Only after Mr. Haruto and Genya disappeared at the end of the mountain path did Tanjiro lower his waving hand.
"Brother." Nezuko looked at him with concern. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, Nezuko." Tanjiro reached out and stroked his sister's braid. "I was just thinking... maybe the chance encounters I thought I'd had were all destined long ago."
Hinokami Kagura, his father, the Sunflower Paper Earrings, Sun Breathing.
All those words pointed his life toward one final name-Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
Mr. Haruto was a very upright man. He had already revealed how powerful the owner of the Sunflower Paper Earrings had been, and that Sun Breathing had vanished from the world. Tanjiro, who remembered Hinokami Kagura by heart, might well have been the last person who knew it.
Yet Haruto had not immediately asked him to demonstrate the sacred dance passed down through the Kamado Household, nor had he asked Tanjiro to make any promises.
He had merely patted each of the Kamado children on the head, even ruffling Tanjiro's red hair.
"You don't have to do anything, Tanjiro."
Mr. Haruto had told him earnestly, "Your life belongs to you. You don't need to spend it burdened by someone else's mission, never knowing peace."
That night, for the first time in a long while, Tanjiro did not sleep well.
He dreamed of his father, who did not scold him for his wavering resolve.
"Don't blame yourself, Tanjiro."
His father gently patted his head in the dream, his back as straight as a tree. "Doing what you want to do is enough."
Tanjiro opened his eyes in the darkness and sighed softly. He carefully got up and dressed, then headed into the woods with a basket on his back and an axe in his hand.
Thock, thock, thock.
He had meant