People in Demon Slayer: The Journey That Began with Demon Slayer

Shinobu Kocho pointed at the man and said to Yosuke and Kanae Kocho, "Master, sister, look at that person!"

Yosuke and Kanae Kocho looked at the same time. The man Kocho Shinobu was pointing at was thin and pale.

Yosuke sensed a faint demonic aura emanating from the man, which was easily overlooked if one did not pay close attention, but the man was not a demon.

"Shinobu, what happened to that person?" Kanae asked, puzzled.

"Sister, that man looks like he has lost too much blood, but I can smell a very strong smell of blood. This is not the kind of smell that someone with insufficient blood and qi could give off."

As a doctor, Shinobu Kocho is proficient in the four diagnostic methods of traditional Chinese medicine: observation, auscultation, inquiry, and palpation. She can diagnose symptoms with just a glance.

Yosuke confirmed Shinobu's observation: "Shinobu's observation is correct. There should be a bag of human blood on him."

"Human blood? What's it used for?" Kanae Kocho asked, puzzled.

"It's probably meant to be used to feed the ghosts."

The butterfly sisters exclaimed in unison, "A ghost? A human feeding a ghost?"

Yosuke nodded: "Yeah, because besides the smell of blood, there was also a very faint ghostly aura on him. But there's no point in guessing here, let's follow him and see."

The man sneaked out of town, and Yosuke followed him with the Butterfly sisters.

The man walked into an abandoned house.

Yosuke sensed a repulsive odor: "So that's it, the wisteria flowers were used to mask the demon's aura?"

The man entered the abandoned house and saw a figure bound by thick chains deep inside.

“Father, I have brought you blood, so you will no longer have to go hungry.”

The man took out a bag of blood from his pocket and handed it to his father.

But the father, now a ghost, had lost his mind and didn't respond to the man. Instead, he snatched the blood from the man's hand and eagerly began to suck it.

The man sat on the ground, looking at his father's inhuman, ghostly state, his face filled with sorrow.

The man murmured sadly, “Father, today is the Fireworks Festival, which should be a joyous occasion, but I have done something unforgivable. I attacked a woman and cut her wrists to draw blood. I did not kill her, but I am still an unforgivable person.”

After drinking the blood, the man's father, still hungry, roared angrily at the man.

"Father, are you still not full? I can only ask you to bear with it a little longer. I don't have much blood left to feed you. I'll try my luck in town again tomorrow."

The man forced himself to stand up, weak as he suddenly noticed Yosuke and his two companions standing at the door.

The man picked up a shovel from the side and warily asked Yosuke and his two companions, "Who are you people?"

Kanae Kocho frowned and advised, "Your father has completely become a mindless demon. You shouldn't harm innocent people anymore. Stop. The best outcome now is to end your father's life and let him be free."

The man roared hysterically, "You're talking nonsense! My father hasn't become a demon! He's just sick, and these wisteria flowers will cure him!"

Shinobu Kocho explained to the man, "It's no use. Wisteria flowers are highly poisonous to demons and won't cure him."

The man paused for a moment, then went on a rampage, uprooting all the wisteria flowers.

Kanae Kocho advised again, "Let go. It's the best choice for both you and your father."

"What do you people know?! My father is so strong. If it weren't for him, I would have died at the hands of that evil spirit that attacked my home. My father saved me from the evil spirit's jaws. My father will not become a ghost. He will definitely recover! I will not let my father die, absolutely not!"

The man frantically swung the hoe in his hand, trying to drive Yang Jie and the other two out.

Yosuke reached out and gripped the hoe, the rough iron hoe gradually twisting under Yosuke's powerful grip.

Although the man was terrified and released the hoe, he suppressed his fear and stood in front of his father.

Yang Jie asked expressionlessly, "Your father must have eaten people, right?"

Yosuke pointed to the Nichirin Blade next to the demon: "The blade next to your father is a Nichirin Blade specifically for slaying demons. In other words, your father ate people and was a member of the Demon Slayer Corps."

Kanae and Shinobu looked at the demon bound by chains in shock.

The Demon Slayer Corps members are all professionally trained individuals. How could the demon in front of us, bound by chains, possibly have the ability to kill a member of the Demon Slayer Corps?

The man said with resentment, "That's right, I killed him. I was kneeling on the ground begging him not to kill my father, but he still wanted to kill him, so I took advantage of the moment he swung his knife and smashed him to death with a hoe!"

Kanae Kocho asked with a heavy heart, "Do you think your father would want you to do this?"

The man continued to roar irrationally at Kanae Butterfly, "My father will definitely understand me!"

"Since you're so sure, let your father talk to you himself."

Yosuke walked step by step toward the man's father. The man raised his fist to strike Yosuke, but Yosuke merely glanced at him. Under the suppression of Yosuke's aura, the man seemed to be frozen in cement, unable to move.

Yosuke came before the man's father, who had become a demon. Faced with Yosuke's aura as a demon king, the man began to tremble.

Yosuke reached out and touched the man's father's forehead, forcibly suppressing the blood of Kibuy Muzan and temporarily restoring his sanity.

The man's father, who had regained his senses, looked grief-stricken and said, "Shota, don't continue like this. Let me be free. I don't want to become a ghost, nor do I want to be a burden to you."

Shota said with a firm look in his eyes, "No! Father, it doesn't matter to me. I'll do anything to let you live!"

“But I didn’t want to, Shota. If I had known you would do something like this back then, I would have preferred that we, father and son, had died together.”

Shota, I once taught you to be kind, to treat yourself and those around you well. Only in this way can you earn the kindness of others.

I've dragged you down, causing you to abandon your kindness. I only hope you can rediscover your kindness...

Shota's father looked at Yosuke: "Please help me to be free. I don't want to live like a demon anymore, burdened by sin."

Yosuke nodded silently and picked up the Nichirin Blade beside him.

As Yosuke swung his Nichirin Blade down, the man's father showed a relieved expression as his body turned to ashes.

Shota stared blankly at his father, who had turned to ashes and disappeared.

"Your father was great. He bravely faced the evil spirits alone for your sake, but you have failed your father's selfless sacrifice. You imposed your own will on him, turning his courage into regret."

After saying that, Yosuke led the Butterfly Sisters away from the abandoned house.

Shota, kneeling on the ground, recalled his past interactions with his father and the principles of life he had been taught, and tears streamed down his face without him realizing it.

Shota lay on the ground, wailing, "Father, I was wrong, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I've brought shame upon you!"

With a heart filled with despair, Shota looked at the Nichirin Blade on the ground: "Father, I have already taken lives, I no longer deserve to live. I can only atone with my death. Please forgive me."

Shota picked up the Nichirin Blade and stabbed himself in the abdomen. In his dying moments, he saw his father.

Shota's father extended his right hand: "Shota, as your father, I will not blame my child. I will accompany you to atone for your sins. Come on, let's go together, my Shota."

Shota grasped his father's hand, a relieved smile on his face, and left this world with him.

Chapter 41 The Eternal Bliss Cult

Back home, the butterfly sisters remained silent, their good mood from the fireworks festival completely gone.

Shinobu Kocho shrugged, her eyes filled with confusion: "Master, Shota's father clearly didn't want to hurt anyone, so why did Shota disregard his father's will and hurt others?"

Yosuke patted Shinobu Kocho's head and said, "Shota thought that his actions could move his father, but in fact he only moved himself."

Shota's sense of responsibility towards his father gradually became pathological, leading him to choose to hurt others to fill the emotional void within him, only to ultimately suffer defeat.

"I don't understand, Master."

Yang Jie sighed: "You'll understand in the future. In this life, there are very few things we can actually decide for ourselves. Many times we envy other people's lives. Sometimes I also envy other people's lives very much, but no one's life is worth envying. You can only live your own life well."

Shinobu Kocho nodded blankly, and Yosuke chuckled and patted her head again.

In the days that followed, Kanae and Shinobu trained even more diligently.

Kanae Kocho finally derived Flower Breathing from Water Breathing.

Shinobu Kocho still hasn't mastered Water Breathing: Pick-up Form - Flowing Life, but she has derived Insect Breathing from Kanae Kocho's Flower Breathing.

Shinobu Kocho's Insect Breathing sword form differs from other breathing techniques, which are named "Shuku no Kata" (meaning "seven forms"), but rather "Mai" (meaning "dance"), making its execution resemble a dance.

Time flies, and another year has passed.

Under Yosuke's careful tutelage, Kanae and Shinobu have already reached the strength of Pillars.

However, Shinobu Kocho's impulsive and competitive nature remained unchanged.

One evening in March, Shinobu Kocho found Yosuke and Kanae Kocho drinking tea inside the house.

"Master, sister, today I heard the name of a sect in town, something like the Eternal Bliss Sect, and they're recruiting people in town."

Kanae Kocho dismissed it: "It must be some kind of religion. It's common for religions to recruit followers."

Yosuke paused for a moment while drinking tea. The Eternal Paradise Cult, it seems to be the cult of Doma, the Upper Moon Two of the Twelve Demon Moons, from Kibu Y.

Shinobu Kocho continued, "Hmm! It seems to be a religion. I heard that the leader of this religion can hear the voice of God and can liberate mankind from the world and lead them to paradise."

Kanae Kocho frowned: "It sounds like a cult. Shinobu, don't get involved with these cults."

"I have no connection with it, I'm just curious. Master, sister, why don't we go investigate? If it really is a cult, then we can wipe them out in one fell swoop, which would be a good deed!" The righteous Shinobu immediately had an idea.

Kanae Kocho didn't answer; instead, she looked at Yosuke.

After leisurely taking a sip of tea, Yang Jie said, "Since you want to go, then it's good for you to go and gain some experience. However, I won't go with you this time. You two will act on your own and let me see what you've learned over the past few years."

"No problem, Master! My sister and I will definitely not let you down!"

Shinobu Kocho said confidently, urging Kanae Kocho, "Sister, let's set off right away, or we might lose them in a moment."

Kanae Kocho was forced to leave by the impatient Shinobu Kocho.

After the butterfly sisters went far away, Yosuke summoned a ghost crow.

"Go ahead and inform Osamu, Koyuki, Gyutaro, and Koume. It's time for them to meet their junior sister."

With Chi's help, the Butterfly Sisters should be in no danger facing Upper Moon Two.

Yosuke acted like a chess player, as if everything was under his control.

However, Yosuke's heart was not as calm as he appeared on the surface.

"They should be fine, right? They're just Upper Moon Twos. Each of them has Upper Moon strength; he could easily defeat them..."

"But Kanae and Shinobu are human after all. What if they get accidentally hurt..."

Yosuke's teacup was empty, but he still unconsciously brought it to his mouth.

"Forget it, let's go and see what happens. Better safe than sorry. Anyway, I'm not getting involved!"

Having made up his mind, Yosuke put down his empty teacup and quietly followed behind the Butterfly Sisters.

By this time, the Butterfly Sisters had arrived in the town, where the followers of the Eternal Bliss Cult were still preaching their doctrines.