Senior, how did you do it?

Several days passed.

On Mount Sagiri, Xia Xi had grown considerably closer to the three Water Breathing swordsmen.

Though their trainer, Sakonji Urokodaki, always wore a frightening Tengu Mask, he was actually a kindhearted old man with a sensitive, thoughtful nature.

After agreeing to teach Xia Xi, he made no attempt to brush him off or hold anything back.

The very next day, he took him up the mountain to begin training alongside the two children.

Beyond that, he seemed worried that Xia Xi might have trouble settling in.

He actually went down the mountain that same evening to buy him a set of bedding in town.

As for the two boys, Sabito and Giyu...

In Xia Xi's eyes, they were rare talents.

According to Urokodaki, Sabito had only been training for a relatively short time, and Giyu for even less.

Yet both had already completed their basic physical conditioning and learned their Breathing Style and its accompanying sword forms.

Sabito's strength was a good deal greater than Giyu's.

Urokodaki said that, after a little more time, he would probably have Sabito begin practicing [Total Concentration].

To Xia Xi, Sabito already had the strength to pass the Final Selection. After all, his stats and skill levels were much higher than those of Xia Xi's fellow candidates back then.

He also had a steady temperament and exceptionally polished swordsmanship.

Precise, efficient, seamlessly linked sword forms, combined with a more aggressive offensive rhythm, gave his otherwise accommodating Water Breathing a hint of raging surf.

He was the kind of offensive swordsman who never used bizarre variations or unexpected tricks, but never left any glaring openings, either.

He was strong.

Compared with him, Seiko, who also used Water Breathing, was nothing more than background scenery practicing [Water Breathing Extra Style].

Giyu, meanwhile, was much more withdrawn and quiet.

He rarely smiled or joked, and his expression was as still as the stagnant water of a deep pool. It honestly made Xia Xi wonder whether he was a lost child of the Uchiha.

Only when Sabito was around would he occasionally smile.

Still, after a few dinners cooked by Xia Xi, he gradually grew a little more familiar with this senior who had suddenly joined them.

When it came to strength, however, Xia Xi's assessment of Giyu was more complicated.

Being younger, his stats were indeed lower than Sabito's.

That was perfectly normal.

But in terms of comprehension and talent, he seemed to have a slight edge over Sabito.

Whenever Urokodaki personally demonstrated the Breathing Style, Giyu's skill progress bar rose almost fifty percent faster than Sabito's.

It was inconsistent, though. Often, his progress bar wouldn't budge at all.

Xia Xi couldn't tell whether he had simply gotten distracted and let his thoughts wander.

Or whether, as Sabito said, it stemmed from the "lack of confidence" buried deep inside him.

Fortunately, he had Sabito.

His occasional encouragement and their private conversations...

Meant that, despite the occasional pause in his training, Giyu never truly fell behind.

Giyu's swordsmanship resembled his personality: more passive, yet also colder and more refined.

He often looked utterly unruffled, as though he were merely observing and waiting.

Only at the final moment would he rely on his astonishing intuition and reflexes to strike after his opponent yet land first, adapting on the fly with the most appropriate sword form.

He was something of a defensive, counterattacking swordsman...

"Senior, senior. Senior!"

Sabito's calls interrupted Xia Xi's idle mode.

As the training animation gradually returned to normal speed, the boy turned his head toward Sabito, who stood beside him with a complicated expression.

"What's wrong?"

Sabito handed him the lunch their trainer had prepared. "It's already noon, senior. You've been swinging your sword for four and a half hours straight."

"Huh? Is there a problem?"

"Master said that overly intense training doesn't just fail to produce the results it should. It makes the results worse and harms your body, too."

He looked down at the lunch in his hands. "Besides, I think you'd keep training until evening if I didn't interrupt you."

Xia Xi let the special rhythm of his breathing fade.

Heat rose from his body, making the air shimmer slightly.

It was strength and effort in their most honest form.

Unadorned and unassuming, it silently proved just how far the human body could be honed.

Picking up the clothes beside him to wipe away his sweat, Xia Xi began to think.

So there's a mechanic like that, too?

I thought maxing out my training time and letting the system finish grinding automatically would give me the most experience.

So there's a whole training-schedule management feature?

While Xia Xi pondered this, Sabito exchanged a glance with Giyu.

Both saw a trace of admiration in the other's eyes.

An entire morning of high-intensity training...

Was already a serious test of a swordsman's stamina and self-discipline.

Let alone training as long as Senior Kurumaji had, remaining completely focused with almost no deterioration in his movements.

The important thing was that he did this practically every day.

Moreover, it wasn't just the exercises Urokodaki assigned or his daily training. Even cooking, fetching water, chopping wood, and Fishing...

He approached all of it with that same extraordinary seriousness and absolute focus.

What incredible grit and perseverance.

Across from them, Xia Xi was wiping down his body.

Sweat streamed from his sharply defined jaw like little rivers, only to be wiped away and spread by the towel.

Under the sunlight, it looked as though a flowing, breathing glaze had coated the rise and fall of his muscles.

His back muscles spread like wings, opening and closing with each breath.

His abs resembled tempered armor plates, taut as iron...

No wonder Master Urokodaki had been full of praise for him these past two days.

[This is what it looks like when someone fully integrates life and training. This boy might truly be an extraordinary genius.]

Remembering how he had felt a little resentful just two days earlier because their master was paying more attention to Xia Xi...

Giyu felt a wave of shame and self-reproach.

Someone like him deserved their master's regard. He deserved to grow stronger.

"Giyu, we'll be as strong as him someday, too."

Perhaps sensing the emotions churning beneath Giyu's calm exterior, the pink-haired boy gave him an earnest smile.

"We're going to become Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen. Seeing a swordsman like Senior Kurumaji should lift our spirits."

"We shouldn't feel inadequate because he's strong."

"We should work hard to become people like him."

With that, he patted Giyu's shoulder.

Xia Xi had also put his clothes back on and watched the two children whispering beside him.

He raised his chin casually. "Oi~ Don't just stand there. Eat and get some rest. I still want to learn some sword forms from you two this afternoon."

He's thinking about getting stronger every moment of the day.

Both children had the same thought.

"Say, senior, that focus of yours... how do you manage it?" Sabito asked curiously. "Even I can't push myself to such an exacting degree."

Effort?

Can't anyone with hands do this?

Just set up a training routine and wait for the system to grind for you.

Then he remembered that the person standing before him was a story NPC, not a player he'd been matched with in the past.

The game was so realistic that he often forgot it was a game.

"This isn't focus, Sabito."

"It's 'Flow-State Cutoff.'"

Sabito froze. "...Flow-State... Cutoff?"

"Exactly." Xia Xi nodded, his gaze growing more profound. "When the mind becomes intensely focused and enters [Flow State], ordinary people drop out of it because of fatigue."

"But I'm different."

"In that moment, I deliberately 'cut off' my own perception of fatigue."

He raised a hand and pointed to his temple, continuing to spout nonsense.

"It's like using a Breathing Style to forcibly enhance your bodily functions. Through a special form of meditation, I temporarily remove distracting thoughts such as [fatigue], [boredom], and [the passage of time] from my consciousness."

"My body is still moving, but my [mind] has entered a kind of... absolute state devoid of thought."

"External time loses all meaning to me."

Sabito's mouth fell slightly open, his eyes shining with shock and understanding. "Something like that actually exists... So you aren't 'persevering,' senior. You've entered a higher realm of training?"

"You could put it that way." Xia Xi maintained his solemn expression and nodded slightly.

Giyu Tomioka, who had remained silent beside them, had simply been eating his lunch.

At this, he nearly choked.

He didn't lift his head, merely casting Xia Xi a glance with his dark blue eyes.

There was little emotion in that look, yet it seemed to say everything.

He's making it sound so convincing.

Then he lowered his head and continued eating.

He had heard this senior's story from Master Urokodaki.

Demons had taken everything from him.

His family. His little sister.

Like them, this senior had spent countless nights scorched and driven by the flames of hatred.

They drove him to desperately grow stronger, strong enough to slaughter every last evil demon.

It isn't some Flow-State Cutoff at all.

It's the hatred that fuels revenge.

Beneath that expression of his, the one that so often seems lost in thought, he might be suppressing an obsession even stronger than mine or Sabito's.

As he remembered the sight of his older sister dying to protect him...

Giyu's gaze and breathing shifted slightly.

He felt as though he understood this senior a little better.

Perhaps training isn't [perseverance].

Perhaps not training means [stopping].

And for a swordsman desperately craving revenge, stopping means [death].

If he doesn't fight, he'll die.

That probably describes someone like Senior Kurumaji.

Sabito sank deep into thought, digesting Xia Xi's "theory." Beside him, Giyu kept eating, his heart equally unsettled.

Xia Xi, meanwhile, turned around without a change in expression and opened his lunch.

There were rice balls made by Mr. Urokodaki, along with a few pieces of pan-fried meat.

The corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly.

That theory of mine fooled them, right?

Though, to be fair, didn't I just give the game mechanic a plausible explanation?

That's me for you.