Rin Tsugikuni cut off her brother’s worry with a calm wave of her right hand.
While using a bamboo stick to slowly stir the bubbling black medicinal soup in front of her, she spoke in a steady tone.
“I have a friend, a very kind-hearted medical practitioner. Some time ago, I talked with her about the miracle of the air circulation method you once told me about.”
The girl paused her movements and looked straight into her brother’s clear eyes.
“She has an enormous interest in it. She harbors the dream of extracting your breathing technique and turning it into the basic foundation for creating a new, people-friendly health method. I want to know, Big Brother Yoriichi, is your ego willing to share all that knowledge with her?”
“Of course, that’s not a problem at all.”
Yoriichi brushed away the doubt that had crossed his mind.
While nodding slowly, he stood up from the small wooden stool.
His right palm instinctively rested on the hilt of the Nichirin sword hanging at his waist.
“Rin, what should I do now? Should I sketch the movement patterns on a scroll for your friend, or do you intend to take me directly to her clinic?”
“There’s no need to trouble yourself that much, Big Brother. Just demonstrate the entire sequence of movements in front of my eyes tonight.” Rin shook her head gently, her gentle face remaining as flat as a still lake.
Yoriichi’s brows furrowed faintly, a flash of pure surprise crossing his usually stone-stiff eyes.
“Just with that method?”
“Yes. My memory is extremely well-trained. My eyes are capable of locking and recording everything in a single glance.”
Rin was not boasting or showing off.
Since her first cry split the earth of the Tsugikuni clan, she had realized that her soul had been granted an extraordinarily terrifying visual memory capacity.
Even until this moment, her memory sheets could still replay in perfect, precise detail every inch of the bamboo sword movements Yoriichi had swung when he knocked out the clan instructor more than a decade ago, without a single flawed or peeled detail.
She knew she could duplicate that masterpiece if her ego desired it.
“Understood.”
Without offering many stiff arguments, Yoriichi steadied his footing on the tatami floor.
Inside the pitch-dark room without moonlight, his Nichirin sword was drawn from its sheath, reflecting the flickering remnants of candlelight blown by the wind.
While the string of explanatory words flowed smoothly from his lips, the young man in the blazing red haori began swinging his sword, demonstrating the pure dance of the essence of Sun Breathing, movement by movement.
“Besides the blade’s swinging axis, the main focus of this method lies in the air circulation within the chest cavity. Every breathing rhythm locks a different slashing angle…”
His silhouette danced wildly across the wooden wall behind his body as his physical form moved.
Even though Yoriichi had strained himself to suppress the destructive power of his attacks, Rin—who was kneeling a few steps away—could still feel the extremely sharp and terrifying sword pressure, enough to peel the consciousness of living beings.
Yoriichi’s body movements were wrapped in absolute aesthetics.
However, it was not the kind of beauty born from festival dance choreography.
This was the purity of form that had eliminated all wasteful movements; an achievement of angle, speed, and power distribution at the highest extreme point of humanity.
A masterpiece so perfect that even an ordinary creature like Rin, who had no interest in martial arts, was forced to freeze and feel a jolt of admiration in her chest.
Yoriichi’s swordsmanship was no different from a majestic divine work of art.
It was truly a manifestation that flowed naturally without natural hindrance.
“Next, I will demonstrate the five other basic breathing technique branches, as well as Big Brother Michikatsu’s Moon Breathing method. However… my ability to replicate their essence is extremely shallow. Please don’t blame me if the visuals appear stiff.”
After the Sun Breathing dance was completed, Yoriichi shifted his body axis to demonstrate the other technique structures.
His movements remained precise and flawless, executing every inch of change with pure sincerity.
However, Rin—who held the status of an outside observer—began to catch subtle cracks and invisible flaws when her vision dissected the remaining breathing techniques.
That strange sensation felt extremely contrasting and naked, especially after her visual senses had just drunk the purity of Sun Breathing.
Of course, those flaws did not originate from Yoriichi’s physical vessel.
All those methods were nothing but flawed imitations carved from the greatness of Sun Breathing.
Those technique sequences were deliberately born as ‘inferior versions’ downgraded purely because the physical capacity of the demon slayers out there would never be able to match Yoriichi’s perfection.
What had just been displayed on the tatami floor was nothing more than a clumsy imitation by ordinary humans trying to reach the shadow of the ‘Child of the Gods.’
If there had been another idealistic creature occupying this bedroom, they would undoubtedly have been touched and inspired by how human effort, endurance, and blood and sweat struggled to break their limits.
However, Rin Tsugikuni’s pair of eyes refused to read such cheap romanticization.
Throughout Yoriichi swinging his blade, Rin only saw conspiracy and divine wonders forcibly carved into her brother’s flesh, stroke by stroke of cold destiny.
Her second brother had truly become the gods’ puppet.
After witnessing the swordsmanship’s perfection again after more than a decade apart, Rin locked her dark speculation even tighter; Yoriichi was born purely according to the heavenly rulers’ design.
*Then… what destiny script are they actually weaving to end my brother’s life?*
Rin slowly lowered her head, sinking her gaze toward her left arm, which was tightly hidden beneath the thick haori fabric of the clan.
*And at the same time… what bloody scenario have they prepared to claim my death?*
“So, Rin… has your memory perfectly locked all the patterns?”
Yoriichi’s heavy voice broke the room’s silence.
The strongest demon slayer slowly sheathed his Nichirin sword back into its wooden scabbard while stepping closer.
“Do you need me to repeat this demonstration a few more times?”
“There’s no need, Big Brother Yoriichi. The entire structure has been perfectly recorded in my head.” Rin formed a thin smile and slightly bowed her head as a sign of pure respect.
“Thank you for your help.”
“You don’t need to place the burden of gratitude on something like this. Extending a hand to others never demands repayment in words.”
Yoriichi dropped back to his knees on the small wooden stool.
“If one day your physician friend is plagued by confusion or has medical questions regarding this circulation, she can come find me anytime while my body is in this city.”
“Mm.”
Hearing the soft answer from his sibling’s lips, the atmosphere in the dimly lit small room was once again wrapped in a silent barrier.
The space suddenly became so quiet that only the sound of bubbling medicinal soup over the clay stove remained.
The thick, bitter herbal scent once again pierced Yoriichi’s sense of smell, forcing his clear eyes to refocus on the ceramic pot in front of them.
His visual memory suddenly threw him back to the visit a year ago; that night, his sibling had also been in the same position while drinking medicinal decoction.
Twelve months had passed, and Rin… why was she still continuing to consume this thick liquid?
A very cold snake of unease suddenly crept back and clawed at the depths of Yoriichi’s heart.
The young man tightened his jaw muscles before his lips finally released the same question.
“Rin… are you actually being gnawed by a serious illness?”
“Not at all.”
As if her ego had predicted her brother’s line of questioning from the start, Rin slowly shook her small head with an extremely calm expression without the slightest ripple of emotion.
“This herbal decoction was deliberately prepared by me for Big Brother Michikatsu’s son. The child has recently been suffering from a high fever that refuses to subside.”
“Is that so…?” Yoriichi slowly lowered his face, choosing to sink into a well of silence.
*Preparing medicine for Big Brother Michikatsu’s son…?*
Yoriichi’s logic suddenly churned violently.
Because the moment his feet had slipped through the window frame of this room earlier, his sensory instincts had already locked onto the fact that his eldest brother’s wife and child—who occupied the next room—had been fast asleep since afternoon. Read the latest chapters at g.com.
His little sister… had just uttered a naked lie right to his face.
The girl was drinking all that bitter black liquid for herself, and that destructive activity had been going on for at least a full year.
*What kind of cursed disease on this earth demands a year-long supply of medicine without ever showing even the slightest graph of improvement?*
The danger signal in Yoriichi’s chest suddenly exploded violently, clawing at his soul with terrifying intensity.
This time, his ego fiercely refused to use the stiff dialogue path again.
His right hand tightened, and instinctively, he activated the Transparent World domain, focusing all the reach of his divine vision to dissect his little sister’s anatomy.
The next second, Yoriichi’s pupils instantly shrank to the size of needles.
All the calm mask on the strongest demon slayer’s face collapsed without a trace.
His body stood up with a hard jolt, his clear eyes now wrapped in ripples of horror and overwhelming shock.
Under the transparent light that peeled back the boundaries of flesh, all the rotten secrets lurking inside Rin Tsugikuni’s body were laid completely bare without barriers.
Yoriichi could read with terrifying clarity that one of the crucial blood vessel pathways in Rin’s body responsible for pumping blood supply to the brain had undergone extreme circulatory shrinkage.
As a result of that supply failure, oxygen deficiency and acute malnutrition had triggered massive death of millions of nerve cells in her brain tissue due to bodily ischemia.
The biological damage was absolute; the entire left half of Rin’s body—from the shoulder joint, arm muscles, all the way to the tips of her toes—had completely lost motor coordination function and died.
The muscle fibers beneath her smooth skin had undergone acute atrophy, turning into clumps of slack, shrunken, and powerless flesh.
Her biological cells were slowly rotting, causing stagnant blood flow in the paralyzed area and leaving horrifying purplish bruises hidden beneath her kimono.
If his divine vision had not laid this reality bare before his eyes, Yoriichi would never have had the courage to believe that with half her body already paralyzed and dead like this, his little sister could still sit upright with perfect dignity on the stool, conversing with orderly articulation as if nothing was wrong.
“Rin… your body… how could something like this…” Yoriichi’s voice trembled violently, his tongue suddenly stiff.
This was not the first time Yoriichi’s visual senses had witnessed such a horrifying anatomical sight.
He had seen this exact biological curse once in his past.
That night… when their late mother’s physical body lay stiff on the sleeping bed of the clan.
At this moment, his little sister was carrying the death sentence of the same cursed blood disease that had taken their mother’s life.
“Big Brother… you finally chose to peek?”
Facing the overwhelming shock from the strongest demon slayer, Rin’s reaction was in an extremely contrasting pole.
Her gentle face remained undisturbed.
Using the fingers of her still normally functioning right hand, she slowly poured the remaining black medicinal soup from the clay pot into a small ceramic bowl, then let out a very quiet short sigh.
“You shouldn’t have strained your eyes to see this part, Big Brother…”
“Rin… why… why did you choose to keep your mouth tightly shut and refuse to tell me about this?!” Yoriichi’s demand was saturated with thick emotional pressure.
“Big Brother Yoriichi,” Rin slowly raised her face, throwing back an extremely quiet question while staring straight into her brother’s eyes, which were wrapped in a storm of panic.
“Then… why did you choose to stay silent and not save Mother’s life back then?”
That cold question instantly struck Yoriichi’s inner defenses until the young man froze in place.
Seeing the ripple of shock locking his brother’s body, Rin curved the corner of her lips, displaying a resigned smile heavy with apology.
“I’m sorry… my ego had no intention of casting blame on you.”
Rin lifted the warm medicine bowl with her right hand, bringing it close to her lips to gently blow on the hot steam.
Her pair of eyes appeared slightly blurred and unfocused.
“About a year ago, a few days before your first visit after more than a decade of disappearance… I had already realized that my fate might be being led to embrace the same cursed disease as Mother.”
Although she had initially chosen to be indifferent and dismiss it, the physical damage had increasingly worsened over time.
She felt it was finally time for her soul to simply accept this bleak reality.