After saying that, the white light began to slowly fade, reclaimed by Scorching Feathers.
As if he hadn't noticed his body dispersing, Black Fang stared blankly ahead.
"Nanako, I'm sorry. You must've searched for me for so long."
"I'm sorry. I forgot you…"
Kamado Asaki fell silent for a moment, facing this demon who had cut off his head and fought him like a madman.
He slowly let out a single word: "Okay."
The white light in his vision receded. Asaki's consciousness returned to his body. He turned his head to look behind him.
There, a pair of rust-colored wings had appeared. They lay beneath the scorching-white wings, a bit shorter than the scorching-white ones, but still long overall, with a span of more than two meters.
Asaki could feel Black Fang's soul dwelling in that pair of wings.
He tried beating the two pairs of wings. Asaki wobbled into the air. This time, he could reach the cave ceiling.
But soon after, he lost control and nearly plunged headfirst. Even so, Asaki felt he was just a hair's breadth away from truly flying.
"Black Fang."
"I'll take your strength. Your questions—I promise I'll ask him myself."
"Kibutsuji Muzan, huh? You're 'Muzan,' yet you make others this miserable…"
"And also, Black Fang, can you tell me—what exactly is a demon?"
Sadly, no one answered Asaki.
Right now, after Scorching Feathers absorbed the black-and-red ash Black Fang had turned into, Asaki's whole body was flooded with energy, his stamina full.
That hunger from before that felt like it would crack his bones and suck his marrow had completely vanished. The broken body in the cave still kept leaking the smell of blood, but it could no longer stir Asaki at all.
After devouring Black Fang's body, Asaki felt he wouldn't be hungry for a long while.
His physical state had finally reached to peak. Endurance, strength, and agility… in every aspect, he had grown much stronger.
But inside, Asaki still felt a bit torn and uneasy.
Because he deeply sympathized with Black Fang—sympathized with this demon.
"What kind of creature is a demon, really?"
"Are they truly all twisted, evil, beyond saving?"
Before, Asaki had thought only he had mutated while still holding on to human reason, able to restrain the urge to eat people by his own will, while all other demons were utterly evil.
But now his firm belief had wavered. After seeing Black Fang's whole life, he couldn't help but feel sorrow for him.
"Does every demon have a sad memory behind them?"
"Is every demon, like me, turned into a demon only after enduring pain life couldn't bear and losing their dearest ones?"
"Is there a chance for demons to be pitied, to be saved?"
The scorching-white wings and the rust-colored wings dissolved into the air, leaving only two small wing marks on Asaki's back.
Keeping the Blood Demon Art active, Scorching Feathers, really drains the mind.
With a thud, Asaki lay on his back, ignoring the dust and bits of stone all over the ground.
He quietly stared at the uneven cave ceiling. The tangled thoughts in his heart just wouldn't settle.
...
The sun rose in the east and set in the west.
After it had risen and fallen three times, a wild mouse slipped into the pitch-black bear den. Following the stench of blood, it crept deeper into the cave.
It had been hungry for days. Even though there was a suffocating pressure here that made it tremble, it still had to risk it. To survive, it had to seek the source of that bloody smell.
Once it reached the depths of the cave, the mouse squeaked in excitement, because it had found a corpse that still had most of its flesh. If it could tear off a chunk and run, it wouldn't have to suffer hunger.
But as it dashed for the body, it suddenly saw two points of light ahead.
Then the world spun. Something had lifted it by the tail.
Those two points of light were Asaki's eyes—now restored to their luster.
"Little guy, eating people isn't allowed."
"I'll let you go this time. Leave."
Asaki had the habit of carrying food with him. He had a few glutinous rice balls in his pocket. He rummaged around; only one rice ball wasn't stained with blood.
He set the mouse down, then placed the rice ball in front of it, signaling that it could take it.
This mouse was quick-witted. Though it shivered under the terrifying aura of Asaki, it still understood his goodwill.
It bit the lotus leaf wrapped around the rice ball and hurriedly dragged the rice ball, nearly as big as its body, out of the cave.
At the cave mouth, the mouse turned back for a glance. After pausing a moment, it bit the rice ball again and darted into the forest, vanishing into the night.
Asaki rose slowly and stretched his back. The confused look from before had disappeared.
After three days of thought, Asaki had an answer, for now, and that satisfied him.
"Man-eating demons are never worth pity. Never worth forgiveness."
"What I pity and grieve for isn't the demon called Black Fang, but the little boy who waited for his childhood sweetheart to come home."
"A demon, once it eats a person, can never go back. Whatever the reason, every man-eating demon should be killed."
"Fate made me suffer and become a demon, yet gave me scorching-white wings that can cut demons down."
The goal of creating a world without demons will never change.
To be honest, Asaki felt a little afraid in hindsight, because what he'd thought before was to eat evil people, to eat the already dead.
But now he understood. A newborn demon might still retain some humanity, yet whatever the reason, once it eats people, the demon's instinctual desire will grow and swell.
If he ate people, evil or not, Asaki would irreversibly become a man-eating demon he himself couldn't forgive.
"How did I even have the thought of eating people back then?"
It seemed that when he had just become a demon, Asaki had a human heart, but a demon's instincts had still been subtly changing his thoughts, trying to push him into the abyss.
Luckily, after using Hinokami Kagura, the demonic nature and instinct seemed scorched and swallowed by the blaze of sunlight, dissolved into nothing.
Asaki no longer had to worry about being changed by a demon's instincts and doing things that went against his heart.
Also, it felt like an invisible shackle in his body shattered and vanished at the same time. Was it Kibutsuji Muzan's curse?
Forget it. Better not test it lightly.
Walking to the side of that broken corpse, Asaki crouched down, placed his hand over that small face twisted with fear and pain, then gently smoothed it down, letting fear and pain fade, leaving a peaceful expression.
At this moment, the rust-colored little wing marks on Asaki's back trembled, as if in painful remorse and guilt.
Softly, Asaki said, "Don't feel guilty. None of this was your intention. All the sorrow, all the misfortune, comes only from that first demon."
The sound echoed through the cave. No one answered.
Before long, Asaki gathered up the severed limbs, then carried the relatively more intact body and walked out of the cave.
Asaki buried the body in a flat clearing. Then he raised his head to look at the bright, clear crescent moon and the stars scattered across the sky.
Maybe next year, beautiful, vivid flowers will bloom here.
Touching the earring on his right ear, Asaki missed his family all the more.
"They say everyone becomes a star after death, then watches their descendants in the night sky."
"Father. Everyone. You're a few of those stars too, watching me now, right?"
"I did it!"
"Hinokami Kagura cleansed my body and mind, let me break the demon's shackles."
"Now I'm going to look for Tanjiro. Bless me—let everything go smoothly. Bless Tanjiro to still be alive."
Now, Asaki could be sure he wouldn't hurt Tanjiro.
And this world full of demons is truly too dangerous for ordinary people. Tanjiro needs his protection.
###
10+ early chapters on P@treon // Kryzt