Chapter 245: Betrayal?

The guest room at headquarters was small, but cozy.

Shinobu knelt in front of a low table, dipping a brush into the inkwell.

Nezuko, across from her, gripped another brush in her little hand over a sheet covered in crooked letters.

Lips pursed, she wasn’t looking at the paper but kept glancing sidelong over at Marcus.

Leaning against the wall and holding a cup, he pretended to ignore her.

"Staring at me won’t do you any good. You still have to study."

Nezuko puffed out her cheeks with an even bigger pout. "Marcus... Too hard..."

Shinobu set down her brush and stroked the little girl’s head.

"Even if it’s hard, you have to learn. The longer it goes, the harder it’ll be to fix."

The little one let out a helpless sigh and went back to wrestling with the brush.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and Nezuko’s eyes lit up.

She tossed the brush onto the table and shouted a cheerful "Coming!" as she ran to open it.

Shinobu looked at Marcus with resignation, and he gave her back a look asking for patience.

With an affectionate, chiding gesture, she conveyed a silent: "You’re spoiling her."

When the door opened, Sanemi appeared in the doorway, his expression tense and resolute.

But when he looked down and met Nezuko, his composure crumbled.

Nezuko looked at him at first with shining eyes, but remembering something, she wrinkled her nose.

"Hmph!" she huffed, and putting her hands on her hips, she turned around.

!

Sanemi froze, staring at the girl’s head with more dread than if he were facing an Upper Rank.

Marcus gave a faint smile. "Nezuko, don’t be rude. Maybe he came to ask you for a piece of candy. Isn’t that right, Sanemi?"

Sanemi tensed and was about to deny it, but noticing the girl twitch an ear while slipping a little hand into her pocket, he sighed.

He stepped in, performed a dogeza, and gave her a stiff smile as he held out his hand.

Hearing the sound, Nezuko turned, and seeing him like that, she couldn’t help letting out a little giggle.

She pulled a candy wrapped in pink paper out of her pocket and placed it in Sanemi’s palm.

"Mi-Mi, eat candy."

Sanemi’s eyelid twitched at that nickname better suited to a pet.

Even so, he unwrapped the paper, ate it, and forced a grimace that was meant to be a smile.

Nezuko, however, didn’t care that his smile was ugly.

Delighted to see him accept her gift, she reached out and patted his head.

Sanemi tried to dodge it, but failing, he ended up staying stiff where he stood, letting himself be indulged.

"That’s enough, Nezuko," Marcus’s voice cut in. "Go with Shinobu to the room next door to study. I need to talk with Mi-Mi."

She still had to study?

Nezuko’s little face fell. She withdrew her hand, looked at Marcus pitifully, and pouted again.

Shinobu stood and held out her hand. The girl looked at Marcus for an instant before obediently taking hold of Shinobu to leave.

The moment the door closed, a vein popped on Sanemi’s forehead.

"Don’t call me Mi-Mi!"

Marcus looked at him with an unruffled smile. "What’s wrong? Is that nickname exclusive to Nezuko?"

Sanemi’s face flushed red. "You—!"

"All right, I’ll stop bothering you, let’s get to the main matter." Marcus lost the smile and looked at him seriously. "Becoming a Vampire is final. Are you sure you’ve thought this through?"

Sanemi was thrown off for a moment.

"How... how do you know...?"

Leaning against the wall, Marcus ran a finger along the rim of his cup. "From now until I leave tomorrow, there’s no other reason for anyone to come into my room... the only thing I didn’t expect was that it’d be you."

Hearing this, Sanemi regained his composure.

He lowered his gaze to the bandages covering his body and stayed silent a moment.

"... I don’t want to turn into a Vampire..." he confessed. "But I want to kill Muzan."

"Every Hashira thinks the same thing."

Sanemi shook his head.

"They haven’t truly faced him, haven’t felt that suffocating pressure."

Marcus laughed. "You don’t trust that they can beat him on their own anymore?"

"If we attack as a group, we might hold out until dawn..." Sanemi lowered his voice. "But too many will die."

He didn’t even dare speak of victory, only of holding out.

Muzan’s power had left him deeply shaken: in a matter of seconds and with barely two attacks, he’d nearly wiped out four Hashira.

With a gap that wide, sending in more people was suicide.

Marcus narrowed his eyes. "You want to transform so you can stand at the front for your comrades and hold him back?"

"Yes! I need a strength capable of standing up to Muzan!" Sanemi didn’t hesitate to admit his intent. He looked up with determination. "Count on this: if we kill Muzan, the rest of my life will be in your service. I’ll keep my word."

"..."

Marcus watched him in silence.

Considering he was the Wind Hashira, the second strongest in the Corps and someone who didn’t fear death, it was hard not to be satisfied.

"I trust your word. But what will you do about Kagaya? Don’t you consider this a betrayal?"

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Throw your stones, drop them ALL! 💎

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