"Forget it, let's go. We've been chasing this Demon all night, and we've ended up in the territory managed by Giyu and Kyojuro. Let's find a nearby Fujiaya to rest. Today is the summer solstice, so there should be a summer festival in town this afternoon to worship Amaterasu Omikami. It'll be a good chance to relax."
Kocho Shinobu stretched, revealing her small yet shapely figure beneath her butterfly haori.
"The territory managed by Giyu and Kyojuro… no wonder this place feels a bit familiar."
And the date today…
The summer solstice…
The time of year when the sun is strongest.
For some reason, an unexplainable feeling subtly arose in Qingshui's heart.
If the Blue Spider Lily were to bloom, it would be at a time like this, when the yang energy is at its peak.
Qingshui looked around, then chose a direction and began to walk.
Kocho Shinobu quickly followed when she saw him.
They walked briskly, soon crossing an open field and arriving near a small, somewhat dilapidated hut.
"That must be Tanjiro's house, right?"
Kocho Shinobu said, looking at the worn-out hut.
Qingshui, however, was muttering the directions he'd gotten from Tanjiro.
"It should be east from here, then you'll find a small stream. North of the stream, there's a hillside, on the south side of the mountain…"
"What are you mumbling about?"
"The location of the flower."
"Flower?"
Kocho Shinobu asked curiously.
Qingshui knew Kocho Shinobu would surely follow, so he explained, "Tanjiro told me that near his house, there's a hillside where a beautiful flower occasionally blooms. I want to pick some."
Kocho Shinobu tilted her head, watching Qingshui walk ahead, and suddenly blushed.
Many people like flowers, even many men.
Kocho Shinobu's older sister, Kocho Kanae, the former Flower Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, was a lover of flowers and had cultivated many in the Butterfly Mansion.
Kocho Shinobu often tended to those flowers herself, to commemorate her deceased sister.
But Qingshui was clearly not among them.
In his year in the Demon Slayer Corps, Qingshui had never raised flowers.
Which meant…
This flower, could it be for me…?
Kocho Shinobu felt her heart race. She watched Qingshui's retreating figure and hurried to catch up.
Qingshui was fast, so fast that Kocho Shinobu nearly lost him.
And when she found Qingshui, it was exactly when the golden sun had fully emerged from the distant mountains.
The bright sunlight shone on the young man's sharply defined face as he held a slender blue petal in his mouth, gazing at the sparsely blooming blue flowers.
The Blue Spider Lily, he had finally found it.
A smile appeared on Qingshui's face as he savored the hint of sweetness from the fragrance of the flower in his mouth.
He had previously hired many herb gatherers, and they had dug up every edible plant near this hillside, leaving the ground pockmarked.
However, the Blue Spider Lily, before it bloomed, probably wasn't considered an edible wild vegetable by those herb gatherers, so they hadn't dug it up.
Because, according to common knowledge, the entire plant of the spider lily is poisonous. Even if those herb gatherers saw the leaves of the Blue Spider Lily before it bloomed, they probably wouldn't pick it as food.
Only Kie Kamado, Tanjiro's mother, having lived in this vicinity for a long time, truly knew what was edible.
(Some comments mentioned that in the original work, the Kamado family never encountered the Blue Spider Lily, implying I'm treating fanon as canon. Here, I'm including content from Crocodile-sensei's setting guide to avoid further arguments. This paragraph is not included in the paid word count.)
The taste wasn't bad.
Qingshui carefully dug out a Blue Spider Lily, roots and all, with some soil attached.
Kocho Shinobu walked up to Qingshui, her expression a little strange.
"Um… Qingshui, have you never given flowers to a girl before?"
"Huh? How did you know?"
Qingshui thought back and realized it was true.
No matter which world he was in, he seemed to have never given flowers to a girl.
When I have time, should my main body find a mission to the Land of Rivers and buy a bouquet to bring back for Pakura?
Kocho Shinobu had no idea Qingshui was thinking about another woman at that moment. She said, "Of course! I've never heard of anyone giving flowers to a girl with the bare roots and soil still attached."
When did I say I was giving you flowers?
Before Qingshui could react, Kocho Shinobu naturally took the Blue Spider Lily from his hand and inhaled its faint fragrance deeply.
"Oh my, oh my, it's a type I've never seen before. It must be a very rare flower, right?"
"It is very rare. Some people have spent their entire lives searching for this flower and never found it. I heard Tanjiro mention before that this kind of flower bloomed near his home, so I came to try my luck this time, and I actually found it."
Kocho Shinobu held the blue flower, standing amidst the blossoms. Bathed in sunlight and framed by her butterfly haori, she truly looked like a colorful butterfly flitting among the flowers.
"It's good that the roots are still intact. I'll take care of this flower from now on. My sister also loved growing flowers when she was here, and I learned how to care for various flowers by watching her."
"Judging by its form, this flower should be like the Spider Lily, a herbaceous plant of the same family. It should be cultivated in slightly acidic soil. Oh, right, blue… Spider Lilies are poisonous. Is this flower…?"
Qingshui waved his hand.
"It's fine. I asked Tanjiro, and this flower is non-toxic, and it even tastes pretty good."
Qingshui looked at Kocho Shinobu and thought for a moment.
He didn't really know how to grow flowers anyway. Since Kocho Shinobu knew how, he might as well let her do it.
However, he remembered that cultivating the Blue Spider Lily was very troublesome.
In the original timeline, decades later in the 21st century, Hashibira Inosuke's descendant, Hashibira Aoba, made headlines for discovering this flower. But due to Crystal accidentally forgetting to change the power supply for the fluorescent lights, all the flowers withered.
Fluorescent lights…
Qingshui looked at the basket on his back and said to Kocho Shinobu:
"Let's pick all the flowers here. We might as well take some of the soil back too, so it'll be easier to cultivate."
Kocho Shinobu blinked and agreed.
Qingshui took off his basket, first pulling out the Puppet Armor from inside, then some tools for repairing puppets, and began to dig.
Kocho Shinobu helplessly covered her forehead.
Giving a girl flowers… you're really not supposed to do it like this, are you?
The two were busy until noon before descending the mountain. In between, Qingshui made an extra trip to the town at the foot of the mountain, buying a carriage and a pile of vases to bring up the mountain. He placed the flowers in the vases and delivered the items to Fujiaya in town.
At Fujiaya, Tanjiro, who had just passed the Final Selection at Mount Fujikasane, had also arrived.
In the original timeline, Tanjiro trained with the former Water Hashira, Urokodaki Sakonji.
Because all but Tomioka Giyuu among his previous disciples had died during the selection, Urokodaki Sakonji, worried about Tanjiro, required him to split a giant boulder before allowing him to proceed.
It took Tanjiro two years.
But now, things were different.
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