The Test!

At five thirty in the morning, dawn had yet to break.

Mount Sagiri still slumbered beneath the milky white morning mist, as though draped in a layer of gauze.

Giyu walked up to the guest room door.

He raised a hand and knocked twice on the wooden door with his knuckles.

Knock... knock!

There was no answer.

After waiting for about three breaths, he knocked again. This time he used a little more force, and the door gave a dull thud.

Still, there was silence.

Giyu gazed silently at the door.

Then he pushed it open.

Creeeak—

The sound of the wooden door sliding open was especially clear in the early morning.

The room was so sparsely furnished that it was almost empty:

Two tatami mats side by side, a small wooden table, and a crooked wardrobe.

Giyu's gaze fell on the bedding and stopped.

Kanae and Shinobu were sleeping in each other's arms.

The elder sister lay on her side, her arm naturally wrapped around her younger sister. Her long, pale-purple hair flowed across the pillow, a few strands resting against Shinobu's cheek.

Shinobu was curled up in her sister's embrace like a young animal seeking shelter, her small hand clutching Kanae's collar. Her dark-purple hair had come somewhat loose in her sleep, and a few stray strands stuck up.

The sisters' steady breaths alternated, their cheeks faintly flushed in deep sleep, their eyelashes casting delicate shadows beneath their eyes.

Before falling asleep last night, Kanae had been so nervous that she had tossed and turned, and Shinobu had secretly wiped away tears.

But now, as they slept nestled against each other, those anxieties seemed to have been soothed away for the time being.

Giyu's gaze softened for a moment, but soon returned to its usual calm.

He entered the room, stopped in front of the bedding, and spoke:

"Wake up."

His voice was quiet, but every word was clear in the silence of the early morning.

Kanae's eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly opened her eyes.

The moment she made out the figure standing before her bed, her sleepy confusion abruptly vanished—

"Ah!"

She gave a little cry and instinctively pulled the covers up, shrinking backward and waking Shinobu in her arms.

"Mmm... sis?"

Shinobu rubbed her eyes, her voice muffled. "What is it...?"

Then she saw Giyu too.

The air froze for two seconds.

"—Mr. Giyu?!"

Shinobu's voice shot up. Almost simultaneously, the sisters wrapped themselves in the covers and huddled in the corner of the bed like two startled fledglings.

Kanae's face turned bright red in an instant, even the tips of her ears flushing crimson. Shinobu buried half her face in the covers, leaving only her wide eyes visible.

Giyu watched their reaction and tilted his head slightly.

"It's time to train."

Ten minutes later, the Kocho Sisters stood in the courtyard, fully dressed. The morning mist dampened the hems of their clothes, and Shinobu couldn't help giving a little sneeze.

Giyu stood before them, his white haori fluttering gently in the cool morning breeze.

His expression was as impassive as ever, as though barging into the room and seeing the sisters asleep had been an everyday occurrence.

"Today's training,"

he began, his voice clear as a stream,

"is to run once around Mount Sagiri."

Shinobu immediately pouted:

"Hey, isn't this way too early~?"

"What... what time is it? Even the chickens aren't crowing yet..."

Kanae gave her sister's hand a gentle tug and quietly reassured her:

"Shinobu, be good~, and listen."

Giyu continued:

"You have to be back here before eight! Otherwise... no breakfast."

Shinobu's eyes widened further:

"No food?! Isn't that way too cruel?! Are you a demon, Mr. Giyu?!"

"One more thing,"

Giyu said, seemingly deaf to her protests, his ice-blue eyes fixed on the sisters.

"There are traps Sabito set along the way. If you trigger too many, you'll fail the test."

"Failing the test means you don't have what it takes to become swordsmen of the Demon Slayer Corps."

"When that happens, I'll send you away from Mount Sagiri."

That last sentence was like a bucket of ice water, dousing all of Shinobu's complaints.

Kanae's expression froze.

She tightened her grip on Shinobu's hand and felt her sister's palm turn cold and damp in an instant.

Leaving Mount Sagiri... they both knew what that meant.

It meant returning to a world where they had nowhere to go. It meant disappointing the person before them who had placed his hopes in them.

"Traps..."

Kanae tried to keep her voice steady. "What kind?"

"I don't know."

Giyu answered bluntly,

"Sabito is good with mechanisms. They're different every time! They could be ropes, pits, or something else."

He glanced at the sky. The eastern horizon was already turning pale.

"You'll have to observe, judge, and deal with them yourselves."

He gave the sisters one last look.

"Set out now!! Remember, eight o'clock."

Kanae took a deep breath. The damp, chilly morning air filled her lungs, making her a little more alert.

"Let's go, Shinobu."

"Okay!"

The sisters turned and set foot on the mountain path.

Their figures were soon swallowed by the morning mist, leaving only the sound of their footsteps fading into the distance.

Giyu stood in the courtyard, gazing in the direction the sisters had disappeared, not moving for a long time.

"Do you think they can do it, Giyu?"

Sakonji Urokodaki's voice came from behind him.

At some point, the former Water Hashira had appeared soundlessly beneath the eaves, also looking toward the mountain path.

He wore a dark-blue haori, and his gray-white hair was meticulously tied back. The Tengu Mask on his face could not hide his gravity.

Giyu did not turn around. "I don't know."

"Innate physical weakness isn't something that can be made up for through hard work later in life."

There was a barely perceptible sigh in Urokodaki's voice.

"That girl Kanae has a frame as slender as an early spring willow branch. Shinobu is even younger; her body hasn't finished growing. Are they... really suited to this path?"

The mountain wind blew through the courtyard, sweeping up a few fallen leaves.

Giyu remained silent until the leaf landed.

"They have no way back."

"Even if they hide, where can they go?"

Giyu's voice was calm.

"Demons are everywhere! If they escape today, what about tomorrow? Next month? Next year? Unless they spend their whole lives shut up inside the walls of Wisteria House, they'll run into them again sooner or later."

He paused.

"Besides, they don't want to hide either."

Urokodaki sighed.

"I understand what you mean. But Giyu, is it really right to involve two little girls in a fight to the death against demons?"

"They should have had more peaceful lives: getting married, having children, growing old in the sunlight..."

"Their peaceful lives were already taken from them by demons."

Giyu interrupted his master, a rare trace of emotion entering his voice... very slight, but unmistakably there.

"On that night in Crimson Sakura Village, their lives were left with only two choices: wait in fear for the next attack, or take up weapons and fight back."

He turned his head and looked Urokodaki straight in the eye. His ice-blue gaze was almost cruelly clear, without a trace of hesitation.

"I gave them a choice: to learn systematically how to fight back. As for whether they can keep going... let nature take its course."

"Let nature take its course..."

Urokodaki repeated the words, shaking his head with a wry smile. "You really are still so..."

Silence spread between master and disciple.

"If they don't pass the test,"

Urokodaki said at last, "let them join the Kakushi Division. It's relatively safe there, and they can still do something to help with the work of slaying demons."

Giyu did not answer.

He simply gazed at the mountain path, as though he could see through the trees to the sisters struggling to run.

Urokodaki looked at him and suddenly said with a smile:

"It seems you have high expectations for them!! In that case, why not teach them yourself? Your strength surpassed mine long ago. You're more than qualified to take on Tsuguko."

It was true.

Hashira taking on Tsuguko to train the next generation was a tradition the Demon Slayer Corps had maintained for a hundred years. With Giyu's current strength and standing, it would be perfectly reasonable for him to take on one or two Tsuguko.

But Giyu shook his head.

"I don't know how to teach people."

His honesty was almost awkward.

"I don't know how to teach someone else a Breathing Style, how to arrange their training, or how to point out their mistakes. I can only train on my own and figure things out for myself."

He paused, then added:

"Besides, I don't know any other Cultivators. I can only ask you, Master. Sorry for the trouble."

Urokodaki: "..."

After a long moment, Urokodaki waved a hand, giving up on the subject.

"...Never mind."

"They need a nutritious breakfast. Go hunt me a wild boar. Be quick; they'll be starving when they finish their run."

"All right."

Giyu answered, and then—

His figure vanished.

The white figure that had been standing there one moment was gone without a trace the next. Only the morning breeze swept across the empty courtyard, stirring a few fallen leaves on the ground.

Urokodaki's pupils contracted slightly beneath his mask.

Even with the eyesight he had as a former Water Hashira, he had only caught a fleeting afterimage!

"That boy..."

Urokodaki murmured, shaking his head, though the corners of his mouth could not help turning upward.

"Really..."

He truly made his master both proud and worried.