"Nezuko-chan, come over here!"
In a peach orchard laden with fruit, Zenitsu held Nezuko's hand, running carefree:
"These peaches are delicious! Oh, I'll make you a flower crown from white clover. It'll be so pretty!"
"Mm-hmm! Make me lots and lots!" Nezuko's pink pupils sparkled as she looked at Zenitsu with adoration: "Zenitsu-kun~"
"Whoo-hoo!!!"
He jumped for joy.
.....
Inosuke, wearing his boar mask, led a Nezuko who had grown a pair of rabbit ears, striding proudly into a stalactite cave:
"Expedition team! Expedition team! We're the cave expedition team!"
"Boss!!!"
"What is it! Minion Number One! Minion Number Two!"
Hearing calls from behind, Inosuke turned to look.
A boy who looked very much like Tanjiro, but with raccoon dog ears and a tail, respectfully reported: "We've detected the scent of a giant beast up ahead! Poonboko!"
"And I can hear it snoring, chuu~" Responded another boy who looked a lot like Zenitsu but had a sleazy face and mouse ears, his attitude also very deferential.
"Good! Ponjiro! Chuuichi! Follow me! Let's get it!!"
"Yes, Boss!!"
Led by the wild boar boy, the expedition team charged enthusiastically into the depths of the cave....
Such strange scenes could not possibly be real.
At this moment, the two of them were sprawled awkwardly on the train seats, lost in their own sweet dreams.
That ferocious demon hand was now leading those haggard-faced children, looking at the slumbering Demon Slayer Corps' members:
"Remember, using these dreaming Demon Slayers as the origin point, dreams have boundaries."
"As long as you find the boundary and break it, you can find the dreamer's spiritual core. Good luck."
Having said that, the demon hand left the carriage on its own, leaving these children to carefully connect their wrists to the hemp ropes made by the Blood Demon Art.
A particularly frail-looking boy suddenly coughed violently, wiping away bloody froth with the back of his hand.
".....Don't blame me. I'm in too much pain...." He muttered as he picked up the rope belonging to Tanjiro.
With a silent countdown, he also sank into the other's dream.
Wind and snow howled, bitingly cold.
Tanjiro walked aimlessly across the snowy plain, looking at everything before him with confusion:
"Where is this? Why does it feel so familiar...."
He drew his Nichirin Sword, cautiously on guard against any potential danger, but in the next second, he was instantly frozen in place.
Not far away were two figures that could not possibly exist.
"Ah! It's Nii-san!"
"Nii-san is back! Did you sell all the charcoal?"
They were his family, the ones he thought about day and night and woke up crying whenever he dreamed of them: Shigeru and Hanako!
"Th-this... how is this possible...."
The Nichirin Sword slipped from Tanjiro's hand and fell. His whole body was seized by an unbelievable, ecstatic joy, trembling.
"Ah! Nii-san!!"
As Tanjiro stood there stunned, he suddenly felt his body soften.
Looking down, his younger brother Rokuta, dressed in thin cotton clothes, had crashed into his arms like a little cannonball!
He rubbed his cold little face against Tanjiro, giggling: "Nii-san, Rokuta missed you so much."
"Rokuta.... everyone...."
Tears uncontrollably overflowed from his eyes. Tanjiro's vision instantly blurred into a mess. He hugged Rokuta tightly, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Ahhh—!! I'm sorry! I'm sorry I came back late! I... I missed you all so much!!"
Seeing him cry like this, Shigeru and Hanako, who were making a snowman, scratched their heads in confusion and ran back home calling for their mother.
"Oh my, child, what's wrong?"
A gentle voice sounded. Tanjiro looked up through his swollen, tear-filled eyelids.
His mother, Kamado Kie, was looking at him with concern: "Are you alright, Tanjiro? Are you hurt?"
"Mother!!"
Tanjiro, still holding Rokuta, threw himself into Kie's arms, making her chuckle softly: "There, there, has someone been mean to you? Don't cry, child. Don't cry, don't cry."
"Haha, Nii-san can be clingy too." Shigeru looked at the sobbing Tanjiro and teased him with a laugh.
Nearby, Hanako, who adored her big brother, was a little displeased and directly threw a snowball at him.
"Hey you, what are you doing!"
"You're so annoying! Stop messing around!"
"Who's messing around?!"
The two siblings started quarrelling, which drew the attention of their second brother, Takeo, inside the house. He quickly came out to see.
"Haha, you two made big brother cry. Watch me teach you a lesson!"
Saying this, he also packed a snowball and started attacking the two little ones.
The Kamado Family was exactly this kind of noisy, warm, and harmonious atmosphere.
"Welcome home, Tanjiro."
After calming the emotional Tanjiro, Kie put on her plain apron again and started preparing dough in the kitchen: "How about I make pancakes today? Aren't pancakes your favorite, Tanjiro?"
"Ha, I want some too!" The little ones outside heard their mother's words and quickly voiced their opinions.
"Alright, alright, everyone will have some." Kie smiled, patting the flour off her hands. "Hanako, could you get me the sieve?"
"I'll do it, Mother! Oh, where's Nezuko!"
While helping in the kitchen, Tanjiro puzzledly scanned inside and outside the house. He didn't see Nezuko anywhere.
"Nee-san went up the mountain to gather wild vegetables."
"What! But it's daytime!"
Tanjiro shouted anxiously, but in the next second, he froze.
'Daytime... What's wrong with daytime....'
The stove fire crackled, sending up sparks of charcoal.
Tanjiro suddenly came to, finding himself standing by a river.
'Eh? What was I doing? Oh right, I came to get water for the house....'
He scratched his head in confusion and carefully lowered his wooden bucket into the river, only to notice his reflection in the water....
Shouting at him?
[Wake up! Wake up!!]
'Huh?' With a plop, he was pulled into the river by his own reflection!
[Wake up! This is a dream! We're under attack!]
Tanjiro felt like he had forgotten something, yet hazily remembered a lot.
'I think I was on a train... I was... hunting a demon!!'
[Get up! Get up and fight! Wake up!!]
.....
"Nii-san, if you're not eating your pickled radish, can I have it?"
Tanjiro, who had just been yelled at by his own reflection, suddenly found himself back in the house, eating lunch with his family.
Looking at Takeo's grinning face, Tanjiro was stunned.
"Why are you always taking advantage of Nii-san! Can't you just eat your own?" Hanako, still protective of her older brother, interrupted the cheeky Takeo and started arguing with him.
'What's going on! This is a dream! It's not real!!'
Tanjiro's mind was in turmoil. He desperately shouted to himself inside.
'How do I leave? How do I escape this dream?'
Boom—!!!
Just as Tanjiro didn't know what to do, cherry-red flames violently ignited on his body!
'This is! Nezuko's Blood Demon Art!'
"The smell of blood.... Nezuko is hurt!"
Tanjiro almost sprang up, knocking over the bowls and chopsticks in front of him and startling his younger siblings.
"What's wrong with Nii-san?"
"It's your fault! Nii-san is angry!"
'No! That's not it! Everyone, I'm not angry!'
Tanjiro was frantic. He rushed out of the house in a panic, running towards the depths of the endless snowy plain!
After he ran out of the house, the Nichirin Sword reappeared in his hand, as if it had never fallen.
"Nii-san! Where are you going! Are you abandoning us!"
"Child, what's wrong? Tell your mother!"
'I'm sorry... everyone, I'm sorry, Mother.....'
Tears streamed down Tanjiro's face like rain, but he didn't dare look back.
He was afraid that one glance at his family's worried faces would weaken his resolve to escape the dream!
He slashed his blade at the void. The blade cut through the curtain of snow to no avail. His roar shattered the wind and snow, but nothing changed.
Perhaps he could not escape, could not wake up!
Outside the dream, on the locomotive of the Mugen Train, stood a young man in a suit and tie, his face flushed:
"Ha.... Such an ungrateful fellow. It was such a nice dream...."
He was the Lower Moon Kizuki, Enmu!
Enmu had manipulated everyone's dreams, but he hadn't expected Tanjiro to realize the dream's falsity so quickly. This displeased him.
"It's useless... You can't escape— Eh?"
In the dream, a gust of wind and snow blew past.
[Tanjiro, raise your sword!]
[What you must cut... is right here!]
The voice of his father, Kamado Tanjuro, suddenly resounded from the depths of his heart, freezing Tanjiro, who was gripping his Nichirin Sword, in place.
'What I must cut....'
He looked at the blade in his hand. The blade reflected his gaze. An answer had already formed in his heart.
'Would death in a dream affect reality?... Would I die in reality?...'
'Would it be irreparable?...'
Tanjiro didn't know, but he had no time to confirm!
'Nezuko is hurt! We're being attacked by a demon!'
'Wake up! Tanjiro! Find a way to wake up!'
'Don't waver!'
'Cut!'
Tanjiro knelt on one knee and placed his Nichirin Sword against his own neck. A roar, filled with fear yet courage, escaped him:
"Ahhh—!!!"
Shing—!!
The blade fell.
On the snowy ground, red plum blossoms bloomed.