"Enough with the crap."
"Pfft—"...
Roy suddenly appeared and drove a hand chop through Dohi's head.
Then he flicked his hand, letting Dohi's brains splatter across the ground,
before turning and looking coldly at Tanjiro. "Do you know what you're doing?"
"I do..."
"Then why didn't you act?"
"I... I don't know..." Tanjiro stammered, afraid to meet Roy's eyes.
Roy simply pulled out his axe and laid it against Tanjiro's neck. The blade rested against his carotid artery; move it just five millimeters farther in, and it would slice through his skin and blood vessel, taking his life.
"You don't know? Good..." Roy laughed in anger.
"In that case,"
"rather than watch you get eaten by a demon next time..."
"I think it'd be better to kill you now. At least—"
"I can leave your corpse in one piece!"
Sympathizing with a demon? Who did he think he was?
In the original story, Tanjiro's reluctance to act had nearly made Urokodaki Sakonji give up on him. Now... Roy felt that the freshly decapitated Dohi had been right about one thing—
A bleeding-heart idiot deserved to have a knife pointed at him!
"I... I just felt sorry for him..."
"Was the man whose guts he ripped out in the shrine not pitiful?"
"What about all the people he's eaten over the years?"
Roy's anger surged. He twisted his wrist, raised the axe, and swung it at Tanjiro's face!
"Bam—" The powerful blow sent Tanjiro flying ten meters, until he crashed into a large tree and slid down its trunk...
"Remember what I said. If this happens again, and the demon doesn't kill you, I will!"
Roy hung the axe at his waist, hoisted the basket onto his back, and turned to enter the shrine... A small oil lamp burned inside, tinting his silhouette with a ring of orange light...
Tanjiro sat dejectedly in the snow, legs splayed, his back against the tree. His right cheek had swollen up like a pig's head, but he seemed not to notice. He only stared blankly at Roy's back with unfocused eyes.
When Tanjiro was little, his father, Tanjuro, had always taught him to keep a kind heart when he went out into the world. Whenever he met someone in need, he should do his best to help. But today... it seemed his kindness had been misplaced.
A demon was a demon, and a human was a human. For prey to pity its hunter was to invite death.
With its brain no longer controlling it, Dohi's corpse crumbled into ash. The snow fell harder and faster...
After a long while, Tanjiro came back to his senses, and only then did he feel the burning pain in his right cheek...
Thanks to the Zoldyck family's harsh training from an early age, Roy had been hit often enough to know how to hit someone... Though this was his first time trying it himself, his technique was fairly practiced. He'd only hurt Tanjiro's flesh, leaving his bones and tendons unharmed.
So despite looking miserable, Tanjiro was perfectly fine. He even got up nimbly, knelt in the snow, and shouted toward the shrine that he knew he'd been wrong.
He was still young, and there was still a chance to set him straight. If it had been an adult in his place, Roy would have killed him without a second thought, rather than risk being dragged down by him.
Without even looking at him, Roy snorted.
"Do I have to come out and help you?"
"Get your ass in here."
As he spoke, Roy set down the basket, found a broom tucked in the corner by the door, and began cleaning the shrine's corpse and bloodstains.
Having been "forgiven," Tanjiro let out a long breath and hurried over to Roy. He snatched the broom from his hands and ingratiatingly offered, "Let me do it, Nii-san. You should get some rest."
"Don't worry. I promise I'll clean the shrine until it's spotless, without a trace of blood."
Roy trusted Tanjiro's "dog's nose"... Since he'd volunteered, Roy might as well give him a chance to prove himself.
Until...
The boy went around behind the statue and saw the bones piled up like a small hill...
Only then did he truly come to his senses—
Why Roy hadn't been willing to give Dohi even the slightest chance.
So... every last one of those demons deserved to die!
"I can't believe I actually believed that bastard's lies..."
Tanjiro looked terribly grim. If he could, he would have gone back a few minutes and slapped himself hard for being so quick to show kindness.
But time couldn't be turned back, just as the bones before him could never be brought back to life.
Roy had already seen the scene with Gyo.
Now, he said nothing. His heart was like the moon hidden behind clouds that night, shrouded in a thick shadow.
The Zoldycks killed people too. His grandfather, Zeno, even killed someone every day, far more than Dohi had. But whether it was Zeno, his father, Silva, or Roy himself, they always chose to give their assassination targets "a quick death," ending their lives without pain.
But this pile of bones was different...
Roy could hardly imagine the agony and despair of being eaten alive...
Wearing the earrings that symbolized the sun and mountains, he stood silently for a moment, then started moving again. Passing the basket, he reached inside and pulled out a hoe, then walked out of the shrine with his back turned.
His father, Tanjuro, had noticed the hoe was blunt and had specifically told him to find a blacksmith down the mountain to sharpen it. Now it had come in handy.
Hearing the footsteps, Tanjiro turned and noticed the hoe on Roy's shoulder. Only then did he realize what Roy intended to do. He picked up the oil lamp and silently followed him...
The brothers circled around and found an empty patch behind the shrine, where it met the mountain. Braving the wind and snow, they dug a hole there. Before long, they returned to the shrine...
They carried the pile of bones outside and buried them in the hole.
By then, the snowflakes had grown as large as goose feathers...
In the dim, yellow light of the oil lamp, Tanjiro murmured, "Fire God, please protect these poor people. May they reach paradise in the afterlife and be reincarnated soon..."
Roy stopped only after he had covered the grave with the final shovelful of earth. He asked cautiously, "Nii-san, shall we go inside?"
Leaning on the hoe, Roy stood tall in the wind and snow, silently watching the grave before him.
Unbeknownst to Tanjiro, his eyes were now covered in a layer of milky-white Nen...
Meeting with a closed door, Tanjiro assumed Roy was still angry and wisely shut his mouth...
Only when a wisp of milky-white energy floated up from the grave did he hear his big brother clasp his hands toward it and say, "I'm sorry we had to meet this way..."
"I am Kamado Eiichiro. May I ask your name?"
"I am Minamino Hirotomo, from Kouchida Village beneath Mount Sagiri. I thank you, Lord Eiichiro, for avenging me."
A gust of ghostly wind blew up, whipping snow into Tanjiro's face. He rubbed his eyes and looked over in bewilderment...
Roy gently touched his forehead and, using his own body as a medium, channeled a layer of aura onto those beautiful amber eyes...
Only then did his foolish little brother notice that right beside him...
A vague figure was kneeling before Roy in a full kowtow, his forehead pressed to the ground.
"Isn't that the man whose guts the demon ripped out just now?"
Tanjiro cried out in shock!
That's right... It was the man the demon had eaten.
He had appeared in Roy's life for the first time as Post-Mortem Nen!
Before you continue