What… happened?
Kamanue's severed head rolled across the courtyard.
For a heartbeat, the Lower Moon did not even understand what he was seeing. His vision spun, tilted, then steadied on a body kneeling several steps away.
A headless body.
His body.
"Is… that mine?"
The realization ca late, and when it did, terror swallowed him whole.
Tanjiro's back was turned to him. The boy had already sheathed Asuramaru, the strange purple markings fading from his face as if the nightmare had never happened.
Kamanue's pupils trembled violently.
Death.
It was coming.
"No… impossible…" His voice cracked into a shrill, desperate rasp. "How could I die so easily? I haven't… I haven't punished all the wicked yet… I refuse… I refuse—"
His words never finished.
His head crumbled into ash, scattering in the night wind. A mont later, his headless corpse followed, breaking apart piece by piece until nothing remained but dust.
Tanjiro stood quietly, watching the ashes disappear.
A flicker of pity passed through his eyes.
He had slled it—Kamanue's fear at the mont of death, and beneath that fear, a twisted, bitter grief. A hatred toward "the wicked." A conviction warped beyond saving.
Tanjiro did not know what kind of life had led Kamanue to beco such a demon.
He could not forgive the lives Kamanue had taken.
But even so, he mourned.
That was simply the kind of person Tanjiro Kamado was.
Inside the sword, Alex released Demonization.
The overwhelming Demon Power drained away from Tanjiro's body. The pale-purple glow in his eye faded. The markings crawling across his face retreated beneath his skin, and the dangerous madness in his expression softened back into exhausted humanity.
Tanjiro did not mourn the loss of that power.
Strength had never been what he truly wanted.
Power was only aningful if it could protect soone.
Without that, it was nothing.
"ow."
A cat's cry sounded behind him.
Tanjiro turned and saw the familiar calico padding into the courtyard with its little pack strapped to its back. He crouched down at once, opened the pack, and took out the folding knife Tamayo had prepared.
Kamanue's body had almost vanished. Tanjiro hurried over, opened the device, and inserted it into what remained.
The chanism drew blood by itself.
A short mont later, the collection was complete.
Tanjiro pulled the knife free, folded it, and carefully returned it to the cat's pack. Then he raised a hand and smiled.
"Sorry to trouble you again. Please be careful on your way back."
The calico licked one paw, almost as if answering him.
Then it turned with feline elegance and walked away.
"ow."
With that final cry, its small figure faded from sight.
Only then did Tanjiro snap back to the state of the battlefield. His expression changed, and he rushed toward the nearest injured person.
"Zenitsu! Are you all right?"
Zenitsu lay on the floor in a posture that looked halfway between tragedy and performance art. At Tanjiro's voice, he slowly raised his head, his face twisting with exaggerated agony.
"T-Tanjiro…" He placed a trembling hand on Tanjiro's shoulder. "I almost died because of you this ti. You have to make it up to ."
Tanjiro's worry froze.
Zenitsu's eyes suddenly sharpened.
"That girl who appeared beside you earlier… who was she? You have to tell !"
Tanjiro imdiately understood.
His expression beca complicated.
After a mont of silence, his gaze drifted toward the sword in his hand.
Marrying a sword…
At the very least, a man shouldn't—
No. No, that thought was too rude. Zenitsu had genuinely helped this ti. He had stood up despite being afraid. Tanjiro could not simply refuse to answer.
So he explained honestly, "What you saw earlier was the manifestation of this sword, Asuramaru."
Zenitsu went still.
For one wonderful, peaceful second, he seed to regain his senses.
Then his eyes lit up again.
"Eh?! That beautiful girl is this sword?!" Zenitsu lunged forward, his voice rising in pitch. "Let see! Let hold it! It can heal injuries, right? Please, Tanjiro, let hold it for just a mont! I feel terrible! If I don't get treated soon, I might die! I'm definitely dying!"
He rolled on the floor like a man trying to bargain with fate through shalessness alone.
Tanjiro's mouth twitched.
Inside the sword, Alex watched the spectacle in utter silence.
As expected of Zenitsu.
A naturally gifted pervert saint.
Alex's tone turned flat. "Ignore him. That guy and your sister aren't badly hurt. Go save the one outside first. If you delay any longer, he really might die."
Tanjiro's heart jumped.
"Inosuke!"
Only then did he rember that Inosuke had been sent flying through the wall and had not returned since. After one quick look at Nezuko, whose injured arm had already recovered, Tanjiro turned and bolted out of the courtyard.
He found Inosuke buried beneath broken wood and debris.
The boar-headed swordsman was unconscious.
Tanjiro did not waste a second.
"Asuramaru, I'm counting on you."
"Put your hand on him," Alex replied.
Tanjiro obeyed.
Black mist seeped from Asuramaru, twisting into thread-like strands that wound along Tanjiro's arm and sank into Inosuke's battered body.
Demon Power flowed in.
Bruises faded. Torn flesh closed. Damaged organs repaired themselves. In only a short while, Inosuke's breathing steadied.
Back in the room, the last trace of Kamanue's corpse vanished.
The system's voice rang in Alex's mind.
[Ding! Detected a large amount of negative emotion from Lower Moon Six, Kamanue. Obtained 2,000 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Detected a large amount of negative emotion from Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji. Obtained 3,000 Emotion Points!]
[This ti, 1,000 Demon Power has been obtained. Thirty percent will be fed back to Sword Master Tanjiro!]
Outside, Inosuke's eyes snapped open.
The first thing he did was grab his twin swords.
"Where's that demon?!" he roared, trying to spring upright. "I'll tear it to pieces!"
"Inosuke, wait!" Tanjiro hurriedly stopped him. "The demon is already dead. Everything is fine now."
Inosuke froze.
Then he let out a long breath.
"You really did it, Tanjiro." Beneath the boar mask, his voice carried rare sincerity. "You beat that thing by yourself."
Before Tanjiro could answer, his body suddenly stiffened.
A familiar warmth surged through him.
His knees weakened, and he dropped to one knee.
Inosuke leaned closer. "Hey! You hurt?"
"I'm fine."
Tanjiro pressed a hand against the ground, breathing slowly.
Power flowed through his limbs, through his bones, through his lungs and heart. It was the sa sensation as before—Asuramaru feeding strength back into him from a demon's death.
Kamanue's death.
A shadow of sadness crossed Tanjiro's face, but it lasted only a mont.
He accepted the strength.
Not for pride.
Not for pleasure.
For the next person he had to protect.
When the enhancent ended, Tanjiro stood and hurried back into the room.
Inside the sword, Alex frowned.
He was not satisfied.
This battle had been dangerous enough. Kamanue had pushed Tanjiro to the edge of death. In theory, that should have been the perfect chance for Tanjiro to awaken the Hinokami Kagura.
But it had failed.
Alex thought it over and soon found the likely reason.
Too fast.
In the original path, Tanjiro had been driven to desperation by Rui only after a brutal, drawn-out battle. He had been beaten down, forced to struggle, forced to think, forced to rember.
Kamanue, on the other hand, had nearly pierced Tanjiro's heart in one decisive attack.
There had been no ti to comprehend anything.
No gradual pressure.
No desperate spark.
Just a direct trip to death's doorstep.
The more Alex thought about it, the more annoyed he beca.
Damn you, Kamanue.
Even dying, you were useless.
At the sa ti, deep within the shifting maze of the Infinity Castle, Muzan Kibutsuji sat with one hand covering his face.
It did nothing to hide the fear in his eyes.
"What was that?"
His voice was low, strained, and ugly.
"What did that brat do? Why did his strength change so suddenly? And that girl… what was that thing that appeared beside him?"
Muzan had lived for a thousand years.
He had seen swordsn, demons, monsters, poisons, traps, and all kinds of desperate resistance from humans who refused to die.
But this?
This was sothing else.
Sothing beyond his understanding.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
User Comments
0 comments from readers