"What utter nonsense."
Did I mishear him?
From the beak of that crow, I thought I heard what must not be heard.
"Reenlistment," he says.
Reenlistment? Could it really mean the one I know?
Am I... to reenlist?
Some words are simply forbidden for a man to utter.
Ah—this bastard must be a crow.
And wait a moment.
"Besides, why would I reenlist? Unless my resignation was rejected, I'm merely returning."
"Would that not count as five centuries of unauthorized absence?"
Five hundred years of desertion?
"Please call it a five-hundred-year leave of absence," I'd ask?
This crow, truly…
I swear the Master himself said it!
He told me in his own words I may leave the Corps!
Now what is this mad crow trying to do—declare me a deserter?
Or is this another one of the old man's traps?
If that venerable fellow's already so soaked in dopamine, then it's terrifyingly possible…
This is maddening—to gift my five-hundred-years-hence self such a grand prank.
"All right, enough with the jokes."
The crow tried to dismiss it all as a jest, deflating the air with a single breath.
This mad crow—reenlistment is no trifle for a jest.
"Tsugikuni Michikatsu, the Demon Slayer Corps still requires your strength. Will you return to the Corps?"
"I refuse."
I shook my head at the crow's words.
Not because reenlistment is a pitiful jest…
"Why would I go back?"
I cannot exist in the Corps.
A demon in the Demon Slayer Corps? Speak sense!
"Nor do you lack resources?"
"I have enough to live on."
Between Tamayo's medicine and the modest earnings from my work as a fixer, I lack for little.
I still cannot fathom why, after five centuries, they would summon me back to the Corps.
Why should the hunter of Demons return to the heart of Demon hunts?
"One should abandon childish fancies. Each must survive on their own now..."
"Are you unaware of the Corps' Dark Age?"
…
The Dark Age of the Corps.
At those words, my gaping mouth clamped shut.
While one might call the period before the advent of [Total Concentration Breathing] a Dark Age, that is not the Dark Age this crow refers to.
The Dark Age he speaks of was the era when the successors of [Sun Breathing] fell in heaps.
[Sun Breathing]—the root of all Concentration Breathing and the style used by Tsugikuni Yoriichi.
Those who mastered it were mercilessly slaughtered.
The very sun, revered above all, was eclipsed like a calamity.
Who could have foreseen…
That it was—and is—my fault.
@@@
A century ago…
From Lower Rank to Upper Rank, as I sent countless Demons to the Sanzu River, slitting their throats…
I once rescued a single Demon Slayer Corps member.
He was a man called Ichirin the First: Form of Sleep…
His blade rose like calm water, but the Demon's claw was swifter.
Yet the claw failed to strike home, dissolving into ash upon my blade.
"Th-thank you..."
The man bowed in gratitude for my aid.
At his words, I beheld a face stirring familiarity deep within me.
The red hair and eyes—emblems of the Divided Fist clan.
The black Nichirin Blade of [Sun Breathing].
Even the cells my Vision unveiled were uncannily familiar.
He was a descendant of Tsugikuni Yoriichi.
How long had it been since the Corps held a descendant in its ranks…?
A wave of warmth filled me at the sight of Yoriichi's bloodline, yet…
A strange sensation he displayed earlier still lingered in my mind.
The Breathing he had used was clearly [Water Breathing].
Yet his blade was the black Nichirin Blade—he should be a Sun Breathing user.
Why would one with the black blade forsake his destiny for [Water Breathing]…?
He seemed embarrassed by my gaze and hurried to speak his name.
"Ah... I am Tokito Ichiro."
Tokito?
What is that?
"Not Tsugikuni?"
"Tsugikuni...? No... my name is Tokito."
My heart thundered, veins constricting.
When I heard 'Tsugikuni,' his reaction was one of bewilderment.
As if hiding something…
The Vision showed he was Tsugikuni, yet he claims the surname Tokito.
Furthermore, [Water Breathing] instead of Sun…?
"You there."
"Y-yes?"
"Why use [Water Breathing]? Should you not follow your destined style?"
"...Destined style? My black blade is… nothing..."
His pulse and tone both felt unnaturally forced.
He knows something.
And he's concealing it.
Why would a black blade's heir—bearer of Sun Breathing's might—train in a style that does not suit him?
Honestly…
Do I even have the right to question, given I left the Corps by my own hand?
I shook my head, sheathing my blade, prepared to leave.
Then,
"Excuse me..."
He called after me.
And,
"I... I think I can tell you... It feels right to speak with you."
He intended to reveal what he had hidden.
Why now, after holding it back?
In any case, he said he would speak, so I nodded and turned.
What he told me was nothing short of shocking.
He said that, as I had surmised, his true name was Tsugikuni, and he knew the Secret of [Sun Breathing]…
But he changed his surname to Tokito and practiced [Water Breathing] because of one incident.
That incident was…
"Kibutsuji Muzan sought out every practitioner of Sun Breathing and slaughtered them without mercy."
By that madman's paranoia,
Fearing the rise of a Second Yoriichi, he hunted down all who knew Sun Breathing—including Yoriichi's descendants.
Sun Breathing's heir is not Yoriichi alone.
Thus, the black blade's bearers perished before mastering it, and Sun Breathing became a cursed omen instead of a herald of dawn.
But as users of the black blade fell,
the Corps took drastic measures.
"Sun Breathing was forbidden."
Sun Breathing was banned and hidden.
Yet the transmission was not wholly cut.
Its secrets remained locked in the Ubuyashiki Mansion, and the Tsugikuni clan—steadfast in their duty—were permitted to practice and refine it.
But the ban and concealment applied even to the Tsugikuni.
Once Muzan fell, the permission to use Sun Breathing ended.
Thus, the black-blade bearers could not learn the art and resorted to [Water Breathing], easier and less burdensome on the body.
Though the Tsugikuni were allowed to train, they never used Sun Breathing in battle and inevitably weakened.
When enough time passed, the death toll among black-blade users lessened, but they could not reclaim their former place.
Moreover, to avoid Muzan's renewed wrath, they changed their surname to Tokito.
Their standing in the Corps never wavered, but such were the circumstances.
We all knew Muzan was a coward.
He hid until Yoriichi's natural passing, just as Tamayo predicted.
Yet…
I did not foresee such a sordid turn of events.
'I will pass down all the Breathing—[Sun Breathing] and [Moon Breathing] alike—to the generations to come!'
Memories of long-buried times surfaced.
The voice of that charcoal burner echoed in my mind.
What have I done?
I had thought Muzan killed every practitioner of Sun Breathing.
"Um..."
That meant Sumiyoshi… was also on Muzan's kill list.
Should I have stopped it back then?
"Um... m..."
I should have warned him not to leave any trace…
What have I become?
"Are you… all right?"
The past and present voices overlapped as I snapped back to reality.
My memories ended, and before my eyes…
"You are well..."
He was no descendant of Tsugikuni, but a single crow.
In the end, I never found Sumiyoshi's home.
Or rather, I lacked the courage to seek it.
I had abandoned the Corps to protect the honor of the Sengoku period Tsugikuni, lest a demon leave its stain upon them and harm Yoriichi and his kin.
I left, entrusting the tale to Sumiyoshi, imagining it passed on through the ages as he desired.
Yet that decision was my tragic mistake.
Had I not left the Corps…
Perhaps Sumiyoshi need not have died.
And Yoriichi's descendants might never have fallen.
A buried chapter of the past.
My mistake never to be spoken again.