Taka's breath halted for a moment.
Ever since he learned Total Concentration Breathing, this prolonged rhythm of breathing had never ceased, even when he was unconscious or severely injured.
But when Kagaya spoke these words, he still found it hard to control the shock in his heart.
"Kagaya-sama, I do not quite understand what you mean."
In that instant, he had already detached himself from his identity in the Demon Slayer Corps, seriously considering how to answer this dying man, ravaged by illness.
'How did he know? How could he possibly know?'
Kagaya gasped heavily, every word seeming forced from his failing lungs: "Before answering my question, I want to tell you a story of the past...."
"A thousand years ago, the nightmare of the Ubuyashiki Family, the past of Muzan..."
It turned out that in the distant Heian era, the Ubuyashiki Family already existed as nobles.
Muzan was born from this clan as a curse.
While still a fetus in the womb, his heart had stopped several times. At birth, he had no breath or pulse and was considered a stillborn infant at one time.
This frailty accompanied him as he grew… major illnesses and minor ailments never ceased plaguing him.
Doctors asserted that a child like this would not live past twenty years of age.
Although the Ubuyashiki Family did their utmost to find physicians for him, they could not change the tragedy of his gradual march towards death.
Until a mysterious physician appeared.
Now, even the Ubuyashiki Family themselves cannot clearly say where that physician came from, but they know… that fellow turned Muzan into a man-eating demon.
Whether god abhorred this or not, Muzan, having become a demon, left the Ubuyashiki Family, but left behind a thousand-year curse.
Since then, every boy born into the Ubuyashiki Family has been afflicted with illness, difficult to survive.
To continue the family bloodline, the Ubuyashiki Family heeded the advice of a Shinto priest, having their men generation after generation marry women from a priestly family. This barely extended the men's lifespans to their twenties.
"..It sounds unbelievable, doesn't it? Such a completely unfounded notion." Kagaya smiled bitterly, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Beside him, Amane struggled to suppress her grief, wiping away the blood stains, and he continued: "Our clan, generation after generation, has lived to atone for sin… We have made finding that man and severing his head our sole reason for living."
"This thousand years, it has been too long.... So long that our souls have nearly withered...."
He shifted the topic back to Taka: "So, Taka, regarding matters of gods and hell, I truly am devout.... You need not be nervous...."
"Although, I cannot sense the aura of a 'human' in you...."
Kagaya murmured, as if speaking to himself: "Yet it is not the violent evil of a demon... It is more like a vast, desolate wilderness, making it hard for me to see the other shore...."
"I have been observing you since your earliest battles, Taka. I don't mean when you killed Akanuma and joined the Demon Slayer Corps."
"Back then, I wondered what kind of child could slay a demon using only an ordinary blade.... After all that has happened, including communicating with that Fist Hashira friend of yours, I have basically confirmed it."
"Taka, what I want to ask is, are you a god?"
With Amane's help, he struggled to sit up slightly, his clouded grey pupils fixedly staring at Taka.
As if trying to pierce through his physical body, to see the figure hidden deep within, to see that soul-cutting blade.
The question was so sudden that even Taka did not know how to answer.
The light and shadows in the room flickered. This questioning caused Taka's spiritual pressure to unconsciously leak a trace along with his emotions, making the surrounding air grow heavy.
For a dying man with such keen perception as Kagaya, this small reaction already explained everything.
He did not fear this pressure… instead, he revealed a relieved expression, as if finally confirming some long-puzzling riddle.
"Now that death approaches, my senses have already touched the Sanzu River.... I merely want to hear you tell me, does the soul truly exist in this world?"
"After death.... is there truly another world?"
With things having come this far, Taka silently closed his eyes, pondering how to respond.
"I am not a god."
After a long moment, Taka opened his eyes and calmly answered Kagaya's question: "If you must call me something, you can call me.... a Shinigami."
"A Shinigami...."
"Indeed.... Shinigami are not gods, they are more like sweepers who reap souls... I merely have the potential to become a Shinigami. I am no god."
Kagaya was stunned for a moment, then burst into a fit of violent coughing.
But in the intervals between coughs, he laughed. He laughed until tears streamed down, mixing with blood and dripping onto his purplish skin, appearing exceptionally desolate.
"Good.... Excellent." He clutched Amane's sleeve, his laughter trembling. "So there truly are gods in this world...."
"Only, there is no heaven." Taka spoke the truth, piercing Kagaya's illusion.
"After death, one becomes a wandering spirit in another world. With luck, you might live an ordinary life. Without luck, your situation might be no better than your current state."
"This has nothing to do with whether you are a good person, or what your current status is."
He did not want to deceive Kagaya about how wonderful the other world was. Nor did he know if Kagaya, after death, would go to the Rukongai as he understood it.
He only wanted to advise him to abandon illusions, to best start planning now how to survive in that other world.
To be honest, if not for the pitiful red at the corner of his mouth, Kagaya's smile was quite sunny.
He waved his hand, looking unconcerned: "Knowing this is enough.... To be honest, making my family sacrifice their lives with me... I have failed them. I hope in that world you speak of, I still have a chance to make it up to them...."
With Amane's help, he bowed slightly to Taka: "Thank you, Taka. Thank you for everything you have done for humanity. Please keep today's conversation confidential...."
"...It is I who should thank you, Kagaya-sama. Without the Demon Slayer Corps, I might have already died on that snowy night."
"Hehe.... You are different from what Tetsushin said, you have started learning to speak politely...."
From such a distance, Oyakata-sama chuckled and patted the air lightly, as if patting Taka on the shoulder: "I have heard from Tetsushin about your past.... Taka, everything you have experienced in this human world may become precious memories for you...."
"You are no longer alone. You have learned human emotions. This conviction to protect and this passion that burns in your heart will be far more powerful than cold, detached combat...."
"You have found your own breathing, and you have found your own path."
"You are no longer that stray dog curled up in the winter night, Taka. You are the proud and dignified Storm Hashira!"
Kagaya lay back down. Compared to before, his breathing had become much calmer, perhaps because the stagnation in his heart had finally been swept away.
He closed his eyes in satisfaction. It was the first truly peaceful smile he had shown amidst his long illness and scheming.
"Farewell, Taka.... If there is another chance, I hope to meet you in that other world."
Taka slid the paper door shut and silently left Kagaya's bedchamber.
Outside the room, the first thunder of winter roared across the sky.
The winter night had arrived, and this thousand-year game of cat and mouse was finally about to reach its conclusion.
Stepping out onto the veranda, Taka looked at the churning clouds in the night sky and muttered to himself: "Everyone loves playing these self-sacrifice games so much...."
He touched his palm. There was a scar there, already scabbed over, looking like it was caused by a blade stabbing deep.
He sighed softly, looked back once at the deathly still Ubuyashiki Estate, and tightly gripped the hilt of Tonan.
"Hey, if my wish is to make his dream come true, can you do it?"
Other than the wind in the courtyard, no sound answered.