After his words, the white light gradually faded away as the Scorching Feathers retracted. It was as if Black Wolf Fang hadn’t noticed his own dissipating form—he stared blankly ahead.

  “Nanako, I’m sorry… you must have searched for me for so long…”

  “I'm sorry—I forgot about you…”

  Kawagishi fell silent for a moment, gazing at the demon who had once chopped off his head and fought him with reckless fury. As the white light in his vision receded, his consciousness returned to his body, and he turned to look behind him. There, emerging below his brilliant white wings, was a pair of rust-colored wings. They were a bit shorter than the white ones but still impressively long, with a wingspan of over two meters. Kawagishi could feel that Black Wolf Fang’s very soul resided within these new wings.

  Tentatively, he tried to flap these two sets of wings. Clumsily, Kawagishi managed to lift off and even reached the top of the cave. However, it wasn’t long before he lost control and nearly plummeted headlong—but he sensed that he was only a small step away from true flight.

  “Black Wolf Fang…” Kawagishi called softly. “I have absorbed your strength, and I promise I will personally ask him about your doubts.”

  “About Muzan Kibutsuji? How can you claim you’ve suffered so much while condemning others to misery…” Black Wolf Fang’s eyes burned with unspoken rage.

  “And… Black Wolf Fang, can you tell me—what exactly is a demon?” Kawagishi asked, his voice heavy with inner turmoil.

  Alas, no one answered Kawagishi’s questions.

  Now, having let his Scorching Feathers absorb the black-red-gray ashes that Black Wolf Fang had become, Kawagishi’s entire body pulsed with energy. The hunger that had once threatened to grind him down had completely vanished. Although the ruined corpse in the cave still exuded the scent of blood, it no longer stirred any impulsive cravings within him. Having ingested Black Wolf Fang’s essence, Kawagishi felt that he would not be hungry for a long time. His physical state had finally reached its peak—stamina, strength, agility, all greatly enhanced.

  Yet inside, Kawagishi’s heart was conflicted. He felt deep sympathy for Black Wolf Fang—for this demon.

  “What, then, is a demon? Are they all irredeemably twisted and evil?”

  Earlier, Kawagishi had believed that he alone had undergone a transformation, retaining his human rationality and the ability to restrain his hunger for human flesh, while all other demons were utterly depraved. But now, after witnessing the life of Black Wolf Fang, his firmly held beliefs wavered. Inevitably, he felt sorrow for him.

  “Is it true that behind every demon lies a tragic past?”

  “Is every demon, like me, only born from unbearable pain—after losing their most cherished loved ones?”

  “Do demons have a chance to be pitied, even rescued?”

  Soon, the brilliant white wings and the rust-colored wings dissipated into the air, leaving only two small wing marks on the skin of Kawagishi’s back. Maintaining the Blood Demon Art still drained his mental energy. With a thud, Kawagishi collapsed onto his back, ignoring the dust and shattered stones around him. He silently gazed at the rugged, uneven ceiling of the cave as his turbulent thoughts refused to settle.

  …

  The sun rose in the east and set in the west. After cycling three times, a field mouse ventured into the pitch-black bear cave, following the scent of blood as it moved slowly inside. Having been hungry for days, the mouse, despite the oppressive atmosphere that made it tremble, risked everything to track down the source of that bloody aroma. Deep within the cave, the mouse began to squeak excitedly upon discovering a corpse that still clung to much of its flesh; it planned to tear off a piece of meat and scurry away to stave off starvation. But as it dashed toward the corpse, it suddenly spotted two points of light ahead. Then, the world spun wildly, and the little creature was abruptly hoisted by its tail. Those two points of light turned out to be Kawagishi’s eyes—now restored and shining with renewed spirit.

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  “Little creature, feeding on human flesh is forbidden.”

  “This time, I’ll let you go. Leave now.”

  Kawagishi was in the habit of carrying food with him. He rummaged through his pocket and found a few glutinous rice dumplings—only one of which was untainted by blood. He set the mouse down and placed the clean dumpling in front of it, indicating that it could take the food. The mouse, surprisingly perceptive despite trembling in the presence of Kawagishi’s fearsome aura, recognized his goodwill. Clutching the lotus leaf wrapping the dumpling, it quickly dragged the dumpling—nearly the size of its body—away from the cave. At the entrance, the mouse glanced back, paused briefly, and then darted into the woods with the dumpling, disappearing into the night.

  Kawagishi slowly rose to his feet, stretching his waist; the look of confusion that had haunted him earlier had finally faded. After three days of contemplation, he arrived at an answer—one that, for now, satisfied him.

  “Man-eating demons are never worthy of compassion or forgiveness.”

  “What fills me with sorrow isn’t the demon known as Black Wolf Fang, but the little boy who waits for his childhood sweetheart to return.”

  “A demon that consumes human flesh can never go back—regardless of the reason, all man-eating demons must be slain.”

  “Fate may have doomed me to become a wretched demon, yet it also granted me these Scorching Feather wings with which I can slay such abominations.”

  “The goal of creating a world free of demons will never change.”

  In truth, Kawagishi felt a twinge of fear deep within. He had once thought to feed only on evildoers, on the dead. But now he understood that even a newborn demon might retain a sliver of humanity—and regardless of the justification, once a demon consumes human flesh, its demonic hunger will only grow stronger. Whether the victim is wicked or not, Kawagishi would irreversibly become a man-eating demon, a transformation even he could never forgive.

  “How did I ever come to entertain the thought of eating humans?” he wondered bitterly.

  It seemed that when he first became a demon, though a trace of human feeling remained, the demon’s innate instincts gradually warped his thoughts, dragging him toward a precipice of depravity. But fortunately, after invoking the Fire God Dance Breathing Technique, it seemed that the demonic nature—its raw, inherent urges—had been scorched away by the fierce light of the sun, disappearing into nothingness. Kawagishi now felt assured that he would not be changed by the demon’s inherent nature, nor would he act against his true self. Moreover, it appeared that an invisible shackle within his body had shattered and vanished. Could that have been Muzan Kibutsuji’s curse? Forget it—I’d better not try to tamper with it lightly.

  Approaching the broken corpse, Kawagishi knelt down and gently covered the terrified, pained little face with his hand, softly stroking it to soothe away the fear and anguish, leaving behind only a look of serenity. At that moment, the imprint of the rust-colored wings on his back trembled slightly, as if in remorseful, painful contrition. Kawagishi whispered, “Don’t feel guilty—none of this was your fault. All the sorrow, all the misfortune, stem solely from that original demon.” His voice echoed through the cave, met by silence.

  After a while, he gathered the scattered limbs and, cradling the relatively more intact body, emerged from the cave. Kawagishi buried the corpse in a flat, open clearing, then looked up at the bright, shining crescent moon and the countless stars scattered across the sky. Perhaps, by next year, beautiful and delicate flowers would bloom in that place. Touching the earrings on his right ear, Kawagishi felt a deep longing for his family.

  “They say that when people die, they become stars—watching over their descendants in the night sky.”

  “Father, everyone… aren’t you among those stars, watching over me now?”

  “I’ve done it!”

  “The Fire God Dance has cleansed my body and soul, and I have broken free of the demon’s chains.”

  “Now, I must go search for Tanjiro. May fortune smile upon me, and may Tanjiro still be alive.”

  Kawagishi was now certain that he would never harm Tanjiro. In this perilous world overrun by vicious demons, ordinary people are in constant danger—and Tanjiro needs his protection.