"Super high burst speed…"
"Coupled with slashes like flowing light…"
"The damage caused is several times that of Tear of Light…"
"But it causes severe damage to the ankle joints… Don't just nod, do you understand?"
Tanjirou's round eyes stared, and he shook his head firmly.
"…Waste of time." Genya scoffed and turned his head away: "This idiot."
"You're an idiot too." Haruto pulled out a bag of konpeito from his pocket and placed it in Nezuko's palm: "How can he understand by just repeating it! I'll teach him this move sooner or later… But you, Genya! Why did you turn into a demon behind Peach Mountain? And you scared Zenitsu unconscious?
It made it so I couldn't properly say goodbye to Mr. Kuwajima, and I had to hastily hand Zenitsu over to him and run away in embarrassment…"
Genya's expression suddenly became unnatural: "I just… happened to drop the medicine into my mouth when I fell."
"Perhaps, could you find a worse excuse?"
"Sorry, I wanted to give that green-eyed kid a good beating, but I didn't expect to not see him and instead scare Zenitsu." Genya mumbled, lowering his head.
"Didn't you already have the upper hand? Why do you still want to bother him?" Haruto frowned slightly: "I saw it clearly when you pointed a gun at his head."
Genya blinked: "Teacher, this is our own business, adults shouldn't meddle."
"Tch…" Haruto didn't expect him to say such a thing: "Even if you don't say it, I know. It's nothing more than Kaigaku bullying Zenitsu, and you want to stand up for him!"
"I don't want to stand up for him! I'm not even familiar with him, why would I stand up for that wimp?!"
Genya got anxious and argued loudly: "It's just that during training he curses Zenitsu every day, and I can't stand being annoyed by it anymore… What does their master-disciple business have to do with an outsider like me!"
"Hmph hmph." Haruto hummed and raised an eyebrow: "If you want to beat him, you'll have to seize the opportunity, because once you all join the Demon Slayer Corps, you'll be comrades, and private fights between comrades are forbidden."
"…Can I also join the Demon Slayer Corps?" Genya was stunned: "I mean… I don't know Breathing Technique."
"This is the Demon Slayer Corps, not the Breathing Technique Corps, nor the Breathing Technique Demon Slayer Corps, nor a corps where you must know Breathing Technique to slay demons…"
Haruto rambled on, then looked at his disciple's blank stare and nodded with a chuckle: "Of course you can."
Genya stood in place, clenching his fists, a flush spreading across his cheeks.
Tanjirou sniffed: "Hmm… it's the smell of joy…"
"Ah, joy mixed with some anger."
"The anger is getting stronger."
"Furious."
Genya roared: "Iron-headed kid!"
Tanjirou tilted his head slightly and smiled faintly: "Indeed, Genya is still a child."
"Are you much older than me?!"
"Speaking of which," Haruto pointed to Tanjirou's earlobes: "Isn't Tanjirou wearing those paper earrings today?"
Tanjirou's earlobes were bare. He reached up to touch them before belatedly replying: "Ah, that's right, my earlobes were really itchy when I woke up this morning, so I took them off."
"Where did those earrings come from? I've seen ones exactly like them."
"Eh? Really?"
Tanjirou got up and went inside to retrieve the earrings, placing them in Haruto's palm.
Haruto picked up the earrings and examined them carefully against the sun.
Sure enough, they were identical to the earrings on the yoriichi zero automaton at Kotetsu's house.
"That's right, that's a swordsman model left over from the Sengoku period, and it has a pair of earrings like these on its ears.
Some say he was the strongest swordsman from ancient times to the present, mastering the strongest Breathing Technique in history. Tanjirou, do you understand what I mean?"
Tanjirou stared blankly at the earrings: "These were… given to me by my father a long time ago, and he told me to pass them down forever."
"Your father?" Haruto suddenly thought of something. Something he used to find quite odd now seemed to hold a different meaning: "Was your father a Demon Slayer Swordsmen?"
"…No, just a charcoal seller." Tanjirou shook his head blankly.
"Was it a sudden death?"
"He died of illness."
"No." Haruto raised a finger: "I remember you once mentioned that not long before he passed away, he killed a man-bear—is that right?"
A charcoal seller who died of illness, killing a man-bear.
Haruto couldn't connect the two.
Now, even Tanjirou himself was lost in thought.
"Ding! Main storyline triggered… Reward obtained: A memory of Tanjirou!"
"Fan Zhu Ge has a really good memory. I searched for a long time and found that Tanjirou only mentioned this casually when he first met Fan Zhu Ge."
"I thought Tanjirou was getting a rags-to-riches script, but it turns out to be the Dragon King returning, hahaha."
Under Haruto's gaze, Tanjirou began: "My father…"
"It's a bench."
"It's the district chief."
"Memories! No ruining the atmosphere!"
Haruto ignored the playful comments and focused on Tanjirou's memory.
He mentioned his father, Kamado Tanjuro, who was a very quiet person but always watched his children gently.
Kamado Tanjuro had a small Mark on the same spot on his forehead as Tanjirou, but Tanjirou's Mark was from a hot water burn, while Tanjuro's seemed to be natural.
Tanjirou still clearly remembered his father's appearance. He traced it in the air with his fingers, and the children leaned close to him, as if their father had really returned.
"He slew a giant bear in a snowy night, and on cold nights, he danced Hinokami Kagura around a bonfire…"
He murmured to himself: "Hinokami Kagura… I should have thought of it sooner!"
Light shone in Tanjirou's red eyes. He looked at Haruto and said loudly: "I remember! Hinokami Kagura!"
What is that?
As if he heard Haruto's confused thoughts, Tanjirou immediately followed up: "That is the Kagura dance passed down through the Kamado Family for generations. It is performed once every New Year, from sunset to sunrise!"
"Kagura dance?" Haruto wasn't hearing this word for the first time. Godou River had once performed such a dance for the forging furnace, but that was a long time ago.
"Because our family is involved in a fire-related profession, to pray to the fire god for peace and happiness, my sick father would perform that Kagura dance once every year."
Memories flooded his mind, and Tanjirou's thoughts became much clearer. He no longer hesitated when speaking.
"I once asked my father why, despite being sick, he could still dance for so long in the cold."
Tanjirou looked at Haruto and answered with certainty: "I remember very clearly—my father's answer at the time."
'Tanjirou, that is because of the profound secret of the Breathing Technique.'
'Mastering this Breathing Technique allows you to move without getting tired, no matter how much you exert yourself. Naturally, you can dance from dusk till dawn.'
It was also at that time that Tanjuro very earnestly said those words to young Tanjirou.
'Tanjirou, promise your father.'
'You must pass down these earrings and the Kagura dance forever.'