Chapter 255: Yoriichi's Gift x Muzan's Death (Demon Slayer Finale)
Long hair tied in a high ponytail, some bangs swaying in the wind unable to cover the striking, burning red flame-like birthmark on his forehead...
A person about to die reveals their past... The same hanafuda earrings as Roy, the same hair color, a different red haori, a different slender build, a different pair of compassionate eyes... slowly emerging from Kokushibo's revolving lantern (life flashing before his eyes)...
Roy felt this unique "soul" rhythm, sheathed his sword, bowed, and said, "Teacher."
The man looked over gently, glanced at the hanafuda earring dangling from the boy's earlobe, and raised his hand to help Roy up... Looking him up and down, he said with satisfaction, "You are truly excellent."
"Better than I imagined."
"It is all thanks to Teacher's cultivation."
"I didn't teach you anything, it was all your own effort."
"No," Roy straightened his back. A gentle Nen power appeared on his palm, holding the "spirit" state Yoriichi Tsugikuni to help stabilize his collapsing body. "Without the shoulders Teacher provided, I wouldn't have been able to stand this high."
[Sun Breathing] providing "1" point of physique daily was no illusion. Roy believed... although this was his first meeting with Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the connection built through the "Demon Slayer Gate," through "Sun Breathing," and through the relentless, daily "Ten Thousand Swings" without the slightest slack... had invisibly built a bridge called "the reality of master and disciple" between them.
In other words, I was born when you were already dead, yet we have long connected spiritually across "life and death"...
Silence spoke volumes at this moment. Yoriichi Tsugikuni felt the warm and abundant Nen power flowing from Roy's palm. He smiled, nodded, and said, "If Sumiyoshi knew he had a descendant like you, he would be extremely pleased..."
"He was far less outstanding than you back then."
Perhaps he was getting old and prone to sentimentality... Memories surfaced like a scrolling painting... Yoriichi Tsugikuni thought of his mother, his father, the Demon Slayer Corps, his wife "Uta," and his "child" who was eaten by a demon before coming of age. He leisurely crouched down, picked up the flute he had once given to Kokushibo, and looking at his older brother's ugly appearance now, his eyes were filled with nothing but sorrow and sighs...
"Nii-san, since you fell into depravity, you should have known this day would come."
"Yoriichi... Yoriichi..." Kokushibo, like grasping at a straw, struggled madly and lunged forward, hugging Yoriichi Tsugikuni's thigh tightly: "Tell him, quickly tell him, I don't want to die yet... I can't die yet..."
Tell who? Tell that... good child? Yoriichi Tsugikuni looked sorrowfully at the monster by his feet. With his back to Roy, he slowly but firmly shook his head: "He is not your family, he has no obligation to be responsible for you, and you... my dear Nii-san, should just come on the road with me."
With a shake of his thigh, he sent Kokushibo flying. Yoriichi Tsugikuni stood up tall, placed the horizontal flute to his lips, and played a leisurely tune. He played of the changing affairs of the world, the swirling passage of time, ultimately turning into a touch of tranquility... integrating into Roy's heart. It made Roy freeze slightly, immediately hearing the panel's prompt...
[Prompt... Detected an unfamiliar stream of information pouring in... Analyzing...]
[Gifter: Yoriichi Tsugikuni... Gift: Lifelong Swordsmanship Comprehension...]
[Now Received...]
[Prompt: "Swordsmanship" +67415]
[Current "Swordsmanship": LV4 (14172/100,000) -> LV4 (81857/100,000)]
[Only a hair away from LV5]
"Teacher..." As the tune ended, Roy stared blankly at Yoriichi Tsugikuni. He opened his mouth to say something, but before the words reached his throat, they were forcibly stopped by Yoriichi Tsugikuni's gentle smile looking back...
His fiery red hair, longer than Roy's, swayed as he looked deeply at the boy and said, "I have nothing else, only this... Consider it a parting gift from a teacher as we say goodbye..."
The man looked up at the night sky, the bright moon hanging high, and said with some regret: "Unfortunately, this is not daytime. I cannot have a heart-to-heart talk with you about the path of the 'Sun'. If there is a rebirth in another year, and I meet you again, please do not forget that there is such a fool who 'dislikes swords, and only loves sunlight'..."
Jingle jingle... The revolving lantern receded...
As Kokushibo's last breath dissipated between heaven and earth... Yoriichi Tsugikuni, whose "spirit body" was reconstructed from "memories", ultimately couldn't escape the shackles of life and death, dragged by Kokushibo to plunge back into darkness... Ironically, this time it wasn't the younger brother taking the older brother on the road, but the older brother, out of resentment, insisting on dragging his younger brother down to hell... Right or wrong, as Yoriichi's figure gradually faded and disappeared within the Nen shroud Roy provided him, it seemed... it was no longer that important...
Fwoosh~ Kokushibo's head and corpse turned into black smoke, blown by the wind, annihilating into ashes... Just like other evil demons, ending his sinful life...
At the same time, the panel prompted...
["Life Energy" +270]
Lying so conspicuously and quietly in the panel column, making it hard to look away.
At the right moment, Roy took a deep breath. Looking at the end where the karmic thread wound and spread, a certain coward who had fled in a sorry state suddenly paused, then quickened his pace, fleeing even faster... The boy gently touched his chest, bowed respectfully towards the spot where Yoriichi dissipated, and said, "Farewell, Teacher."
Straightening his back, he instantly "Photified", flashing, flashing, and flashing again... continuously shortening the length of the karmic branch!
"Damn it!"
"Why won't you let me go?!"
Kokushibo is dead... Doma is dead... Now it's... Michikatsu!!
Muzan Kibutsuji, relying on the hint of [Spatial] attribute possessed by Nakime's [Infinity Castle], fled continuously. Terrified, panicked, fearful, it was as if he had returned to the night of his first encounter with Yoriichi Tsugikuni. Watching the moonlight and fireflies, hearing the rustling bamboo forest, his flesh aching faintly, clamoring in unison to split apart... to self-destruct. This time it would be best to explode into two thousand eight hundred pieces...
Seeing Roy turning into a streak of light and continuously closing in, he finally made up his mind, roaring hysterically, "You forced me to do this!"
With a Bang~, he instantly exploded!
Less than a hundred meters away from Roy... turning into a sky full of fluttering meat rain. Only Nakime, holding her biwa, remained, caught up by Roy on his back foot, getting her head pierced by a single sword strike, dying on the spot.
[Prompt: Life Energy +50]
"What a fast sword." Where the sword light passed, it was a decapitation... An eye that Muzan had sent flying stared blankly at this scene, secretly rejoicing that he had run fast enough!
Clang... The sound of the biwa shattered...
Nakime's body tilted and fell by Roy's feet. Her most beloved biwa fell to the ground with a clack, snapping two strings... Pieces of flesh flew like rain, scattering and fleeing... The boy dealt with Nakime and seemed to be stunned, or perhaps confused by the sheer number of meat pieces he had split into...
In short, when Muzan turned around, he found that the boy had actually sheathed his sword, completely ignoring him... While feeling suspicious, even wondering if he had self-destructed too early, he suddenly met a trace of scarlet creeping out from deep within Roy's eyes, and... the three soul-stealing tomoe slowly surfacing in his pupils.
Muzan froze abruptly, as if seeing... the boy meeting his gaze, smiling mockingly...
"What are you smiling at?"
"Smiling at... a coward."
Sharingan activated... "Nen power" slowly surged into his eye sockets. Roy crossed his arms and watched Muzan fleeing in all directions, saying unhurriedly: "Come out, children."
Caw~ A crow's cry... A black crow seemed to soar high in the sky, dropping a black feather. Then...
As if responding to Roy, or as if receiving some kind of calling, Muzan paused for a moment and suddenly discovered... he actually couldn't move. It was as if something was hooping him, grabbing every piece of meat from his self-destruction, whether it was a heart, kidney, liver, or nose, mouth, eyes, even a flake of skin... dragging them all without exception to condense in front of Roy...
Muzan screamed in terror, finally seeing... what was hooping him... It was the countless vengeful souls of the fathers, mothers, children, wives, innocent passersby, doctors, artists, bosses, peers, etc., who were either directly eaten by him or casually killed by him! Some he had forgotten, some he didn't even recognize, and most... were the livestock-like humans he had never cared about, or even bothered to look at straight in the eye!
"Let me go... let me go... what are you doing... what are you doing?"
With a Dong, a "clock going backwards" seemed to ring the signal of reversing time...
Muzan struggled and roared in despair. Even biting with his mouth or whipping with bone whips extending from his hands was to no avail... Those people, those spirits, those men and women, old and young whom he had casually slaughtered over the past millennium, seemed to feel no pain. They stubbornly grabbed every piece of his flesh, scrambling over each other, charging one after another towards the front of Roy...
In the blink of an eye...
They pieced together an intact Muzan again, blankly floating in front of Roy!
A just cause enjoys abundant support, an unjust cause finds little support... It is exactly so!
"Eiichiro Kamado, you bastard, what did you do to me?!"
Thousands of hands, thousands of faces, just stared at him, bound him, hooped him, unable to move... Veins popped on Muzan's forehead, his eyes widening to the point of cracking, glaring ferociously at Roy. Yet...
The boy showed neither joy nor sorrow. He just looked at those men, women, old and young. Deep within his blood-colored eyes, a destructive anger and sorrow erupted wildly!
He ignored Muzan, only saying: "I have thought about it, over the past thousands of years, many people must have died by your hands. Maybe dozens, maybe hundreds. But I never thought it would be thousands... tens of thousands!"
"You ask me what I did to you?" Roy delivered a kick, a heavy, powerful flying kick that directly shattered Muzan's knees. He cried out in pain and knelt on the spot!
"Then why don't you open your eyes and look... what did you do to them... him... her... it?!"
[Heart Worm] deployed, coordinating with [Genjutsu], continuously drawing out the dark side deeply planted within Muzan Kibutsuji. The panel prompted...
["Negative Emotion" +1+1+1+1...]
Endlessly.
Muzan heard... "Sob sob whimper whimper~" The weeping, as if complaining, as if accusing, came from the mouths of those thousands of faces... His scalp tingled numbly on the spot... Like a stray dog, in geisha attire with disheveled hair crawling on the ground, he barely gritted his teeth and tried to curry favor with Roy: "Eiichiro Kamado, stop, stop... I know, you definitely don't want to die either... As long as you become a demon... As long as you join me... you can achieve eternal life..."
Demon... eternal life... truly a tempting proposal... Roy smiled, smiling very coldly, so cold that Muzan froze, then felt a chill in his bones, his teeth chattering. Only then did he hear the boy say disdainfully: "To have me become a ghostly freak like that, I'd rather die!"
As his words fell, he waved his hand. Ignoring Muzan's struggles, spitting, begging, and crying, he only said indifferently: "Eat."
Instantly, thousands of faces opened their mouths simultaneously, revealing sharp teeth, and with a single bite, sank deep into Muzan's flesh!!
"Ah—" Heart-wrenching roars of pain were suffocating. Thousands of mouths, gnawing flesh, crushing bones, swallowing raw, playing a hellish dirge called "Revenge"!
"Eat... eat... I know... doing it once definitely won't satisfy you, won't make you happy. Then eat him a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times, until... you are satisfied!"
"Wail—" In an instant, Muzan Kibutsuji... was drowned by the crowd...
Amidst the bloody scene, Roy's consciousness detached from the Genjutsu. He stood next to the Genjutsu-afflicted Muzan, silently watching the moon set in the west... calculating the time...
Soon... two hours passed... four hours... six hours...
Finally, when a touch of fish-belly white appeared at the horizon, with the morning glow faintly surging, breaking through the darkness.
Roy silently calculated the number of times Muzan was gnawed cleanly away, a full three thousand seven hundred times. He reached out to pinch the first ray of morning glow, took a deep breath, and said, "Truly beautiful!"
Then, he heard... Sizzle sizzle~ Several wisps of smoke rose from Muzan's forehead. Facing the faintly leaping red sun in the east, he began to burn...
The boy reached out and touched the pair of hanafuda earrings dangling below his earlobes, murmuring, "Master, this time... I didn't let him go."
Fwoosh~ A faint wind rose. It seemed a gentle face with a flame mark on its forehead was smiling and nodding at him... The boy smiled radiantly in return, shifted his steps to make more room for the red sun leaping into the sky, casting more light to shine on Muzan, completely burning him through, burning him numb, burning him to ashes, annihilating him between heaven and earth...
Roy stretched lazily at the appropriate moment, turned, and left, not taking a single cloud with him...
[Prompt: "Life Energy" +481...]
[Magical Beast Encyclopedia has unfolded...]
[Prompt: Detected two "Evil Demons", one "Demon King", [Magical Beast Encyclopedia] has unfolded...]
[Name: Muzan Kibutsuji]
[Demon King]
[Physique: 841 (Note: Ordinary person is 1)]
[Innate Blood Demon Art:
One, "Bestowal": Muzan Kibutsuji can forcibly transform others into evil demons by injecting them with demon blood, greatly enhancing their physique.
Two, "Domination": Muzan Kibutsuji has "absolute domination" over the demons under his name. With a single thought, he can read his subordinates' memories, and even delete, modify, restrict... and take away their lives.
Three, "Multiple Organs": As his strength increases, Muzan Kibutsuji can cultivate "multiple organs" within his body. Unless the "organs" are completely destroyed, he will not die.
Four: "Self-Division": Through "self-destruction," Muzan Kibutsuji can divide his physical tissues into countless small pieces to hide. As long as one small piece remains un-destroyed, he can resurrect.
Five: "Whip Technique": Muzan Kibutsuji is adept at "whip techniques". With a thought, he can turn a part of his body into a "thorn whip" or "tube whip" to whip others.
Six: "Dead Infant Proliferation": By turning into the most primal infant state, Muzan Kibutsuji can infinitely multiply flesh and tissues (Note: In this state, Muzan Kibutsuji is extremely weak and will not easily activate it unless driven to desperation).]
[Seven... Eight... Nine...]
☆☆☆
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