Although her sister never actually said those words, that voice still echoed in Kocho Shinobu's heart, and her vision of her sister gradually blurred with tears.
"I just want you to be happy like an ordinary girl. I want you to live until your hair turns white… that alone is already enough…" Kanae's breathing grew more and more labored, her words breaking apart.
The fingertips stroking her sister's cheek trembled faintly. Her sister's face gradually became indistinct, and an unprecedented cold spread through her body.
She was going to die.
Kanae's pupils slowly began to lose focus.
As a doctor, Shinobu knew better than anyone what that meant. Tears overflowed uncontrollably as she trembled and grabbed the wrist that was caressing her face, her voice choked with sobs.
"Don't die… Sister, don't…"
Kanae's unfocused eyes suddenly shifted toward the space directly in front of her.
A vague figure was approaching.
Who?
She could no longer see the face clearly.
Beyond that figure, the horizon behind them was glowing with golden-red dawn.
But the sun had already risen—Shinobu was safe.
Holding onto that thought, Kanae closed her eyes in peace.
The figure knelt down on Kanae's other side.
"You—"
Shinobu, devastated and almost senseless with grief, was startled into momentary confusion by the sudden intrusion of this stranger.
"She can still be saved."
Shinobu's pupils shrank slightly. After freezing for an instant, she swallowed her doubts and hurriedly asked,
"What do I need to do?"
As she anxiously spoke, she still maintained the professional composure of a physician, gently laying her sister flat.
She wanted to help but didn't know how. In the end, with mingled hope and fear, she shifted aside to make space for Yuko, so as not to interfere with the treatment.
Just those few words were enough to ignite a spark of hope in Shinobu's heart.
When, as a doctor, you clearly know that your loved one is beyond saving—and yet someone suddenly tells you that there is still hope…
Even if this is your field of expertise, even if everything you've learned insists that it's impossible—you would still try.
Tears still clung to Shinobu's eyes as she looked at Yuko with boundless hope.
Yuko said nothing more. She curled her fingers slightly, sliced open her own palm with her nails, and smeared the blood across the wound on Kanae's neck.
The fatal injury was the deep gash across her neck, slashed by an iron fan. The blood loss had been massive.
Compared to that, the damage to her lungs could only come second.
So cold.
That was the first sensation Kanae felt.
Seeing this scene, the already panicked Shinobu nearly short-circuited.
Just as she hesitated to ask something, she saw the wound beneath her sister's neck begin to writhe slowly. The sight was unsettling, but…
The wound was healing.
Shinobu's mind went completely blank.
Yuko did not stop. After smearing her blood into the wound, she quickly fed more of it into Kanae's mouth.
Through her transparent perception, she could clearly see the girl's alveoli were already necrotizing—this was the reason her breathing had become so difficult, her speech so broken.
Normally, what one drinks would not enter the lungs—but with precise control, it could.
She was a demon. Her blood could be controlled.
"Cough—cough!"
When the blood entered her lungs, Kanae broke into violent coughing.
"Sister!"
Shinobu cried out in alarm, stopping herself from rushing forward to support her.
The healing of the neck wound already proved everything. She had no reason to interfere.
Her lungs… so cold…
Her consciousness was fading, and Kanae's body shuddered instinctively.
Yuko calmly directed her blood to repair the ruined lungs and said without looking up, "Hold her. She'll feel better that way."
Shinobu was half a beat late in realizing she was being addressed. After murmuring a hurried "Oh—oh," she quickly lifted her sister into her arms.
Her posture was stiff, like a medical novice performing her first rescue under a teacher's supervision, terrified of making a mistake.
But when she felt the warmth in her sister's body slowly returning, Shinobu's tears fell uncontrollably.
As Yuko watched Kanae's alveoli gradually being repaired, memories from long ago surfaced in her mind.
"I think Yuko awakened this kind of Blood Demon Art because she still loves humans—because she still loves the human she once was."
That was Yoriichi.
"There has never been such a Blood Demon Art before… an ability born purely for the sake of humans. I believe this is the result of Yuko fighting relentlessly against Muzan's will."
That was Tamayo.
Just as they said, Yuko's Blood Demon Art was strange.
An ability that rapidly heals the body.
But for a demon—wasn't that something natural?
Just like how fish are born to swim in water. Isn't that only to be expected?
Yet she, a demon, awakened such a technique.
During the brief moment of her distraction, Shinobu—still holding her sister tightly—noticed Yuko's profile without realizing it.
She wore a conical hat, her face wrapped in white cloth, her appearance impossible to make out.
Her wine-red long hair, naturally wavy, spilled down her back. Her delicate earlobes were pale as snow, like the spirit of a snowy mountain.
For some reason, although her hair carried the color of flame, Shinobu's first thought was of falling snow.
"All right. What comes next is your job," Yuko suddenly said, pulling Shinobu back to her senses.
Shinobu quickly asked, "Then… what should I do?"
Yuko turned to her with a puzzled look.
Beneath the brim of the hat, a pair of unusual eyes met Shinobu's gaze, causing her breath to halt unconsciously for a moment.
Yuko replied as if stating the obvious, "Aren't you a doctor?"
"Her condition is already stable."
Shinobu, overwhelmed by concern, had simply panicked.
As Yuko spoke, she stood up.
With the rising sun at her back, she glanced at Kanae one more time.
This character—who should have already died in the main story—had now been saved by her.
And not only that—she had also learned Snow Breathing.
As a deviant branch among the breathing techniques, Snow Breathing was nearly as difficult to cultivate as Sun Breathing.
At least in terms of difficulty—it was a case of mastering none of the good, and all of the bad.
Before leaving the Demon Slayer Corps, she had meticulously recorded the eight forms of Snow Breathing and left them behind.
Yet for hundreds of years, she had never once encountered a swordsman who used Snow Breathing.
She had once believed her technique had no successor. She had even wondered whether, when Kokushibo eradicated the Sun Breathing lineage, he had extinguished hers along with it.
But now, this girl—this very girl who should have died before the main story even began—had learned her breathing technique.
This was the most direct proof Yuko had felt that her presence had changed something.
After being snapped out of her panic by Yuko, Shinobu quickly examined her sister and found that everything was indeed as Yuko had said—her condition had stabilized.
Even the fatal wound on her neck had completely healed.
Shinobu gently wiped the blood from her sister's neck.
This rate of recovery… it's just like a de—
The hem of the person beside her fluttered. Shinobu instinctively turned her head. Her violet eyes were flooded with golden light—and all that remained before her was the morning sun.
Gone…
---
Currently at chapter 312 for advance chapters
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