Taishō 5, January 2
Butterfly Mansion
A few hours before sunrise on the second morning of Taishō 5, eighteen-year-old Kochō Shinobu was standing at the front gate of the Butterfly Mansion, dressed in her Kisatsu-tai uniform with her Nichirin-tō sheathed at her left hip. Ever since twelve-year-old Kamado Nezuko became the first oni to withstand sunlight back in November, all of the Kitsatu-taishi have been on high alert, knowing that their final showdown against Kibutsuji Muzan and the Jūnikizuki was coming. So, even though the Mushibashira was just out here waiting for someone, she had to be ready.
Eventually, Shinobu noticed twenty-one-year-old Tomioka Giyū walking up the road towards her as he came from the direction of the nearby village, and she smiled at the Mizubashira.
"Oh, Tomioka-san!" The Mushibashira exclaimed cheerfully. "You came!"
"You wanted to discuss something with me, Kochō?" Giyū asked, having received a message from her earlier that night via Kasugai Crow asking him to come to the Butterfly Mansion.
"Straight to the point, huh?" Shinobu sighed. "Tomioka-san, this is why nobody likes you."
"I'm not disliked," the Mizubashira replied flatly.
"Well, it's considered respectful to say hello when you see someone and ask them how they're doing," the Mushibashira informed him.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Giyū said. "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing well, thank you, and you?"
"I'm fine," the Mizubashira replied. "Anyways, what did you want to talk about, Kochō?"
"Let's talk about it inside," Shinobu suggested, turning away from Giyū and gesturing towards the Butterfly Mansion. The Mizubashira nodded and they headed through the gate. Before they could get very far, however, a Kasugai Crow flew past them in a hurry.
"Emergency summons!" The black-feathered bird cawed. Giyū and Shinobu froze and turned back to look at the talking corvid. "Emergency summons! An attack on Ubuyashiki Mansion! An attack on Ubuyashiki Mansion!"
"I guess we'll have to talk later..." the Mushibashira said with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"Right," the Mizubashira agreed.
Not wasting a second, they took off after the Kasugai Crow, heading off to the house where the family that had led the Kisatsu-tai since the very beginning lived. The time for their final battle against Muzan had finally come, and it seemed that their leader had been caught at its epicenter.
滅
Taishō 5, January 2
Unspecified Location
Giyū and Shinobu raced through the forest as fast as they could to get to the Ubuyashiki Mansion to protect Oyakata-sama and his family. Ubuyashiki Kagaya's youngest three children were back at the Butterfly Mansion, but he was still at the Ubuyashiki Mansion along with his wife Amane and their eldest two children. For the last few centuries, the Kisatsu-tai had been careful to keep the location of the Ubuyashiki family a secret from the oni, but now they had been found out.
BOOM
The Mizubashira and Mushibashira stopped dead in their tracks as a massive explosion went off a few hundred meters ahead of them, eyes wide with horror. The Ubuyashiki Mansion was in that direction, that exact spot even, but now there was a blazing inferno where it was supposed to be.
"No..." Shinobu murmured as she stared at the smoke and flames rising high above the trees.
"..." Giyū was speechless as he stared at the same spot, unable to believe what he was seeing.
"Oyakata," the title that the Kisatsu-taishi used to refer to their greatly beloved leader, is a rather interesting word in Nihongo. While it can mean "master" or "boss," making it a fitting title for a leader, it can also mean "the way of the parent." Ubuyashiki Kagaya saw the Kisatsu-taishi as his children, loving and caring for all of them as such. He wasn't just the greatly beloved leader of the Kisatsu-tai, he was their father. And their Oyakata had just been violently taken away.
"K-Kochō...we...we have to keep going," the Mizubashira managed to say after a brief moment.
"Right," the Mushibashira agreed, and they continued to race through the forest. Even if it was too late to save Oyakata-sama, there was a chance that Muzan was behind the explosion. And he was going to pay dearly for taking the life of Kagaya.
滅
Giyū and Shinobu finally arrived in the clearing where the Ubuyashiki Mansion used to be a few minutes later to find that the inferno had died down significantly. At its center was an unfamiliar man with unnaturally pale skin, curly black hair and light-pink eyes, an enormous thicket pinning him in place. In front of the man with her fist buried in his abdomen was the Blood Bewitchment Oni Tamayo, an ally of theirs who was helping the Kisatsu-tai in their fight against Kibutsuji.
Twenty-seven-year-old Himejima Gyōmei was already there, fighting the unfamiliar man with his Nichirin Kusarigama while his adversary fought back with what looked like barbed wire.
"It's Muzan!" The Iwabashira shouted as the Mizubashira, Mushibashira and three other Hashira all arrived in the clearing. Twenty-one-year-old Shinazugawa Sanemi, nineteen-year-old Kanroji Mitsuri and twenty-one-year-old Iguro Obanai all came charging towards Kibutsuji Muzan from behind while Giyū and Shinobu came at the First Oni from the right. "Kibutsuji Muzan! Even if we cut his head off, he won't die!"
He's...!The Kazebashira realized, his pale-purple eyes widening with shock.
That's...!Beads of sweat dripped down the Koibashira's face as she looked upon the First Oni.
It's him!The Hebibashira silently exclaimed, a mixture of shock and anger on his face.
That's...Giyū's dark-blue eyes widened with shock.
...Kibutsuji?!Shinobu silently wondered, as if finishing the Mizubashira's thought.
"MUZAN!" Sixteen-year-old Kamado Tanjirō screamed, filled with a fiery rage as he burst into the clearing from Muzan's left, seventeen-year-old Tsuyuri Kanao and sixteen-year-old Hashibira Inosuke at either side, while fourteen-year-old Tokitō Muichirō came running in from the front.
Mist Breathing, Fourth Form!Muichirō drew his Nichirin-tō and charged the First Oni, as did the rest of the Kisatsu present, ready to rain vengeance down upon their millenia-old enemy.
Insect Breathing, Dance of the Butterfly!
Water Breathing, Third Form!
Serpent Breathing, First Form!
Love Breathing, Fifth Form!
Wind Breathing, Seventh Form!
Flower Breathing, Fourth Form!
Hinokami Kagura, Sunflower Thrust!
Beast Breathing, Second Fang!
Right as the Kisatsu all converged on Muzan, the First Oni grinned. At that moment, six sets of shōji suddenly appeared on the ground, one underneath Shinobu and Giyū, one under Muichirō and Gyōmei, one underneath Kanao, Tanjirō and Inosuke, one underneath Obanai and Mitsuri, one underneath Sanemi and one underneath Muzan and Tamayo. Then, before anyone could try to get out of the way, the shōji all opened up underneath everyone and they all fell through.
"Do you think you have me cornered?" Muzan asked the Kisatsu. "YOU'RE ALL GOING TO HELL! Tonight, I am going to kill every last one of you filthy Kisatsu!"
"You're the one who's going to hell, Muzan!" Tanjirō shouted back at the First Oni. "I'll never let you escape! I'm taking you down no matter what!"
"Then do it if you can!" Muzan challenged him. "Kamado Tanjirō!"
滅
Taishō 5, January 2
Infinity Castle
"I smell blood," Shinobu said as she and Giyū walked down one of the Infinity Castle's many hallways. Up ahead there was a small pool filled with waterlilies across from a set of shōji.
"Where are we?" The Mizubashira wondered out loud.
"I don't know," the Mushibashira admitted as she approached the shōji. Upon opening it and peering inside, Shinobu found a room made up of a shallow pool filled with waterlilies and a series of interconnected wooden bridges. Laying on one of the bridges were the bodies of at least a dozen girls, each of them dressed in a white kimono and covered with blood. Sitting amongst the bodies was a tall young man who was currently feasting on a severed forearm.
The young man had long pale-gray hair, long, pale-blue pointed nails and eyes with rainbows in them, the words "Jōgen no" etched across his left iris and "Ni" etched across his right. He wore a black crown atop his head, a black cloak over a blood-red turtleneck shirt, a pair of tan-colored hakama pants and a pair of plain black tabi on his feet.
"Hm?" The gray-haired young man looked up from the partially eaten forearm and grinned at the Mushibashira, revealing a set of prominent fangs."Ah...you came? Oh! A girl! You look young and tasty! I'll have to tell Nakime thank you later."
Shinobu froze as she stared at the rainbow-eyed young man with wide purple eyes and a mixture of shock, disgust and recognition on her face. Giyū, still out in the hallway, walked up to her and frowned when he noticed how tense she was. It was extremely unusual to see her in such a state.
"Kochō..?" The concerned Mizubashira asked before looking into the room himself and realizing why the Mushibashira was in such a state upon noticing the gray-haired young man.