To some extent, the author of that work had probably drawn inspiration from the Ripple Chi Kung in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure when creating a power like Breathing Techniques for their own manga. It could be considered a tribute to their predecessors.
As for those Breathing Techniques, although the story of Demon Slayer should have ended in the last century, I investigated them during the first few years after I arrived in this world. Through certain unofficial historical records, I was able to infer that these Breathing Techniques most likely existed in this world.
However, Breathing Techniques and Ripple Chi Kung still had quite a few differences.
Unlike Ripple Chi Kung, whose life-extending effects became more apparent the further one progressed,
Breathing Techniques had relatively limited functions. They strengthened the heart and lungs, allowing the blood to absorb a massive amount of oxygen in a short time and greatly enhancing the body's capabilities during breathing.
Overusing them could also easily cause damage to one's body.
Their advantage was that the first generation of Breath Swordsmen had created many schools of Breathing Techniques and matching sword arts based on their individual personalities. These had been passed down to the present day, allowing people to freely choose a suitable school to study.
Later in the story, several powerful supplementary abilities also appeared: the Demon Slayer Mark, Crimson Red Blade, and Transparent World.
The Demon Slayer Mark traded lifespan for combat power, while the Crimson Red Blade was more about the weapon itself, so I won't discuss those two for now.
Transparent World, on the other hand, required its user to perfectly and precisely control their breathing and movements. Only then did they have a chance to reach the supreme martial realm where the entire world became transparent and everything could be seen through.
If you're interested, you can try looking into the whereabouts of Breathing Techniques and analyze their similarities and differences with Ripple Chi Kung. If Ripple can be used to drive the sword arts that accompany Breathing Techniques, it should greatly improve your strength.
Miyauchi Hiyage's New Persona
Yotsuya Miko, who had stayed home waiting for the Diary to update, almost immediately posted a message in the Diary Enthusiasts Club when she saw the changes appear. Then she opened the Diary and began reading today's entry.
Who would have thought that after avoiding this Diary like the plague just half a month ago, she would now depend on it so much?
After all, Yotsuya Miko had already tested it at home today. Neither the soul of her deceased father nor the terrifying Vengeful Spirit beside him could detect the diary in her hands.
Moreover, when she held the diary, those Vengeful Spirits seemed to stop lingering around her after some simple probing. They no longer doubted her clumsy acting like they had before.
In other words, the method Little Bocchi mentioned yesterday—using the Diary to avoid Vengeful Spirits—actually worked!
After confirming that, Yotsuya Miko felt that she could no longer live without this miraculous Diary.
After reading what You Know Who had written today, Yotsuya Miko was first thrown into panic by the realization that this world contained such underhanded Evil Spirits.
If You Know Who hadn't warned her, then if she encountered a Vengeful Spirit disguised as an ordinary person and greeting her, there was a good chance she would fall for it!
She still needed to be more careful in her daily life and not meddle in other people's affairs so casually.
After all, with her life already like this, who could she even help?
She needed to save her own life first.
Later, she saw that powerful Vengeful Spirits could even use people with strong life energy as barbecue grills to make Vengeful Spirit barbecue. Just imagining that scene made her unable to accept it.
"There's no way I can deal with those Evil Spirits right now. I'd better honestly hold the Diary and play dead." Yotsuya Miko gripped the Diary tightly and refused to let go.
Still, You Know Who had also mentioned the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, which could suppress Mystic Eyes, as well as the so-called Demon Slayer Corps. That made Yotsuya Miko somewhat tempted.
Of course she wanted the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception that could suppress her eyes, and You Know Who had even directly mentioned where she could buy them.
Unfortunately, the owner of Garan no Dō seemed to be a wanted criminal. Although she didn't know why that person was wanted, Yotsuya Miko had no desire to get involved with someone so dangerous.
So after lingering reluctantly over the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception for quite some time, she eventually turned her attention to the Demon Slayer Corps and Breathing Techniques mentioned afterward.
In Japan, demons and ghosts were separate concepts.
Demons were closer to yokai in nature.
Thus, Yotsuya Miko could naturally tell that the Demon Slayer Corps' enemies were probably not Vengeful Spirits.
But that didn't stop her from admiring a name as cool as Demon Slayer Corps.
Having nearly developed a psychological disorder from those Vengeful Spirits, Yotsuya Miko desperately wanted to find the descendants of the Demon Slayer Corps and learn those Breathing Techniques from them so she could quickly increase her strength.
As for the possible burden on her body?
Yotsuya Miko felt that she would rather drive those Vengeful Spirits and Evil Spirits away from her side right now, even if it cost her a few years of her lifespan.
Besides, You Know Who had said in the Diary that she could try using Ripple Aura Chi Kung to drive sword arts.
And there was also Transparent World. It sounded incredibly wondrous!
If it could truly make the entire world transparent, then she should be able to use it to see through the weaknesses of those Vengeful Spirits too, right?
Unfortunately, she still couldn't use the comment function. Otherwise, she would definitely have asked more questions in the comments about how to reach Transparent World.
At the same time, she discussed the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception and the Demon Slayer Corps in the group chat with the others who had finished reading the updated diary.
Miko: "Has anyone heard of Garan no Dō or the Demon Slayer Corps?"
Below that was a string of girls' head-shaking emojis, indicating that none of them had heard of either.
Kashiko Kasumi: "That You Know Who is being mysterious again. One is a fugitive wanted by the Reverse Side World, and the other is an organization from the last century. Neither will be easy to find!"
Kaguya: "I'll ask the Shitamachi Godmother about the Demon Slayer Corps. Even if she hasn't heard of them, she knew quite a few people in the Exorcism World when she was young. An organization that was active in the last century must have left some traces in history."
Kaguya: "As for Garan no Dō, I'll ask about that as well. But if the Godmother doesn't know anything, we'll put it aside for now. We truly aren't suited to drawing the attention of other supernatural factions yet."
The Shitamachi Godmother had lived a long time and had always worked independently, so she had no access to any high-level secrets. Still, having survived in the Reverse Side World for so long, she naturally had some intelligence channels.
Because they had only learned part of the truth about this world from Yotsuya Miko and the Shitamachi Godmother yesterday, far more people in the group chat were now willing to speak than before.
Today's mention of the Demon Slayer Corps, another Breathing Technique that sounded like it had a story behind it, and the Transparent World that You Know Who praised so highly also prompted the girls to discuss the story known as Demon Slayer.
Feeling the responses coming from every direction around him, Miyauchi Hiyage nodded.
What he had said was basically true.
He still wasn't sure whether Garan no Dō and Aozaki Touko existed in this world, but Mifune City, the area from The Garden of Sinners, really did exist in this world's Tokyo. He had even gone there to investigate over the past few days, though he hadn't discovered anything.
And this world really did have a Demon Slayer Corps.
After all, the final chapter of Demon Slayer had featured a modern-day segment, briefly explaining the descendants and reincarnations of the manga's main characters.
Using that information, Miyauchi Hiyage hadn't spent much effort before identifying a painter who had debuted several years ago and gained some minor fame, yet had always been willing to paint only one woman.
That person's name was Yushiro. Under the setting of Demon Slayer, he was the only surviving "demon" left in the world by the story's end.
Therefore, it could be confirmed that the story of Demon Slayer had already concluded, and the Demon Slayer Corps had likely been completely disbanded.
He just didn't know what connection Yushiro, that demon, had with the other supernatural factions.
Still, he really did want the girls who possessed diaries to study the sword arts of the Breath Swordsmen and see whether they could increase their strength.
The combination of the Demon Slayer Mark, Crimson Red Blade, and Transparent World from the later stages of Demon Slayer truly provided a considerable boost to combat power.
Of the three, Transparent World was obviously the most mysterious one, as well as the ultimate power the protagonists only obtained at the very end.
In Miyauchi Hiyage's view, it already involved spiritual power.
If they could truly reach that level, Miyauchi Hiyage couldn't think of any Vengeful Spirit capable of harming them.
Forget vengeful spirits. With that kind of combat power, they would be strong enough to line up and fight Sukuna.
Of course, even if they couldn't obtain the pie-in-the-sky Transparent World anytime soon, the many varied Breathing Techniques and sword skills of the Demon Slayer Corps would certainly still offer the diary-holding girls plenty of useful references.
As long as they could figure out even a little, their combat power would probably increase considerably.
If they could get hold of a few Nichirin Blades that could most likely conduct Ripple, reaching the level of Grade 1 Sorcerers wouldn't be too difficult.
Moreover, once these girls discovered that the Demon Slayer Corps had really existed, Miyauchi Hiyage could naturally establish the Miyauchi Family as a rural family that had once received the Demon Slayer Corps' aid and retained some incomplete Breathing Technique manuscripts within the family.
After all, the Demon Slayer Corps had existed for hundreds of years and trained who knew how many demon-slaying swordsmen. It had also been nearly a century since Muzan's death and the Corps' disbandment.
Who could tell whether a small rural family, whose ancestors had received the Demon Slayer Corps' aid some unknown number of years ago and had luckily passed Breathing Techniques down to the modern era, was telling the truth or not?
And if Miyauchi Hiyage was noticed by the Sorcery Headquarters in the future, he could use this persona.
A gifted cultivation prodigy who had independently completed and refined the incomplete Breathing Technique manuscripts passed down by his ancestors.
Then he could add Chongyun's persona from Genshin Impact, who likewise possessed a Pure Yang Body, believing that Vengeful Spirits and Evil Spirits existed in the world and thus constantly studying related horror and thriller works.
Having heard that Beika Town was full of Vengeful Spirits, he had specifically purchased a mansion there, only for his physique to be so powerful that no Vengeful Spirits or Evil Spirits had dared appear near him to this day.
If necessary, it wouldn't be impossible for Miyauchi Hiyage to forcefully make up a story called Demon Slayer 2: Jujutsu Kaisen for himself.
Kashiko Kasumi, I'm Your Fan
Disguising himself as a descendant of the Demon Slayer Corps was a safeguard Miyauchi Hiyage had arranged after confirming that this world had also incorporated the story of Demon Slayer.
After all, as time passed, his Pure Yang Body was simply too conspicuous. Ripple Breathing could suppress part of it, but it merely eased the problem of excessive yang energy in his body; it couldn't hide it.
Sooner or later, the girls who possessed diaries would notice his existence.
At that point, he would inevitably be tested and suspected.
Rather than passively endure it, he might as well have a strategist enter the game himself.
After all, when one was out in the world, one's identity was whatever one claimed it to be.
Who said diary stories had to write only true things in the diary? Why couldn't he just make things up?
Thus, after discovering signs of supernatural resurgence in this world, Miyauchi Hiyage had already begun arranging an identity for himself.
And playing this role put no pressure on him.
That was because the Diary's rewards contained no watered-down goods. It had practically transmitted everything related to Ripple Aura Chi Kung into his mind.
That even included Sanskrit versions and the even more ancient primordial Ripple.
Miyauchi Hiyage could say without exaggeration that throughout Ripple Aura Chi Kung's thousands of years of history, quite a few people had developed derivative powers similar to Breathing Techniques.
And how much of that had he written in the Diary?
Even saying half a percent would have been exaggerating.
So far, all he had done in the diary was teach the introductory training for Ripple Aura Chi Kung, give an introductory lesson, and write the day before yesterday about how to use Ripple Aura Chi Kung to get a good night's sleep.
Even if those girls could use those so-called Reading Points to improve their Ripple Chi Kung, judging from the situation when Miyauchi Hiyage last saw them, it would probably only speed up their training by around ten times.
Reaching his current level would already be difficult for them, let alone deducing the evolution of Ripple Chi Kung over thousands of years.
By the time they found traces of Breathing Techniques and began analyzing the similarities and differences between Ripple Chi Kung and Breathing Techniques, Miyauchi Hiyage would be able to naturally bring out Silver Ripple Overdrive, which performed brilliantly in weapon combat and could be transmitted through metal, along with a series of derivative skills, and disguise them as the Breathing Techniques from Demon Slayer.
When the time came, if he casually used Silver Ripple Overdrive to split a boulder with any random blade, who would suspect that he was using pure Ripple Chi Kung?
Even if the Demon Slayer Corps from a century ago and Joseph Joestar himself came over, they probably wouldn't be able to tell what the hell he was using.
Of course, if the Diary ever gave him Sun Breathing and Transparent World as rewards, that would save him a lot of trouble.
With the Pure Yang Body, whether it was Ripple Chi Kung or Sun Breathing, he could unleash power far beyond ordinary people.
Perhaps the moment he obtained Sun Breathing, he would be able to activate the Demon Slayer Mark and Transparent World without injury, just like Tsugikuni Yoriichi.
After drinking a cup of Celestial Joy Tea, Miyauchi Hiyage, overflowing with yang energy, dragged Jerry off to stay up late and continue researching a thousand derivative abilities of Ripple Chi Kung.
It had to be said that Jerry, who had synchronized the abilities of two "Toms," was even more talented than Miyauchi Hiyage in research. Miyauchi Hiyage could sometimes feel a bit of pressure.
But pressure created motivation. If he couldn't keep Jerry under control, he could imagine countless scenes of Jerry running around causing havoc everywhere.
After school the next day, Miyauchi Hiyage didn't hurry home. Instead, he deliberately took a long detour to Akihabara.
The first volume of Kasumigaoka Utaha's Love Metronome had gone on sale today. As a die-hard fan of Kashiko Kasumi, Miyauchi Hiyage naturally had to come buy a few copies.
Of course, being cautious, he had prepared a disguise in advance to ensure that nothing unexpected would happen.
The purchasing process went smoothly, and Miyauchi Hiyage casually asked the clerk about Love Metronome's sales.
It was a newcomer's debut work. Although it had received some publicity, the promotional effort couldn't have been too strong, so its actual sales were rather dismal.
Miyauchi Hiyage had already known this, so he wasn't surprised.
After all, the original work had mentioned that sales of Kasumigaoka Utaha's debut novel weren't good in the early stages, and it had even faced the risk of cancellation.
In the story, Aki Tomoya, a popular blogger, stepped forward to help promote it, making no small contribution to the novel's publicity and eventual sales.
That was also how Kasumigaoka Utaha and Aki Tomoya had met and formed a connection in the original work.
But now, Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had only just written the first volume, already knew how her future would unfold. He wondered what ending Love Metronome would ultimately reach in this world.
After returning home, Miyauchi Hiyage ate a boxed meal bought from the convenience store while reading her work.
As he read, he couldn't help but develop some doubts.
Before you continue