^ Chapter 53 - Purgatorio ^

Shinobu was not expecting herself to be in a nearly identical scenario as Dōma was when she ended his life. The irony was enough to make her chuckle a little to herself while gripping her head, the insane amount of chatter occurring within it making her see stars. She couldn't even hear her own among the chaos, and it wasn't just her feeling the strain. Her comrades were in the same boat as her, suffering the onslaught of thoughts and emotions from the billions of humans that occupied the globe.

Inosuke was softly growling to himself while curled up in a ball, doing anything he could to block out the sounds in his head. Zenitsu was hugging himself, but compared to the others he wasn't quite as burdened because he was used to hearing more than the average human, thanks to his advanced hearing. Kanao was in a similar condition, hugging her knees close to her chest and shivering from the over stimulation.

Giyū had one eye closed with a strained expression, his one hand pressed firmly against his forehead, and Kyōjurō had his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be in a state of deep concentration, forcing himself to maintain composure, even when his knuckles were pasty white from gripping his biceps so tightly.

As for Mitsuri, she was whimpering and whispering to herself to try and calm down. And lastly Tanjirō, who was right next to Shinobu, was at a loss of what to do. They failed to kill Muzan, even after Tamayo had sacrificed herself to get their trump card into his body. More than half of the Hashira had perished in the fighting, including Genya and perhaps dozens of other Demon Slayers. All for nothing.

Torres had succeeded in subjugating the whole world to 'Salvation', and now they were paying the price. They were trapped, and they all knew it. It was nowhere near the same scenario as Lower Moon One and the Mugen Train incident. He created dreams in the minds of his victims, before he would destroy their spiritual core and leave them as empty husks ripe for the taking.

All of what they were experiencing was happening in real time. It wasn't some imagined nightmare, it was reality. None of them thought that it could get any worse, until one by one, the consciousnesses of the people connected to the unified network of minds dimmed before fading away entirely, merging with the network as just another one of its many interconnected neurons.

Their voices and thoughts grew silent as well, with not even whispers left behind. Like a star reaching the end of its life cycle, they fizzled out until black.

"H-Hey, what's going on...why is it starting to get quiet…?" Zenitsu asked nervously.

"I don't know...it's almost as if…" Kanao murmured before she gasped and clutched her head again in pain, before it got increasingly more difficult to remember certain things. Even her own name was turning into just a blurry afterimage in her mind, as were the memories of Kanae and Shinobu rescuing and adopting her. "I...I...where exactly...did I come from...again…?"

Shinobu was staring at Kanao out of the corner of her eye when her Tsuguko said that, and she was confused for a moment, before she blinked as something odd happened to her. Her beloved sister's face as she lay there in her arms, dying, which had always been so crystal clear. It was becoming hazy, as if a thick mist was being laid over her mind.

That's when the true terror of their predicament began to creep up their spines. The ones that were dimming within the network had reached the final phase of Torres' Salvation. Their individuality had remained intact upon being ensnared by the conjoined neural network, but now, under his will, their wills were being assimilated to his own. They were truly unifying into one, collected existence.

Tanjirō realized this when memories of his family started to be washed away, like the sandy banks of a river. He struggled and fought even harder to keep himself and his memories, which inspired the others to do the same.

"Trying to maintain yourself is futile. This is the destined path for humanity!" proclaimed Torres from where he stood, the docile Nezuko in front of him opening her mouth and beginning to sing again.

"N...Nezuko….why…" Tanjirō murmured, gritting his teeth and looking towards his little sister with hazy vision. He knew that it couldn't be her, especially because she had never sung like this with such a passionate and angelic voice. Torres had done something, and just the thought of that alone made him angrier. "Y-You...bastard..!"

"Become one with me. Together. United." murmured Torres, raising his hands up into the air in total, assured victory.

More people's consciousness began to dim as they lost their memories and individuality, becoming just another neuron within the grand human network, and it wasn't long before the slayers began feeling the effects. Zenitsu lifted a hand up as his body began to flicker like a candle about to be extinguished.

He started to panic, looking frantically around left and right at everyone around him when they too began to flicker and seemed to phase in and out of existence. Inosuke was growling and tugging on the neural connections that were attached to his body, trying to break them with sheer strength, but even his mountain-tempered brutish power couldn't do anything.

"T-Tanjirō! I'm scared!" Kanroji squeaked with terror in her eyes, her body writhing uncontrollably as she tried to fight Torres' will.

"Just stay calm, Kanroji-san! We'll figure this out! We're not gonna lose! We're-" Tanjirō started to say to keep her optimistic, even when he was suffering the same effects, before he noticed Shinobu next to him on the verge of disappearing entirely. She had tears streaming down her face, and she was shivering like crazy. "Shinobu! Shinobu, hold on!"

"T...Tanjirō...I...I don't… I don't want…to die...!" she uttered, making eye contact with him. She reached out to him, wanting to feel his touch, and he reciprocated by doing the same.

Their fingertips came within mere inches of one another, before her body became so transparent she could hardly be seen any more by him or anyone else. She opened her mouth to try and cry out his name one last time, but to his horror, the chance was ripped away when she was unable to resist any longer. In a scream of silence, Shinobu's consciousness vanished with the total disappearance of her body.

"SHINOBU!" bellowed Tanjirō as his heart cracked apart, his hands frantically scrambling to reach the space where she had just been.

"S...Sabito...Makomo...Sensei...I…" Giyū uttered as his mind neared total assimilation, his eyes staring blankly up into space. "I'm...sorry…"

"Father...Shenjurō...I don't think I'll...be able to make it back home…"

Before his very eyes, completely out of his control, he witnessed his friends and loved ones fade away one by one into nothingness. His whole world was crashing down around him, and he was entirely powerless to prevent it. Tanjirō's eyes clenched shut as he wished that he could wake up from this nightmare. That he would wake up to a bright and shiny morning, with Shinobu by his side, together under the covers of their bed.

Perhaps even Mitsuri would be there, and Nezuko too on the floor next to them, back to being a human. All of it was an infinitely better world than the one he was currently living in at that moment. He wanted it to end. The sadness was too unbearable.

He opened his eyes and rather than darkness, he was surprised to find light instead, and when he sniffed the air, no scent came back to him. Not the trees, not the animals, not even the scent of another human being.

"What's going on…? Why can't I smell anything…?"

Tanjirō stood motionless in a body that was not his own, in an environment he recognized as something familiar, but different at the same time. It looked like his home, but there were just enough contrasting elements to show that it wasn't his exactly. Looking down he noticed the tree stump in front of him, the pile of wood behind it, and the axe in his hand.

Was this a flashback of him chopping wood? He then felt a tug on his pants leg and looked down, seeing a young child there next to him looking up with big eyes. Her hair was up in a messy little bow, and when she tugged again and called him her father, that's when he knew it definitely wasn't a flashback of his own life.

"Dadaaa...uuu…" the small girl said while pointing forward and to the left, bringing Tanjirō's gaze up to an unexpected visitor.

Standing there silently with the same aloof expression he always wore was Yoriichi himself, the swordsman of the original breathing technique. It wasn't his first time seeing the almost mythological swordsman, but that didn't mean he wasn't awed in the same way he had been the first time.

Yoriichi's presence put the final nail in the coffin of Tanjirō's suspicions about what he was seeing. Like the last time he had one of these occur, he was again occupying the body of his ancestor through an inherited memory. If he could remember, the name of his ancestor was Sumiyoshi.

To see such a legendary figure standing a few mere feet away from him was unbelievable in its own right. After sharing a short greeting with one another they went to Sumiyoshi's home and sat down on the front porch together. Sumiyoshi's daughter played with her father's hair while he sat with Yoriichi in silence, before the swordsman sighed.

"I wanted someone to listen to me. After thinking for a while, what came to mind were your and Suyako's faces." Yoriichi said, his hands rubbing his legs.

"It's been two years. I'm glad you're doing okay." Sumiyoshi said with a smile as he pulled his daughter out from behind him and sat her down in his lap. Tanjirō could think and speak to himself independently of what Sumiyoshi would, so he resolved to merely watch and listen to what this memory had in store. "Back then, Sumire was just a baby. But now? She's a whole lot bigger!"

"It warms my heart to see you all happy. Seeing others' happiness makes me feel happy in return. Even more, this world is beautiful in every single way. I believe being born into this world is a blessing in itself."

Tanjirō, through Sumiyoshi's eyes and ears listening to Yoriichi's recounting of his mother, who was a highly religious woman that prayed every single day. She would pray for any and all strife to disappear from the world he called beautiful, and that there would be nothing left but peace and understanding.

She also prayed for the sun goddess to shine warmly on my seemingly deaf ears. Yoriichi's mother even made him the characteristic earrings he wore, the same hanafuda earrings that Tanjirō, and for a time Shinobu, wore.

"I couldn't really speak at the time, so I caused her great worry, and felt dejected about it. My brother was nice too, always worrying about me. Even the day after my father hit him and told him to forget about me, he made a flute and gave it to me." Yoriichi continued, smiling a little as he reached into the folds of his clothes and pulled out a small, crudely crafted flute. "He told me to 'blow this if you need help'. That 'Nii-san will come and save you right away.' Then he smiled at me with that bruised face and said that was why I didn't need to worry about anything."

Sumiyoshi, and through him Tanjirō, could only watch in silence as the famed swordsman told his life story to them, his childhood only the first stepping stone in a long and illustrious career. Sadly, he revealed that he was an unwanted child, so as soon as his mother died from illness, Yoriichi packed what little belongings he had and left his home.
He had originally been told to enter the priesthood, but in the end, he never even went to the temple. Yoriichi revealed he wanted to run as much as he could and see how far the sky he had spent night after night gazing up at reached. He ran for an entire day and night without stopping, which for a boy his age would be impossible, but for him he never felt tired or wanted to stop.

By the time he realized it, Yoriichi had arrived at a place full of compact fields and paddies in the mountains. And someone was standing there amongst the paddies there all alone. Upon closer inspection, he found that it was a girl around his age. The girl was holding a bucket and didn't move for a long time, even when he was certain she had heard him approach. Eventually he worked up the courage to ask her what she was doing.

In a soft voice, one Yoriichi could sense great sadness from, she told the young Yoriichi that her whole family had passed away from a widespread disease. Since that time, she has been alone. She thought that maybe she could bring some tadpoles from these paddies back home, so that she would have at least some company.

After saying that, the girl didn't move. But as the sun began to set, the girl released the tadpoles in her bucket back into the paddy. Questioning her on her decision, the girl told her that she felt bad about taking these small children from their parents and siblings. Touched by the pure-hearted nature of the girl, even when she had already undergone her own kind of suffering, Yoriichi offered to go home with her instead.

"Her eyes were life obsidian. I learned that the girl's name was 'Uta', and that interaction was how we started living together. She was the kind of girl who talked from day to night, but I didn't mind it at all."

"She sounds like a wonderful person! I'd love to meet her one day!" Sumiyoshi said happily, while Tanjirō saw the way Yoriichi smiled and already figured out his ancestor wouldn't get that chance.

"Thanks to her, I learned that people saw things differently from me. She said she never heard of anyone who could see through a living creature's body. That moment was the first time I learned about the vague reason behind my feeling of alienation."

Yoriichi resumed his story, reminiscing about how Uta would hold onto his hand so tightly when they walked, as if he were a kite whose string got cut loose. Ten years later from that day, we became husband and wife. She eventually would come to bear his child, and in the last month of her pregnancy, he went to fetch a midwife so that together they could prepare for the birth. The original plan had been to return before the sun set.

Fate would prove itself to be a cruel mistress for the man, however. When he met an old man on the path trying to reach his son who had been wounded in battle, Yoriichi being the good man that he was, brought the man to his son's home and returned home the day after. When the sun had set and he finally returned home, he found his pregnant wife had been killed, along with the child in her belly.

"I would later come to find out that the person who killed her was no person at all, but a demon. Ten days I spent absentmindedly embracing the corpses of my wife and child. Until a swordsman, who had been chasing that demon, told me that they should receive a proper burial to respect their souls." Yoriichi stated, his smile vanishing from his face. Tanjirō's heart sank into the pit of his stomach as his suspicions were made true, and he could feel that his ancestor had felt the same way. "My dream was to live a quiet life with my family. A small home was fine. I wanted to sleep with our futons side by side. A distance where I could see the faces of my loved ones. A distance close enough to immediately grab their hands if I reached out...that would've been enough for me."

Despite that modest, humble dream, the truth was far more disheartening. That dream for anyone had the possibility of not coming true because in their beautiful world demons existed. Yoriichi would then leave behind those thoughts of a simple life, and join the ranks of what would come to be known as the Demon Slayers. He'd soon find out that this organization, which was relatively small, had been chasing demons since antiquity. Nobody could use breaths, so I taught the others how they worked.

Almost instantly, the fruits of their labors showed themselves. The swordsmen called "Hashira" were already excellent, and once they used breaths on top of their sword forms of flame, wind, water, lightning, and stone, their power rapidly increased. The Demon Slayers began defeating demons with amazing force. Even Yoriichi's own brother joined their ranks after his subordinates were killed by a demon.

"Then soon after, I came across the progenitor of demons. And the moment I met him, I understood that I was born into this world to defeat that man." Yoriichi revealed with a somber expression on his face.

Tanjirō was left stunned. This man had encountered Muzan all of those years ago, and had lived? If he wasn't already invested in the swordsman's story, he had his full attention now. He had to know what had happened between the late demon king of Japan and the famed swordsman of the first breathing style.

The swordsman described Muzan as a being overflowing with violent intent, resembling burning hot magma erupting from a volcano, boiling and seething as if to consume everything. With fearsome speed and a long reach, it took all of Yoriichi's skill to avoid being pricked even once by one of the demon lord's flesh whips. He could sense that even a single scratch would kill him, which made him, for the first time, feel a chill run up and down his spine.

What he said next confirmed what Dōma stated the night they killed Muzan and took Nezuko from him. Yoriichi, with his special sight, saw that the progenitor of demons had a staggering amount of hearts and brains, seven and five in total respectively. When he saw that which would have made him invincible, in that moment, Yoriichi completed his sword forms.

"I cut all of his hearts and brains, leaving him confused as to why he wasn't regenerating. I realized that my bright red blade would immediately work against even the progenitor of demons. Alas…" Yoriichi murmured, sighing heavily to himself while looking down at his lap. Tanjirō held his breath for the moment of truth, the culmination of the duel between Yoriichi and Muzan. "Because of my own shortcomings, I could not prevent Kibutsuji from escaping by bursting apart into dozens of pieces of flesh. Of the 1,800 scattered pieces, I cut a little more than 1,500 of them. I suspect that the flesh pieces that survived were able to regenerate into a lump the size of a human head."

"So even Yoriichi-san couldn't kill Muzan...we were close to doing the same, but then Torres had to ruin that for all of us…" Tanjirō thought to himself while his ancestor bounced his daughter in his lap.

"There was a girl who was traveling with that man too...her name was Tamayo. She cried, frustrated that the man had not been killed. Because I had so gravely wounded him, she had been temporarily relieved from his control."

"He met Tamayo? She was that old? To have lived during the time when Yoriichi was alive? Amazing…"

"When my comrades arrived, they told me that my older brother had become a demon as well. I had failed to defeat Kibutsuji, allowed Tamayo to escape, and my brother had become a demon, so despite protests from those closest to me...they banished me."

Tanjirō was left utterly stunned, and heartbroken to hear of yet another tragic moment in the man's life. To first run away from a family who didn't want him, besides his mother and brother, to losing his pregnant wife with child to a demon, and then being banished from the Demon Slayers.

He was even more shocked to hear how some had even said he should commit suicide to atone for his mistakes. Yoriichi told of how he accepted his banishment so that he wouldn't further burden the then master of the organization, a young boy who had just lost his father. Tanjirō assumed it must have been an ancestor of Kiriya and Kagaya, which again reminded him of how long their conflict with demons persisted.

"But it wasn't your fault, Yoriichi…" Sumiyoshi murmured, mirroring Tanjirō's exact thoughts.

"I think...I was born with special strength for the purpose of defeating Kibutsuji Muzan. Just like you were born to kill your greatest foe, Tanjirō."

For a moment he was confused with what Yoriichi had said, thinking that it must have just been him imagining it. But when Yoriichi turned to look square into Sumiyoshi's eyes, the world around them seemed to gain a dull, grey color shift and time seemed to slow down to a crawl. Tanjirō looked down and found that he had replaced Sumiyoshi, and that his ancestor's daughter Sumire was no longer there.

Yoriichi looked at Tanjirō with an aloof expression at first, before smiling softly and gently placing a hand on his knee. In an instant, Tanjirō felt at ease by the man's touch. Years of experience, as well as a certain kind of gentleness not unlike that of a parent or a guardian, could be felt through his hand.

"I failed to kill Muzan because I was lacking. Because of my failure, Muzan survived and led to many people dying, and that pained me to no end. But that no longer matters now." Yoriichi stated before patting Tanjirō's knee a few times. His smile faded into a serious expression, and he looked dead square into Tanjirō's eyes. "Muzan's threat has been replaced by one that far exceeds his. It's bigger than the safety of Japan's people. You have to be the one that brings an end to the suffering, to make the world beautiful again."

Left speechless by Yoriichi's imparted words of wisdom, the man then stood up and gripped his sword, looking up to the sky. He closed his eyes for a moment, making Tanjirō wonder if he was going to say anything else or leave.

"My time is up, Tanjirō. I returned once to help free my brother's tortured soul, and again here. My place has already been taken, and the person who filled it was you."

"B-But how am I going to fight, when Torres has already enslaved everyone? Shinobu, and everyone else, they're-" Tanjirō started to say with tears still in his eyes, before Yoriichi turned and gazed at him again with a soft smile.

"No one is ever really gone, Tanjirō. Whether its through the perseverance of the human memory, or something else entirely...there's always a way." he stated calmly and reassuringly, before looking down at Tanjirō's sword and then to his own. "You know, can you guess what color my sword was before I first touched it, Tanjirō?"

"Wait...it wasn't always crimson, like you said?"

Yoriichi shook his head before he then crouched down in front of Tanjirō and placed his blade in his lap, patting it a few times and whispering something under his breath before returning to his full height.

"My blade would turn crimson only because I willed it to. The color of my blade normally is the very same as yours...raven black."

Tanjirō's eyes widened, before he picked up Yoriichi's pristine sword and pulled it ever so slightly out of its holder, revealing its color to indeed be the same as his own. The color black, thought to be a sign of an ill omen for failure among the Demon Slayers, was the color of its most illustrious member.

That's when his mind was filled with the memories of what actually occurred between his ancestor and Sumiyoshi after that talk. Tanjirō thought he was dreaming, but everything looked far too real to disregard as fake. It was from those images that he realized everything.

He noticed the slight differences in wrist angle, footwork, and breathing rhythm. He even noticed his own useless movements. Being a quiet and simple person, Yoriichi wasn't too keen on sharing his sword movements with anyone unless it was for teaching purposes. But when Sumiyoshi's wife, Suyako, badgered him, he would show her because that's how nice he was as a human being.

Sumiysohi saw his moves in great detail, burning them into his memory without missing a single thing. Sun Breathing techniques were so elegant and beautiful that they could take your breath away.

"I finally understand now…" Tanjirō thought as he gripped Yoriichi's sword tighter, closing his eyes and shaking with it.

The Hinokami Kagura dance of his family was no mere ceremony. Passed down from generation to generation, the Hinokami Kagura evolved from the memories of Sumiyoshi witnessing Yoriichi's Sun Breathing techniques. He also learned that the earrings he wore had come directly from Yoriichi himself, who his ancestor then passed down with the Kagura dance to each new generation.

Tanjirō wiped tears away from his eyes with his sleeve before standing up, holding Yoriichi's sword firmly in his grasp. As the world envisioned in the nightmare began to break apart around him, he thought to himself.

"Yoriichi-san, you're truly amazing. Thank you for saving my ancestors...if it weren't for you, we would have never been born. If you had not been kind to Tamayo, she wouldn't have helped us drive Muzan into a corner. And the Sun Breathing you showed us gave me the ability to fight."

Tanjirō slowly drew the famed swordsman's blade out from its sheath, holding it out in front of him with one hand so that he could gaze at the sword. Out of all the engravings he had seen on other slayer's swords, Yoriichi had opted for one not about slaying demons, but for a different one entirely.

It was short, simple, and expressive of Yoriichi's nature. The Kanji engraved into the metal was one character: Hope. Tanjirō smiled to himself, before he gripped the sword tighter and marveled as the raven-black metal transformed into a brilliant crimson from base to tip.

In his head, Tanjirō could see every single form of Sun Breathing like a series of pictures from start to finish. Waltz. Azure Heaven. Scorching Crimson Mirror. Bone Burning Sun. The Setting Sun. Soaring Flame Haze. Shining Ray of Grace. Sunflower Lance. Solar Halo Dragon Dance. Fire Chariot. Parhelion Rainbow. Flame Waltz.

But where was the thirteenth form? Waltz and Flame Waltz had very similar names, so what does it mean to access the thirteenth form? Was there even a thirteenth form?

"If you can master the correct way to breathe, you'll be able to dance forever." spoke Tanjirō's father in his memories. Instantly, the light bulb flickered on and Tanjirō understood the final piece of the puzzle.

He then felt a hand come to rest on top of his head between his horns, ruffling up his hair somewhat. Tanjirō looked back and saw his father, smiling down on him with both pride and joy swimming in his eyes. Acting quickly Tanjirō turned around and hugged his father, burying his face into his frail body, only to find it surprisingly strong. He didn't spend long doing this, stepping away once he had gotten out of the hug that he needed, and sheathed Yoriichi's sword.

Tanjirō was prepared to go before something incredible happened. His father turned his head lightly to the right, where out from behind him walked his mother and his siblings. They stood close by him, and shared his father's warm smile. Kagaya then appeared with a fully healed face, being led by his wife Amane, as well as their two daughters Hinaki and Nichika.

It wasn't long before every single person who Tanjirō had met, big or small, that had lost their lives started to appear. Tengen, Muichirō, Obanai and Gyōmei appeared next to their master and all looked at them. Giving him a thumbs up, Tengen laughed boisterously while Gyōmei clasped his prayer beads between his hands and nodded with a small smile. Obanai crossed his arms and gave him a little bit of a glare, before nodding once, and Muichirō along with his twin brother also smiled and waved.

Sanemi and Genya stood shoulder to shoulder when they emerged, being the last of the Hashira and other slayers he met to appear, before he was shocked as Tamayo emerged and stood on the right side of his family, opposed to the left where everyone else was. She smiled softly and waved a little at him, before turning her head to something Tanjirō couldn't see behind his father.

His questions were answered when out walked the diminutive Rui, accompanied by his parents, who stood by Tamayo together. Next came the fiery and strong-willed Akaza, also a human, with what Tanjirō assumed was either a sister or a loved one next to him, along with her father by the way she looked up at him with a smile. Then came the siblings Gyūtarō and Daki that he had killed in the Red Light District while under the influence of Michael, working for Muzan to secure their role as Upper Moon Six. They didn't have a tinge of hatred in their eyes as they looked at him, and he even smiled a little when Daki stuck her tongue out at him and giggled. The demon from the drum house even appeared, towering over some of them because of his height, and when he and Tanjirō met gazes they both exchanged a nod.

When he looked to see if Yoriichi would join them for one final time, he was a little saddened that he didn't appear before he caught something out of the corner of his eye. Off to the side, separated from the group, was the man himself, standing there with another man about his age with a similar hair style and flame-like marking on his face. Tanjirō assumed it must be Yoriichi's older brother, so when they finally noticed he was looking at them, he bowed his head somewhat to show respect to them.

Yoriichi bowed back, and his brother Michikatsu, formerly the demon Kokushibō, didn't do anything at first before turning his body fully towards him and bowed as a show of respect to the time they spent as master and student, and for the inheritor of his Moon Breathing techniques.

Focusing back on the impressive gathering before him, he was rendered speechless. Everyone who he had met and affected their lives in one way or another, good or bad, was there for him. It utterly blew him away to an extent he didn't know what to say or do. Surprisingly it was Akaza who spoke first, the former Upper Rank Three pointing his finger at Tanjirō and shaking it a little while grinning.

"You better win punk. Kyōjurō wouldn't have helped a slouch like you if he didn't believe you could win." he said, before wrapping an arm around his fiance and laughing.

"And make sure to rescue your sister too! We're still ticked off that you killed us, but thanks to you…" Daki started to say before her brother picked up where she left off.

"We were reminded of what made us siblings. So thanks for that, I guess." Gyūtarō said.

"Make it all as flamboyant as possible!" Tengen exclaimed, backing it up with a boisterous laugh that befitted his extravagant personality. "And say hello to my wives for me too!"

"I know you'll win, Tanjirō. We all believe in you!" Muichirō added, smiling along with Yuichirō.

"Do it for all of us, punk. You still have that promise to fulfill to me." Obanai said harshly at first, before his eyes softened, showing Tanjirō he did truly believe in him.

"The children and I will pray for your success, Tanjirō...you have my faith." Gyōmei then added, crying somewhat since this would truly be the last time he would ever get to see the young slayer.

One by one, they all offered their wishes for his success, until all of them had said their piece. Everyone, save for his father. Tanjirō waited silently as his father left the company of his family to approach his son, taking a kneel before him and placing both arms on his shoulders.

"Go. Save Nezuko, and the ones you love. But before you go Tanjirō, remember." his father said as he took one hand off his shoulder to place it on his chest. "Relax...and breathe."

Tanjirō could feel himself on the verge of vanishing with just his upper torso and head still remaining. The words of his father echoed and rang true inside of his head, amongst the fog blanketing his mind, and with the closing of his eyes, he took a slow, deep breath through his nostrils. He could feel his lungs expand with the air he sucked in, before after waiting for a few seconds, he then exhaled out through his mouth. His muscles relaxed, the tension disappeared.

Another deep breath, followed by the exhale, and soon tiny flames flickered out from between his lips. Tanjirō took one final breath before his eyes then shot wide open and he shouted at the top of his lungs out into the emptiness of space.

"Hinokami Kagura: Enbu!"

With a clang and a burst of fire, Tanjirō gasped when he awoke to find himself standing before the forced seat Torres had put him in with its tendrils burning away after he had slashed through them. Looking at his waist he noticed that his sword was still in its sheath, which could only mean one thing.

Looking to see if it was true, he was overjoyed to find that in his hand with its fiery crimson sheen was none other than Yoriichi's sword gifted to him by the slayer. The sheath was in his other hand, which he then slid the legendary blade back into after assuring that he was no longer under Torres' influence. Gazing around him he saw the bodies of his friends sitting motionless, still staring up at the giant progenitor plant in the same state as the people they saw coming into Rome.

It pained him to see Shinobu and Mitsuri in such a state, and he very nearly broke down when he remembered their cries for help, but he kept Yoriichi's words close at heart and swallowed his sadness in exchange for anger. He snarled as he stare up to the peak of the flower, the brightly shining Moon high in the sky above it. Holding Yoriichi's sword tightly in his non-dominant hand, he took a running start before leaping up off the ground to begin scaling the monumental plant construct.

As he climbed he could feel the heat in his body build and build, spurring him on to move faster and faster. Lives both present and passed on were depending on him, he had to make it to the top as soon as he could. His head was pounding from Torres' growing influence emanating from the tree, but every breath he took, every beat his heart made, it pushed back against it.

Soon the sky and the roots became a blur when he moved faster than he ever had before, his feet almost leaving a trail of fire behind him before he finally reached the peak and hurled himself up into the air. He saw the massive blossomed flower at the top and grit his teeth, quickly sliding Yoriichi's blade and sheath under his belt under his own sword, before free falling.

As he neared the center of the flower he then drew both of the swords and was consumed by fire as both were made crimson red by his grip strength and sheer body heat alone. Yelling at the top of his lungs he plunged into the flower's interior, breaking a hole clean through into a vast inner space within the stem.

His feet struck ground and the moonlight coming in through his self-made entrance illuminated him from above like he was under a spotlight. After sheathing Yoriichi's sword he looked around into the expansive darkness surrounding him, unable to see anything before he used his nose in place of his eyes.

"To think I'll be surprised not once, but twice in one night...there's a first for everything, it would seem." spoke Torres from the shadows, his voice echoing in the chamber.

What gave Tanjirō goosebumps was how it wasn't just his voice, it was a whole multitude of voices, both male and female, that spoke along with him. When he recognized Shinobu's voice among the masses, he tightened his hands around his sword, before adding his other hand to make the crimson to become a brighter shade from his increasing grip strength.

Suddenly a wave of blue light came into existence as a field of blue flowers began to glow, revealing the whole chamber's floor to be covered in grass and the flowers themselves. He hardly cared about the flowers and the alien glow they gave off, since their illumination provided him with a clear view of what he came for. Nezuko and Torres.

His sister was currently trapped within the entanglement of roots that formed the walls of the chamber, being connected directly to the giant progenitor flower. Her head was slumped over and she was unresponsive, most likely exhausted after exerting herself to such a degree. It ate him up inside so see her like this, and he directed his furious gaze on the person responsible for it.

"To think that you could resist, quite marvelous, I must say. It must have taken quite a lot of willpower to have done so." Torres said while taking a few steps away from Nezuko with his arms behind his back. "But it's too late. Humanity's Salvation has already arrived...you cannot do anything to stop it."

"You're wrong. There's always a way." Tanjirō replied with a snarl.

"What can you even do? Look around you, my friend! You lost!" I, no…we have achieved what Humanity was meant to do for eons. We have achieved perfection! We have fulfilled the wishes of the people of Babel!"

Tanjirō braced himself from the weight of Torres and his millions of voices, the sheer pressure alone almost making him buckle. He maintained his stance though, and fixed his gaze on Torres once more.

"You cannot undo what has already been done. Cease your resistance, and rejoin the path destined for Humanity." Torres affirmed by holding out his hand to Tanjirō.

Assured that even the youth would see the error of his ways, he frowned when instead of submitting, Tanjirō unleashed one of his Moon Breathing techniques and sent a storm of moon-shaped blades straight for Torres. He rotated his hand and created a wall of sludge to block the attack, grunting ever-so-slightly from the force before he felt a rush of wind next to him.

"Hinokami Kagura: Hirin Kagerō!" bellowed Tanjirō, drawing Yoriichi's blade to perform a double layered horizontal slash aimed at Torres' neck.

He dodged Torres' arm after seemingly failing to land the blow because he had to avoid being skewered, which only helped in catching the man off guard when two giant, scorching gashes were then dug deep into his upper torso and very nearly decapitated him. Tanjirō was about to take his legs out from under him before he was scooped up by Torres after he kneed him straight in the gut, knocking the wind clear out of his lungs, and then smashed his elbow down onto his head.

With a grunt his body smacked against the floor at Torres' feet, but he quickly rolled and jumped away as dozens of tendrils erupted out of the Cardinal's back and nearly made him into swiss cheese.

Tanjirō gripped his sword and snarled again as he formed his Iron Blood Armor and rushed Torres again, attacking the man ruthlessly with a combination of Moon Breathing, Water Breathing, and the Hinokami Kagura. Every cut and slash he made though was healed instantly, and Torres showed no signs of slowing down at all. Like Muzan, it was almost as if he were a force of nature contained within a human body.

"You are foolish to believe you can fight against Salvation!" Torres shouted as he temporarily liquified his body in order to snake around Tanjirō and grabbed his arm, turning sharply around and slamming him down into the floor. "You are getting in the way of Humanity's destiny! Don't you understand that?!"

Tanjirō snarled and tugged his arm forward, pulling Torres off his feet and reversing their situation as he threw the man forward and then gripped his sword with two hands. He then charged forward, poised to impale Torres with Sunflower Lance.

He countered by twisting rapidly through the air and sending bullets of the black sludge out from his body that forced him to approach from a different angle, some of them even cutting through his armor and grazing his skin

"Enough of this trivial play. If you cannot become one with Salvation, then I will simply purge you from it!" Torres announced before leaping into the air, a pair of massive angel wings with yellow and purple feathers growing out of his back and giving him the ability to hover.

A large purple ring with dozens upon dozens of yellow eyes, reminiscent of Kokushibō's flesh blade, appeared around him with all of its eyes that Tanjirō could see looking straight at him. In front of each then formed a ball of golden fire that burned with such intensity that the surrounding air shimmered, warping Torres' appearance.

"Burn in hell fire, mongrel! Suffer the fate of all those who stand in the face of Salvation!" declared Torres with the voices of billions before launching the barrage of holy hell fire right at Tanjirō.

"Relax, and breathe."

Tanjirō's father's words run one last time in the back of his head and in the face of annihilation, he calmed his heart and eased his muscles. As the fire approached him, he took a slow and steady breath while focusing. Yoriichi, Sun Breathing, Honkami Kagura, and the thoughts and prayers of all those rooting for him. All of it came swirling together within the depths of his soul, before finally he exhaled and unleashed himself.

Torres was blown away when a massive explosion of fire erupted from where Tanjirō was standing, followed by a drastic boost in power that surprised Torres for the third time. The raging inferno was so violent that he could hardly see Tanjirō's body inside start to change. After a minute or two the fire finally died down and he was revealed, determined and resolute. His haori and Demon Slayer Uniform had been transformed into the attire of an Iwami Kagura dancer, matching that of his late father and what he would wear when performing the Hinokami Kagura. The blindfold that covered his face had the kanji "flames" inscribed into the fabric with gold, and his hair had grown down to reach his waist, while his horns had also grown in size. His feet were also now bare, with small rings of fire burning around them.

In one hand he was holding onto his sword, and tucked against his waist by a sash was Yoriichi's blade and scabbard, ready to use whenever he would need it. Behind the blindfold his eyes, unlike before when they were blazing in fury, were now calm, almost apathetic. He swung his sword to the left and a huge wave of fire surged out from it, razing the flowers that were unfortunate enough to be in its path, before a massive chunk of the wall was blown to smithereens, opening up the chamber to the outside. When Tanjirō lowered his arm back down to his side, two pairs of wings made of flame spawned from his back and grew in size until they were as long as double his height.

"If Yoriichi-san's purpose was to kill Muzan, then mine must be to kill Torres." Tanjirō thought to himself as he slowly entered a fighting stance, his sword glowing with such a brilliant glow of crimson that it was shining. "I won't fail, Yoriichi-san. Your sacrifices, and the sacrifices of all those who had fallen...I won't tarnish them. It ends tonight. I'll defeat Torres, and save everyone from his control!"

A/N It's finally happening. Our boy Tanjiro is gonna some Torres ass man. Everything's been building up to this moment, the final showdown! And if you guys want to make it even better, allow me to recommend Bury the Light from DMC5...it actually fits fairly well here in this situation, especially with the next chapter that will be coming out. You don't want to miss it. Peace out!

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Translation(s):

Hinokami Kagura: Enbu

- Dance of the Fire God: Dance

Hinokami Kagura: Hirin Kagerō

- Dance of the Fire God: Soaring Flame Haze