Tanjiro glanced around at the Hashira, then slowly stood up, enduring the pain in his body as he spoke.
"My… my little sister… cough, cough…"
Before he could finish even a single sentence, a violent coughing fit seized him.
Seeing this, Shinobu took out a gourd, opened it, and handed it to him.
"You should drink some water first," she said gently. "I've added a painkiller—it'll ease your discomfort a bit. But your wounds aren't healed, so don't push yourself too hard."
Tanjiro took the gourd and gulped down a few mouthfuls. His condition improved slightly.
After catching his breath, he lifted his head and continued.
"That demon is my younger sister. While I was away from home, my family was attacked. When I returned, everyone was already dead. My sister became a demon, but she hasn't eaten a single human—not then, not now, and never will. She will never harm people."
So it really is like that…
Hearing Tanjiro's words, Kazuki let out a quiet sigh of relief. He chose to believe him. Back during the Final Selection, he had already realized that Tanjiro was someone who simply couldn't lie—he would rather say nothing than fabricate words.
However, the other Hashira were clearly unconvinced.
"Don't spout such dull delusions," Obanai said from the tree, pointing idly in front of him. "Protecting one's family is only natural, but that's precisely why your words are utterly untrustworthy. I won't believe you."
Gyomei also did not accept Tanjiro's words. With his hands clasped together and tears streaming down his face, he lamented,
"Ahhh… He has been possessed by a demon. Quickly kill this pitiful child and grant him release."
Gyomei disliked children. In his eyes, children were prone to lying and fundamentally unreliable. Likewise, he did not believe a word Tanjiro said.
Yet Gyomei had not always been this way.
In his youth, when he was still a monk living at a temple, he would often take in orphaned children with nowhere to go, treating them as his own family.
That changed completely after a single incident.
One night, a child named Kaigaku broke Gyomei's rule against staying out after dark. When he encountered a demon, he extinguished the wisteria incense Gyomei had lit in the temple—sacrificing everyone else to save himself—and led the demon inside.
Chaos erupted among the children in the temple.
Blind as he was, Gyomei instructed the children to stay by his side and not run. He knew his body was exceptionally strong—if they stayed with him, he could protect them.
Yet aside from a four-year-old girl named Sayo, all the other children fled. Every one of them was slaughtered by the demon.
Blind and malnourished, Gyomei was powerless to save them.
All he could do was protect the girl who stayed by his side. For her sake, he fought the demon barehanded, risking his life. With a body beyond ordinary human limits, he crushed the demon's head with his own hands.
At dawn, the demon turned to ash and vanished.
What awaited Gyomei afterward was not gratitude from the girl he had protected, but her terrified accusation—she pointed at him and claimed that he was the one who had killed the other children.
The demon was already gone, all evidence erased. Gyomei was thrown into prison. Had it not been for Kagaya's intervention, he would have been executed as a murderer.
From that day on, Gyomei lost all faith in children—and in the human heart itself. He became suspicious, guarded, and mistrustful.
Listening to Tanjiro now, Gyomei saw him as no different from those children who once lied so easily. Demons had to be slain—and so too did those who sheltered them.
Hearing Obanai and Gyomei's words, Tanjiro grew anxious. Nezuko was still nowhere to be seen, and his worry deepened.
"Please, listen to me!" Tanjiro pleaded. "I became a swordsman to cure Nezuko! She turned into a demon over two years ago, and in all that time she has never eaten a human!"
He spoke desperately, doing everything he could to convince the Hashira.
But in his panic, he merely repeated the same claims as before—words that could not sway those who had already decided not to believe him.
"You're just going in circles, idiot," Tengen said, noticing this. "Not eating humans, never eating humans—don't just say it. Prove it, flashily."
At that moment, Mitsuri hesitated, then quietly voiced a thought.
"Um… but I have a question. I don't think the Master would be unaware of this situation. Is it really okay for us to punish them on our own? Shouldn't we wait for the Master to arrive…?"
Kazuki understood as well. Judging from the Kasugai Crow's orders—which had not commanded Nezuko's immediate execution—he believed that the Master was likely aware of Tanjiro bringing his demon sister along on missions, and may even have tacitly approved.
Thus, Kazuki remained silent, choosing to wait and see how things unfolded once the Master arrived.
Of course, if the other Hashira attempted to execute Tanjiro by force before then, he would intervene.
Realizing that repeating himself would never convince them, Tanjiro changed his approach.
"My sister—! My sister can fight alongside me! She can fight for the Demon Slayer Corps, to protect humans! So—!"
He shouted, but before he could finish, another voice cut him off.
"Well, well. Looks like something interesting is going on here."
Sanemi Shinazugawa had entered the courtyard at some point, his body covered in scars that gave him a ferocious appearance. In his hand, he carried a wooden box.
"So this is the idiot swordsman who travels with a demon? What the hell is he planning?" Sanemi sneered, his hoarse voice curling into a grin.
A Kakushi hurried after him, trying to retrieve the box.
"This puts me in a difficult position, Shinazugawa-sama. Please, put that down."
Because everyone's attention had been focused on Tanjiro, Kazuki hadn't noticed the Wind Hashira's arrival.
So that box contains Tanjiro's demon sister…
His gaze settled on the box.
"Shinazugawa-san, shouldn't we wait for the Master to handle this matter?" Kazuki said, sensing Sanemi's unstable emotions.
Sanemi ignored him, staring at Tanjiro instead.
"You said what? A demon fighting for the Demon Slayer Corps? Protecting humans? That kind of thing…"
As he spoke, his right hand moved to the hilt of his sword.
"How could that possibly be true, you idiot!"
The Nichirin blade flashed from its sheath, the green edge thrust toward the box in his other hand.
But in the next instant, the box vanished.
Sanemi's blade struck only empty air.
"Kazuki—what do you think you're doing? Are you going to harbor demons along with this idiot?"
Sanemi slowly turned around.
The Kazuki who had been standing beside Shinobu was now behind him, holding the box that contained Nezuko.
"I just think we should wait for the Master to pass judgment on this," Kazuki replied calmly, handing the box back to the Kakushi.
"Th-thank you…" the Kakushi said nervously, accepting it with a bow.
Sanemi looked as though he wanted to say more—but at that moment, two childlike voices rang out.
"The Master has arrived."
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