"Mitsuba, you know..."
Struggling to use his breathing technique to constrict the wound in his heart, delaying the inevitable arrival of death.
The Child of God, Yoriichi, lay upon the dust-covered floor tiles, gazing up at the night sky above.
"My dream, once upon a time, was to live a peaceful and happy life with Uta.
In a small room, our family sleeping side by side, where I could see the face of my beloved just by looking up, and reach out to touch them..."
In his mind, he recalled for who knows how many times the lively, somewhat rustic country girl he had met in his youth.
A bitter smile crossed Yoriichi's aged face.
"That was my dream, and to this day, it remains my one true dream...
Not as the Child of God, but as a human being, the one thing I truly desired.
But Uta died...
While I was away one day, killed in a demon attack.
For years after, I felt regret for that day more times than I could count.
If I hadn't left Uta alone at home that day, if I hadn't been delayed that day, if I had returned earlier that day, would the final outcome have been completely different?
I thought this countless times, felt remorse countless times, and ignited hatred for demons countless times because of it...
But only now have I gradually realized that all of this was destined from the start.
From the moment I fell in love with Uta, from the moment I decided to spend an ordinary life with her, her death was set in stone.
No matter what, this final outcome would never change...
Because I am the Child of God, born into this world carrying a divine mission."
"Brother Yoriichi..."
Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, tears slid down his eyes. Yoriichi's gaze remained fixed upon the night sky above, as if searching for something within that vast, boundless canopy.
"The gods arranged the path I must walk, so any obstacles upon this path would be eliminated.
My wife and child were so, the villagers of that small mountain village were so, all those who died because I wished to stop were so!
Mitsuba, you know, sometimes... brother also feels... so tired..."
Finally turning his head slowly, he looked at his younger sister who was already streaming with tears beside him. Yoriichi forced a smile onto his face.
A smile carrying apology, carrying exhaustion, carrying helplessness.
At this moment, he finally spoke the true feelings he had buried deep within his heart.
"Brother is actually the same as you, not wanting to be this Child of God, not wanting to possess such extraordinary power...
I actually, also wanted to live like a true ordinary person, spending an ordinary, mundane life with my wife and child...
Yet even this small wish... the gods above... seem unwilling to grant..."
"Brother..."
Listening to the true heart hidden beneath the shell of the Child of God, Mitsuba unconsciously stepped forward. She knelt on the ground, trembling as she reached out, tightly grasping Yoriichi's hand that also reached toward her.
"I, I..."
At this moment, an extremely intense desire suddenly arose within her heart—to rewrite the outcome of Yoriichi's impending death.
Yes, Brother Yoriichi had not left the range of her domain. She could try to do it, if she gave it her all...
However, the instant this thought emerged, Mitsuba immediately rejected it herself.
Because she once again realized the fact that Brother Yoriichi was the Child of God.
Even if she could truly overwrite his death, could make him live again.
He would, in the end, only become the puppet of the gods once more.
And this was not the result Brother Yoriichi wanted.
He was already tired. Over the past decades, his mortal heart had long been covered in scars.
The truth of the gods, the truth of fate, the truth of his beloved's death... the truth of all these things had long since exhausted him.
Death was the best destination for Tsugikuni Yoriichi as a human being.
And it was also the ending he desired.
He truly, no longer wished to be the puppet of the gods.
"Mitsuba, thank you for sending brother off on his final journey..."
Having seen through his younger sister's inner thoughts with a single glance, Yoriichi simply smiled gently.
His breath grew increasingly weak, the death he had forcibly delayed now imminent.
"There's no need to feel sorrow for this good-for-nothing, irresponsible brother. You defeated your brother, defeated the sharpest blade of the gods.
It was you who helped me escape the fate of being the gods' puppet. You should feel happy for brother instead..."
Looking at the weeping Mitsuba before him, Yoriichi seemed to have much more he wished to say.
But when the words reached his lips, in the end only that final apology and blessing remained.
"For what happened back then, I am truly sorry... I was too dull, unable to sense your and brother's inner feelings... truly sorry...
From now on... Mitsuba, you must live well... don't be like your useless brother... like this..."
At the final moment of his life, Yoriichi completely let go of his identity and burden as the Child of God.
He no longer thought about those complicated matters between humans and demons, nor did he pass any judgment upon his younger sister.
He simply stood from the pure perspective of an older brother, offering sincere wishes to this younger sister who seemed to walk a completely opposite path, yet was actually remarkably similar to himself.
Perhaps, this too was the one and only "defiance" against the gods who had manipulated his entire life's fate—from him who was the Child of God.
"..."
Tsugikuni Yoriichi passed away.
The strongest being in the long history of the Demon Slayers passed away.
On that night when the new century approached, he died at the hands of his younger sister who had become a demon.
His death was filled with schemes and calculations.
There were calculations from his younger sister against him, and calculations from him against his younger sister.
Yet, it was precisely within these calculations that he made the one and only resistance in his life against the gods who toyed with his fate.
At the very least, he decided his own death.
In the same year that Tsugikuni Yoriichi died, the Edo Shogunate era officially began.
Everything seemed to change nothing. Demons still existed, and the Demon Slayer Corps accompanied them, both sides repeatedly hunting each other in every night unseen by the world.
Lord Muzan still hid somewhere unknown, determined to hide for several more decades, continuing to hide until he surpassed the limits of human lifespan before emerging again.
Brother Michikatsu quietly found an uninhabited mountain cave, living like a caveman every day, continuing his ascetic-like dedication to swordsmanship.
As for Mitsuba herself...
...
[The content of Volume One officially ends here, meow~ According to my design, before the main storyline there will still be two more arcs.]
[Respectively, the "Small Town Ballad" arc centered around Upper Rank Three Akaza, also known as Hakuji.]
[And the "Child of Destiny" arc centered around Doma and Eternal Paradise, plus some chapters about Gyutaro and his sister.]
[Among these, in the Small Town Ballad, many details not elaborated upon in Volume One will also emerge, such as Butterfly's ending, the future of the Butterfly clan, what Tamayo has been doing recently, and Mitsuba's closest encounter with death, and so on...]
[As for the Child of Destiny arc, it is divided into two parts—the early part mainly revolves around Mitsuba, Doma, and Gyutaro and his sister, with a relatively short length.]
[As for the later part, well... it could also be called "Let us together, in the approaching twentieth century, present the grandest gift to the Ubuyashiki clan!"]
[That's how it is, meow~]
[Isn't the name exciting, meow~ Please look forward to it, meow~]