"God's chess pieces?"
Hearing Mitsuba's words, Tanjiro's eyes were filled with confusion.
"What does that mean?"
Could the chess pieces she mentioned be referring to the Demon Slayer Corps?
"Little one, you should know that my Blood Demon Art allows me to see the threads of causality on humans, right?"
Rather than directly answering Tanjiro's question, Mitsuba asked in return.
"Yes, I know that..."
When Kanae had previously shared information about Mitsuba, she had mentioned this point.
"Then what do you think—where do these threads of causality that I see come from?"
"I don't know..."
"They originate from God. That God in the heavens."
Activating her Blood Demon Art, she instantly altered the life of a customer behind her.
Under Tanjiro's extremely shocked gaze, Mitsuba took the marionette that had suddenly appeared in that customer's hands. While fiddling with it on the table, she said:
"God lowers threads of silk, controlling everything in the world, reducing all who dwell in this world to His puppets. Tragically, the people of this world know nothing of this.
Just like this puppet in my hands—it seems to move freely, but who knows that everything it believes to be its own is actually the result of the threads I control?"
Using the threads to make the puppet perform continuous backflips on the spot, Mitsuba continued with a smiling voice:
"Until one day, one of these puppets suddenly opened its eyes and finally saw those threads entangling them.
At that moment, this former puppet completely understood the truth of this world.
So it turned out—this world really did have a God. So it turned out—the high and mighty God really could control everything in this world, and had always been doing so.
So it turned out—her past, her elder brother's past, all the tragedies that had befallen her family, had all been pushed forward by Him behind the scenes.
What enraged her even more was that God's actions were not for so-called justice, nor were they noble in any way.
He merely wanted a sharp sword, and then use this sword to slay those creatures called demons—beings He did not create, and that also transcended His control.
Little one, you always say you are angry, that your hearts burn with rage—but how is this puppet any different?
The puppet who knows everything also burns with anger in her heart. She is determined to drag that high and mighty existence down from His throne. She must crush everything of His, completely erase His existence from this world!
And the prerequisite for all of this is to sever His tentacles in this world."
"The Demon Slayer Corps."
Controlling the puppet in her hands to raise its finger and point at Tanjiro before her, Mitsuba slowly said:
"This organization, led by that Ubuyashiki clan, miraculously surviving for a thousand years—there is no doubt it is His deepest tentacle extending into the human world, and also where He has invested the most power.
Hundreds of years ago, the death of that Child of God already proved that the death of these important chess pieces would similarly cause His own power to diminish.
And now, a new batch of chess pieces has arrived. Like that Child of God from before, these chess pieces each possess their own abilities, with wills unbelievably firm.
But the difference is—their strength is far inferior to that Child of God from back then.
From this, the puppet became certain that over these hundreds of years, as her own power grew, God was indeed continuously weakening.
Now, He doesn't even have the ability to create a new Child of God.
Without a doubt, this is already His final counterattack. He is using all His strength, making one last attempt to slay that puppet who has been continuously draining power from Him for hundreds of years.
And for this puppet as well, this is similarly her final battle.
God's weakness is visible to the naked eye. As long as she can win this time, the final backlash will completely destroy everything He has.
At that time, she will also completely win this battle.
And the key to all of this lies in... you.
Tanjiro, you, and those companions of yours in the Demon Slayer Corps—you all must die. I won't, and I cannot, let you go."
For Mitsuba, this was a result that needed no debate.
As an adult who had lived for nearly five hundred years—dirty and uninteresting—love and justice could not move her.
She only knew what result she wanted, and what she needed to do to achieve it.
She might find some amusement for herself during the process of achieving that result, but the final result would absolutely not change.
"Cherish your final time well, little one."
Pushing the puppet in her hands toward Tanjiro, Mitsuba stood up from her seat.
"Letting you decide when to initiate this final battle—this is already the greatest mercy I can show you.
Alright, that's all. Take your time eating. I'll be going now."
As her words fell, Mitsuba turned and left.
At the same time, everything in the restaurant seemed to come back to life. Not only did the voices of customers chatting around them grow louder, but Tanjiro's younger brothers and sisters finally "noticed him" again.
"Huh? Big brother, where did that big sister from just now go?"
"Big brother, what did you talk about with that big sister? When did she leave? How come I didn't notice at all?"
"Big brother? Big brother! Are you spacing out?"
"..."
"Woohoo! Finally arrived in Tokyo after sitting on the train all morning!"
On the other side, at a certain train station in the Tokyo suburbs, as a train slowly pulled to a stop, several young people of similar age stepped off.
Among these people were both men and women, all with physiques considerably more robust than ordinary people.
One person walked at the very back. He had short black hair, thick eyebrows furrowed in a frown—clearly Zenitsu's senior disciple, Kaigaku.
Without a doubt, these traveling companions were exactly the swordsmen squad that Kaigaku belonged to.
As a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, Kaigaku naturally had his own swordsmen squad.
Although due to various reasons, his relationship with the others in the squad was not good, they were still squad members nonetheless.
Therefore, during this holiday granted by Ubuyashiki, the few of them who were all similarly parentless had still made plans to go out together.
And since they truly couldn't think of anywhere else to go, Tokyo became the destination they finally decided upon after discussion.
Being able to visit this big city they had never been to before, to see the world and have a good time before the final battle—this could be considered living life without regrets!
However, unlike the others who were in high spirits with excited faces, Kaigaku, walking at the back of the group, was frowning the entire time, head lowered in deep thought.
His mind was still echoing with the words Zenitsu had said to him when he quit the Demon Slayer Corps a few days ago.
They would lose!
In this final battle, the Demon Slayer Corps would definitely lose!
Although Zenitsu hadn't explicitly stated it, Kaigaku had already realized this point.
Kamado Tanjiro—the only Demon Slayer in the Corps today who could learn Sun Breathing, regarded as their hope.
Even he held such a pessimistic attitude toward this upcoming battle. From this, it wasn't difficult to infer what attitudes the other Hashira held...
The Demon Slayer Corps was finished. In this final battle, they would all die!
What should he do? Should he flee? But where could he flee to?