Chapter Sixty-Eight: The End! Or Perhaps Not...
Enjoy~~~
In the middle of the devastated clearing, where the forest had become a graveyard of shattered trees and scorched earth, an eerie silence prevailed.
The body of "Tsugikuni Ren" knelt on both knees, covered in hundreds of fatal wounds. His arms, unable to regenerate, hung at his sides like dead branches.
Kibutsuji Muzan's consciousness had gone out. The double strike he received from Yoriichi and Michikatsu was not merely a severing of flesh; it was a massive neurological and spiritual shock that struck his five brains and seven hearts simultaneously, forcing the Demon King's awareness into a deep slumber—or perhaps… annihilation.
Yoriichi stood before him in silence, his chest rising and falling steadily despite the fierce battle. Beside him, Michikatsu rose with difficulty, wiping the blood that had flowed from his nose due to the immense strain of using "Eclipse Breathing."
Michikatsu looked at his collapsed younger brother and smiled bitterly.
"He always pushed us to surpass our limits…" he muttered, wiping blood from his lips. "And now, thanks to him, we mastered Eclipse Breathing… the technique he designed himself, and was killed by it. What irony."
Ren's (the body's) eyes were dull and empty, staring at nothing. The two brothers watched him in sorrowful silence.
They were waiting for the sun.
The sun that would rise to burn this cursed body and end their younger brother's suffering. Their eyes traced his features, memorizing every detail, as if refusing to ever forget his face.
Deep within the mental void.
Inside the dark hall of the subconscious, Ron slowly opened his eyes.
He exhaled deeply, as though casting off the weight of centuries.
"It's finally over…" Ron muttered as he rose from his dark throne. "I hate drama and cheap emotional moments, but… sometimes they're unavoidable."
He walked toward the edge of the hall, where he could see the outside world through the body's eyes.
A faint smile curved his lips—sad and mocking at once.
"Well then… goodbye, world."
He closed his eyes again, ready to depart.
Back outside.
In the real world, Yoriichi noticed something strange.
Ren's body, motionless like a corpse, suddenly trembled.
Slowly, a glimmer returned to his emerald eyes—but it was not Muzan's mad crimson gleam. It was calm. Familiar. And… sad.
Yoriichi did not step back. He felt no malicious aura from Muzan, so he remained where he was, watching quietly.
"Heh…"
A soft laugh escaped Ren's lips—filled with pain, irony, and deep sorrow.
Ron (within Ren's body) slowly lifted his head and looked toward the eastern sky. The first threads of dawn had begun to color the horizon white and gold.
He smiled sadly—not for himself, but for his brothers who would have to watch him burn. Deep inside, however, he felt satisfaction. His plan had worked. Muzan was defeated. The world was safe. He would finally be freed from cursed immortality.
He lowered his gaze to Michikatsu.
The stern elder brother had lost all strength. His knees hit the ground, and silent tears streamed down his face as he stared at Ren with heart-wrenching regret and love.
"Michikatsu…"
Ron focused his remaining energy and secretly used the Reverse Cursed Technique to repair only the severed nerves in his arms.
He slowly raised his trembling hand and placed it atop Michikatsu's bowed head.
"Don't regret it, brother…" Ron said hoarsely, a gentle smile on his blood-stained face. "This was my choice."
Michikatsu lifted his head, tears pouring freely. Ron tried to wipe them away, but his bloodied hand stained his brother's face red.
Ron frowned slightly with childish annoyance. "Tsk… I hate messes. I dirtied your face."
He sighed, then turned to Yoriichi.
Yoriichi stood like a statue, eyes overflowing with sorrow, unable to move.
Ron used what little energy he had left to heal his legs enough to stand. He staggered forward and approached Yoriichi.
He raised his fist and gently pressed it against Yoriichi's chest, directly over his heart.
"You're truly talented and strong… Ni-chan."
He said it with a sincere smile, then turned to Michikatsu. "You too… Michikatsu-ni."
Yoriichi suddenly realized—it had been years since Ren called them "Ni-chan" in that childish, honest tone.
Ren turned east again.
The sun was rising. The golden disk emerged from behind the mountains, sending purifying rays across the land.
Ren raised his arms high, as if to embrace the sunlight—or surrender to it.
"Since I failed to live as a human…" Ron declared loudly, laughing at himself and fate, "then I'll die and go to hell like a man!"
Yoriichi finally broke. Tears fell like rain as he sobbed openly.
Ron closed his eyes, welcoming the end.
Memories flashed through his mind. He wanted to live. He wanted a normal life, free from blood and battle, with his brothers and mother. He could not imagine the pain his death would bring to his mother, Aki.
But he had to.
If he continued living in this body, it might eventually overcome the sun's weakness naturally. If that happened, he would never die. He would remain trapped in this world, watching his loved ones die one by one, left alone in eternity.
So he chose death. Today. Now.
"Finally…" Ron whispered with a crooked smile as he felt the warmth of the sun touch his skin. "The simulation is over…"
He waited for pain. For burning. For dissolution.
But—
[Regretfully, you will not die by the sun…]
"Huh?"
Ron's eyes snapped open.
He looked at his hands.
The skin that should have burned and turned to ash… glowed golden, then… healed.
No—not just healed.
His body began to change. The pale, terrifying features of the Demon King faded. His natural skin tone returned. White hair turned black. Crimson eyes reverted to clear emerald.
He was "Tsugikuni Ren" again. Human. Alive. Under direct sunlight.
"What…?"
Ren (Ron) frowned, sensing something deeply wrong. He glanced around to see Yoriichi and Michikatsu's expressions shift from deep sorrow to utter shock, then to stunned, disbelieving joy.
He ignored them.
Closing his eyes, he shouted in his mind, "Rina!!! What the hell is happening?! Why didn't this damned body die?!"
Rina appeared in his mental space, floating calmly while filing her imaginary nails.
[I must say, your vitality is like cockroaches. You refuse to die easily.]
"Stop mocking me! Explain!"
She waved her hand, and an old memory surfaced from Tsugikuni Ren's mind—one Ron had completely forgotten.
[Flashback – 15 years ago]
Ren was four years old.
Despite his monstrous physique and unnatural strength, he suddenly fell ill.
A strange fever no doctor could diagnose. His small body burned, he lost consciousness for days, waking only briefly in agony as if his bones were melting.
In truth, his body was attempting to adapt to the immense cursed energy that had awakened, and the internal conflict was tearing him apart.
During those dark days, his father, Tsugikuni Kazima, left with Yoriichi and Michikatsu on a desperate journey to find a cure.
They were gone for days. When they returned, they carried a strange flower.
They said they found an old man atop a snow-covered mountain who told them of a legendary flower that could cure any illness—one that bloomed only for a single day each year.
They found it. They made medicine from it.
Ren drank it half-conscious.
The next day, his fever broke. He returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
Ron had assumed his extraordinary body overcame the illness, or that the medicine was merely a potent herb. He thanked his family, hugged his crying mother, and forgot.
[Back to the present]
Ron's eyes widened.
Snowy mountain… rare flower… cures any illness…
"That flower couldn't have been…" he thought, cold sweat forming despite the sun's heat.
[Yes,] Rina interrupted calmly. [It was the Blue Spider Lily.]
"….."
[And before you start screaming—Ren (the original) told me not to inform you. He wanted it to be a surprise.]
She waved and disappeared instantly from the mental space, fleeing the impending eruption.
"R-Ren?"
Yoriichi asked with a trembling voice.
"Are… are you alive?" Michikatsu murmured, reaching out to touch his brother's shoulder.
The two brothers leapt toward him together, joy overwhelming them, tears flowing again—this time of happiness.
"Ren! You're back! The sun didn't burn you! It's a miracle!"
But instead of an emotional embrace—
Ron's expression changed abruptly.
Shock twisted into pure demonic fury. Veins bulged on his forehead. His eyes burned with rage.
"You…"
Ron growled.
"If you idiots hadn't given me Blue Spider Lily medicine when I was a child, my body wouldn't have developed immunity to sunlight! You ruined my heroic death plan!"
Yoriichi and Michikatsu froze.
"Run!" Michikatsu shouted.
"Damn it, he was acting again!" Yoriichi shouted—an extremely rare occurrence.
The two brothers dashed away at full speed, fleeing across the ruined courtyard as their enraged younger brother chased them.
"Get back here! You won't escape me today!" Ron roared, vowing revenge on the original Ren and his brothers' stupidity.
On the palace's upper balcony—
Tamayo stood frozen, hand over her mouth, eyes wide as she watched the surreal scene below.
The former Demon King chasing the two greatest swordsmen in history… while they ran and screamed like children.
"They're insane…" Tamayo whispered weakly. "All of them… insane."
Beside her, Aki sat calmly, sipping her morning coffee—the one the brothers had brought in an attempt to bribe her so she would not kill them for returning without Ren—and watched with a satisfied smile, completely ignoring Tamayo's sleepless terror from sharing a room with such a frightening woman.
"Good…" Aki said, placing her cup down. "Since he didn't die, Kyoka won't complain now."
She inhaled the fresh morning air and smiled in a way that made Tamayo shiver.
"I'll have another lovely daughter-in-law… wonderful. And adorable grandchildren… splendid. It seems the future of the Tsugikuni family is very bright."
Tamayo stared at her in silent horror.
"This woman… is the true monster of this family."