Ever since having his head cut off that day, Akaza felt that his mind had become somewhat abnormal.
Although he had never preyed on human women, and therefore particularly despised Doma who specialized in eating them-
He couldn't really explain why.
Perhaps it was some subconscious force at work, or maybe he simply disliked the smell of women. Anyway, when faced with the corpses of human women, he couldn't muster any appetite at all.
And now, this condition had worsened.
During his days searching for the Wind Breathing training ground, he hunted for prey while also tracking the movements of Demon Slayer Corps' members.
One day, just as he was about to kill a man shielding his lover, he heard a woman's voice whisper in his ear.
[Hakuji, stop this!]
'Who was it? How could someone appear beside me without a sound!'
He looked around in panic, but couldn't find any trace of the woman.
Akaza's killing intent dissipated with that woman's voice, and he let the couple go, retreating into the mountains.
Similar incidents kept occurring from time to time.
When eating people, he would hear that woman's cries. When training and throwing punches, he would also hear her praise.
'Who was it? In the dead of night, could it be a ghost?'
The moment this thought arose, even Akaza was amused by himself.
Calling himself a demon, he was fundamentally different from the kind of wandering spirits rumored in human society. He was merely a more advanced predator.
When it came down to it, he was still a living creature.
"Should I ask Muzan-sama? Could ghosts really exist in this world?"
"Don't be silly, Hakuji. How many years has it been? If there were a heaven or hell, Buddhas or gods, you'd have been punished long ago."
"Wait, what am I saying?"
Walking through the forest, talking to himself, Akaza felt his mind becoming more and more unstable.
Bam!!
He simply punched and shattered his own cochlea, thinking that a newly grown one might work better. But the situation didn't improve.
Now, Akaza's fist was mere inches from Rika's face. If he wanted, he could instantly shatter this woman and the boy behind her.
But somehow, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
"Damn it, that black-haired swordsman messed up my head!" Akaza roared in dissatisfaction. He couldn't explain what was happening to him.
[Hakuji, this isn't you! Stop making mistakes!]
[Come home! Come home!]
"Enough! Who is Hakuji? I am Akaza! Upper Rank Three! Akaza!!"
"Ughhh—!!!"
He roared and unleashed Destructive Death - Crushing Type: Ten Thousand Leaves Flashing Willow!
Boom—!!!
This punch struck the ground of the Hayama training ground, directly shattering half the estate!
Rubble and tiles flew through the air. Inosuke and Rika nearby were sent flying.
Kenichi and the others hurriedly dragged the unconscious Tetsushin away. Some children, even younger than Inosuke, grabbed long swords and lined up, trembling as they pointed their blades at Akaza.
"Don't destroy our home!"
"Get out! Demon!"
The veins on Akaza's forehead bulged. He clenched his iron fists, preparing to kill these arrogant brats one by one.
But the next moment, he felt his vision spin.
Bam!!!
Akaza felt himself slammed heavily to the ground. Before him was the blue sky.
'Daytime? Impossible!!'
Panicked, he quickly scrambled to his feet, trying to escape the sunlight. But after running a few steps, he realized something was wrong.
He looked at his muddy, somewhat thin hands.
'Not being burned by the sun... what was going on...'
"Haha! You're very talented, young man! Want to come to my dojo?" A middle-aged man in a white martial arts uniform laughed heartily at Akaza. "Give it a try. I'm Keizo of the Soryu Dojo!"
"Drop dead!" Akaza didn't want to listen. He threw a punch.
Keizo wasn't angry. He assumed a defensive stance: "Then let's transform you, young man."
Bam!!
His vision spun again. But the middle-aged man was gone.
Akaza found himself knocked over backward by that brat in the boar mask.
'What the hell.... Keizo... why did that name sound so familiar?'
Falling backward, Akaza pushed off the ground with his hands, flipped up at lightning speed, and looked at the crowd before him.
Kenichi stood in front of the disciples, holding Tetsushin's old Nichirin Sword, and shouted firmly: "Demon! I'll be your opponent!"
'One after another... just a bunch of brats who couldn't even master Breathing Styles, deluding themselves into thinking they could kill me with their broken swords?' Akaza found it utterly absurd.
[Haha, everyone is weak at the start. Only under the protection of others can they slowly grow.]
[Someday, you'll become strong too. Then it'll be your turn to protect others, right?]
Akaza instinctively threw a punch behind him, but found no one there.
Clang—!!
In a moment of distraction, Akaza suddenly felt a sharp pain.
'That damn boar boy just wouldn't give up.'
Now, together with the woman, three blades simultaneously struck his neck!
"Are you stupid?" Akaza was genuinely angry. He couldn't understand what these two weak humans were doing. "You're not Marked swordsmen. You don't have burning Nichirin Blades. What makes you think you can cut through my neck just because I'm standing here letting you?"
"Ridiculous!"
He threw punches. Under his suppressed emotions, his fists transformed into a sky-filling blur of afterimages, clashing against the Nichirin Blades with loud clangs!
But every time he decided to deliver a killing blow, to punch through the boy before him, some force would tug at his arm, preventing him from throwing the punch.
[Stop fighting, Hakuji! Why do you always have to fight?]
"Isn't it obvious? If I don't fight, how can I get stronger? How can I reach the supreme realm?"
[....But why do you want to get stronger?]
"What are you saying, Koyuki? If I don't get stronger, how can I buy medicine for Father? How can I protect the dojo? How can I protect you...."
Haah—!!
Akaza suddenly felt suffocated, as if his brain stem had been heavily struck. He uncontrollably staggered back several steps.
In an instant, countless memories flooded in.
He finally remembered why he had been fighting all along....
Akaza, or rather... Hakuji.
He had been a boy who stole and cheated to get money to buy medicine for his sick father. Even when tattooed with the marks of a criminal and beaten until he couldn't get up, he never cared about others' opinions or judgments....
His father, to avoid being a burden, hanged himself.... This left Hakuji almost desperate. If Keizo of the Soryu Dojo hadn't taken him in, taught him martial arts and the principles of being human, he might have truly lost himself completely.
Years passed. He fell in love with Keizo's sickly daughter, Koyuki. They were engaged. Hakuji vowed to be a good person, to protect his beloved and the sensei's dojo.
But all this was destroyed by human jealousy and malice.
Keizo and Koyuki were poisoned by people from a neighboring kendo hall. In his rage, he brutally killed sixty-seven people, nearly becoming a human demon.
That night, Muzan transformed him into a demon, and he lost all his memories as Hakuji....
Akaza couldn't suppress the shock and fear within him. Trembling, he looked at his hands, stained with centuries of blood: "What... what terrible things have I done...."
Inosuke's blade struck again, but this time, Akaza didn't fight back.
He just let the Nichirin Sword cut into him, carving bone-deep wounds, using this physical pain to numb the suffering in his heart.
"Someone like me... am I still worthy to see you again...."
"....I'll probably only go to hell... I'm sorry, Koyuki... I'm sorry, Sensei...."
"Those promises... I didn't keep a single one...."
Crack!
Inosuke's Nichirin Sword finally cut through Akaza's neck. Just as he was about to use his Exploding Fang to viciously saw it off… Akaza suddenly raised his hand, grabbing Inosuke's blade, and stared blankly at his boar mask.
The look in his eyes was complex to the extreme.
Regret. Self-blame. Frustration. Shame.
And anger at having his mind manipulated for centuries.
A scorching thought suddenly arose.