If Inori wanted to leave, there was probably no one who could keep her.
It was only that Kocho Kanae was curious why she always carried so many secrets... She'd become a non-human creature out of nowhere, and no matter how close the person questioning her, the moment the topic touched on that, she'd cleverly steer it elsewhere, watertight.
Her sudden defeat of Muzan was baffling too. Though Inori had waved the matter off in a few light words, Kanae felt it couldn't be that simple... This person, Inori, was truly, truly hard to read.
You say she's a good person? By "good person," do you mean the Demon King who took over from Muzan and now governs the Twelve Kizuki?
You say she's bad? Yet she was willing to execute a loyal, devoted subordinate for the sake of half a month's affection at the Butterfly Mansion... "Good" and "bad" really were too childish a frame. There were few absolutes of good and evil in this world.
If one day Inori tore off the mask and said all the warm moments between them had been a performance, that she'd wanted something out of her, Kanae wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
Yet even so... Kanae was still willing to believe in her. Willing to believe she really did have unspeakable difficulties and hidden reasons, willing to believe that one day she'd open her heart. That was Kanae's virtue—her gentleness—and at the same time her greatest flaw.
It was probably why she could accept Inori so quickly, too. At first she'd simply wanted to help her cure the strange illness in her body, and then, in the daily closeness that followed, she'd gradually been won over by the other's charm.
—She even owed her a life.
"Could be a few days, could be a few weeks. Or years."
That was the last thing she left behind.
When Inori left, she gave them no earth-shattering, heaven-moving vow—only a simple farewell, the date of her return blurred and uncertain. Because of her identity, Kanae and the others couldn't even see her off in person for the last stretch. They could only watch her fly over that wall and vanish.
—Just like the reed thicket that night.
...
...
Inori's departure, the deaths of Muzan and Doma, Kanae stepping back into a supporting role—every upheaval had unfolded in the span of a few short days.
The skies of the Demon Slayer Corps changed and changed again. Any detached bystander would have gorged themselves sick on the drama.
Kocho Kanae's daily routine shifted too—from going out to hunt demons, to poring over the notes and hard-won wisdom left behind by the veteran Cultivators, preparing for the Cultivator's career ahead of her. And of course, she already had a perfect candidate for a disciple in mind: Tsuyuri Kanao.
Her original plan had been to take Kanao on as her Tsuguko once the girl passed the Final Selection. But now she herself no longer had that standing. With the Flower Hashira's seat left vacant, the already talent-starved Demon Slayer Corps had frost heaped upon snow... Still, the one thing she could do was pour herself into raising newcomers.
Thankfully, that too was a thoroughly enjoyable thing.
"Shinobu, good morning."
Strolling down the corridor, she happened upon her own little sister, and Kanae went up to greet her happily.
But the other wore a strange expression—uneasy, even.
"Nee-san... you'd better come take a look."
"Something's happened again?"
Kanae was thrown for a moment.
—When it rains it pours. Don't tell me another Corps member's been attacked by an Upper Rank demon?
"There's a girl who's come to the Butterfly Mansion. She says she wants to see you."
Kocho Shinobu answered, a little troubled.
"A girl?"
"Yes."
"She claims to be Inori's little sister."
...
...
Ouma Mana was thoroughly depressed, thoroughly irritated—right up until she drew near the Butterfly Mansion, when she finally smoothed the mood down.
She couldn't wrap her head around it. Counting both her past life and this one, she'd lived more than twenty years, so why did she have to be written in as Inori's little sister? She'd only been born two or three years ago, all told! Fine, even that she could let slide... The crux was that her body, at the time it died, had been thirteen or fourteen—a child the same age as Kocho Shinobu.
So after Inori relinquished control and went roaming into the depths of the soul... Mana had at last, after so long, gotten a real body of her own. As expected, the binding of the Nameless Monster had come undone, and she'd turned human.
But here was the strange part... The Nameless Monster, together with Inori's star-shaped birthmark, had vanished. And then Mana herself had become the girl she'd been at thirteen. They only shared a soul, yet now that Inori was gone she'd reverted to her old form—an eeriness beyond words.
Still, this shape did make it easier to muddy the waters and hide who she was.
The demons' side was in disarray now too. The newly installed Queen had barely warmed her seat before vanishing, dumping everything onto Upper Rank One, Kokushibo. The Demon Slayer Corps knew nothing, and was likewise scouring the world for Inori... but these people would never know that the Demon King, Inori, was living quite comfortably right under their noses.
Before knocking, Ouma Mana ran through the fabricated backstory in her mind one more time, and only then rapped on the door.
The swordsman who opened it was frightened, and hurriedly called for Kocho Shinobu. Shinobu, hearing her announce herself, couldn't make up her mind either, and went to find her elder sister for help.
"You're Inori-chan's sister?"
Mana forced herself to nod, mimicking Inori's micro-expressions to put on a timid, cowering look.
"..."
Kanae and her sister Shinobu exchanged a glance without meaning to, both feeling this girl was a bit of a handful. She really did look a great deal like Inori—the same hair color, the same eye color—only her figure was noticeably smaller, and though her hair was pink as well, it was purer, lighter than Inori's.
Inori's pink-to-white gradient was a touch too domineering, but this girl's pink put a person at ease... it had a fresh, tender green-shoot quality all its own.
"My name is Ouma Mana."
Mana delivered the line she'd long prepared.
"Ouma? But your sister just goes by 'Inori,' doesn't she—no family name at all?"
Kocho Shinobu looked at her curiously.
"...Ouma is our family name. 'Inori' is the name my sister took for herself after she left home."
Ouma Mana lifted her head to answer. Her face was youthful, but the resolve in those eyes let Kocho Kanae catch a few traces of Inori's shadow... So Inori-chan was born an Ouma. Then "Inori" probably isn't her real name either.
"If you're looking for your sister, you've come too late."
Kocho Shinobu first made sure no one else was around to overhear them, and only then let out a breath.
"She left several days ago. We don't know where she went either."
"I'm not here for her. I'm here for Kocho Kanae."
Ouma Mana knit her brows, fixing a very serious gaze on the big sister who stood a head and more taller than her.
"For me?"
Kanae blinked, a little startled, and found it rather interesting.
"Why?"
"So that I can defeat my sister with my own hands!" Ouma Mana clenched her small fists tight, resentment brimming over in her voice. "To make her pay the price for the crimes she's committed!"
—So she isn't here to find family. She's here for revenge.
Kocho Kanae nodded, grasping the gist of it in an instant.
Inori's home had suffered some accident, some upheaval, because of this strange illness of hers. Cases of families broken and lives lost to demons happened around her every day. But Kanae truly couldn't have imagined that the level-headed, optimistic Inori-chan could be swayed by the monster's blood in her body.
"Crimes... what, specifically?"
"That has nothing to do with you."
Ouma Mana refused to answer.
She understood very well that some things, told too much like the truth, only sprout flaws instead. There was no need to explain here at all. As long as she sent these two women's impression of Inori-chan plummeting, that was enough—heh heh, then she wouldn't have to worry about one of them stealing Inori-chan away!
"I want to defeat my sister... but I'm too weak. So I need to join the Demon Slayer Corps and learn how to fight demons. Please, help me."
"Good eyes."
Kocho Shinobu didn't overthink it. She simply felt the girl's courage was admirable, her ambition grand—and besides, she was Inori's sister. Inori was strong as a demon lord, so her little sister's talent should be no less. Surely she was raw material worth shaping.
"Nee-san, why don't we take her in? You'll be a Cultivator soon anyway. Let Mana and Kanao be your very first disciples together—how about it?"
"This..."
Kocho Kanae hesitated.