Giyu Tomioka's Story: Part 2

Giyu Tomioka: Gaiden (Part 2) is a Giyu Tomioka side story chapter of Koyoharu Gotōge's Kimetsu no Yaiba.

Summary
Yae thinks back to the first time she went hunting and her father helped her out but said it was the only time he would do so, saying she had to learn how to do it herself. She happily says she knows and quotes a line her father used to say, that because they killed they had to live and her father had nodded approvingly.

Back in the present, her father now as a demon who had lost his left arm and foot, struggling to make his way towards her and the two Hashira, Giyu Tomioka and Shinobu Kocho in harsh snow. Yae looks on in horror and Giyu tells Shinobu to look after her as he moves forward to deal with the threat. Shinobu jauntily asks Giyu if he is sure and offers to kill off the demon with her poison as she draws her blade. The words carved into the side of blade strike fear into Yae and she asks both the Hashira to wait.

Shinobu looks at her in shock and Giyu asks her what the matter is now, saying that she knows that the demon in front of them was longer the father she used to know. The demon begins to regenerate his lost limbs and Giyu charges at him to finish him off. Attacking the Water Hashira, the demon grows a projectile of his own bone and throws it at Giyu who shatters it with a block from his blade. This was but a diversionary tactic however, as the demon used this time to get up close to Giyu and attempts to stab him with a sharp outgrowth of bone from his forearm. Giyu is able to dodge the attack however and Yae looks on in horror and dismay as he beheads her father with the Water Breathing, Fourth Form: Striking Tide, killing him.

The dismembered head weakly mutters something as it remembers Yae in it's final moments and Giyu is puzzled but declares that it is over. Shinobu looks at Yae in concern as the girl repeats those words and points her hunting rifle at her throat. Giyu yells at Shinobu and rushes forward to protect Yae. Shinobu worries that she won't be able to get there in time, but miraculously, Yae's rifle jams, and Shinobu tackles her before she is able to pull the trigger. Yae begins to cry and asks why they won't let her do so Shinobu looks at her with a pained and sorrowful expression.

Crying that she has lost everything now, including her home, she says that the demon slayers don't understand a thing and for them to leave her alone. Giyu walks up to her and tells her that her father's final words were probably meant for her and that before passing he had whispered simply, "Live". Still crying and utterly confused, Yae breaks into a smile and can only exclaim at Giyu's words. Saying that he does not care about her grumbles about demons as it has nothing to do with him, Giyu walks off. Shinobu calls for him but he continues to trudge off and tells her not to forget that they are Hashira. Disapproving and unable to leave the girl without some words of comfort, Shinobu tells her to bear with her feelings as that was how the rest of them had managed to continue on as well.

As the Hashira leave and the snow stops, Yae looks on at the serene landscape and picks up the hunting rifle and notices that there are blood stains all over the trigger. She realizes that her father's blood had hardened on it, preventing the trigger from being pulled earlier when she attempted to commit suicide. The sun comes out and as the blood begins to disintegrate away in the light Yae smiles as she ponders over the words of her father and the final message passed on to her by Giyu, hugging the rifle as she watches the sunrise.

Meanwhile, Giyu thinks back to training with Sakonji Urokodaki who had told him not to waver. Saying that the Water Breathing was a style that could adapt to any attack but that to master it he would need to have the heart to always keep his breaths steady, like the water's reflection. As Giyu and Shinobu eat ramen at a restaurant, she notes that he has changed. Telling him she had always believed he was cold to the bone but that she sensed his concern for Yae as he spoke to her before leaving. Saying he can confide in her Shinobu asks Giyu if something happened to give him a change of heart and he thinks back to his encounter with Tanjiro and Nezuko Kamado wondering if he had made the correct choice back then.

Giyu responds that even if something happens his heart would never waver because they were the strongest swordsmen in the Demon Slayer Corps and that they should never forget who they wielded their swords for and who they protected, as elsewhere Yae began life with her new reality with a determined expression. Giyu continues and says that there are things that need to be supported so the Hashira needed to act as Hashira, Shinobu responds by saying that he had made quite the befuddling statement and seemed to be living a hard life. She smiles as Giyu's order of salmon daikon is served to him noting that he really likes the dish. The chef and Shinobu are horrified at the sight of Giyu smiling at the dish however and she says that it is the first time she has seen him smile but asks him to eat while facing away from her.