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Yushiro fell back to Tamayo's side, still glaring at Cold Cry with open resentment.
Cold Cry kept a wary eye on the two demons in front of him. She'd said she meant no harm, but a demon was still a demon.
Tamayo handed the blood sample she'd collected to Yushiro, who tucked it away with care.
"Are you two with the Demon Slayer Corps?"
She asked it lightly enough, not because she didn't already know, but because the silence needed breaking somehow.
Noe glanced over at Cold Cry. He said nothing, so she didn't want to risk speaking out of turn either.
Their silence didn't seem to bother Tamayo. She smiled gently. "In that case, we won't take up any more of your time." With a small nod and a simple farewell gesture, she turned to go.
"Wait." Cold Cry stopped them before they could leave.
"Is there something we can help you with?" Tamayo asked. "Or would you rather do your duty as Demon Slayers and cut us down here and now?"
Something that heavy, tossed off that lightly, caught him off guard for a second before he recovered.
"I have a few questions I'd like to ask," he said.
"That's how you ask someone something? Rude." Yushiro rounded on him first, still frowning, then turned back to Tamayo. "Lady Tamayo, let's just ignore this lunatic before he says something even more idiotic."
"Yushiro, that's no way to speak to a guest. He didn't have much choice in how this looked; you were drawing blood, and he likely thought you meant to hurt this girl."
Hearing that, something in Noe lifted. She glanced at Cold Cry and dropped her gaze fast, thinking, *So you really weren't going just to leave me behind. All that talk about never caring, you were just trying to scare me off.*
Cold Cry had nothing to say to that. He wanted, badly, to correct the record; he hadn't been thinking about her at all in that moment.
He'd only been thinking about weakening them, or getting some kind of leverage. Nothing more than that.
Still, he let it go. He didn't want to drag the misunderstanding out any further; he just wanted his answers.
Chastened by Tamayo, Yushiro shot Cold Cry one more glare and said nothing else.
"If we're going to talk this through properly, it's probably best we not do it standing around half-dressed. There's still time tonight; let's take this inside."
Only then did Noe remember she was standing there in nothing but a swimsuit and a bellyband. She threw both arms over her chest and dropped into a crouch, mortified.
Cold Cry, shirtless himself, didn't seem to register the comment at all. The group filed indoors, Noe trailing at the back.
Once everyone had changed, the four of them settled into the lounge area of the hot spring inn.
"I'm Tamayo. This is Yushiro. And you two are?"
"I'm Kanroji Noe, and this is Hyouka Kanenaki. Miss Tamayo, Mr. Yushiro, I'm sorry, truly, for what happened earlier."
"No need to apologize. If anyone should be sorry, it's him." Yushiro fixed Cold Cry with a hard stare.
Cold Cry stared right back, neither one willing to be the first to look away.
"Enough, Yushiro. Let it go. Anyone in their position would've been on guard around us. You should be grateful he didn't just take your head off outright."
That only made Yushiro more indignant. He opened his mouth, ready to point out that Tamayo herself had struck him from behind first, but one look at her deceptively stern expression and he thought better of it, straightening up and staying quiet.
"So, Cold Cry. What did you want to ask?" Tamayo said.
He hesitated. "I wanted to ask about two people. Or two..."
He couldn't bring himself to say the word *demon.* He didn't want to believe his sister had become one, and he didn't believe that man would have let her live either way.
His hands curled into fists, as it cost him something physical just to get the two names out.
"One is called Iguya Kishi. The other is... Hyōshi Yuki."
*Hyōshi Yuki.* Noe turned the name over; a beautiful name, and the first time she'd heard it, the first time Cold Cry had ever let her that close to anything real about himself.
Something in the shape of the two names, both carrying that same cold, wintry feel, told her the connection ran deeper than coincidence.
He'd probably joined the Corps because of her. So why was he asking Tamayo, specifically, about her? Unless
The thought startled Noe enough that she shook her head, trying to dismiss it outright. But one look at his face, pale, afraid, in real pain,n told her she'd guessed right.
"Why are you asking me where these two are? What's your connection to them?"
"A few months ago, I lived in the snow country. One day, a man named Iguya Kishi came back to our village and killed everyone in it. My sister gave her life to save mine. I didn't even know what a demon was, back then. It wasn't until I joined the Corps that I understood Iguya Kishi was one. Same as you."
Something clicked into place for Noe. His scars, his coldness, the way he held himself apart from everyone all of it traced back to that one day.
It wasn't that he'd never known how to smile. It was that the pain underneath had eaten up whatever energy it would have taken.
Tamayo's face softened with something like sorrow. Another life ruined by Kibutsuji, tossed aside as nothing mattered less to him than a human life. Sooner or later, that would catch up to him.
She shook her head slowly. "I've never heard either of those names. And we're not quite what you think we are, either of us."
That much, at least, was clearly true.
"Since you're with the Corps, you'll have heard the name Kibutsuji Muzan."
"The Demon King. The source of it all. Progenitor of every demon there is."
Tamayo nodded. "I served under him once. One of the first to fall under his hand."
Both Cold Cry and Noe went still at that.
"Don't look so shocked. Four hundred years ago, a swordsman came close to killing him closer than anyone before or since. I used the chaos of that moment to break free and run. I've spent every year since hiding and searching for a way to finish what he started. This time, I came out to gather demon blood to develop something that can stop a demon's regeneration cold."
*Four hundred years.*
*Then this woman in front of me isn't just old. She's*
"To fight the Corps, and to hunt down the Blue Spider Lily, Kibutsuji created twelve of his strongest demons. The Twelve Kizuki. If this Iguya Kishi is really a demon like me, there's a strong chance he's one of them. To them, earning that title is a kind of rebirth, and once they have it, they stop using whatever name they were born with."
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