing murder cows upon the world.
It would make for a fun non-canon episode, at the very least.
"Yahooooooo!"
Running across water was fun! Superpowers were awesome!
Unfortunately, the sun was not very awesome, and I had to turn around to make a makeshift roof out of various materials in order to block out the sun.
I almost forgot about the placement of the sun at this time. If I ran all the way to the arctic without protection then I would be running right into daylight.
With the proper protective sheets held in place by my multiple arms, I once again ran across the sea to the arctic.
Once I arrived, I immediately set out to build up a snow fort using my multiple appendages, then deposited my demonic animals there for their new home.
"Okay girls and boys, we're going to do a test okay. Now, you all have excess energy and regeneration, so we've got to put that to work! So get breeding!"
And then I set my animals to 'breeding mode'.
I turned away because I really didn't want to see the 'action', once they were done, I managed to confirm the fertilization and rapid birthing process taking place through my blood connection.
At some point it began to slow down, which meant that my animals needed some food! While they could survive without eating, they would be forced to substitute food with increased sleep if the process were to continue as planned.
And so, Muzan the Breeder went to catch some fish.
My body rapidly adapted to the freezing sea waters and I managed to catch lots of fish by spearing them with my solidified blood thorns.
I munched on a few on the way back. Then I fed my carnivorous pets, allowing them to continue the process at a good pace. I then went on another fishing trip and caught a few pairs of the local wildlife.
It was time to breed some demonic Arctic Wolves and Polar Bears.
Mmm, this is gonna be good. I'm going to make some real scary Dire Wolves to ride on and ride giant bears like Isekai Putin.
Oh, maybe I can do some mix-and-match as well, breeding different animals to one another. They should be compatible due to shared demonic physiology, there shouldn't be any reason why they can't make new demonic animals together.
And if they can't? I could just try my hand at some flesh-shaping and create a chimeric monstrosity like that Full Metal Alchemist villain.
I don't particularly care about the method so long as I breed some powerful demonic animals with good physical traits that I can adapt for my own uses… and perhaps, if I'm lucky, they may even develop special abilities that I can harness too!
Why hunt for special powers when you can breed them! Amirite?
Mmm… but why stop with just animals? I could get some of the vilest criminals and transform them to demons, only to use my control over them to force them to breed with my other creations. The females would make good breeding sows and the males would make good studs.
And if I have too little of either gender, I could try my hand in altering their bodies gender, just to try something new! After all, if I could take a female form, other demons should be able to take on the opposite gender for reproductive purposes too.
Oh yeah, it's all coming together now.
A couple weeks later and I can safely say that I enjoyed my quiet life of playing real life Monster Rancher.
I also got in some experience as a builder. Thanks to figuring out a Blood Demon Art that allowed me to sap heat and freeze large areas using dispersed blood, I built ice bricks that I stacked up to form a nice ice ranch!
It wasn't a fortress of solitude but I'll take it.
I would have to move them all away a couple of years later, or kill whoever comes by to investigate the area, but I'd like to think I would look back at this accomplishment rather fondly.
Now that I got a good population going I can start the real meat of my breeding experiments. But first of all, I have to stock up on more fish!
"Under the sea - Under the sea - Darling it's better, Down where it's wetter~"
I figured out how to make gills rather quickly. As for singing under water? Eh, it was more of an exercise to overcome any natural fears of drowning.
Hmm? What's that hole doing there?
Swimming into it, I found myself in a sprawling underground ice structure, moments later, I got out of the water and into a huge ice cavern underneath the arctic.
"What the hell… no way, why would this sort of thing be where the Fortress of Solitude is going to be… unless… this is…!"
I recalled something, a very brief mention, where there was a Fortress of Solitude found by accident rather than created by Superman's hands. That one was… in the Superman and the Justice League cartoons, in other words, I could be in an iteration of the DCAU!
Which means no ridiculously overpowered and overcomplicated shenanigans!
"Oh hoh… lucky me. Hmm, maybe I should make some creepy murals here to scare Supes when he finds it?"
Crop Circles? Drawings of otherworldly beings? Writing the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?
What to do… what to do...