Inside the banquet hall, the reek of blood and fear was a thick, suffocating presence, weighing on the nerves of every survivor.
Shinichi stood leaning on his sword, his single scarlet eye still scanning the scene, a hunter counting his kills.
No one dared to meet his gaze.
After a moment, his eyes settled on a shivering figure huddled beneath an ornate dining table.
It was a middle-aged man in a high-ranking official's attire, his meticulously combed hair now disheveled.
Shinichi stared at the man's distinguished face, his own expression unreadable.
He knew that beneath that respectable veneer, the seeds of an unforgivable sin had been deeply sown.
Killing intent flared once more in Shinichi's eyes.
He slowly raised his Nichirin blade.
Though the tip trembled slightly, it pointed with deadly certainty at the man under the table.
He lunged, shattering the table and grabbing the man, who immediately let out a desperate, animalistic howl.
"No! Please! Let me go! I'll give you anything you want…"
"Shinichi! Stop!"
Seeing Shinichi about to kill again, Sabito could no longer stand by.
He rushed forward, his hand clamping down on Shinichi's wrist like a vise.
"Enough, Shinichi-san!" he pleaded, his eyes sweeping over the carnage.
He saw the bodies, the blood, and the once-powerful men who were now broken and wailing like lambs for the slaughter.
A deep, horrified pity filled him.
"They are human! Not demons! Even if they have sinned, this is not our place! This is a massacre!"
As a master of the Water Breathing, a deep-seated integrity and compassion was at his core.
He could kill demons without hesitation, but to see his own kind butchered so brutally touched a fundamental nerve.
Shinichi slowly turned his head, his scarlet eye meeting Sabito's.
There was no rage or defensiveness in his gaze, only a calm, unbreakable resolve that his friend could not comprehend.
"Sabito… let go," Shinichi's voice was a hoarse rasp.
"Why?!" Sabito's grip tightened.
He stared into Shinichi's demonic eye, desperately searching for a flicker of the calm, reliable Forest Hashira he knew.
"Even if they deserved to die, it shouldn't have been by your hand! This path will lead you straight to hell! Wake up!"
Seeing the genuine pain and worry in Sabito's eyes, Shinichi's heart wavered for a fraction of a second.
But then the bloody memories of the past, and the vision of the obstacles Chinatsu would have to face, hardened his resolve once more.
There are hells that someone has to go to.
There are sins that someone must bear.
"I don't regret it," Shinichi said, his voice quiet but absolute.
"Believe me, Sabito. I am doing this to save more lives." He tried to pull his arm free, but Sabito held fast.
Just as they were locked in their stalemate…
Clap… clap… clap…
A series of clear, playful applause echoed from the shadows in the corner of the hall.
Every head snapped in that direction.
On the second floor, Yuichiro and Muichiro wore expressions of deep frustration.
They were Hashira, yet their target had slipped from their grasp.
"Truly… brilliant, Forest Hashira-sama!" Kamaro's voice, filled with sickening admiration, slithered from the darkness.
"Decisive! Ruthless! Precise! It even possessed a certain… cruel aesthetic. You have once again completely overturned my perception of you."
"Be silent, demon!" Sabito roared, instantly releasing Shinichi as his focus shifted to the true enemy.
A deep blue aura flared around his blade.
"Oh, don't be so excited, Wave Hashira-sama," Kamaro waved a dismissive hand, as if placating a noisy child.
"My mission here is complete. I merely wished to say farewell and… express my sincere admiration for the Forest Hashira's outstanding performance." His gaze swept over the terrified survivors.
"Tsk, tsk. After tonight's… restructuring, I believe Miss Ryukawa's work will proceed much more smoothly, don't you?"
Hearing this, Ryukawa Chinatsu, who had been watching in silent horror from the balcony, turned deathly pale, her fingers gripping the railing until her knuckles were white.
Kamaro seemed to suddenly remember something, slapping his forehead in mock surprise.
"Oh, my! Look at my memory. I was so enthralled by the show, I almost forgot the most important part."
A slow, eerie smile spread across his face.
In a voice that was both soft and blood-chilling, he spoke.
"While you were all so very busy here… has anyone noticed… that the communications from your headquarters… seem to have gone silent?"
Shinichi's and Sabito's pupils contracted.
Their hearts plunged.
Kamaro savored their expressions.
"If one calculates the time," he continued in that same creepy, leisurely tone.
"Muzan-sama and his loyal Upper Moons… should have arrived by now. I do wonder how long your defenseless little base… can possibly hold out?"
"What did you say?!" Sabito cried out in shock.
The headquarters was under attack? By Muzan and the Upper Moons?!
But nearly all the Hashira had been sent away… how could it be such a coincidence?
Wait.
The pieces slammed together in Shinichi's mind with sickening force.
Kagaya's strange orders.
The scattering of their forces.
'It wasn't a mission… it was a clearing of the field!'
'It's a trap. And he is the bait.'
"Hehehe… well, it seems my work here is done," Kamaro chuckled.
"I wouldn't want to get in the way of your family matters. If I don't leave now, those two boys on the balcony might actually manage to hit me."
"Breath of Maple!"
"Breath of Mist!"
As the Tokito brothers lunged again, Kamaro's figure blurred, melting back into the shadows an instant before their blades could find purchase.
"I do hope…" his disembodied voice whispered through the hall, laced with a final, vicious taunt.
"…That you make it back in time… to collect the bodies."
Headquarters! Oyakata-sama!
"We're leaving! Now!"
The scarlet in Shinichi's eye receded, replaced by desperate, amber clarity as his demonic features faded.
He dropped the terrified official he was holding and turned to his comrades.
Sabito reacted instantly, his mind racing.
He gripped his sword and fell in beside Shinichi.
They had to go back.
They had to get back now.
Chinatsu, who knew of Kagaya's plan, understood their panic completely.
"Shinichi, not the main gate!" she called out, her voice sharp and commanding.
"This place will be swarming with police and soldiers in minutes! Come with me! When that monster captured me, I found a secret passage!"
.....
That night, Tokyo's elite class suffered a bloodbath that would reshape the nation's future.
And miles away, the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters faced the deadliest crisis in its thousand-year history.
Time was running out.
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