In his increasingly blurred consciousness, a memory from the past suddenly surfaced in Kamado Asaki's mind, momentarily dulling his craving for flesh and blood.
"Asaki, what do you want to do when you grow up?"
Kie held the still-childlike Kamado Asaki in her arms and gently asked.
"What do I want to do… I don't want to do anything. I just want to stay with you, Mother. When I grow up and have strength, I can protect you better, and protect my little brothers too."
Kie covered her mouth and chuckled softly. "Then I'll wait for you to grow up, Asaki. By then, I'll probably be old. I'll be relying on you to protect me."
Asaki nodded, his tone childish but unshakably firm. "I will. I'll definitely protect everyone."
Protect everyone… huh?
I'm sorry. I didn't do it…
That memory helped Asaki gather what little consciousness he had left. He controlled his right hand and picked up the axe lying in the blood.
Gripping it tightly, Asaki twisted his face in anguish and smashed the iron-forged axe handle against his own fangs.
Ka! Ka! Ka…
His demon fangs weren't yet as hard as metal, and with his full force behind the swing, he held nothing back.
The moment it struck, the axe handle shattered all of his fangs. The fragments of bone and the blood that gushed from his mouth mixed together, and he spat them aside.
Human teeth are connected to a dense web of nerves. For demons, it was the same.
The moment the fangs broke, a searing, soul-ripping pain surged through him. It was unbearable.
The physical agony fully crushed his craving for flesh and blood. Asaki staggered away from Kie's corpse in panic.
But his foot slipped, and he collapsed onto another blood-soaked body.
"Rokuta…"
Asaki forced himself to calm down, even as his brain burned like it was engulfed in fire.
Suppressing the raging impulses inside, he stood up.
He looked around and saw all of his family lying silent.
"Kie, Nezuko, Hanako, Takeo, Rokuta, Shigeru…"
"I promised I'd protect you all. I swore I'd never let you be hurt."
"But faced with that vicious demon, my promise… my resolve… were nothing but a joke…"
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry…"
"And Tanjirō, you should still be alive, right? Thank goodness you didn't come back. The only thing I can be grateful for… is that you're still alive."
The dream was over. That unbearable guilt, fear, pain, despair, rage—all of it had become reality.
And now, in a blood-drenched slaughterhouse filled with corpses, for a newborn demon, this kind of temptation was impossible to resist.
Asaki could feel it. If he stayed here—even one more minute—the demon's desire for flesh and blood would drag him into an endless abyss.
And his shattered fangs were already beginning to regenerate at a speed visible to the naked eye. In their place came an even more terrifying hunger.
Tears and hot blood dripped, one by one, onto the broken wooden floor.
Asaki made a choice he didn't want to make.
He had to leave this place. In his current state, he couldn't even clean up his family's bodies. There was no option left but to flee.
"Tanjirō, when you come here tomorrow, you'll feel pain and despair, just like I do now."
"But no matter what, you must stay strong. Your brother believes in you."
"And… the family's remains, I'll leave them to you. I… really can't control myself."
Asaki reached out with one finger. A sharp claw popped out.
He quickly carved a line of text into the wall of the cabin.
"Tanjirō, don't lose hope. You must live. Live on, and wait for me to find you."
Time was tight. Asaki forced himself to endure the hunger and avoided looking at the blood or the bodies all over the ground.
After he finished carving, he didn't hesitate—he burst out the door.
His face was twisted and ferocious, a grotesque result of the battle between demon desire and human reason.
Boom!
The door shattered as he charged through it. Asaki rushed into the storm without looking back, without pausing.
He didn't dare.
He was afraid that if he stopped, he'd never be able to hold back the hunger again. He'd return… and devour everyone's corpses.
With no destination, he chose a random direction and ran—straight away from the warm home he had lived in for sixteen years.
The howling wind lashed across his face. Asaki's once-neat red hair now flew wildly in all directions.
He dashed through the snow at full speed, enduring the constant hunger in his belly, running farther and farther from home.
The trees in his vision rushed by like a blur. He didn't know how long he had been running—maybe an hour, maybe a day.
Only when he could no longer smell a trace of blood did Asaki finally stop.
Looking around, everything was unfamiliar. Only snow-covered ground and silent green pines surrounded him.
And now, he no longer had a home.
The crushing loneliness of being the only person left in the entire world hit him.
"So hungry…"
Without the stimulus of blood, Asaki finally regained clarity. But the hunger in his stomach now felt like a raging fire, unbearable.
"My arms were shattered into pieces by that guy. My face was crushed. I even smashed my own fangs just now…"
"But now I've completely healed. The demon's body really is terrifying."
Though he had heard of demons before, Asaki had always treated those stories as fiction—never taken them seriously. Only now, after seeing it firsthand, did he truly understand the horror.
Forcing himself to calm down, Asaki tried to recall what had happened.
The blood-soaked memories tormented him like salt poured onto open wounds. The pain was unbearable.
But he had to endure it.
Asaki knew—fear and avoidance solved nothing. Only by facing this nightmare head-on could he find his purpose.
"In the world I came from, I vaguely remember they said energy is conserved. I repaired a body that was heavily injured and ran at full speed for who knows how long. I must have consumed a massive amount of energy. That must be why I'm starving now."
He closed his eyes tightly, trying to drive the scenes he remembered out of his mind.
But the image of that cold-blooded man in the white hat had branded itself into his brain. It wouldn't go away.
Thinking of him, Asaki clenched his teeth hard. Rage, uncontrollable and violent, filled his entire chest.
"I don't know who you are. I don't know where you are."
"But I, Kamado Asaki, swear—I'll find you. And I'll make you suffer the most painful torment this world can offer. I will avenge my family's blood."
His eyes slowly changed, finally settling into a determined gaze.
In this life, he had always given off a gentle, sunny feeling. Serious and earnest, always willing to help those in need.
That was all because of Kie and Tanjurō, and his little siblings. They brought warmth into his life. They made him who he was.
He had wanted to be Nezuko's kind and caring big brother. He had wanted to be the obedient and dependable son to Kie and Tanjurō…
But now, only his younger brother Tanjirō remained. And because he was afraid of hurting him, Asaki didn't dare approach him now.
Kamado Asaki could no longer feel the warmth of a family.
(End of Chapter)