Closer.
Closer still.
All Tanjiro could see was Rui's neck, within arm's reach.
He could smell Nezuko's blood clinging to the burning blade, along with the warmth of his own life.
This was proof of the bond between brother and sister.
It was the power to cut through all falsehood.
He thought he could already see the dawn of victory.
He thought he could already hear the demon's head hitting the ground.
Yet.
The instant the broken blade in his hand was about to touch Rui's skin.
There was no fear on Rui's face, no despair.
Only a trace of cold pity, as though mocking his naïveté.
Squelch!
A soft sound rang out.
Blood splattered.
A head flew into the air.
It was Rui's head.
Tanjiro's pupils contracted to pinpoints in that instant.
Had he succeeded?
No.
That wasn't right!
The blade in his hand had not even given him the sensation of cutting through anything solid.
Rui had severed that flying head himself with his threads!
"Did you think you could kill me like that?"
Rui's voice came from his headless body, thick with scorn.
And his head, still in midair, was also growing a new body.
At that moment, Tanjiro's heart sank into a bottomless abyss.
The flame of hope was utterly extinguished by a bucket of ice water.
How...
How could this happen...
He had given everything, burned through his life, and even Nezuko had used her Blood Demon Art.
The strongest strike they could muster together as brother and sister.
In the end, it had been nothing but a joke.
"I reinforced my neck with threads long ago."
"That feeble blade of yours could never cut through it."
"But the bond between you and that demon sister of yours did move me a little."
Both of