Nezuko awakens

With a bamboo tube between her teeth, Nezuko nestled in Chinatsu's arms. Beside them, Tanjiro shed tears of joy. Nezuko had finally woken up.

Chinatsu looked down at Nezuko, who was basking in her embrace. It had been two years since they had last seen Nezuko awake. Although she had slept through those two years, Nezuko had still been vaguely aware of the world around her.

After waking, she had looked around without finding Chinatsu or Tanjiro. Even with Urokodaki there, the absence of her family had left her uneasy. The moment she sensed the two of them, she reacted even faster than Urokodaki and rushed out of the house.

Faced with this situation... Chinatsu was surprisingly not at a loss.

Their father had died young because of his poor health, leaving the burden of supporting the family to their mother and Tanjiro, the eldest son. They often had to leave home, while Chinatsu stayed behind to care for the younger children, frequently taking on the role of their "mother."

God-tier skill, "Motherly love"-acquired!

Chinatsu stroked Nezuko's head and said gently, "It's all right. It's all right. We're home."

Watching them, Tanjiro could not help recalling scenes from his childhood, back when everyone in their family was still alive. The memories brought tears to his eyes.

Urokodaki followed them out of the house. At his age, the sight of Chinatsu and Tanjiro returning nearly brought him to tears too. He hurried over and gathered Chinatsu, Tanjiro, and Nezuko into his arms.

"You're home. That's all that matters. You weren't hurt, were you?" Urokodaki asked, holding them close, overcome with emotion.

Every disciple he had trained had failed to survive the final selection, as though they were under some dreadful curse. Now that curse had been broken, along with the knot in Urokodaki's heart. To say he was not happy would have been an outright lie. Had he removed the crow Tengu Mask covering his face, they would surely have seen tears rolling down his cheeks.

Inside the wooden house.

Urokodaki served Chinatsu and Tanjiro a brimming bowl of miso soup each. They took the bowls and, without even worrying about the heat, immediately tipped their heads back and gulped the soup down.

Tanjiro: "Delicious!"

Chinatsu: "That hit the spot!"

Chinatsu felt as though she had finally come back to life. After finishing her bowl, she grinned and handed the empty bowl back to Urokodaki.

"Another bowl!"

Naturally, Urokodaki did not refuse. If anything, having an appetite was a good sign.

"The mutated demon, huh... So you killed it..." Urokodaki said as he ladled more miso soup for Chinatsu.

"Yes! We didn't just kill the mutated demon. We killed most of the demons on Mount Fujikasane too!" Tanjiro said innocently. Urokodaki gave an involuntary shudder, nearly spilling the brimming bowl of miso soup in his hands.

"You killed that many..."

Urokodaki laughed, a wealth of emotions contained in that sound.

For one thing, before Sabito had gone up the mountain, he had told Urokodaki that he would pass the selection flawlessly and wipe out the hundred demons on the mountain. In a sense, Chinatsu and Tanjiro had fulfilled Sabito's ambition.

For another, the demons on Mount Fujikasane had all been captured and brought there by the Demon Slayer Corps' Pillars or Kinoe-ranked swordsmen. With so many demons gone, they would have to capture more to replenish the mountain. That would keep them busy~

Back when he had been a Pillar, Urokodaki had found capturing demons and transporting them to Mount Fujikasane a nuisance. Now a new generation of swordsmen would get a taste of the troubles he had endured. He was indulging in a little schadenfreude.

Afterward, Urokodaki spoke at length with Chinatsu and Tanjiro about many things, including the variety of demons and the special abilities some higher-level demons possessed, known as Blood Demon Arts.

But Urokodaki no longer worried about the two of them. They were prodigies who had mastered Total Concentration: Constant while still in the beginner stage, the hope that had broken the curse of his disciples' deaths. Surely they would be all right. Surely they would survive and become the mainstays of a new generation.

As the three talked, Nezuko sat quietly beside them, unable to speak with the bamboo tube in her mouth. Chinatsu felt rather sorry for her. Raising a finger, she suggested letting Nezuko take the bamboo tube off.

"Master Urokodaki, we still can't rule out the possibility of Nezuko losing control, but you're a former Pillar, and we're no longer the complete novices we once were. Demons can't hurt us that easily anymore. Nezuko also has her own awareness now, so let her take the bamboo tube off for the time being. She can put it back on when we go somewhere with other people."

At Chinatsu's words, both Tanjiro and Nezuko widened their big, watery eyes and looked at Urokodaki expectantly.

Tanjiro was one thing, but Nezuko's watery, hopeful gaze was truly hard to refuse. That was how Chinatsu felt, anyway, and she suspected Urokodaki felt much the same.

Under their combined gazes, Urokodaki agreed to the suggestion. At last, Nezuko's mouth was freed. Brimming with energy, she happily spread her arms and hugged Chinatsu beside her again.

"Big sister!!!"

Sitting beside them and watching, Tanjiro wore a rather awkward expression as he raised a finger and pointed at himself.

"Nezuko, me. I'm here too..."

Urokodaki calmly watched the scene, worthy of a world-famous painting, and took a small sip of miso soup before exhaling a puff of white steam.

The three siblings really are close...

After the siblings enjoyed their first chat in a long time, Nezuko lay down again and drifted off to sleep. Urokodaki surmised that, because she did not eat humans, she could not replenish her strength the way ordinary demons did. Instead, she had chosen to recover through sleep.

Hearing his theory, Chinatsu came up with a theory of her own.

Nezuko doesn't eat demons, so she recovers her strength slowly and can only sleep to keep her energy consumption low, recovering little by little. Could the same principle explain why I tire so easily?

But Chinatsu soon rejected that theory herself. She had no thirst for blood whatsoever. Although she used up her stamina quickly, she also recovered quickly and did not need to replenish her strength through sleep the way Nezuko did.

Chinatsu fell silent as she watched Nezuko sleeping on the bed. In the original story, Nezuko was one of the few people who received a happy ending, neither left disabled nor doomed to an early death.

But without Muzan, she could have had an even happier family. Muzan called himself a natural disaster, claiming there was no point holding him accountable. Yet even in the face of natural disasters, people still railed against heaven for its injustice. And he was no natural disaster-he was a man-made calamity!