The room stayed silent. The faint rustle of the garden trees outside whispered through the air like a ghost listening in.
Kenta stood still, eyes shadowed beneath the weight of memory. Then he continued.
"After Osaka… Sahiru disappeared. No one heard from him for weeks. Not the Corps. Not the elders. Not even me."
He looked up, voice lowering.
"But then came the Kaminari Incident."
A faint chill ran through the room.
Kagaya's calm voice broke the silence. "The village near the shrine built in his honor."
Kenta nodded slowly. "Yes. That place. One night, demons descended. More than a dozen. Most villages would've been wiped out."
He paused. "But they didn't reach a single soul."
"What happened?" Obanai asked quietly, his usually sharp tone softened.
Kenta closed his eyes.
"The villagers said… the sky turned crimson. The moon bled red. And then—he appeared."
Zenitsu's voice cracked. "You mean… Sahiru?"
"He didn't speak. He didn't scream. He just walked. The demons rushed him, and in seconds…"
He opened his eyes.
"They were gone. All of them. Burned, sliced, erased from existence. No mercy. No hesitation."
Even Gyomei bowed his head in silent reverence.
"He had changed," Kenta said. "When I found him, he was sitting on a pile of demon corpses. His eye was bleeding scarlet. His face… cold. Completely expressionless."
Tanjiro felt a deep, painful knot in his chest.
"What did you say to him?" he asked.
Kenta smiled sadly. "I thanked him. I gave him a bandage to cover that eye."
A heavy silence followed.
Kagaya spoke with quiet finality. "And that… is when the shrine was built."
Kenta nodded. "Yes. By dawn, the villagers all gathered. They said… he was no longer a man. He was a force. A guardian who had lost too much… but chose to protect anyway."
Kagaya folded his hands, eyes soft.
"The Façade may be cold," he murmured, "but the heart beneath it still burns."