Time Flies

A gentle voice came from behind him. Tanjiro instinctively turned around, the tension on his face slowly changing into astonishment.

The pale golden sunlight fell across Yuko's profile. Her tender, fair skin seemed to glow. At some point, her burned skin had become smooth and flawless again, while faint white vapor still rose from her body, giving her a hazy beauty under the refracted light.

Tanjiro's astonished voice rang out. "Miss Yuko, you..."

Yuko turned her head and smiled. "Mm, it looks like it worked."

Miyare rushed over and looked up at her, her eyes sparkling. "Sister Yuko is so pretty."

Can she see my face?

Yuko looked down. She had to lean her head out a little just to see Miyare's small head.

The two ounces of flesh on Yuko's chest were at least a C-plus, even without a D.

She gently rubbed Miyare's head. "Is that so?"

Miyare narrowed her eyes blissfully. "When I grow up, I want to marry Sister Yuko."

Crack~

Tanjiro's entire body turned black and white.

He hurriedly said, "No, Miyare. That would put Sister Yuko in a difficult position."

Miyare tilted her head and asked innocently, "Why?"

"Because... because..." Tanjiro racked his brains as he tried to explain it to her.

Yuko and Tamiko, who had just come out from the inner room, watched the father and daughter's interaction with smiles.

That evening, after dinner.

Tanjiro tried to persuade her to stay. "Aren't you going to stay a few more days?"

"Mm, if I go back too late, my brother will worry."

Miyare waved goodbye to her. "Goodbye, Sister Yuko~ Come visit us~"

Yuko smiled and waved goodbye to everyone. "Goodbye, Miyare."

As for the Spider Lily, Yuko told them not to worry about it. They could simply eat it like an ordinary wild vegetable.

At noon, Yoriichi waved his Nichirin Blade in front of the courtyard, practicing his daily routine.

Although Yoriichi was now middle-aged, his face had not matured much. Even in his thirties, he still looked to be in his early twenties.

Knock, knock, knock~

Suddenly, someone knocked on the front gate.

Yoriichi wiped away his sweat, sheathed his Nichirin Blade, and walked toward the entrance.

After the Tsugikuni family declined, the siblings had returned here to live for a long time without attracting the townspeople's attention. They had no close friends in town.

Yoriichi was somewhat puzzled about who the person knocking could be.

He opened the gate. A ripple suddenly appeared in his calm eyes, rapidly growing wider.

"I'm back."

"Yuko, you..." Yoriichi stared at his sister in astonishment, momentarily unable to speak.

Yuko stood in the sunlight and smiled. "I succeeded."

The astonishment on Yoriichi's face gradually softened, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. "It's good that you're back."

Yuko smiled. "Mm, I'm back."

After overcoming sunlight, even Yoriichi wielding a Nichirin Blade could no longer pose a deadly threat to her.

Even if her head were severed by a Scarlet Blade, Yuko could restore it to its original state in an instant.

Fundamentally, even a Scarlet Blade merely activated the sun's energy within the Nichirin Blade.

And Yuko, having overcome sunlight, no longer feared anything derived from sunlight.

Whether it was a Nichirin Blade, a Scarlet Blade, or the regeneration suppression of Sun Breathing, none of them had any effect on her.

Before her complete form, a Nichirin Blade was nothing more than an ordinary Katana.

But that did not mean she was invincible.

Although she no longer feared sunlight, she was still no match for Yoriichi in battle.

While Yoriichi could not inflict effective attacks on her, Yuko likewise had no way to defeat him.

It was like a noob activating an invincibility cheat but still being unable to touch a professional player.

Moreover, Yuko discovered that she was not truly invincible.

Although she had overcome sunlight, regeneration still consumed stamina.

In other words, if Yoriichi kept killing her without pause, he might still be able to wear her down to death.

Once the Nichirin Blade's special effects were ignored, Yoriichi's training of her was essentially carried out at his peak.

Thirty was a man's golden age, when his physical abilities reached their peak.

If he had encountered Muzan at that age, Muzan would have had no chance to escape. Yoriichi would have cut him into eighteen hundred pieces in an instant.

Once Yuko gradually adapted, Yoriichi raised the intensity to its limit as well.

He cut Yuko until she nearly began to question her life.

The main thing was that she could genuinely feel herself growing stronger.

But no matter how much stronger she became, whenever Yoriichi got serious, he could always defeat her in an instant.

No matter how wide the range of her Sword Style became, Yoriichi could always find an opportunity to close in.

As a Demon, she did not possess Muzan's terrifying strength.

As a human, she also lacked Yoriichi's talent.

She felt that if Muzan had her cells inside him, he would be suffering constant anxiety every day.

Every day, he would get to watch himself being ruthlessly beheaded by Yoriichi, with no repetition across all three hundred and sixty-five days of the year.

Life as a Demon was not easy. Yuko sighed.

However, these happy days did not last long.

One year, two years, five years...

Yuko clearly felt the people around her slowly growing old.

"Sister Yuko, why doesn't she ever grow old?" When Yuko heard Miyare ask her father that question from outside the door, she understood that it was time for her to leave.

Tanjiro explained stiffly, "Maybe Sister Yuko takes good care of herself."

Immortality was what every emperor dreamed of.

But for a sentimental person, it was absolutely impossible to endure the suffering that came with immortality.

Watching everyone around you slowly grow old and gradually move toward death while you alone remained young was a deeply painful feeling.

Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, more than twenty years passed.

After that day, Yuko never went to Tanjiro's house again.

Yoriichi was already over fifty.

Even Yoriichi had grown old. Strands of white had appeared in his hair, and his physical strength was gradually declining.

Yuko had long since become independent and was often away from home.

She could not bear to watch her friends and family grow old with her own eyes.

Yuko began to fear returning home.

Birth, aging, illness, and death were the natural course of human life, but she could not die.

Did she really have to wait several hundred years, until Tanjiro and the others defeated Muzan together?

Perhaps it would make no difference whether she was there or not.

As she reached middle age, sorrow began to grow in Yuko's heart, and she occasionally had thoughts like these.

But she no longer had any way to die.

Neither a Nichirin Blade nor the sun could destroy her.

The lonely moon hung high in the sky, illuminating the solitary figure on the ground.

Yuko walked more and more slowly. A journey that should have taken only a few days took her half a month to complete.

She clearly wanted to go home and take a look.

The more clearly she understood that, the more she found herself unable to move her legs.

The brightly lit city was already close at hand, yet Yuko stood frozen in place, unable to take another step.

This could not be described as homesickness upon nearing one's hometown.

She was afraid.

Afraid of seeing Yoriichi's even older face.

She had been away from home for more than three years.

Perhaps her decision back then had been wrong. She should never have tried to overcome sunlight.

That way, even if she could not grow old together with her family, she could at least die alongside them.

She had never been a strong person.