Demon Slayer: Breath of Desire

After Marcus gave in, Makomo, who had drifted down to sit beside him, watched him, somewhat at a loss for words.

"Marcus-kun... quit groping my butt. You’re gonna end up breaking me..."

Marcus froze and pulled his hand back in a hurry.

"R-Really?"

Makomo let out an amused laugh, leaning her full weight against his chest.

"Relax. You already confirmed in bed that my body can take much worse punishment."

Marcus cleared his throat, feeling the heat rise to his face at the suggestive, blunt tone of her words.

Makomo shook his arm to draw his attention.

"Enough playing around. Let’s get to what matters."

"I’m listening. You said you were going to help me."

Makomo gently stroked the new sword. Her fingers sank into the metal and then slid back out smoothly.

She smiled at the look of astonishment on Marcus’s face.

"After all, the only thing you’re worried about is not finding a girl to put in here. All I have to do is teach you the method, right?"

Marcus nodded, but then he noticed something odd and frowned.

"Wait, how do you know I’m looking for a girl specifically?"

Makomo’s face scrunched up. Her look said it all: How could I not know?!

Marcus scratched his nose with a certain awkwardness.

Well... that reputation of his...

"Cough, let’s get to what matters—can you help me find other girls like you?"

Makomo shook her head. "Our situation is very hard to replicate."

"At the summit of Mount Sagiri, there’s fog all year round and sunlight never gets in. But at the same time, it was the place where we trained and lived the longest while we were alive."

"It’s also the place of our hopes and of our obsession with guilt toward our sensei."

"That’s why we were able to emerge as special existences."

"If you intend to find a place just like it, with the same events and the same obsession..."

Pausing, she shot him a sidelong glance and added mockingly:

"And on top of that, it has to be a pretty young girl. I’m afraid that’s going to be very difficult."

Marcus ignored the sarcasm and frowned.

"So according to you, finding someone like you is practically impossible."

With that, he raised his hand and made a chopping gesture.

"So I’ll still need to... kill?"

Before Makomo’s arrival, the only way he’d envisioned for his sword to have a soul was that one: killing!

However, after Makomo appeared, he’d completely discarded that idea.

But at this point, if he couldn’t find spirits willing to reside in the sword, killing was the only option left to him.

Ume was out of the equation, but Marcus didn’t think for even two seconds before he already had a new target in mind.

Nakime!

First he’d devour her ability, then kill her to imprison her soul.

Seeing the murderous glint in his eyes, Makomo was stunned and looked at him gravely. "Marcus-kun, you’re not thinking of taking lives to obtain their souls, are you?"

"What else?"

Seeing that he was nodding in earnest, Makomo waved her hands in a panic.

"No, no! I wasn’t thinking of having you kill anyone!"

"Not kill anyone?" Marcus looked at her, not understanding. "If I don’t kill, how am I going to get souls?"

"Is taking them that way mandatory?" Makomo sighed in resignation. "Can’t you look for someone who wants to enter of their own free will, like me?"

"...Did you go dumb from sleeping so much?"

Marcus gave her a few taps on the head. "It’s precisely because I can’t find anyone that I’m thinking of killing them, isn’t it?"

"What do you mean there’s no one? Someone like Koyuki is a perfect option, isn’t she?"

"..."

Marcus was stunned.

Koyuki? An ordinary person?

If she joined with the sword, would she grant him even the slightest increase in his attributes?

With that sickly, frail body, he’d be pretty lucky if she didn’t end up subtracting from his power.

’Ah... right.’

Makomo had absolutely no idea that women’s souls granted him physical enhancements.

In her mind, she simply thought Marcus refused to house men inside the blade. What’s more, she probably suspected that, by turning Koyuki into a spirit, he’d have Hakuji eating out of his hand without any worry of betrayal.

Marcus shook his head. "Koyuki has already reincarnated."

"...What?" Makomo blinked, bewildered. "It’s not like I slept for a whole month..."

"Hakuji went ahead a few weeks ago and sent her off."

"How...? But how could that happen...?" Makomo lowered her head, disappointed. "And here I thought..."

"Hold on a second!"

Before she could finish her sentence, Marcus grabbed her by the shoulders. She looked up and found him watching her with feverish excitement.

"Wh-What’s the matter with you?"

"Did you say Koyuki could turn into a sword spirit?"

"Yes..."

"But wasn’t she not even supposed to be on the earthly plane?"

"I had no idea before, but that day, when the blade pierced Hakuji’s chest and I saw her, I sensed with total clarity that I could drag her into the sword..." Makomo paused cautiously. "Although, since she wasn’t a lingering soul, she wouldn’t have lasted long without dispersing."

Hearing that, Marcus’s eyes lit up and his excitement shot through the roof.

"So by replicating the scene with Hakuji, I can capture souls that haven’t reincarnated yet?"

Makomo nodded. "If the soul is willing..."

"That settles it!" Marcus planted an intense kiss on her forehead. "The Butterfly Mansion trio is going to be complete!"

"The... trio?" Makomo looked at him, not understanding. "Are you talking about Shinobu-san?"

"That’s the one!"

Makomo froze.

The image of Shinobu came to her mind at once. Although they’d never exchanged a word, during her slumber she had gazed at her countless times through the sword. She held enormous affection for that girl—so tenacious, obsessive, and attentive.

Thinking about this, she suddenly felt a touch of sadness.

"So then... Shinobu-san... did she die too?"

"Huh?" This time it was Marcus’s turn to be stunned. "Her? No, she’s alive and kicking."

"She’s not dead?" Makomo went blank and immediately waved her arms in a panic. "Marcus-kun! Someone alive can’t turn into a sword spirit!"

Marcus smiled, realizing the misunderstanding.

He gave her a couple of affectionate taps on the head. "Relax, silly. I’m not planning to turn Shinobu into anything... for now."

In his mind, a sweet silhouette surfaced, with rosy tones and a serene smile.

"Shinobu had an older sister, who also raised Kanao: Kanae. She was the former Flower Hashira. If your theory works, maybe I can bring her back."

Makomo let out a long sigh of relief, though she soon started to doubt.

"And are you sure she hasn’t reincarnated yet?"

That question left Marcus without an answer.

To tell the truth, when Shinobu was on the verge of death before Douma, he never got a complete vision of the past. It was simply that, when she was in agony and about to throw in the towel, Kanae appeared to her to give her that final push.

It was a fleeting instant.

And Marcus couldn’t be sure whether it was just a hallucination on Shinobu’s part or whether Kanae’s soul was truly watching over her.

He ended up shrugging his shoulders. "I don’t have the slightest idea... We’ll have to test it."

"Test it?" Makomo blinked. "And how do you plan to test something like that?"

"How else?" Marcus flashed a shameless grin. "The same way as with Hakuji: by driving the sword into Shinobu’s chest."

Hearing that, Makomo’s translucent figure lost all its color, going literally pale with fright.

"MARCUUUUS!!!"

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Throw your stones, drop them ALL! 💎

And don’t forget to comment, I wanna know if you liked the Chapter 👀

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And if PS aren’t your thing but you still want more Chapters...

P-a-t-r-e-o-n → Athome790