One sword stroke was all it would take.
Not the desperate, final strike of a dying man scraping the bottom of his reserves — but the full mastery of his craft at its absolute peak, delivered through a body at its absolute peak.
In every sense of the word, one might even say it was a pinnacle he had never once reached while alive.
In that single instant, their bodies crossed past each other.
And the outcome was decided.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni calmly sheathed his crimson blade and turned to look back. Behind him, Kokushibo's eyes were still wide open — barely a breath left in him, wheezing like a broken bellows, his gaze locked on Yoriichi. Then, all at once, he let out a laugh of quiet release.
"In the end... you don't even have a single scratch, do you...?"
In the end, you've actually... grown even stronger than you were back then?
Yoriichi gave no answer. He walked back, step by step, his wooden sandals sending a clear, ethereal echo across the floor.
And so he walked until he stood before Kokushibo.
Then he raised the crimson blade.
"Do you have any last words, brother?"
He asked in the very moment of the downswing, and Kokushibo fell silent for just an instant — before finally murmuring softly:
"Even now... I still wanted to become you, Yoriichi."
The blade fell at last, without another moment's hesitation.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni reached down and closed Kokushibo's six eyes. Then he rose and walked on, making his way through the vast expanse of the Infinity Castle.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: @Strictest Father of the Demon King — how are things on your end?]
[Strictest Father of the Demon King: I gave my brother an ending. Honestly... I don't think he liked it.]
[Strictest Father of the Demon King: But it had to be done, in the end.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: I won't weigh in on your family affairs. Anyway — Jonathan and I just took down Nakime on our end.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Now let's push straight to Muzan as fast as we can — we'll regroup when we close in on him.]
[Strictest Father of the Demon King: Understood.]
Closing the chat group, Yoriichi shook the blood from the blade's edge and pressed forward.
As for what lay ahead — there would be no room for mercy.
All that was needed now was to kill.
To make the one responsible for all of this finally pay the price he should have paid a thousand years ago.
"Damn it... I can't regenerate."
Meanwhile, deep within a sealed chamber, Kibutsuji Muzan ground his teeth and poured every last effort into trying to heal his wounds.
But the moment he let up even slightly, everything he had managed to restore crumbled away like smoke and ash.
He was making almost no progress.
And seeing that — Kibutsuji Muzan felt as though he were on the verge of losing his mind.
The wounds wouldn't heal — he was undeniably at his most vulnerable. And then there was the matter of that mysterious warrior outside; he would be stuck hiding here for who knew how many more years.
By the time he could finally leave, those wounds might not even be fully healed.
The thought made Muzan clench his jaw all over again.
The one small mercy left to him, perhaps, was that Yoriichi Tsugikuni hadn't come crawling out of his coffin?
But where was such luck to be found!
Muzan bit down — and right at that moment, he heard it: a polite, rhythmic knocking at the door of the sealed chamber.
"I said it already — not a single person is to disturb me!"
Kibutsuji Muzan roared in fury. And then, from beyond the door, came a sigh.
That sigh — even across the span of a thousand years — stirred a strange, deep sense of familiarity in Muzan's heart.
And something else — an instinctive, bone-deep, full-body shudder.
A second later, the door was kicked open — brutal and violent — and Muzan finally saw, from behind it, the polite swordsman who had knocked.
He stopped breathing. He nearly blacked out.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni!
"Kibutsuji Muzan... Demon King. How long has it been since we last met?"
Yoriichi's gaze swept over him. He shook the blood from the crimson blade in his hand and continued, unhurried:
"As I recall, we always seem to end up fighting."
"You — how are you still alive?!"
Muzan finally snapped back to reality and let out a sharp roar: "You were already dead! Dead!!!"
But Yoriichi seemed almost puzzled. He glanced at Muzan instinctively, with a look of mild bafflement: "Strange — you're not running. You're just standing here talking nonsense...?"
But after taking one look at the state of Muzan's injuries, Yoriichi understood at once.
"Ah, I see — you're wounded and can't run." He gave a calm, understanding nod. "It seems I'll have to thank Mr. Jonathan again when this is over."
But Kibutsuji Muzan's eyes were splitting with rage.
How could this be?!
"No — something's wrong. The Upper Moons? The Lower Moons? What about Nakime? How did you even get into the Infinity Castle!"
He screamed — and Yoriichi, with an unusual and almost considerate helpfulness, actually answered:
"Dead. All of them, of course."
He looked at his crimson blade, as if he could see the face of every person he had just cut down — and then smiled with quiet sincerity:
"I cut my way through to your door. Every last one of them is dead, Kibutsuji Muzan — because to reach you, I had no choice but to clear away whoever stood in the path. Many people have died because of you, Muzan. Many, many more."
He raised the crimson blade and said quietly:
"And so — now it is your turn."
"No — wait, wait a moment!"
Muzan shouted — but his face had taken on an expression that was almost pleading.
Yoriichi's blade paused for just a moment. Seizing that instant, Muzan kept shouting:
"I don't want to die — don't kill me! Please, don't kill me!"
"I can give you anything — anything at all! Just spare my life..."
"No — not 'give.' It's all yours. Whatever you want to do, you can do it. You can have everything!"
"I'll do anything, help you with anything — just let me live, and I'll do anything!"
He screamed with the desperation of a dying man — but not a trace of wavering appeared on Yoriichi's face. He simply raised the Nichirin Blade once more and said, with genuine confusion:
"Is that all you have left to say as your last words?"
Yoriichi had actually wondered whether Muzan might offer some kind of deathbed confession.
But it seemed he had been thinking too much...
And so he prepared to bring the blade down. The edge, looming ever larger in Muzan's vision, filled him with a sensation he could only call despair...
"Wait! Stay your blade!"
But suddenly, an unfamiliar voice rang out. The blade stopped. Muzan froze for just a heartbeat — and then, unbidden, an expression of wild, delirious joy spread across his face.
Yoriichi turned around — and saw Anthony and Jonathan hurrying toward him.
All at once, he recalled something Anthony had said.
"You still have something to handle, don't you?" Yoriichi sheathed his crimson blade and asked.
And Muzan, upon seeing Jonathan — upon seeing them — felt his heart go cold.
But when he caught sight of that smiling young man approaching, he couldn't help feeling as though he'd grabbed hold of a lifeline.
Then he watched as the young man crouched down beside him, leaning in close, and said in a voice brimming with excited delight:
"You meant what you just said, right?"
"Said... said what?"
"That thing!"
He gestured animatedly with both hands, looking for all the world like he couldn't be happier:
"That you'd do anything — absolutely anything — as long as you could stay alive! That's what you said, wasn't it?!"
Staring at the excited young man before him, for reasons he couldn't quite name, Kibutsuji Muzan felt... as though he were about to fall into a hell far deeper than death itself.
____
👻🔥Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: JJK: Naoya Zenin Reborn as a Woman
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone