Marcus turned around with a victory grin so shameless it made you want to punch it right off his face.
At least that's what Makomo thought.
"You did that on purpose!" she snapped, stomping her feet against the ground. "You did the same thing yesterday! And today again! You knew I was going to come out!"
"Of course." Marcus didn't even bother denying it. He walked over with his hands in his pockets, without a shred of guilt. "You guys had me talking to thin air for a year. Don't you think I've earned a little payback?"
"It's not like we were ignoring you on purpose..." Makomo's indignation deflated as fast as it had arrived, and her fingers found the corner of her clothing again, twisting it nervously. "It's just that Sabito said it was better to observe you for a while before..."
"And what conclusion did you reach?"
"That you're a troublemaker."
The voice came from the side.
Sabito materialized slowly, arms crossed and his mask pointed straight at Marcus. His face wasn't visible, but the resignation in his tone said everything the mask hid.
"Well, well. Mr. Sabito also graces us with his presence." Marcus greeted him with a mocking bow. "Good evening."
Sabito didn't play along and cut straight to the point.
"Yesterday, Makomo answered your question. Now it's your turn."
"Yeah! That!" Makomo snapped back to attention instantly, straightening up with all the composure her barely-over-a-meter height allowed, visibly straining to look serious and imposing. "Marcus-kun, you still haven't told me. How did you know about us? And what's the deal with your breathing? And the sword? Why is it hollow insid—?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa."
Marcus raised a hand, and the questions crashed against it like hitting a wall.
"One question in exchange for one answer. That's how this works."
Makomo blinked. "What?"
"Yesterday you answered one thing for me. So today I answer one for you. One." He raised his index finger and wagged it in front of her. "The rest... tomorrow."
"THAT'S NOT FAIR!"
Makomo stomped again. "You said you'd tell me today! You promised! You're a liar!"
"I said I'd come. And I came." Marcus gestured at himself with the face of a misunderstood martyr. "See? Here I am. I kept my word. What a stand-up guy I am, right?"
Makomo clenched her fists, red with frustration, and turned her head toward Sabito with a look that begged for intervention.
Sabito looked at her. Looked at Marcus. And sighed.
"Ask him what matters most to you. You only get one, so think it through."
Biting her lip, Makomo looked Marcus up and down. She discarded questions, reconsidered, discarded again.
And finally chose.
"Your breathing... the rose. What exactly is it?"
"B-Because every time you use it, I... I feel something... something like I want to get closer. I can't help it."
But the moment the words left her mouth, color rushed to her face like a rising tide and she hurried to add: "It's just curiosity! I'm not implying anything, okay?! Nothing at all!"
Faced with this outburst, Marcus simply smiled.
He walked over to the rock, sat on the ground with his back against the cold stone, and patted the space beside him.
"Wanna sit?"
Neither of them moved.
"Suit yourselves."
Without pressing the matter, he settled in and let the silence sit for a moment before speaking.
"My breathing is called the Breath of Desire."
"Desire...?"
"Desire, yes. And its effect, to put it really simply, is that I get stronger when I'm near girls. The closer they are, the better it works."
"..."
A long, round silence stretched across the clearing like an ink stain.
Makomo blinked several times. Waiting for Marcus to laugh and say "just kidding."
But he didn't...
Sabito's mask slipped a little. "...What did you just say?"
Ignoring him, Marcus looked directly at Makomo with a warm smile.
"So what you're feeling is completely normal. My breathing has a natural pull on women. It's not your fault."
"Wh-What...?!" Makomo's face went from pink to red.
"Don't be ridiculous!" She waved her hands in a panic. "I don't... that has nothing to do with...! It's not like I want to...!"
"Sure, sure you don't." Marcus nodded with understanding. "I believe you."
He clearly didn't believe her.
Sabito quickly positioned himself slightly in front of Makomo. "A breathing technique like that... I've never heard of anything like it."
"Makes sense. I'm the first." Marcus shrugged. "My own creation. Impressive, right?"
Sabito stared at him for a long moment.
"...Not very serious."
"Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment."
Makomo peeked out halfway from behind Sabito, her cyan eyes watching him with a mix of caution and curiosity.
"B-But you know what we are, right...? Our situation. We're not..." She gestured at herself, searching for the words. "Why does your breathing work on me if I'm not... if I'm no longer...?"
"That, I don't know." Marcus leaned back against the rock, crossing his arms behind his head. "It's possible that my breathing works on any feminine presence, regardless of form."
"But it's also possible that..."
Makomo frowned. "Also possible that what?"
"That my breathing has nothing to do with it."
"..."
Another, longer pause, and Makomo took a step forward without realizing it.
"That the urge to get close to me is simply because..."
Another one. She was close now. Very close.
Marcus looked her in the eyes. And with the most absolute seriousness he was capable of, he finished:
"Because you like me."
"...?"
Confusion washed over Makomo.
"Huh...?"
But the bewilderment lasted half a second before reality hit her.
"WHAAAAT?!!"
"YOU...!! YOU, YOU, YOU...!!" Her face caught fire from her neck all the way to her hairline. Her hands were shaking, and she couldn't string together a coherent sentence no matter how hard she tried. "WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!! HOW DARE YOU...?!! I DON'T...!! THAT'S NOT...!!"
And then, as if her own embarrassment reached a critical point that reality itself couldn't contain...
Poof!
She vanished.
"What happened to her?!"
Marcus's eyes went wide, and for a moment—no act—he genuinely wondered if he'd gone too far.
Fortunately, Sabito was still there, and he didn't bat an eye.
"She's gone, and don't go looking for her. She won't dare show her face for a couple of days."
"Ah..." Marcus let out the breath he'd been holding. "Thank God. I thought I broke her."
"She's not broken. She's embarrassed." Sabito paused and added in a tone that was half warning, half resignation: "But if you keep provoking her like that, I can't guarantee she'll show up again. And this time it'd be for real."
Marcus glanced at him sideways. "Weren't you the one who wouldn't let her show herself in the first place?"
Sabito clenched his jaw. "...It's really hard to like you. It really is."
"Relax, the feeling's mutual. The one I come to see every night isn't exactly you."
"..."
Sabito didn't respond. But the way he crossed his arms said enough.
Stretching, Marcus dusted off his clothes and started walking toward the trail. He raised a hand without turning around, waving goodbye.
"Well, let's call it a night."
And then he raised his voice:
"Makomo, see you tomorrow. If you don't show up, I'm gonna walk the entire mountain screaming your name. 'Makomooo! Where aaare youuu?!' Just like that, nice and loud, so even Tanjiro can hear me."
"DON'T YOU DARE!!"
An embarrassed voice burst out of thin air.
Marcus smiled without stopping. "Then you better not miss tomorrow."
His silhouette faded among the trees until the darkness swallowed him completely.
"..."
Sabito remained where he was. Arms crossed, mask pointed toward the empty trail.
"What a weird guy."
"Mm..."
Makomo materialized beside him. Her face was still stained red and her eyes were glued to the ground.
"B-But... I don't dislike him."
Sabito looked at her with resignation and gave her a light tap on the head.
"Have a little dignity."
Makomo didn't even register the tap, as she had already lifted her gaze toward the trail where Marcus had disappeared, her eyes lost in her own thoughts.
...
From that night on, Marcus's routine gained a new item at the end of each day.
Before sleeping, climb to the top of the mountain to see Makomo.
The first few times, Sabito kept showing up. He'd stay close during the question-and-answer sessions. But as the weeks went by, Makomo's lovestruck expression wore down his patience until one day he decided it was better not to watch.
Not that he sat around doing nothing, either.
Because there was someone else on that mountain who had been hitting a rock for months without leaving so much as a scratch on it. And Tanjiro's perseverance ended up moving him.
Half a year later, just as fate dictated, Sabito appeared before Tanjiro. Not exactly as a teacher, nor as a friend. As something halfway between the two.
Mount Sagiri was immense. So tall that at the summit the air grew thin, clouds drifted by brushing the ground, the snow never melted, and sunlight almost never reached.
Maybe that's why Sabito and Makomo could stay there...
Over time, Marcus and Tanjiro became regular visitors to that snow-covered summit.
One trained during the day with everything he had, suffering every second, breaking apart and rebuilding himself.
The other climbed up at night to sit beside a little ghost girl and make the color rise to her face.
Sometimes their schedules overlapped. And when Tanjiro wanted to stay a little longer to train, Marcus kicked him out without a second thought. And Tanjiro, who wasn't stupid, started noticing the pattern.
Why did Marcus always want to be alone at the summit?
What was he doing up there every night?
The curiosity grew for weeks. Until one midnight he couldn't take it anymore, waited for Marcus to think he was asleep, let him leave, counted to a hundred, and followed him up the mountain.
He hid among the rocks and watched.
What he saw destroyed him inside.
Marcus... the same Marcus who called him "brother-in-law" every chance he got, who ruffled his hair like he was his little brother, who cooked for him and said he was going to marry Nezuko...
And honestly, as the months had gone by, Tanjiro had gotten used to all of it. It didn't bother him as much anymore. Maybe he even liked it a little.
But now...
Now it turned out that bastard...
EVERY NIGHT HE CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN TO HAVE A SECRET ROMANCE WITH ONE OF HIS TWO MASTERS?!
THAT WAS UNFORGIVABLE!!
When Tanjiro burst in like a projectile screaming "DAMN YOU, MARCUS!! WHAT DO YOU THINK NEZUKO IS TO YOU?!!", scaring Makomo so badly she vanished from the fright...
The result was predictable.
Minutes later, Tanjiro was sitting on the ground with a bruised face, his head covered in bumps, and his pride in shambles. And it was there, from the mouth of a Marcus who was still furious, that he learned the truth.
His two little masters were orphans. Both raised by Urokodaki. Both his disciples, and both... were dead.
Tanjiro cried his eyes out, his face a complete mess and snot running uncontrollably. He clung to Sabito's leg and wouldn't let go no matter how hard Sabito tried to shake him off.
As for Makomo... Tanjiro wanted to hug her too, but Marcus stopped him.
"You don't touch her."
"She's my master too, you idiot!!"
"I don't care. You don't touch her."
When the tears dried and calm returned, the first thing Tanjiro wanted was to run down and tell Urokodaki everything.
But Marcus stopped him.
Because he knew the knot in Sabito and Makomo's hearts hadn't come undone. The two of them carried the guilt of having failed. Of not having lived up to everything Urokodaki gave them. His upbringing, his training, his love.
They felt they owed him something they could no longer repay.
That's why they didn't dare face him.
And if they were going to reveal the truth to the old man, it had to be at the right moment. After defeating the Hand Demon. Only then could both sides find peace.
Tanjiro understood. He clenched his fists, nodded in silence, and from that day on channeled every last emotion in a single direction.
Train harder.
...
And so another year passed.
The seasons turned over the mountain. Throughout all that time, Tanjiro didn't stop. Not a single day.
Until that afternoon came.
In his fight against Sabito, he felt a shift. Something that had been forming for months in some deep place within his mind, something that couldn't be taught or explained, only discovered...
He saw it.
The Opening Thread.
And he cut.
The thunderous crash of the giant boulder crumbling echoed across the entire mountain like thunder born from the earth itself. Birds fled. The echo rolled down into the valley.
In the small storehouse at the foot of the mountain, Urokodaki sat cross-legged, motionless, eyes closed, and when the sound reached him, he opened them.
It was time.
________
Time: If you're craving more (and I know you are!), I have just what you need. On my Patreon, you'll find exclusive chapters. Join our community and be the first to discover what happens next!
👉 [patreon.com/Athome790]
Your support fuels me. Thank you for the support! 💖