Cut... we cut it off...
Ha, ha, ha...
Tanjiro gripped his sword, forcing himself to stay upright. Ahead of Muichiro, who had neatly sheathed his blade, the severed head of Upper Rank Four, Hantengu, rolled onto the grass, dissolving in the sunlight amid his aged, agonized howls.
The sun had risen...
Then Nezuko, who had rushed into the clearing behind him to protect him when he fell from the cliff...
Had she died too?
Tanjiro's knees gave out, and he sank to the ground.
Nezuko... Nezuko...
The sunlight must have eaten away even her bones...
Huge tears rolled down Tanjiro's cheeks. His sobs were the only sound in the silence around them.
"Tanjiro." Muichiro Tokito turned around. Even after slaying the demon, he had yet to settle down, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
Dark, cloudlike marks had appeared on his forehead and cheek.
The boy tilted his head slightly as he looked at him. "What are you crying about?"
"Boo-hoo... my little sister... boo-hoo... Nezuko..."
A trace of confusion crossed Muichiro's young face. "Isn't that your sister standing behind you? She looks a lot like her."
Tanjiro abruptly raised his head and looked back.
The gentle morning sunlight fell softly over the demon girl behind him, and a breeze stirred her long hair.
Her rose-red eyes gazed blankly at the sun.
It was as though time had stopped for her. Her skin did not dissolve in the sunlight like other demons'. She neither wept nor screamed.
Standing in the sunlight, the girl smiled beautifully at her brother, just like a real human girl.
"Good... morning, big brother."
Nezuko? She was all right? Had she become human?
No. The demon fangs revealed as she spoke, those pupils so similar to Muzan Kibutsuji's... they all proved that Nezuko was still a