A training clearing on Mount Fujikasane.
"Someone's coming!"
The light-orange-haired boy wearing a scarred fox mask lifted his head sharply, sensing the presence immediately.
He turned toward the path leading up from the mountain's base and spoke in a calm voice. "Is it Mr. Urokodaki's new disciple?"
A soft, airy voice answered from beside him.
The speaker was the black-haired girl sitting on the large boulder in the center of the training ground. She wore a red short kimono patterned with plum blossoms and a smiling fox mask decorated with blue flowers tilted on her head. Her clear, gentle blue eyes looked like precious lapis lazuli, giving her a naturally soft and kind appearance.
"I hope this new junior brother is stronger than the last ones. I don't want to see Mr. Urokodaki looking so heartbroken again."
Her voice was as gentle as her appearance—light and floating on the wind.
These two were none other than Giyu Tomioka's fellow disciples under the former Water Hashira Sakonji Urokodaki—the source of the old man's greatest lifelong regret.
Sabito and Makomo of the Water Breathing trainees.
"It's useless. That guy's neck is way too tough."
Sabito shook his head, rejecting Makomo's words. "A swordsman who's only just learned Breathing Techniques has no chance of cutting through it and killing that thing."
"Damn it! If only I had been a little faster… a little more careful back then!"
Sabito clenched his fist in anger and slammed it hard against the giant boulder beneath Makomo, producing a dull thud.
"Please don't blame yourself, Sabito. It wasn't your fault."
Makomo leapt down from the boulder and gently comforted him. "After all, so many of us failed, didn't we?"
As her words faded, more figures wearing fox masks slowly materialized behind her. None of them spoke. They simply stood there in silence, watching Sabito with quiet support.
Sabito's knuckles turned white. He bit his lip hard, nails digging deep into his palms.
That was exactly why he felt so bitter!
He had been Mr. Urokodaki's strongest disciple.
Yet because of his own overconfidence, he hadn't even noticed something as basic as the condition of his Nichirin Blade during the Final Selection.
In the end, when he faced the Hand Demon, his sword shattered—and in that split second of shock, he was killed.
He wasn't bitter about dying. He was furious at his own incompetence.
If he had been more careful… if he had defeated the Hand Demon on Mount Fujikasane, none of his fellow trainees would have followed him into death.
And Mr. Urokodaki wouldn't have had to suffer that pain over and over again.
"Hello there. Are you Mr. Urokodaki's disciples?"
A rather casual voice suddenly called out from in front of them, cutting through Sabito's memories.
Sabito looked up to find a black-haired, black-eyed man standing right in front of him.
"You can see me?" Sabito asked, surprised.
"Of course."
Shuya answered softly.
With his naked eyes alone, he wouldn't have been able to see these spectral figures. But the moment he activated Gyo, everything changed.
Now he could clearly see the lingering forms of every member of the Water Breathing group who had once died here.
Shuya spoke again. "So you really are Mr. Urokodaki's disciples?"
"That's right. We are."
Makomo looked at the strange man who could see them with open curiosity. "Are you the new disciple our teacher just took in?"
"Not quite."
Shuya shook his head. "Mr. Urokodaki's two new disciples are still down at the base talking with him. I came here specifically for you, Miss Makomo."
"Eh? For me?"
Makomo tilted her head, staring at the unfamiliar man in confusion.
She had been dead for five or six years already. As far as she remembered, she had never met this person before. His appearance was far too memorable for her to have forgotten him.
Shuya nodded. "Yes. To be honest, I want to make you my Nen Beast."
Makomo had always been one of Shuya's biggest "what ifs" in the Demon Slayer world.
At first, he had planned to approach her the same way he had with Mitsuri and the others—by offering a contract the moment he met her.
But the instant he laid eyes on her current state, his instincts told him something important.
His contract ability wouldn't work on a soul like Makomo.
Instead, his original Specialist ability—the one he had awakened first and barely ever used—Equivalent Exchange—was practically screaming at him.
He could use it on the girl right in front of him. By fulfilling her final regret as the exchange condition, he could claim ownership of her and turn her into a Nen Beast, just like his Snowball Beasts.
Why only Makomo?
Sure, he could technically use Equivalent Exchange on Sabito and the others too.
But it wouldn't mean anything.
Once the exchange was complete and he gained ownership, Makomo could enter Greed Island as his property.
Sabito and the rest could not.
The reason was simple.
Greed Island rejected all males except Shuya himself.
"Make us your… Nen Beast? What does that mean?"
Makomo tilted her head, finger resting on her lips, looking completely lost.
"You know what onmyoji are, right?"
Shuya explained simply. "A Nen Beast is basically the same as a shikigami that serves an onmyoji."
"I'll help you fulfill your final regret from when you were alive. In exchange, you become my Nen Beast. That's pretty much it."
"I see…"
Makomo scratched her cheek.
Onmyoji were the most famous mystical profession in the country. As a native, Makomo knew the legends well. She had always assumed they were just misunderstandings created by ordinary people who had witnessed the Demon Slayer Corps slaying demons.
But this man could actually see her. So maybe what he was saying was true?
Makomo felt a flicker of hope. If he really could kill the Hand Demon on Mount Fujikasane for them…
Then becoming his shikigami didn't sound so bad.
"Since you want us to become your shikigami, let me test your strength first!"
Before Makomo could finish thinking it through, Sabito grabbed a wooden sword and stepped forward, pointing it straight at Shuya.
He hadn't noticed that Shuya's offer had only been directed at Makomo.
In Sabito's mind, he was the strongest among them. If anyone was going to be chosen as a shikigami, there was no way this man would ignore him.
So naturally, he needed to properly gauge Shuya's power first.
Otherwise, how could a weakling possibly fulfill their greatest regret and defeat the Hand Demon?
"Um————"
Makomo stared at Sabito with his sword raised, then muttered weakly under her breath, "He… didn't say 'us,' did he?"