Mount Fujikasane. Training ground.
A massive boulder that several people could barely wrap their arms around.
The boy lay quietly on top of it, a gentle breeze brushing softly against his cheeks.
Above him, the butterfly-like girl stood in silence, her head slowly leaning closer to his position.
It was a beautiful scene.
If you ignored the slightly venomous words spilling from the girl's mouth.
Hearing the venomous whisper right next to his ear, Shuya opened his eyes.
Shinobu's amethyst-like eyes came into view.
Shuya looked completely at ease, not the slightest bit embarrassed. In a warm, neighborly-big-brother tone, he said, "Shinobu, you're here?"
"Wow, the corpse is still talking?"
Shinobu pretended to be startled and muttered to herself, "Looks like it turned into a zombie. We'll have to burn it with fire."
Shuya sat up quickly and stared at Shinobu talking to herself, breaking into a cold sweat. "Hey hey, Shinobu, that's not necessary, right?"
"Mr. Scumbag said he came to see friends, didn't he?"
Shinobu's forehead twitched with black lines. Annoyed, she snapped, "Then what is Mr. Scumbag doing here now? Lying around playing dead?"
"Alright alright, I was wrong. I'll head back to the Butterfly Mansion with you right now," Shuya said seriously, placing both hands on Shinobu's shoulders.
He had clearly promised to go to the Butterfly Mansion with her, yet he kept dragging his feet—first rushing to Demon Slayer Corps headquarters, then coming all the way to Mount Fujikasane.
If he hadn't deleted the part about dealing with the Hand Demon from his deal with Makomo earlier, he probably would have had to make another trip to Mount Fujikasane in between.
It really was his fault.
But—
Shuya looked at the slightly unhappy Shinobu and asked curiously, "Did you see Sabito and the others just now?"
"If you mean the group that went down the mountain earlier, yeah, I saw them," Shinobu nodded, though she found the question a little strange.
Hearing that, Shuya immediately pulled off one of his classic face-changing performances.
Shuya said righteously, "Then what are you standing there for? Come over here and give my back a massage!"
He hadn't followed them down the mountain because he didn't want to intrude on Sabito and the others reuniting with Sakonji Urokodaki.
That moment belonged to the teacher and his students.
An outsider like him standing around watching would have felt completely out of place.
But Shinobu had seen them and was still acting like this toward him? That didn't sit right.
Logically speaking, when it came to her sister Kanae Kocho, Shinobu should have been even more anxious than him, right?
Shuya thought he had a perfect read on Shinobu's weak spot.
What he didn't know was that Shinobu had indeed seen Sabito and the others—but not down at the base with Tanjiro and the rest.
She had run into them by chance while climbing the mountain.
So she had no idea who they actually were.
She definitely didn't know Shuya had the power to make souls manifest.
Therefore, faced with Shuya's ever-growing demands, Shinobu clenched her little fist and suggested with a deceptively friendly smile, "Then how about I use the Nichirin Blade in my hand to give you a nice scraping massage instead?"
"Hmm?"
Shuya eyed her suspiciously.
Her tone sounded off.
He asked again to confirm, "You're sure you really saw Sabito and the others just now?"
"I saw them. So what?" Shinobu replied.
For a moment, Shuya couldn't figure out what Shinobu was thinking.
If he said she was anxious—she definitely looked anxious.
But it wasn't the kind of anxiety he had expected.
It was more like an impatient, task-oriented kind of anxiety.
As if dragging him back to the Butterfly Mansion was nothing more than completing some annoying chore.
"Never mind. Forget it. Let's go. Back to the Butterfly Mansion."
Unable to figure it out, Shuya gave up thinking about it. He patted his butt and stood up from the boulder.
Without waiting for Shinobu's protests, he reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her down the mountain with him.
"Shuya-san, Shinobu-san, are you heading back already?"
Seeing the two of them leaving, Tanjiro immediately ran up and asked, "Not staying a little longer? Mr. Urokodaki said he's going to make a big feast to celebrate!"
"It really is worth celebrating."
Shuya nodded in agreement as he thought of Sabito and the others.
But after glancing at Shinobu beside him, he added, "We still have things to do, so we'll head out first. Tanjiro, you and your brother stay here and train Water Breathing properly with Mr. Urokodaki."
"Once I take care of Muzan, the rest of the demons he created will be up to you guys to handle."
As he spoke, Shuya placed a hand on Tanjiro's shoulder and gave it two firm pats.
For any demon besides Muzan—unless they had some special Blood Demon Art—Shuya had zero interest in wasting his time.
And since Tanjiro had said he wanted to contribute to defeating Muzan…
That kind of work naturally fell to him.
Assuming, of course, that the Demon Slayer Corps hadn't already wiped out all the demons by the time Tanjiro finished training.
Otherwise, once he graduated and took care of the Hand Demon specially left for him, there'd be nothing left to do.
"I understand. We'll train hard with Mr. Urokodaki."
Tanjiro nodded seriously and stopped trying to keep them. Then he said earnestly, "But while my brother and I are learning Water Breathing from Mr. Urokodaki, please take care of Nezuko and Hanako for me, Shuya-san."
"Leave it to me. I'll take good care of your two little sisters. After all, Nezuko and Hanako are so cute."
Shuya smiled and replied, "Once you graduate from Mr. Urokodaki, I promise I'll return two beautiful sisters to you."
Tanjiro muttered in an extremely soft voice—soft enough that only he could hear, "Actually… no need to return them either——"
If he could take care of Nezuko for the rest of his life, that would be perfect.
Deep down, Tanjiro trusted Shuya completely. The man had helped them so much.
He was a good person worth entrusting his sister's future to.
"What?"
This time Shuya really didn't catch it. Tanjiro had spoken too softly and too vaguely.
"No."
Seeing that Shuya hadn't heard, Tanjiro quickly waved his hands and denied it. "Nothing! I just meant—take care of yourselves, Shuya-san."
With that, he grabbed his younger brother Takeo and ran off toward Sakonji Urokodaki.
Under the sunlight.
A row of figures wearing fox masks stood beside the red-tengu-masked Sakonji Urokodaki and waved toward Shuya.
They were clearly a group of deceased souls, yet they didn't feel scary at all.
In fact, they seemed far more human than any of the man-eating demons.
But at that moment, Sabito, standing beside Sakonji Urokodaki, gave Makomo—who was still standing there foolishly waving at Shuya—a hard shove.
Pushed like that, Makomo froze for a second.
Only then did she remember she was already Shuya's Nen Beast and was supposed to leave with him.
So she broke into a small run and quickly chased after Shuya and Shinobu as they left Mount Fujikasane.