Last time's summary.
Sabito's misunderstanding was absurd.
If a human were to fall into depravity, it would probably be on a night like this.
It was that kind of beautiful moonlit night.
"Lord Moon!"
When I shouted that loudly, Lord Moon was just about to take off his underwear.
The skin illuminated by the faint moonlight was dazzling. The smoothness of his white skin vaguely felt feminine.
Looking back, I should have turned away the moment I felt that way.
Lord Moon's eyes looking at me over his shoulder. Those wide, startled eyes resembled the moon tonight perfectly.
The moment our gazes met through the steam rising from the bath, something chilling ran down my spine. For no reason, my heart pounded wildly.
Suppressing the unsettling feeling that shook my chest like madness, I opened my mouth again.
'Thanks to you, I was able to reconcile with the swordsmith. Thank you.'
I intended to just say that and leave, but I couldn't even get halfway through the line.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
What drowned out my words was a high-pitched scream that seemed to tear through the night's darkness.
That pitiful girl's voice burst forth from none other than Lord Moon's mouth.
"Did you see?! You saw just now, didn't you?!"
The urgent cry had already returned to his usual low voice.
No, should I say returned? Perhaps Lord Moon's real voice wasn't as low as that; maybe the girl's pitch was his original tone. Could that feminine voice be Lord Moon's true sound?
The moment that thought crossed my mind, everything was over. Lord Moon's neck, as he covered his face and crouched... looked strangely alluring.
I fled. I spat out a flustered apology and ran away at full speed. Stumbling in shock and confusion, I couldn't even steady myself and tumbled down the stone steps.
As my head hit the stone, I vaguely wished—could I just forget this entire incident?
But even after rolling to the bottom of the steps, that pure white skin was still vividly etched in my mind. The chilly night air was utterly insufficient to cool this heat.
Ah, it seems I won't be able to properly look at the moon for a while.
＊
"—And that's how it happened."
"But Kōgetsu is a boy, right?"
Makomo cut through Sabito's absurd misunderstanding with a single stroke.
When the recently returned disciple said, "Is Lord Moon a woman?" she was shocked, thinking he might have fallen under some strange demon art, but upon hearing it, it was just a simple mishap caused by the hot spring steam. This topic should end here.
But Sabito's misunderstanding didn't stop.
"No way! That voice was definitely a woman's voice!"
"I'm telling you, he's a boy. He just let out a falsetto out of surprise. Right, Masachika?"
"Yeah, but why was I called here too?"
Masachika's question, squeezed between the Urokodaki disciples on the long bench of the tea shop, was utterly reasonable.
Who would have thought that rushing over after Makomo urgently summoned him would lead to getting caught up in such a bizarre story?
To Masachika, who was eating dango with sleepy eyes, saying, "I was about to go to bed..." Makomo drooped her eyebrows and said, "But..."
"Sabito is stubborn. Once he believes something, he really sticks to it. I couldn't convince him on my own... Sorry."
"It's fine~ No need to apologize. But what can I do to help?"
"Masachika, you've bathed with Kōgetsu before, right? So as a witness."
"Ah, that's it. Certainly, early after joining, we often went on missions together, and we stayed at the Wisteria-crest house a lot. Of course, bathing too, bathing... bathing...?"
Masachika, who had paused for a while, tilted his head in puzzlement.
"Uh, no...?"
At Masachika's unexpected answer, whom she had called as an absolute witness, Makomo's face turned pale.
A development completely outside expectations. With this, Sabito's misunderstanding hit the accelerator. Once it starts running, it doesn't stop. A firm belief in overcoming obstacles. Brakes? What are those, something to eat?
"So Lord Moon is a woman after all?!"
"I told you, he's a boy! Can't you tell by looking?"
"But his facial features are soft, and his skin... his skin is surprisingly white!"
Seeing her disciple blushing to the ears, likely recalling something, and with Masachika, whom she trusted, failing utterly as a witness, Makomo briefly doubted Kōgetsu's gender too.
But with the quick judgment honed by Urokodaki Sakonji, she immediately concluded. Kōgetsu is male.
"His skin is white because he's sensitive to sunlight. His face is clearly a man's face. Besides, Kōgetsu's chest is flat, right?"
As Makomo persistently added, a hand suddenly tapped her shoulder.
"Makomo."
Masachika said with a serious look.
"By that logic, you'd be a man too."
"Eek!"
"Kyaaah!!"
Makomo's Droplet Thrust!
It hit Masachika's vital spot!
The effect was tremendous!
A fist filled with terrifying killing intent, unlike the adorable battle cry. Masachika let out a scream like a popped frog, but his writhing in pain was brief.
"I was wrong! It was the worst joke! Sorry, I'm sorry! Aaah, stop the follow-up stance!"
"Shall I make this where Masachika dies?"
"Understood, I apologize, Lady Makomo! Order anything you like!"
'Recovering instantly from Makomo's Droplet Thrust... This guy is impressive...!'
Setting aside Sabito, who was shuddering at Masachika's toughness, let's get back to the main topic.
"I also think Kōgetsu is male."
"But didn't you say you've never bathed together?"
"Well, yeah, that's... even when invited, he made various excuses and avoided it."
"Isn't that because Lord Moon is a woman? So he refused to bathe together? Can you still assert that Lord Moon is male? Are you confident enough to stake your life on it?"
Sabito pushed relentlessly against his senior without hesitation. Pressured by that momentum, Masachika leaned back, sweating cold sweat.
"...I'm starting to think he might be a woman."
"Masachika, get a grip."
At the unexpected betrayal of her ally, Makomo's head throbbed.
"I've stayed at the Wisteria-crest house with Kōgetsu several times too, but we always used separate rooms. If Kōgetsu were a girl, wouldn't he have spread futons next to mine and slept together?"
"Makomo too?! I also used a separate room!! He said he can't sleep if there's a human presence!!"
"A lie?!"
With Masachika's revelation shedding light on new facts, the situation plunged into further chaos. The suspicion that Kōgetsu might be female soared instantly.
But Makomo, the iron-willed girl, pushed her opinion like a Droplet Thrust.
"He's a boy, definitely a boy! If he were a girl disguising as a boy for some reason, he would have confided in me at least!"
"If Kōgetsu were male, he would have had a full-force water gun fight with me when bathing! The fact that he didn't must mean he's a girl!"
"I've never seen Makomo this heated before..."
As Sabito mumbled at the disciple's fierce aura, the two who were arguing violently glared at him simultaneously. It was a gaze that seemed to emit a 'glare' sound.
"Who do you think caused this? It's because Sabito made a baseless misunderstanding!"
"Makomo, you could have just left the disciple's misunderstanding alone. By dragging me in, you made things complicated!"
Masachika's shout was all too valid. Perhaps aware of it, Makomo softened her fierce expression and hung her head dejectedly.
"Sorry. But Sabito insisted on 'taking responsibility as a man'..."
"Responsibility? Were you planning to take her as your wife or something?"
Looking at the disciple who seemed upright at a glance, Masachika nodded alone. This guy would really do that.
But Sabito, who received that understanding gaze, shook his head with a solemn expression.
"It's easy to take responsibility by making the other person your wife after seeing the skin of an unmarried woman. But does that ease the heart of the one forced to marry a man she doesn't even like? No, absolutely not! Unless the other person earnestly desires it, it's just self-satisfaction! Calling that responsibility doesn't even elicit a hollow laugh! It's utterly ridiculous!"
"Are you laughing or not laughing? Which is it?"
Masachika's retort was brilliantly ignored.
Sabito, with the face of a 'man' who had resolved himself, thumped his stomach and shouted vigorously.
"Therefore, I will repay with my life! I will bow to Lord Moon and commit seppuku! This is how I take responsibility!!"
"See, don't you want to clear up the misunderstanding with all your might? For Kōgetsu's sake too."
"I'm sorry, Makomo. You were right! Kōgetsu is male. If he's male, then he's male!"
＊
On the way back, trudging after finishing a mission.
Beside the dejected disciple, senior Murata couldn't help but sigh.
"So, you binge-ate out of anger because your true form was exposed at the hot spring... that's what you mean?"
"Sabito said he didn't see, but that was clearly the reaction of someone who saw."
This disciple really has a clumsy side. But that also feels oddly human.
"He's not the type to blab for fun, but what if it gets to Makomo through Sabito? Or to Masachika?"
"Even though I only know those guys through your letters, I know well that they're all good people. So don't worry about that."
Even with such comfort, the disciple's face hardly brightened. This is the kind of gloom that only lifts with a full stomach.
"Want to go to the tea shop? I'll treat you."
Thanks to Takechiyo going to the Moon Hashira estate to fetch money, not only Kōgetsu's wallet but also Murata's pocket had doubled in affluence.
A few snacks to cheer up the disciple were nothing to Murata now.
・
・
・
At the usual tea shop, familiar faces came into view.
"Ah..."
Who made the first sound? Was it the three sitting on the long bench in front of the shop, or the disciple beside me?
In the awkward atmosphere that instantly descended, Murata realized. Sabito had told Kōgetsu's secret to those two.
In this place where everyone was stiff, the first to move was the girl wearing a fox mask. According to the disciple's letters, her name was Makomo.
Watching to see what words she would say to Kōgetsu, what came out was not a voice but hands.
Two palms extended with a heavy expression unbecoming of her adorable face touched Kōgetsu's chest with a slap. And a few seconds later.
The girl collapsed blankly, her face as white as paper.
"They're bigger than mine...!"
What kind of confirmation was that just now?
Murata wanted to retort like that, but since she was a senior, he held back.
Sabito, sitting on the long bench, shouted, "I told you so!" and the other boy next to him—probably Masachika—turned pale and dropped his dango skewer.
What the hell. What kind of situation is this now?
The disciple beside him also seemed unable to keep up, at a loss, but being inherently kind, he immediately reached out to the girl, saying, "What's wrong, are you okay?"
But Makomo didn't take that hand.
"...Why were you hiding it?"
The words spat out with her face lowered weren't in a reproachful tone. It was a clear, transparent voice of疑问. As if shielding the speechless disciple, Murata stepped forward.
"It was on the orders of my master's senior. Kōgetsu has done nothing wrong."
"Murata, you knew?!"
Sabito, his comrade, shouted. Not many in the Demon Slayer Corps knew about Murata and Kōgetsu's relationship.
"Well, yeah. I'm this guy's senior, after all."
A senior who joined later and advanced slower than the disciple—what would others think? Honestly, it wasn't that he didn't care, but he stood as composed as possible.
Hoping that as a senior, he could be someone who protects Kōgetsu's heart.
"I'm sorry for hiding it until now. You must feel betrayed and upset... I'm sorry. I apologize... I was afraid you'd think it's creepy..."
Perhaps gaining courage from the senior beside him, at Kōgetsu's tearful, stammering apology, Murata's heart ached.
He wanted to pat the disciple's head right away, who must have been called "creepy" by someone for his white hair and red eyes.
But before Murata could reach out.
"It's not creepy!!"
What shouted with a force that could blow everything away was Sabito. Standing up abruptly, his bluish-gray eyes pierced Kōgetsu without a hint of falsehood.
"If there's anyone who disparages Lord Moon's appearance, I'll knock them down. Anyone who belittles your heart, no matter who, I won't forgive them."
Sabito's eyes, speaking sincerely, were faintly moist.
"Don't say it's creepy. You... Lord Moon, you are, as far as I know, the most..."
A momentarily disrupted breath. His lips hesitated, exhaling only air. Exhaling a breath holding heat, inhaling a breath mixed with shame and determination, he took a deep breath.
"...The most?"
As Kōgetsu tilted his head, Sabito's face flushed from cheeks to ears. The boy, as if alone in the evening glow under a cloudy sky, roared with all his might.
"—The most beautiful woman!!!"
"Why did it come to that?!"
This time, Murata rolled his eyes and retorted. At the loud shout that cried out even for the bewildered disciple, birds startled and flew up from the distant mountains.
・
・
・
"Don't be ridiculous! Kōgetsu is male! He's insane! I've even massaged his back!!"
Thanks to Murata going all out and getting mad like crazy, the Kōgetsu-is-female suspicion was resolved pointlessly. By the way, most of Murata's anger was directed at Sabito right now.
"What kind of misunderstanding did you have, you idiot! A real fool!"
"But he screamed in a woman's voice..."
"That was falsetto—!! Think about it sensibly, you should know!"
"His skin is white, and it looks smooth, smooooth...!"
"This guy has trained intensely! It's not smooth, it's rugged! They're onomatopoeias at opposite ends!"
"Don't be ridiculous, are your eyes knotholes?! Lord Moon's muscles were flexible without excess! They weren't rugged! Especially the line from the neck to the back was excellent!"
"If my eyes are knotholes, your discernment is that of a perverted creep!!"
"Fine, I'll accept that fight!!"
Murata and Sabito, engaging in a battle of rage with the argument skewed about 45 degrees.
Slightly away from them, Makomo was wiping her eyes. They were tears of relief that Kōgetsu's chest, which she thought was bigger than hers, turned out to be simple pectoral muscles.
"I'm relieved, truly relieved... Sniff...!"
Gently patting that small shoulder, Masachika also nodded and wiped away tears together.
"Um, actually, I was the one hiding my hair and eye color."
By now, there was no reason to hide anymore, so Kōgetsu also honestly revealed his secret. Compared to the shock of being mistaken for a woman, hiding hair or eye color was trivial.
"Ah, so that's why. When I pat you, my hand turns black because of the dye."
"I thought the eye color was somehow different, but I didn't notice the hair."
"...I'm sorry."
At Kōgetsu slumping his shoulders in guilt for hiding the truth from his comrades, the two gently patted his head.
"Kōgetsu is Kōgetsu. No matter what form, that doesn't change."
"It must have been hard hiding it. You must have been anxious and suffered."
"Both of you... thank you."
It was a beautiful friendship. It would have been a much more perfect beauty if not for the Street Fighter battle of Murata vs. Sabito unfolding in the background.
Right when Kōgetsu shed tears in Makomo and Masachika's embrace, senior Murata's full-power Shoryuken exploded.
YOU WIN.
Beside Sabito collapsing unseen by anyone, senior Murata raised his fist majestically.
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