Satoshi Kamado

14. Someone's memory (2/2)

'I'm no longer interested in warriors who can use breathes.' Right after he said that, the man brandished his arms. They were frighteningly fast and his range was huge. When I dodged his attack, I could clearly hear the bamboo being cut behind me. I felt like I would be close to dying if I got the slightest scrape. For the first time in my life, chills ran down my spine. The man had seven hearts and five brains.

This was the moment, I perfected my sword technique form. I saw an opening and I sliced his body several times in one single swift in the blink of an eye.

The man seemed confused over the fact that he wasn't regenerating. He was holding his severed head so it wouldn't fall off, but it wasn't connecting. I knew that my red blade would work instantly on the progenitor of demons. But I really wanted to ask him something. 'What do you thinks lives are?' The man didn't respond. He just looked at me. His flesh swelled dark red, perhaps out of anger. So I figured that my words did not reach him. Then I glanced at the demon girl he brought. The girl didn't try to save him. Her eyes were open and eager. He was staring at the man whose head got cut off. Strangely enough, I saw the lights of hope glimmering in her eyes.

I decided to finish the man off before the woman. But when I took that step forward towards him, I heard the sound of clenched molars breaking. The next moment, the man's flesh exploded with great force. Out of the 1800 pieces of flesh that scattered, I only cut a little over 1500 on the spot.
But the remaining flesh bits were too small. If put together, I had probably allowed a chunk of flesh the size of a human head escape. And as I stood still, I heard the sound of the girl wailing as if she was screeching, and the sound of her falling to the ground. She then spoke, 'You were so close, you were so close.......he actually conquered the weakness of his head.....' She squeezed out of those words and teared at her own head. She then shouted, 'YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST DIED!!! YOU FILTHY MAN!!! MUZAN KIBUTSUJI...!!!' Then she looked up surprised and said, 'I m not dying....why am I not dying?' When I calmed down the panicked and confused girl, she told me everything about that man as if a dam had burst. Then, she also said the progenitor of the demons, Muzan Kibutsuji, would probably never appear again, until I died. I had freed the woman from Muzan's curse because I had weakened him very badly that he almost died.

[AN - Btw, if you don't know what Muzan's curse is, I will tell ya. Basically, every demon with an exception to few, cannot say the name of the demon king i.e. Muzan. When a demon says the name of the demon king, it's body would explode. We saw this in the anime when the temari girl/susumaru mentioned the demon king's name and her body exploded. And as of now in this chapter, this girl has been freed from this curse thanks to Yoriichi because he weakened Muzan.]

I asked this girl to help me defeat Muzan. She was confused at first, but she agreed. She said her name was Tamayo and her eyes looked very sad.
I remembered the name Tamayo because I thought that I'd ask her about Muzan if I ever have the chance to meet her.
Yoriichi-san then continued, "After that, my allies rushed to me and told me that my brother became a demon.
Then, I took the responsibility for not defeating Kibutsuji, for letting Tamayo escape and for my brother becoming a demon. And I was exiled from the Demon Slayer Corps. Several people shouted about putting a blade through my chest. Oyakata-sama who had just become the head of the demon slayer corps at the age of six, stopped them. For a child who lost his father and had a weak heart, it must have been extremely stressful and I felt very bad about it." I felt very bad about Yoriichi-san after listening to what had happened to him. I really wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault, but I couldn't since I was inheriting the memories of my ancestor, Sumiyoshi. Yoriichi-san continued, "I believe that I was born into this world with a special strength to defeat Muzan Kibutsuji, but I failed. I failed in the end, and because of that, many people will loose their lives. It pains me." I felt extremely sad when I heard this. I really wanted to say something to him to comfort him, but words weren't coming out of my mouth. It's entirely possible that my ancestor, Sumiyoshi-san might have said something here, but we continued to sit in silence for quite a while. I really wanted to do something for him. This man was emotionally deeply hurt when he came here and I wanted to do something for him. Then suddenly, Sumire, the daughter of Sumiyoshi-san pulled the haori of Yoriichi-san. Then, I heard the voice of my ancestor, 'Ah,  p....please carry her. She really loves it when you raise her to the sky, and since you are taller than me, so...."
And that's when Yoriichi-san lifted her up to the sky, she became really happy and she started laughing. Seeing this, tears rolled down the eyes of Yoriichi-san. He hugged her and started crying.

After a while, he regained composure of himself. After that, Sumiyoshi-san's wife badgered Yoriichi-san to perform his sword moves. Then, the next thing I saw shocked me. He performed the twelve forms of The Hinokami Kagura Dance so beautifully and precisely. The dance was too beautiful when it was performed by Yoriichi-san. Sumiyoshi-san's wife and Sumire were very happy seeing this. After performing the dance, Yoriichi-san took off the hanafuda earrings he was wearing and gave it to Sumiyoshi-san. He looked sad as he turned around and walked away.
Then, Sumiyoshi-san shouted, "YORIICHI-SAN, I WILL PRESERVE THEM FOR THE FUTURE. WE ARE THE LIVES YOU PROTECTED!! YOU ARE NOT A MAN OF NO WORTH!! SO PLEASE DON'T THINK THAT YOU DIDN'T ACHIEVE ANYTHING! I WILL NEVER LET ANYONE SAY THAT.....AND I WILL PASS DOWN YOUR BREATH OF THE SUN AND THESE EARRINGS TO MY DESCENDENTS. I PROMISE YOU!!" After these words, Yoriichi-san turned back, he smiled with closed smile and said, "Thank you."
'Yoriichi-san, that is my line. I should be the one thanking you for saving my ancestor. If it was not for you, we would not have been born. Thank you, Yoriichi-san, and I promise, I will defeat Muzan Kibutsuji for you and for the people.' I thought to myself, and after that, my visions started getting blurry and everything went black.

To be continued............

2000 words