The mountain path to Tanjuro's home was rugged and difficult to walk.
An ordinary charcoal seller or hunter would need at least two or three hours to climb up from the foot of the mountain.
But neither Tanjuro nor Xia Xi was an ordinary person.
Tanjuro had long since become familiar with this path.
He knew exactly which route took the least effort, where the ground was firm, and where he could find a foothold.
And Xia Xi?
He did not care about wasting his stamina or whether the road was good or bad.
He even had energy to spare for chatting with Tanjuro about all sorts of things along the way.
"Say, Kamado, did your ancestors really not know anyone called Yoriichi Tsugikuni?"
"And Sun Breathing... surely you know about Breathing Styles?"
"Or did your family ever produce any particularly powerful swordsmen?"
His questions poured out like beans spilling from a sack.
Tanjuro patiently explained everything he knew to Xia Xi, one question at a time.
As far as he knew,
generation after generation of the Kamado family had made and sold charcoal in these mountains.
Their surname, [Kamado], offered some indication of that.
His father, grandfather, great-grandfather...
They had all been just like Tanjuro Kamado.
Born in the mountains, raised in the mountains, and ultimately buried in this mountain.
They had almost never left the land where their family had lived for generations.
Naturally, they had never produced any remarkable samurai, either.
As for [Hinokami Kagura]... for now, he would follow Xia Xi's terminology and call it a [Breathing Style].
To Tanjuro, it was purely a ritual dance.
It had absolutely nothing to do with samurai, meditation, qigong, or anything of the sort.
As for the "Yoriichi Tsugikuni" Xia Xi kept mentioning,
he had never heard that name