A Hundred-Year-Old Man

Gyutaro grudgingly put on one piece of clothing after another at Muzan's insistence.

Koyuki watched from the side, snickering.

After washing up, Gyutaro still had black blotches all over his face and an unnaturally thin waist, but he looked much cleaner.

Muzan tossed him a dry towel. "Dry your hair."

Gyutaro caught the towel, curled his lip, and went over to carefully dry Koyuki's hair first, since she hadn't dried hers either.

Koyuki sat on a stool in her newly bought clothes, obediently letting him dry her hair.

By the time they were both ready, night had fully fallen.

"Come on. I'll take you to meet your older brother."

Muzan held a child by each hand. Under cover of darkness, the three passed through town and entered the forest. The scenery before them shifted slightly, and the two children crossed through space without even noticing.

They arrived near another town far from the Entertainment District. As they emerged from the forest, Gyutaro remained wary of his surroundings-and of Muzan.

If this guy tried anything funny, he would kill him!

"Where are you taking us?"

Gyutaro still hadn't let go of the two sickles in his hands. Though he had changed into clean clothes, he continued clutching the battered, grubby-looking weapons.

He looked at Muzan and asked in a hostile tone.

What annoyed him was that, despite looking weak, this guy didn't seem the least bit bothered by his ferocity. He acted as though he had nothing to fear.

What an irritating bastard!

"We're almost there."

Muzan answered casually.

Soon, Muzan brought the two little ones to the fence outside a house.

It was a simple house, neither particularly large nor particularly small, with enough room for three or four people. Only a crude wooden fence surrounded the plain wooden building, as though its owner wasn't worried at all about wild animals or thieves breaking in.

The clean doorway and footprints in the dirt showed that someone lived there, but it was late at night, and the house was completely dark.

As though arriving at his own home, Muzan led them through the gap in the fence.

He stood at the door and knocked twice.

Rustling came from inside, followed by footsteps.

Creeeak-

The aging door gave a drawn-out groan, revealing a tall man with long black hair hanging loose, its ends tinged red.

Although the red Demon Slayer Mark on his forehead looked somewhat frightening, he had a gentle air. He wore white clothing beneath a red haori.

"Muzan?"

Roused from sleep, Yoriichi stared expressionlessly at Muzan, whom he hadn't seen in decades.

Muzan chuckled and patted the two children standing on either side of him.

"I brought your little brother and sister to see you."

At that, Koyuki and Gyutaro looked at Muzan in disbelief, then at Yoriichi.

What the hell?!

Yoriichi lowered his gaze to the two children, pieced together a rough idea of what had happened, then gave Muzan a suspicious look.

"You have that much time on your hands?"

"Let me in first, let me in. You're going to make me stand outside talking to you in the middle of the night?"

As Muzan spoke, he squeezed past Yoriichi without waiting for him to move aside, sat on the tatami, and looked around.

"Your place is pretty cozy."

Yoriichi closed the door resignedly and looked at the two silent children. "You two can sit down too."

Then he turned to Muzan. "All right, why are you here?"

"Got anything to eat? Get these two some food."

Yoriichi: "..."

Give him an inch, and he takes a mile!

He went to the kitchen, found some sweets, set them on the table in front of the children, and looked at Muzan.

Koyuki edged closer to Gyutaro, eyeing the sweets longingly, while Gyutaro hesitated.

Muzan glanced at them and patted Gyutaro's head beside him. "It's all right. Go ahead and eat."

Gyutaro hesitated for a moment before picking up a sweet and placing it in his sister's hand.

Only then did Muzan turn his attention back to Yoriichi.

"Well, I thought an old man over a hundred like you must be lonely living alone, so I brought these two children to keep you company."

Gyutaro and Koyuki: "???!"

A hundred years old?!

Yoriichi: "..."

And what about you, an 'old man' of seven or eight hundred?!

Seeing Yoriichi staring silently at him with dead-fish eyes, Muzan curled his lip.

"All right, these two are from the Entertainment District. They don't have parents, so I adopted them. I just can't be bothered to raise them."

Yoriichi: "..."

Yoriichi remembered the five years Muzan had raised him. Nothing had been particularly bad, but he had cooked the meals, cleaned the rooms, and done everything himself.

He wasn't sure these two children were suited to being raised by Muzan, who could spend practically an entire year lying motionless in a rocking chair.

In the end, just as Muzan had expected, he sighed. "Fine. These two can stay with me."

"Ha! I knew you'd give in!"

Muzan voiced his thoughts without the slightest restraint.

Yoriichi: "..."

At a loss for words, Yoriichi looked at the two children eating without reservation, having inherited Muzan's habits, and couldn't help patting their heads.

"Keep eating. I'm going to talk to him. Don't wander off."

With that, he opened the door and went outside.

Muzan followed him out, closing the door behind them.

"Tell me about these two children."

Knowing they had lost their parents, Yoriichi was afraid of upsetting them, so he had thoughtfully moved the conversation out of earshot.

Inside, Gyutaro set down his food, uneasy and suspicious. Watching the two leave, he carefully eased the door open a crack.

Seeing that neither of them was looking his way, Gyutaro opened the door a little wider, slipped outside, and hid behind the well in the yard to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Naturally, Yoriichi and Muzan had noticed Gyutaro the instant he opened the door, but seeing how uneasy he was, they left him alone.

At least this would help put him at ease.

"They're both children from the Entertainment District. Their mother probably worked in that trade, but she died of syphilis. As for their father, I don't know.

"When I found them, the girl, Koyuki, was working as an oiran at Aoya. The boy is called Gyutaro. He probably had a rough childhood because of his looks.

"He was making a living collecting debts. He's got a fair bit of anger in him."

Yoriichi nodded thoughtfully. He now understood why Muzan had brought these two children to him.

Their difficult childhoods had probably left their personalities somewhat warped. Muzan clearly couldn't be bothered to deal with that, so the task had fallen on his shoulders, since he had nothing else to do.

But just as Muzan had said, he did seem to want a child to keep him company.

Decades ago, he had ended his travels. After helping an elderly man, he had stayed on following the man's death.

Over those decades, he had come to feel lonely too.