"Upper Rank Four successfully slain! Repeat! Upper Rank Four successfully slain!"
Not long after, the Kasugai Crows flying through the Infinity Castle brought yet another new piece of intelligence.
"Another Upper Rank demon has fallen? Seven Characters!"
"Hantengu, that old veteran—I really didn't expect him to fall either. Wonder which Demon Slayer managed it, Eight Circles."
"With this, two vacancies have appeared among the Upper Ranks. Just not sure who will fill them later..."
Inside the incense-filled room, the four demons sat around a table, playing mahjong while discussing the battle situation outside, quite relaxed.
Among them, Enmu looked at Gyutaro sitting across from him and congratulated him with a smile:
"Then Enmu congratulates my lord in advance. After this battle, with two of the six Upper Rank positions vacant, and my lord being the strongest among us present, your ranking will certainly advance two steps further."
"Rankings are all vanity, nothing worth congratulating..."
Secretly glancing at the pile of tiles before Ume beside him, seizing the opportunity to discard another tile for her, Gyutaro spoke indifferently:
"For me, as long as I can remain among the Upper Ranks and see those lords above at any time, that's enough. As for the rest, it doesn't matter...
Moreover, after tonight is over, the Twelve Kizuki might not even exist anymore..."
"Oh? What does my lord mean by this?"
Realizing that Gyutaro's words were probably not simple, Enmu hurriedly asked.
Gyutaro didn't hide anything, directly replying:
"You're young and don't know—the existence of the Twelve Kizuki was originally created to deal with those Demon Slayers.
Over four hundred years ago, it was at Miss Mitsuba's suggestion that that lord specially established such an organization.
Now that the Demon Slayers are on the verge of destruction, having lost this original target, the Twelve Kizuki naturally loses its meaning of existence..."
"In that case, what should we do in the future?"
As a workplace expert, Enmu was particularly concerned about this.
"Do what you should do, live how you should live—everything the same as in the past."
"I heard that after dealing with the Demon Slayer Corps, we will transfer to the other side of the ocean. Wonder if that's true or false..."
Ubume looked at Gyutaro and suddenly asked.
"Miss Mitsuba does indeed have this plan."
Gyutaro nodded in response, while speaking he discarded another tile for Ume.
"But we demons don't need to be constrained by things like nationality. In reality, anywhere is the same..."
"I win! Waa hahaha!"
Amidst the conversation of the group, Ume—the most serious, and possibly the only one seriously playing mahjong—suddenly pushed the tiles before her forward and laughed with her head thrown back!
"Oh ho ho ho!"
Mouth emitting the standard "villainous noblewoman laugh," Ume placed her hands on her hips and said proudly:
"Oh my~ I really didn't expect everyone to be so weak?
We've played several rounds already, didn't expect the winner to still be me~ Ahahaha~"
Hearing this, Ubume and Enmu both remained silent, only exchanging smiles with each other.
Only Gyutaro raised his hand to his forehead and laughed helplessly:
"Yes, yes, yes, Ume you're the most amazing. So, want to play another round?"
"Yes! With such good luck, how could I not? Hurry hurry! Everyone play, don't just stand there!"
Amidst the cheerful atmosphere, Nakime, holding her biwa and sitting quietly to the side, opened her eyes once more.
She looked at the four demons before her and sighed lightly again...
"..."
---
Rewinding to slightly earlier.
When the Infinity Castle had just opened, Muzan—anxious to cocoon himself to detoxify, while also worried about being ambushed again—directly threw Tamayo to Mitsuba and found a place to slip away himself.
"Long time no see, Miss Tamayo. I really didn't expect we would meet again in this manner."
In the Infinity Castle, Mitsuba stood on the street of the Tsugikuni family town that she had asked Nakime to recreate almost perfectly according to her memories, looking down with a smile at Tamayo, who had been thrown before her by Muzan.
"Since our parting that year, how long has it been since we last met?"
Tonight's Mitsuba was somewhat special.
Perhaps out of respect for tonight's final act, she had rarely changed out of the modern clothing she had worn for the past several decades, instead putting on an exquisite kimono.
It was just a pity that she still wore her kimono so improperly, loose and sloppy—exactly the same as in Tamayo's memory.
"I don't know. It's been so long, I've long forgotten..."
Lying on the ground, Tamayo looked up at Mitsuba.
It was truly unbelievable. Hundreds of years had passed, yet the person before her still hadn't changed in the slightest from the image in her memory.
"The answer is, four hundred and fifty-eight years. I was exactly twenty years old that year."
Seeing the surprise in Tamayo's eyes, Mitsuba smiled:
"Rest assured, I can't be wrong. My memory is excellent. In this world, there is nothing I would misremember, only things I don't wish to remember.
But you, Miss Tamayo, after hundreds of years apart, you seem to have become quite haggard. It appears these past few centuries have not been smooth for you."
Rarely meeting an old friend, Mitsuba felt the urge to converse. She placed her hands behind her back, walking in circles step by step around Tamayo, saying:
"To be honest, over the past few centuries, I have imagined your ending countless times—killed by me, killed by Lord Muzan, killed by Demon Slayers, or even quietly dying on your own...
I thought of many possibilities, yet the one thing I never imagined was that you would appear before me again in this manner.
Miss Tamayo, who once told me to my face that you would absolutely never seek help from Demon Slayers, has once again, and yet again, cooperated with them?
Oh my~ Tell me, what should I say to you?
Although as the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, there are also many times when the enemy of my enemy is simply an even more ferocious enemy.
Has Miss Tamayo never considered that, given how many people you have killed in the past,
if you truly help those Demon Slayers kill Lord Muzan, with the hatred in their hearts, they would absolutely never let you go either when they turn around...
Or could it be that your heart has truly become so obsessed with revenge that it has reached this point?"
Stopping before Tamayo, Mitsuba squatted down, looking at her face with a smile, saying:
"Of course, whatever reasons lie behind this, I don't particularly wish to know anymore.
Since Lord Muzan has entrusted you to me, naturally it is up to me to decide how to deal with you.
So, any last words?"