The soft morning sunlight shone down on the master and student sitting side by side.
"So that's what's been troubling you! It's simple! Demons usually disguise themselves as humans to lure people somewhere dark and eat them! You don't need an elaborate plan. As long as you don't let the demon realize you're a Demon Slayer, it's easy to lure it away!"
After hearing Chiba Yo's question, Kyojuro answered him in a booming voice.
"That's true."
Kyojuro's words made everything click for Chiba Yo, and the problem immediately stopped troubling him.
If he spotted a demon disguised as a human in a crowd in the future, he could simply say he wanted to spend some time alone with it somewhere quiet. Surely the demon would agree for the chance to eat him.
It should work on Muzan too... probably.
"Thank you for clearing that up, Master," Chiba Yo said to Kyojuro with a smile.
"Mm, as long as it helped. Now, it's time for me to leave." Kyojuro rose as he spoke. His Kasugai crow was perched on a fence nearby.
Chiba Yo stood as well and asked, "Do you have another mission?"
Kyojuro nodded. "Yes. We just received new information about a demon near the station for a train called Mugen. It seems all the Corps members sent there have been killed, and ordinary civilians have started falling victim too. We can't leave it alone."
"I see. If possible, I'd like to go on a mission with you sometime, Master," Chiba Yo said.
Kyojuro shook his head and said, "That would have been possible before you became a Hashira. But now we're both Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, and we each have an area to watch over. If we went on a mission together, people elsewhere would be in danger.
"Kanroji stopped going on missions with me after she became a Hashira, too."
Chiba Yo knew the Demon Slayer Corps couldn't send two Hashira-level fighters to the same place. He simply regretted never having gone on a mission with Kyojuro.
"All right. Then I wish you a triumphant return, Master," Chiba Yo said.
"Don't worry! I'll slay the demons and protect everyone!" Kyojuro declared with ringing confidence. Then he turned and walked away, his robes billowing with the movement before slowly settling.
The sight of his departing figure in the morning sunlight was deeply reassuring...
After watching Kyojuro leave, Chiba Yo began his daily training. He had yet to be assigned a mission.
Yet the very next afternoon, his Kasugai crow brought him news of a demon within the area he was responsible for watching over.
"Looks like it's time for me to head out too."
Chiba Yo sheathed his Nichirin Blade as he murmured to himself, then set off for the location his Kasugai crow had given him.
Three weeks later
Chiba Yo completed his mission without a hitch. The demon he encountered this time was an ordinary one, and he hadn't needed a second strike. To Chiba Yo, though, it wasn't much different from Lower Rank Two.
Master still hasn't returned...
He glanced at Kyojuro's residence at the Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters. The gate remained shut, just as it had been when Kyojuro left.
"You're back, Yo-chan. Did your mission go smoothly?"
A familiar woman's voice came from behind him. Chiba Yo turned and saw Shinobu Kocho, with two Kakushi members following her, each carrying a basket on their back filled with wisteria.
"Yes. Since we discovered it in time, there were no casualties," Chiba Yo replied with a smile.
Then he looked at the baskets on the two Kakushi members' backs and asked, "Shinobu, are you gathering all that wisteria to develop poison against demons?"
"You could say that..." Shinobu Kocho answered with a smile, though her purple eyes seemed to conceal something.
In truth, some of the wisteria was for developing poison against demons. From the rest, Shinobu Kocho intended to extract the toxin and ingest it herself.
She had been doing this for a year and was still keeping it up. By now, her body contained seven hundred times the lethal dose of wisteria poison.
"By the way, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and the others have pretty much recovered.
"During Tanjiro's final examination, he asked whether I knew what 'Hinokami Kagura' or 'Flame Breathing' was. He told me that during his fight with Lower Rank Five, he used moves from the kagura dance passed down through his family for generations, along with the Breathing Style his father taught him.
"I thought those two things sounded as though they might be related to your Breathing Style and Mr. Rengoku's, so I told him he could ask the two of you. But you and Mr. Rengoku were both away on missions at the time.
"Now that you're back, Yo-chan, do you know what Hinokami Kagura and Flame Breathing are?" Shinobu Kocho changed the subject and asked Chiba Yo.
During the time she had spent treating Tanjiro and his two companions and overseeing their rehabilitation training, Shinobu Kocho had formed a fairly good impression of Tanjiro. Now that she had run into Chiba Yo, she could ask on his behalf.
Chiba Yo was just as baffled by the two names. He had never heard of Hinokami Kagura or Flame Breathing, nor had he ever heard Kyojuro mention them.
"I've never heard of either of them. As you know, Shinobu, I only learned after joining the Demon Slayer Corps that the ability I'd been using all along was a Breathing Style. I came up with the name Sun Breathing based on my own name and how my Breathing Style manifests," Chiba Yo answered.
"But two names alone don't tell us much. Since I've just finished my mission and don't have anything to do for now, why don't I go ask him for the details?" Chiba Yo added.
Tanjiro had previously shared some information about Muzan with him. Now that Tanjiro had a question for him, Chiba Yo was more than happy to help.
"That makes sense. Let's go to the Butterfly Mansion together, then. Those three boys have been training very hard lately."
Shinobu Kocho smiled as she spoke.
The two then headed to the Butterfly Mansion together.
As soon as he entered the Butterfly Mansion, Chiba Yo spotted Tanjiro and the others. Tanjiro was doing some kind of training with Kanao. They sat facing each other with a table between them, its surface covered in teacups.
Their hands darted rapidly above the teacups, each trying to pick one up while stopping the other from doing the same.
Zenitsu and Inosuke stood to one side, watching their movements in astonishment.
"Are they training their reflexes?" Chiba Yo asked Shinobu Kocho beside him, choosing not to interrupt their training.
"Yes. They started training as soon as they could move freely again. Of the three, Tanjiro has made the fastest progress," Shinobu Kocho said with a nod.
While they were talking, the match ended with Kanao taking a teacup.
"That's enough!"
Before you continue