Timeline: Three years before the main story
Location: Kamado Household, mountain forest
POV: Split (Akira / Muzan / Hashira)
---
Akira
The night shifted before it broke.
Not with sound, but with pressure — like the forest itself had drawn a slow, careful breath. Akira opened his eyes and sat upright, Total Concentration already flowing without effort.
Something ancient had crossed into the mountain.
He stepped outside, blade already in hand.
Moonlight bent around a lone figure standing at the tree line. Pale skin. Red eyes. A presence so dense the air recoiled from it.
Muzan Kibutsuji.
Behind Akira, the Kamado home slept peacefully.
That decided everything.
"You don't belong here," Akira said calmly, positioning himself between the house and the demon.
Muzan's gaze lingered on him only briefly. "Move," he said, voice flat. "I have no interest in you."
Akira did not step aside.
---
Muzan
The human moved.
And Muzan felt something he had not felt in centuries.
Heat — not wild, not uncontrolled, but compressed inward, circulating with impossible precision. The breathing pattern struck his cells like a remembered wound.
No.
Impossible.
Muzan attacked first, tendrils ripping through trees as he closed the distance. Akira met him head-on, blade drawing a perfect arc.
The edge burned crimson.
The cut landed.
Pain exploded through Muzan's shoulder, flesh refusing to knit, cells screaming instead of obeying. He staggered back, eyes widening in disbelief.
"That blade—" Muzan hissed.
Akira's voice was steady. "Sun Breathing."
---
Muzan
Memory tore through him.
Flame-colored hair.
Eyes that saw everything.
A man who stood alone against the night.
Yoriichi.
Rage surged, violent and panicked. "You are not him!" Muzan roared, attacking again with ferocity bordering on madness.
Akira stepped through the assault with precise footwork, movements economical and devastating.
Hinokami Kagura — Clear Blue Sky.
The slash tore through Muzan's torso, black blood spraying across the snow-covered ground, sizzling where it landed. Muzan retaliated, claws grazing Akira's side, drawing blood.
Only a shallow cut.
Akira didn't slow.
---
Akira
Muzan's strikes were powerful, but unfocused. Fear had entered his movements, poisoning his precision. Akira pressed forward, blade glowing brighter with every breath.
Hinokami Kagura — Burning Bones, Summer Sun.
Muzan was driven back again, regeneration forced instead of natural. His body recovered, but his mind fractured further with each exchange.
"You should be breaking," Muzan snarled. "You're human."
Akira's eyes never left him. "I'm guarding a family."
Muzan felt something cold then.
Not pain.
Certainty.
---
Elsewhere — The Crows
Black wings cut through the night sky.
"Emergency! Emergency!"
"Muzan Kibutsuji sighted!"
"Location: Kamado Mountain!"
"Engaged with Sun Breather!"
Across Japan, crows descended.
Gyomei rose at once, prayer beads snapping tight.
Giyu was already moving before the message finished.
Sanemi cursed and launched himself into the trees.
Kanae's blood ran cold — but she ran.
Shinjuro's grip tightened around his sword, flame stirring once more.
All of them moved at full speed.
---
Muzan
He regenerated again, body returning to peak condition through sheer force of will. Physically, he was unbroken.
Emotionally, he was unraveling.
Every flash of the crimson blade carved fear deeper into him. Every step Akira took echoed with that long-buried terror.
"You're imitating him," Muzan snarled, lashing out wildly.
Akira deflected, countered, advanced.
"You're remembering him," Akira corrected.
Another exchange. Another cut. Another moment where Muzan hesitated.
That hesitation was deadly.
---
Cliffhanger 😈
Moonlight and flame collided again.
Akira stood firm, blood on his sleeve, breathing unwavering.
Muzan healed even as rage tore through his expression, power intact but mind unsteady.
From every direction, the night trembled with approaching footsteps.
The Sun had risen where it was never meant to.
And Muzan Kibutsuji was fighting not just a swordsman—
—but a memory he had never escaped.
— To be continued