After leaving the headquarters for some time, Yoriichi, who had originally believed the Demon Slayer Corps was completely destroyed, unexpectedly ran into the Flame Hashira carrying the young master not long after.
At that time, the Flame Hashira was wandering around gathering Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen who had not been at the headquarters that night, attempting to regroup these remaining Demon Hunters and rebuild the Demon Slayer Corps.
After meeting Yoriichi, the Flame Hashira finally learned what had happened at the headquarters after he left that night.
Regarding Mitsuba and Michikatsu's raid on the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters and the killing of Ubuyashiki, if it had been any of the other Hashira present, they might have angrily blamed Yoriichi, even forcing him to commit seppuku to atone...
But the Flame Hashira was not such a person.
He was happy for Yoriichi's return to the corps, and saddened that Yoriichi had to suffer such a blow.
However, although the Flame Hashira very much wanted Yoriichi to remain in the new Demon Slayer Corps to guide the training of young swordsmen, Yoriichi ultimately refused.
Because he didn't have much time left.
At this point, he was about to turn twenty-five years old.
According to past experience, all marked Demon Slayers would die when they reached twenty-five years old, without exception.
Considering his limited remaining lifespan, Yoriichi wanted to make the most of his final days, traveling around the country as much as possible, trying to see if he could encounter Muzan again and slay him.
From this day onward, whether the Flame Hashira, the young master, or the Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen, no one ever encountered Yoriichi again...
As for Tamayo, with her strong initiative, she quickly found a secluded place after leaving the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters and began various research according to her previously established plan.
However, slightly different from her original plan, she was not only researching how to turn demons back into humans, but also continuously modifying her own body.
She tried every method to reduce her body's dependence on human flesh, attempting to free herself from the constant desire to devour humans.
In the years that followed, both to avoid possible minions Muzan might send to hunt her down, and to avoid being noticed by humans around her,
Tamayo would change her identity and residence every so often.
And all traces of her personally disappeared completely in the vast ocean of human society through these repeated changes...
As for Butterfly, just as she had said, she devoted herself from then on to searching for the whereabouts of the Blue Spider Lily.
In this process, she also tried to find traces of Mitsuba.
But whether due to bad luck or Mitsuba deliberately avoiding her, since that night of parting at the fireworks festival, Butterfly never saw Mitsuba even once.
Not just Mitsuba.
Yoriichi, Tamayo, Demon Hunters, even other demons... Butterfly never encountered any of them again.
Those few days of brief acquaintance with Yoriichi and Tamayo seemed like a short dream. After waking from the dream, she returned once again to the ordinary, mundane world.
Everything happened just as the wishes they had made for each other at that fireworks festival.
Butterfly wished that Mitsuba could be forever happy in the final days of her life, and Mitsuba wished that Butterfly would be safe and sound from then on.
Therefore, Mitsuba would no longer encounter things that made her unhappy, and Butterfly would no longer face dangers that threatened her safety...
"..."
Time marched on relentlessly.
Keicho 27th year—the Warring States period that had lasted nearly a hundred years finally welcomed its final battle.
Decades ago, with the rise of Oda Nobunaga, followed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's dominance after the Honno-ji Incident, and then Tokugawa Ieyasu's two Osaka campaigns that completely overthrew the Toyotomi rule, the Tokugawa clan finally achieved ultimate victory.
In May of Keicho 27th year, as the Summer Siege of Osaka concluded, the defeated Toyotomi Hideyori and his mother committed seppuku in the burning Osaka Castle.
How could Mitsuba possibly miss such a good opportunity to witness this magnificent scene of this grand castle burning?
On the night Osaka Castle burned, Mitsuba, who had not shown herself before the Demon Slayer Corps for decades, specially traveled thousands of miles to come here.
Only what Mitsuba didn't expect was that while she originally only intended to come witness history and appreciate this rare magnificent sight, she unexpectedly encountered someone she hadn't anticipated here.
"Oh my~ Elder Brother Yoriichi?"
As the castle fell and night approached, the streets were in chaos with fires everywhere in the city. Walking among the scattering crowds, Mitsuba suddenly noticed a figure at a nearby street corner.
It was an old man.
An old man wearing a fiery red haori, with a Nichirin Blade at his waist.
An old man carefully bending down to help a mother and daughter who had been knocked down by the panicked crowds.
Although decades had passed, Mitsuba recognized him at first sight.
The old man's name was Tsugikuni Yoriichi, the strongest Demon Hunter who had disappeared for decades, the Child of God, and also... her elder brother.
Seeming to hear Mitsuba's call, Yoriichi, who was helping the mother and daughter beside him, slightly froze, then turned to look over.
The siblings' gazes met across the scattering crowds.
What were Mitsuba's feelings upon seeing her elder brother again after decades?
Nostalgia? Reluctance? Fear?
Or perhaps, that tiny bit of emotion from a sibling reunion?
Unfortunately, Mitsuba felt none of these.
What she had in her heart at this moment was only a trace of sigh.
"I never thought I could see you here... No, perhaps I should say, I never thought you could actually survive to this age?
All these years I had thought that you had quietly passed away at twenty-five..."
Her gaze falling on the Demon Slayer Mark on Yoriichi's aged face, Mitsuba couldn't help but praise.
Elder Brother Yoriichi had survived.
He had actually survived?
The death tribulation of twenty-five that no marked Demon Slayer could cross—only he had stepped past it!
"You truly deserve to be called the Child of God."
And facing Mitsuba's praise, looking at his younger sister's youthful appearance before him that was almost no different from his memory, Yoriichi only remained silent.
He didn't draw his blade immediately, just as Mitsuba didn't activate her Blood Demon Art immediately.
Under the Transparent World, he saw through every part of Mitsuba's body.
Her body was no longer frail, the illness inside had been completely swept away, leaving only a powerful physique far surpassing normal humans!
The terrifying power contained beneath this seemingly delicate body was the strongest Yoriichi had seen in his life besides Muzan!
And even more terrifyingly, Yoriichi didn't sense any fighting spirit or demonic aura from his younger sister.
There was only one possibility.
Mitsuba, like him, had already entered that Transparent World. Only those who reached this realm could completely conceal their own presence.
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