The Flame Passed Down!

Kanae took Shinobu's hand and bowed deeply three times before their parents' graves.

Then she stood and turned to the two men who had saved them, who had been standing silently behind them.

"Th-thank you..."

Her voice was still a little hoarse, but it no longer trembled.

Shinobu pressed close to her sister, clutching the hem of Kanae's clothes in her little hand and looking timidly at the two tall men through red, swollen eyes.

Kanae took a deep breath, drew Shinobu back a step, and bowed solemnly.

Her long black hair slipped over her shoulders and fluttered gently in the morning breeze.

She wore a simple pale pink kimono today, its cuffs and hem covered in dust and dried blood, but she held her back straight.

"I'm Kanae Kocho. I'm thirteen."

She raised her head. Her eyes were still red, but her gaze had become clear.

"This is my little sister, Shinobu Kocho. She's ten."

Shinobu added in a small voice:

"...Thank you for saving my sister and me."

Giyu and Gyomei watched them in silence.

Kanae had delicate, gentle features, with a childishness that had yet to fade from her face, but deep in her eyes was a resilience beyond her years.

Her skin was fair, her nose straight and delicate, and the corners of her mouth naturally curved upward, giving her a gentle look even when she wasn't smiling.

Shinobu looked younger still. Her dark purple hair was tied into two little buns, and her cheeks still had their baby fat.

Her eyes were large, and a stubborn light flickered deep within them.

She was a head shorter than her sister and so slender that a gust of wind seemed enough to knock her over, but her grip on Kanae's clothes was tight.

After a brief silence, Gyomei was the first to press his palms together.

"Namu Amida Butsu."

He bowed slightly, his sightless eyes "looking" in the sisters' direction.

"I'm glad you're safe. I am Gyomei Himejima of the Demon Slayer Corps."

"Giyu Tomioka, Demon Slayer Corps."

"The Demon Slayer Corps?"

Kanae repeated the name, her eyes widening slightly.

Shinobu tilted her little face up too, looking puzzled.

"Is it... an organization that hunts down monsters like the ones last night?"

A trace of uncertain hope entered Kanae's voice.

Giyu nodded.

That simple confirmation stirred up a storm in the sisters' hearts.

Kanae's breathing quickened.

She remembered the demon in the black kimono from the previous night. Before killing their parents, he had said in an elegant yet cruel tone:

"We are the noble Twelve Kizuki."

"The Demon Slayer Corps... the Demon Slayer Corps..."

She murmured the name again, then suddenly stepped forward and bowed deeply.

"Please... may I join the Demon Slayer Corps?"

Shinobu froze for a moment, then hurriedly bowed as well.

"I-I want to join too!"

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

Gyomei's hand stopped moving over his prayer beads, and Giyu's ice-blue pupils contracted slightly.

"No."

The two voices rang out almost simultaneously, decisive and leaving no room for negotiation.

Kanae straightened, her face full of confusion and urgency.

"Why? We—"

"Your muscles are too weak."

Giyu cut her off, his voice so calm it was almost cold.

"You need wrist strength to grip a sword, arm strength to swing it, and leg strength to move! As you are now, you can't even carry a bucket of water, can you?"

His gaze swept over the sisters' slender wrists, and Kanae instinctively drew her hands back into her sleeves.

"Without enough strength—"

Giyu continued, each word like a block of ice striking the ground.

"No matter how sharp your sword is, you won't be able to cut off a demon's head. A demon's neck is harder than steel. You need explosive strength to sever it."

Gyomei took over, his tone gentle but just as firm.

"Besides, the Demon Slayer Corps is a path with no return. Every mission could bring you face-to-face with death, and every day could be the last time you see the sun... You're still too young. You shouldn't set foot on this bloody path."

"We can train!"

Kanae said urgently, "We can get stronger! I-I can do lots of work. I'm actually quite strong—"

"Training takes time!!"

Giyu shook his head. "And demons won't wait for you to grow stronger. Your next encounter could be tomorrow, and the next demon could be more vicious than the one last night."

"If you join now, you'll be throwing your lives away."

Shinobu bit her lip and said quietly, "But... we want revenge..."

"The demon is already dead. What do you intend to do? Keep killing the next one? Until one day a demon kills you? Is that cycle really what you want?"

Gyomei stepped forward, his mountain-like frame casting a shadow.

"Listen to me, children."

Gyomei's voice was deep and compassionate.

"The flames of revenge consume reason, and the path of hatred leads only to darkness."

"You've lost your parents, and that hurts, but the living should carry the blessings of the dead with them as they live on, not carry their hatred to their deaths."

Kanae's face turned pale.

Finally, Giyu said:

"Give it up! Go to your relatives and live a good life."

"That's... the best choice for you."

With that, he turned to leave.

"Then what about our pain?!"

Kanae's voice suddenly rose, choked with tears yet unusually sharp.

Giyu stopped in his tracks.

Tears welled up in Kanae's eyes again, but this time she didn't wipe them away. She let them fall.

She straightened her back and stared at Giyu's retreating figure... though he hadn't turned around.

"You say... we should go live a good life with our relatives?"

Her voice trembled.

"Our home is gone, Mom and Dad are gone, and the whole village is gone! What are we supposed to do at our relatives' house?"

"Eat and sleep under someone else's roof every day, watch their family together every day, and then wake up in the middle of the night remembering how Mom and Dad died?!"

Shinobu began to cry too, but she held her sister's hand tightly and shouted:

"I... I don't want to see anyone else die like Mom and Dad did! I don't want to see any more kids crying like me!"

Kanae sniffled and wiped her face hard.

"Yes, we're weak, we've never killed a demon, and we don't know how to do anything."

Her voice gradually steadied, carrying a sorrow beyond her years.

"But we know what demons are like! We know how they laugh, how they kill, how they turn living people into cold corpses!"

She took a step forward.

"You say the Demon Slayer Corps is a path to death? Then isn't staying in this world just waiting to die?"

Kanae's voice broke.

"Demons are out there, everywhere."

"Today it was our parents who died. Tomorrow it might be our relatives, and the day after that it might be a stranger we meet on the road."

"We hide and pretend we're safe, and then one day the demons come again! What do we do then? Keep running? Where would we run?"

Gyomei wanted to say something, but Kanae gave him no chance.

"You ask what happens after we get revenge?"

She looked at Gyomei, tears streaming down her face.

"Then we save the next person! Save the next child who might lose their parents! Save the next family that might be destroyed by a demon!"

Shinobu nodded vigorously and said through her tears:

"I... I don't want anyone else to hurt like we do..."

Finally, Kanae looked at Giyu's back.

"You say joining would be throwing our lives away. But Lord Tomioka—"

She paused, her voice growing softer.

"Staying in this world, watching demons keep killing while we can't do anything... how is living like that any different from being dead?"

Silence fell over the hillside.

There was only the sound of the morning breeze blowing over the fresh graves, the quiet conversation of the Kakushi members in the distance, and the Kocho Sisters' stifled sobs.

Giyu slowly turned around.

His face was still largely expressionless, but deep in his ice-blue eyes, something churned fiercely.

Kanae's words were like a key, unlocking a room he had sealed away in the deepest recesses of his heart.

"Staying in this world, watching demons keep killing while we can't do anything... how is living like that any different from being dead?"

He remembered a night many years ago.

Giyu had been ten then, the same age Shinobu Kocho was now.

But... his sister had died.

From then on, only two things remained in Giyu's world: staying alive... and killing demons.

He hadn't joined the Demon Slayer Corps for justice, or to save humanity, or even for revenge... The demon that killed his sister had long since been slain by another member.

He simply... couldn't stand "doing nothing."

He couldn't stand the thought that demons were still killing people in the world, that children were still losing loved ones, that people were still going through the rainy night he had experienced.

Giyu looked at Kanae.

The thirteen-year-old girl's eyes were red and swollen, her face streaked with tears, her clothes dirty and torn, and she was so frail she seemed as though a breeze could knock her over.

But there was fire in her eyes, a fire that would "light up the darkness even if it meant burning herself."

It was exactly the same as his own back then.

Gyomei's voice came from beside him, heavy with compassion.

"Kanae, Shinobu, I understand your pain. But a sword driven by hatred will ultimately wound its wielder. I've seen too many examples of that—"

"I've seen more."

Giyu suddenly spoke, cutting Gyomei off.

Everyone looked at him.

Surprise appeared on Gyomei's face.

He "looked" in Giyu's direction. Though he couldn't see, he could sense a certain resolve emanating from the Water Hashira.

"Lord Giyu..."

Gyomei said quietly, "You can't mean—"

"I've seen many lives destroyed by demons."

Giyu's voice was calm, but each word was like a chisel carving into stone.

"Some children lost their parents, some parents lost their children, and some husbands and wives lost each other."

"Some of them chose to run away, some chose to forget, and others..."

"Chose to pick up a sword."

Gyomei frowned.

"But that doesn't mean we should encourage more children to take this path! They're only—"

"They're already on it."

Giyu turned to look at Gyomei.

"From the moment that demon broke into their home last night, a life of 'peace and happiness' stopped being an option for them... The only difference is whether they hide behind others and tremble, or pick up weapons and fight."

"But they'll die!"

Gyomei's voice rose, carrying a rare intensity.

"They're too young, too weak. Even ten years of training might not get them to A-Rank—"

"Then train them until they can!!"

Giyu's answer was decisive.

Kanae and Shinobu both froze, staring blankly at him.

Gyomei took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

"Giyu, I respect your judgment as a Hashira."

"But I can't agree to letting two children who have just lost everything join the Demon Slayer Corps... This isn't protection. It's pushing them into another abyss."

"I know!!"

"Then why do you still—"

"I'll take full responsibility."

Giyu's voice wasn't loud, but it burst across the mountainside like thunder.

Gyomei opened his mouth, but in the end, all that came out was a heavy sigh:

"Namo Amitabha..."

Giyu looked away from Gyomei and turned to the Kocho Sisters.

His ice-blue eyes stared straight at them, his gaze sharp enough to pierce their souls.

"If you want to join the Demon Slayer Corps,"

he said slowly,

"Water Breathing is your only choice."

Kanae's eyes lit up.

Shinobu stopped crying too and stared intently at Giyu.

"I only know one trainer,"

Giyu continued.

"He's my master, the former Water Hashira, Sakonji Urokodaki."

"He'll teach you a Breathing Style, train your bodies, and tell you everything about demons... and if you don't measure up, he'll throw you out without hesitation."

His tone was utterly flat, but every word carried immense weight.

"This path is harder than you imagine. You'll have to get up and train before dawn every day, and you won't rest until late at night."

"You'll have to swing a sword thousands of times, run dozens of li, and endure broken bones, exhaustion, vomiting, and fainting."

"You'll have to face your master's harsh scolding, see your companions injured or even killed, and confront the fear and weakness in your own hearts."

Giyu took a step forward.

"Even so, do you still want to go?"

Kanae and Shinobu exchanged a glance.

Then the sisters bowed deeply at the same time.

"Yes!" Kanae's voice was firm.

"I want to go too!" Shinobu said.

Giyu was silent for a few seconds.

"If you've made up your minds... follow me."

Giyu's voice seemed to come from far away, yet also seemed to sound directly inside their minds.

He turned and walked down the mountainside.

His white haori billowed in the morning breeze, his retreating figure like a sharp sword drawn from its sheath.

Kanae froze for a moment, then came to her senses.

She grabbed Shinobu's hand and pulled her up. "Let's go!"

The sisters stumbled after him. Their steps were still a little unsteady, but the look in their eyes had completely changed!!

The confusion and sorrow in them had been replaced by a new light, the light of survivors determined to press on even if the road ahead led through hell.

Gyomei stood where he was, watching them leave without speaking for a long time.

The prayer beads turned slowly between his fingers.

"Namo Amitabha..."

he murmured, his voice filled with complicated emotions.

"May the Buddha bless those who carry fire through the darkness... May they all find where they belong."

Morning light flooded the mountainside, bathing the new graves, the gravestones, and the path down the mountain in a warm gold.

At that moment, a new chapter in the legacy of Water Breathing quietly began.