A strange smell of scorching and lightning hung in the alley.
The violent energy had dispersed, but the suffocating pressure had not diminished in the slightest.
Its source was the boy slowly withdrawing his left hand.
Tanjiro felt as though an invisible hand had clamped tightly around his throat.
That bone-chilling killing intent was a hundred, a thousand times stronger than the Swamp Demon's had been.
It was unmistakably fixed on him and his sister, who had just returned to the form of a little girl in his arms.
"Why?"
Sasuke spoke.
His voice was quiet, yet it struck Tanjiro's heart like a block of ice.
"Why are you traveling with a demon?"
There was not the slightest change in his gaze.
Those blood-red eyes, each with two spinning tomoe, reflected Nezuko's small figure as though he were looking at an "object" that needed to be analyzed and dealt with.
Instinctively, Tanjiro shielded Nezuko behind him.
He opened his mouth to explain, only to discover that he could not make a sound.
Before absolute power, any words seemed pale and powerless.
He had no doubt that if he said a single wrong word, that devastating bolt of lightning would pierce both their hearts the next second.
"You are a member of the Demon Slayer Corps."
Sasuke took a step forward.
"Traveling with a demon is a violation of the Corps' strictest prohibition."
"This is betrayal."
The word "betrayal" pierced Tanjiro's ears like a red-hot iron needle.
He jerked his head up, his face filled with pain and defiance.
He wanted to argue, to shout that Nezuko was not an ordinary demon-she was his family!
But he could not.
What could he say?
That although his sister had become a demon, she had not eaten a single person in two years?
That she would attack her own kind to protect humans?
Who would believe him?
Even he would have thought it a fantasy if he had not experienced it himself.
As Sasuke watched Tanjiro's expression twist with painful conflict, his gaze did not change in the slightest.
He could not understand such feelings.
If a family member became a demon, one should kill them personally and sever that ill-fated chain of cause and effect.
Was that not simply what one ought to do?
His right hand once again closed around the black Wakizashi at his waist.
He had seen that the female demon had indeed protected a human.
His Sharingan had also confirmed that she did not carry the foul energy that came from devouring humans.
She was a rare anomaly, one that could not be explained by common sense.
But.
Rules were rules.
A demon was a demon.
Any demon had to be eliminated.
That was the first principle he had engraved in his heart when he became a Demon Slayer.
Just as Sasuke was about to draw his blade.
Tanjiro did something he had not expected.
He did not draw his sword or flee.
He gently laid the sleeping Nezuko on the ground, then dropped straight to his knees before Sasuke.
He slammed his forehead hard against the cold, dust-covered ground.
"Please!"
Tanjiro's voice shook with tears, filled with desperate pleading.
"Please spare Nezuko!"
"She's my sister, my only family! She may have become a demon, but she's never eaten anyone! Not even once!"
"Demons killed our whole family! We're the only two who survived!"
"I'll find a way to turn her back into a human! I swear!"
In a jumble of words, Tanjiro shouted out everything that had happened to him in the plainest terms.
He knew it was foolish.
It was naive.
But it was the only thing he could do.
Sasuke silently watched the boy kneeling before him, bowing his head to the ground over and over.
He watched that scent of sorrow clinging to him, so thick it would not dissipate.
Against his will, the night his family had been slaughtered flashed through his mind.
So did that man's eyes when he had called him his "foolish little brother"-eyes that were just as blood-red, yet filled with indifference and mockery.
The bonds of family?
What a ridiculous thing.
Bonds only brought weakness.
Bonds only became burdens on the road ahead.
Sasuke's grip on his sword tightened slightly.
Kill him. Kill his sister.
Sever this ridiculous bond, then continue down my path of revenge.
That was the right choice.
And yet.
He remembered the small but utterly resolute figure of that female demon as she shielded that human behind her.
He remembered what his master, Kuwajima, had told him.
"I hope you can become a keen blade that protects people, not merely a weapon for revenge."
Protect...
Irritation.
An inexplicable irritation rose in Sasuke's heart.
Slowly, he released his grip on his sword.
Click.
The faint sound of the Wakizashi settling back into its sheath rang especially clearly in the deathly silent alley.
Tanjiro shuddered and raised his head in disbelief.
He saw that Sasuke had put away his blade.
The killing intent that had nearly crushed him also receded like the tide.
"Don't expect anyone else in the Demon Slayer Corps to believe that nonsense."
Sasuke's voice remained cold.
"The next time we meet."
"If she's hurt anyone."
Sasuke's gaze passed over Tanjiro and settled on the sleeping female demon.
"I'll kill her myself."
With that, he did not spare Tanjiro another glance, nor did he even acknowledge Kazumi, the survivor still slumped on the ground.
He turned, and after a few flickers, his figure vanished at the end of the alley, merging into the deep night.
Only Tanjiro remained, kneeling blankly where he was.
A long time passed.
Only then did he slump to the ground as though all his strength had drained away, gasping for breath.
He looked in the direction Sasuke had disappeared, then at his sister sleeping peacefully in his arms, his eyes filled with an immense tangle of emotions.
Fear, relief, confusion, and a trace of yearning for that absolute power that even he had not noticed.
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