Summary: This is the end! The final struggle, and epilogue.

Hyakkimaru and Tahomaru lay side by side, Hyakkimaru looked peaceful, the passing panic had overwhelmed him, but he was not in danger, and all knew that he would recover in time, Tahomaru on the other hand, though he was not conscious; writhed, sweating and muttering feverishly, fighting what seemed to be a losing battle against the demon's venom which threatened to overtake him.

"Where am I?" Tahomaru found himself in deep darkness, he could see nothing around him, but he could see his own hands in front of him, and his own body plain as day.

He walked around the dark place, but judging by the echo of his footsteps, he could tell that he was walking through a hallway, and yet no matter which direction he walked, he could not feel any walls.

"As anyone here!?" He shouted into the darkness, "answer if you can hear me!?"

He had not expected to be answered with the sound of children laughing in the distance, but the sound could have been anything and he would have still reacted the same, he sprinted towards the sound of other humans in the vicinity, The sounds becoming more familiar the closer he got, he could start to see their shapes but when he got close enough to see who they were, he stopped.

He was looking at his childhood self, playing with Mutsu and Hyogo, who are the same age as they had been in comparison to him.

"You three were so happy weren't you?"

Tahomaru's eyes darted towards the source of that sinister voice!

"Nimuru!" He said angrily, seeing the demon stand there in his leopard form "what is this place!?" He demanded.

"That's difficult to answer" Nimuru replied. "Let's just say we are now both looking into your soul"

"My soul?"

"Yes," said Nimuru gesturing to the scene where the three children played, "for example, this was what gave you happiness and fulfillment, and this…"

As Nimuru spoke, a different image flashed before his eyes. The corpse is of Mutsu and Hyogo, lying in pieces besides the dying horse, "this was done by your enemy" images of Mutsu and Hyogo together with him, images of their severed arms, images of Mutsu lying sick in bed, images of Mutsu dead, images of Hyogo wounded, images of Hyogo dead, images of Hyakkimaru, with blades for arms, with both of his arms, covered on blood, images of the pillar where he, Musty and Hyogo measured their growth, crumbling inside the burning palace….

"You bastard," Tahomaru said enraged, "you won't succeed in turning me against my bro-" but as he spun around to tell Nimuru these words, he saw that Nimuru was no longer standing there, what stood before him; was a mirror-image of himself.

Tahomaru saw a second Tahomaru, staring back at him.

" He was not my brother," the mirror-image said to him, "Hyogo was my brother… and Mutsu was my sister, and Hyakkimaru was a stranger, who then became an enemy!"

"Your wrong!" Tahomaru protested, "Hyakkimaru is my blood!"

But his doppelganger rebuffed this; "Hyakkimaru was banished from the lands of Daigo before you were even born, your home was never his home, your father's lands were never his lands, you are raised with Mutsu and Hyogo!"

"Hyakkimaru didn't kill them!" Tahomaru shouted, knowing where this conversation was headed.

"He is responsible for their deaths"

"No! My brother had his body stolen from him! The demons are responsible for what happened to Mutsu and Hyogo!"

"The demons also had to protect what was theirs, they had a contract, and Hyakkimaru violated that contract!"

"Shut up!" Tahomaru was getting angry "How could Hyakkimaru have possibly broken a contract which he never made! Our father gave something to the demons which weren't his to give!"

"That's not what you said when we fought him together as a team" came another familiar voice from behind.

Tahomaru turned around again, his eyes grew wide with sentiment, as he looked at the sad faces of Mutsu and Hyogo.

"Did we not agree young master" continued Mutsu, "that the three of us would protect Daigo from any demon who threatened it… together"

Ice ran through Tahomaru's veins, he looked from Mutsu to Hyogo, and then to the doppelganger of himself;

"H- Hyakkimaru saved me, he even sacrificed his eyesight so that I could live…" he then turned to Mutsu and Hyogo and shouted with tears forming in his eyes "... And everything that I said back then about my brother… I didn't mean it! I didn't know it at the time! But I was blaming my brother for the attention that our mother never gave me! I know better than that now! I know that it wasn't his fault! It wasn't his fault that I felt so distant from our mother! And it wasn't his fault that I lost you two!" He declared with all the certainty he could muster.

"If that's the case," said the doppelganger, "then why is it that deep down, I still hate him?"

"Because you! Are not! Me!" Roared Tahomaru angrily! He turned and punched his own mirror image, but the moment his fist grazed the image, the scenery around him all changed, he was no longer standing in a dark corridor, he was now standing at the end of a magnificent hall, one he recognized, it was inside of the palace he grew up in.

He saw many nobles and Samurai there, all decorated in their most ceremonial dress, he saw Mutsu and Hyogo there, beaming proudly as they looked up, they were older than he had remembered them, his parents were there too, also older.

Even though she must have aged 10-15 years in this scene, his mother still looked beautiful, and she smiled warmly, looking in the same direction as Mutsu, Hyogo, and his father, they were looking at his doppelganger, or rather, they were looking at him; grown into a young man, wearing the robes of a Shogun.

Kagemitsu laughed with pride, the way he had done when Tahomaru was much younger, and the way he had hoped his father would laugh with pride again.

His mother beamed so lovingly at him, the way he had always hoped that she would.

And Mutsu and Hyogo stood smiling by his side, the way he had envisioned they always would be.

And then the scenery changed again, the hall was empty, burnt, reduced to rubble, and now we're home for the bugs. Mutsu and Hyogo were dead, his father was dead, the lands of Daigo were crumbling, and his mother's attention was still divided.

His clone walked up behind him. "My dream is over," he said, "and now this is my reality"

Tahomaru trembled all over, he felt his skin crawl. He had just seen something so sweet literally turn to ashes and dust before his eyes, and he was starting to realize... his naivety...

"Hyakkimaru was never in my life! He was never in my palace! He was never in my father's will or my mother's hearth! We never played together as children! He came to my lands to get his body back, and he destroyed everything! as if I have to love him just because we share the same blood!?"

"So what do you want me to do about it huh!?" He retorted to his other self, "what's happened has happened, Killing Hyakkimaru won't change any of it back!"

The scene changed again, Tahomaru now felt the heat of fire all around him, and a sword was in his hand, he saw his brother charging at him, he instinctively stepped back, until Hyakkimaru's sword caught on the doorframe; and then the scene froze.

Tahomaru remembered this moment, he and his brother had been fighting, but at this moment, Hyakkimaru who was not used to having this much reach as he just got his arms back; miscalculated his own range, and in a moment, left himself stuck in a vulnerable position.

"I remember this," said the doppelganger.

Tahomaru looked up at him, his clone was not acknowledging him, he was lost in the moment as if this were his own memory.

"Yes, Hyakkimaru's sword got stuck here, I could have killed him then but I hesitated, and he was able to evade me… why did I hesitate?"

Tahomaru looked back at the frozen image of his brother, at this point, Mutsu and Hyogo were already dead, and their palace was already burning, the only thing Tahomaru hadn't yet lost at this point was his father, who died rescuing Hyakkimaru.

Had he killed Hyakkimaru at this point, it would not have saved Mutsu or Hyogo, it would not have saved his home, but it would have been an end to his struggles, the person who ruined everything by coming to Daigo; a person who's existence resulted in the destruction of all he had ever known; he could have ended then and there, and now here he was, reliving that moment, but with time all around him Frozen.

His hesitation would not cost him anything here, he had the leisure to make his decision, and he seemed to know what he wanted.

"that's right boy, you never loved him"

He stood up, still holding his sword in his hand, and put the tip to his brother's cheat, just over his heart. Everything about this felt so real…

"your stupid sense of Samurai Honor kept you devoted to your biological brother, but you realize now that you've always hated him!"

Tahomaru's mirror-image commented behind him; "yes! If I kill him here! I shall take his body back to the hall of hell! I'll feed him to the demons again! Maybe I can still save Mutsu and Hyogo!"

"that's it boy! cut him down! realize your grief and hatred!"

Tahomaru, still holding his sword, closed his eyes in deep thought, he knew what he had to do, and yet he understood that he would never be able to escape the memory of this moment, he would always look back on it no matter what…

He gripped the handle of his sword and both hands, and with flawless form, and The tear rolling down his cheek, swung down with all his might!...

…. And cut down his other self!

Nimuru cried out in disbelief! "How! Howww!" He roared in the agony of defeat!

"I am inside of your soul Tahomaru! I have seen what resides in the deepest recesses of your heart!" These words! These thoughts! They are all yours! Your brother ruined your life! You hate him!"

"No!" Tahomaru corrected him. "My brother is the one thing in my life that is keeping me from falling down the same path as my late father!"

"But what about Mutsu and Hyogo!?" Demanded the demon, " you were raised together with them! You and Hyakkimaru are bound only by blood! You two have nothing in common! Are you really going to let him replace those two!"

"No," Tahomaru corrected him again, "Hyakkimaru is not a replacement for them, he is my true brother, and besides..."

He now stood over Nimuru, overpowering him with his sheer presence, Nimuru was looking up at Tahomaru, and Tahomaru was looking down on him, with the same determined expression in his eyes as his father, causing the demon to shrink back as he looked into them!

"...Do you honestly expect me to believe that Mutsu and Hyogo would have wanted me to become a demon?... What kind of fool do you take me for?"

The smug expression fell from Nimuru's face, as he shrank back into the void from which he came, he had been defeated.

The worried spectators sat around Tahomaru as he stirred, Hyakkimaru was now awake, and among them, and as Tahomaru's breathing began to relax, Biwamaru feared the worst.

The boy's aura was flashing red.

Biwamaru sighed deeply, "this child has lost the battle," he thought to himself sadly.

He turned to the others, he was about to tell them all to leave, as he did not want them to be in the room when he killed this demon, however before he could speak the words, he heard Lady Nui's gasp and turned around to see what she had seen.

Tahomaru was now awake and sitting upright, but what Biwamaru could see that she hadn't, was that the demonic energy had been completely exorcised from his aura, his soul was clean.

Biwamaru was astonished, Nimuru had existed for thousands of years, and never once had anyone been wounded by him, and not became a demon themselves.

This child had stood up to the demon, and won.

Tahomaru blinked, he saw the shocked face of the Priest Biwamaru, the relieved faces of Dr. Jukai, his brother Hyakkimaru, that brat Dororo, and the face of his beautiful mother, her eyes sparkling with tears of joy…

He was happy to see them all, even Dororo.

In January of the following year

"Nuiiii" Dororo called impatiently, "what are you doing in there for so long?"

"Patience now Dororo" she responded kindly, a Genpuku is an important milestone in a boy's life, Tahomaru is going to become a man, and be given his adult name, we women should look our best for the occasion"

"I don't really get what the big deal is," said Dororo rolling her eyes, "what is it with you nobles and-... Wait a minute, did you just say ' we women' ?"

"There is no need to hide it anymore," said Lady Nui smiling as she came out of her room (wearing the most beautiful Kimono Dororo had ever seen)

"You are no longer traveling on the dangerous road, you're here, and your safe, with us, your new family" and she cupped Dororo's cheek which was now red as a Tomato.

"Besides," she said, "I'm sure your brothers have already noticed, your starting to become very pretty, now why don't we go and get you changed into some nicer cloth-" Nui was cut off by the surprise of Dororo's little body crashing into her; in a teary embrace. She smiled and patted the girl's head lovingly, Dororo's days of petty theft and vagrancy were behind her, she had found her new home, and adoptive family, even Tahomaru, she now referred to as "Aniki" the same as Hyakkimaru.

The two ladies now entered the courtyard where the ceremony was taking place; dressed to impress.

Hyakkimaru noticed and smiled at them, his tattered Yukata had been exchanged for a Kimono of the same color and pattern, over which he wore a white Jinbaori, they turned their attention to Tahomaru, the man of the hour. He knelt before a priest, and a Samurai's Helmet was placed on his head.

He would be given the new name, ' Daigo Akimitsu' Akimitsu meaning "the bright light of Daigo" and he ruled the lands of Daigo with strength and mercy.

As the lands prospered, Hyakkimaru and Dororo enjoyed their new palace lives, free from the stresses of politics and power that Akimitsu dealt with. However, as comfortable as the palace life is, it's still underwhelming for one used to the adventures of life on the road.

On one night many years later, just like many other nights before, Akimitsu was in his study on the top floor of his study, his new wife already asleep downstairs, he had just finished reviewing a report on the review from this season's harvest, and had a lot more tedious work to complete afterward, when he heard the sound of pebbles thrown onto the balcony. He stepped outside, and looked down at the two who were waiting for him, Dororo was waving at him.

"C'mon Aniki!" She called, "you need another escape!"

Tahomaru grinned mischievously back at them, it was just going to be another one of their spontaneous adventures.

Notes: So this story is finally complete! a big thank you to anyone who read this far! please let me know in the comments what you thought of it, I can take it!