"You. Use this blade. Kill yourself."
The air instantly froze.
Tanjiro abruptly raised his head, puzzled. Couldn't demons not hold Nichirin Blades? How was he supposed to kill himself if he couldn't even hold the blade?
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but as he looked at Kirishima Bupai's back, cold and resolute as solid rock, he refrained from asking.
Kirishima Bupai continued, a barely perceptible trace of mercy entering his voice. "At least this way, you can choose how you go and slowly atone for your sins in hell."
He paused, his voice seeming to drop a little. "...Perhaps, if you hurry, you can still catch up with your parents and tell them you're sorry in person."
Those final words, "you're sorry," struck Rui's shattered heart like a heavy hammer.
Dead silence.
Rui's body shuddered violently, and then he slowly, ever so slowly, raised his head.
Tears streaked his face, and the endless pain and remorse in his crimson eyes had not faded.
But now, something strange had appeared in his eyes... calm. A resigned calm that even held a trace of release.
He took a long look at Kirishima Bupai's figure, his back turned to him, as immovable as a mountain.
Then Rui struggled, using the strength remaining in his upper body, and bowed deeply toward that figure with the utmost solemnity, as though on a pilgrimage.
Without a word.
That bow contained too much: gratitude? Resentment? Release? Resignation? Perhaps all of them, or perhaps none of it mattered anymore.
Straightening up, Rui turned his gaze to the Nichirin Blade planted in the ground.
Its steel was cold, yet it seemed to radiate the only faint light leading to redemption.
The next second, Rui made a move that nearly stopped Tanjiro's heart.
He did not crawl over or reach for the blade.
Instead, he abruptly raised his barely regenerated, misshapen leg and, with every last bit of strength in his body, kicked the end of the Nichirin Blade's hilt.
Clang!
A crisp impact rang out!
The Nichirin Blade planted in the soil shot away under the tremendous force of his kick, like an arrow loosed from a bow.
The blade traced a cold, straight line through the air and plunged deep into a huge black boulder nearby.
It sank all the way to the hilt, leaving only the end of the hilt trembling faintly in the moonlight.
Almost at the very instant the Nichirin Blade pierced the rock.
Rui's remaining upper body, bereft of both legs, erupted with unprecedented strength, like a moth rushing into a flame.
He pushed off the ground hard, his whole body turning into a blurred white afterimage as he hurled himself without hesitation toward the Nichirin Blade fixed in the rock, moving as fast as he could.
His target was the blade's tip, exposed beyond the rock and gleaming with a lethal chill.
Squelch!
Crack!
A dull yet distinct sound rang out as a sharp blade pierced flesh and bone.
Rui's body-his chest, to be precise-slammed without obstruction onto the rigid Bright Red Blade, which carried a devastating heat.
The tremendous impact made the blade shake violently with a humming ring.
The sharp Nichirin Blade pierced clean through Rui's body, pinning him fast to the cold, massive black boulder.
His crimson eyes flew wide, his pupils instantly dilated, and his body went rigid.
There was no scream, no struggle.
Only a long sigh, as though a crushing weight had been lifted from him, escaped his slightly parted lips and faded into the night breeze.
Immediately afterward, his body began to disintegrate at a speed visible to the naked eye, starting from his pierced chest...
Under the Bright Red Blade's blazing fire, it turned into countless tiny particles of ash that drifted down.
The pain, lies, and obsessions that had bound him for a hundred years, along with this shell built of sin, were finally, completely released at that moment, returning to nothingness.
Only a lone Nichirin Blade remained on the rock, a few rapidly darkening traces of blood lingering on its tip.
Rui, Lower Rank Five, perished here.
Amid that suffocating silence, the bushes rustled.
The female demon whom Kirishima Bupai had previously stomped into the dirt, and whom Rui had then sliced into several pieces, had now pieced her body back together and ran over, her face full of terror.
Her tear-filled eyes widened as she looked at the blade on the rock and the disintegrating Rui, her lips trembling violently.
"He..."
Trembling, she seemed to want to rush over but did not dare. Facing Kirishima Bupai's back, her voice choked with tears and utter terror, she had only just squeezed out one word: "Rui..."
"Shut up."
Kirishima Bupai's icy voice cut off her sobs like a sharp blade.
He did not even look back, simply turning around slowly, ever so slowly.
Behind his sunglasses, Kirishima Bupai's gaze pinned itself precisely on the female demon's fear-twisted face like two icy beams from hell.
Kirishima Bupai's voice was quiet, yet it reached the female demon's ears clearly, shattering her last shred of hope. "Now it's your turn."
Tilting his head slightly, he spoke with a calm that made her skin crawl. "I'll give you two choices."
He raised one finger:
"One."
"Crawl over there yourself, put your neck against that blade, and end your own life, just like that little brother of yours in your game of house."
Then he raised a second finger:
"Two."
Kirishima Bupai slowly rested his hand on the hilt of the other Nichirin Blade at his waist, his thumb pressing lightly against the guard with a faint scrape of metal:
Shing.
"I'll do it myself and put you out of your misery!"
He leaned forward slightly, his sunglasses almost touching the female demon's deathly pale face, his invisible, terrifying killing intent enveloping her as though it were solid.
"Choose."
"Pick one of the two."
"Now! Right this instant!"
Before you continue