Shinobu's "Secret" Medicinal Brew: The Great Test!

The wooden corridor Dojo was warm and cozy from the sun.

Giyu sat cross-legged with his eyes closed.

Suddenly, a smiling head peeked out from behind a pillar.

"Mr. Giyu ~"

Shinobu Kocho's voice is very sweet, with a long, drawn-out ending.

She wore a plain white dress today, with the cuffs tied with thin rope, revealing her two fair and delicate arms.

Her hair was tied into a low ponytail at the back of her head, adorned with a small Wisteria hair clip that swayed back and forth.

Giyu lifted his eyelids slightly.

"Um."

"Meditating? How diligent!"

Ren skipped over carrying a wooden tray, her skirt billowing in a small arc.

There is a ceramic bowl on the tray.

The bowl contained a thick, black liquid; it looked strange.

Giyu's nose twitched.

Bitter!

There's also a flavor that's hard to describe!

His back shifted back half an inch imperceptibly.

Ren pretended not to see his little trick and smiled as she placed the tray beside him.

"Please do me a favor, Mr. Giyu ~"

"..."

Giyu's gaze fell on the bowl.

"What medicine?"

"It's good stuff!"

Ren squatted down, rested her chin on her hands, and her eyes curved into crescent moons.

"I've been researching this for almost half a month! I used Wisteria extract, five-year-old ginseng, and fritillaria and licorice... Hmm, all of these are herbs beneficial to Breathing Style!"

She spoke very sincerely.

If you could ignore the bitter smell emanating from that bowl of food, which was almost enough to choke you.

Giyu didn't say anything, just silently looked at her.

Those blue eyes held no emotion, but Ren felt as if he were asking: Do you think I'm a fool?

Really?!

Shinobu leaned forward, lowered her voice, and spoke with a mischievous glint in her eyes, like a child sharing a secret.

"And what's more, I added something special... a bit of 'Breathing Grass' that I separated from the medicinal herbs that Urokodaki dried. It's said to temporarily boost lung activity!"

Breathing Grass, Giyu knows.

Rare medicinal herbs are sometimes used by Cultivators to help their disciples break through to higher levels.

But he saw the batch that Master Urokodaki was drying when he passed by yesterday.

It was labeled "Experimental sample, results undetermined".

Seeing that Giyu remained unmoved, he blinked briefly, then suddenly changed his expression.

"Mr. Giyu."

Her voice lowered further, almost a whisper.

"If you don't drink it, I'll tell my sister that you stole the sakura mochi she left in the kitchen yesterday."

Giyu's body stiffened.

He did eat it.

I was starving after training, and as I passed by the kitchen, I saw a plate of pink cherry blossom cakes garnished with salted cherry leaves. I couldn't resist and took three.

They thought no one saw it.

At that time, Kanae was instructing Shinobu on footwork at the Dojo, Urokodaki was in the back mountain.

How did this little girl know?

Giyu looked into Giyuu's eyes, which finally showed signs of emotion, and smiled.

She stretched out her finger and pushed the ceramic bowl towards him, a gesture that brooked no refusal.

The setting sun cast its rays, giving the rim of the bowl a golden edge.

The black medicinal liquid had an eerie, oily sheen.

Giyu stared at the bowl of medicine, remaining silent for three seconds.

Then reach out and pick it up.

The movements were steady, without any trembling.

He didn't even smell it again, raised the bowl to his lips, and tilted his head back.

"Gulp."

Adam's apple bobbed.

After taking the first bite, Giyu's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, then relaxed.

He closed his eyes and swallowed quickly and decisively; he wasn't drinking medicine, but plain water.

"Glug, glug."

His Adam's apple bobbed twice more.

The bowl is empty.

Giyu put down his bowl, his lips pressed into a straight line.

He remained expressionless throughout, and his breathing rate didn't change at all.

Ren stared wide-eyed, mouth agape, completely stunned.

She just wanted to tease him!

She tasted a tiny bit of the medicine yesterday, just the size of a fingernail, and it was so bitter that she had to drink three cups of honey water.

So today she deliberately filled the bowl to the brim, hoping to see a pained expression on his perpetually unchanging face.

So he just drank it like that?

Did you drink it all?

Without changing expression?

Shinobu stared at the empty bowl, then looked up at Giyu's calm face, her mind filled with questions.

Could I have remembered it wrong?

This medicine isn't actually bitter?

Her curiosity was itching to get out of her.

She hesitated for a moment, then extended her index finger and carefully probed into the bottom of the bowl.

There were still some dregs of medicine left there.

My fingertips were covered in a thick, black liquid.

She brought it to her nose and smelled it.

Hmm, it still smells like that stuff that kills mosquitoes.

Ren wrinkled his nose and glanced at Giyu again.

The latter closed his eyes again, as if nothing had happened.

"Is it really not bitter?"

She muttered to herself, gritted her teeth, and put the fingertip covered in medicine residue into her mouth.

In an instant, the world collapsed.

Bitter.

An indescribable bitterness exploded on the tip of my tongue, burning my throat and rushing straight to my head.

"Vomit--!"

Ren's face instantly contorted in anger.

She jumped up suddenly, rushed to the water vat by the corridor, scooped up a ladle of water and poured it into her mouth, gulping it down four or five times.

When she turned around, her eyes brimming with tears, Giyu had already opened them.

There was a silent emotion in those blue eyes.

"You..."

Ren's voice was trembling with tears as she pointed to the empty bowl.

"How could you drink such bitter stuff all of it without even turning pale?!"

Giyu tilted his head, thought for a moment, and gave an answer.

"I'm used to it."

"Habit?!"

Ren's tone rose.

"How can you get used to this?! Are you drinking copious amounts of bitter herbs like tea every day?!"

Looking at Giyu's calm profile, all the little bit of smugness she felt vanished.

She pursed her lips, walked back to the veranda and sat down, taking out a small notebook and a charcoal pencil from her bosom.

"So... how effective is the medicine?"

Her voice was much more serious.

"Do you feel any easier breathing? Or a warm sensation in your lungs?"

Giyu closed his eyes and sensed it.

The flow of Qi within my body has indeed become smoother.

It's easier to expand the chest cavity when breathing, and you can inhale more deeply.

The effect was very slight, but it did have some effect.

"Have."

He opened his eyes.

"The breathing resistance is a bit low."

"Real?!"

Ren's eyes lit up instantly.

She scribbled notes in her notebook, muttering to herself.

"The proportion of Breathing Grass definitely needs to be adjusted. We can add more fritillaria cirrhosa, and maybe we didn't add enough licorice? Next time, try adding honey."

She was writing intently, and the tip of her nose was still slightly red from the stimulation she had just experienced.

A wisp of hair fell across her forehead, swaying gently.

"Thanks."

Giyu's tone was still flat, but Ren could hear the seriousness in it.

She paused for two seconds, then grinned, her eyes curving into crescents.

"Of course! I'm going to become the Demon Slayer Corps's number one pharmacist!"

She raised her chin, a smug look on her face.

"Once I learn Flower Breathing in Flower Valley, and combine it with my pharmacological knowledge, I'm sure I'll be able to develop an incredibly powerful auxiliary potion!"

The sunlight danced on her white dress, radiating light across her face.

Giyu looked at her for a while and nodded.

"Um."

He stood up, preparing to go to the backyard to continue training.

He took two steps, then stopped and looked back.

"I... can continue with the next drug trial."

Try to blink.

"But don't add bitter gourd roots. They're useless; they'll only make the food bitter."

After saying that, he turned and left, the hem of his blue haori tracing a clean arc.

Ren stood there for three seconds, then burst out laughing.

She collapsed onto the veranda floor, clutching the notebook, laughing so hard her shoulders shook.

"Oh, so you could tell from the taste..."

The warm sunshine shone down on me.

The air was filled with the scent of herbs and the aroma of distant mountains and forests.

She laughed for a while before stopping, turning her head to watch Giyu's figure disappear around the corner.

"What a weirdo."

She spoke softly, but the corners of her mouth were turned up high.

Then he sat up, grabbed the charcoal pencil, and carefully wrote in his notebook:

[Trial Record Part Three:]

Subject: Giyu Tomioka

Tolerance: Extremely high (suspected loss of taste)

Drug efficacy feedback: Respiratory resistance decreased by approximately 5%, duration to be observed.

Note: Next time, I'll improve it by removing the bitter gourd root and adding honey.

Also: Mr. Giyu seems to be more afraid of hardship than he appears (I noticed he took a half-inch back).

As she wrote the last sentence, she couldn't help but laugh out loud again.