Chapter 66: On a Rainy Night, There Is No Moon nor Flame (4)

Rengoku Shōjuro's decision was swift.

It probably didn't take even a second to decide to kill his friend who had become a demon.

Was one second too heartless a time to decide to cut down a friend he had been with for over five years?

No, prolonging agony is not the measure of friendship's depth. Rengoku Shōjuro's quick decision was rather an expression of the utmost respect and affection for Rei.

Who would be the saddest to see him struggling with hunger like this, after enduring it by eating pomegranates? Who would regret it most if he, who vowed never to eat humans, caught and ate humans to fill his emptiness?

In the end, the one who could never forgive a demon that harms humans, eats humans, and lives like that would be Rei himself.

Shōjuro was convinced of that. He repeatedly affirmed that this conviction was true.

That's why he decided to kill Rei.

It wasn't that he didn't think at all about what would happen to him after killing Rei. It was easy to imagine what emotions he would face when confronting his friend's corpse.

But it didn't matter.

"Even if I can't move forward anymore, it's fine. Even if I can never stand up again, it's fine."

Knowing it wouldn't reach him now that he was a demon, he couldn't help but say it. Because it was also a cry directed at himself.

"I don't want to turn my back on you as you are now!"

It was a cry to push his own back, which still seemed to tremble even after deciding to kill his friend.

He gripped his sword again and struck away Rei's claws as he charged through the downpour. As he parried the attack, charcoal fragments scattered from Rei's arm. Rei's body was still charred like coal.

Without eating humans, recovery seemed slow and painful; occasionally, he writhed and groaned.

Demons are畸形 creatures. Even so damaged, they can only die by sunlight or Nichirin Blades. He wanted to free him from this痛苦 as soon as possible.

Moreover, if the battle dragged on, it would become disadvantageous for him. The black uniform soaked in the heavy rain grew heavy, gradually dulling his movements. The uniforms issued to members were made of material that didn't get wet easily, but even that had its limits.

……Ah, come to think of it, it was raining like this on the day we first met too.

The memory of that day at Mt. Fujikasane's selection, fighting a horde of demons together, remains vividly in his heart even now.

Shoulder to shoulder, back to back, an irreplaceable memory of gaining a comrade with whom he could open his heart.

As if shattering that memory, Rei's claws plunged toward him again and again.

Anger and sadness surged at the fact that Rei, seized by demon hunger, had forgotten that beautiful moon swordsmanship, but at the same time, he felt pathetic for feeling relieved by it.

If Rei had wielded his past swordsmanship with demon strength, there would have been no chance of winning. It was only because he had become a demon who lost his reason that his own chance arose.

"Please, Rei…… stay still. I don't want to cause you even a bit of pain!"

If only Flame Breathing could use a gentle strike like 'Drought's Raindrop' in Water Breathing. No, even 'Drought's Raindrop' is a technique that only works on those who offer their necks willingly. It wouldn't work on a demon driven mad by hunger.

While sincerely wishing to cut his neck without pain, against the current Rei, if he let his guard down even slightly or held back, it would be his own neck that gets cut.

As he pondered how to kill him most surely, a conversation from one day suddenly came to mind.

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"Hell, heaven, gods, Buddhas. I don't believe in any of them."

Opening his mouth like that, he continued.

"They say there's purgatory between heaven and hell."

The place was the same hospital room in a recuperation facility. Where he lay was the next bed.

It was from when they hadn't been members long, after defeating a Lower Rank demon that attacked by combining their strength, but the injuries were worse than expected, so both were hospitalized together, bored out of their minds.

"Really? First time I've heard of it."

"Well, it's Catholic doctrine, so it must be unfamiliar to you, Lord Shōjuro."

The peaceful recuperation life without training or missions wasn't too boring because Rei next to him talked a lot.

"In that place called purgatory, people are burning."

"Isn't that hell?"

"No, no. Um…… Christianity and Buddhism have different perceptions of hell itself…… In short, purgatory is for people who aren't headed to hell yet but can't go to heaven immediately."

Even though they were the same age, Rei knew various things. How to distinguish edible plants, how to make medicine, even religious stories like this. Listening, there was no time to get bored.

"Purgatory is the flame of purification. Humans who burn there can wash away their sins and go to heaven. Perhaps the 'Rengoku' of the Rengoku clan is purgatory in that sense."

He had never thought about the meaning of those two letters in the surname passed down through generations.

No one had taught him, so there was no way to know if his interpretation of this surname was correct, but right or wrong didn't matter.

"There's no gentler name for slaying demons, is there?"

Because he smiled peacefully, as if he himself had been saved, I vowed to become a demon hunter worthy of that name. I swore strongly, and even more strongly.

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The technique to kill his friend was decided.

He leaped back greatly on the muddy mountain path drenched by rain, catching his breath. Pulling his left foot back, lowering his waist, the sword gripped with both hands pointed the tip backward, aiming over his shoulder.

Kicking off the ground as if to split it, with a roar that swallowed even the sound of rain, he charged fiercely toward Rei's neck.

"Aaaaaaaaaah!!"

Drawing up the life force from every cell of his body without leaving a single one, hoping for a single moment of決勝.

Putting all my strength into the sword, I swing it.

This is the ultimate technique of Flame Breathing.

──Ninth Form: Purgatory

A sword strike enough to upheave the ground.

The descending blade digs into his flesh, breaks bones, scatters blood, and even though I've wounded you so much── ah, even so.

"……It's no use."

The blade was stuck in his nape without moving. The arm holding the sword, stopped as Rei grabbed it with one hand, creaked with an ominous sound.

As he tried to push the blade in somehow, stopped by the demon's monstrous strength, he belatedly realized that his torso had been deeply gouged.

The blood he couldn't hold back and vomited violently scattered on Rei's face.

The crimson tongue tip revealed from the blackened face. Licking off the blood, shedding charcoal fragments, the Adam's apple bobbing up and down. A faint breath escaping, hoo──.

Like a drop of grace obtained in the middle of a desert, it must have been nourishment seeping into his whole body for him, who had long suffered from hunger.

The charred, crumbling skin instantly regained its luster, and the eyes that had clouded like rotten fruit regained their proper form. Reading what was engraved in those eyes, he forgot to breathe.

"Up, Upper Rank?"

In one eye, Upper Rank. In the other, Zero.

His heart shook so much he nearly dropped his sword.

Why does he have the mark of the Twelve Kizuki? Why is the mark of the demon closest to Kibutsuji Muzan engraved on him?

He who doesn't eat humans would never voluntarily side with demons. Then, the meaning of those eyes was only one.

To never let him rejoin the Demon Slayer Corps.

He bitterly understood why Member Tsuyuri didn't report about Rei.

The Demon Slayer Corps would surely try to kill him for bearing Upper Rank Zero. Under the righteous cause that he was on the demons' side after all, without even trying to see his true feelings, they would fall right into Kibutsuji Muzan's scheme.

By engraving the demon's brand on him, Kibutsuji Muzan wanted to trample the dignity he had upheld as a demon hunter.

He wanted to drive this man, who became a demon while retaining a human heart, into becoming an enemy of the Demon Slayer Corps somehow. He wanted to make this gentle youth be disposed of by the Demon Slayer Corps's hands, filled with hatred and killing intent.

Suddenly, Rei laughed.

As if forgetting all heat, he sneered coldly like moonlight. The mouth curve carved with gentleness drew a line完全不似 him from his human days.

In the demon's eyes with split pupils, the past gentle gaze could no longer be found.

Perhaps Kibutsuji Muzan wanted to enjoy watching that gentleness crumble under demon hunger. He might be holding his belly and laughing at this situation where he fell into demonhood by the Demon Slayer Corps's hands.

──Just that thought, that imagination alone, set his heart ablaze with burning anger, and something inside him snapped.

"It won't go your way, Kibutsuji Muzan!!"

As if squeezing out the last shreds of his remaining life, he poured strength back into his arm that seemed unable to move. The blade turned even redder. It might be an illusion.

Sensing the anomaly, Rei erased his smile and grabbed my arm. The sound of bones crushing rang out. But I wasn't prepared to break from that. The blade slowly dug into Rei's neck.

"I'm killing him not out of hatred for demons, nor out of killing intent!"

That cry wasn't directed at anyone.

It was a cry to bolster himself, that he wouldn't let things go Kibutsuji Muzan's way.

"It's out of friendship for him! Out of the wish for him to remain his true self!!"

A little more, just a little more, and he could cut his neck.

Rei screamed in pain and resisted. The arm and claws swung with all his might dug into one of my eyes.

What flowed down my cheek was it blood, or tears?

"How dare you defile him, Kibutsuji Muzan! How dare you… that so gentle him…! Him, Rei──"

The blade had already passed through the bone.

What remained was a few strands of flesh, a few muscles, and the final layer of skin.

"Give me back my frieeeeeeeeend!!!"

Ignoring the blood gushing up my throat, I swung my sword with a roar.

The white-haired head slipping down. The moment it was about to fall into the mud, his red eyes regained reason and opened.

"……Lord Shōjuro?"

Only at the final moment did the usual him return.

That alone was enough. I had no regrets in my life.

Barely supporting my body that seemed to collapse on the spot, squeezing out the remaining life force, I cradled Rei's head with both hands, but unable to stand, I soon sat down. Honestly, even sitting was burdensome.

Rei was a sharp youth. Assessing his own condition and mine, he understood the whole situation at once.

"Lord Shōjuro, I……! I……!!"

The heavy downpour that had been so noisy had already changed into a gentle drizzle. Perhaps because of that, his tears were clearly visible. Drops warmer than rain constantly moistened my fingers.

"Hemostasis… use Breathing to stop the bleeding now. Call the Kakushi with the Kasugai Crow for quick treatment……!"

"It's fine. It's fine like this."

"It's not fine! I don't want Lord Shōjuro to die!! If you die, that's the end. Everyone will be sad! Lord Rengoku, Mother, Lord Shinjuro, Lord Goto, me too……!!"

To him trying to continue speaking, I gently smiled and slowly shook my head.

Then Rei cried even more sorrowfully. He apologized to me, repeating "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" several times.

That was probably an apology not only to me but also to those who would be left behind. The voice blurred by tears repeated the same words over and over.

Having only apologies as the last farewell words was depressing and unwanted.

I quietly covered his mouth.

"You cry unexpectedly well."

Seeing Rei crying buckets even with his mouth covered reassured me. This was definitely the usual him. The same Rei who was always overly gentle and worrisome.

"……Once, you said you don't believe in heaven or hell, but I think they exist."

A look as if telling me not to speak any more glared at me. But even glaring with eyes distorted by tears, it wasn't scary or frightening.

Only, I wanted to convey this one last thing.

"So, there's no need to cry. It's just going to a place other than here."

The heavenly kingdom?

Or the earthly prison?

Where do demons go? Which side will he be guided to?

……If being a demon alone becomes a sin. If it's a fate to be hated and cursed, ultimately falling into the abyss.

If his kind heart must be trampled just for becoming a demon.

Oh God.

Please forgive him through this结局. Please welcome him, who fell by the purgatory blade, into heaven.

For this man who grieves more for my fate than his own death, a brilliant heaven suits him better than the darkness of hell.

But if even that is an unattainable wish──

"Wherever we go, let's go together. It's a journey to the afterlife, just you and me."

It's my first journey, so I'm excited, and──

In my fading consciousness, I smiled with all my might.

Rei kept crying.

"……I'm sorry, Lord Shōjuro. I can't go with you."