Chapter 51 Hanako (Ch 51)

When the ghost’s head fell off, he didn’t realize what was happening.
After he could no longer sense his own body, Fagui finally realized his current condition.
“Ah…Ah!! Ah!!! Damn it…Damn it!!!”
There was only one head left, the hairy ghost screaming wildly.
Perhaps it was because he was unwilling, or maybe it was something else, the speed at which the ghost head dissipated was surprisingly slow, and he even had time to complain:
“Damn woman! It’s all that damn woman’s fault!! If she hadn’t brought you here! How could I have——!”
“Shut up!!!” Iori was angry at the complaint of the ghost. She said to the ghost loudly: “Even if you become a ghost, Miss Hanako is still protecting you! What qualifications do you have to complain about her?!”
“Protect? I don’t need her protection! If I had known this, I should have eaten her the last time she came!! Instead of waiting until now!!”
The ghost was still venting his resentment, and he seemed really angry.
But Takeo, who killed him, just looked at him calmly. After he complained, he asked slowly:
“Will you really eat her?”
“Of course I—!”
“elder brother!!!!!!”
Fagui wanted to answer, but a heart-wrenching cry blocked his words.
The ghost looked towards the direction where the sound came from. When he saw the familiar figure, his disappearance speed seemed to become slower. In the pupils that belonged to a ghost, for the first time… a color that did not belong to a ghost appeared.
Ah…Hanako…
It was as if a switch was pressed on his memory, and the memories that were once blocked broke through the shackles and poured into his mind like a torrent. At this moment, Fagui finally remembered who the other person was.
But it was too late.
“Brother!! No…No…Brother!!”
Hanako ran to Fagui, picked up his remaining head, held him in her arms, and cried loudly and painfully.
Tears and rain mixed together, and it was no longer possible to tell which were tears and which were rain.
Fagui looked at his crying sister, his eyes trembled, he wanted to comfort her like he used to, reach out his hand to touch her, tell her “Don’t cry, brother is here”, but in the end he couldn’t say anything.
The disintegration of the body cannot be stopped. The demons killed by the Sun Blade will gradually die, just like being exposed to sunlight.
The ghost knew that he was going to die.
Before he died, he had countless things he wanted to say to his sister, but in the end, recalling the past, these countless words turned into just one sentence.
“Hanako…”
“elder brother!!”
“…I’m sorry.”
Fagui finally shed tears. It was unclear whether the tears were of regret or sadness. They slid down his face and became the last thing he had left in this world.
Then he turned into ash and dissipated in the rain.
The sound of raindrops lost its obstruction and fell into Hanako’s palm. Feeling the cold rain, Hanako realized what had happened.
She did not scream or cry out in despair. Instead, she knelt on the ground as if she had lost her soul, like a lifeless sculpture.
The three members of the Demon Slayer Corps watched from the side. Takeo looked at the scene in front of him and sighed softly.
This was probably the first time for him to witness such a scene of separation of life and death, not counting what he had seen in movies or on TV.
Before this, Takeo actually didn’t have a very intuitive impression of the tragedy caused by the appearance of ghosts.
When he crawled out of the grave, the Kamado family had already been killed by the ghost. When he faced the ghost for the first time, the ghost did not really kill anyone.
He had only vaguely guessed what had happened to the female cloth ghost that he and Iori had faced before, but he didn’t know the details.
Only now, the story of Hanako and her brother was completely presented before his eyes. In addition to making him better understand the meaning of the existence of creatures like “ghosts”, Takeo also understood one thing.
The appearance of ghosts will only bring sadness and pain to people, and what the ghost hunters have to do is to kill all the ghosts they see.
Put an end to the pain and sorrow.
Yoshitsugu Chendou stood beside Takeo. He looked at Hanako’s back, seeming to be hesitant to speak.
He wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Hanako standing up.
Hanako, who had been kneeling on the ground for who knows how long, finally stood up.
She walked towards the remains of the demon, the coat he had put on to keep him warm, something Hanako had given him during the winter.
Now this is all that’s left of the ghost.
Hanako walked over, picked up the coat, wrung it out, folded it and put it away. A relieved smile appeared on her face, and she said to the coat:
“…Brother, we are home.”
“Ms. Hanako…” Fang He Chen Dou looked at Hanako with some concern.
Hanako turned around when she heard the voice, bowed deeply to the group and said:
“Thank you, thank you for setting him free… I actually know that after he became like that, he will never come back, but…”
But she always held out hope.
Hanako didn’t say this. She just bent down and bowed deeply. After a long while, she stood up and said:
“…I am going back now. I wish you all…good luck in martial arts in the future.”
“Ms. Hanako, let’s take you back.”
Chen Dou said to Hanako.
Hanako shook her head: “No, please… leave me alone for a while.”
Her brother had just been killed, and the people who killed him were these Demon Slayer Corps in front of her. How could Hanako face them calmly?
Chen Dou also knew this, so he didn’t force her. He just told Hanako to be careful and watched her leave.
Drip.
After Hanako left, the frequency of raindrops began to decrease, and the heavy rain turned into light rain without knowing when. Looking up at the dim sky, Takeo asked Chendou:
“What about the others who are missing?”
“What should we do?” Chen Dou was puzzled.
Takeo said, “It’s true that the one who ate them was a ghost, but the one who brought them here was Miss Hanako. Miss Hanako was an accomplice… So I want to ask, should we report this to the local authorities?”
It is true that what happened to Hanako was very sad, but one thing is one thing, and pity cannot be a reason for Hanako to persecute other people’s lives.
Takeo didn’t want to care about it at first. As a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, he only needed to slay demons. Why bother with so many things?
But he did not forget that Tao Jiro from the Akita family asked him to find his brother. Now Tao Jiro’s brother Tao Ichiro is definitely nowhere to be found, but this matter must be explained anyway.
Fang He Chen Dou was silent for a while after hearing this. He scratched his wet hair and said:
“…How about this, we’ll go find Miss Hanako later and ask her to turn herself in.”
“Okay.”
Takeo had no objection. Once Hanako turned herself in, the affairs of the Akita family would be explained, although… this was also a tragedy.
The two planned to wait a while before looking for Hanako, but Iori had a different opinion:
“I say, if you want to find Miss Hanako, I think it’s better to hurry up.”
“What do you mean?” Takeo looked at her.
Iori hesitated for a moment and was about to answer when Yoshitsuru Chendou suddenly realized something. He immediately stood up and ran towards Hanako’s house.
Takeo and Iori looked at each other and followed closely.
The three of them hurried on their way and soon returned to Hanako’s home.
However, as soon as he approached Hanako’s house, the faint smell of blood in the air made Takeo’s heart shudder.
Chendou didn’t have as good a sense of smell as Takeo, but he was faster and he quickly rushed into the room to look for Hanako.
He found it.
But he would rather not have found it.
Because Hanako Taniguchi was lying next to the wall of the room, and a pair of scissors pierced her heart.
Blood kept gushing out from her heart and gathered into a pool under her body.
Until this moment, Hanako was still holding the dress tightly in her hand.
The only relic left by her brother.