Chapter 25: Ultimately, You Killed Him
"Shut up! You beast!"
Masashi jerked his head up, his eyes bloodshot and filled with veins.
"Oh? Getting angry?"
The demon shrugged nonchalantly, his tone light and mocking,
"Don't look at me like that.
Survival of the fittest—that's just the law of nature.
Your brother rushed in like a fool to save you and ended up dying,
You can only blame him for being too stupid, and yourself for being too weak.
If you were a bit stronger, wouldn't he still be alive?
Ultimately, you're the one who killed him."
These words were like a poisoned dagger, accurately stabbing into the softest, most festering wound in Masashi's heart.
"Aaaaaah! I'll kill you!!"
Masashi let out a heart-wrenching roar.
The string of his sanity snapped completely at that moment.
He released one hand and reached for the Nichirin Sword beside him, which was emitting a faint green glow.
Just as Masashi was prepared to charge forward recklessly, a faint pull came from his arms.
It was Masaki.
Masaki's hand, which had already begun to lose its warmth, tightly gripped Masashi's collar.
"Ma... Masashi... No... Don't..."
Masaki struggled to open his eyes wide, his pupils already beginning to dilate,
But he still stared fixedly at his younger brother, his eyes filled with pleading,
"Run... Run quickly..."
"Brother! I'm not running! I'm going to avenge you! I'm going to slaughter him!"
Masashi cried out, trying to break free from his brother's grip, but he didn't dare use too much force for fear of hurting him.
"Listen to me!!"
Masaki suddenly erupted with a low growl, like a final burst of terminal lucidity,
The voice was hoarse and grating, yet it stunned Masashi,
"You can't beat him... You'll die...
If you die too... who will remember me...
Who will... live on for us..."
A single turbid tear rolled down from the corner of Masaki's eye.
"Masashi... live on... take my share... and live..."
His voice grew smaller and smaller, like a kite with a broken string.
The knuckles of Masaki's hand gripping Masashi's collar gradually loosened,
Finally, it fell powerlessly onto the muddy, blood-soaked ground with a soft thud.
His eyes remained half-open, but they no longer held any light,
They were forever frozen in that final gaze upon his younger brother.
The wind stopped.
Masashi stared blankly at the brother in his arms.
That familiar face now seemed so foreign,
No rising and falling of breath, no warm body temperature,
All that remained was a shell that was gradually turning cold.
"Brother?"
Masashi called out softly.
No response.
"Brother... don't scare me... wake up..."
Masashi nudged Masaki's shoulder.
Still no response.
A wave of immense panic submerged Masashi.
He suddenly hugged Masaki's corpse tightly, burying his face in his brother's cold neck,
He let out a desperate wail:
"Brother—!! Wake up! Didn't you say you'd protect me for a lifetime?
Didn't you say that when this mission was over, you'd take me to eat that delicious Udon?
You liar! Get up!!"
"Tsk tsk tsk, dead already?"
The demon's impatient voice broke Masashi's mourning.
He picked his ear with his pinky, looking at the two brothers on the ground with a face full of disgust,
"Aren't you people from the Demon Slayer Corps supposed to have strong willpower?
Shouting things like 'for humanity' and'slaying demons' so loudly.
And the result?
Dead just because your heart has a hole in it?
That's way too fragile."
As the demon spoke, he slowly approached Masashi,
"I guess this won't do; he stopped breathing so quickly.
Hey, you over there, the living one,
You'd better hold out a bit longer,
Don't be a disappointment like your useless brother."
Masashi's crying stopped abruptly.
He slowly raised his head.
That originally delicate and youthful face was now covered in tear stains and blood, his expression as ferocious as a wounded beast.
He didn't speak, but silently placed Masaki's body gently on the ground,
He took off his Haori and covered his brother's face, which had died with eyes open.
"Brother, I'm sorry."
Masashi murmured in a low voice,
"I can't do it... I can't leave you here alone and run away.
If I leave you here alone to be eaten by a beast like this...
Then what's the point of me being alive?
That kind of thing... only a coward could do it.
If I were to live on like that, I would spend my whole life wishing I were dead."
He stood up and grabbed the green Nichirin Sword stuck in the ground.
The blade vibrated, letting out a clear, sharp ring, as if responding to its master's resolute determination.
The wind began to blow again.
"Wind Breathing."
Masashi took a deep breath, a large amount of oxygen flooding into his lungs, strengthening every muscle fiber,
Stimulating every nerve.
The soil beneath his feet instantly cracked, and he charged out like an arrow from a bow.
"I will... I will definitely kill you!!"
"Fourth Form: Rising Dust Storm!"
The Nichirin Sword in Masashi's hand swung upward from below,
Five sharp wind blades swept up like a dust storm, aiming directly for the demon's head.
Looking at the charging Masashi, the demon didn't panic; instead, he revealed an even more excited, cruel grin.
"Yes! That's it! This is how prey should look!
Be angry! Hate me!
That way, your flesh will be even more delicious!"
Facing the wind blades sharp enough to slice through metal, the demon didn't dodge. He simply raised his right arm.
"Too slow! Too weak!"
"Bang!"
A loud explosion.
There was no sound of a blade cutting into flesh as expected, only the crisp sound of metal striking rock.
Masashi's certain-hit strike was stopped cold by the demon's bare hand.
The wind blades struck the demon's arm, leaving only a few shallow white marks.
The difference in strength was a chasm of despair.
"What..."
Masashi's pupils shrank. Before he could react, the demon's other fist arrived with the sound of howling wind.
"Get lost!"
The punch landed squarely on Masashi's abdomen.
"Pfft—!"
Masashi felt as if he had been hit by a high-speed train,
His internal organs seemed to shift and shatter in an instant.
A large mouthful of blood, mixed with fragments of internal organs, sprayed from his mouth.
His body flew backward like a kite with a broken string, slamming hard into a large tree over ten meters away.
"Crack!"
That was the sound of his spine fracturing.
Masashi slid down the tree trunk, slumped at the roots like a pile of mud.
The intense pain made him almost faint, his vision went black, and his ears were filled with a buzzing ring.