On the other side, the trio of Water Hashira were also walking home together.
"Thinking about it carefully, our future really is completely bleak!"
Sabito walked at the front, suddenly sighing with such sentiment.
Behind him, Giyu and Makomo both raised their heads to look at him upon hearing this.
"Isn't it?"
Seemingly sensing the gazes of the two behind him, Sabito continued without turning his head:
"Let's not even talk about the progenitor of demons—just the strength of each of those Upper Rank demons alone is so formidable.
"No matter from which angle I look at it, I truly cannot see any possibility of us completely eradicating them..."
"There will always be a way."
Giyu suddenly spoke up in response, his words as concise as ever.
"There will always be a way, huh..."
Quietly repeating this sentence, Sabito suddenly turned to look at Giyu behind him. Those eyes hidden behind the mask were incomparably serious.
"Giyu, leave the Demon Slayer Corps."
Slightly startled, Giyu looked at him in confusion.
"Why?"
Without answering his confusion, Sabito simply continued speaking to himself:
"Leave the Demon Slayer Corps, find a good girl you like, get married and have children, and live a peaceful and happy life..."
"Impossible."
Giyu immediately refused.
"I will stay in the Demon Slayer Corps and slay demons."
"Your sister wouldn't want to see you like this."
Sabito suddenly said.
Giyu once had an elder sister. When he was young, this sister of his was killed by a demon.
Taking this as the catalyst, Giyu eventually met the former Water Hashira, Sakonji Urokodaki, and became his disciple to begin learning Breathing Techniques.
"Giyu, rather than dying early while staying in the Demon Slayer Corps, I believe your sister would definitely want you to leave this place and live a peaceful and happy life."
Sabito said once more, his tone incomparably serious.
Looking at the silent Giyu, he turned again to look at Makomo, who was equally silent.
"Makomo, you too. You are the only one among us three who bears no grudge against demons. You have no need, nor any reason, to continue staying here and die together with everyone else."
Among the three current Water Hashira, both Sabito and Giyu had become orphans because their families were slaughtered by demons.
Only Makomo—her family had not been killed by demons. She had simply become an orphan due to her family passing away, and was eventually adopted by Sakonji Urokodaki.
Among them, she was actually the one with the least reason to continue staying here.
As a demon slayer who had truly fought against Akaza, honestly speaking, Sabito could not see any hope of the Demon Slayer Corps ultimately winning.
This was a path destined to lead to failure. He was absolutely certain of this.
That was why he hoped that these two friends he valued most could quickly leave and live on well, rather than sinking together with this Demon Slayer Corps ship that was about to go under into that destined abyss.
As for himself...
Of course he would choose to continue staying in the Demon Slayer Corps until the very end.
Of course, this wasn't entirely because he once had family killed by demons, nor was it entirely to repay Sakonji Urokodaki's kindness in raising him.
More importantly... someone had to stay behind, didn't they?
Essentially, Sabito felt that he was a very selfish person.
Because he was selfish, he had proposed during the Final Selection that the three of them would exterminate all the demons in the mountain, leaving not a single one for others.
Because he was afraid of seeing others get hurt, he would always exert all his strength to eliminate all the dangers he could see, even if he would end up being the one who got hurt...
Similarly, because he was selfish, he would propose at this moment that his two childhood friends quickly leave, while he himself chose to stay behind.
Because he knew that some things had to be done by someone—the kindness of his master in raising him, his duty as a demon slayer, his loyalty to the Master...
These things, among the three of them, someone had to repay with their life. But he hoped that person would be him, not the two behind him.
"If we leave, we leave together."
Under Sabito's gaze, Makomo also gave her answer.
"I will not leave alone, because we came together, so we can only leave together."
Her words were gentle, yet filled with unwavering determination.
"You guys..."
Behind that fox mask, Sabito could only shake his head with a bitter smile.
Having said this much, he spoke no more.
He simply turned around and continued walking toward outside the mansion.
"I suddenly remembered, it seems we haven't visited Master in a long time, have we?"
Saying this, he suddenly quickened his pace into a run.
"Come come come, let's take this opportunity to go back and see Master together!"
"Alright."
"..."
"Ah, Shinobu..."
On the other side, Shinobu Kocho, who was hastily trying to leave the mansion, happened to run into Mitsuri Kanroji, who was sitting alone in the mansion's courtyard worrying about something.
"Are you in a hurry to go back?"
"Mitsuri? Mm, I have some urgent matters and need to return to Tokyo immediately..."
Her steps slowing down, Shinobu looked at Mitsuri Kanroji, who seemed to want to chat with her, in confusion. After hesitating for a moment, she finally stopped and walked over to sit beside her.
"What's wrong? You look so troubled. Did you eat something strange again and upset your stomach?"
Shinobu asked with a smile.
Although after she began teaching at Tokyo University, the two of them had basically not seen each other anymore.
But before that, Shinobu and Mitsuri Kanroji—who would often come to the Butterfly Mansion to ask her sister about weight loss and beauty care—were actually quite familiar with each other.
"It's not that..."
Sitting on the corridor steps, facing Shinobu's teasing, the worry on Mitsuri Kanroji's face did not diminish in the slightest.
"I just feel like the atmosphere in our Corps seems to have changed somewhat..."
"The atmosphere has changed?"
"Mm, it feels like everyone isn't as relaxed as they used to be. Everyone seems very tense, as if they're all hiding something in their hearts...
"Like a string stretched to its absolute limit, everyone seems very suppressed, and in pain..."
Resting her chin on her folded knees, Mitsuri Kanroji lowered her head to look at the line of ants on the gravel path before her, sighing deeply.
Shinobu did not respond. She also lowered her head and fell into silence.
[Everyone is hiding their own thoughts in their hearts, huh...]
Mitsuri Kanroji's summary was very precise, because Shinobu herself actually had similar feelings.
During the meeting just now, although on the surface everyone hadn't expressed anything.
But she could vaguely sense that deep down, everyone more or less had their own thoughts that only they themselves understood.
Shinobu even felt that even her sister was the same...