The Sapphire Star made her way through the thick fog shrouding Spider Mountain. Her armor gleamed with a cold, dim light, while the enormous Fatalis Demolisher behind her shoulder radiated an oppressive weight.
As she kept watch for the nearly invisible, deadly threads around her and any "puppets" that might appear, she couldn't help grumbling to herself:
That Water Hashira... has he said more than three words since we met? "Mm," "...," "Fine"... does he communicate by telepathy?
And the Insect Hashira-why do her eyes always seem to say, "Fall behind and I'll inject you with super-concentrated wisteria extract"? These Demon Slayer Corps Hashira are harder to understand than the last!
For all her complaints, her movements never faltered. Even with the fog interfering, her senses remained as sharp as a hunter's.
When she encountered Demon Slayer Corps members turned into thread-controlled "puppets," she slipped through their stiff attacks like a phantom. Every seemingly slight exertion struck a crucial point where the threads pulled, or a puppet's sword-wielding wrist, neutralizing the danger with minimal effort.
A blade's gleam, dark as night, swept silently past. The icy-blue aurora wreathing its edge severed several of the puppets' key threads with precision.
Twang! Twang! The sharp snapping of threads rang especially clearly through the deathly still forest. Freed from control, the puppets collapsed to the ground.
The Fatalis Demolisher proved surprisingly useful against these threads.
Just then, a deafening boom erupted deep in the distant woods! A surge of savage, scorching energy shot skyward like a volcanic eruption! Its presence was ancient and violent, carrying the resolve to stake everything!
"Tanjiro?!"
The Sapphire Star instantly recognized that presence, at once familiar and unfamiliar. It belonged to the black-haired boy with the flame-shaped mark on his forehead!
But this power... it was more than ten times stronger than it had been on Mount Fujikasane! It brimmed with devastating explosive force!
In another direction, a cold, tranquil, piercing presence suddenly erupted, vast as an unfathomable ocean! It was the Water Hashira, Giyu Tomioka!
"The Mute Hashira's making his move too..." The Sapphire Star's gaze sharpened. Without further delay, she raced toward the source of Tanjiro's eruption of power.
She had barely gone any distance before she felt a terrifying, suffocating pressure ahead, steeped in a violently twisted obsession, and...
It collided with the Water Hashira's presence, as still as a deep pool yet overwhelmingly powerful!
The sounds of fierce combat, the shriek of threads slicing through the air, and the sharp snap of something tough being severed came one after another, before finally falling into an eerie silence.
The Sapphire Star's heart tightened, and she picked up speed.
That Mute Hashira works fast!
When she pushed aside the last dense thicket draped in sticky spiderwebs, the sight before her made her hold her breath.
An immense force had cleared a space in the forest, leaving smoke and the scent of blood lingering in the air.
At the center of the clearing, Giyu Tomioka was slowly sheathing his sword. At his feet, the body of a pale, long-black-haired boy in a spiderweb-patterned kimono was rapidly dissolving like ashes scattered by the wind. A trace of incredulous shock seemed to linger on his vacant, numb face.
Lower Rank Five, Rui, had been slain!
Giyu Tomioka's gaze did not linger on the dissolving demon. Instead, he turned toward the edge of the clearing.
There, a black-haired boy in a checkered haori-Tanjiro Kamado-lay covered in blood, his breathing desperately weak as he struggled to push himself up.
But what made the Sapphire Star's pupils contract was that Tanjiro was not alone!
A girl with pink-and-green eyes and a side ponytail stood fiercely over Tanjiro, shielding him!
She clenched a length of fresh green bamboo between her teeth. Her clear eyes now blazed with a beast's ferocity and an unyielding determination to protect him as she stared fixedly at Giyu Tomioka and the newly arrived Sapphire Star.
The girl was covered in wounds as well. The skin exposed beneath her torn clothes was too pale to belong to a living person. Most alarming of all was the presence radiating from her-a pure, unmistakable demon's presence!
"Another demon! The Kamado kid's in danger!"
The Sapphire Star tightened her grip on the Fatalis Demolisher's hilt, and a chill quietly spread.
Giyu Tomioka gently extended his scabbard to block the Sapphire Star and shook his head.
The Sapphire Star: ????
She wondered if this Water Hashira was trying to steal her kill or something.
The air seemed to freeze. Only Nezuko's low, threatening growls and Tanjiro's faint but anxious calls remained:
"Ne... Nezuko... don't... Mr. Giyu, Miss Sapphire Star... she's different..."
"Nezuko?" The Sapphire Star's brows drew together slightly. Did Tanjiro know this demon?
Whoosh-
A figure wearing a butterfly-patterned haori landed as lightly as falling cherry blossoms.
The gentle smile on Shinobu Kocho's face had already frozen, her purple eyes steeped in icy venom. "Mr. Giyu, it seems you've missed a little mouse!" Her rapier-like Nichirin Blade flashed from its sheath and thrust straight toward Nezuko's throat-
In a split second, Giyu Tomioka's figure blurred!
His left arm clamped around Shinobu Kocho's waist like an iron band; his right hand caught her sword wrist with precision. Exerting his full strength, he lifted her off the ground!
Shinobu's blade was only three inches from Nezuko's throat, yet her entire body stopped in midair like a butterfly specimen pinned to a rock wall!
Now that's a waist-drum performance! the Sapphire Star thought.
"Mr. Giyu!!" Shinobu Kocho's voice remained calm, yet seemed filled with boundless fury.
The Water Hashira's profile remained utterly placid. Only the veins bulging over his tightened knuckles betrayed their silent contest of strength.
Seizing the opening, Shinobu fired a wisteria-poisoned needle from her sleeve like lightning. It sank into the back of Tanjiro's neck, and even as the boy collapsed, his fingers still clutched his sister's hem.
"...In that case, take them both away." Giyu finally spoke.
He released his hold. Shinobu staggered as she landed, icy flames burning in her purple eyes, but ultimately tucked her sword back into her sleeve.
The Sapphire Star silently watched the Kakushi bind the sleeping Nezuko in chains.
She stepped forward, blocking Giyu Tomioka as he turned to leave.
"Mu... ah, no!... Lord Water Hashira, why did you protect that demon?"
Giyu Tomioka stopped and met the Sapphire Star's gaze calmly. After a moment of silence, he clearly uttered a few words:
"She is Tanjiro's sister. She hasn't eaten anyone."
With that, he stayed no longer. He walked around the Sapphire Star, and his figure soon disappeared into the thinning mist.
The Sapphire Star remained where she stood, staring in the direction the Water Hashira had vanished, conflicting emotions churning in her eyes.
This guy... did he never go to school or something? Is he illiterate? Would saying a few more words kill him?! she couldn't help grumbling inwardly. Communicating with this Water Hashira felt harder than deciphering the traces left by an Elder Dragon.
Wait! The point is, that demon... was actually Tanjiro's sister?
The Sapphire Star turned her gaze toward Nezuko, whom the Kakushi were carefully carrying away. Images of her first encounter with Tanjiro on Mount Fujikasane flashed through her mind-
The boy carrying that heavy wooden box, his eyes stubborn and sorrowful.
So that was it! The box hadn't held equipment, but his beloved family member who had become a demon!
An indescribable heaviness seized the Sapphire Star.
Trouble! Enormous trouble! The Sapphire Star's brows knitted tightly.
Even if the Water Hashira had stopped the Insect Hashira just now, he alone did not have the final say in the Demon Slayer Corps.
How would the other Hashira react? What would the members who saw demons as their absolute mortal enemies think? Bringing Tanjiro and his sister back to headquarters was no different from throwing two bombs that could explode at any moment into a barrel of gunpowder! The Water Hashira could protect them for now, but could he protect them forever?
"Looks like... this outsider's understanding of demons is still far too limited." The Sapphire Star tugged at the corner of her mouth.
She looked to the other side. The Insect Hashira, Shinobu Kocho, was still standing there. That flawless smile remained on her face, its curve unchanged.
Yet the Sapphire Star's hunter-sharp eyes caught the abnormalities with precision: Shinobu's fingertips, hanging at her sides, were trembling slightly despite her efforts to stop them. A sweat-dampened lock of hair clung to her fair skin, and a vein raised by extreme restraint pulsed faintly at her temple...
The Sapphire Star walked closer.
"Lady Insect Hashira?" Her voice carried just the right touch of inquiry.
"Are you all right?"
At her voice, Shinobu Kocho slowly turned her face.
The instant her eyes met the Sapphire Star's, the ice deep within them seemed forcibly coated with a warm, lustrous glaze. The smile at her lips even deepened slightly, and her voice was as soft and pleasant as ever:
"Oh my, thank you for your concern, Sapphire Star. I'm quite all right." She raised a hand and elegantly straightened the slightly disheveled cuff of her butterfly-patterned haori, her movements calm and unhurried.
"It's just... a certain tactless brute accidentally disrupted my rhythm." Her tone was airy, as though she were complaining about something utterly trivial.
Her gaze briefly swept toward the direction where the Kakushi had carried Tanjiro and his sister out of sight. A complicated glimmer flashed deep in her eyes, then vanished as her customary calm returned.
"Once we return to headquarters, the Master will judge the details of this matter. There is little point discussing it here." Her gaze returned to the Sapphire Star, her smile impeccable.
"Come to think of it, we haven't formally introduced ourselves, have we? I'm Shinobu Kocho. Thanks to everyone's kind regard, I serve as the Insect Hashira. I've heard so much about your name and... exceptional bearing, Sapphire Star." Her purple eyes lingered for a moment on the Sapphire Star's inhuman armor and fearsome, enormous blade.
"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Shinobu Kocho," the Sapphire Star replied politely.
"Well then~" Shinobu Kocho turned slightly, her haori swaying as she made an inviting gesture.
"Will you return to headquarters with us, Sapphire Star? As someone who witnessed this matter firsthand, you will surely have an indispensable role to play."
"Of course." The Sapphire Star put away her enormous blade and followed Shinobu Kocho's butterfly-light figure.
With that straight-backed posture and effortlessly elegant stride, it would have been impossible to imagine the violent storm once restrained within that body, had she not personally seen the pulsing vein at Shinobu's temple and the conflict that had erupted in an instant.
After a long stretch of silence, the Sapphire Star finally couldn't hold back. "Miss Shinobu... what will happen to Tanjiro and his sister?"
Shinobu Kocho seemed to be called back from some private contemplation.
"Oh?" A barely perceptible curve touched Shinobu's lips.
"You seem... especially concerned about that boy, Sapphire Star?"
"We're not particularly close. It's just..." The Sapphire Star paused, seemingly gathering her words.
"Back on Mount Fujikasane... I happened upon the aftermath of the Final Selection and lent Tanjiro's group of candidates a hand." She recalled the encounter. "He was... one of the first few people I met when I arrived here."
"Mount Fujikasane?" The smile in Shinobu Kocho's eyes seemed to deepen for an instant.
"I see. Things must have been... terribly dangerous then! In that case, you did those young Corps members a great service."
Her tone was sincere, carrying a courteous gratitude. "Everyone in the Demon Slayer Corps is grateful for that."
The gratitude was genuine, yet it also seemed to come through an invisible barrier, distant and official. Having expressed the appropriate thanks, Shinobu Kocho looked away, her smile still gentle and warm.
The Sapphire Star asked no more. She felt that if she kept running her mouth, she would end up killed by a poisoned dart...
An unknown amount of time passed before the familiar outlines of the buildings at Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters, bearing the wisteria crest, emerged faintly ahead in the deepest darkness before dawn. The flickering light of a few lanterns outlined the solemn entrance.
They had reached their destination.
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