Strike while the iron is hot, a good beginning is half the battle, don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today you fool, O youth, there is no wrong time for learning.
Though a somewhat suspicious saying slipped in the middle, anyway, Kyūtarō immediately clung to Tsukuru and embarked on researching the demon they had just captured.
When the dissection started, he was told "You might feel sick, so look over there," but he ignored it and watched clearly from beginning to end.
Growing up at the Rashomon riverside, he'd seen plenty of things more horrible than human entrails, so it irked him that Tsukuru treated him like an untainted child.
Due to being born with this appearance in such a neighborhood, Kyūtarō had never been treated like this before, so even after living together for quite a while, he still couldn't get used to Tsukuru's attitude.
"Kyūtarō, are you really okay? If it's hard, you can wait outside."
"I'm fine, I said. Tsukuru nags too much."
The dark inner thoughts of a living human are more horrifying than the entrails of a dead one. So the flowing blood, sticky organs, and foul smell were nothing.
What Kyūtarō, with no knowledge of demons, could do at this moment was simply watch the demon disassembly process quietly from his chair. Beyond that, it was about imprinting Tsukuru's work into his eyes and planning how to help from next time.
"Tsukuru."
"Yeah?"
"Why are you trying to make the medicine?"
"Well, because I want to cure them."
"Don't get it."
In a delinquent pose hugging his knees on the chair, Kyūtarō tilted his head.
"Don't think something like that can be fixed, me."
The demon he saw when he and Ume peeked outside, breaking the rule not to leave the room, was a being where it was hard to believe it was originally human. If he hadn't learned from Tsukuru, he might have mistaken it for a creature that was always like that.
Its appearance was similar to a human's, but its aura was completely different. That thing was in the realm of a fully mutated monster.
So to Kyūtarō, what Tsukuru was trying to do seemed like nothing more than trying to turn charred meat back into raw meat. Turning something like that back into a human would be impossible unless a supernatural miracle occurred.
Rather than finding a cure with human hands, clinging to a god would be more promising.
If Kyūtarō himself hadn't intended to succeed Tsukuru, he wouldn't have even thought of touching the research, let alone doing it. Developing medicine to turn demons back into humans seemed that ridiculous an attempt.
"A disease that eats people, killing it is faster than curing it, right? After being eaten, it's already too late."
"Yeah. That's the fastest method. I used to think that way too, in the past."
Huh? Kyūtarō was surprised. He didn't expect agreement with this statement. He naturally thought Tsukuru would get angry or scold him, but unexpectedly, Tsukuru's voice was quiet.
"But if family becomes a demon, I can't think the same way anymore."
The quiet voice carried a strange weight, making Kyūtarō forget to breathe for a moment.
"Because you know that person before they became a demon, because you only know kind and beautiful memories, you wish for them to somehow return to their original self. Even if eaten, what hurts more than the body is the heart, and even if the body disappears, only sadness remains."
A whisper filled with realism as if family had truly become demons.
The only person who could be called Tsukuru's family was the predecessor doctor, and he heard he died of old age. But Tsukuru's voice was filled with such deep longing that it didn't feel at all like he was thinking of a fictional subject.
He was thinking of someone remaining in his heart. Kyūtarō didn't know who that person alive in Tsukuru's heart was. Because he didn't know, he thought, and suddenly remembered. He recalled the jokes spread to put Ume to sleep.
The person who taught Tsukuru the lullaby. The mother before he was born, and the mother before that one more time.
Tsukuru said the reason he died at six was an accident. The silence he showed then was a bit strange, and seemed to be hiding something— Ah, surely.
"Who became a demon?"
He wanted an answer to this unbelievable conviction. When he asked Tsukuru, who was putting the demon's heart into a container, he raised his head. There's no way to know what's inside the hood.
"The mother before I was born, and the mother before that one more time."
A playful answer flowed out. In a jocular tone as if expecting no one to believe such nonsense, Tsukuru laughed. But Kyūtarō wasn't a dull child who would let it pass without noticing the loneliness permeating the voice.
The conviction takes root.
He realizes the tragedy told in comedic tone. How could this be a joke?
─Gods and Buddahs always try to take something from people. Tsukuru's life two times ago had its happiness taken away like that.
So Kyūtarō's instinct shouted. If it was taken, it must be reclaimed.
The medicine research would be as difficult as finding the jade vase of Hōrai, and the path to completion would be longer than building a bridge to the moon. Tsukuru doesn't turn his eyes from such an absurd goal.
Then he would simply follow him.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"...I'll definitely complete the medicine."
To balance the accounts of Tsukuru's stolen happiness. To grant this person's wish.
When he expressed his resolution in words, Tsukuru swallowed his breath for a moment, then surely smiled faintly beneath the unseen hood.
＊
"The life one time before, were you eaten by a demon too?"
"Yeah, that time my benefactor became a demon."
"Why did they become a demon again?"
"They said it was to save me."
"A dangerous guy."
"Even I find this part incomprehensible; no matter how much I think about it, I can't understand."
"If you could understand, that would be dangerous."
"He wasn't a bad person though."
"Would a dangerous guy have good or bad?"
"He was a person whose emotions couldn't grow... His emotional development just stopped at an undivided fertilized egg state... He really wasn't a bad person... Rather, from society's view, he was a good person..."
"I see what's most dangerous."
"What?"
"Your excessive naivety."
"Why?"
"Why do you think?"
＊
"I want to do something difficult too!!"
So shouted Ume one bright afternoon.
When Kyūtarō and Tsukuru were,
"Aren't you too focused on immediate effect, making it poison rather than medicine?"
"But if we can't cure with a single dose, wouldn't it be difficult to administer periodically to a demon?"
"How about mixing paralyzing poison to make it docile?"
"I've tried that method too, but by mistake paralyzed the heart too..."
"What are you putting in the medicine, killing intent?"
"Aconite, water hemlock, daffodil, yew, oleander, and wolfsbane."
"That's the seven great poisonous herbs. Is this a parade of killing intent..."
...having such a conversation. For reference, Tsukuru's excuse that it's not killing intent, you need this much for it to be effective! was buried under Ume's opening shout.
"Tsukuru and brother are so unfair. I want to try something difficult too!"
After the demon incident, Tsukuru and her brother frequently had more difficult conversations than before. Ume, who had learned nothing about medicine or drugs, couldn't join that conversation. That made her resentful.
But the difficulty Ume desired was never about studying. She hated sitting quietly at a desk, and hated racking her brains over tricky problems.
Then what was the difficult work Ume spoke of— in fact, Ume herself didn't really know either.
Only that Tsukuru and her brother doing difficult work looked somehow cool and dazzling even though they weren't under the sun, so in short, Ume wanted to look that cool too.
The first to notice that what Ume called 'difficult' referred to work that made you think 'amazing' at first glance was Tsukuru.
"I see, Ume has reached the age where she wants to try difficult things too."
Nodding at the adorable daughter-like child's tantrum, he gestured to Ume. The place he took her was the kitchen, and there Ume learned how to cook rice from Tsukuru.
The rice cooked while hearing 'gentle at first, blazing in the middle, don't open the lid even if the baby cries' got a bit burnt at the bottom from poor heat control. But Ume knows this in itself is quite tasty.
"No, what I want to do isn't like this..."
"It's okay, I understand. This is preparation for difficult work. Now, wash your hands first and let's make this into rice balls."
So soothed, Ume washed her hands with salt water while puzzled but following instructions. Though it was just squeezing rice, trying it herself was unexpectedly difficult. What Tsukuru makes are pretty triangular rice balls, but the rice balls made from Ume's hands have rounded corners, looking like they might roll away if you're not careful.
Getting plenty of rice grains on her palms, the rice balls the two made together were quite numerous. Tsukuru handed several of them to Kyūtarō saying "This is today's lunch."
Before they knew it, it was lunchtime. Feeling a faint hunger, Ume also reached for a rice ball, but.
"Ume can't eat. Let's pack up the rest."
"Pack them? Where are we going to eat? Going out?"
"Yeah, going out. Kyūtarō, I'll take Ume out for a bit~. Can you watch the house alone?"
"Don't treat me like a kid. Don't take her to dangerous places."
Receiving such scolding-laced send-off, led by Tsukuru's hand, they walked through the bamboo grove and arrived at a nearby village.
Ume had hardly ever been to the village. Her brother strictly warned her not to go alone because she might be caught by bad people, and thinking she shouldn't disturb Tsukuru's work, she never followed on house calls to play either.
She never felt dissatisfaction or loneliness about that. Village children would either clam up like clams or drop their jaws open when they saw her, so she had no friends to play with, and playing at home with bamboo stilts or bamboo dragonflies Tsukuru made was much more fun. The bamboo dragonflies Tsukuru made flew scarily well, making her lose track of time.
For reference, she only recently finally learned not to fly them toward the roof, so she hadn't lost bamboo dragonflies for a while. Since she was heavily praised by both her brother and Tsukuru, it was a small point of pride for Ume. The 200 bamboo dragonflies that became corpses on the roof must have found peace too.
Clouds covering the village sky. The days Tsukuru goes out are always such cloudy days. Because his skin is weak and can't endure sunlight, when he has business and must go out on clear days, he applies medicine with a somewhat peculiar smell.
When Ume once gave her honest impression that it smelled strange, he said in the past there was medicine with a worse smell. He says it's improved somewhat through repeated refinement.
Ume was carrying the bundle wrapped with rice balls. Honestly, it was heavy and she wished Tsukuru would carry it, but when he said "Didn't you want to do difficult work?" she had no choice but to carry it quietly. Ume was self-willed but even more so hated to lose.
The place they arrived was the village outskirts. A trash heap where people with no home or connections leaned their bodies. Beyond an alley overgrown with weeds that couldn't even be called a road, there was a child crouching alone.
"Ume."
Calling her name once, Tsukuru kneeled to match Ume's eye level.
"Give all the rice balls to that child and come back."
For a moment, she couldn't understand what that gentle-voiced statement meant, so Ume blinked her long eyelashes several times. But soon swallowing Tsukuru's words, Ume cautiously asked again. With a heart hoping she misheard.
"All of them?"
"Yeah, all of them."
"What about what you and I will eat?"
"That's also for giving away."
"No! This is our house's rice, and something you and I made, so why should we give it to a stranger! I haven't even had lunch, I'm hungry!"
"Didn't you want to do difficult work?"
Ume had a personality that hated to lose. But even that had limits. When she passed that limit, Ume could only cry now.
As tears gradually pooled in her pupils and her eyelashes soon became wet, at the moment when it seemed tears would pour if she blinked just once more, Tsukuru's hand gently rested on Ume's head.
"It's okay, Ume can do it."
To that expectation that believed without doubt, she couldn't retort that she couldn't. Because Ume hated to lose. She didn't want to lose to the self Tsukuru expected.
But saying this is unfair. Tsukuru isn't a bad adult but he's a tricky adult. Getting a bit angry at that point, she stamped her feet, suppressed her desire to cry, and glared at Tsukuru.
"I'll do it. I can do it. I'll accomplish it. If I do it, it'll work!"
"Now, stop the scary face and take a deep breath~. Let's hand it over with a kind face."
"Even if I'm scary it's okay! I'm cute!"
"But Ume with a kind face is the cutest in the world."
I want to see the cutest Ume.
Tsukuru, smiling like that and pushing Ume's back, was really tricky. Looking back at Tsukuru behind her several times, Ume approached the child crouching by the roadside.
The child was a boy around Ume's age, with a body much thinner than hers, a girl. It was as if a dry branch had become human. The boy with his face buried in his knees didn't notice even when Ume stood right before him.
Uneasily, Ume looked back at Tsukuru who had distanced himself.
The hood simply nodded slowly without saying anything.
"H, hey."
When she resolved herself and spoke to the boy in a trembling voice, only then did the other seem to notice someone standing before him.
The raised cheek was pale and emaciated, eye sockets sunken, but the moment the boy looked up at Ume, his sunken eyes opened wide. His dry lips, opposite to his eyes, were firmly closed, showing no sign of saying anything as if time had frozen.
She wanted to hurl abuse telling him to say something, but remembering Tsukuru's words, she swallowed the words rising to her throat.
Tsukuru said to hand it over with a kind face. Ume didn't know what a kind face was. Was it different from a happy face or a joyful face?
When hearing the word 'kind,' the first to come to mind were her brother and Tsukuru, but putting aside hooded Tsukuru, Kyūtarō when dealing with Ume always smiled faintly.
Ah, I see. A kind face is that face of brother's.
"Here, I'll give you this, rice balls."
Once she knew the answer, what followed was quick.
Loosely pulling up the corners of her mouth and softening the corners of her eyes, Ume extended the bundle with her best kind face.
But when the other remained stiff like a stone and wouldn't readily accept it, the impatient Ume placed the bundle on the boy's knees. Because she thought if she held it longer, she might not hand it over, feeling reluctant about what was inside.
Once she removed her hand from the bundle, it was no longer Ume's. Since she gave it to the boy, it all belonged to the boy. Suppressing the desire to burst into tears from reluctance, Ume ran toward where Tsukuru was as if fleeing.
"Ah... thank you!!!"
Behind fleeing Ume's back, the boy's voice flew straight.
Looking back over her shoulder, the boy was bowing his head as if bending his branch-like body. Raising a cracking voice saying "Everyone, everyone!" the boy hugged the bundle to his chest and disappeared into the trash heap.
It was a strange feeling. She was clearly hungry, and though her stomach made a lonely gurgle from missing lunch, with just that one line from him, both being hungry and missing lunch became unimportant. Her stomach was empty, but the area around her chest swelled up.
"You did really well. Ume is amazing."
All the way back holding hands, Tsukuru praised her like that several times.
"Enduring your hunger and giving away rice balls was difficult, right?"
"Really, I was so hungry I almost died."
"You won't die from skipping one meal. You ate breakfast well."
Ignoring Ume's resentful voice, Tsukuru burst out laughing.
But the next moment, he abruptly stopped laughing.
"But that child isn't like that. Let alone breakfast, maybe they couldn't eat properly yesterday, or even the day before, and if they skip another meal, they might die."
Remembering the boy who was only bones and skin, Ume silently closed her mouth. With the hand not holding Tsukuru's, she tightly gripped her kimono hem. Come to think of it, that boy's clothes were almost like rags too.
"Ume was hungry. But she endured that and gave rice balls to someone hungrier. Suppressing what you want and doing something for someone is very difficult work. Perhaps more so than making medicine."
"...Ah."
Then Ume realized. That boy didn't immediately open the bundle but hugged it preciously as he went somewhere. Perhaps he went to share it with family or friends.
What Ume, who had eaten a solid breakfast, hesitated to do out of reluctance, that boy who had eaten nothing accomplished easily.
"...That child, is amazing."
"Must be a kind child."
"Somehow annoying. I'm frustrated."
"Then, you should become a kind child who won't lose to that child."
"...Can I become one?"
"You can become one."
Nodding like that, Tsukuru surely had a kind face beneath the hood.
＊
Three years had already passed since taking in Kyūtarō and Ume, and I turned nineteen.
Thinking of my past life, life before that, and life before that—it's an incredible longevity record. Quite an achievement. Though I can't deny feeling like I exchanged a weak body for increased lifespan.
The shocking weak constitution where swinging a wooden sword outside the bamboo grove makes me immediately vomit blood remains unchanged even as an adult. In the bamboo grove it's fine, you see. For reference, if I move too vigorously, I vomit blood even in the bamboo grove.
Kyūtarō has now considerably mastered Shabana's medical arts, so recently I've been taking him on house calls too. Since Kyūtarō says "With this appearance, won't patients run away?" and wears the same hood as me, and moreover wears thick clothes to hide the bloodstains on his skin, we're called the hooded master-disciple pair in the vicinity.
Though his manner of speaking is blunt, his diagnoses are accurate and the medicine he prescribes isn't inferior to mine, so the villagers sighed with relief saying Shabana's future is secure. My shoulders also rise proudly.
Ume also follows on house calls. At first I brought her because I was uneasy leaving her home alone, but recently she helps with simple chores, so combined with her exceptional beauty despite her young age, she's completely become Shabana's招牌 lady.
People are popping up suffering from lovesickness just from Ume smiling and saying 'get well soon.' Even Shabana's medicine can't cure this.
Though Shabana's succession has found stability like this, the research on medicine to turn demons back into humans is still struggling. In fact, after defeating that demon that invaded the bamboo grove, I've only encountered demons I can count on one hand. The results of visiting administration experiments are, unsurprisingly, only instant death.
For reference, Kyūtarō made purely demon-killing poison in case of emergencies, but the demon hit by that poison writhed in pain until dying burned by morning sunlight. Even though it was poison made to kill, it didn't cause instant death.
Kyūtarō was looking at me with eyes saying 'Isn't the medicine this guy makes dangerous?'
No way... my medicine, isn't the killing intent too high...?
Once I tried making medicine with all poisonous herbs and flowers removed, but that also gained instant death effect. I was in despair. I felt fear at the talent of drawing out 100% instant death from 0% killing intent.
Perhaps my hands were bestowed by heaven to kill demons. The instant death effect was so excellent it made me think that.
Why? The bamboo grove? Because I prepared it in the bamboo grove? Did my Stand『Take-tori Inkan』add a craftsman's touch? Control yourself, Take-tori Inkan. Don't let amateurs interfere. It becomes more miserable than a cooking failure tasting it midway.
But I won't give up on my dream of making medicine!! If I get discouraged by this much, I can't meet either Mom or Muzan-kun!
Additionally, I still haven't encountered the demon hunters who would be clues to Muzan-kun. Well, even if I did encounter them, this life's me can only swing a sword at imitation level, so I couldn't become a demon hunter.
But since I'm researching medicine to turn demons back into humans, couldn't I become a member somehow? For sentai shows, how about a position like the doctor?
While spending each day with such thoughts, one night, the clattering sound of bell strings came from outside.
"...Judging by the sound, they're running this way while caught in the bell strings."
"Then a demon?"
"Judging by the approaching speed, probably. Hmm, no time to face it outside. I'll handle it when it reaches the entrance, so both of you step back. If it gets dangerous, go to the bedroom. I've burned wisteria scent there."
Sheltering the two behind me, I glare at the entrance.
The growing bell sound. Seems quite hungry, showing little composure. The presence of someone approaching right before my nose. The moment I aim the bamboo water gun filled with new medicine, the entrance door slides open violently with a sideways slip.
"Excuse me! Is the Shabana clinic he─!"
"Evil demon begone!"
Fshhh~
"──?!?!"
Aimed shot into the widely opened mouth. My water gun sprays medicine.
Watching with pounding heart to see the effect of the non-poisonous new medicine with 0% killing intent, the demon in black clothes fell showing the whites of its eyes.
Damn, instant death again this time? Thinking that and looking at the demon's face, no, this guy didn't die instantly. He was foaming at the mouth and unconscious.
Rejoicing momentarily that I had finally escaped the curse of instant death effect, I soon realized an important fact looking at the twitching demon's mouth. No fangs. Looking closely, the nails are rounded too.
I put my hand on my forehead and quietly looked up at the sky.
Dammit~~~~ this guy was human~~~!