Chapter 130: First Meeting with Netero × Sun Breathing Mastered
Shinsuke's yelling nearly sprayed spit all over Roy's face.
Fortunately, Fukuda intervened in time, locking his neck in a hold. Crack. He gave Roy a quiet morning.
The short blade hung quietly on the south wall. Giyu Tomioka, Sabito, Makomo, and the others gathered around. Roy glanced at Sakonji Urokodaki. The master was busy in the kitchen as usual. Roy smiled. "It went into my dream with me."
He opened his right hand and visualized the short blade in his mind. "Come," he called softly.
Hum.
The short blade trembled. Under the shocked gazes of Giyu, Sabito, Makomo, and the others, it dissolved into specks of light, reformed, and appeared in Roy's hand. The boy caught it firmly.
"Is this some technique I do not know about?"
Everyone stared at one another in silence. In the kitchen, Urokodaki's knife paused mid-chop. He rubbed the blade, lost in thought.
Makomo was the first to recover. She stole a glance at Sabito and thought, "Senior was right. It was Eiichiro's doing."
The fox-masked boy stared at the short blade without speaking. Then Roy said softly, "Go."
The blade, as if it had a human mind and could understand speech, dissolved into specks of light in an instant and reassembled itself on the south wall, hanging itself up.
Sabito thought with emotion, "Master once said: where the blade is, there is the person. Where the blade breaks, the person falls. The realm every swordsman dreams of is 'unity of man and blade.' Has Eiichiro already reached that realm with this technique?"
Sabito turned and looked at Giyu. Giyu still wore his usual cool expression, but occasionally a glint flashed in his beautiful lake-blue eyes.
Everyone tacitly chose not to ask how Roy had done it. The only big mouth had his neck snapped and was lying on the floor.
Roy sat up in bed. He had no intention of hiding anything. With a wave of his hand, he once again gripped the short blade. This time, he used Magnetism: Attraction.
Two different methods produced two different visual effects. The boy smiled faintly and looked at Giyu. "Senior, you are heading back, are you not?"
The Demon Slayer Corps had heavy duties. If not for Roy, Giyu would not even have had the chance to come home.
"The Master approved a week's leave." The round trip alone would take five days. Staying here for two days was already the limit.
Roy nodded. "Please draw your blade, Senior."
For what? Giyu froze. Sabito, Makomo, and Fukuda looked over.
Shinsuke, who had just "died," rolled over and scrambled to his feet.
Roy smiled without saying a word. He drew his blade. The short sword trembled and was instantly cloaked in a crimson coating, transforming in a single thought from an ordinary "practice blade" into an "anti-demon treasure"—a Bright Red Blade.
"Senior said last time he wanted to see the technique for turning the blade red. Since you are leaving," Roy ran his fingers along the red blade and said freely, "I thought I might as well give you the method for the Bright Red Blade as a parting gift."
The three great buffs of Demon Slayer: the Bright Red Blade, the Demon Slayer Mark, and the See-Through World.
The See-Through World was mysterious and profound, requiring extremely high comprehension. Without certain fortuitous encounters, verbal explanation might not convey its intricacies clearly.
The Demon Slayer Mark was an advanced version of the Breathing Styles. Roy himself had not fully grasped it yet and was still learning. Naturally, he was not qualified to teach Giyu.
That left the Bright Red Blade, which could be fully mastered through training and easily taught through verbal instruction.
Giyu froze. Sabito, Makomo, and the other disciples exchanged glances, then looked at Roy with complicated expressions—admiration and conflict. They opened their mouths to tell him not to be so foolish. There was no need to casually teach his techniques to others. But then again, Giyu was not exactly "someone else."
Giyu gripped his sword hilt, torn. The heart that both wanted it and did not want to take advantage of his junior twisted into knots. Just as he did not know what to do, a weary voice drifted from the kitchen. It was Urokodaki.
"Eiichiro, you do not need to do this."
Knowledge is not lightly passed down; skills are not cheaply traded. What the Bright Red Blade meant could be seen from the centuries-long search by the swordsmith village and the emphasis placed on it by the Ubuyashiki clan.
The more precious something was, the more it should be treasured. This had nothing to do with "narrow-mindedness." It was purely the old Water Hashira offering some cautious advice based on experience.
But even if Roy did not reveal the training method for the Bright Red Blade, according to the original plot, in the next two or three years, the Hashira would gradually master it one by one. Sooner or later, it was only a matter of time.
So why not trade it for something more tangible now?
Roy smiled indifferently. "I am not giving it for free. Please report back to the Demon Slayer Corps after you return. I still have the same request: all the demon intelligence the Demon Slayer Corps has."
Eliminate evil thoroughly. Not a single drop of life energy could be wasted. That was the goal Roy had set from the start.
"It is not equal," Giyu said, looking at Roy intently. "The Bright Red Blade is more important than intelligence. I would fight for it even if you did not say anything."
"That is different. I have no habit of taking things for free."
"It is still not enough."
Giyu thought for a moment, then reached into his robes and pulled out a booklet. "This contains some of my insights from studying the Breathing Styles. Take it and read it."
Roy took it and flipped through. His gaze froze when he noticed the small characters "Total Concentration Constant." He suppressed the surge in his emotions and said, "All right."
He smiled broadly. "With this added, it is enough."
Giyu opened his mouth, then closed it. He hummed softly in agreement. Sabito and Makomo, watching nearby, both smiled with relief.
This was the best resolution. Eiichiro gained a benefit. The Demon Slayer Corps obtained the method for the Bright Red Blade. A world where only demons were hurt was achieved.
"Master, what do you think?"
"Me? No opinion."
Urokodaki turned and carried a pot of fresh fish porridge out from the kitchen, smiling warmly. "The porridge is ready. Time to eat."
Roy and Giyu exchanged glances and both smiled.
After eating porridge with Urokodaki and the other disciples, they each took their short blade and Nichirin Blade and appeared beside the waterfall.
"With the resolve to die, grip the Nichirin Blade with all your strength. Through high-speed vibration, raise the blade's temperature. When it reaches the critical point, the Bright Red Blade will activate." Roy offered a cover story. "This is a technique I discovered by chance while chopping firewood."
That simple?
"You just need to increase your grip strength and hold the Nichirin Blade tightly?" Shinsuke and Fukuda circled Roy and Giyu, finding it hard to believe.
Sabito and Makomo, as usual, found a birch tree to stand on and watched below in silence, their gazes thoughtful. Giyu gave Roy a suspicious look. Under his guidance, he drew his Nichirin Blade with a ring. He gripped it hard. The first attempt failed.
"Senior, resolve..." In the original story, Tanjiro fought Upper Moon Four, and Giyu and Obanai Iguro fought Muzan in the Infinity Castle. All of them were pushed to the brink, holding the will to die, or recalling their father Tanjuro's words about strengthening their grip, or heating the blade through friction when swords clashed.
In short, without resolve, it could not be done.
Giyu nodded. He gripped the Nichirin Blade tighter, took a deep breath, and clenched his teeth. He tore open his heart, forcing himself to relive the images of his sister Tsutako and his senior Sabito dying horribly at the hands of demons to protect him. For a moment, his eyes sharpened. He gripped the hilt with all his strength.
Whoosh. Red sparks appeared, instantly connecting into flames that wrapped around the Nichirin Blade. Giyu's second attempt at the Bright Red Blade succeeded.
"He really... succeeded? Giyu is truly a genius!"
"Is it not Eiichiro?" Fukuda shot Shinsuke a look. "He comprehended the Bright Red Blade just from chopping firewood. In your idiot hands, you probably could not figure it out even if you lived ten thousand more years."
"Are you not the same as me?"
"Who is as dumb as you!"
The bickering quickly escalated into a scuffle.
Makomo and Sabito were long used to it. They treated them like air, squinting at Giyu holding the Bright Red Blade and staring in a daze, their eyes full of envy.
"If we had met Eiichiro a few years earlier, Senior... maybe we would not have had to die."
At the very least, Makomo felt that if she had wielded a Bright Red Blade back then, even if that thing had grown several more arms to protect its neck, it absolutely could not have withstood a single strike of the Bright Red Blade.
"Unfortunately, there are no 'what ifs.'" Sabito slowly drew his katana. This blade was not a Nichirin Blade and could never become a Bright Red Blade, just as he, Makomo, Shinsuke, Fukuda, Shimizu, Watanabe, Yagiku, and the other juniors were nothing more than wandering souls.
Whoosh. A mountain breeze blew past, passing through their figures and rustling the branches.
Makomo lowered her head and asked quietly, "Senior, after Eiichiro kills that thing, will you choose to disappear?"
Without the "hatred" for that thing as an anchor... Sabito smiled freely. "Even if I do not want to disappear, I will disappear anyway."
"Are you willing, Senior?"
"What good would it do if I were not? Cry and weep?" Sabito patted Makomo's little head. "Before Eiichiro came, I only wanted revenge. Now..."
The fox-masked boy looked intently at Roy, who was beginning to study the "Stone-Blowing Method" under Giyu's guidance, and said quietly, "I also want to stay with Master and all of you a little longer."
Makomo lifted her head. Her beautiful eyes brimmed with tears. "Senior, me too."
"Me too!"
"Same here!"
"I want to stay with Master and Senior forever..."
"And Senior Sister?"
"Of course, including Senior Sister..."
"You guys..." Sabito glared at Shinsuke and Fukuda, overwhelmed with emotion, not knowing what to say.
He sheathed his blade and sighed into the wind. "So be it. I will not say those cruel things. Let us treasure each other during the time before Eiichiro leaves the mountain."
His gaze drifted downward.
By the waterfall.
Following Giyu's instructions, Roy stabbed a hole in a large bluestone with one strike, then took a deep breath and blew air into the hole. The goal: blow it apart!
This lung training method for maintaining "Constant" felt familiar. It was similar to the "Gourd Blowing" method at the Butterfly Mansion.
Giyu had named it the "Stone-Blowing Method."
By training lung capacity and increasing the lungs' tolerance for prolonged Breathing Styles, the goal was to maintain the Total Concentration Constant for twenty-four hours a day without interruption.
"Ten days." That was the goal Giyu set for Roy. Within ten days, if he could blow apart this large bluestone, by Giyu's estimate, Roy would be able to maintain the Breathing Style for half a day without breaking form.
However, "half a day" compared to Roy's previous ability to "focus for only one hour" was undoubtedly a huge leap forward.
He aimed at the small hole, took a deep breath, and blew hard!
Crack. Crack.
The bluestone trembled violently. As his cheeks puffed out and he put all his strength into it, cracks appeared. In less than two seconds, boom—it exploded!
Flying stones shot out, thud, thud, thud, piercing through tree after tree.
Giyu reacted quickly, spinning his scabbard and deflecting several more pieces. Then he looked at Roy. The boy had succeeded on his first attempt. That lung capacity and physical strength...
He wondered if the Stone Hashira, renowned for his great strength, could have done this in his early years.
[Prompt: Sun Breathing +100]
[Current Level: 583/1000 (Proficient)]
"So I just had not found the right method before." Roy received the interface prompt, and his lips curled slightly. He caught his breath and asked Giyu, "Senior, am I doing all right? Should I continue or..."
Giyu: "..."
After a long pause, he squeezed three words through his teeth. "Keep practicing."
"Then I will continue." Roy found another large bluestone, stabbed a hole with one strike, and, between breaths, blew it apart again. [Breathing +100]
Then... three, four, five... [Breathing +100... 100... 100...]
Finally... [Prompt: Current Level: 999/1000 (Proficient)]
Roy suddenly discovered that no matter how much he blew, the experience bar would not budge. He came to a realization. Perhaps he had already reached the limit of the Breathing Styles.
The next step was Total Concentration Constant.
Whoosh. He straightened his back, stopped doing futile work, and looked at Giyu with burning eyes.
The Water Hashira stood beside the waterfall, now a scene of devastation and scattered stones, his gaze slightly vacant. Then he heard the boy say, "Senior, you were right. I still need to practice."
Roy had made up his mind. He was determined to earn that last bit of experience, no matter what.
Giyu suppressed his emotions and studied him seriously for a moment. Finally, he said calmly, "All right."
"Tonight, I will personally keep watch over you."
He was determined to help the boy take that final step—to maintain the Breathing Style uninterrupted even while dreaming.
In the original story, to achieve this, Tanjiro had instructed the Butterfly Mansion's caretaker, Aoi Kanzaki, to wake him up if he stopped breathing in his sleep.
Giyu looked at the boy quietly. He must have been prepared. Just as Roy had told him, one must have resolve. Giyu would not hold back.
"Then I will trouble you, Senior." Roy smiled. He only hoped he could live up to expectations and sleep through till morning.
Fortunately—
He did.
[Prompt: Sun Breathing +10]
[Current Level: Sun Breathing: 9/10,000 (Mastered)]
[Note: Daily maintenance of Total Concentration Constant increases Constitution by 1 point per day.]
Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap, tap.
Hunter world.
Zaban City.
Five-thirty in the morning.
Roy groggily opened his eyes under Sol's relentless pecking. The first thing he received was the interface prompt.
This meant he had slept well last night and had not been beaten awake by Giyu for interrupting his breathing. "Should I call this good luck, or is luck itself a kind of strength?"
Roy grabbed Sol and placed it on his head, rolled out of bed, and, as usual, began his morning run.
Since leaving home, he had either been drifting at sea or running in the mountains. It was rare to tread on flat pavement. Roy jogged along a river in Zaban City, its surface glittering in the light. At one moment, he stopped in his tracks.
By the river, he saw an old man with a topknot, wearing loose traditional robes with flowing sleeves, seemingly admiring the scenery or waiting for someone.
The old man turned and glanced at him.
"Hohoho."
He laughed.