Giyuu felt his soul scream, though no sound came from his lips.
Inosuke hung there, struggling and squirming. The tentacle's talon end had punctured his back all the way through to his chest, blood dripping from it's exit wound.
Inosuke finally cried out in pain, releasing a labored scream he had tried to hold. It was raspy and desperate in its texture, a hint of frustration hidden beneath it's gut-wrenching surface.
Muzan still didn't put him down.
"Let him go..." Giyuu found himself pleading. "Please... let him go..."
But as he glanced at Muzan's regenerated face, he saw nothing but pure craze. The demon king's nerves were popping out of his skin, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull. He was staring at Inosuke, watching in pleasure as the poor boy squirmed in pain.
Giyuu's blood began to boil.
"I said LET HIM GO!" Giyuu yelled. "Look at him! He's suffering up there!"
Muzan did not let go.
"Don't make me come up there and-" Giyuu said, only to wince as he stripped back down to the grass. His body was weak and starved of blood.
I'm a weakling... Giyuu thought.
"I'm going to kill you, you hear me?!" Giyuu declared, despite pathetically crawling through the grass like a slug. "I'm gonna kill you if you don't put him down!"
He heard Shinobu begin to sob behind him. Her hopeless, ugly gasps and quiet wails made his chest sink, which only motivated him further. He got back up on his feet, trudging towards Muzan.
"Let him go..." Giyuu said, this time with a bit of fear in his wavering voice. "Let Inosuke down..."
The sound of Inosuke's wincing and Shinobu's sobbing echoed in his ears.
"Please..." Giyuu said, starting to get desperate. "Let him go..."
He then fell to his knees, back slumped like a beggar. Finally, Muzan decided to turn his head and look at him. There was an intense grin on his face.
"Damn me..." Giyuu whispered to himself, sobbing in between breaths. "Damn me, I'm a failure... I'm an absolute failure..."
He heard a loud thwack hit the grass beside him.
Giyuu cracked his eyes open, blurred from tears. He saw Inosuke lying not far to his left, a massive red puncture wound leaking blood. His chest rose sharply as he tried to breathe, and he clenched his fist on every breath.
He was dying.
He didn't even see Shinobu run up to them. She landed on the grass, immediately taking off her haori and applying pressure on the wound, trying to stop the blood. However, he could tell from the look in her eyes that even she knew it was hopeless.
"Giyuu, help me out here!" Shinobu said in a pleading voice. Giyuu crawled up to them, holding the haori down. He only then noticed that Shinobu wheezed as she breathed.
"Oh kami, oh kami..." she muttered as she navigated her shuddering hands around, whipping out tools from her pouch. She tried bandaging the wound. That wouldn't work, it was nearly a handspan wide, and she only had an arm's length of cloth left. She patted the ground with her hands, trying to find her injections. All empty, cracked from their previous fight. She remembered that the tentacles had squeezed her from the knees up.
"This isn't happening, this isn't happening..." Shinobu muttered some more, running out of options. "I can't, you're going to die, this is all my fault..."
"Shinobu, it's okay." Giyuu tried to reassure her, but she wasn't having it. She started to spin her head around desperately, looking for a solution that she knew wasn't there.
"Oh kami, I can't do this... I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't..." Shinobu shook her head, bringing her hands to her hears and squeezing them in despair. "I'm letting him die, I'm letting him die, I'm letting him die, it's all my fault..."
"Shinobu, stop." Giyuu said more sternly.
"It's all my fault, it's all my fault, it's all my fault, IT'S ALL MY FAULT!" Shinobu screamed.
"It's not!" Giyuu yelled, taking her by her shoulders and staring her straight in the eye. "It's... our fault."
Silence hung in the air afterwards.
Finally, Shinobu gave in and fell into Giyuu's embrace. She started shaking as she pulled him closer, burying her sobs in his chest. He tried his best to comfort her, but even he felt like breaking down and crying along.
"H-hey..." a voice said.
They both looked up. It had come from Inosuke, his hand bloody from touching his wound. He was struggling under the boar mask.
Shinobu sprang over to him, ripping the mask off. It revealed Inosuke, his sweet, feminine face stained with blood running down his mouth. His eyes sparkled as it reflected the starlight above.
"What is it, Inosuke?" Giyuu said, crawling beside Shinobu, who was staring at Inosuke's face. "C'mon, speak up."
"W-was I..." Inosuke said, lifting his twitching, bloodied hand up towards both of them. "A-a good slayer?"
Giyuu gripped Inosuke's hand and squeezed it, looking at his eyes. "You were better than that. You were a great slayer. One of the greatest... the absolute greatest..."
Inosuke slowly smiled. He didn't grin. He smiled. An innocent, childlike smile. Probably the first, and last, time he would ever smile that way. "Nice... that's... nice..."
He looked at Giyuu one last time. Giyuu felt his hand being squeezed, Inosuke using the last scraps of life he had left. "You... know... what to do... when I'm... gone..."
Inosuke's grip on Giyuu loosened. His arm soon went limp. The boy said no more.
At that moment, Giyuu felt himself frozen. He couldn't bring himself to hug Inosuke's corpse. He didn't deserve that. Beside him, Shinobu put her head down and sobbed quietly, keeping her own sorrow to herself. Part of Giyuu wished she would scream in grief, that way he wouldn't feel bad about not sobbing. It disgusted him, how little tears fell from his eyes.
You know what to do when I'm gone...
Did he?
The entire time, he had wanted to die in place of his loved ones. He had wanted to be the one to break the cycle of loving and losing. It felt right to be the one to sacrifice.
But he failed. He failed, and it ended up costing his little boy. His little Inosuke.
I know what to do... Giyuu thought. But... I don't think I deserve to do it...
He found himself glancing at Inosuke's face again. He had died with his eyes closed, a rare luxury from what Giyuu remembers of death. It was almost like Inosuke was just quietly sleeping. He could nearly feel the warmth of the boy's body again.
I know what to do. Giyuu thought. I'll do it for him.
I'll keep going for him.
"You..." a raspy voice said from above them. He didn't need to look up, he knew who it was.
"For decades..." Muzan said in an exhausted voice. "I've wanted to get rid of you and your foolish band of self-righteous conscripts."
Giyuu looked up at Muzan with a fiery glare.
"Unjaded, naive, pathetic little welps! You're all pathetic welps!" Muzan yelled. "But I realized... if you're all self righteous, unjaded, naive, pathetic little welps... then I don't have to kill you all.
I just have to make you face reality."
Muzan walked around the three of then, grinning to himself. "You know the best thing about life? Every single one of us is selfish. We might lend a helping hand every once in a while, sure, but in the end we burrow back to our little evil selves. The men who rule this country are the worst kinds. Easily swayed by money, property, and personal gain! So if I convince them that you were only here to scam them and send them to bankruptcy, which you probably will...
I don't need to kill you... I just need to prove you're dangerous."
Muzan stepped closer to Giyuu, who had turned away and looked back to Inosuke. Shinobu was beside him, tears running down her cheeks.
"Get up." Muzan ordered. "Or I'll drag you up."
Giyuu grunted, then squeezed Inosuke's hands one final time.
He slipped his arm under Inosuke's legs, attempting to lift the boy up. Unfortunately, with one arm, he could only elevate the legs a few feet off the ground.
"Shinobu, help me." Giyuu whispered. "I can't carry him all by myself."
Shinobu looked up at him, confused and teary-eyed.
"I can't carry him with only one arm." Giyuu smiled.
Shinobu stayed silent for a moment, then smiled back, understanding what he needed. She slipped her arms under Inosuke's back and head, lifting the boy off of the grass.
She stumbled forward suddenly, but Giyuu used his knee to catch Inosuke's back. Slowly but surely, Shinobu tucked her arm back, careful not to walk too fast this time. Her chest still pained like hell, but she had enough resolve to push through it. Inosuke's lifeless face was more than enough to fuel that resolve.
"Hah!" Muzan heckled. "You think bringing your foolish son's body along with you is going to earn some sympathy from the Council?"
Giyuu turned his head towards Muzan, still walking. "This isn't for them."
Muzan arched his eyebrows, confused for a bit, then grinned in mockery. "Ah, you just can't let go of your sweet sweet boy, can you? Can't get over the fact that you were the one who killed him?"
Shinobu grit her teeth as he said this, glaring at him. Though, this sudden action made her chest sting, and she winced.
Muzan's eyes grew intense. "Yeah, that's right. Hate me all you want. You have no idea how much I hate you."
Giyuu put his head down in shame. "I'm sorry, Muzan. I murdered someone you love.
But I won't forgive you for the countless times you did the same to us."
Muzan scoffed. "Walk faster, you damned nut."
The three of them trudged up the hill where the Imperial Castle's entrance resided. A low fog had settled in the air, making the lights from the castle windows glow eerily. Giyuu found it's presence intimidating.
Perhaps for reasons other than it's appearance.
. . .
Emperor Hirohito sat on his throne, listening to a dozen old men babble at each other. Only a few days of this, and he already started to feel hopeless. What was this country coming to?
The fact that they were arguing about the existence of demons only made it worse.
"We have too much evidence!" one Council member brought up. "The dead civilians, the sudden appearance of these 'demon slayers', there's bloody slayers hunting these things down!"
"ALLEGED!" another Council member shot back. "Alleged slayers! These demons are nothing but fabrications, easy explanations for the rise of gang violence in the streets. We should be taking this more seriously, idiot!"
Oh kami, just kill me now... Hiro thought.
The babbling continued throughout the night. Why were they even holding it at night? Weren't the Council members tired? Did Muzan manipulate them into meeting up so late? Why was he even alive anymo-"
"My Lord! Sir Kibutsuji approaches!"
This made Hiro's head snap back up. Even the Council silenced themselves at the mention of that name.
From the far door, a figure emerged. Hiro felt a gasp slip out his mouth as he saw Muzan. Tattered clothes, a missing hat, and blood on his face that didn't burn away. Could it be human blood?
"My lord... Hirohito..." Muzan said in a ragged voice. "Allow me to present to you... the finest interpretation... of this country's downfall."
Another figure- no, multiple figures began to walk in. Hiro felt the oh-so-familiar chill of hopelessness. Of course another group of slayers failed against Muzan.
But then he saw two pale green eyes.
The entire room caught it's breath as they tried to comprehend what they saw before them. A man and a woman, both ragged and wounded severely, carrying the corpse of a young boy in their arms.
Giyuu-sama, Shinobu-sama, and Inosuke-san...
Hiro swiftly stood from his seat, eyes wide in shock. From the corner of his eye, he could see Muzan, looking at the three slayers with a gleeful expression.
You sick bastard! Hirohito thought.
Giyuu and Shinobu began to slowly step towards the Emperor's throne, towards Hiro. He settled back in his seat, noticing Muzan's threatening eyes gesturing to stay down.
I can't do anything... Hiro thought. If I tell them what Muzan truly did, he'll kill me. He'll kill us all.
"This, dear gentlemen," Muzan declared as the three slayers continued slowly limping towards the Emperor. "is exactly what is wrong with our empire! These... criminals, these... ANARCHISTS have been polluting our great country for more than a hundred decades! Liars who speak of monsters in the dark, leeches who plant fiction in the minds of our people!"
Giyuu and Shinobu finally stopped painfully walking, just in front of Hiro, who was having trouble processing what was happening. They both slowly got on their knees, settling Inosuke down on their laps.
"Now, dear Emperor Hirohito..." Muzan sneered. "Bring justice. Show these pests where they belong! Purge this place of their filth!"
The Council roared in agreement, shaking their fists up and shouting at Giyuu and Shinobu.
"You brought a child to this tyrannical scam?! Shame on you!"
"Try pleading while you hang from a noose!"
"This country would be better off without you!"
"Shame on you!"
"Shame!"
"Shame!"
"Shame!"
The entire Council began chanting the word 'shame', jabbing their fingers towards Giyuu and Shinobu's direction. Hiro just sat there in disbelief, motionless. He couldn't take it.
He couldn't sentence them to death. His mind simply did not allow it.
The constant shaming died down as Giyuu brought Inosuke's head up, raising the boy's face for Hiro to see in all it's horrifying reality. It's almost like the Council just realized there was a dead child in the room.
Giyuu opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came. His eyes started shimmering. He was frozen with grief.
No, don't stop now! Hiro thought. They need to hear you! This country needs to hear you!
"Giyuu..." he heard Shinobu whisper to Giyuu. "It's okay..."
Giyuu slowly nodded, mustering up the courage to speak.
"His name was Inosuke Hashibara." Giyuu said. "He was a demon slayer. Perhaps one of the greatest to ever live. He died protecting his family.
He was only fifteen years old."
That made the council start chattering, which visibly annoyed Muzan.
"Now, now, anarchist." Muzan said. "The only reason that boy is dead is because you used him in your dreadful scam! Why should we believe the words of a folktale-spreading parasite like yo-"
"He hoped," Giyuu said, cutting Muzan off. "with his last breath... that I would honor his wish, to do what I have to do... when he was gone."
Giyuu placed a trembling hand on Inosuke's face. He didn't say anything else, which confused the Council.
"What he wished..." Shinobu suddenly said, pulling back the Council's attention. "was for us to keep going. Keep protecting, even when it seems like we have nothing left to protect."
She looked up defiantly, scanning the room, seeing every old, wrinkled face and looking through their eyes. She only saw deceived souls.
"Muzan murdered him." Shinobu declared.
Suddenly, the Council turned to Muzan, eyes shocked and horrified. The demon king merely scoffed at this.
"Lies." Muzan rebuttled. "Just like the many lies you spread, the existence of these so-called 'demons'. You both have no shame, do you?"
The Council's mood suddenly shifted from suspicious to disgusted. They started chanting 'shame' once again, repulsed at how far these anarchists were willing to lie for their freedom.
But Hiro knew otherwise.
Giyuu raised his head and looked straight at Hiro's eyes. Hiro could see the pain, the grief, the heartbreak, all in a single look. No tears were shed, but he knew that Giyuu was crying on the inside.
I will not take this anymore.
Hiro got off his throne and knelt down, laying eyes on Inosuke. The Council suddenly freaked out as he did this, since the Emperor rarely ever got off his throne for anything. This was either extremely honorable or extremely immodest.
"You..." Hiro started, feeling his voice croak like a frog. "you watched him... die?"
Giyuu stared at him for a moment, then sorrowfully nodded. Hiro felt his heart contract in his chest.
From the other side of the room, Muzan's face was confused and furious. Hiro was aware why, and an act like this would probably get him killed. Fortunately, he didn't really care anymore.
"Emperor..." Muzan said. "This man FOUGHT against you! Against me! Nearly gutted me, that one!"
He revealed the tears in his clothes for all the Council to see. The old men nodded, still glaring at Giyuu and Shinobu.
"Your Highness..." Shinobu said quietly. "if you believe us to be enemies of the state, command us... and we will gladly join Inosuke in death."
Giyuu nodded in agreement.
Hiro felt his mouth hang open, horrified at how confidently Giyuu and Shinobu were with that decision. Never once had he met a person who was so willing to die, if ever they were ordered to. These two have truly lost everything.
Suddenly, Shinobu shoved something in Hiro's hands. It felt sharp.
"Don't let the truth die with us." Shinobu said. Hiro stared at her eyes. She had the exact same pain, grief, and heartbreak.
I will not take this anymore.
Hiro sprang to his feet, surprising Muzan, the Council, and even Giyuu and Shinobu. His eyes went stern, authoritative, like his father before him. At that moment, nobody saw Hirohito. They saw the Emperor.
"I have... been loyal to my father's legacy my entire life." Hiro said, projecting his voice across the room, reaching through the inner depths of his diaphragm to deliver a voice that shook the air. "Protecting this country and it's people is all I've ever known."
The Council members stared at him, mouths agape and eyes dilated. Hiro's eyes pierced deep into them, the same way his father did.
"But soon, I've come to realize something about ourselves..." he said. "We are in shambles. For years, an unseen enemy has continued to drain us of ourselves right under our noses..."
Out of the blue, a bold Council member got up to his feet in anger. "Don't speak to us like children, boy! We are a country of patriots, sworn to the flag of the rising sun!"
"We are a country of whores." Hiro spat back. "We sell our body, our riches, to the outside world, and we still do. It's shameful that we become so desperate to the point where we sell ourselves to ourselves."
"How dare you!" the bold Council member yelled. "Your father has been constructing legacy of yea-"
"SILENCE!" Hiro yelled. "My father was mentally ill. And yet, you put him on a pedestal, like a statue in a museum. Shame on you for neglecting his own well-being."
The bold Council member suddenly went deathly pale, and dropped back to his seat.
"I am sick and tired of manipulation." Hiro said. "No more will our people be spoon fed the words they want to hear. From now on, we will tell the world that we can stand on our own. From now on, we will stop lying to ourselves."
He then faced Muzan with an intensity. The demon king stared back in confusion.
"And I'll start..." Hiro said. "With proving this man guilty of murder."
Muzan's eyes arched, furious. He stomped towards Hiro in a manner that made the Council gasp. Once he reached Hiro, he whipped out his demon claw, pointing it under his throat.
The Council members divulged into hysteria. "Treason! Treason!"
"I'm going to kill you once this is all over..." Muzan sneered. "You've had your chance, boy..."
"Aye..." Hiro said. "but look down."
Muzan hesitantly whipped his head down. In Hiro's hands was a shard of Shinobu's old hairpin. She had kept it's broken remains all these years later.
And he had plunged it into Muzan's belly.
"We would have joined each other in death." Hiro smiled.
Muzan immediately pulled back, only to realize that his wound had regenerated right in front of the Council's eyes.
That's right. Hirohito thought. I'm not lying anymore.
"You... you trickster!" Muzan said desperately, frantically pointing at Hiro. "He's a deceitful rat!"
"Where's the flesh wound?!" one of the Council members asked. "It's completely disappeared!"
"Just like in the demon rumors!" another Council member said.
"No, no, no..." Muzan shook his head in denial. "You're all being tricked! It..."
But he had no words to defend him.
The Council had began crawling closer, seeing clear as day that his wound had indeed been regenerated. They soon started chattering among each other. Perhaps the demon slayers were telling the truth.
"You... you IMBECLE!" Muzan shouted to Hiro, but he knew that there was nothing he could do to hurt him. If the Emperor died here, in front of witnesses, it won't be long until the existence of demons would be widespread.
With no choices left, Muzan stepped up to Hiro, claws out. "I'll kill you unless you do something about this!"
It was a dry statement.
"No, Muzan." Hiro said. "Watch who has true control of the room here."
Muzan grit his teeth in frustration, then pointed his claws at Giyuu and Shinobu. "I'll kill them both!"
"Go ahead." Giyuu suddenly said, making Muzan look at him in confusion.
"If Inosuke hadn't told me to keep going..." Giyuu said, looking up. "I would already be dead long before we arrived here."
Muzan recoiled his claws back. To the back, guards started to pour inside the room, as the Council members called for his arrest. They had been fully convinced.
There was nothing he could do. Japan knew what he was. From that moment onward, he would be hunted down until death.
"You have no power here." Hiro said. "Now go."
Muzan glared at Hiro one final time, fangs out and shining. However, despite being a creature of immense power, capable of killing at the blink of an eye... he had never felt more powerless in his life.
With no real way left to win, Muzan bolted at the wall opposite to the entrance, crashing through it. He fell through the cold evening air and landed on the blood-stained grass, running.
The demon king was no more.
Hiro dropped the shard of Shinobu's hairpin and kneeled back to Giyuu and Shinobu. He glanced at Inosuke again, and hadn't realized how peaceful he looked, a hint of a smile on his grey lips. It was almost like he heard the entire conversation, and smiled at it's outcome.
Hiro looked up to Giyuu, tears of catharsis leaking through his own eyes. "Inosuke-san was a great slayer."
"No, he wasn't." Giyuu looked back at him, smiling.
"But he was a great son."
THE END... OF EVERYTHING
My deepest thanks to all of you. It's been a huge honor to write for you!
Thank you so much to my Beta Readers (and platonic siblings)
@Mintchoclatechip29
@NotAuthorSSS
@AWall-86
I love all three of you, thank you for sticking around as long as you did.
Sayonara, for real this time.