The Growth of the Azure Eyes, Blue

The seventh rock exploded into powder before Moyu.

It had not been cut open or split apart, but pulverized completely. Powder drifted on the mountain wind like a snowfall of stone dust.

Moyu knelt on one knee, his Nichirin Blade buried deep in the ground to support his swaying body. Blood streamed from his nostrils and the corners of his eyes, drawing vivid red streaks across his pale face. The Six Eyes were still active, but his vision was full of snowlike static, and every heartbeat felt like a bell tolling inside his skull.

Another failure.

This was his seventh day trying to create the Third Style, and the seventh time he had lost control. He wanted a move that could "grow" and "adapt," yet it kept collapsing while he was still constructing its energy framework. His breathing Cursed Energy seemed to have a will of its own, refusing to be confined within a fixed framework.

"That's enough for today."

Urokodaki's voice came from behind him. Moyu managed to look up and saw his teacher standing nearby. The Tengu Mask concealed his expression, but his tone was unusually grave.

"Your eyes... are almost at their limit."

Moyu tried to speak, but coughed up a mouthful of bloody foam. He had felt it too—the Six Eyes were undergoing some kind of change, like a vessel trembling as it neared capacity. A month of training, fighting, and creating had given the Six Eyes too much "experience." They were about to grow.

"Go back and rest," Urokodaki said, leaving no room for argument. "We'll suspend training tomorrow. You need to get yourself back in shape."

Moyu did not argue. He knew Urokodaki was right. Forcing himself to train while the Six Eyes were unstable would only be counterproductive.

That night, Mount Sagiri was unusually devoid of moonlight. Dark clouds covered the sky, and mountain rain was on its way.

Moyu lay in the cabin, unable to sleep. Even with the Six Eyes shut off, he continued to receive information: the minute distortions in the cabin's structure, Tanjiro's breathing as he tossed and turned next door, Nezuko shifting slightly in her wooden box, the heartbeats of nocturnal animals in the distant mountain forest...

It was too much. Information poured in like a tide, impossible to block or filter.

He sat up and tried to use his breathing Cursed Energy to calm the chaos. But the energy itself was restless, and fragments of his unrealized ideas for the Third Style rampaged through the flow like beasts trapped in a maze.

He had to do something.

Moyu put on his outer clothes and quietly left the cabin. The mountain wind was bitter, making him shiver. He headed for the waterfall on the mountain behind the cabin—the sound of the water could drown out the other noises, and perhaps calm the Six Eyes a little.

But he was wrong.

Before the waterfall, the Six Eyes grew even more excited. They began analyzing every detail: the trajectory of every droplet, the frequency of the vibrations produced when the water struck the rocks, the angle at which light refracted through the mist... The amount of information increased exponentially.

His headache worsened. Moyu clutched his head and knelt by the stream. His vision began to distort as reality overlapped with the layers of data analyzed by the Six Eyes. He could no longer tell which was real.

"Moyu?"

Tanjiro's voice came from behind him. He had clearly been startled awake and had run out wearing only a single layer. "Are you all right? I smelled... pain and confusion."

Moyu tried to answer, but could not speak. The Six Eyes suddenly locked onto Tanjiro and began analyzing him frantically—his muscle structure, blood flow, breathing rhythm, and the path of the nascent Sun Breathing energy through his body...

"Don't look..." Moyu said hoarsely. "Tanjiro... don't look into my eyes..."

But the warning came too late. Tanjiro had already met Moyu's gaze, and his whole body froze.

To Tanjiro, Moyu's eyes had become two azure vortices, as though they meant to draw in his soul. More frightening still, he felt that everything about him had been seen through, from his outward appearance to his deepest secrets, with nothing missed.

"Moyu! Your eyes are bleeding!"

Tanjiro rushed forward to support him, but the instant he touched Moyu's shoulder, an invisible force flung him away.

Limitless had activated automatically.

It was not the passive effect that kept things near yet infinitely far apart, but active repulsion—the overloaded Six Eyes were instinctively repelling everything that approached.

Tanjiro fell to the ground and stared in shock as the air around Moyu distorted. It was not wind. Space itself was stretching and folding.

"I... can't control it..." Moyu said through clenched teeth, each word seeming to be forced out between them. "Go... Tanjiro... get away from me..."

Just then, the growth of the Six Eyes passed a critical point.

The world stood still.

No, it had not stopped—Moyu's perception had accelerated to its limit. Water droplets from the waterfall hung motionless in midair, the wind stopped flowing, and Tanjiro's fall played out in slow motion.

Then he "saw" it.

Not with his eyes, but with some deeper form of perception. He saw the "structure" of space, just as he had seen the molecular structure of rocks before. But this time it was grander, more fundamental.

Space was not an empty void. It had "density," "tension," and "nodes" that could be manipulated. And Limitless, one of the abilities of the Six Eyes, was essentially the manipulation of those spatial nodes.

Information flooded into the depths of his consciousness, all of it concerning the principles behind Blue—

Compressing the space between two points infinitely to create a "negative infinity" singularity that attracted everything.

So that's it. The passive defense he had relied on all this time was only the crudest application of Limitless. The true Blue interfered with the laws of space.

But Moyu immediately realized the problem: his body and energy reserves were nowhere near enough to support an operation of that level. If he forced it, he would only drain his life force.

Unless...

Unless he used breathing Cursed Energy as a medium and the energy of a Breathing Style to drive the compression of space.

The thought was like Pandora's box: once opened, it could never be closed again. Moyu's body moved before he could think. He raised his right hand, and the Six Eyes automatically locked onto a spatial node three meters ahead.

Breathing Cursed Energy gathered from throughout his body into his palm, but this time it was not for an attack. It was to "construct"—to construct a temporary, miniature framework for manipulating space.

"Blue—"

He instinctively spoke its name.

The air in front of his palm began to twist and contract. A small black sphere appeared, no bigger than a marble, yet it radiated a frightening pull. Fallen leaves, droplets of water, and even light began collapsing toward it.

The consumption was terrifying. Moyu felt as if all the blood in his body were flowing backward, his life force being frantically drained. He wanted to stop, but the Six Eyes and his breathing Cursed Energy had already begun operating on their own. He could not stop them.

The black sphere expanded, its pull growing stronger. The waterfall began to veer off course, bending toward it.

"Moyu! Stop!"

Urokodaki's voice exploded like thunder. The former Water Hashira had appeared at the edge of the clearing at some unknown point, his Nichirin Blade already drawn. He could feel how terrifying that power was—it was not a slash or destruction, but the collapse of space.

But Moyu could not hear him. His consciousness was sinking into an azure abyss, where there was endless knowledge, and endless danger.

Just as the black sphere grew to the size of a fist and was about to spiral out of control—

A gentle embrace came from behind.

Makomo's spirit wrapped her arms around Moyu.

"Wake up," she said softly, her voice reaching Moyu's consciousness directly. "Your power isn't meant for destruction. Look around you. Look at Tanjiro. You have things to protect, don't you?"

A spirit had no body heat, but Moyu felt a cool energy flow into him, counteracting the overload of the Six Eyes. It was the "thought" of a spirit, pure Mental Energy transformed from an unwavering attachment.

Tanjiro also got to his feet and, ignoring the repulsive field, walked toward Moyu step by step. "Moyu! Come back! You're not alone!"

His voice carried the burning will of nascent Sun Breathing, like sunlight piercing dark clouds.

Sabito appeared on the other side and pressed both hands onto Moyu's shoulders. "Control it. It's your power. You're in charge."

Three voices, three kinds of power—the spirit's coolness, the sun's heat, and the senior's resolve—pulled Moyu back from the edge of the abyss.

He opened his eyes, and the frenzied light in his azure pupils gradually subsided.

"Withdraw."

That single word took all his will.

The black sphere began to shrink and dissipate. Space returned to normal, and the objects it had pulled up clattered to the ground.

Moyu collapsed, gasping for breath. The Six Eyes shut off automatically, and the world finally returned to normal.

"You..." Urokodaki walked up to him, his voice coming from beneath the Tengu Mask, full of complicated emotion. "What... was that just now?"

"One of the Six Eyes' true abilities," Moyu said weakly. "I almost... lost control."

Tanjiro helped Moyu up and looked worriedly at his pale face. "Your eyes... the color's gotten darker."

Moyu stared, then asked Tanjiro to bring him a water jug. Looking at his reflection in the water, he saw that his eyes had indeed changed—from pale azure to a blue as deep as the sea, with faint, tiny points of starlight drifting around his pupils.

The Six Eyes had evolved.

[**Ding!** Six Eyes growth stage breakthrough: infancy → growth stage]

[Abilities unlocked: spatial structure perception (beginner), Limitless: Blue (nascent)]

[Side effect: risk of information overload increased by 30%. Daily mental strength training required to maintain balance]

[Reward: coins ×1,000. Special exchange item unlocked: Mental Strength Meditation Method]

The system notifications rang out in his mind, but Moyu had no time to examine them closely. He felt utterly drained, and even moving a finger was difficult.

Urokodaki was silent for a long time before he said, "Go back and rest first. Tomorrow... no, don't train for three days. You need to adjust to your new condition."

Back at the cabin, Tanjiro insisted on taking care of Moyu. He brought hot water, helped wipe the blood from Moyu's face, and made herbal soup.

"Tanjiro, thank you," Moyu said softly, leaning against the wall. "And Miss Makomo, Mr. Sabito... without you, I might have already..."

"We're companions," Tanjiro said earnestly. "Besides, Moyu has been helping me all along too. Without your guidance, I might not even have reached the threshold of Sun Breathing yet."

Moyu smiled and closed his eyes. He began examining the state of his body. After the Six Eyes evolved, his breathing Cursed Energy had changed too—it was more "obedient," as though tempered under immense pressure, with distracting thoughts removed until only its purest essence remained.

He also had a new direction for his ideas about the Third Style.

Since breathing Cursed Energy rejected a fixed framework, he would not impose one. Since the Six Eyes could perceive spatial structure, he would use space itself as the framework.

A bold idea gradually took shape: create a "living" move that would automatically adjust its form and effects according to the enemy's characteristics, the battle environment, and even Moyu's own condition.

Rather than him using the move, the move would work with him.

But how could he achieve it? It required precise control and immense computational power, and the evolved Six Eyes happened to possess both.

The next day, Moyu did not go out. He sat in his room and began a long meditation. He was not cultivating a Breathing Style, but sorting through the knowledge the Six Eyes had newly acquired, especially the parts concerning spatial structure.

On the third day, he tried to reconstruct the way his breathing Cursed Energy circulated. Rather than circulating along fixed meridians, it would form a "networked" energy system—each node a miniature computational unit capable of operating independently or working in coordination with the others.

Early on the fourth morning, Moyu stepped out of the cabin. His eyes had already adjusted to their new state. Their deep-sea blue had settled, and there were no longer any signs of them going out of control.

Urokodaki and Tanjiro were already waiting at the training ground. A new rock stood before Tanjiro—this was his ninth attempt to cut one.

"Begin," Urokodaki said.

Tanjiro nodded and gripped his sword in both hands. This time, his opening stance was not from any form of Water Breathing, but the starting posture of a kagura dance.

His breathing changed, and the surrounding temperature began to rise.

The wooden sword swept down, blazing with scorching flames. They were not illusory light and shadow, but real flames that made the air warp with heat.

The blade cut into the rock like a hot knife through butter. The rock parted cleanly along the cut, its surface charred black and giving off the smell of something scorched by intense heat.

Tanjiro froze, looking at his hands, then at the flames slowly dying out on the sword.

"I... I did it?"

"You did," Urokodaki said, walking up to the split rock. "It's still very rough, but this is indeed the nascent form of Sun Breathing."

Tanjiro's eyes reddened. He turned toward the cabin and shouted to Nezuko in her box, "Nezuko! Did you see that? I did it!"

Moyu walked over, applauding. "Congratulations, Tanjiro."

"Moyu!" Tanjiro ran over. "How are you feeling?"

"I've recovered," Moyu said with a smile. Then he looked at Urokodaki. "Teacher, I'd like to continue developing the Third Style. This time... I shouldn't lose control."

Urokodaki studied him for a moment, then nodded. "Go ahead."

Moyu walked to the center of the training ground. Instead of choosing a rock as his target, he casually picked up a fallen leaf.

"The Third Style doesn't need great destructive power," he said. "What it needs is... adaptability."

He tossed the leaf into the air and placed his right hand on the hilt of his Nichirin Blade.

The Six Eyes opened, and spatial structure perception activated. The leaf's trajectory, air resistance, the effect of gravity—all the data was calculated in an instant.

Breathing Cursed Energy flowed through the networked system in his body, every node making minute adjustments.

He drew his blade.

There was no dazzling light, no astonishing display. The blade merely brushed through the air, yet its trajectory was eerily elusive—it seemed to exist in several places at once, leaving a trail of afterimages.

The blade touched the fallen leaf, but did not cut it apart. Instead... it changed shape.

It went from a withered leaf to a butterfly. A butterfly folded from paper, yet so lifelike that it even fluttered its wings in the air.

Tanjiro's eyes widened. "Th-this is..."

"Zero Form, Third Style—" Moyu sheathed his blade, and the paper butterfly slowly settled on his palm. "—Myriad Forms Mimicry."

He explained, "The principle behind this technique isn't attack, but 'reconstruction.' The Six Eyes analyze the target's composition, and breathing Cursed Energy manipulates it on a microscopic level, changing its form and properties. A fallen leaf can become a butterfly, water can become ice, a rock can become sand... In theory, as long as the analysis is complete and there's enough energy, it can mimic any form."

"And the consumption?" Urokodaki asked, getting straight to the point.

"Very low," Moyu said. "Because it's not a confrontation, but guidance. Like giving a domino a gentle push to knock the others down, it uses finesse rather than brute force. Of course, if the target is too large or too complex, the consumption will rise dramatically."

Urokodaki was silent for a long time, so long that Moyu thought he had messed up again.

"The three techniques now form a complete system," the former Water Hashira finally said. "Zero Form's first technique, 'Vortex Slash,' is for attack; the Second Style, 'Mirror Dissection,' is for control; and the Third Style, 'Myriad Forms Mimicry,' is for transformation. Attack, control, and transformation form a trinity, a self-contained cycle. Your unique Breathing Style... is complete."

[**Ding!** Exclusive quest completed: create a unique Breathing Style]

[Zero Form's three-technique system established. Named "Azure Flow Breathing"]

[Effect: combines the fluidity of Water Breathing with the precision of the Six Eyes. Can freely switch forms to suit the demands of battle]

[Final rewards: coins ×2,000, intermediate exchange section fully unlocked, special reward: Ability Fusion Ticket ×1]

The system notification brought the long journey of creation to an end. Moyu took a deep breath and looked at his palm. A brand-new future was reflected in his azure pupils.

In the distance, the spirits of Sabito and Makomo stood side by side, watching the boys in the training ground.