The name Doma had been given to him by Lord Muzan.
As for his original name, even he could no longer remember it after the passage of so many long years.
Born with seven-colored pupils and pure white hair like pale oak, his deluded parents believed he was a divine child, someone capable of hearing the voices of the gods.
And thus, the Eternal Paradise Faith had been founded.
"There are no gods in this world. It is all nothing but self-deception."
Doma had understood that truth when he was only four or five years old.
Born without the ability to feel emotions, he could never understand what the believers who worshiped him as a divine child were doing. Every day they knelt before him, crying and pleading for him to send them to paradise.
To him, they were simply pitiful.
Under the influence of such endless negativity year after year, Doma's emotions grew increasingly faint, until at last he could no longer feel any emotional fluctuation at all.
Later, he became a demon.
A true, immortal god.
"Unfortunately, your soul lacks strong obsession or desire. Even if you become a demon, you will remain empty. Your limit is probably only this much..."
That person had judged him early on, seemingly not particularly fond of him.
Such dull and meaningless days continued for hundreds of years.
Until one snowy night more than ten years ago, when a young woman carrying her child stumbled into Doma's world.
The girl's name was Kotoha Hashibira.
It seemed that she had been beaten every day by her husband and mother-in-law. Her body was covered in wounds, and one of her eyes had even gone blind.
With nowhere left to go, she fled with her child and accidentally stumbled into the shrine, praying for the protection of the gods.
As the leader of the faith, Doma naturally protected the one seeking refuge. He killed the family members who had abused her.
Later, after Kotoha recovered from her injuries, she remained at the shrine. Her beautiful face and gentle singing often put Doma in a pleasant mood.
"How strange. Why do I feel relaxed when I see her? This girl really is special. I suppose I should not eat her."
Doma had truly thought that.
He planned to keep Kotoha by his side until she died of old age.
Unfortunately, Kotoha eventually discovered that Doma ate humans. She could never accept such a thing.
She fled with her child.
In order to keep the child from being eaten, she even threw him into the river below a cliff.
She herself died beneath Doma's fan.
More than ten years had passed since then.
Yet when Doma saw Inosuke's emerald-green eyes and beautiful face, he suddenly remembered that name.
Perhaps that memory had been one of the rare moments of warmth in his otherwise meaningless eternal life.
"Ah... what a beautiful memory..."
He cut off the demonic hand embedded in his chest and let out a soft laugh.
Because of that brief moment of distraction, the flow of demonic aura around Doma weakened drastically. Asuka, whose senses were extremely sharp, instantly seized the opportunity.
"Hold him down!!"
He did not know why Doma had suddenly fallen into a daze, but he knew one thing clearly.
This was an opportunity that must not be missed.
The chains known as causality had finally bound this monster's soul.
"Endless Cycle!"
"Azure Silver Scattered Radiance!"
Giyu Tomioka and Nugata attacked at the same time. The wind of blades and fists merged into a violent storm.
Whether it was the Lotus Bodhisattva, the crystal clones, or any other Blood Demon Art, everything was completely shattered by the two of them.
Nothing remained between Asuka and Doma.
A streak of black lightning flashed.
At that moment, his spiritual pressure broke through some unseen limit. His body, already riddled with wounds, became like a massive black hole through the power of Nugata, frantically devouring everything around it.
Rotting organs regenerated rapidly.
Broken wounds closed at a visible speed.
If Nugata had not known that the man before him was a human swordsman who had nearly killed him earlier, he might have mistaken him for a Demon Moon.
Slash!
A black line silently cut across Doma's pale neck.
The speed was so fast that he did not even feel pain.
Doma's vision began to spin.
He saw his body still standing absentmindedly atop the collapsing Lotus Bodhisattva.
He saw Lord Akaza, wearing a boar mask, and the human swordsman both staring at him cautiously.
He saw the boy who resembled Kotoha rushing toward him with twin blades raised.
He saw endless darkness crawling upward from the depths of his vision.
"So... this feeling is called 'shaking,' isn't it?"
As Doma's filthy head spun through the air, a bitter smile finally appeared at the corner of his lips, one that seemed to come from the depths of his heart.
Thud!
His head smashed heavily into the ruins.
"Did we succeed?"
Giyu Tomioka stared at the severed head on the ground, his expression grim and uncertain.
"It's not that simple! Doma is a Kizuki. He won't die so easily!"
Nugata did not relax his guard at all. He remained in a combat stance, staring at Doma's headless body.
Sure enough, even though his head had been cut off, no blood spurted from Doma's neck.
Instead, countless tiny buds of flesh sprouted from the charred wound, desperately trying to pull the head back to the body.
If not for Asuka's crimson blade scorching the wound, the head might have reattached itself the moment it left the body.
Even so, none of them were certain that this would be enough to truly kill Doma.
In such a desperate situation, Doma's body began to rampage unconsciously.
His twin fans swung violently.
The surrounding ice and snow instantly spiraled out of control, stirring up a blizzard powerful enough to swallow an entire mountain.
"Then how about this!"
Asuka did not give Doma any chance. He directly stuffed the vial of wisteria poison entrusted to him by Shinobu Kocho into the open wound at Doma's neck.
Crack!
He crushed the test tube inside Doma's body.
The poison of wisteria instantly spread throughout Doma's entire body.
"Ugh—!"
The severed head on the ground seemed to react, letting out a muffled groan of pain.
The toxin took effect with terrifying speed.
Doma's headless body began melting uncontrollably.
Bang! Bang!
One arm dropped to the ground.
His knees dissolved into a pool of blood.
"How... how could this be? This is that little girl's..."
"That's right. The weak female swordsman you looked down on created the poison that will completely destroy you!"
Asuka stepped on Doma's head, staring down at him with undisguised disgust.
"Doma, the moment you killed Kanae, you should have expected this day to come."
"Shinobu Kocho is a swordswoman raised by hatred and fury. Unfortunately, she couldn't witness this moment with her own eyes."
Shing!
To prevent Doma from reviving again, Asuka picked up Shinobu Kocho's fallen Nichirin blade and viciously stabbed it straight into Doma's forehead.
Though the poison within it was faint, it was already more than lethal for Doma, who now had nothing left but a head.
"...Am I going to die?"
Even with a sword stuck in his skull and his eyeballs beginning to slip from their sockets, Doma still stared at them blankly, his face empty.
"...Ah. It really doesn't work after all..."
"I tried to see if I could regenerate... but I can't muster any strength..."
"I can't feel anything..."
As Doma muttered to himself, his body became increasingly fragile. Flesh and bone continuously peeled away.
"Devour him."
Asuka refused to give him even the slightest chance to turn the situation around. He plunged his Zanpakuto into Doma's rotting body.
To the disbelief of the others, the flesh began to squirm and crawl into the blade of Nugata.
Right before their eyes, the sword devoured Doma alive.
"Asuka... you..."
Giyu Tomioka could barely accept what he was seeing. Beneath the boar mask, Nugata's gaze had completely frozen.
What kind of blade was this?
If he had possessed such power earlier...
"...Forget it. Dying like this is fine. Death doesn't seem so frightening after all..."
"...After all, hasn't it always been like this?"
Doma's voice grew weaker and weaker.
His head finally dissolved into a pool of foul liquid that seeped into the ground.
The Ice Bodhisattva collapsed with a thunderous crash, shattering the decaying shrine and announcing the death of Upper Rank Two.
Within boundless darkness, Doma's head continued to fall.
Thud.
Finally, it landed in the hands of a woman wearing a gentle smile.
"Seeing you end up like this puts my mind at ease."
"Now Shinobu can finally let go of the burden in her heart."
Doma's head was turned back and forth in her hands, leaving him unable to see her clearly.
"Hey, don't play with me like that, alright? Who are you? Are you coming to hell with me?"
At those words, the woman straightened his head and gazed directly into his seven-colored eyes.
"Don't be ridiculous..."
"You can go to hell yourself, you beast."