Chapter 201: Calling Akaza, What Does That Have to Do with Me, Hakuji?
A young woman with raven-black hair stood before him, draped in a soft pink kimono adorned with delicate white spots. A silver hairpin, shaped like a pristine snowflake, rested gently in her dark tresses. Her entire being exuded a quiet, sickly fragility, yet beneath that pale complexion lay a quiet resilience.
Her unique, plum-blossom-shaped pupils locked onto Akaza. Those eyes brimmed with an overwhelming tide of longing, deep tenderness, and the trembling excitement of a reunion delayed by lifetimes.
"Hakuji," she called out, her voice a soft, affectionate whisper in the wind.
Akaza merely stared back, his golden eyes blank and entirely unresponsive, trapped in a void of fractured memories.
She took a few measured steps forward, closing the distance until she stood mere inches from his face. She breathed his name once more. Only then did the hollow emptiness in his gaze shatter, slowly refocusing on the beautiful face before him.
"Ko...yuki?"
The moment the syllables slipped past his lips, the dam broke. A torrential flood of centuries-old memories crashed into his consciousness. She was the girl who had never once looked down on his wretched origins. The girl who traced the criminal tattoos branding his skin without a shred of disgust. The girl who had smiled at his clumsy, desperate affections—the fragile light he had accidentally, tragically lost to the cruelty of the world.
And now, she was standing right in front of him.
The fearsome Upper Rank Three vanished. Akaza—no, Hakuji—lunged forward, collapsing into Koyuki's warm embrace. Hot, stinging tears that had been suppressed for over a century cascaded down his cheeks, soaking into the fabric of her kimono.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to protect you back then.
I'm sorry I let the darkness consume me and forgot your face.
I'm sorry for the ocean of blood and the crushing weight of the sins I now bear.
As he wept, the grotesque demonic markings etched across his skin began to fade, dissolving like ink washed away by rain. The lethal aura of a monster dissipated, leaving behind nothing but the earnest apprentice from a rundown dojo—a clumsy, simple-hearted boy weeping in the arms of his beloved.
"It's okay, Hakuji... You're home. It's so good that you're back," Koyuki murmured, her voice thick with emotion. She cradled his head against her chest, her slender fingers gently stroking his hair, soothing the broken, sobbing man in her arms.
A few paces behind Koyuki stood a middle-aged man. Though his jaw was lined with rough stubble, his face radiated a deep gentleness. He watched the embracing couple with eyes brimming with fatherly gratification. Sensing Akira's quiet observation, the man turned his head toward the young swordsman and offered a deep, respectful bow, silently expressing his boundless gratitude.
After Hakuji finally exhausted a century's worth of grief, the couple slowly rose to their feet. Their fingers interlaced, gripping each other tightly as if terrified of ever letting go.
"Let's go, Hakuji," Koyuki smiled, her eyes shining. "We're going home. From now on, we will never be apart again."
Hakuji had no idea where she was leading him. For souls stained by death and time, the concept of home was a fleeting illusion. Yet, his heart felt lighter than it had in lifetimes. It didn't matter where they went. As long as Koyuki was by his side, and as long as his Master walked with them, even the deepest abyss would be a paradise.
Deep within the darkest recesses of his consciousness, a familiar, tyrannical voice screamed in impotent rage, demanding obedience. Hakuji simply closed his eyes and shut the noise out entirely. That monster was screaming for Akaza. What did that have to do with him, Hakuji?
The reunited family of three turned toward Akira one last time, bowing in unison. Then, their ethereal figures began to scatter into the wind, glowing like embers before fading into nothingness. As their souls departed, the headless, regenerating corpse of Upper Rank Three crumbled into fine ash, blowing away into the night sky.
"Well, it is a world filled with demons," Akira muttered to himself, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "It's only logical for ghosts to exist as well."
He stared into the empty space where the three souls had just vanished, the heavy silence of the forest settling around him. He had just witnessed a genuine interaction between spirits. Even though he had fully anticipated Koyuki showing up to unplug the network and sever the demon's ties to the living world, watching the tragic, beautiful scene unfold right before his eyes left a deep impression on him.
A sudden realization struck him. If Koyuki and her father—people who had perished over a century ago—could manifest their spirits to guide a loved one, then... This ethereal phenomenon unexpectedly corroborated a lingering suspicion Akira had harbored for a long time.
Perhaps, he thought, his gaze softening, I should find some time to go back and take a look...
He turned his head, his eyes piercing through the distant darkness toward a specific, quiet mountainside. It was the resting place where an ordinary, yet utterly extraordinary old man was buried.
"Damn it!"
"Useless trash!"
"Akaza—!!"
Far away, within the confines of an elegantly decorated study, a refined-looking young man was completely losing his mind. He swept his arms across a mahogany desk, frantically smashing priceless vases, inkstones, and ancient scrolls against the walls.
Muzan had originally been enjoying a quiet evening, carefully combing through obscure medical research texts. He was searching for any historical record of a physician synthesizing a drug with the same miraculous properties as the Blue Spider Lily, desperate to find a viable substitute to conquer the sun.
But before he could even flip through the third volume, a violent tremor shook his psychic link. He suddenly realized that Akaza's life force was rapidly fading, on the verge of completely disconnecting from his control. Muzan was plunged into a state of absolute shock and unbridled fury.
Shocked, because a monster possessing Akaza's overwhelming martial prowess should have been virtually unkillable by any modern swordsman. Furious, because his prized Upper Rank had spectacularly failed his mission yet again.
Akaza: You said it yourself. If even one gets away, I don't need to come back. This time, I let an entire village of people go.
Muzan: I swear I will tear you apart!
What drove Muzan to the absolute brink of madness was the sheer waste of potential. Driven by his maniacal obsession with supreme strength, Akaza had actually shown signs of evolving past the fatal weakness of decapitation. He was evolving into the perfect, immortal demon! Yet, in the blink of an eye, the fool had inexplicably surrendered his will to live.
He had turned a deaf ear to the frantic, commanding screams of his Demon King. The absolute rejection made Muzan feel utterly powerless, forced to watch helplessly as his most loyal vanguard abandoned him forever.
His chest heaved with ragged breaths, his crimson eyes glowing with a humiliating mix of grief and rage. If Akira or the departed souls of Hakuji and Koyuki could see him now, they would surely mock the mighty Demon King for practically crying out of sheer frustration.
After thoroughly trashing the study to vent his boiling emotions, Muzan forced his breathing to steady. A sudden, chilling thought pierced through his anger. He had also sent Hantengu to the Swordsmith Village. If Akira possessed the monstrous strength required to permanently erase Akaza, then Hantengu would undoubtedly face a grim, agonizing fate if they crossed paths. He had to retrieve that cowardly wretch immediately.
The Upper Ranks had already suffered catastrophic losses recently. Even though he had just replenished their numbers, his elite forces simply could not withstand this kind of reckless squandering., Hantengu's innate ability to conceal his presence was unmatched, and his cowardly nature made him surprisingly diligent when it came to following orders. In terms of gathering intelligence and remaining undetected, he was infinitely more useful than that insufferable Doma.
Making his decision, Muzan immediately projected his will across the psychic link, ordering Nakime to forcefully teleport Hantengu back to the safety of the Infinity Castle.
A moment later, a hesitant reply echoed in his mind. Nakime reported that she was completely powerless to do so.
Miles away, Hantengu had been pathetically crawling his way toward the perimeter of the Swordsmith Village. Halfway there, his heightened demonic senses picked up the apocalyptic shockwaves radiating from the battlefield where Akaza and Akira clashed. When Akaza unleashed his ultimate technique, the sheer destructive pressure terrified the cowardly demon so thoroughly that he immediately altered his route, taking a massive detour to avoid the epicenter of the carnage.
Scuttling through the dense underbrush, he eventually circled around from the rear of the village to the main entrance. Peering through the foliage from a safe distance, his bulging eyes tracked a large group of villagers being hastily relocated. Standing at the rear guard was a young woman, glancing back over her shoulder from time to time. She appeared to be keeping watch, anxiously waiting for someone to return.
Hantengu carefully gauged her aura. She was undeniably strong, but far weaker than the terrifying swordsman who had forced him to manifest Zohakuten the very moment they crossed paths previously. Realizing he wasn't facing a monster of Akira's caliber, Hantengu let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief.
Slipping back into his habitual cowardice, he immediately shrank his main body down to the size of a mouse, hiding himself deep within the roots of a massive tree. Meanwhile, he commanded several of his powerful emotion clones to quickly give chase and slaughter the stragglers.
It was at this exact moment that Nakime received Muzan's urgent retrieval order.
However, because Hantengu had already activated his ultimate concealment technique, completely masking the presence of his tiny main body, even Nakime's spatial tracking failed to locate him. The movement speed of her scouting familiars simply couldn't keep pace with the paranoid demon's evasive maneuvers. By the time her gaze swept over the forest, the true Hantengu had vanished without a trace.
As the newly appointed Upper Rank Five, Nakime lacked the hierarchical authority to directly invade the consciousness of Upper Rank Four to establish a communication link. Left with no other options, she could only deliver the disappointing news to her furious master.
As for why Muzan hadn't simply ordered Hantengu to retreat directly before demanding Nakime teleport him? It was, quite simply, because the Demon King was completely blinded by his own towering rage.
In his fury, he had subconsciously barked orders at his most convenient spatial tool. As for whether the task was actually feasible? How difficult the execution might be? Whether logistical problems would arise during the process? Those trivial details were beneath him. He was the absolute ruler. If his subordinates couldn't execute his will flawlessly, then it was their own miserable failing.
(The chapter above has already reached its standard length. What follows is a bit of casual chat from the author. Since the official 'Author's Note' section has a strict word limit, I am including it here.)
According to my original outline, this part of the plot was actually supposed to contain some heavy tragedies. Roughly speaking, before the protagonist mastered the See-Through World, he and Kanae were supposed to encounter both Akaza and Hantengu in the Swordsmith Village. In the end, the protagonist would have activated the Demon Slayer Mark and relied on raw, self-destructive speed to forcibly kill Akaza. However, because the fight dragged on for so long, Kanae would have also been forced to manifest her Mark while struggling against Hantengu.
Following that, there would have been a relatively depressing emotional arc designed to complete the final transformation of the protagonist's mindset, ultimately pushing him to master the See-Through World., because manifesting the Demon Slayer Mark is essentially a death sentence, he would have launched a desperate, high-intensity campaign to exterminate the Demon King's forces, planning to lure Muzan out for a massive group assault before his time ran out.
But while reorganizing the story, I realized that writing this segment in such a bleak manner would be incredibly unsatisfying. People read novels to relax and feel good, not to be weighed down by bitter resentment and tragedy. There are already enough exhausting and annoying things to deal with in real life; it's much better for a novel to remain a bit more lighthearted and comforting.
Therefore, in the earlier chapters, I deliberately added quite a bit of slice-of-life content. This included the female leads actively trying to help the protagonist heal and change his rigid mindset, which ultimately allowed him to unlock the See-Through World ahead of schedule. (In the original plan, the key plot point 'Where the Heart Belongs' would not have occurred so early in the story.)
However, this created a new problem: the protagonist's combat power increased far too significantly, meaning the pace of the subsequent plot had to accelerate. Even with the additional slice-of-life moments and deliberately delaying Doma's death, I still couldn't completely slow the story down to match the original outline's pacing.
Because of this, the current volume is titled 'The Approaching End,' and it will continue straight through until Muzan is finally dragged out into the blazing sun.
The next volume will follow my 'old tradition' established in my first two books: after the main storyline officially concludes, I will open a separate volume dedicated entirely to side stories to flesh out their daily lives and fluff.
Since the pace of the main plot is accelerating, the romantic progression and daily interactions with the other female leads—aside from Makomo and Kanae—will be shifted into those side stories. After all, the characters are currently preparing for the final, decisive battle. It would feel a bit jarring to inject a bunch of lovey-dovey, romantic content right in the middle of a war.
And given the current pacing, by the time Muzan is defeated, the protagonist won't have officially 'eaten' (slept with) the other girls yet. (Consider this the author's strong survival instinct to avoid censorship!)
Also, barring any unexpected delays, this book should be completely finished around July or August. I am currently a bit torn about whether my next project should be another fanfiction or the original story I have already partially outlined.
Since I'm not entirely sure how much time and energy I'll be able to spare for writing once I start grad school, writing fanfiction is undeniably less mentally taxing. Plus, while waiting for my new keyboard to arrive over the past two days, I reviewed the original outline I drafted previously and discovered quite a few glaring plot holes. I ended up deleting a significant amount of content, and I honestly don't know when I'll have the energy to sit down and slowly fix all of it.
Once this book concludes, I will decide whether to pursue the original story or start a brand-new fanfiction. Nothing is set in stone just yet. If any of you have preferences or are interested in a specific direction, please feel free to leave a comment here!
Finally, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to all the readers who have stuck with the story this far.
I also want to sincerely apologize. Due to personal real-life reasons, the updates for this book have been rather slow, and there were several frustrating interruptions along the way. However, the promise I made at the very beginning still holds true.
My greatest strength as an author is that I do not rely on writing novels to make a living. Therefore, regardless of the book's performance, metrics, or earnings, I will absolutely finish this story completely.
Of course, the inherent weakness of that reality is also that I don't rely on writing to survive. Things like my academic studies and other real-life obligations will always take priority over my writing schedule. That is the main reason why the updates for this book have been so slow.
Since I could no longer guarantee daily updates of over 4,000 words, I haven't asked for any gifts, donations, or votes. Because I am providing such a small amount of content each day, I genuinely feel too embarrassed to ask for your financial support or extra encouragement.
I will continue to write at my own pace, and you can read at yours. If you enjoy this story, leaving a good review or dropping a free little gift is more than enough for me.
Alternatively, you can simply keep it in your library and binge-read the entire thing once it is fully completed. Either way, I definitely won't suddenly drop the novel. Rest assured, this story will not die.
[Inorin's Note:
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