"REPORT!"
"URGENT REPORT!"
"CONTACT CONFIRMED!"
The peaceful atmosphere vanished immediately.
Kagaya's expression remained gentle.
"Please"
One of the crows stepped forward.
"Slayer Kagerou Rengoku and Kanae Kocho has successfully located the target!"
A brief pause.
"Target identified as a member of the Twelve Kizuki!"
Amane's eyes shifted slightly.
The crow continued.
"Confirmed identification!"
Its voice rose.
"Lower Moon Six!"
For a moment, only the sound of the wind remained.
Kagaya slowly lowered his gaze.
The smile upon his face did not disappear.
Yet the air around him subtly changed.
Not tension.
Focus.
"Lower Moon Six..."
The words left his lips softly.
A second crow immediately continued the report.
"Both Slayers are currently engaged!"
A third crow flapped its wings excitedly.
"Target possesses Blood Demon Art related to shadows and perception interference!"
"Forest-wide area affected!"
"Visibility compromised!"
The crow paused.
Then added:
"Battle currently ongoing!"
Silence followed.
Amane glanced toward her husband.
Most people would have been alarmed.
Concerned.
Anxious.
Instead, Kagaya simply closed his eyes.
As though contemplating something.
As though listening to distant threads only he could hear.
"...I see"
His voice remained calm.
Gentle.
Yet beneath that gentleness lay unmistakable gravity.
A Lower Moon.
Not merely a demon.
One personally chosen by Muzan Kibutsuji.
A threat capable of wiping out entire squads of Demon Slayers.
The crows waited.
Expecting orders.
Instructions.
Reinforcements.
Instead... Kagaya smiled.
A small smile.
Warm.
Almost fatherly.
"So the time had come, huh?"
The crows tilted their heads.
Kagaya's gaze drifted once more toward the moon.
"To encounter a Lower Moon like this..." His voice softened."...the path before them is a difficult one"
Amane remained silent beside him.
Yet she understood.
He was worried.
He always was.
Not for the mission.
Not for the outcome.
For the children carrying it.
For the young lives walking willingly into darkness.
Kagaya lowered his eyes.
For a brief moment, his thoughts lingered upon two names.
Kanae Kocho.
A gentle girl who carried compassion even onto the battlefield.
And... Kagerou Rengoku.
A boy... A friend whose heart burned so quietly that few realized just how fiercely it burned.
Then Kagaya spoke once more.
"Continue observing"
The crows straightened immediately.
"YES!"
"If circumstances worsen, notify me at once"
"UNDERSTOOD!"
With a powerful beat of their wings, the three Kasugai Crows launched themselves back into the night.
The sound of their departure gradually faded.
Silence returned to the estate.
Only the moon remained.
For several moments, Kagaya simply watched it.
Then quietly... Almost too quietly to hear.
He whispered: "...Please come home safelyy"
The wind carried the words into the night.
And somewhere far away, beneath a sky illuminated by that same moon, the battle against Lower Moon Six continued.
---
Darkness.
Endless darkness.
The moment Tsukikage uttered the words [Shadow Domain], the entire world disappeared.
No moon.
No trees.
No forest floor.
Nothing remained except an endless sea of black that stretched in every direction.
Even the air felt different.
Heavy.
Thick.
As though every breath had to be pulled through water.
Kagerou slowly opened his eyes.
Nothing changed.
He could still feel his own body. He could still hear the quiet rhythm of his breathing. Somewhere behind him, he could faintly sense Kanae's presence.
Yet no matter where he looked... There was only darkness.
"...Kanae?"
His voice spread into the void.
No echo returned.
No answer followed.
Silence swallowed everything.
Kagerou immediately turned toward where he had last sensed Kanae.
"Kanae?!"
Still nothing.
His brows furrowed.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward and reached out.
The instant he moved, his body became unnaturally heavy.
It felt as though invisible chains had wrapped themselves around every limb.
Every movement demanded several times more effort than it should.
"...Tch," Kagerou clicked his tongue.
Ignoring the resistance, Kagerou continued extending his arm. His fingertips suddenly met something.
It wasn't air.
Nor was it stone.
A strange membrane stretched before him, soft enough to sink beneath the pressure of his fingers, yet firm enough to stop him completely.
He pushed harder.
The surface yielded slightly before slowly returning to its original shape.
Like pressing against the skin of some enormous living creature.
"...A wall"
Kagerou applied more strength.
Muscles in his arm tensed.
Veins surfaced beneath his skin.
Yet the strange barrier refused to move even a single inch.
"...This is troublesome"
His voice remained calm despite the situation.
Rather than forcing the issue further, he withdrew his hand.
Brute force rarely solves problems. And in his current situation, there was nothing he could do, not even with his keen eyesight.
If he couldn't rely on his vision...
Then he would rely on something else.
Kagerou calmly removed the kiseru from the corner of his mouth and lit it.
The faint orange ember became the only source of light within the endless darkness.
He took a slow inhale.
Then exhaled.
A stream of pale smoke drifted from his lips.
Unlike ordinary smoke, it didn't disperse into the darkness.
Instead, it lingered.
Circling slowly around his body.
One layer.
Then another.
Until a thin veil of smoke surrounded him from every direction, moving with quiet purpose like an extension of his own senses.
Silence returned.
Nothing happened.
For several long moments, the smoke drifted lazily through the darkness.
Then...
It stopped.
Every strand froze in place simultaneously.
Kagerou's eyes narrowed.
The smoke wasn't reacting to the wind.
There was no wind here.
But then, something... Had disturbed it, without warning, the smoke along his left side rippled violently as though something unseen had passed straight through it.
Kagerou slowly turned his head.
"...Found you"
The words barely left his lips.
Then-
*SHHK!*
His colorless ninjato flashed through the darkness in a single, silent arc.
The blade cut through empty space.
For a heartbeat... Nothing happened.
Then...
Black blood splattered across the drifting smoke.
A distorted shriek echoed throughout the Domain.
The darkness rippled.
"You think... this alone could hurt me?" Kagerou said calmly.
His blade remained lowered.
Not because he had lowered his guard.
Because he knew the strike hadn't been fatal.
"YOU!"
The furious voice exploded through the Domain.
It came from everywhere at once.
Beside him.
Behind him.
Above.
Even beneath his feet.
The darkness itself seemed to roar.
Kagerou didn't move.
He slowly returned the kiseru to the corner of his mouth and took another quiet inhale.
"...Stop pretending," he said, exhaling a thin stream of smoke. "I know you're unharmed"
Silence.
Only the smoke continued drifting through the endless darkness.
Several long moments passed before laughter finally broke the stillness.
"Pfft..."
"Hehehe..."
"Ahahahaha~!"
Tsukikage's laughter echoed endlessly through the Domain.
"Interesting..."
"Very interesting!"
"You are the first"
His voice lowered into an almost delighted whisper.
"The first person who hasn't lost himself in absolute darkness"
A brief pause followed.
"But..."
The amusement disappeared.
"What a pity"
"No one has ever survived after entering my Domain"
"They wandered until their hearts broke"
"They screamed until they forgot their own names"
"They begged the darkness to swallow them"
"And in the end... They all died"
The Domain grew heavier.
The darkness seemed to press against Kagerou from every direction.
"You will become no different"
Kagerou quietly removed the kiseru from his lips; the ember at its tip glowed softly before fading into ash.
"...Then..."
His voice was calm.
"So be it"
He slowly raised his colorless ninjato before him.
"...I'll become the first"
For an instant, nothing happened.
Then... A faint crimson glow appeared along the edge of the blade, like molten steel awakening beneath cold iron.
The light slowly spread from the guard toward the tip, thin crimson veins running through the once-colorless Nichirin until the entire edge shone with a deep red-orange radiance.
Its glow wasn't bright.
Yet within the endless darkness of the Domain... It looked like the first light of dawn.
Kagerou's eyes reflected the blade's crimson light.
Steady.
Unwavering.
"If your darkness is absolute..." He lowered his stance. "...Then I'll cut through it"