22 Chapter 21

{Kusakabe Mansion 10:00AM}

I was in more pain than I had ever experienced in both of my lives. It turned out that when Zohakuten caught me off guard with his sneak attack, sending me hurtling against a tree, he managed to break some of my ribs, with one even scraping my lung at least that was my self diagnoses. This left me periodically choking on my own blood, an uncomfortable sensation to say the least.

As a knock came at my door, my father and brother entered, accompanied by a physician who my family had called for after I returned, nearly crawling, to the mansion following the defeat of Upper Moon 4. "How are you feeling?" the physician inquired. "In pain, what do you think," I almost spat back, the effort of speaking itself an arduous task.

"Don't speak to your doctor like that," my father admonished, his gaze stern. Just as he was about to continue his reprimand, the physician intervened, remarking, "Well, isn't this young one a bit fussy." He approached me, starting by lifting up my shirt. My muscles and toned physique were a testament to my training, but as his fingers traced my torso, he halted at my right side, where it seemed to cave in. When he applied a bit of pressure, I couldn't help but grit my teeth in pain.

"Definitely it seems as if you're third, fourth and fifth rib are broken, I'll apply this herbal paste to your bruise to reduce the inflammation," he explained, taking some ointment and carefully spreading it over the affected area.

"Next, we'll bandage you up," he continued. With great care, he took a large roll of bandages from his bag. Despite his efforts to minimize discomfort, the tightness of the bandage around my torso still stung a bit.

As he finished, he neatly packed away his supplies and said in a cheerful tone, "Well, we're done here. You'll just need to rest for around a month or two." He then turned to my father and added, "Takashi, if Hoshi experiences intense pain, or starts choking or vomiting blood, try to send a crow for me as quickly as possible."

Upon the doctor saying the word "crow,". Two small black ravens emerged from my closet and landed next to me. Then the doctor asked "Oh and who might these be?", my brother with an excited voice quickly said"Meet Corvus and Yatagarasu. They're the fastest crows ever,", the two crows held their heads high, as if in pride to my brother's words. Corvus chimed in with a loud voice, "And the strongest!" while Yatagarasu added, "And the smartest!" I chuckled at their spirited antics.

"Well, if any problems arise, send either of these two to my office and I'll come here as soon as possible," the physician said, waving goodbye. My father escorted him out and expressed gratitude for his services.

"Well, it seems like my brother isn't as tough as he claimed," Tsukiko, my brother, remarked, a mischievous grin on his face, though tears threatened to spill from his eyes. I smiled at him and teased, "Were you worried about your big brother?" in a playful tone.

"As if," he retorted, turning away and wiping away the tears that had begun to well up. In a quiet voice, he added, "I'm glad you're okay, big bro," before swiftly leaving the room and closing the door behind him. I cherished his parting words and closed my eyes. I needed some rest.

{2 weeks later}

Right now, I was resting on my bed since I couldn't do much in the past two weeks. Most of my days were spent with my grandpa Hajime and my father, helping Tsukiko with his studies, which seemed to be coming along nicely.

I heard a knock on my door, and my mother came in, saying in a sweet voice, "Hoshi, you have visitors."

"Huh, who, Mom?" I replied. As she opened the door, I saw two people. One, I recognized immediately as Rengoku. He shouted at me, saying, "Brother!" I waved my hand from my bed and said, "Hello to you too, Rengoku."

The other person was a girl wearing a Hashira outfit with pink hair and a whip-like nichirin. I said, "And you must be Mitsuri, the newest Hashira."

"Yes, and thank you all for being so nice to me when I joined," she said, bowing her head at a 90-degree angle.

"Well, don't thank me. Unfortunately, I missed your Hashira ceremony because of my investigation at the time," I said calmly.

"Oh, don't worry about that. I heard you were hunting an upper demon and got hurt, so I decided to come with teacher and meet the only person to kill not only one but two upper demons in the last 100 years," she said, making rapid hand movements.

"Well, as you can see, not so well," I replied, gesturing to my side. As I was about to continue, I suddenly stopped and turned to Rengoku, then to Mitsuri, and then back and forth a few times. I finally said, "Wait, Rengoku is your mentor!"

"Yes, I am!" Rengoku replied loudly, laughing. He continued, "That means that even if you have slayed two upper moons, I have brought up three Hashira: Mitsuri, you, and myself! Hahaha..." He kept on laughing, while Mitsuri and I just reached our hands to our temples, trying to keep our calm demeanor around Rengoku's fiery one.

{Kusakabe Mansion 2:00 PM}

A loud voice suddenly yelled, "Delicious!" and the entire table seemed to bounce from the ground. We all turned to look at the culprit, Rengoku. He scratched the back of his head and said in a shy voice, "Sorry, force of habit." But after he ate his next slice of pork, he yelled again, "Delicious!" causing the whole table and plates to move around.

Grandpa Hajime gracefully set his chopsticks on the table, wiped his mouth with his napkin, then slammed his hand against the table and yelled, "Could you please stop doing that, esteemed guest!" I tried to stifle my laughter, but seeing the dichotomy of it all, a small chuckle escaped my lips. Grandpa Hajime turned to me with a furious gaze, and I quickly fell silent. This was a common occurrence in the following days at the Kusakabe mansion.

As the days turned into weeks, I was finally completely healed and could move at 100 percent. I bid goodbye to my family in a grand celebration. It felt like it could be the last time we'd all be together. After that, Mitsuri, Rengoku, and I left, as we each had our own duties to attend to.

Muzan POV

As I was working with some of my blood vials in Nakime's Infinity Castle, I suddenly felt the same feeling I had experienced more than a year before. "Hantengu is dead," I murmured as I tuned into his final moments. I could see him pleading for mercy, a sight that struck me in a way I hadn't expected, it was the slayer's eyes when he looked at Hantengu that caught me off guard. Unlike Yoriichi, whose gaze exuded power and primal strength, this new slayer's golden eyes held an eerie stoicism, devoid of any life. They were the eyes of a ruthless killer, and witnessing them take down Hantengu a demon I had given so much of my own blood to provoked a new fear in me—a small one, but it was there nonetheless.

Just after I had dealt with the Kamado family, who had been annoying me for the past few centuries, this new slayer had to emerge, bringing with him the potential for even more problems. It was becoming increasingly apparent that I needed to address this threat sooner rather than later.