Roy drank his tea in silence.
Tanjiro sat like a fish bone stuck in his throat, unable to settle.
The old woman and the young wife both looked stricken. The latter hadn't realized at first, but now that she had, her hands twisted together, ten fingers digging hard into her hem.
After a moment, a sigh…
It was as if the old woman aged ten years in an instant. In a low voice she said, "Hirochi is a stubborn child."
"On the road all year, he valued the silver in his pouch more than his own life…"
"He used to say, unless he's gone, no one touches his basket…"
Now the basket had returned, but not the man. The meaning was plain.
"Child, tell Grandma the truth." By the end her voice was trembling, on the verge of collapse, held back only by iron will. "Hirochi… he isn't coming back, is he?"
The air in the hut, already heavy, congealed at once. There was a brazier on the table, and yet it felt colder than the midwinter beyond the door.
Tanjiro's stiff neck creaked as he looked to Roy for help.
Roy noticed the girl, Shizuki, looking from her mother to her grandmother to him and Tanjiro, bewildered. He motioned for Tanjiro to take her outside "to have a snowball fight."
Neither the old woman nor the young wife objected.
Only then did Roy set down his cup and say quietly, "To be frank, I think this is something Mr. Minamino should say himself."
Both women blinked.
Then they felt a warmth rise from the low table, run up their knees, spread to their eyes—and—
They suddenly realized a familiar figure had appeared before them.
A mother's son, a child's father, a wife's husband—Minamino Hirochi.
"Hirochi!"
"Mother… Naoko…"
Using the table as a medium, their "Nen" linked—and surged.
Roy closed his eyes, giving the three their space, though he knew perfectly well what he was sensing: a shockwave of "intense emotion."
"Emotion" reflects directly in Nen, coloring it in different shades…
If the hut were full of Nen users, they would have seen the tiny space fill to the brim with roiling feeling. Yet the hues were dim and gray, saturated with a sorrow and pain beyond words.
"Woo—woo—" The north wind howled outside; children's bright laughter blew in on the gust…
Instinctively Roy looked out. Shizuki was running happily with Tanjiro.
Beside the snowman she and her mother had built lay the hobbyhorse Minamino had bought for her.
She shouted, laughed, scooped up snow and flung it at Tanjiro; Tanjiro forced a grin, feigned a hit, and fled in mock panic, sending her squealing after him…
Inside, the room slowly calmed.
The kettle boiled, nudging up its lid with a burst of steam.
After their farewells, the old woman and the wife pressed their hands to their brows, went to hands-and-knees, and performed a dogeza toward Roy.
"Thank you, Lord Eiichirō, for taking vengeance for my son / my husband!"
"It was just a matter of convenience." Roy helped them up, glanced at Minamino, and said frankly, "We brothers needed shelter for the night. When the demon attacked, we killed it to protect ourselves."
"There's no need for thanks, Granny, Auntie."
"Lord Eiichirō is too humble." Minamino smiled to the two women. "Mother, Naoko, you may not know how he toyed with that demon…"
"I saw it clearly from the side—the demon was no match at all. If Lord Eiichirō hadn't been set on tempering his younger brother Tanjiro…"
"I doubt that demon could've lasted a single exchange!"
This, Roy did not deny. When the tea was finished and the deliveries done, the task complete, he rose to take his leave.
The old woman and the wife begged them to stay, but the tear-tracks on their faces had barely dried and more were ready to fall…
Roy firmly refused, opened the door, and stepped into the yard.
They stood to see him off. Tanjiro came up holding a winded Shizuki by the hand.
Under all their gazes—
Roy handed over the gourd that housed Minamino, passing it to Minamino's mother.
"This is Mr. Minamino's resting place. Please keep it, Granny—as something to hold onto."
Her hands shook as she took the gourd to her chest; the tears broke loose again…
The wife steadied her by the waist, swallowing her own sorrow. Only Shizuki stared, lost.
Minamino chuckled softly then, speaking with unexpected ease: "No more tears, Mother. Since ancient times, who escapes death? Think of me as entering bliss a little early…"
As if to prove his words, he could no longer hold his soul together; it began to unravel.
Seeing this, the old woman and the wife only wept harder, clutching his hands, unwilling to let him go.
Roy watched quietly. Seizing the moment, he spoke by Nen: "Would you like to say goodbye to Miss Shizuki?"
Minamino gazed at Shizuki with fatherly love as she ran to her mother and grandmother, wiping one's tears and then the other's, whispering, "Don't cry… don't cry…"
With boundless reluctance, he shook his head.
"Lord Eiichirō, I, Minamino Hirochi, have seldom thanked anyone. Aside from my mother, I've bowed to no one…"
"Even when bandits stabbed me years ago, I didn't kneel to beg…"
"But this time—truly—thank you…"
"Thank you for bringing me home, for letting me be content…"
A cold wind blew; white vapor drifted from the gourd's mouth. Minamino's voice grew fainter and fainter until—
With a final, deep look at Shizuki, smiling—
He scattered into motes, which drifted toward Roy and sank into his body in an instant…
[Prompt: You have purified a soul…]
[Entrusted with his final wish, bound to its karma, he has gifted you his last energy…]
[Prompt: "Life Energy" +1…]
[Host may allocate it freely, e.g., to the "Physique" column.]
Roy started. Against his chest, the single copper coin he'd pried from the snow beside Minamino's basket suddenly felt abnormally heavy—so heavy—
He had to take a long breath before the pressure eased.
'So this is the true gift?'
The boy murmured, standing in the wind and snow for a silent moment…
Then he came back to himself, called to Tanjiro, bid farewell to the Minamino family, and turned toward the depths of Sagiri Mountain…
"Goodbye, big brother Tanjiro…"
"Goodbye, Shizuki…"
"Goodbye, Minamino Hirochi…" Roy did not look back, adding it silently in his heart…
The sun-and-mountain earrings at his lobes swayed in the wind and vanished into the snow…
"Whoosh—" The wind rose, the snow thickened. The Kamado brothers' footprints were erased; under the vast sky remained only a fenced yard, two grieving souls, and one bewildered child, watching them go—standing there for a very, very long time.