✦ EPIPHANY - BY -C3NTURIES ✦

― "IGURO-SAN!" tanjiro calls in happiness, but his happiness fades to horror as he sees the pillar's scarred face.

for a moment, muzan's attacks cease as his latest attempt to kill tanjiro hit a building.

"what happened?! did you get those injuries from protecting me?!" tanjiro yells in shock.

"i received them a while ago. you never stop worrying about people, do you?" obanai remarks almost casually, preparing his sword as muzan begins to attack the two of them again.

"i can assist you!" tanjiro shouts.

"i have kaburamaru to assist me. focus on yourself!" obanai shouts back as he dodges an attack that obliterated an entire chunk of another building behind him.

suddenly, obanai found him trading blows with muzan. he was able to quickly defend himself and strike back thanks to kaburamaru, who stayed carefully curled around his neck.

'if it wasn't for that drug tamayo had given him, we all would have been killed instantly.' he analyzes. 'muzan's recovery has slowed down, even if ever so slightly.'

"forty minutes until dawn! repeat, forty minutes until dawn!" a kasugai crow caws to the two remaining fighters. 

muzan suddenly flees, realizing there is little time left to stay in the open.

'muzan isn't a samurai with pride or a human being who acts on emotion. he's a thing that only clings to life!'

as muzan trampled on the corpses of the demon slayers he killed, obanai ran forward and pierced the demon lord's body with his blade.

"kaburamaru!" tanjiro yells to the serpent wrapped around obanai's neck. "grab yushiro's paper talismans! they'll help you and iguro-san see!"

kaburamaru does so, slithering onto the ground and taking the talismans. since yushiro's blood demon art was already activated, both him and obanai were able to use their vision in conjunction.

the two of them, along with tanjiro, drove muzan into a corner and left him no room to escape.

as muzan stops moving, the two demon slayers believe they have finally won against the demons and would be able to kill the demon lord.

but their hopes get dashed to pieces as muzan warps his torso, hitting the two with a shockwave that sends them flying. obanai wasn't able to see where tanjiro was thrown to, and he immediately seizes as he hits a solid surface.

'how... could i be... so foolish..?!' he thought as the painful seizure continued.

as his breathing fell shallow but steady, he looked up through blurry eyes and saw a flash of pink and green fly across the battlefield.

'mitsuri..?'

✦ EPIPHANY - BY -C3NTURIES ✦

― MITSURI LEAPS FORWARD, taking a strong hold of muzan's left arm.

"i've never witnessed evil as pure as you! you monster!" she screams, managing to tear the demon lord's arm off with her bare hands. but, before she could even think of continuing to fight, muzan slashes her, and both of her arms disconnect from her body.

this throws her backwards away from the battle, and her eyes close as she falls in and out of consciousness.

this drives obanai to kill muzan. his hatred for him peaked as he watched the person he loved fly backwards after being injured. he stumbled, but stood up with his sword in his hand. kaburamaru re-wrapped himself around his neck, and the two of them flew forward into the battle for the last time.

the sun began to rise, as the countdown to dawn ticked further and further down. obanai used yushiro's talisman to see exactly where he was slashing, and landed multiple strong hits on muzan.

although it took all of his remaining strength, obanai unleashed one final technique against muzan alongside sanemi and giyu, and slowed him down so him couldn't go underground.

he watched as he disintegrated and burned away, and he smiled breathlessly.

muzan was finally defeated.

✦ EPIPHANY - BY -C3NTURIES ✦

― OBANAI LOOKED BEHIND HIM, and saw the mangled body of mitsuri in the distance. using the last amount of stamina he would ever have, he ran to her, dropping his sword in the process.

"mitsuri! mitsuri, please, don't die here!" he cries, kneeling next to mitsuri and holding her close to him. "i can't live past this knowing i'll never see you again!"

mitsuri opens her eyes, slowly looking up at obanai.

"obanai-kun..." she smiled. "you... survived..."

"mitsuri, please! i'm begging you, just hang on for a moment longer!" obanai hitches a painful breath, leaning his forehead against mitsuri's. his tears stained her porcelain skin, and he slowly fell to the side as his strength left him.

"we may not live to see the demons defeated..." mitsuri says weakly. "but at least i know i'll be able to spend my afterlife with you... the one i love.."

"if the gods decide i deserve to spend my second life with you..." obanai whispers tearfully. "i know i did enough.."

"obanai-kun... you always deserved to. you were never... the same as your family. i am the one who never deserved you."

"i never wanted us to die here... i never wanted any of this. you're all i ever wanted, mitsuri... i never wanted the demons to kill you."

the light in mitsuri's eyes began to fade in unison with obanai's, and mitsuri smiled up at her lover.

"i love you, obanai."

"i love you too, mitsuri."

✦ EPIPHANY - BY -C3NTURIES ✦

➥TAISHO ERA SECRET
☆ yall icl im actually fucking sobbing as im writing this,, i had to read through the wiki page for Demon Slayers vs Muzan Kibutsuji: Part 2 for accuracy and i could barely handle it- i don't know why i read this manga because its so devastating omg-