After witnessing the "revolving lantern" of the demoness Kyojutsu and learning of her past, Horitake felt no surge of pity.
This woman had never been a good person to begin with.
Even as a human, she had been a calculating opportunist, ingratiating herself with the Library Director for her own gain. Once she realized her master was a monster, she had used every trick in the book to save her own skin, casting aside her humanity without a second thought to become a man-eating demon.
Neither the woman she was nor the demon she became deserved a shred of sympathy.
As he stood over the spot where she perished, Horitake felt not a single spark of guilt for ending her life.
Meanwhile, within the shifting confines of the Infinity Castle, Muzan Kibutsuji naturally sensed the moment Kyojutsu vanished.
He realized, with a cold flare of recognition, that it was that same brat Horitake again, meddling in his affairs and slaughtering his subordinates.
Muzan was angry, of course, but the intensity of his rage wasn't quite what one might expect.
Why?
Because lately, Muzan had been angry so often that his fuse had effectively burned out. Between one setback and another, his constant state of fury and irritability had reached a point where it felt as though he had entered a permanent state of "demon menopause."
Because he had been pushed to his limits so many times recently, his inner threshold for tolerating failure had unintentionally shifted. He found Kyojutsu's death irritating, yes, but not world-shattering. At the very least, he didn't throw a tantrum in the Infinity Castle or take his frustration out on Nakime. He simply let out a few guttural, wind-shaking roars and let the matter drop.
Furthermore, in Muzan's eyes, the Lower Ranks of the Twelve Kizuki were little more than expendable ammunition. Once a clip was empty, you simply reloaded. High-tier Upper Moons were hard to come by, but candidates for the Lower Ranks were a dime a dozen.
It was merely a matter of handing out a few drops of blood. If they died, they were replaced. It was as simple as that.
Back at the library, once he was certain Kyojutsu was truly gone, Horitake closed the door to the fifth-floor office. He descended the stairs quickly, leaving the building behind.
Stepping out of the main entrance, Horitake couldn't help but pause at the edge of the street. He turned back to look at the massive, Western-style edifice looming in the darkness—the library that had become a slaughterhouse.
The building still stood tall in the shadows, but now that the architect of its misery was gone, that oppressive, eerie atmosphere had dissipated. The "man-eating" aura was gone.
He cast it one final glance before turning away, disappearing into the winding streets of Kyoto.
As he walked, a few thoughts drifted through his mind.
Should I head back to the Inari Shrine? Should I see the shrine maiden, Amane, one last time? Should I track down Inspector Eguchi to tell him the demon is dead?
No, better not.
The beauty of a chance encounter lay in its fleeting nature.
His mission was complete. Having met a decent man like Inspector Eguchi once was enough; there was no need to linger or disrupt their lives further. If they happened to cross paths again in the future, that would be a pleasant surprise. If not, it didn't matter.
The freedom of the journey lay in the fact that meeting and parting were decided in a single breath.
As he walked with a casual, easy stride, a sudden memory sparked. He reached into his robes and pulled out the fortune slip—the omikuji—he had drawn at the Inari Shrine.
On the paper, two large characters were written: Small Luck.
Next to them, a line of smaller text read: "Break through the void to find the lasting path."
Looking at the slip, Horitake couldn't help but feel a sense of begrudging respect.
"You have to hand it to them," he muttered. "This thing was remarkably accurate."
What did "Small Luck" mean? It meant his fortune was perfectly average—no grand blessings, but no catastrophic disasters either. And indeed, this entire demon-slaying mission had been relatively straightforward. There had been no miraculous strokes of fate, but nothing had gone horribly wrong, either.
As for the small print, it was even more spot-on.
The demon he had faced specialized in illusions and mental traps. What were those if not "the void"? He had successfully seen through the deception and shattered the illusion, bringing the matter to a clean and successful conclusion.
Staring at the slip, Horitake's mind drifted back to the Inari Shrine.
That place... perhaps it was surprisingly authentic. Maybe there really was some inexplicable power at work there. Could it be that a Japanese deity was actually watching over the place?
Following that train of thought, he naturally remembered the white fox he had encountered.
That fox... it couldn't really have been an avatar of the god Inari, could it?
At that thought, Horitake let out a boisterous laugh, his pace quickening.
"Forget it, forget it. What's the point in overthinking? It doesn't change anything."
If that fox really had been a god, then that god was a bit of a pushover. He had managed to pet it into a state of pure, mindless bliss far too easily. If a deity could be won over that simply, they weren't exactly intimidating.
Don't worry about it.
It didn't matter if gods existed in this world or not. Even if they did, they weren't the ones swinging swords at demons. If they wouldn't help him kill his enemies, what difference did their existence make?
He would always place his faith in himself, not in some distant divinity. He wasn't the type to go bowing and scraping at an altar for a miracle that would never come.
In the end, a person can only truly rely on themselves.
With that final, firm thought, Horitake marched forward.
Kyoto was a fine city, but it wasn't a place for him to linger. It was time to return to the Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters.
When he had left, Shinobu had promised him that by the time he returned from his mission, the "Life Supplement Potion" would be nearing completion.
He wondered how her research was going.
If she hasn't finished it yet, I'm definitely going to give her a hard time about it, he thought with a smirk.
With his mind made up, his pace intensified. He activated the Breath of Heavenly Thunder, purple arcs of electricity dancing across his skin. In a flash of violet light, he vanished into the distance.
Horitake traveled through the night, the stars and moon his only companions.
Since the mission was already over, he didn't push himself to the point of exhaustion. When he grew tired, he rested; when he was sleepy, he found an inn; when he was hungry, he ate his fill.
Thus, it was on a bright morning a few days later that he finally arrived back at the Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters.
His first stop wasn't his own home, nor was it the Butterfly Mansion. Instead, he headed straight for the Ubuyashiki estate to see Kagaya.
After all, the Kyoto mission had been personally entrusted to him by the Master. Now that it was finished, it was only proper to report the outcome and the details of the encounter face-to-face.
Upon arriving at the estate, he was granted entry without issue.
However, he hadn't expected to find Shinobu Kochou already there. Even more surprising was the timing of his arrival.
When Horitake entered the room, the scene was tense:
Kagaya sat on a tatami mat with a grave expression. In front of him was a low table, and sitting to the side was Shinobu, her face equally solemn.
But the real focus wasn't the people. It was a glass bottle sitting in the center of the table.
Inside the bottle was a strange, shimmering liquid—a vibrant, glowing green.
The hue was unsettlingly bright. Horitake looked at the "green-glimmering" concoction, and his mind immediately jumped to sci-fi movies—the kind featuring mad scientists and their bizarre, volatile gene serums.
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