Never Disappear

Sanemi remembers learning his blood was special when his demon mother slowed at the sight of it; armed with many ordinary blades, he once hunted demons by restraining them and leaving them to burn at dawn. He met a fellow hunter named Masachika Kumeno, who introduced him to a trainer, and bitterly notes how good people kept dying as Masachika fell in a battle against a Lower Rank, a loss that led to Sanemi becoming the Wind Hashira. In the present, Kokushibo marvels that the Wind Hashira keeps fighting, intrigued as Sanemi stops his own bleeding and enjoys the faint intoxication of his rare blood.

A flashback shows Sanemi's first Hashira meeting, where his rude greeting toward Kagaya drew Gyomei's anger while Kanae looked on with concern. Sanemi accused the leader of using Corps members as disposable pawns, but Kagaya surprised him by apologizing, admitting he could not so much as swing a sword without his blood pressure spiking, and confessing he had always wished to be a slayer himself. The leader's gentle manner reminded Sanemi of his mother's love.

Kagaya revealed that he kept in memory the name and history of each slayer who had died, and handed Sanemi the will of Masachika, who had thought of him as a younger brother and wished for a bright future where loved ones could live happily. Reading it, Sanemi thought of Genya and wept. Back in the present, he fires Genya's shotgun at Kokushibo to no effect, and as the demon attacks again, Gyomei promises the Corps will never vanish until every demon is wiped out.

The chapter recontextualizes Sanemi's harsh exterior by tracing his origins and the moment Kagaya won his loyalty. It ties his grief over Masachika to his strained love for Genya, deepening the emotional weight of his fight against the Upper Rank One demon Kokushibo.