The sky wept lightly over Mount Sagiri as Tanjiro returned, footsteps slow, heart full. His uniform clung to his body, torn and blood-stained, but his eyes were clear with purpose.
Urokodaki was waiting beneath the trees.
Tanjiro stepped forward, and without words, the old man embraced him. For a moment, silence reigned—no breathing techniques, no battles, no masks.
Only the warmth of a bond that had been forged in pain, discipline, and silent understanding.
"You've done well, Tanjiro," Urokodaki finally said, voice thick with emotion.
Then, from the doorway of the house, a soft shuffling.
Nezuko.
She was awake.
She rubbed her eyes as if awakening from a long dream, her face innocent—untainted by the blood-soaked days her brother had endured. Tanjiro dropped to his knees and clutched her tightly, trembling. She responded with a gentle pat on his back, as if to say: You came back. You kept your promise.
Urokodaki watched from a distance.
So the bond still holds. She remains gentle.
But his eyes fell to the sun above. Bright, merciless.
"Keep her away from sunlight. Always," Giyu's voice echoed in his memory. "And that muzzle—she must never remove it. She must never taste blood."
Urokodaki reinforced the bamboo muzzle around Nezuko's mouth again. "It will keep others safe. And keep her soul anchored," he murmured.
The choice was made. The siblings would walk the path of hunters and hunted.
Within days, the Nichirin Sword was delivered.
The swordsmith, a man named Haganezuka, wore a fearsome smile behind a bright polka-dotted mask. He was eccentric, loud, but skilled.
"Black blade!" he gasped when Tanjiro drew his sword. "Very rare! Very mysterious!"
Tanjiro tilted the blade, seeing no crimson or gold—only deep, inky black that drank in the light.
"Those with black blades… seldom live long," Haganezuka muttered, almost too quietly.
But Tanjiro gripped the hilt firmly. This blade is mine. It chose me, as I chose this path.
No fear.
Only resolve.
Just days later, Tanjiro's crow burst into the sky, cawing the message that would change his journey forever:
"FIRST MISSION! FIRST MISSION! NORTHWEST TOWN!"
Tanjiro wrapped Nezuko in a cloth and strapped the box tightly to his back.
Urokodaki watched him at the gate. "Never show mercy to demons, Tanjiro," he said. "No matter their form. No matter their words. But don't lose your kindness."
Tanjiro bowed deeply.
"I won't."
The crow flew ahead.
And Tanjiro followed—into the dark.