65. Shattered Hope

The morning sun was a cruel, brilliant witness to the tragedy unfolding. The only sound that broke the heavy, graveyard silence of the battlefield was Hana's ragged, soul-shattering sob. Every gasp for air felt like she was inhaling jagged shards of glass, and her tears fell onto the tattered green-and-black checkered haori of her brother.

"No… no, no… please…Tanjiro!"

Giyuu sat beside her, his head bowed. Tears streamed down his face, dripping onto his ruined haori. He was completely devastated, and hearing Hana's broken cries seemed to break him even more. He had failed. He had promised to protect them, and now the boy who had fought for everything was cold and unmoving.

Then suddenly, Hana felt a twitch, Tanjiro's hand, which she had been cradling against her tear-stained cheek, suddenly jerked. His fingers, which had been cold and limp just moments ago, flared with a sudden, unnatural heat.

Hana's breath hitched in her throat. Her heart gave a violent leap.

"Tanjiro?" she gasped, her voice a fragile, desperate hope. "Tanjiro, you're awake! You're alive!"

Tanjiro's eyes snapped open.

"Tanjiro!" she muttered, feeling a rush of relief. She did not look closely at his eyes. She just saw life and grabbed onto hope. She leaned forward to hug him. "I knew it… I knew you wouldn’t leave me…" She ignored the deep pit in her stomach. She ignored the strange, flickering unfamiliarity in those eyes. She didn't want to see it. She only wanted her brother back.

She lunged forward, her arms reaching out to pull him into a final, relieved embrace. She wanted to hold him and never let go.

But she never reached him.

Tanjiro seemed to slip farther and farther away from her. Hana's eyes widened in confusion as she felt herself being dragged backward. Panic surged through her chest.

"No!"

Giyuu, his face a mask of pure terror, threw his arm around her waist. He hauled her backward with a desperate, lunging force that sent them both skidding across the sharp debris and dirt.

"HANA, GET BACK NOW!" Giyuu roared, his voice cracking.

Hana struggled wildly against his grip. She kicked and clawed at his tattered sleeve, her eyes fixed on Tanjiro. "Let me go! He's awake! Giyuu, he's awake TANJIRO, MY BROTHER!"

Hana reached desperately toward him, her fingers straining for his hand, but the distance between them only grew. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't reach him. She could only watch helplessly as she was pulled farther from her brother.

"LOOK AT HIM, HANA!" Giyuu screamed, his voice filled with an agony she had never heard before. "This isn't Tanjiro"

Hana stopped struggling for a second. She looked at Tanjiro. She looked deep into his eyes.

There was no recognition in them. They were slitted like a cat's, glowing with a hollow, predatory light. He let out a low, vibrating hiss. His mouth opened, revealing sharp fangs, and he began to salivate like a hungry animal. Suddenly, his arm snapped back, his muscles bulging with a strength that wasn't human.

In his final moments, Muzan had transferred all of his blood, cells, and remaining power into Tanjiro. He essentially poured his entire existence into him and entrusted his dream of immortality to Tanjiro. He had also become immune to the sunlight making him invincible.

"No…" Hana whispered, her eyes widening in pure horror.

​Giyuu tightened his grip. "Don’t move. Don’t go near him, Hana."

"STOP SPACING OUT! GET AWAY NOW!" Giyuu yelled, his voice directed at the frozen, terrified Kakushi. He tightened his grip on Hana, dragging her further back as Tanjiro's shadow stretched across the ground, growing larger and more dangerous in the sunlight.

"But... Tanjiro...!" Hana choked out.

"ANYONE WHO CAN MOVE!" Giyuu's voice took on the iron authority of a Hashira, though it bled with heartbreak. "GRAB YOUR WEAPONS AND GET OVER HERE NOW!"

"No," Hana whispered. The word felt like a small, fragile glass bead shattering in her throat. "No, no, no..."

"Tanjiro" she called softly. "It’s me… it’s Hana…Your Sister.."

"Tanjiro!" she wailed, a jagged, raw sound that tore from her chest. She clawed at Giyuu's arm, trying her absolute best to get away from him and run to her brother. "Let me go! He's scared! I can hear him! He's screaming inside! I need to save him!"

"He's not there, Hana!" Giyuu shouted, his voice cracking with a pain that matched her own. "That thing... it's not Tanjiro! If we don't stop him, he'll kill everyone left!"

"I don't care!" Hana screamed, struggling against Giyuu's grip with everything she had. "He's my brother! Do you hear me? He's my brother!"

Her voice cracked apart into a sob.

"He's all we have left! After everything... after everyone we lost..." Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face as she reached desperately toward Tanjiro. "Tanjiro! TANJIRO!"

The sound that left her throat was raw and broken.

"I need him," she choked out. "Please... I need my brother. Please don't take him away from me too. Please...don't kill him.."

"Hana, if you love him, please stay back!" Giyuu cried, his eyes filled with tears. "Don't let his final act be the murder of his own sister! Hana! HANA!"

"No! Please, please!" Hana's head felt like it was bursting with a thousand knives of pain. Every part of her body hurt, from her herself to her broken heart.

She clawed at Giyuu's arm with everything she had, trying her best to break free and run back to the monster wearing her brother's face. "Let me go! He doesn't want this! He's scared!"

"He's not there, Hana!" Giyuu shouted, his own tears falling onto her shoulder as he held her back. "That thing... it's not Tanjiro! Muzan passed everything to him! If we don't stop him, he'll kill everyone left! He'll destroy everything Tanjiro died to protect!"

"Tanjiro..." Hana's cries were becoming incoherent. The physical pain of her injuries- the gash in her stomach, the concussion, the broken ribs-all of it came rushing back at once, amplified bv the mental trauma of seeing her brother turn into the very thing they had spent their lives hunting. Every part of her body felt like it was on fire.

Panic flooded her system, and she began to hyperventilate, her lungs seizing up as she watched Tanjiro her sweet, kind brother growl and snap at the friends who were trying to save him. The image of his slitted red eyes burned into her mind, erasing the memory of his kind eyes.

"Hana... Hana..." Giyuu muttered, his voice fading into a low hum as her vision began to tunnel. Hana's body finally reached its limit. The adrenaline that had kept her moving through the slaughter shed, replaced by a crushing, heavy darkness. Her hands fell limp from Giyuu's arm, and her head lolled back against his shoulder. Her consciousness flickered like a dying candle before finally giving out, and she slumped toward the floor, the world disappearing into a merciful, silent blackness.

The last thing Hana saw before darkness claimed her was Tanjiro. And she knew nothing more.