Her long hair was tied into a high ponytail, with a few strands of bangs swaying in the wind, unable to cover the striking scarlet flame Demon Slayer Mark at the corner of her forehead....
A person nearing death, the king reveals... the same floral earrings as Roy, the same hair color, a different red haori, a different slender figure, a pair of sorrowful and compassionate eyes... slowly emerge from Kokushibo's revolving lantern.....
Roy felt the special "soul" rhythm, sheathed his sword, bowed, and said, "Teacher."
The man looked gently, glanced at the floral earring hanging from the boy's earlobe, raised his hand to help Roy up, looked up and down, satisfiedly said, "You are truly excellent."
"Better than I imagined."
"All thanks to the teacher's guidance."
"I didn't teach you much, it was all your own effort."
"No," Roy straightened, a gentle Telekinesis emerged from his palm, stabilizing the crumbling body of the "spirit" Tsugikuni Yoriichi, "Without the teacher providing a shoulder, I couldn't have stood up."
The "Sun Breathing" provided "1" point of constitution daily, not an illusion, Roy believed... Although this was their first meeting with Tsugikuni Yoriichi through the "Demon Slayer Gate", through "Sun Breathing," through the unrelenting "Ten Thousand Basic Swings" repeated endlessly, a bond had invisibly formed, bridging them into a "master-student reality."
In other words, while I'm alive, you've died, yet between life and death, we've shared a profound spiritual bond....
Silence prevailed, Tsugikuni Yoriichi, feeling the warm and abundant Telekinesis from Roy's hand, smiled and nodded, "If Tanjiro knew, his descendants like you, he would be very gratified....."
"He was far less outstanding than you back then."
Perhaps I've grown old, prone to melancholy... Memories unrolling like a picture, Tsugikuni Yoriichi recalled his mother, his father, the Demon Slayer Corps, his wife "Poet," and his child devoured by an Evil Ghost before reaching a year old. He squatted down to pick up the flute he once gave to Kokushibo, gazing at his elder brother's current ugly state, eyes filled with sadness and sighs....
"Nissan, since you fell, you should have known this day would come."
"Yoriichi... Yoriichi....." Kokushibo, as if clinging to a last straw, frantically struggled, pouncing and hugging Tsugikuni Yoriichi's leg, "Talk to him for me, you must talk to him, I don't want to die... I can't die yet......"
Talk to whom? That... good kid? Tsugikuni Yoriichi looked mournfully at the creature at his feet, turned his back to Roy, shaking his head slowly and firmly, "He is not your family, not obliged to be responsible for you, and you... my dear Nissan, it's time to join me on this journey."
His thigh trembled, sending Kokushibo flying. Tsugikuni Yoriichi rose, the flute at his lips gently played a tune, lamenting the impermanence of the world, the passage of time, finally transforming into a calm... merging into Roy's heart, causing Roy to freeze momentarily as he heard the notification sound from his panel....
[Tip... Detecting an unfamiliar data stream influx... Analysis in progress....]
[Gift giver... Tsugikuni Yoriichi... Gift... A lifetime's comprehension of swordsmanship....]
[Received....]
[Tip: "Swordsmanship" +67415]
[Current "Swordsmanship": LV4 (14172/100,000) → LV4 (81857/100,000)]
[Just a thin line from LV5]
"Teacher...." Once the tune ended,
Roy was enthralled, watching Tsugikuni Yoriichi, opening his mouth to speak, but the words couldn't come out, halted by Tsugikuni Yoriichi's gentle smile as he glanced back.....
His fiery red hair longer than Roy's, gazed deeply at the young boy, "I have nothing else, only these... consider this as the parting gift from teacher to you...."
The man looked up at the night sky, the bright moon hanging high, with some regret, "It's a pity this isn't day, I cannot sit and talk to you about the 'path of the sun.' If there is a chance of rebirth in the future, please do not forget there was such a 'fool in love with sunlight, not keen on swords'...."
"Jingle....," the revolving lantern receded... as Kokushibo's last breath dissipated into the world... the "spirit" recreated from the "memory" of Tsugikuni Yoriichi ultimately couldn't escape the shackles of life and death, dragged back into darkness by Kokushibo... Ironically, this time the sibling roles reversed, with the elder brother dragging the younger into hell out of spite... who is right or wrong, as Yoriichi's form gradually faded, vanishing from the Nen Shield Roy placed on him, seemed... not as important anymore....
"Poof~" Kokushibo's head and body turned into black smoke, blown away by the wind, disintegrating into ashes... like other Evil Ghosts, ending his life of sin....
Simultaneously, the panel indicated...
["Life Energy" +270]
Lying so conspicuously and quietly in the panel column, impossible to look away from,
At the right moment, Roy took a deep breath, observing the end of the twisted line of cause and effect, a certain coward who narrowly escaped, suddenly paused, hurriedly quickening his pace to flee faster... The boy gently touched his heart, bowing deeply towards Yoriichi's dispersing place, respectfully said, "Teacher, safe travels."
Standing up straight, the person instantly "transformed into light," flashing, flashing, flashing again... constantly shortening the causal branch's length!
"Damn it,"
"Why won't you stop chasing me?!"
Akaza is dead... Doma is dead... Now it's... Gyomei!
Kibutsuji Muzan, using a trace of the [space] attribute from Nakime's [Infinity Castle], kept fleeing, terrified, panicking, fearful, just like the night he first met Tsugikuni Yoriichi, watching the moonlight and fireflies, listening to the bamboo forest rustle, his body subtly aching, screaming as if about to split... to explode, this time hopefully into 2800 pieces....