Faced with Xia Xi's complicated, puzzled gaze.
Lady Ruka looked at Xia Xi, then glanced worriedly at her husband.
Only after seeing that Shinjuro had no intention of stopping her did she explain softly, "Ever since Mr. Igarashi retired, my husband has been in low spirits."
"His usual training and exercises have become even more intense, even a little... desperate."
"But if that were all..."
At that moment.
Shinjuro gently patted the hand his wife had placed on his shoulder, interrupting her.
"Because I want to get stronger, Kurumaji."
He let out a long, slow breath.
His chest rose and fell, as though he wanted to expel all the gloom pent up inside it.
Only then did he regain some spirit and tell Xia Xi, "I don't want you children always standing in front of me."
"Or even... dying before me."
"That Upper Rank Three-if everything you said is true."
"Then with my current strength, I have absolutely no chance of defeating him."
"That's why I want to get stronger."
"Strong enough, at least, to stand firmly beside you as a senior, as a Hashira, and fight alongside you."
Xia Xi froze briefly.
Wasn't that a pretty spirited, positive attitude?
Shinjuro continued, "So I trained with everything I had, looking for a way to get stronger, until..."
But his voice gradually sank.
Xia Xi asked, "Until?"
Shinjuro remained silent, unable to finish even after a long while.
As though it were some discovery too difficult to speak of.
In the end, his wife softly finished for him. "Until my husband... found and read some ancient books passed down in our family."
"The Book of Successive Flame Hashira."
Xia Xi asked, "Why does that book sound so impressive?"
Hadn't he just dug up some ancestral secret manual at home?
*That was