Back at the restaurant, Erina and Hisako had finally sat down to eat.
The two girls chatted with Yuto between bites, mostly talking about amusing things that had happened during the Moon Banquet Festival, when the restaurant door suddenly slid open.
Yuto, Erina, and Hisako all glanced toward the entrance.
The moment Erina and Hisako recognized the newcomers, both of them visibly stiffened and instinctively began to rise from their seats.
Fortunately, Yuto spoke before either of them could fully stand.
"Stay seated."
Then, with the same relaxed smile he gave every customer, he turned toward the entrance.
"Welcome."
Standing there were Kaguya and Hayasaka.
That alone explained why Erina and Hisako had reacted so formally.
"Good evening, Kamisaka-kun."
Kaguya smiled and gave him a small nod before entering with Hayasaka beside her.
Yuto's gaze briefly shifted toward Hayasaka.
There was something noticeably different about her tonight.
The heaviness that had clung to her the previous night was gone, and she seemed calmer, lighter, and far more at ease.
It looked like everything had probably worked out.
Yuto could still remember how Hayasaka had looked when she stumbled into the restaurant the night before, her face almost completely drained of life as though she had been carrying something far too heavy for far too long.
He did not ask what had happened after she went home.
Instead, he simply treated the two girls as usual, asked what they wanted to eat, and headed into the kitchen to prepare their food.
Out in the dining area, Erina and Hisako greeted Kaguya with a touch of formality before the four girls gradually settled into conversation.
Kaguya looked perfectly composed, with nothing unusual showing on her face.
She and Hayasaka had already talked everything through in detail the night before.
In fact, one of the main reasons Kaguya had come to the restaurant tonight was because she wanted to thank Yuto.
If he had not encouraged Hayasaka to speak honestly, there was a very real chance she would never have confessed the truth.
Still, with Erina and Hisako sitting nearby, Kaguya decided not to bring it up.
She did not want anyone else learning what had happened.
As far as Kaguya was concerned, Hayasaka's secret should remain known only to herself, Hayasaka, and Yuto.
As for Oko Shinomiya...
Kaguya had already arranged for people to deal with him.
He had gone so far as to order her death, which meant there was no longer any reason for her to show mercy.
Compassion and hesitation would only create more trouble now.
If she wanted to protect Hayasaka and bury the entire matter as cleanly as possible, then Oko had to be removed from the board entirely.
A short while later, Yuto returned from the kitchen carrying their food.
"Enjoy."
He placed the dishes in front of Kaguya and Hayasaka with a smile.
While Kaguya's attention was elsewhere, Yuto briefly glanced toward Hayasaka, silently asking whether everything was all right.
Hayasaka noticed immediately and gave him a small nod.
Gratitude was clear in her eyes.
That was enough.
Yuto smiled faintly and said nothing more.
It seemed everything from last night had been resolved smoothly.
As Kaguya and Hayasaka ate, Yuto chatted with them from time to time.
Eventually, the conversation shifted toward the Moon Banquet Festival, and Yuto enthusiastically praised what he had seen at Tōtsuki earlier that day.
Erina, who had not expected to be dragged into the conversation, visibly stiffened.
"Oh? Is that so?" Kaguya smiled. "If Kamisaka-kun is praising it that much, perhaps I should choose a day and visit as well. It sounds like the Moon Banquet Festival really is worth seeing."
Erina immediately sat straighter.
"Kaguya-san is coming?!"
The surprise slipped out before she could stop herself.
Kaguya smiled toward her.
"When the time comes, I'll have to trouble Erina to show me around properly."
Erina nodded with complete seriousness.
"Of course! Please leave it to me!"
If Kaguya personally attended the Moon Banquet Festival, it would be an enormous boost to Tōtsuki's influence and prestige, so it was hardly surprising that Erina had become so excited.
At that moment, the restaurant door slid open again.
Yuto instinctively turned toward the entrance, ready to greet the new customer, but paused when he saw who had returned.
Suika had come back from her little "search for family."
In a certain sense, that really was what her trip had been about.
Judging from her expression, however, things clearly had not gone the way she hoped.
"So? How did it go?"
Yuto asked.
Suika shrugged helplessly as she walked toward the counter.
"Just like I thought. They weren't the same after all~"
Yuto gave her a sympathetic smile.
"They're from completely different worlds. The chances of them actually being the same kind of oni were always pretty small."
"I know. I just let myself hope too much."
There was a trace of disappointment in Suika's voice as she sat down, pulled the stopper from her gourd, and took a long drink.
It looked suspiciously like she was drinking away her sorrows.
"You'll find other oni eventually. Don't dwell on it too much."
Yuto tried to comfort her.
Suika sighed.
"Hopefully."
"Want something to eat?"
"Yes! I need Boss's cooking to comfort my wounded heart!"
She shouted the words with sudden energy, her cheeks already turning pink from the alcohol.
Yuto laughed and headed back into the kitchen.
When he later returned with her food, he casually asked what she thought of the demons in that world.
Suika waved one hand with obvious disgust.
"Don't even mention them. That guy didn't deserve to be called an oni at all. He was way too different from us."
While Suika complained about her disappointing encounter...
Kibutsuji Muzan was currently experiencing one of the most terrifying nights of his entire existence.
...
Muzan genuinely had no idea what had just happened to him.
He had been minding his own business inside one of his hideouts when a horned woman suddenly barged in without warning.
At the time, he had been eating some fresh "food" his subordinates had brought him.
Young children were among his favorites.
The moment the horned woman saw what he was doing, however, she immediately attacked him and proceeded to beat him senseless before he had any idea what was happening.
Muzan had been furious and terrified at the same time.
Who the hell was this woman?
More importantly, how could someone who looked like that be so much more monstrous than he was?
What made the whole experience even more baffling was that she kept hitting him while shouting things he could barely understand, such as, "You don't deserve to call yourself an oni," and, "You're disgracing the name of oni."
Muzan desperately wanted to ask what her problem was, but before he managed to get the words out, she punched his head apart!
It was the first time in Muzan's life that he had experienced the sensation of having his skull obliterated by a single punch.
Somehow, the fear it inspired was even worse than what that swordsman had inflicted on him a thousand years earlier.
The horned woman did not stop there either.
She continued smashing his body apart until Muzan could barely distinguish one piece of himself from another.
It hurt terribly, but he was still a demon.
Being beaten into pieces was horrifying and humiliating, yet something like that would not normally be enough to kill him.
Then the truly incomprehensible part began.
Muzan had no idea how she did it, but his entire body suddenly lost its normal shape and dispersed into something resembling a cloud.
Or perhaps mist.
Even Muzan himself could not understand what state he was in anymore.
Whatever he had become, it certainly was not human-shaped.
Some invisible force seemed to have stripped away the structure of his body and scattered him into a floating haze, leaving him completely unable to control himself.
That realization terrified him far more than the beating.
If the sun rose while he was trapped like this...
Wouldn't he simply burn to death?
Eventually, the horned woman left.
Muzan, however, remained stuck in that bizarre form.
He tried to reconstruct his body and failed.
He tried to move and failed.
He tried practically everything he could think of, yet all he could do was drift helplessly through the night.
Whenever the wind blew, it carried him along with it.
Whenever the wind stopped, he simply remained suspended in place.
Gradually, Muzan drifted higher and higher until he found himself floating alongside actual clouds.
If he had still possessed a normal face, his expression would probably have looked completely blank.
Above him, stars filled the night sky.
Below him, the world seemed absurdly far away.
And somewhere beyond the horizon...
Morning was coming.
At this altitude, if the sun rose while he was still trapped like this, he might end up being among the first things in the entire region to touch daylight.
For perhaps the first time in centuries, Kibutsuji Muzan felt genuine despair.
Who the hell had that woman been?
What had he possibly done to offend her?
He had been sitting peacefully inside his own hideout, eating his meal, when she suddenly barged in, beat him half to death, turned his entire body into mist, and left him drifting helplessly toward sunrise.
From Muzan's perspective, there was only one question left.
Was all of that really necessary?