Only a quiet breath remained in the clearing where the moonlight had gone out.
The cut-down forest lay toppled like black waves, and the collapsed stone graves had scattered into sand. Yet in the middle of it all, only Yuichiro was still standing.
His knees had already lost their strength and were trembling, but his eyes never closed.
After the wind passed once more, a low voice reached him.
“Father...”
It was a soft but unmistakable address.
Yuichiro turned his head. A boy emerged through the moonlight—Itayoshi, standing there and looking toward him. He still had a child’s face, but clear worry had settled in his eyes.
“Are you all right? Just now... there was a really terrifying sound coming from here...”
Yuichiro looked at his son’s face, then forced something that was not quite a smile onto his own. A sweat-soaked hand lifted lightly and brushed the boy’s hair.
“Nothing happened, Itayoshi. It was only... the wind blowing a little hard.”
The boy’s eyes wavered, but he did not ask any further after hearing his father’s words. He simply stayed quietly by his side, unable to let go of his worried gaze.
The wind swept across the clearing again, and moonlight spilled coldly over the shattered remains.
But in that instant, the gaze shifted somewhere entirely different.
§§§
Kokushibo’s heavy presence had already left Kumotori.
His footsteps did not press against the ground. It was as if he were cutting through space itself as he moved, leaving only wind and darkness behind him.
Speed itself was escape.
Even Kokushibo did not know what he was running from.
A place with no people.
A place where human life and presence had been severed away, where even the wind did not stir and mist lay thick over air grown thin.
That place was Sagiri Mountain, the mountain where mist lived up to its name.
Deep along its slopes, the fog spread like white smoke, swallowing both light and sound.
Kokushibo stopped at the edge of a cliff.
Within the mist, his six eyes trembled heavily.
“...Why... could I not cut him down?”
His voice sank low, yet it seeped into the fog like an echo.
“That dance was clearly [Sun Breathing]. No, it was clumsier than that, incomplete. A human body, untrained muscles. And yet... I could not swing my sword.”
The moment his body had refused the command came back to him. His mind had screamed endlessly.
“Kill him. Cut off the line. The trace of the sun must be turned to ash.”
It had been the signal to kill Yuichiro at once and wipe out the rest of his family. But his body had trembled, and his eyes had searched for Yoriichi’s shadow.
“Are you mocking me... Yoriichi?”
The mist split under the wind. Through the gap, the knife-like rocks of Sagiri Mountain rose into view. It was as if even the mountain itself were a scabbard.
Standing alone in that landscape, Kokushibo narrowed his eyes and asked himself,
“Yoriichi... even in death, are you still making me miserable?”
“Why am I still... bound to your shadow?”
His body and mind walked different roads, and a cracking sound leaked out from the gap between them.
“I am Upper Rank One. I am strong. Stronger than anyone. And yet...”
His voice began to split.
“Why, even now, can I not draw my sword before your name...!”
When the cry burst out, the mist shook and the mountain slopes split apart. A heap of rocks scattered with a roar, leaving behind an empty reverberation.
Then it happened.
The sword in Kokushibo’s hand vibrated as if it were sucking in his own rage and confusion. Blood-colored moonlight spread across the blade and flashed for an instant like fire.
[Red Blade].
Hot blood and fury tangled together, and the blade heated red.
“...!”
A blinding crimson light cut through the mist and spread outward. Kokushibo could no longer control it. As if the sword were moving on its own, it swept long into the fog.
Kwaaaang—!
In an instant, the entire mountainside split open. A deep ravine stretched outward, and rocks and trees were severed in irregular halves.
The power of the [Red Blade] rang out hotly, as if burning the air itself. The mist was scorched by the crimson light and vanished in an instant, and Sagiri Mountain writhed as though it were roaring like a monster.
Bang, bang, bang!
The echoes spread three times over the mountain range. Beasts far away howled and fled, and even the wind was sucked into the split.
Kokushibo looked down at the blade still glowing red. His breathing remained heavy, and his six eyes trembled once more.
“...So the [Red Blade] would manifest.”
The flame of the [Red Blade] still lived at the tip of the sword.
But that flame was not mere power. It was a condensation of uncontrollable rage and confusion.
Kokushibo slowly lowered his sword. Yet the light of the [Red Blade] did not fade easily.
On the blade, which was covered in countless eyes, the glowing crimson of the [Red Blade] was dazzling.
While Kokushibo’s six eyes remained fixed on the sword, the mountain continued to groan.
And within that reverberation, he realized that he himself was slowly falling apart.
§§§
The [Red Blade].
One of the major traits of the [Red Blade] that Kokushibo knew was that it greatly suppressed or neutralized a demon’s regeneration.
As if it contained part of the sun’s power, it could inflict wounds fatal to demons. Not even Muzan was exempt.
It did not merely cut. It prevented wounds from healing easily.
Kokushibo had known of the [Red Blade] and feared it. What he had feared was now becoming his own power.
Within the shape of rage and confusion, the flame that had been kindled was not cold. On the contrary, it was hot, and alive.
Kokushibo’s six eyes stared at the crimson light. The [Red Blade] was a power that should only appear at the very edge of human limits.
There was no way a demon body should be able to manifest it.
“This... why, at the tip of my sword...”
He steadied his breathing and looked down at the blade. The red blaze of the [Red Blade] was not merely proof of force.
It was a flame that called Yoriichi’s shadow forth.
Each time the sword tip moved, a brother’s voice echoed along with the black moonlight.
“Brother, the sword is a prayer for protection.”
Kokushibo clenched his teeth.
“I do not pray... I walked this path to become strong!”
And yet the [Red Blade] still would not go out.
That fire lived on against his will, as though it were the body’s own confession.
“Even you... are denying me?”
When the red blade tore through the mist, Sagiri Mountain roared again. A deep crack ran long along the mountainside, and the remains of a small temple collapsed in on themselves.
The echo rang all the way to the foot of the mountain range. Humans living below would likely think it was a natural disaster.
――Goooooo.
At that moment, a trace of breathing could be felt among the wreckage in the mist.
“...!”
“Water Breathing, [Sixth Form]—[Whirling Whirlpool]—!”
A spiraling slash wrapped in water twisted the whole body and struck Kokushibo in an instant.
Kwa, aaaang—!
“Upper Rank One...! What do you think you’re doing coming here...!”
A boy in a blue haori. His black eyes flashed with a chilling glint, and his face was twisted like a vengeful demon’s.
The blue whirlpool tore through the mist and surged violently.
Rocks flew up like fragments, and dust scattered from between split stones like a storm.
But Kokushibo’s six eyes did not waver.
With a slight twist of the red-hot [Red Blade] tip, the whirlpool was cut aside and flowed off into empty air.
“...To think you only now noticed such a trivial presence.”
Kokushibo’s voice was still low and heavy. Then the mist tore apart, revealing a figure.
A young man in a blue haori, holding his sword at an angle.
His eyes burned with anger more than fear, and his lips were pressed tightly together.
The young man in the blue haori was piercing Kokushibo with a gaze that did not waver in the slightest.
Within those anger-red eyes, a story long buried boiled up like blood.
“...I couldn’t forget you.”
The young man growled the words in a low voice. It was not simple hostility. It was cold, heavy resentment rising from somewhere deep inside him.
“...For our first meeting, you’re looking at me with quite a hostile expression.”
Kokushibo’s six eyes flashed cruelly.
“Were you connected to me...?”
The young man’s hand tightened further around the hilt.
His pupils did not tremble, burning with a black light.
“Connected...? Do you even have the right to say that?”
His voice cracked as if he were coughing up blood.
“My master, Iwanai Kotaro—are you saying you don’t even remember him? You were the one who killed him!”
Kokushibo’s gaze flickered for a moment.
A fragment of memory surfaced faintly, like something blown by the wind.
A twisted trail of water, and the eyes of a man who never lowered his sword even in his final moment.
“...Ah, that one.”
Kokushibo muttered lowly.
“I remember him clearly. The sword tip that kept crashing on like a current. But in the end... he broke apart in vain.”
Those words pierced the young man’s heart more sharply than a blade. His eyes quivered with rage.
“In vain...? He fought to the end for humanity! Even as he fell, he never lowered his sword! He threw away his life just to cut down a monster like you!”
Kokushibo’s six eyes slowly narrowed.
The red blaze at the tip of his blade flickered, dyeing the mist blood-red as if in mockery.
“Then that man’s end was simply beneath my sword. The only truth is that he did not survive.”
The young man’s breathing surged violently. The rage boiling up from his heart flowed straight into the rhythm of his breath.
Kokushibo gauged the young man’s age from what he could see.
“...About nineteen, perhaps. His body is close to that of a Hashira, but he still hasn’t refined a technique of his own.”
“...As a swordsman, he’s lacking...”
“I’ll carry on his will. I’ll definitely reclaim the master’s soul that you trampled down!”
Blue waves burst from the tip of the sword. Within the mist, the forms of Water Breathing shimmered like flowing water.
Kokushibo tilted his head slightly. His rage and confusion had already settled. His mind was now fixed only on the young man before him.
“Interesting. Even after losing your master, you still did not let go of your sword... But do not think that obsession will extend your life.”
The crimson flame of the [Red Blade] and the blue flow of water rushed toward each other. Sagiri Mountain’s mist split apart and writhed under the two currents.
“Come, new Water Hashira...”
Kokushibo’s voice rose like a roar.
“I shall send you to your master as well...”
Kwaaaaaang—!
At that instant, the red tip of the [Red Blade] and the blue torrent of water collided head-on. The mist was torn to shreds, and an explosion that shook the mountain range thundered out.
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