Chapter 171: A Little Gift
Twenty minutes later, the hut finally fell silent.
From Tanjiro’s mouth, Urokodaki at last understood everything that had happened over all this time. Although it sounded like a dream or a fantasy, there was no doubt it was exactly the kind of thing that boy would do.
Beside him, Tanjiro was sneakily trying to pry the short sword out of his hand. But Urokodaki caught him.
"What are you doing?"
"Uh..."
Now that he’d been caught, Tanjiro stopped pretending and just grabbed the sword.
"Master, hand it over first..."
"Enough!" Urokodaki shot him a reproachful look. "Let go, I’m not going to cut myself anymore."
But Tanjiro didn’t move and just kept staring at him.
"I said I’m not going to cut myself anymore!" Urokodaki’s voice rose. "If you keep not letting go, I’m going to end up bleeding out!"
That was when it finally clicked for Tanjiro. He let go in a hurry and checked the wound on Urokodaki’s abdomen.
"Zenitsu! Bandages!"
"Where am I supposed to get those?!" Zenitsu spun around in place, at a loss for what to do. "They dragged me here while I was in the middle of training! I don’t have any bandages on me!"
"There are some in the cabinet!" Tanjiro turned and shouted at him, "Go get them!"
"Ah!"
Without anyone noticing, Inosuke had crouched back down next to Urokodaki. He looked at the wound on his abdomen and clicked his tongue.
"Old man, that wound’s nothing. If you just wait a bit, it’ll heal on its own."
"Will you shut up?" Urokodaki glared daggers at him.
"The magnificent Inosuke-sama only tells the truth."
Zenitsu pulled a roll of bandages out of the cabinet and handed them over in a hurry. Tanjiro took them and clumsily began wrapping Urokodaki up. It all came out a tangled mess, but at least the bleeding stopped.
Watching the two of them in such a state of panic, Urokodaki fell silent.
He remembered the first time Marcus climbed up the mountain.
Back then, Marcus was about the same age as these kids. That smelly brat, dressed in rags, planted at his front door, grinning like an idiot.
He said, "Master! Take me as your disciple! I can do anything!"
And with that, without caring whether Urokodaki agreed or not, he moved right in on his own. Urokodaki tried to drive him off for eight months, and the boy stayed those entire eight months.
He’d chew the boy out, and the boy would only laugh.
In time, he grasped Breathing and created his own Forms. And even though Urokodaki genuinely despised that particular breathing style, he was also happy for him. Of all his disciples, he was the one who reached Hashira the fastest.
In that moment, his heart swelled with pride. True, a Breathing style based on the scent of women still made him uncomfortable. But he’d become a Hashira after all, so he figured no one would dare criticize a thing.
He thought the brat had finally settled down, that he’d finally stop giving him things to worry about, and that his own reputation was safe.
And the result?
It only took a few months without seeing him for the brat to turn into a demon!
He should be furious...
And in fact, he was. So furious he felt he couldn’t show his face, so angry he wanted to commit seppuku.
But when he heard... that, had he not turned into a demon, Marcus would have died, he felt a certain relief.
He was a stubborn man, of the old school, who valued honor more than his own life.
But he wasn’t inflexible.
If he’d been able to accept Nezuko, he could well accept Marcus.
Rather than let his disciple die in battle as a human, in a seemingly glorious act... he’d prefer that the disciple who drove him up the wall at every turn stay alive.
As long as he didn’t do evil...
Urokodaki closed his eyes and sighed.
"That miserable wretch..."
Tanjiro looked at him cautiously. "Sensei?"
"I’m fine." Urokodaki opened his eyes and looked at him. "He turned into a demon... and it turns out he doesn’t eat people?"
"No, he doesn’t!" Tanjiro nodded so fast his head nearly flew off. "None of the demons in Senpai’s group eat humans. They eat normal food, and every now and then they go out to buy a little blood. That’s why they call themselves vampires."
Urokodaki sighed. "And what about Nezuko?"
"Nezuko’s the same way."
Urokodaki sighed again, this time much longer, as though his very soul were escaping through his mouth. "That damn brat... there isn’t a single day he doesn’t put me through the wringer!"
"Old man." Zenitsu peeked in from one side, lowering his voice very carefully. "So... are you still planning to commit seppuku, or...?"
Urokodaki fixed him with a stare hard enough to split stone. "You really that eager to watch me cut myself open?"
"No, no, no!" Zenitsu waved his hands quickly. "I was just asking! It was only a question!"
"Hmph."
Urokodaki pushed off with his knees to get to his feet, though his movements were a little slow since the wound on his stomach still hurt.
Tanjiro hurried to lend him a hand but was rebuffed at once.
"I can walk on my own."
"Sensei... come back to Asakusa with us." There was a note of pleading in Tanjiro’s voice.
"I’m not going."
"But Senpai, he—"
"Let him be whatever demon he pleases; I’ll go on being the human I’ve always been." Urokodaki’s tone left no room for argument. "I won’t go see him, and he needn’t come see me. Each of us goes our own way, in peace, with no scores left to settle."
"Sensei!"
"I said I’m not going."
Urokodaki picked up his mask and turned to leave the hut.
Tanjiro stared at his back and gritted his teeth.
"Sensei! Senpai said that if you refused, he gave me permission to be a little disrespectful!"
"What?" Urokodaki whipped his head around. "Would you really use force against me?"
"I..." Tanjiro clenched his teeth and answered at the top of his voice, "I wouldn’t dare!"
"Hmph, you’d better not dare..."
And just as Urokodaki was one step from crossing the threshold, Tanjiro shot Inosuke a pleading look.
He didn’t dare... but he knew someone who did!
The two exchanged a glance, and Inosuke licked his lips, itching to give it a try.
And just as they were silently starting to scheme up how to ambush this former Hashira...
"Meow."
The sweet meow of a cat left everyone frozen in place.
Urokodaki, too, found his path blocked by a small calico cat with a little backpack on her back.
"Chachamaru!"
Tanjiro’s face lit up. Chachamaru was Tamayo’s messenger, and her appearance could only mean one thing: Marcus had something to say.
He ran over to her, and right there, in front of Urokodaki, opened the little backpack and pulled out a letter.
"To my respected, distinguished, and most noble Master! For the eyes of Sakonji Urokodaki only."
’This handwriting...’
Tanjiro blinked and, very obediently, held the envelope out to Urokodaki.
At first, Urokodaki didn’t even want to touch it.
But then he read what was written on the front...
I’ll read it, and the moment I’m done I’ll tear it to shreds. This can never see the light of day!
At his age, and still writing this kind of thing!
He grabbed the envelope, pulled out the letter, unfolded the paper, and began to read carefully.
He expected a simple explanation, perhaps with an attempt to win him over.
And yet...
As the seconds ticked by...
The corner of his eye began twitching in spasms! His teeth ground together! And even the palm of his hand started to tremble!
By the time he reached the last line, his face had turned a bluish-purple and his whole body was shaking.
He crushed the letter into a ball, hurled it to the ground, and stomped on it twice to vent his fury.
"DAMN YOU!!"
Urokodaki drew his short sword once more.
Terrified, Tanjiro stepped forward to stop him... only to discover that the blade wasn’t pointed at his master.
Instead...
"Damn brat!!! You wait right there!!! I’m coming to cut your head off right now!!! AaaaAAh!!!!!"
The trio watched, dumbfounded, as the old man came charging down the mountain, sword swinging.
"Tanjiro... has your sensei always been this savage?"
"I don’t know... Usually, Sensei’s pretty calm."
"Tsk, we’ll find out once we read the letter."
With that, Inosuke picked up the balled-up paper, smoothed it out, and shoved it into Zenitsu’s hands.
Zenitsu took it and began to read.
"Dear and most respected Master! It’s me, your most beloved disciple, Marcus."
"Look, I know you’re furious with me and that the last thing you want in this world is to see my face. I get it. Really, no problem, no hard feelings."
"But let’s be honest: once a master, always a master. And I don’t like leaving things half-finished between us."
"So I gave it a lot of thought, and I decided to fix this misunderstanding with a gift."
"You see, as the brand-new Sovereign of the Vampires, I want all my descendants to forever remember the glorious history of their origins."
"That’s why... I’ve decided to start writing the Vampire History this very day!"
"Vampire History, Volume One: Origins.
Chapter One: The Great Pioneer of the Vampires... Sakonji Urokodaki!!"
Hearing this, Tanjiro felt the world go dark around him.
Zenitsu smiled, amused. "I think I know why your sensei got so violent."
"Cut the commentary!" Inosuke grumbled. "There’s more below. Keep going!"
Zenitsu cleared his throat and adopted a serious tone, like a news announcer.
"The birth of the vampires was not the work of a single day.
It all traces back to the former Water Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Master Sakonji Urokodaki.
Over the course of his life, the master struck down countless demons and amassed memorable feats of combat.
And yet, his most glorious achievement was not the number of demons he beheaded, but having trained the Progenitor of the Vampires, Marcus!
In other words, without Urokodaki, there would be no vampires.
Master Urokodaki is, without a doubt, the spiritual progenitor of the vampires, an exemplary teacher for all generations to come."
At this point, Tanjiro’s face went from white to green.
"The master educated his disciples without binding himself to any mold. His teaching philosophy was so advanced it was ahead of its time.
He understood perfectly that traditional Breathing styles were no longer enough against ever more powerful demons, so he sought out new alternatives and encouraged his students to forge their own styles.
It was precisely under the master’s tolerance and support that Marcus managed to break the chains of Water Breathing to create Desire Breathing, thus laying the foundation for the birth of the vampires."
Tanjiro was trembling from head to toe.
"The master not only passed down the Breathing styles: he taught by example the true meaning of tolerance and unconditional love.
Faced with Nezuko, a demon, the master did not cut off her head, but instead chose to observe and accept her.
This act of kindness moved Marcus to the very core, and made him understand that humans and demons could coexist.
The fundamental principle of the vampires, ’do not eat humans and live in harmony,’ has its ideological origin precisely there.
It could well be said that, without Sakonji Urokodaki, the vampires would never have existed.
Of all the glory the vampires enjoy today, half belongs to the efforts of the progenitor Marcus, and the other half, to the teachings of the spiritual progenitor Sakonji Urokodaki."
Tanjiro’s body began to sway.
"To honor the master’s feats, future generations of vampires shall venerate the portrait of Sakonji Urokodaki from father to son, burning incense and offering prayers on the first and fifteenth day of every month, in memory of the generosity of our first master.
At the baptism of every newborn vampire, a triple bow before the portrait of Master Urokodaki shall be performed first and foremost, so that we never forget our roots.
Likewise, in the main hall of the vampire headquarters, an engraving of Master Sakonji Urokodaki’s Tengu mask shall hang permanently, flanked by the following couplet:
First line: He hunted demons for half his life, never suspecting he’d end up the ancestor of the vampires.
Second line: He trained a disciple for barely a year, never knowing he’d make him immortal among demons.
Horizontal scroll: The workings of fate."
And finally, mimicking Marcus’s teasing little tone, Zenitsu read the last line:
"Heh heh. Master, the prologue is ready. If you have no objections... I’ll send it straight to the printer for the history books!"
Thud
Tanjiro couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed to the floor.
He finally understood why a screw had come loose in his sensei’s head!
Inosuke, on the other hand, was a little indignant, but for the opposite reason.
"Tanjiro, the old man’s got it wrong here. Your Senpai’s awesome; he’s practically putting him up on an altar, and he’s still upset?"
"Spiritual leader of the vampires—such an awesome title and he’s still not satisfied!"
Zenitsu rolled his eyes.
"What are you staring at me for?!" Inosuke wouldn’t let it go. "Am I wrong?"
Zenitsu shook his head with a sigh and looked down at his companion, still sprawled on the floor.
"Tanjiro, looks like this time your sensei isn’t going to commit seppuku after all... at least, not until he’s cut off your Senpai’s head first."
Tanjiro’s face went pale. He leapt to his feet and, like a madman, took off running.
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