With the Fatalis Demolisher slung over her shoulder, the Sapphire Star strode away from headquarters without looking back. Beneath the moonlight hazy with icy dust, her retreating figure looked both fierce and a little aggrieved.
How could she not feel wronged? She had kindly helped the Demon Slayer Corps take down two vicious demons, only to get boiling water poured on her or be ambushed in return.
Boo-hoo.
Just as she was about to leave the ravaged valley-
"Stop!"
The Sapphire Star halted. She did not turn around, merely angling her face to the side.
"What now, Lord Wind Hashira?" She tightened her grip on the hilt, and cold mist rose once more.
Yet the attack she expected never came.
Behind her, Sanemi's scolding rang out, thick with disdain and... a trace of painfully awkward embarrassment.
"You little bastard... who said you could leave?! Get your ass back here!"
The Sapphire Star: "???"
She turned around and stared in bewilderment at the Wind Hashira, who was baring his teeth fiercely down in the crater.
Her look seemed to irritate Sanemi even more. He jerked his face away, his words coming fast and harsh through gritted teeth.
"You... what the hell kind of Breathing Style is that?! Crude! Wasteful! A complete eyesore!"
He pointed at the surrounding valley, which her earlier training and their recent battle had left looking as though it had been pounded by a meteor shower, then swept by a polar storm.
"A Breathing Style is harmony between mind and body! It's the subtle flow through every inch of flesh, every tiny channel inside you! It's perception! It's control!"
Sanemi grew more worked up as he spoke, as though the Sapphire Star's crude, simplistic "major stamina boost" training had insulted everything he had spent his life learning.
"It's not about blasting power out like explosives, you brute! And it sure as hell isn't about charging headlong into a fight just because you've got a thick hide and freakish strength!"
He paused for breath, but his sharp gaze remained fixed on the Sapphire Star, blazing with frustration at her wasted potential.
"Look at what you just did! That slash from above... sure, it had power! But your delivery was sloppy! You let it all scatter outward! You wasted seventy percent of your strength!"
"And that... all that clanging, and you were just forcing your way through with brute strength! You don't know the first thing about 'deflecting'! Or 'redirecting'! Idiot!"
The Sapphire Star froze.
Watching the Wind Hashira down in the crater curse and criticize the way she had just fought, she felt her resentment and sarcastic complaints give way to an overwhelming sense of absurdity.
This guy... is he teaching me through some kind of "I'm only chewing you out because I think you're worth it" approach?
Even if his words sound as nasty as a Deviljho's roar...
Seeing her stand there dumbstruck, Sanemi grew even more impatient. He irritably pointed the sheath of his Nichirin Blade at a relatively intact rock nearby.
"What are you standing there like an idiot for?! Get over here! Watch!"
He drew a deep breath, revealing the finely honed control over power that lay behind his title as the Wind Hashira.
He did not swing his blade, merely performing an extremely slow yet perfectly clear blocking motion. The Nichirin Blade seemed weightless in his hand. As his arm moved, the air around its edge seemed to be drawn, compressed, and set flowing by an invisible force, forming a thin but resilient miniature barrier of rapidly spinning wind.
"Feel it!"
Sanemi barked the command. His voice was still hoarse, but it carried an unquestionable, penetrating force.
"Don't slam into it with brute strength! Use your 'breath' to sense the 'flow' of your opponent's power! Find its weakest, most unstable 'point'! Then use the smallest amount of force to guide it aside! Or pierce that point! Like this!"
With an exquisitely precise flick of his wrist, he lightly tapped a particular spot on the wind barrier.
There was no loud crash, only the faintest puff. The seemingly resilient barrier vanished instantly like a punctured soap bubble, its force perfectly deflected.
"And how you generate force!" Sanemi drew his blade back, then demonstrated a thrust from a loaded stance. The motion was still slow, but the Sapphire Star could clearly sense a concentrated current of wind energy. Rather than erupting from his arm, it gathered like converging streams, rising from the soles of his feet, traveling up his spine, collecting in his core, then flowing into a single point at the blade's tip as naturally as moving a finger!
The entire process was smooth and effortless, without the slightest waste.
"Power has to flow! Gather! Release at a single point! Not like you, setting your whole body off like a barrel of explosives!"
He took a heavy breath and glared viciously at the Sapphire Star.
"Did you get that?! Idiot! A Breathing Style isn't meant to turn you into a harder rock! It's meant to make you into a more agile, more lethal wind! Not a rampaging bull!"
Standing at the edge of the crater, the Sapphire Star watched Sanemi's demonstration and listened to his explanation without blinking.
Despite his nasty tone and constant insults, those subtle principles struck her like a sudden revelation, instantly clearing away obstacles in an understanding that had previously gone no further than the sheer quantity of power!
Until now, she had relied on her powerful physique to forcibly imitate the flow of a Breathing Style. It was like driving a nail with a sledgehammer: it worked, but it was inefficient and exhausting. What Sanemi demonstrated was more like using a delicate carving knife, finding the optimal path through the flow of power and achieving tremendous results with minimal force!
"So that's how it works..." the Sapphire Star murmured.
"Idiot! If you get it, then piss off and practice! Stop being an eyesore!"
He waved impatiently, as though shooing away a fly.
"And rein in that damn cold! I'm freezing my ass off!"
"Next time... if I catch you making that kind of mess of a Breathing Style again... I'll cut you down!" With that, the Wind Hashira left with his blade in hand, never looking back.
The Sapphire Star remained where she stood, her expression full of conflicting emotions as she watched his stumbling yet still upright figure disappear at the valley's mouth.
"The Wind Hashira... Sanemi Shinazugawa... is he a tsundere...?" she muttered, hoisting the Fatalis blade onto her shoulder.
"Does that mean he accepts me? What an awkward man..."
The Sapphire Star scratched her head and drew a deep breath. This time, her breathing grew longer and deeper as she tried to sense and guide the immense power within her, letting it seep like gentle streams into every corner of her limbs and body.
Her dragon-element energy no longer surged wildly outward. Instead, it flowed and circulated slowly around her like docile, icy mist.
Under the moonlight, the Sapphire Star began her new training. This time, there was a little less brute force and a little more focus and finesse.
"No wonder your Demon Slayer Corps is so impressive. You're all hotheads and tsunderes, huh? Pretty impressive..."