“Kibutsuji… Makoto?”
Hayashi Makoto’s mouth opened slightly.
Only after a long while did he continue, “In my impression, whether in anime or real life, there seems to be only one person with the surname Kibutsuji.”
“It’s the one you’re thinking of.”
“The Demon King from Demon Slayer, the progenitor of demons, the source of every tragedy in the plot.”
Kibutsuji Makoto laughed.
“Ha. If you want to call me Kibutsuji Muzan, that’s not exactly wrong either.”
A helpless smile appeared on Kibutsuji Makoto’s face, as if he did not know whether to laugh or cry.
“It’s just that my fortune was thin and my luck was poor. I didn’t have Muzan’s ability to cling to life, so I died before I could even reach the Taisho era.”
Kibutsuji Makoto had been born into a famous onmyoji family during the Heian period.
His fate had been terrible.
He was born innately weak, and had even entered the world as a stillborn child.
Although he had desperately crawled back from the gates of death through his obsession with living, he was still afflicted with a terminal illness.
A famous doctor of that era had declared that he would not live past twenty.
Kibutsuji Makoto had been intelligent from a young age.
He was a child prodigy.
Unfortunately, he was also a sickly invalid who spent most of his days bedridden.
Until one physician created a certain medicine for him…
“The man kindly tried to save you, and you killed the doctor?”
Kibutsuji Makoto gave a bitter smile.
“I didn’t have memories of my previous life at the time. And the side effects of that medicine made me think my condition had worsened.”
“I only thought he was a useless doctor who harmed people, so I killed him in a fit of anger.”
Only after the doctor died did he discover that his health had recovered.
He had also gained an immortal body that did not age and had become even tougher than before.
At the same time, however, he could no longer stand under sunlight.
He also began craving human flesh and blood.
Makoto’s expression changed.
“You really ate people?”
Demons in the Demon Slayer world had to eat humans.
As the progenitor of demons, Kibutsuji Makoto naturally could not have avoided it.
“I fried one slice in sesame oil and tried it.”
Kibutsuji Makoto could not help sighing.
“Maybe it was a psychological barrier, but the taste was even worse than greasy pork fat. It was disgusting enough that I vomited it right back out.”
“So for the next few hundred years, I stopped trying to eat meat and switched to drinking human blood instead.”
“I lived like a vampire.”
Compared to a man-eating monster, a vampire was often easier to accept.
“I studied that physician’s prescription.”
“The most important ingredient in that medicine was a plant called the Blue Spider Lily.”
“However, I searched through the classics in my family and all around Heian-kyo, but I could not find it.”
“And so…”
To allow himself to live under the sun again, and to remove his urge to consume humans, Kibutsuji Makoto began intervening in the open and hidden struggles between the emperor and the Fujiwara clan.
Taking advantage of the rise of warrior groups, he formed an organization similar to the Root.
He gathered the power of life and death into his hands and once became the dark side of Heian-kyo.
He mobilized a massive amount of manpower and resources to search for the Blue Spider Lily.
However, before long, because he could not appear during the day, people began suspecting that he was a monster.
But that could not stop Kibutsuji Makoto from continuing to search for the flower.
If he lacked manpower, then he would create manpower himself.
Kibutsuji Makoto began creating large numbers of demons.
He developed his own demon faction, which at one point stood evenly against human forces.
In the following centuries, he even left behind the legend of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
“Even so, I still never found the Blue Spider Lily.”
A self-mocking smile appeared on Kibutsuji Makoto’s lips.
“This is the downside of transmigrating without memories. Even if I racked my brain until it broke, I would never have guessed that the Blue Spider Lily only bloomed when sunlight was at its strongest.”
Kibutsuji Makoto had been born into a famous onmyoji family.
He had been precocious from birth, and what he learned throughout his life covered the essence of onmyodo.
He was proficient in astrology, divination, physiognomy, rituals, and many other methods.
After surviving the first fifty years, he vaguely calculated from the stars and the changes in his own face that he would not have a good end.
Heaven wanted to kill him.
So in the following five hundred years, Kibutsuji Makoto no longer acted in a high-profile manner.
Instead, he hid within the shadows of history.
He silently searched for the Blue Spider Lily.
Aside from the necessary forces under his command, he also stopped creating followers on a large scale.
Only when he discovered certain interesting people who were unwilling to die would he bestow demon blood upon them and allow them to live.
Even so, fate did not let him go.
“After the Heian period ended, I was no longer that anxious.”
“I thought that since this body did not age or die, I had plenty of time to search.”
“In the end, that search lasted nearly six hundred years.”
“Time galloped like a horse under the whip, and the years flowed like falling flowers carried by water.”
“How can anything in this world truly avoid aging?”
“My body did not age at all, but my mind could not withstand the erosion of time.”
“Perhaps it was because my mentality had grown old that I was killed by Tsugikuni Yoriichi.”
Kibutsuji Makoto had been cut down by Tsugikuni Yoriichi.
In the blink of an eye, one thousand eight hundred slashes.
Five brains and seven hearts.
All of them were destroyed.
“Brother, why are you even weaker than Kibutsuji Muzan?”
Makoto looked baffled.
“That scumbag boss at least managed to escape. You actually failed to get away? Are you serious?”
“Stop yapping.”
Kibutsuji Makoto snorted.
“It’s not like you don’t know that Tsugikuni Yoriichi was a shameless walking cheat. Besides, after drinking only blood and not eating flesh for several hundred years, I may have been a little malnourished.”
“Of course, that wasn’t the main reason.”
“The main reason was that I was tired.”
Kibutsuji Makoto looked at the two graves, sighed, and lay down beside them.
“As I said earlier, I lived for a very long time. My mind had already become like that of an old man nearing death.”
“I no longer had the desire to keep living.”
“So you can live on in our place.”
“I’m going to sleep for a long time.”
“According to the usual process, you should at least talk about your last wishes.”
“Last wishes…”
“If I must speak of regrets, then I want to see that long-lost morning sun again. I want to live beneath the sunlight once more.”
“That should be very simple for you, right?”
“A small matter.”
“There is one more thing. Theoretically speaking, after I died, the demons under my command should have died as well.”
“But it’s hard to say for certain.”
“If they are still alive, send them off for me. Don’t let them continue harming the world.”
“Fine.”
“One more thing. Tsugikuni Yoriichi is far too pitiful. No matter how I look at him, he seems like a tool created by Heaven specifically to kill me.”
“Help him find release.”
“Revenge is revenge. Why say it so elegantly?”
“One more thing…”
“Hurry up and die properly already!”
“Sigh.”
After giving his final instructions, Kibutsuji Makoto began humming a small tune and slowly closed his eyes.
The song drifted softly.
Its words spoke of life and death becoming empty, of calm acceptance, of wine poured into the sea, and of the world embracing all things.
The melody gradually scattered.
The Demon King, who had lived through six hundred turbulent years, returned to nothingness.
He transformed into an ordinary grave.
On the black-and-white portrait carved into the tombstone, the young onmyoji in a tall court cap and formal robes smiled in relief.
“Tsk. What a carefree guy.”
After spacing out for a long while and accepting Kibutsuji Makoto’s long life memories, Hayashi Makoto gave his evaluation of this other version of himself.
Then he looked at his own data panel.
[Name: Hayashi Makoto]
[Race: Human]
[Spirit: 35]
[Constitution: 52]
[Energy: 10]
[Skills: None]
[Passive: Mind Teleporter]
[Remaining Points: 360]
[Inheritable Skills: Blood Demon Art: Blood Manipulation, Blood Demon Art: Six Motions of Heaven and Earth]
[Inheritable Passive: Immortal Myriad-Form Body (Flawed)]
“Heaven and Earth?”
“And six damn motions?”
Makoto could not help praising it.
“Quite romantic.”
After looking over the two Blood Demon Arts, Makoto’s gaze was quickly drawn to the new passive.
His eyes gradually grew burning hot.
Immortality.
Longevity.
Who would not want that?
…
…
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