Severed Bonds

In his memories, that tiny body grew breathless just from sitting up...

Through a gap in the paper window, Rui saw children his own age running and laughing in the sunlight.

Yet he could only lie on his cold bed, feeling the stabbing pain in his chest and endless exhaustion that accompanied every breath.

The world was gray.

In the darkness, a man in an exquisite suit, noble and elegant in bearing, appeared silently beside his bed.

His smile was gentle, but his eyes were fathomless.

"Poor child... do you want the strength to run? Do you want to escape this body that cages you?" The tempting whisper was like a devil's chant.

Sharp nails pierced his neck, and indescribable agony and cold swept through his entire body...

Then came... strength...

An unprecedented, immense strength that filled every limb and bone.

For the first time, Rui could stand on his own, run, and jump. Ecstasy overwhelmed his young heart!

But the price of that strength was... having to eat people!

Watching their son grow pale, fear sunlight, and even show a craving for flesh and blood...

His parents' eyes no longer held tenderness, but bone-deep fear and guilt...

That night...

His father's knife hand shook violently. Tears streamed down his face, and his voice was hoarse and broken. "Rui... I'm sorry... your mother and I failed you... we can't... we can't watch you become a man-eating monster..."

"Forgive me... your mother and I... will go to hell... with you..." The cold blade reflected the moonlight and his father's anguished, tear-filled eyes.

Beside him, his mother covered her face, her muffled sobs cutting into the heart like a dull knife.

Rui, who had been pretending to sleep, was utterly consumed by his fear of death and attachment to his "new life" the instant the blade fell...

Sharp nails and a sudden burst of strength, blood... warm blood... splashing onto his face, his hands, his body... his parents falling... deathly silence...

That noble figure appeared again...

Muzan Kibutsuji stood outside the door, stepping in his parents' blood before it had even cooled, wearing an approving smile. "Well done, Rui."

"You did exactly the right thing. They weren't worthy of being your parents. With the strength you possess, how could you be wrong? You should be proud of your power!"

Muzan's beguiling voice seeped into his bewildered, terrified soul. "Go and find your own 'bonds'... build a true 'family' that will never betray you..."

A hundred years of time, a hundred years of distortion, a hundred years of self-deception... at this moment...

"Aaaaaaah-!!!!!!!"

Rui erupted into heart-rending sobs, as though he would vomit out his very soul.

His tears surged like floodwater through a broken dam, washing the blood and mud from his pale cheeks.

At that moment, he seemed no longer to be the cold, cruel Lower Rank Five who controlled threads, but merely a child who had lost his parents, overwhelmed by endless regret and pain.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Father... Mother... I'm so sorry-!!!"

He collapsed to the ground, clutching his head with both hands, his nails digging deep into his scalp. His body curled into a ball as he trembled violently and wailed like a wounded young animal.

In his mind...

His parents' eyes before they died, filled with pain and despair, yet still brimming with profound love...

"It was all him!!! Him-!!! He lied to me! He destroyed me!!!"

Rui raised his face, streaked with blood and tears, and cried out his accusation in anguish. His eyes brimmed with towering hatred for the demon who had given him strength and brought him an eternal curse.

Watching Rui break down and wail on the ground, Kirishima Bupai let out a long sigh. He reached up and gently removed the earrings.

"Your true bonds had long since..." His voice carried a trace of heaviness and understanding.

"Already been... severed by my own hands..." Rui interrupted Kirishima Bupai with a sob, his shattered voice filled with despairing self-reproach.

Just then, having settled Nezuko, Tanjiro cautiously approached.

He smelled the scent in the air, mingled with endless sorrow, regret, and pain, but finally no longer twisted. His face was filled with shock and complicated pity.

Tanjiro had never imagined that a powerful Lower Rank demon could carry such a heavy tragedy within his heart.

Brushing the dust from the hem of his clothes, Kirishima Bupai handed the earrings back to Tanjiro. "Take them. To help him remember some truly important things, these earrings of yours... were indispensable props."

As he spoke, a barely perceptible touch of wistfulness entered his tone.

Tanjiro took the earrings and put them back on, but his gaze remained fixed on Rui, curled up on the ground.

Brushing the dust off himself, Kirishima Bupai turned and walked over to the inconsolably weeping Rui. "You don't need to blame yourself anymore. This was all Muzan Kibutsuji's fault."

"Muzan... Kibutsuji?!" The name struck Tanjiro like a thunderbolt.

His body trembled, and towering fury and endless grief instantly blazed in his dark red eyes.

His family's brutal deaths, his sister becoming a demon-the source of it all was the bearer of that name!

Yet, looking at Rui on the ground, who had likewise been persecuted by Muzan and ultimately fallen into the abyss...

The fury in Tanjiro's eyes slowly settled, replaced by deep understanding and empathy.

The hatred in his heart had not vanished, but at that moment, he felt more compassion for a pitiful soul who had been cruelly toyed with by fate and ultimately lost his way.

Tanjiro silently stepped forward and slowly crouched beside Rui.

He reached out with both hands, hesitated at Rui's faintly trembling, bone-chilling hands, then firmly clasped them.

His human palms, warm with life, tightly enclosed Rui's lifeless, icy demon fingers.

There were no words, only the warmth and strength conveyed through his hands.

Tanjiro's gaze was gentle and steadfast as he quietly looked into Rui's crimson eyes, filled with confusion and pain.

Only after a long while did he softly ask in his distinctively gentle yet powerful voice, "It's all right..."

The deathly silence of the forest clearing was filled with Rui's heart-rending sobs and Tanjiro's gentle comfort.

A heavy atmosphere mingling blood, tears, and belated repentance hung in the air.

Nezuko gave a faint whimper inside the box, as though echoing that sorrow.

Keeping track of the time, Kirishima Bupai stood quietly to one side. His sunglasses concealed his eyes, but that intangible pressure had not completely faded.

He listened to Rui's halting account, filled with endless regret, and watched Tanjiro hold those icy demon hands tightly, conveying a faint but steadfast warmth.

When Rui's sobs gradually weakened until only the uncontrollable shaking of his shoulders remained, Kirishima Bupai moved.

He did not look at Rui on the ground again, but slowly drew his scarlet blade, which radiated terrifying heat.

Clang!

A clear metallic ring sliced through the heavy air.

Kirishima Bupai turned his wrist, pointed the tip downward, and drove the Nichirin Blade into the hard earth at his feet.

The blade sank in all the way to the hilt and stood firmly there, its cold metal reflecting a dim gleam in the lingering moonlight.

With his back to Rui and Tanjiro, he faced the deep, dark forest, his white-and-gold cloak stirring faintly in the night wind.

"Brat," Kirishima Bupai said, his voice as calm as a deep pool, yet carrying an unquestionable coldness, "you've cried enough and said enough."

After a brief pause, his next words followed with resolve. "If you don't want some beast hiding in a gutter to control you from afar and burst your head, killing you as easily as crushing a bug... then..."

"Slit your own throat and pass on-!"