Fifteen minutes after Muichiro had left, Mukago heard a knock at the door and asked from the bedroom as she patiently awaited his return, "Who is it?!" She also grabbed her sword just in case as she got up to answer it.
"It's a slayer! I'm Takada!"
"Takada?" Mukago then unlocked the door and pulled it open. As soon as she did, she heard a gunshot and a slayer fall to the ground, dead from a bullet to the head. "Fucking Hell!" As she realized his blood had splattered all over her, she saw who had shot him and yelled, "Wait, Kengo?!"
"Yep, that's me." The two had some history from Mukago's time in the Twelve Demon Moons. "I'm Lower Moon Four now, taking your spot, Mukago. With Takada here dead, that makes a total of fifty victims tonight for me."
"Fifty victims?! Fifty?!"
"You heard me right, bitch!" He then aimed a gun at her pregnant abdomen. "Should I shoot the baby that that human boy put in you or should I shoot you first? Either way, I can kill the spawn inside you!"
Mukago drew her sword and immediately sliced his hand off before he had a chance to fire, yelling, "Fuck you!" She then declared, "Blood Demon Art: Snowy Mist!" Instantly, a white and cold mist blocked Kengo's vision, allowing her to retreat to the bedroom and lock the sliding door.
Kengo coughed and yelled, "That little escape trick won't work on me, you whore!"
Mukago yelled back, "We may have had a thing at some point, Kengo, but that was then! I'm committed to Muichiro, not to you!" She then fired several shots through the door with her revolver, striking Kengo twice. "Get out of here!"
"Never!" Kengo then broke through the door and began to wrestle with Mukago. "Now die!"
"No! Get off of me, fucker!"
"No way! Let's see how your baby does against a knife! Maybe I can cut it out of the womb and see if it's a demon or a meal for me!"
Mukago, horrified to hear him say such a thing about an unborn baby, yelled at him, "Don't you dare!"
"I will!" Mukago barely avoided being stabbed with a knife several times before she gained the upper hand and held him down on the ground after about half a minute of struggling against him. "Fuck!"
"Now you're pinned!"
As she pulled his head back to expose his neck, he yelled, "Get off of me, damn it! Let me go, you fucking traitor slut!"
"I'm not a slut for not being your partner anymore," Mukago replied with a devious smile as she pulled her revolver out again and cocked it as she pointed it at the back of his head. "I may have been a prostitute, but I'm not one anymore. Besides…" She then pulled the trigger and caused much of Kengo's head to explode. "What's wrong with that anyway?"
Kengo managed to survive the shot, and as his head reformed, he began to speak as soon as his mouth was back. "Agh… Fuck… You betrayed our master… You betrayed me… Fuck you, you heartless bitch! I'll show you what happens to people who betray us!"
"You'll try!"
"And I'll survive!" He tried to swing at her with his wakizashi, but missed her. "Damn it, stop fucking getting away from me!" He then tried again, this time with a smaller knife. "Now die!"
Before he had a chance to stab her on this second attack, she pulled out her sword and declared, "Breath of Mist, First Form: Low Clouds, Distant Haze!" She then properly decapitated Kengo with a powerful forward thrust and slash of her sword, killing him and ending his rampage once and for all. "There, that settles it."
"You bitch! You fucking bitch!"
As his head rolled on the ground, she spat on it once it began to fade away and said, "Besides, you sucked in bed. Mui's a lot better at it."
Ginko then flew back into the room just as Kengo's body disappeared. When she saw the mess that had been made into the room, she asked Mukago in a concerned tone of voice, "Mukago-sama, what happened?!"
"Tell Mui that I killed Lower Moon Four," Mukago then instructed her. "Me and the baby are safe. Wish him luck."
"You killed him?!"
"Correct," Mukago replied with a smile. "He got what was coming to him. Also, see if you can get a photography team over here. I think Kengo dropped some evidence." She noted several sheets of paper he had been carrying that now lay on the floor where his body once was. "He also admitted to killing fifty people."
"Fifty?!"
"Indeed."
"Understood," Ginko then replied with a nod. "I'll let the others know!"
…
Back in the village of Taiwa, Muichiro walked around the empty village streets as a few people began to venture out once more, seeing his uniform and being relieved. He looked up at the sky and said to himself, "A clear night… I can't see a single cloud in the sky…"
One man then ran up to him from an alleyway and said, "Thank God! You've come to save us! That man who went around here killed a bunch of us! Where is he?!"
"I have not yet seen him," Muichiro told him. "But I have more help on the way, sir."
"Thank God!" The man began to cry as he told him, "That demon thing… He killed all of my neighbors! All five of them! Even the infant wasn't spared!"
Muichiro immediately thought about Mukago and his own unborn children. "I'm sorry to hear that. One way or another, they will be avenged."
"I see," the man replied.
Then, Muichiro noticed someone else walking towards him from afar. "Wait a minute…" The man bore a sword as well as a cloak and long hair wrapped in a ponytail.
"Who's there? Is it a slayer?"
Muichiro turned to the man who had come up to him and asked him, "Is this the demon?"
"No," he affirmed. "But I think he may have been with him at some point."
"I see," Muichiro then said as he pulled his sword out. "Seek shelter. I got this."
"There's no need," said the man as the other man ran away. "I have a better spot for us to fight. On this crowded street, we don't have the luxury of a wide open space. Besides, I have taken an interest in you, young Tokito."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Kokushibo," he explained to Muichiro. "I am Upper Moon One. Now, come with me."
Muichiro immediately recognized the name, thinking to himself, "So this is the son of a bitch who killed Yoriichi's brother! I will avenge your brother, Yoriichi, no matter what you say about me being ready or not!" He then asked him, "Why should I trust you?' You betrayed and murdered the brother of Tsugikuni Yoriichi all those years ago, did you not?!"
Kokushibo sighed and turned around, yelling at someone behind him, "Come here!"
From behind him came a timid young girl, clearly shivering from fright as he approached Muichiro. "He-… He-… Help me…"
"If you don't come with me," Kokushibo threatened as he pulled his sword out. "I'll kill this girl."
"Fuck," Muichiro muttered under his breath. "Ugh… Fine, I'll go with you, but you better not fight me until we get there."
"You have my word," Yoriichi replied. "Now, follow me." He then told his hostage, "Run! Run now before I change my mind!"
"Thank you!" The girl ran away from both of them, crying her eyes out in both relief and fear.
"We will fight near the waterfall just south of Taiwa," Kokushibo explained as the two kept their distance and walked together. "I pray you manage to hold off against me well. I see great potential in you, Tokito Muichiro."
"Enough," Muichiro firmly told him. "Save it for when we fight, Kokushibo."
"Very well," he agreed. "I'll save my comments for then."
…
The two arrived at the waterfall within a few minutes, and as both took their positions, they both drew their swords in the dark of the night sky surrounding them. "You are certainly already powerful," Kokushibo told Muichiro as the two stared each other down. "But you still are not yet fully developed." The running water beside them and the waterfall behind Muichiro added in a key element to the rather dark atmosphere surrounding their impending fight.
"Why do you take such an interest in me?"
"Because of your ancestry to Tsugikuni Yoriichi," Kokushibo explained. "After all, his brother is your ancestor."
Muichiro nodded. "Yeah, you're right about that. You were around for it, after all." He then took a deep breath and declared, "Breath of Mist, Fourth Form: Shifting Flow Slash!" He then dashed towards Kokushibo at blinding speeds, causing Kokushibo to deflect an attack from beneath him. "Shit!"
The two then clashed, striking their swords many times as they tried to force the other back several feet. As Kokushibo threw Muichiro back several feet onto the ground, he told him, "You have learned much, young Tokito."
"You'll find that I'm full of surprises!" The two then clashed again.
"Breath of the Moon, First Form: Dark Moon, Evening Palace!" Kokushibo then slashed at Muichiro in a crescent shape, creating several metal crescents with his Blood Demom Art as well. Muichiro managed to block all of them before the two clashed swords once more. "Looks like Yoriichi and the Demon Slayer Corps both have taught you well!"
Muichiro asked him as the two split off once more, "Are you holding back or something?"
"Your destiny lies with me," Kokushibo explained. "Not with the Corps or with Yoriichi."
"My destiny absolutely does not! I'll never betray my comrades!" He then charged forward, declaring, "Fifth Form: Sea of Clouds and Haze!" As he unleashed a flurry of fast-moving slashes, Kokushibo deflected them all except for one, which managed to injure his shoulder. "There!"
"Shit!" Kokushibo then declared, "Third Form: Loathsome Moon, Chains!" With two large slashes through the air, he created a storm of metal crescents that all came towards Muichiro's general direction.
"Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash!" With a powerful circular slash, he managed to avoid most of the crescents, save for two which scratched his arms a bit and drew a small amount of blood. "Agh shit, that hurt!"
"Let's see if you can dodge me forever!" Kokushibo and Muichiro then clashed again, this time with Kokushibo nearly driving Muichiro to the edge of the cliff near the waterfall. Eventually, when Muichiro managed to strike Kokushibo in the lower abdomen with his foot, Kokushibo pushed him into the water, moving their fight into the creek and soaking both of their clothes. "I see you aren't using that gun the Corps issued you."
Muichiro quickly drew it and fired two shots into Kokushibo. "Well now I just did!"
Kokushibo muttered to himself in minor pain, "Fuck…" He then chuckled. "Young Tokito… Don't you realize that that minuscule amount of poison won't work on me? You'd have to shoot me hundreds of times to even permanently damage me, let alone kill me."
"Fine," he replied as he holstered his gun and renewed focus on his sword exclusively. "I'll kill you the old-fashioned way! Seventh Form: Obscuring Clouds!" He then moved at an erratic pace, causing Kokushibo to look around for where he was as a cloud of mist enveloped the area around him. "Here I come!" Then, in an instant, Muichiro appeared to Kokushibo very suddenly, causing him to lose an arm and drop his sword into the water
"My arm! Damn it!" Kokushibo then picked his sword up with his uninjured arm as his other arm healed itself very quickly. "That's a new one. Did you make that yourself?"
"I did! The Seventh Form of the Breath of Mist is my own creation!"
"Then how about this?" Kokushibo took a deep breath before declaring, "Fifth Form: Moon Spirit Calamitous Eddy!" He created several layered crescent-shaped slashes in an attempt to strike Muichiro down with metal crescents.
"Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash!" Another round of this form of the Breath of Mist was able to save Muichiro for the time being despite the attack driving him right up for the edge of the waterfall, right up until a crescent managed to snag his sword and toss it into the water before it went over the edge and fell down the waterfall to the river about thirty feet below. "No! My sword!"
Kokushibo approached him and aimed his sword at his head as he told him, "You're finished. There is no escape now. Don't make me kill you, Tokito Muichiro."
"Try me…"
"You have no idea what the true extent of your potential power is," Kokushibo told him. "Even though you've been a slayer for a year, you've only just begun to discover the truth about you and your ancestry." He then made an offer to him. "Join me and become a demon, and I can complete your training. Kibutsuji Muzan-sama has foreseen your potential as well. With our combined strength, we can end this devastating war between demons and humans, and we can usher in a new era of order, peace, and justice in not just Japan, but in the entire world!"
Muichiro angrily spat back at him, "I'd rather die than join you!"
Kokushibo decided that now was the time to tell him the truth. "Yoriichi never told you what happened to his brother."
Muichiro told him with an enraged tone. "He told me enough!" As he stood up, he said, "He told me you killed him!"
"No," Kokushibo corrected him. "I was his brother, and I am your ancestor!"
It was as if the whole world came down on Muichiro's shoulder as he tried and failed to process Kokushibo's revelation. "No… No… That's not true!" As tears flowed down his face from his eyes, he yelled, "That's not possible! I could ever be related to a monster like you!"
"Look deep into your heart," Kokushibo instructed him. "You know it to be true!"
"No! No! Noooooo!"
"Forget Muzan," Kokushibo implored. "Forget all about the war! The two of us can rule the world as ancestor and descendant! We can be like father and son, even! As a demon, you could surpass even me if you put your mind to it! You could become the new Upper Moon One! You will become my greatest creation!"
"Never!" Muichiro looked down at the water below and thought to himself, "I'll take my chances in the water! My only other choice is to stay here and be slaughtered!"
As he leapt off the waterfall and dove into the water below, Kokushibo yelled, "Wait, Muichiro!" From the water below, he heard a giant splash, and as he looked down, he shook his head and said to himself, "I've failed this time… But next time, I will prevail…"
As Muichiro floated in the water below, having stopped just before he would have hit the bottom of the riverbed, he thought to himself, "No… I can't be related to an Upper Moon… How could I be?! Why did Yoriichi lie to me about his brother?! Why did his brother betray us?!" His world was coming apart at the seams, and he slowly began to question everything he knew and loved in his life as he slowly gave up. "Is everything I know a lie? What else have people been hiding from me?" When he surfaced, he began to float down the river, no longer caring about anything, even his own life. "Why, world? Why must you curse me?"
