During lunch, Kuwajima Jigorō kept making whimpering noises while occasionally staring at Kanzaki Kumo, which left Kanzaki Kumo utterly bewildered.
After a while, Kanzaki Kumo could no longer stand Kuwajima Jigorō’s whimpering and finally spoke up, “I say, if your nose or throat isn’t feeling well, how about we skip practice this afternoon and go see a doctor first?”
“Hm?
You just said’skip practice,’ didn’t you?”
As soon as the words fell, Kuwajima Jigorō’s wrinkled and scarred face suddenly thrust right in front of Kanzaki Kumo’s face, nearly causing Kanzaki Kumo to choke on his rice.
Pushing that face away slightly, Kanzaki Kumo recalled Kuwajima Jigorō’s strange behavior all day and finally realized what was going on.
“You’ve been planning to talk me out of this since early this morning, haven’t you?”
“Mm-hmm.” Seeing that Kanzaki Kumo had figured it out, Kuwajima frankly admitted it.
Ever since he saw Kanzaki Kumo at the Medical Department, he hadn’t given up on that idea, nor had he ever concealed it from Kanzaki Kumo.
“Stubborn old man…” Kanzaki Kumo muttered under his breath and continued eating.
Since the Little old man wasn’t physically unwell, nothing else mattered.
Quitting was impossible anyway; only by learning the Breathing Technique sooner could he feel secure.
In a few months, he still had to pay respects at Kanzaki Keizan’s grave, something he had done every year for the past few years.
Yesterday, on the way to Peach Mountain, Kanzaki Kumo had specifically asked the Coachman to check the map to confirm the distance between Peach Mountain and the place where Kanzaki Keizan was buried.
It was quite a distance, requiring him to stay overnight outside.
Thinking back now, he was lucky and lived close by when he hadn’t awakened his memories; he rarely stayed out overnight.
Otherwise, he might have been a few years younger when he finally awakened his memories.
Now that Kanzaki Kumo knew about the existence of demons, venturing out without any means of self-preservation always left him feeling insecure.
So, he set a small goal: master the basics in two months, achieve proficiency in another three months, and then prepare to pay his respects.
While contemplating his short-term goals, Kanzaki Kumo suddenly remembered something and looked up to ask, “By the way, when is the Demon Slayer Corps’ final selection this year?”
When Ubuyashiki Kagaya introduced it earlier, he only mentioned that the final selection was held once a year, but he didn’t specify the exact date.
“You’re still thinking of participating in the selection this year?!
I advise you to give up on that idea!
I will never agree to let you go this year!” Upon hearing Kanzaki Kumo’s question, Kuwajima reacted as if startled, nearly spraying spittle into Kanzaki Kumo’s rice bowl.
Fortunately, his visual talent was strong enough to protect his lunch.
Kanzaki Kumo: To use my super vision for something like this, I’m truly a clever little devil.
Yes, Super Vision was the name Kanzaki Kumo gave his golden finger.
It couldn’t be helped; between two lifetimes, he hadn’t spent much time on academics, so naming things was characterized by simplicity and crudeness.
“I never said I was participating this year.
“Just forget about this year.
The final assessment is next month.
Even though you have some talent, don’t even dream about meeting the requirements for the final assessment in just one month,” Kuwajima’s tone was still somewhat indignant.
“Oh, alright then.” Kanzaki Kumo nodded.
He hadn’t expected to become a formal swordsman this year anyway.
After all, his physical foundation still needed polishing; it would take time to recover from more than a decade of malnutrition.
Being able to catch Kuwajima Jigorō’s nichirin blade previously didn’t mean he could wield a sword in battle.
The difference in strength required was considerable, especially since future enemies were demons whose physical fitness surpassed that of humans.
Not everyone was like Himejima Gyomei, who could still pound out ‘hand-beaten beef balls’ all night after more than a decade of malnutrition, and even after a period of proper training, could cosplay an armed helicopter with a meteor hammer.
After finishing lunch, Kuwajima Jigorō directly flipped Kanzaki Kumo over and pinned him to the ground.
Don’t misunderstand; it wasn’t that this Little old man had developed some fatherly fetish for this little boy whose looks had improved significantly with better living conditions.
It was purely to help Kanzaki Kumo massage his leg muscles.
After all, he had been standing all morning, and the afternoon was scheduled for teaching basic sword stances.
How could he learn if his legs were trembling?
With years of martial arts experience, Kuwajima Jigorō had summarized a set of muscle-relaxing massage techniques.
Although the process was intensely sore, it took less than an hour to restore eight or nine tenths of the strength in Kanzaki Kumo’s legs, allowing him to participate normally in the afternoon’s instruction.
“Brat, watch closely.” Kuwajima Jigorō gripped the wooden sword in his hand and assumed a stance; the entire spirit and energy of his person immediately changed.
“Thunder Breathing, Second Form, Inadona.”
Accompanied by the faint sound of thunder and lightning-fast sword flashes, five streaks of light instantly shot out from Kuwajima’s position, leaving five scorched marks fanned out on the ground in front of him.
Kanzaki Kumo’s eyes widened in astonishment.
His Super Vision allowed him to see every detail of Kuwajima’s movements, but precisely because he saw them clearly, he was even more surprised.
It wasn’t that Kuwajima’s movements were fast enough to turn what should have been a five-hit combo into five almost simultaneous slashes, but because he truly saw an electrical spark on that wooden sword!
“Wait, wasn’t this supposed to just be special effects?” Kanzaki Kumo questioned silently, but unfortunately, no one could answer.
However, surprise was immediately followed by delight, for no other reason than—it was cool!
Very cool!
Extremely cool!
At this point, Kanzaki Kumo’s determination to learn the Breathing Technique further solidified.
Kuwajima Jigorō: I should have held back a bit…
When did talking someone out of it become harder than encouraging them to learn?
He had originally intended to display a high-difficulty move to make Kanzaki Kumo retreat in the face of difficulty, but unexpectedly, he used too much force and instead made Kanzaki Kumo yearn for the Breathing Technique even more.
Just as Kuwajima was thinking about how to proceed with the next phase of his dissuasion plan, Kanzaki Kumo had already picked up the wooden sword and started swinging it.
His eyes were slightly closed as he recalled every detail of Kuwajima’s movements in his mind, then broke them down one by one.
Afterward, he began attempting to imitate and correct them with the wooden sword in hand.
Soon, apart from the much slower speed, he was able to perfectly reproduce the movements of the form Kuwajima had just demonstrated.
Kuwajima, who had just thought up his next dissuasion plan, snapped back to reality only to see this scene, leaving him completely dumbfounded.
To be able to become a Hashira meant that Kuwajima’s own sword skill talent was already quite strong.
Yet, Kanzaki Kumo, standing before him, reproduced the movements of Thunder Breathing Second Form after seeing it demonstrated only once.
He hadn’t slowed down the movements!
At this moment, Kuwajima Jigorō witnessed the terror of a talent monster for the first time, and his desire to talk him out of it was severely shaken.
He began to wonder if his well-intentioned dissuasion might actually be hindering Kanzaki Kumo’s talent.
But he soon had no time to think.
Because after repeatedly confirming the movements were correct, Kanzaki Kumo actually started imitating Kuwajima’s previous breathing rhythm.
It was necessary to use Total Concentration Breathing to achieve this high-difficulty sword form.
This resulted in Kanzaki Kumo, who was unaware of the situation, immediately seeing black upon his first attempt, and his entire body fell straight backward.
“Brat!” Seeing Kanzaki Kumo attempting to mimic his Total Concentration Breathing right at the start, Kuwajima was so frightened that he even used his Breathing Technique just to quickly reach his side and interrupt his movement.
Kuwajima caught Kanzaki Kumo, who was stiffly falling backward, and quickly patted his chest and back a few times, finally managing to help him recover.
“Hoo—hoo—”
After panting heavily for a while, Kanzaki Kumo, who had nearly died from a single attempt, finally recovered completely.
In that instant, he thought he was going to suffocate to death, and he even vaguely saw Kanzaki Keizan waving at him.
“Trying to use Total Concentration Breathing on your first day learning the Breathing Technique—why don’t you just fly straight to heaven!”
“Ouch!
That hurts, that hurts…”
Seeing that Kanzaki Kumo was alright, Kuwajima Jigorō’s temper flared up.
He raised the wooden sword in his hand and struck down repeatedly.
However, Kuwajima ultimately didn’t use full force; Kanzaki Kumo only felt pain on the very first strike.
After Kuwajima stopped, Kanzaki Kumo retorted indignantly, “This accident shouldn’t have happened on your end!
You were demonstrating a move properly and ended up using Total Concentration Breathing.”
“I did that to show you the power of Thunder Breathing!” Kuwajima shouted back.
If one ignored his flushed face and evasive gaze, Kanzaki Kumo might have actually believed him.