Xia Xi noticed that Obanai, despite having entered the warm room,
still wore a thick, old mask over his face.
That thing looked a little familiar...
Wait!
Wasn't that the one he'd casually made for him back when he was training in Tokyo?
"Say, Little Shemaru," Xia Xi said. "Why are you still wearing that thing?"
Weren't masks supposed to be thrown away after two or three uses?
Only then did Obanai react.
He scratched his cheek, a little embarrassed.
"The one you made... is very well made."
Back when he was training at Shinjuro's house, a demon had damaged the bandages he used to cover his face.
So Xia Xi had made him several dark masks to use as replacements.
They had only been meant to tide him over.
He hadn't expected them to become something Obanai treasured so much.
Those words Xia Xi had spoken in front of the demon that night-
he still remembered them.
As he saw it now, the most important people in the Demon Slayer Corps... aside from Oyakata-sama,
were Xia Xi and Rengoku.
As for his own superior, the Sound Hashira?
Sorry, he didn't really know him.
And it was precisely because this mask had been given to him by someone he valued
that he treasured it so much.
How could he bear to throw it away?
Then Obanai saw a look of distaste appear on Xia Xi's face.
"Bro, you're already an Elite Swordsman."
"Surely you aren't living that badly..."
Xia Xi thought he couldn't afford a new one.
"I remember Boss Ubuyashiki pays you pretty well."
It's not the same...
Obanai thought silently.
The boy with mismatched eyes defended himself quietly. "It's all right. I always take good care of it and wash it."
Xia Xi stared at Obanai for a