To The Stars | Tokito Muichiro x OC

78 • The Master's Gratitude

"At least two pillars should guard our master."

It wasn't like Inori didn't agree with Sanemi's suggestion. If she could, she would more than gladly lay her life down for her master. "The Ubuyashiki family...has always refused to have bodyguards, not even from the lowest-ranked slayers, and especially never from the pillars." She lowered her head, pursing her lips. "Not even when Kanato-sama's head was used to declare a traitor's loyalty to Muzan."

"It is as Hoshizora said," Gyomei replied, tears streaming down his eyes. "I became a pillar at nineteen, and for the last eight years, I have asked Oyakata-sama to consider...but he will not accept someone as precious as the pillars to be wasted on someone like him."

Which meant there wouldn't be any pillar nearby should their master get attacked.

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚☆.｡.☆.｡.:*☆ ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

"Finally...you appear before me." The wind had shifted, and Kagaya didn't need to look to know that Muzan had come. "You are now before my very eyes...Kibutsuji Muzan."

The wind howled, and Kagaya just knew that the night would be long. Still, he has faith that his children would not fail. "You are the one stain in our family...the very demon we demon slayers have pursued for a millennium." Now, he wondered just how much of his words would the demon listen to. "Amane, tell me...what does he look like?"

"He looks like a man in his mid to late twenties," answered the mistress of the Ubuyashiki family. "But his eyes are red, and his pupils have slits like that of a cat's."

"Is that so?" Then, he must've looked quite human, and Kagaya wondered if the demon before him looked like him. Somehow, that thought displeased him. "I expected you to come...I was certain you must've felt very angry at me and the Ubuyashiki family...so I figured you would come to kill me yourself."

"Indeed." The demon's voice was heavy and lacking a single trace of emotion. "I'm truly disappointed, Ubuyashiki." Muzan stepped into Kagaya's home. "I've lived a thousand years without showing any signs of aging, and the old family who's gotten in my way all this time is now reduced to this." He sneered down at the sight of the sick and dying man. "Repulsive. Utterly repulsive. You already smell like a goddamn corpse, Ubuyashiki."

"I figured as much...I was told by the doctors...half a year ago...that I was going to die...in a few days." Blood dribbled down Kagaya's lips as he tried to sit up. "Yet here I am...still alive...and the doctors were at a loss for words." The bandages around his face slowly unraveled, displaying his unseeing eyes that dripped blood.

"And I solely dedicated my entire soul into defeating you...Muzan."

"And your fleeting dream will go to waste tonight," retorted the demon, "as I will kill you right now and the demon slayers will have been exterminated by sunrise."

"You may not know this...but..." Kagaya said. "You and I...are of the same blood...you were born a thousand years ago...so maybe your blood is different from mine but...a monster like you...came out of this family and that led my family...to be cursed."

"Is that supposed to make me feel emotion? Just what are you trying to say?"

"Every child born...in our family was weak and they...died right away." That was how it used to be, history had told him. "But a priest came...and told us about a demon that came from our bloodline...thus, we're cursed...he told us to dedicate our soul to defeat that demon...and if we do that...our family won't die out."

For a millennium, his family had been trying to get rid of the one stain in their long and dying bloodline. "We have received wives from the priests...for generations...and our children are...more resilient to death." Even so, their bloodline was still cursed, and it was still dying.