Muzan gnashed his teeth in a fit of rage.
His scarlet eyes scanned Kokushibou, who was kneeling not far away, still coughing up blood.
His previously gloomy mood suddenly improved somewhat at the sight of Kokushibou's miserable state.
"Kokushibou…"
His low voice instantly echoed everywhere, like a maggot clinging to bone, repeatedly entering Kokushibou's mind.
Kokushibou hunched his back, slowly wiping the corners of his mouth.
He struggled to stop his trembling body, slowly sitting upright along with his Nichirin blade.
The veins on his neck bulged, and his fingers, stained with dark red blood, trembled slightly.
That fleeting figure from his memory was deeply etched into his heart.
The complex emotions of shock, anger, fear, wavering, and jealousy melded together, almost crushing his internal organs.
His chest felt as if a stone were pressing down on it.
He slowly let out a breath.
Suddenly, he heard:
"You…"
"Go kill him."
"!"
Kokushibou's previously trembling body abruptly stilled.
He slowly raised his head, his breathing catching.
His six eerie eyes, with red sclera and golden pupils, now widened slightly.
With his back to Muzan, he looked at the blood-stained floor.
Even without speaking, his slightly changing expression revealed some of his true thoughts.
His fingers trembled unnaturally…
"What's wrong…"
Muzan's cold voice continued to sound, and the surrounding temperature plummeted several degrees.
"You… don't want to?"
"Kokushibou…"
"Don't forget."
"Who granted you this eternal life?"
The anger in these words could be vaguely heard.
Time seemed to rewind to a certain day four hundred years ago.
Moonlit night, eaves…
Muzan's excited, mocking tone…
Standing in front of him…
'You too, become a demon…'
At the thought of these things, Kokushibou lowered his gaze, his breathing gradually becoming rapid.
His hands tightly gripped the nichirin blade hilt, and the blood on the ground reflected his silent face.
Seeing that Kokushibou did not answer.
Muzan's eyes were cold.
"Nakime!"
With a low growl, Nakime gradually regained consciousness.
Then she heard:
"Send Kokushibou to Rui's territory!"
"I want to see."
"If he is truly your blood brother!"
Hearing this, Kokushibou suddenly looked up.
He turned around.
Just as he opened his mouth.
"Muzan-sa…"
"Clang!" A clear sound of a biwa rang out, and Kokushibou instantly vanished from his spot.
Only the slowly drying blood on the ground proved his past existence.
…
Mount Natagumo.
"Ahhh!!"
Halfway up the mountain.
The exclamations of several Butterfly Mansion medical personnel suddenly shattered the silence of the moonlit forest.
When they saw some swordsmen, confirmed dead, slowly sitting up from their body bags and making sounds.
God knows what expressions they wore.
Instantly constricted pupils.
Rapidly flowing cold sweat.
Some even fell to the ground, embracing each other with distorted faces.
In their eyes.
There was only one situation for the dead to move again—they had become demons.
They had no swordsmanship talent, not even anything to defend themselves with.
Facing immortal demons whose physical abilities far surpassed ordinary humans…
"We're going to die, we're going to die, we're going to die!"
Watching the body bags completely bulge, emitting terrifying human-like sounds, they used their hands and feet to crawl frantically deeper into the forest.
At this moment, a beautiful figure descended from the sky.
A black skirt, a white cape.
The pale white blade was hilted with pink plum blossom patterns at her waist.
Her fair hands gripped the blade hilt tightly.
On either side of her brow, her pink-purple eyes carefully surveyed everything before her, Kanao's cherry lips pressed together.
Accompanied by rapid breathing.
She suddenly drew her Nichirin blade.
However.
"Is there anyone?!"
The voice from inside the body bag made her involuntarily freeze.
Whoosh!
A peach-colored flash of light swept across, cutting open the body bag and revealing a perfectly intact male figure inside.
"…"
Kanao retreated a few steps, and by the moonlight from the sky, she did not see any signs of demonisation on his face.
A hint of confusion appeared in her calm eyes, and she looked at the medical personnel who had arrived a step earlier, seemingly asking.
—Why is there a living person inside the body bag?
…
"Oh dear."
At the foot of the mountain.
Kochou Shinobu arrived late.
She stepped on the treetops, looking towards the depths of the forest, and shortly after, she saw her successor, Kanao.
At the foot of the mountain, she and Giyu Tomioka had separated because their divisions of labour were different.
She was responsible for rescue, and Tomioka was responsible for combat.
If nothing unexpected happened.
He was rushing towards the summit, trying to find the location of the Twelve Demon Moons.
Facing Kanao, Kochou Shinobu's gentle purple eyes, half-smiling, swept over the injured Demon Slayers, whose injuries ranged from light to severe.
Halfway through, she suddenly noticed that the atmosphere was a bit strange.
It was quiet.
Everyone was silent.
Usually, at this time, she remembered that some of the injured would quietly weep over the tragic deaths of their comrades.
But now.
"What's going on?"
She quietly asked a Butterfly Mansion logistics staff member.
Ultimately, she received an unexpected and somewhat world-altering answer.
—Resurrection!
…
"Clang!"
Another biwa sound rang out.
North of Mount Natagumo.
South of the swamp, Kokushibou suddenly dropped from mid-air as a door appeared.
The warm light unique to the Infinite Castle was gone, replaced by deep darkness.
He quickly scanned, silently correcting his posture.
Then.
Bang!
Dust scattered everywhere.
Amidst the floating dust, six golden specks of light simultaneously pierced through the darkness.
Kokushibou knelt on one knee, one hand supporting his flesh-and-blood blade hilt, his silent gaze reflecting the desolate and gloomy environment.
After confirming the direction.
After some hesitation.
"Hiss—!!"
A surging breath echoed in his ears.
Boom!
The ground cracked with countless fissures.
He instantly vanished from his spot.
…
On the mountain.
"You are…"
Giyu Tomioka's pupils involuntarily constricted the moment he saw Tsugikuni Yoriichi.
Although it was his first time seeing him.
But the portrait was described firsthand by Tanjirou.
Had made every Hashira deeply engrave Tsugikuni Yoriichi's appearance in their hearts.
His high ponytail, dark red markings, and the earrings swaying by his ears.
Although the haori was not present this time, the pressure emanating from both the Shinigami and human, constantly told Giyuu Tomioka that the person before him was a powerful individual.
Giyuu's voice entered his mind.
Yoriichi slowly turned his head.
Not far away, a young man stood quietly under a tree, gazing at him.
He didn't know Giyu Tomioka.
However.
The rhythm of his breathing was very familiar.
Yoriichi asked, "Are you the current Water Hashira?"
Giyuu nodded, he disliked speaking, and at this moment, he suddenly remembered what his master had told him after Tanjirou joined the corps a few days ago.
He slowly spoke to Yoriichi: "Greetings, Senior. It has been a long time, and your demeanour remains as magnificent as ever."
"Tanjirou is doing well, you don't have to worry."
"Hmm." Yoriichi was about to nod in response.
The next moment, his gaze suddenly turned as cold as ice.
Through the sparse forest, he looked towards the back of Mount Natagumo.
There.
A demon was rapidly approaching.
The scent was very familiar.
Yoriichi sniffed.
Suddenly fell silent.