Early in the morning, on Mt. Sagiri, Tanjirou knelt by the bed, looking at the sleeping Nezuko with a hint of worry in his eyes.
Not long after he arrived here, Nezuko, who had never eaten humans, fell into a deep sleep.
In the past six months, his teacher and Urokodaki had asked people to check on her many times.
Although the doctors all said that Nezuko was just sleeping, he was still worried to death.
What if, what if Nezuko never woke up again?
The wooden door was gently pushed open a crack, and Genya's head poked in halfway: "Hey, it's time to go."
The devilish training on Mt. Sagiri, Genya said, was a necessary path to becoming a Hashira.
The current two Water Pillars, including his teacher, and the Class A Demon Slayer Corps member Makomo, were all top talents who had endured the devilish training of Mt. Sagiri.
Now, every day, he had to follow Genya with his sword, repeating the training path that the young men of Mt. Sagiri had once walked.
Haruto would usually return to guide them after completing patrols and missions assigned by the Demon Slayer Corps; for most of the remaining time, Urokodaki guided their practice.
After patrolling his jurisdiction, Haruto returned to the mountain and happened to see Tanjirou and Genya, who had completed their first round of mountain running, standing in the clearing at the foot of the mountain, doing squats with logs on their shoulders.
"Steady your horse stance! Try hard to feel the rhythm of every muscle!"
Urokodaki put his hands behind his back, and when he swayed to Tanjirou's side, he suddenly pulled out his hand and furiously struck his abdomen: "Tighten your lower abdomen! Tighten! Pay attention to maintaining Total Concentration!"
After half a year on Mt. Sagiri, the thing that Urokodaki most criticized Tanjirou for was his terrible swordsmanship and Breathing Technique.
"Your posture, footwork, and endurance are all a mess!"
"Self-taught?! Your own teacher once practiced his Breathing Technique poorly because he taught himself!"
[Yosh! Jiraiya's Ninjutsu Class is now open!¹]
[Fan Zhu Ge: Observing in the dark. JPEG]
[Laughing to death, a bad student will only teach bad students.]
[Hey you in front, be careful or Fan Zhu Ge will flatten you with a rice ball, ouch!]
[Alas, the former bad students have all become the pillars of the Demon Slayer Corps...]
Haruto awkwardly rubbed his nose. What did they mean by 'bad student'? How could these people sending bullet comments be so impolite? There was nothing he could do about it. At that time, he, like Tanjirou six months ago, lacked professional guidance.
After dinner, Tanjirou performed the ancestral Hinokami Kagura in the clearing, while Haruto watched carefully, arms crossed.
Tanjirou had said that his father, Tanjuro, would perform this Kagura dance in the snow at the beginning of each year.
In Tanjirou's Kagura dance, Haruto saw something.
Just like the constellations that illuminated his sword moves, this Kagura dance, which honored the Hinokami, also carried the shadow of sword moves.
These sword moves were integrated into the Kagura dance, secretly passing down the Sun Breathing from generation to generation.
After performing it a few times, Tanjirou, exhausted, stopped, a look of frustration on his face.
"Father never felt tired when he danced the Kagura. Even when he was seriously ill, he could repeat these twelve movements hundreds or thousands of times in the snow, dancing from sunset on the first day until sunrise on the second day."
He lowered his head, feeling somewhat dejected by his own lack of ability.
"There must be a way." Haruto shook his head: "Perhaps it's the precision of the movements, or perhaps it's a Breathing Technique you haven't yet comprehended. In any case, there must be some way... to transform the Hinokami Kagura into Sun Breathing Techniques."
Tanjirou lay on the ground, clearing his mind, and murmured to himself: "The accuracy of the movements..."
He thought of the conversation between father and son after the New Year that year, when his father sat on the bed making straw sandals for him.
"Tanjirou, the key to mastering the Hinokami Kagura lies in the precise movements and breathing methods."
"The precision of movements and breathing methods, and using small actions to achieve great power... Once you have skillfully memorized the movements and essentials of the Hinokami Kagura, you must try to extract its essence and seal away the useless dross... After thoroughly analyzing the movements, the practitioner will enter a wondrous state..."
He looked at the sky, recalling Tanjuro's words, trying to understand what his father meant.
"...What is he talking about, entering... what state?" Haruto blinked his blue eyes, looking utterly confused.
"With a clear mind, the practitioner can clearly grasp the flow of every blood vessel in their body.
As their skill matures, the practitioner will reach a Transparent World where they can control blood and muscles..."
Tanjirou's words were obscure and difficult to understand; perhaps even he himself couldn't comprehend what he was saying.
Fortunately, the bullet comments in front of Haruto helped him greatly.
[Any class representatives? What is Tanjirou talking about?]
[Not a class representative, but I can barely explain that what Tanjirou is talking about right now is one of the three most powerful demon slayer sets in the demon slayer world: Transparent World.]
[What he calls 'sealing' and 'analyzing' and so on, is about expanding one's perception through intense concentration to reach the strongest domain of perception.]
[Once you enter the Transparent World, you can see the body structure of living beings, then analyze the structure to find their weaknesses, and even judge what moves the opponent is about to use by their blood flow and muscle movements.]
[And because perception accelerates, the enemy's movements will also slow down in your eyes... In short, it's a very powerful skill.]
[Is this describing Transparent World? Why does it sound like internal vision in cultivation to me?]
[It's confirmed, demon slayer is a cultivation novel.]
[Looking at Fan Zhu Ge's wise eyes, I bet two packs of spicy strips that he didn't understand.]
[Do you want to listen to what Tan-tan is saying? If you could understand this, it would be metaphysics, right?]
[Honestly, there are quite a few metaphysical events in demon slayer, right hhhh]
[To be honest, among the three demon slayer sets, besides the lower-level Crimson Red Blade which is relatively easy to achieve, the other two probably rely on enlightenment...]
[Activating Crimson Red Blade through strong grip and weapon collision, that's too crude...]
Haruto's heart was pounding.
Three demon slayer sets? Transparent World? Crimson Red Blade? And what was the other one?
Why had he never heard of these things before?
Just from the description in the bullet comments, he could feel how powerful this so-called "Transparent World" skill was... If the Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen could be equipped with these skills... wouldn't their combat power increase significantly?
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't utter the words "Transparent World" or "Crimson Red Blade" from his throat.
It was as if an invisible hand was gripping his neck, preventing him from speaking words he should have never heard, and should not know yet.
Just like the memory fragments generated after Haruto swallowed the Dream Stealer Drug last time, they were erased out of thin air by an invisible entity.
"It" was clearly telling Haruto that the world of demon slayer and the real world... had only briefly intersected through Haruto, and then passed each other, each heading towards a distant future where they would never meet again.