"You're not the only one who made that choice, are you?"
Kaigaku's ferocious expression froze for a heartbeat, then twisted further, slipping into outright hysteria.
"They were just too stupid! What could possibly be more important than staying alive? Whatever it is, you only get the chance to do it if you're alive! You're no different! We became demons to survive—shouldn't our own kind help each other?!"
[Become a demon just to survive? Him? Ha—]
Hiru couldn't help laughing again. It was, without question, the most ridiculous joke he had heard since becoming a demon.
"I do fear death," Hiru said, lowering his gaze to Kaigaku's arms, now fully crystallized, a faint trace of mockery in his voice. "But more than death, I fear losing who I am. If I'm no longer myself, can that truly be called living?"
"Enough!" Kaigaku roared. "You've never been abandoned by the world! You've never known real suffering—what would you understand?!"
"I was cast out over something trivial! I had to beg just to survive, drink filthy water from muddy pits, endure endless scorn… Staying alive has already cost me everything!
"And you dare talk about how 'living without being yourself has no meaning'? Don't make me laugh! What do you think all my struggles were for?!
"Undo this damned Blood Demon Art! Can't you see I'm about to die?! I'm this miserable! Don't you have even a shred of compassion?!"
"So," Hiru asked calmly, "as long as you survive, it doesn't matter if everyone else dies?"
"Of course! As long as I live, that's enough. What does anyone else's life have to do with me?"
"Your master and Zenitsu as well?"
"Of course—"
He caught sight of Hiru's expression in that instant—cold, terrifying—and the savagery on his face faltered, shifting back into pitiful desperation.
"Of course not! I love Master! I would do anything for him—"
"Then why did you choose to become a demon?"
"Because Master loves me too! If I live, then even if he dies, he'll be at peace, won't he? So please… please spare me!"
"Hopeless."
Hiru turned away from him and walked toward the corpse still tangled in the branches. He began snapping them apart, one by one.
"I've known many who became demons. Some were consumed by their own frustration and confusion. Some fell because of the softness buried deep in their hearts.
"There was even a child who, though infected due to his unusual constitution before he had fully died, still remembered that he had to fight for his family.
"But a selfish demon as utterly thorough as you… you're the first."
Kaigaku heard the chill in Hiru's voice and tried to speak again. But the crystal creeping up to his jaw had already sealed his vocal cords shut.
He froze for a moment.
Then, suddenly, he lurched to his feet and staggered toward the forest's edge.
If he could just escape—if he could put enough distance between them—there had to be a way to break this cursed Blood Demon Art. Then he would return to the Demon Slayer Corps. He would tell them this man was a demon. That this man had turned him into one. He would play the victim. They would sympathize with him.
And then this man's disguise would be torn away—
His vision suddenly dipped.
Only then did Kaigaku realize his legs were crystallizing too.
Still, he refused to give up. Inch by inch, he dragged himself farther away from Hiru.
He didn't want to die. He couldn't die.
He had sacrificed so much just to survive. Thrown everything aside for the sake of living. Why—why wouldn't the heavens look at him just once more?
His thoughts were slowing now.
With the last of his strength, he forced himself to turn his head back.
[He must be enjoying this—watching me struggle. Demons are twisted like that, aren't they? Damn it. Damn it! Damn it! I'll remember his face. Even if I fall into hell, I'll curse—]
His thoughts cut off.
The man who had been so merciless toward him was carefully freeing the corpse from the branches. Though the mist blurred his features, the quiet way he stood there was enough to reveal a grief that ran deep in his bones.
[Why care about those worthless people? Shouldn't you be looking at me? Look at me! Didn't you want to kill me? Why… why am I not even worth a glance as I die?]
Hiru laid the bodies down properly, then slowly walked over to Kaigaku, now fully transformed into a statue of blue crystal.
He stood there in silence for a long while.
Then he crouched and removed the magatama from Kaigaku's neck and wrists.
"Although you can't hear me anymore, there are things you should be told.
"Your master, Kuwajima Jigoro… he often praised the two of you in private. He said you and that coward were his pride—that you would inherit his will and continue slaying demons.
"Especially you. He said that among all the disciples he'd ever taught, you were the one who worried him most.
"He believed that the sight of that small life struggling through a harsh winter proved you had unyielding resolve—that you were someone capable of bearing great responsibility.
"Even I once held you in high regard. I planned that when you became a Hashira, I would have Uzui Tengen guide you through your early days—temper your edge and forge you into a true blade for slaying demons.
"But I was wrong."
Hiru's voice remained calm.
"Your excessive caution around me made me overlook something.
"You are selfish to the core.
"No matter how much you were given, you never saw any beauty in this world. You refused to give anything in return, treating others' kindness as something owed to you, unwilling to offer even the smallest repayment to those who showed you goodwill.
"Even at the very end, you were still justifying yourself.
"You never cared about those who treated you well. You took their efforts for granted and dismissed their admonitions as contempt.
"And so the emptiness inside you grew larger and larger, warping your thoughts until you chose betrayal—without hesitation, dragging down those who had given everything for you."
Hiru rose to his feet.
Before him, the blue crystal statue shattered, breaking into fragments, then into dust. His expression did not change.
"But this will end here. They're about to begin new lives. They deserve to learn how to live freely for themselves.
"How could those who have already spent half their lives serving others be dragged down by someone like you?"
He watched the last of the crystal drift away.
"So… I can only let you die like this.
"I will deliver your belongings and tell them the truth—Kaigaku left no remains, but he fought demons to his final breath. He was a man of unwavering will. He did not disgrace Kuwajima Jigoro's name as the former Thunder Hashira."