A simple hypnotic suggestion was all it took. Caught within the Sharingan's Genjutsu, the old crematorium master mistook the decoy corpse Tetsuya had brought for Kanae Kocho and slid it straight into the incinerator.
To him, this was just another routine part of his everyday job. He didn't suspect a thing.
Watching the scene unfold, Tetsuya finally breathed a sigh of relief.
DNA testing technology wasn't exactly a thing in this era.
Shinobu definitely wouldn't go out of her way to spend a fortune analyzing the ashes. After all, she had witnessed Kanae’s death with her own eyes and personally escorted the body to the crematorium.
Scooping Kanae's real body off the gurney, Tetsuya quietly slipped out of the building.
He didn't dare return to that little town, terrified that Akaza—that bastard—might pull a fast one and circle back. Instead, using the cover of night, he vanished deep into a remote mountain range.
After a bit of searching, he stumbled upon exactly what he needed: a rustic, abandoned cabin. It was likely a temporary rest stop left behind by local hunters, and right now, it was completely empty.
Crash!
Tetsuya kicked the locked wooden door open and gently laid Kanae's body onto the stiff wooden bed, resting her on the white sheet he had brought along.
"Please, don't be dead," Tetsuya muttered. The only reason his Two-Tomoe Sharingan hadn't fully evolved was because he knew, deep down, that there was still a sliver of hope to save her.
But that was still just a theory. Whether it actually worked all depended on what he did next.
Tetsuya sliced his wrist open. A steady stream of blood dripped from his veins directly into the fist-sized hole in Kanae's chest. Within that crimson flow lay the potent blood of Muzan Kibutsuji.
The lifeless corpse reacted almost instantly. Fresh tendrils of flesh sprouted around the fatal wound, knitting the gaping hole back together at a visible rate.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Next came the heart. Reconstructing itself, it began to beat with a powerful, steady rhythm, pumping fresh blood to every corner of her body. Her chest rose and fell, and a healthy flush of color returned to her deathly pale skin.
She looked like a perfectly normal, sleeping human, yet her eyes remained tightly shut without a single twitch of response.
But of course she wouldn't wake up. Even with Muzan’s blood flowing through her veins, triggering demonification and granting her insane regenerative abilities, her physical body was still nothing more than a soulless shell.
Reaching inward, Tetsuya carefully retrieved Kanae’s soul.
Soul Manipulation!
The brilliant azure cluster of light slowly sank into her chest.
The moment the soul settled back into its vessel, Kanae’s long eyelashes fluttered. She was waking up.
"Tetsuya..." A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye as her lips parted, letting out a faint, whisper-soft murmur.
"Looks like it actually worked!" Tetsuya slumped onto the floor, utterly exhausted. He had been so terrified that his insane gamble would fail or backfire.
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A dozen seconds later, Kanae struggled to open her eyes. Her violet gaze swept across the rustic, unfamiliar surroundings. "Is this... hell? It looks completely different from what I imagined."
"Do I really look like a demon from hell to you?" Tetsuya forced his aching body back onto his feet.
"Not really." Kanae shook her head gently. The vivid light slowly returned to her beautiful eyes as the reality of the situation finally caught up with her. "I'm... not dead?"
"You want to die? It's not that easy," Tetsuya said, managing to pull a strained, tired smile.
"But how? My heart was completely destroyed," Kanae asked, genuinely baffled. Just what kind of impossible method had Tetsuya used to keep her alive?
Hearing is always the very last sense to fade before death. In her final moments, she had clearly heard Shinobu's furious screams. She knew the sun was about to rise and that both Akaza and Tetsuya had retreated. Logically, the Demon Slayer Corps should have recovered her body.
"You guys really don't have that biological concept yet," Tetsuya said, slowly unraveling the mystery for her.
"Normally, when the heart is destroyed and blood flow stops, the brain is deprived of oxygen. Within minutes, the brain cells sustain irreversible damage, leading to death. People naturally assume the heart is the ultimate fatal weak point. But brain death—that is the only true death!"
That was exactly why he had deliberately aimed for Kanae's heart instead of her head.
At the same time, he had left two very important things inside her body: a severed piece of his own finger, and a trace of Muzan Kibutsuji's blood. The faint biological connection to his severed digit acted as a tracker, leading him right to her corpse at the crematorium. Meanwhile, that minuscule trace of Muzan's blood ensured her brain cells never fully died.
The stronger a swordsman was, the longer it took for them to transition into a demon. Rumor had it that Upper Rank One, Kokushibo, had taken three whole days and nights to complete his transformation. Tetsuya had bet everything on that crucial time delay.
Kanae's constant state of Total Concentration Breathing actively slowed down the demonification process. Furthermore, that tiny sliver of blood wasn't nearly enough to fully convert her, but it was just enough to keep her brain alive without manifesting any visible demonic traits on her body.
In short, everything below Kanae’s neck had effectively died, while her brain remained "alive." With Kanae’s soul safely stored inside him, even if her brain had fully demonified, the body couldn't wake up. It was the perfect ruse to fool the entire Demon Slayer Corps.
"I understand now. So, I've become a demon," Kanae murmured to herself. No wonder she felt a strange, boundless energy constantly surging from within her.
"It was such a massive pain in the ass. If you were going to turn into a demon anyway, you should have just agreed when Akaza asked," Tetsuya complained. Fishing her out of the crematorium had been no walk in the park.
Kanae could only offer a bitter smile. It wasn't exactly her personal choice. She had fully prepared herself to embrace death; it was Tetsuya who had forcefully dragged her back from the gates of hell.
"No... it feels different somehow," Kanae noted, a thoughtful look crossing her face.
Legend had it that undergoing demonification violently amplified a human's darkest malice and greed. The vast majority of demons couldn't suppress those urges, eventually degrading into ruthless, man-eating machines. Yet, her transformation felt fundamentally different from the rest.
"Whatever. My job here is done," Tetsuya mumbled. His voice grew weaker and weaker until, leaning heavily against the wooden wall, he drifted off into a deep, exhausted sleep.
He had to stay on high alert against Akaza, painstakingly purge the Wisteria poison, and then scramble all the way to the crematorium to intercept her corpse. If Kanae had actually been reduced to ashes, Tetsuya would have been the one crying tears of true despair.
Sitting up straight, Kanae gently pulled Tetsuya over, resting his head softly on her lap. Her heart ached with gratitude as she tenderly stroked his sleeping face.
Even through his brief, nonchalant explanation, she could deeply feel just how much effort and risk he had put into saving her life.
He had to deceive Upper Rank Three, Akaza, and pull the wool over the eyes of the entire Demon Slayer Corps simultaneously. If her body had exhibited obvious signs of demonification back then, the Corps would have shown absolutely no mercy. They would have decapitated her on the spot. No matter how much she tried to explain, they would never have accepted the reality of the situation.
From the Demon Slayer Corps' perspective, an illustrious, highly decorated swordsman being defeated, turned into a demon, and controlled by their worst enemy was an unimaginable humiliation. A swift, immediate execution was the greatest comfort they could offer a fallen hero!
Every single step Tetsuya had taken was a precarious tightrope walk over an abyss. It was insanely risky.
But against all odds, he had actually pulled it off!