[What is the meaning of any of this?]
Late at night, having come to this town to execute a demon-slaying mission, Michikatsu stood atop the castle keep roof with his blade in hand, quietly watching the demon he had beheaded gradually dissipate before him.
His eyes were somewhat vacant, his ears completely unable to hear the repeated curses this demon hurled at him before death.
In the town below, the lights had already faded, falling into the silence that belonged only to the deep night.
Michikatsu stood here in a daze like this, still without any reaction even after the demon before him had completely dissipated.
What was he doing now?
Why was he still here executing these meaningless missions?
Michikatsu couldn't understand.
Not only could he not understand these matters, there were many things he couldn't understand now.
He didn't understand what meaning his birth had, nor did he understand what meaning there was in continuing to live like this.
Anyway, in another two or three years, he would also die due to the side effects of the Demon Slayer Mark.
Anyway, he would never be able to catch up to Yoriichi.
Then what difference was there between dying now and dying in two or three years?
It would just be a few more years of suffering...
Thinking this, Michikatsu slowly lowered his head, looking at the empty street below.
He truly didn't understand. Since the gods had created a heaven's chosen son like Yoriichi who overturned the common sense of this world, then for what purpose had they allowed someone as mediocre as him to be born as his elder brother?
Forget it...
Thinking about these things now no longer had any meaning...
Yes, nothing had any meaning anymore...
"Elder Brother, are you trying to seek death?"
Just as Michikatsu was approaching the edge of the roof step by step, a somewhat unfamiliar yet quite familiar voice suddenly rang out beside his ear.
His figure pausing, Michikatsu first froze, then abruptly turned to look in the direction of this voice.
Under the night sky, he saw Mitsuba holding onto Tamayo, descending like an immortal spirit from the heavens, landing lightly not far beside him.
"Long time no see, Elder Brother. From when you left without saying goodbye until now, it should be almost three years, right?"
"...Mitsuba?"
His pupils contracting sharply, looking at the smiling Mitsuba before him with disbelief, Michikatsu was completely stunned for a moment.
"How is this possible? Mitsuba, didn't you already..."
Didn't you already die?
Unable to finish this sentence, in the next instant, Michikatsu detected the powerful demonic aura faintly emanating from Mitsuba's body.
So that's how it was...
In an instant, Michikatsu understood everything.
Mitsuba had become a demon.
That coffin placed in the Tsugikuni memorial hall was actually an empty coffin.
His younger sister had chosen to escape her destined death in this manner.
Realizing this point made Michikatsu's heart feel quite complicated at this moment.
As a Demon Hunter, having his own younger sister become a demon was undoubtedly a tremendous irony.
But as an elder brother who owed her much, seeing his younger sister regain her health, able to walk and jump, Michikatsu undoubtedly felt happy about this.
Perhaps even Michikatsu himself hadn't noticed that among all this complexity, there was no anger at Mitsuba's choice.
As if he didn't feel that Mitsuba choosing to become a demon to survive was something worth getting angry about...
"How pitiful, Elder Brother..."
With her hands behind her back, as if seeing through Michikatsu's heart at a glance, Mitsuba tilted her head and looked at him with a full smile:
"It's only been such a short time since we last met, so how is it that you seem to be walking ahead of me instead?"
Behind Mitsuba, Tamayo's eyes widened upon hearing this, looking at her in disbelief.
Tsugikuni Mitsuba, is this how you normally talk to your elder brother?
"Let me guess... It must be because of Elder Brother Yoriichi, right?"
Striking right at Michikatsu's heart with one blow, looking at his suddenly changed expression, the smile on Mitsuba's face grew even more brilliant.
"I know, Elder Brother."
She raised her arms horizontally, stepping on tiptoe along the roof ridge, swaying unsteadily step by step as she moved forward, continuing with that smiling voice:
"I've always known that since that morning, deep in your heart, you've always regarded Elder Brother Yoriichi as the goal you've pursued your entire life.
Chasing Yoriichi, becoming Yoriichi, even surpassing Yoriichi...
From that day on, this nightmare named 'Yoriichi' has been deeply, deeply rooted in your heart."
Stopping before Michikatsu, Mitsuba raised her hand, her index finger lightly poking at Michikatsu's heart.
"For the past dozen or so years, it has constantly haunted you, tormented you, plundered everything in your heart.
It was it that destroyed the heart you should have had as a normal human.
It was also it that almost turned you into a numb walking corpse...
To satisfy it, you continuously abandoned everything around you—family, honor, wife and child, even... me.
How tragic, Elder Brother. You threw away everything.
You abandoned almost everything you could abandon, but in the end, you still couldn't satisfy it, still couldn't become as powerful as Elder Brother Yoriichi, couldn't even slightly touch him!
Tell me, what meaning is there in such a tragic life?"
Her steps moving lightly, Mitsuba moved behind Michikatsu. Her pupils had already transformed into the shape of mandala flowers.
Through the threads of causality on Michikatsu's body, she had long ago seen through her elder brother's ending.
Michikatsu would not die tonight. His final end would be three years later.
Then, having reached twenty-five years old, he would die in endless unwillingness and despair due to the side effects brought by the Demon Slayer Mark.
So that's how it was...
That legendary Demon Slayer Mark actually had such serious side effects?
The gods truly never make unprofitable deals~
"So, Elder Brother..."
Placing her hands lightly on Michikatsu's shoulders, Mitsuba stood on tiptoe, tilting her head from behind to look at Michikatsu's silent face, and asked with a smile:
"Why... don't you choose to become a demon?"
Why, don't you choose to become a demon?
Like a sudden clap of thunder on flat ground, Mitsuba's question instantly pierced into the deepest part of Michikatsu's heart.
He slowly raised his head. That calm, dead expression finally showed traces of movement.
In his ears, Mitsuba's voice full of temptation continued to speak:
"As long as you become a demon, you can live forever.
As long as you become a demon, you can possess eternal life from then on. In that virtually infinite time, you can hone your swordsmanship to the extreme, until the day finally comes when you catch up to Elder Brother Yoriichi...
Even, if someday in the future you feel weary of everything you now obsess over, you will still have countless opportunities to start over from the beginning, to rechoose the goal you wish to persist in.
Look! Your future will from then on have infinite possibilities. You will from then on escape the gods' control, to personally decide the path you wish to tread!
Elder Brother! Don't you think this is a choice very much worth making?"
Mitsuba's tone was full of excitement. Michikatsu's silence gradually crumbled.
His breathing grew more rapid, his pupils enlarging bit by bit.
In Mitsuba's smile full of anticipation, he slowly turned his head to look at her behind him, and spoke only one word from his mouth.
"Good."
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