To see the light

Sanemi Shinazugawa gasped for breath, too weak even to pick up the kitchen knife that had fallen from his hand.

His face ached with a tingling itch, and something slid down his cheek.

Sanemi knew it was his own blood.

A gaping wound stretched across his face, ruining what had once been a very handsome face.

But he could no longer think about anything. When Haruto's blue-violet blade light tore through the darkness and illuminated his attacker's face, the boy's mind went blank. He crumpled to the ground as though his spine had been pulled out.

That familiar face, that small, thin figure, had been smiling as she made him lunch just that afternoon.

"...Mom?"

Sanemi's lips trembled. Half bewildered, half despairing, he whispered, "Mom, is that you?"

Haruto's heart jolted. He immediately turned his blade, pressed its blunt edge against the female demon's neck, and used his powerful muscles to pin her to the ground.

But the demon beneath him was still in the confused state that followed her transformation. She could not recognize the boy before her as her own son.

And something had set her off. She struggled frantically, trying to lunge at Sanemi's blood-covered face.

You're kidding...

Rare blood again?

Haruto sighed. A mother and son fighting to the death-what a cruel sight.

But demons could not be spared. Besides... all that blood on her could not have come solely from fighting the silver-haired boy. She must have killed others.

Haruto turned his blade sideways, ready to sever the demon's neck with one swift stroke.

"Look away," he said gravely.

"Wh-what?" Sanemi did not understand.

"Unless you want to watch me behead your mother."

Haruto felt terribly sorry, but there was nothing he could do.

Killing a mother before her son was far too cruel... even if she had already become a demon.

"No!" Strength came to Sanemi from somewhere. He scrambled over to Haruto, his hands trembling, at a loss for what to do.

His small, thin mother no longer looked human. When she had killed his younger siblings inside the house, she had been no different from a wild beast. Two grotesquely large demonic claws had grown from her skinny arms. Veins bulged across her face, and she kept trying to sink her fangs into Haruto's neck.

"No... no, isn't there anything we can do? Would sleeping help? Whenever we get sick, we sleep and get better..."

Sanemi's face was covered in blood, his mouth twisting as he fought back tears.

Haruto lowered his head in silence. He held the demon down by her throat and planted his Nichirin Blade in the earth beside him.

Suddenly, a jumble of footsteps rang out. A Cresthead boy staggered into the mouth of the alley, his kimono covered in blood.

"Brother, we have to get a doctor..."

A cut on his face was still bleeding. Blood mingled with tears and sweat, leaving him a disheveled mess.

Seeing the wreckage of the fight before him, the Cresthead boy froze. "...Brother?"

"Genya..."

Sanemi and Haruto looked up together, only to find his younger brother staring at their mother beneath the white-haired swordsman. "Genya, don't look!"

He did not want his brother to see their mother in such a wretched state, nor did he want him to know that the monster that had attacked their family was their mother.

In the blue-violet blade light, Genya's already small pupils contracted sharply.

"Sir... what are you doing?" He took two steps forward and slowly reached inside his kimono. "Why won't you let go of my mother?"

Sanemi's head buzzed. As Genya's older brother, he knew exactly what Genya kept inside his kimono.

It was a brass slingshot. Genya often used it to hunt birds in the mountains. His aim was good, and he always brought back something extra for his younger siblings to eat.

"Genya!" he cried urgently. "Stop!"

Haruto raised an eyebrow. Keeping one hand firmly on the demon, he swiftly drew his Nichirin Blade with the other and held it across his body.

The Cresthead boy was quick, and his aim was excellent.

Clang! Clang!

Metal rang against metal twice as Haruto deflected the brass pellets.

Seeing the Cresthead boy preparing to load and fire again, Haruto hauled up the struggling demon. He pushed off with his toes, sheathed his Nichirin Blade one-handed as he leaped, and rushed straight at him.

In panic, Sanemi reached for Haruto's haori, but his hand closed on empty air.

He scrambled up from the ground on his hands and feet-

No! His younger siblings were already dead, and his mother was going to die too!

Spare Genya!

Haruto moved fast. Almost instantly, he was in front of the Cresthead boy, knocking the slingshot from his hands.

"I understand that you've suffered a terrible shock and aren't in your right mind."

Haruto frowned. "But charging ahead without knowing anything won't help anyone."

Genya saw his "mother" and began trembling just like Sanemi.

"Oh, God..."

Sanemi lunged forward and covered his brother's eyes. "Don't look, don't look. Genya, don't look..."

Haruto delivered a heavy chop to the demon's neck. Once she could no longer move, he hauled the silver-haired boy up and thrust her into his arms.

"Are there any other victims? Don't just stand there!"

Tragically, inside the blood-spattered house, five small children had died in pain and terror.

The oldest was five or six. The youngest might not even have been a year old.

In silence, Haruto laid them out in a row, then went outside and had Cang Kong send word to the Kakushi.

He heard Genya's stifled sobbing inside the house and could only slam his fist into the wall in anger.

Haruto Takanashi, why did you have to eat so much!

If you'd left the restaurant after eating only half your fill, you could have spotted the newly transformed demon in time. These children wouldn't have had to die.

He could still remember the brightness on the brothers' faces when he had seen them that evening.

They had been dreaming of a wonderful future now that they were free of their scumbag father!

But now it was all gone. Tears and grief had washed away every happy memory of the past.

Sanemi watched over the demon in the yard. He said nothing, his face utterly expressionless.

Haruto walked over. Sanemi looked up at him, his face blank, and only after a long while did he speak. "Sir, what exactly is this?"

"A demon."

"Will she get better?"

Haruto's heart ached. There was a pleading look in the silver-haired boy's eyes.

"Becoming a demon isn't an illness."

He sighed inwardly, but still explained a few things about demons to the boy.

"...The sun will rise eventually. She doesn't have much time left.

I'm sorry. I can't spare her.

If I don't kill her, more mothers and children will die at her hands."

Sanemi buried his head between his knees, his shoulders shaking.

Beginning with their abusive father, their happy, loving family had completely fallen apart in just two or three short days.

Genya sat beside his younger siblings for a long time. He did not dare look at the two people outside, or at the "Mom" lying on the ground.

When dawn was near, Sanemi carried his mother out.

The swordsman did not stop him. He simply watched him from a distance with those mist-blue eyes.

Genya went to the window and cleared his throat. "Where is my brother taking... Mom?"

The white-haired swordsman held his sword against his chest and exhaled toward the soon-to-rise morning sun.

"To see the light one last time."