Rest, Bonds, and Challenges

Tanjiro carefully helped Zenitsu up. His face was covered in injuries, and he was sobbing, but he still clung tightly to the wooden box. Inosuke lay on the ground, clutching his ribs and sucking in sharp breaths of pain. Through the holes in his boar's head mask, he stared fixedly at Moyu, his gaze fierce, with shock and frustration he could barely conceal.

Moyu walked up to Inosuke and looked down at him. The coldness in his eyes faded a little, but his expression remained serious. "Your ribs are broken, and your internal organs may have been shaken up too. Can you move?"

"D-don't look down on me! These injuries are nothing! The great me..." Inosuke struggled to get up, but a searing pain in his ribs stopped him short, and he let out a muffled groan.

"Enough. Don't push yourself." Moyu cut him off and turned to Tanjiro. "Tanjiro, help Zenitsu. I'll take care of this guy. There should be a Wisteria House nearby. We'll go there for treatment and rest first."

Tanjiro nodded quickly, then looked at Inosuke's battered state with some concern. "What about Inosuke...?"

"He won't die." Moyu spoke calmly as he grabbed Inosuke by the shoulder and lifted him up. He wasn't exactly gentle, but he avoided the injured area. "Stay still if you don't want to make your injuries worse."

Inosuke seemed ready to struggle, but Moyu's uncompromising manner and the pain in his ribs made him shut his mouth for the time being. He merely grunted in defiance.

Following Tanjiro's sense of smell, the group found a residence bearing a Wisteria crest before dawn. Like the families at every Wisteria House, its owners had supported the Demon Slayer Corps for generations and received its protection. They warmly welcomed the four battered travelers.

Once they had settled in, the homeowner summoned a doctor to treat Zenitsu and Inosuke. Zenitsu had mostly superficial injuries and exhaustion, so he only needed rest. Inosuke's injuries were more serious: three ribs on his left side were broken, and he had minor internal bleeding. He needed to rest and recuperate for some time.

During the treatment, Inosuke was surprisingly quiet. He simply stared at the ceiling, his thoughts unknown. Only after the doctor had secured his ribs, left some medicine, and departed did he suddenly turn to Moyu, who was wiping his Nichirin Blade in the corner. "Hey! Blue eyes!" he said in a muffled voice. "What move did you use before? Why couldn't my blades touch you?"

Moyu didn't look up. "When you've recovered and can keep yourself from attacking your companions, I might consider telling you."

"You!" Inosuke was at a loss for words, but the movement pulled at his injuries, making him grimace in pain.

Tanjiro hurried to smooth things over. "Inosuke, it really was wrong to attack a companion." He walked over to his wooden box and gently patted it. "Also, I need to explain what's in this box to you."

Zenitsu immediately looked over, tense, and Inosuke pricked up his ears.

Tanjiro took a deep breath, his gaze turning gentle but determined. "Inside is my little sister, Nezuko."

"Your sister?!" Zenitsu and Inosuke exclaimed at the same time.

"Yes. But... she's also a Demon." Tanjiro's voice sank, filled with pain, then brightened tremendously. "But Nezuko is different! She's never hurt a human! She even protects humans! She fights alongside me, and she's my most important family!!"

With that, Tanjiro gently opened the lid of the wooden box.

Moonlight streamed through the window, illuminating the figure of a girl curled up inside. She had long black hair, fair skin, and a lovely face, with bangs covering part of her cheeks and a bamboo tube between her teeth. She appeared to be asleep, breathing steadily.

Zenitsu's eyes instantly turned into hearts. His pain and grievances from moments ago vanished, and a suspicious blush appeared on his face. "Ah... what a cute... what a beautiful girl! Tanjiro! Is this your sister? What a heart-stirring encounter! Little Nezuko! My name is Zenitsu! Please, will you..."

Before he could finish, Tanjiro held him back helplessly. "Zenitsu, Nezuko is asleep right now, and she can't talk..."

Inosuke leaned closer, his boar's head mask almost entering the box, and sniffed hard. "Hmm... she smells like a Demon, but... that's strange, there's another... smell I can't describe." He tilted his head, seemingly a little puzzled by the pure feeling about Nezuko that differed from ordinary Demons and carried a hint of Tanjiro.

"Because Nezuko is special," Tanjiro told Inosuke earnestly. "She overcame the desire to eat humans through her own will. She's my sister, and she's also a Demon we can trust. So, Inosuke, please don't hurt her."

Inosuke stared at the sleeping Nezuko for quite a while, then looked at Tanjiro's earnest face. Finally, his gaze swept over Moyu, who seemed unconcerned but whose presence had remained faintly trained on him. He snorted and turned his head away. "Since you say so, Tanjiro... and this Demon girl really doesn't look like those stinking creatures. But!" He whipped his head back around and pointed at Moyu. "Blue eyes! Once I've healed, we're fighting again! We'll settle this fair and square! And you're not allowed to use that weird power that sends people flying!"

Moyu finally glanced up at him, the corner of his mouth seeming to move almost imperceptibly. "Wait until you're healed and can take a single strike from me before you say that."

"What did you say?!" Inosuke was about to flare up again, but Tanjiro and Zenitsu quickly held him down.

The four spent the next few days recuperating at the Wisteria House. Tanjiro trained as diligently as ever while looking after Nezuko and his two injured companions. Between resting his injuries and recovering his strength, Zenitsu spent most of his time trying to get close to Nezuko's box for his one-sided "emotional exchanges." Nezuko spent most of her time asleep, and Tanjiro often dragged Zenitsu away, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Inosuke, meanwhile, was fired up. His ribs had yet to fully heal, but he was already doing recovery training in the courtyard, swinging his two newly recovered blades and occasionally glancing at Moyu, who was practicing some unusual Breathing Style alone in a clearing in the distance.

Moyu was absorbing the experience he had gained from his fight with Kyogai while trying to integrate Azure Flow Breathing more deeply with his own understanding of space and energy. He clearly remembered the Mugen Train, the Entertainment District, the Swordsmith Village, the Infinity Castle... each future opponent was more terrifying than the last, and his current strength was still far from enough.

One evening, as the sun sank in the west, Inosuke's injuries had mostly healed. Finally unable to hold back, he strode over with both blades to Moyu, who had just finished training and was regulating his breathing.

"Blue eyes! I, Inosuke Hashibira, formally challenge you!" Inosuke declared in a booming voice, brimming with fighting spirit. "No weird moves that send people flying. Just swordsmanship and Breathing Styles! Do you dare accept?"

Tanjiro and Zenitsu came running at the noise and watched with some concern. Tanjiro wanted to intervene, but when he saw the pure light in Inosuke's eyes, his desire to grow stronger and challenge the strong, he swallowed his words.

Moyu sheathed his blade and turned to face Inosuke. After several days of rest, Inosuke looked much better. The wildness in his eyes hadn't diminished, but there was less of his initial blindness and more scrutiny and focus.

"All right." Moyu nodded. "But I have a condition."

"What condition?"

"I'll fight you with sword techniques and a Breathing Style. I won't use my ability to send you flying," Moyu said calmly. "But if you lose, you must follow my tactical arrangements completely until the next mission. You must not act on your own, and you must never attack a companion again. Can you do that?"

Inosuke hesitated. He thought of the terrible state he had been in after his ribs were broken by a single kick, then looked at Moyu's unfathomable eyes. Finally, he gritted his teeth. "Fine! The great me agrees! If you lose, you have to tell me the secret of that weird move of yours and admit I'm stronger than you!"

"It's a deal."

The two stood facing each other in the center of the clearing. Tanjiro and Zenitsu watched nervously from the side. Even Nezuko had awakened at some point and poked half her head out of the box to watch curiously.

There was no referee. The moment a gust of wind swept past, stirring up a few fallen leaves—

"Boar rush—!!!"

Inosuke attacked first, his twin blades crossed like the tusks of a raging boar. With fierce Beast Breathing, he charged straight at Moyu at astonishing speed! His momentum seemed more refined than it had been at the drum mansion.

Moyu's gaze sharpened slightly, and he shifted his feet.

"Azure Flow Breathing, Second Form: Overlapping Azure Waves."

His blade gleamed like water, spreading out in layer upon layer. Rather than meeting force with force, he used exquisite arcs and precisely measured strength to deflect Inosuke's fierce slashes one after another. With every contact, Inosuke felt his strength being redirected and dispersed, as though he were striking slippery, flowing water.

"Raaah! Stop dodging!" Inosuke roared, his attacks growing wilder and fiercer. The effects of Beast Breathing made him pounce and bite like a real beast, his swordsmanship wild and full of explosive power.

Moyu, meanwhile, moved through Inosuke's furious attacks like willow fluff in the wind. The Azure Star in his hand became a murmuring stream one moment, gathered and scattered like mist the next, then suddenly accelerated like a flash of lightning. He neutralized each of Inosuke's attacks and occasionally delivered precise, dangerous counterattacks, forcing Inosuke to keep falling back on the defensive.

The battle lasted about a quarter of an hour. Inosuke's breathing grew heavy; his furious attacks had consumed a great deal of energy. Moyu, however, still breathed steadily, his Six Eyes calmly catching the slightest opening in each of Inosuke's movements.

Finally, after Inosuke thrust with both blades at once, leaving his center slightly exposed, a blue light flashed in Moyu's eyes.

"Azure Flow Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash, modified."

His blade abruptly accelerated! It wasn't a simple downward strike. In an exceedingly brief instant, the edge traced a subtle arc, passing precisely through the gap where Inosuke's blades crossed. The back of the blade lightly tapped the Tanzhong acupoint in the center of Inosuke's chest.

"Ugh!" Inosuke's whole body jolted. His forward momentum stopped dead, his blades froze in midair, and a breath caught in his chest. He staggered back several steps before regaining his footing, his face full of disbelief.

"You lost." Moyu lowered his blade, his tone calm.

Inosuke stood rooted to the spot, his expression hidden beneath the boar's head mask. He looked down at the spot on his chest where the back of the blade had struck, then at the composed Moyu, and suddenly drove both blades hard into the ground.

"Damn it... the great me... lost!" He was deeply unwilling to accept it, but he admitted it readily. "You're strong, blue eyes! I'll keep our agreement! But!" He suddenly raised his head, a fiercer flame burning in his eyes. "I'll definitely get stronger! Strong enough to beat you!"

Moyu looked at the boy, who was as straightforward and unyielding as a beast, and finally gave a slight nod. "Mm, keep at it, though the chance of you beating me is close to zero."

"You damn bastard!!!" Inosuke picked up his blades and was about to charge at him, but Tanjiro held him in a tight embrace.

"Don't be impulsive, you pig!!"