Her elder sister hadn't said such words, but Kochou Shinobu still heard that voice in her heart. Her vision of her elder sister gradually blurred with tears.
"I hope you can be happy like an ordinary girl, I hope you live until your hair turns white... that's... enough..." Kanae's breathing became increasingly difficult, and her speech grew intermittent.
Her fingertips, caressing her younger sister's cheek, trembled slightly. Her younger sister's face gradually blurred, and her body felt an unprecedented cold.
She was going to die.
Kanae's pupils gradually lost focus.
As a physician, Kochou Shinobu knew best what this meant. Tears overflowed uncontrollably as she tremblingly grasped Kanae's wrist, which was caressing her cheek, her voice choked.
"Don't die... Sister, don't..."
Kanae's gradually unfocusing eyes suddenly shifted to directly in front of her.
A blurred figure was approaching.
Who?
She could no longer see the face clearly.
Golden-red morning glow appeared in the sky behind the newcomer.
But the sun had already risen, Shinobu was safe.
Harboring this thought, Kanae closed her eyes in peace.
The figure knelt directly beside Kanae.
"You..." Kochou Shinobu, overwhelmed with grief and having lost her senses, was momentarily stunned by this sudden intruder.
"She can still be saved."
Kochou Shinobu's eyes narrowed slightly. After a moment of stunned silence, she forcibly swallowed her questioning words and hastily asked,
"What should I do?"
While asking anxiously, she didn't forget her professional ethics as a physician, carefully laying her elder sister flat.
She wanted to help but didn't know how, so she could only move aside a little, with mixed feelings of joy and worry, making some space for Mizuki, so as not to delay the treatment process.
Just these few words were enough to ignite a glimmer of hope in Kochou Shinobu's heart.
When you are a physician and you know your loved one is beyond saving, and someone suddenly tells you they can still be saved...
Even though this is your field of expertise, even though the knowledge you've learned constantly reminds you that it's impossible, you will still try.
The tears in Kochou Shinobu's eyes had not yet dissipated, and her gaze, as she carefully looked at Mizuki, was filled with immense hope.
Mizuki didn't say much. She slightly bent her finger, used her nail to cut her palm, and then reached out to smear the blood onto Kanae's neck.
Her fatal injury was the wound on her neck, cut by an iron fan, which was bleeding profusely.
In comparison, the lung issues were secondary.
So cold.
This was Kanae's first sensation.
Kochou Shinobu, who was frantic over her elder sister's impending death, almost had a short circuit in her brain upon seeing this scene.
Just as she hesitated to speak, she saw the wound under her elder sister's neck slowly wriggling. This scene looked somewhat disgusting, but... the wound was healing.
Kochou Shinobu's mind went blank.
Without stopping her movements, after smearing her blood on the wound on Kanae's neck, Mizuki quickly fed blood into her mouth.
Through the Transparent World, it was clear that the girl's alveoli were beginning to necrose, which was why her breathing became increasingly difficult and her speech grew harder.
Water generally doesn't enter the lungs, but it can with micro-manipulation.
She was a demon; her blood could be controlled.
"Cough, cough..."
When the blood entered her alveoli, Kanae couldn't help but cough violently.
"Sister!"
Kochou Shinobu exclaimed worriedly, stopping her urge to go forward and support her.
The healing at her neck already explained the situation; she had no reason to stop it.
Her lungs... so cold... her consciousness already blurred, Kanae's body instinctively shivered.
Mizuki controlled the blood to repair her damaged lungs and said without raising her head, "Hold her, she'll feel better."
Kochou Shinobu was half a beat slow in realizing that Mizuki was talking to her. After saying "Oh" twice, she quickly helped her elder sister up and embraced her.
Her posture was stiff, as if she were a new medical student performing first aid under a teacher's guidance, terrified of making a mistake.
But when she felt her elder sister's body temperature gradually rising in her arms, Kochou Shinobu's tears flowed uncontrollably.
Watching Kanae's alveoli being repaired bit by bit, Mizuki suddenly remembered something she had heard many years ago.
'I think the reason Mizuki awakened such a Blood Demon Art must be because Mizuki still loves humans, loves herself as a human.'
This was Yoriichi.
"There has never been such a Blood Demon Art... an ability born entirely for humans. I think this must be the result of Mizuki's struggle against Muzan's will."
This was Tamayo.
Just as they said, Mizuki's Blood Demon Art was very strange.
The ability to quickly heal the body.
For a demon, shouldn't this ability be natural?
Just like fish are born to swim in water, isn't that natural?
As a demon, she awakened such a Blood Demon Art.
As Mizuki was momentarily lost in thought, Kochou Shinobu, holding her elder sister tightly, inadvertently cast her gaze upon Mizuki's profile.
Wearing a straw hat, with white cloth wrapped around her face, her features were unclear.
Her wine-red long hair, naturally curly, cascaded behind her head. Her delicate earlobes were pristine white, like a snow mountain sprite.
For some reason, despite having hair the color of flames, Kochou Shinobu immediately thought of heavy snow.
"Alright, the rest is your task now," Mizuki suddenly spoke, bringing Kochou Shinobu back to her senses.
She quickly asked, "Um, what should I do?"
Mizuki turned her head strangely to look.
Under the straw hat, a pair of peculiar eyes met Kochou Shinobu's, causing her breath to unconsciously hitch for a moment.
Mizuki said matter-of-factly, "Aren't you a physician?"
"Her condition has stabilized."
Kochou Shinobu was typically flustered by concern, thrown into a panic.
Mizuki said as she stood up.
With the morning sun behind her, she couldn't help but glance at Kanae twice.
This character, who should have died in the main story, was now saved by her.
Moreover, she had also learned her Snow Breathing.
Snow Breathing, as an anomaly among Breathing Techniques, had a cultivation difficulty comparable to Sun Breathing.
Of course, this was merely the difficulty of cultivation; it was as if she hadn't learned any good parts, but mastered all the bad ones.
Before she left the Demon Slayer Corps, she had meticulously documented the eight Sword Forms of Snow Breathing and left them there.
However, over hundreds of years, she had encountered Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen multiple times, but none of them used Snow Breathing.
She once thought her Breathing Technique would have no successor, and even wondered if Kokushibou had also extinguished her lineage when he wiped out the Sun Breathing tradition.
But this girl before her, this girl who should have died before the main story even began, had actually learned her Breathing Technique.
This was the most direct way Mizuki felt that her appearance had changed something.
After being reminded by Mizuki, Kochou Shinobu immediately diagnosed her elder sister and found that, just as Mizuki had said, her condition had stabilized.
Even the fatal wound on her neck had completely healed.
Kochou Shinobu's fingertips gently wiped away the bloodstains on her elder sister's neck.
This recovery speed... it's almost like a demon... The corner of the person beside her's clothing fluttered, and Kochou Shinobu subconsciously looked sideways, her purple eyes tinged with gold, with only the morning sun remaining in her vision.
Gone...
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