Summer goes, autumn comes, and winter arrives again.
In just a few months, Meikyō has completed numerous missions and has risen to the highest rank, Rank A, among the ten ranks below the Demon Slayer Corps Pillars.
To become a pillar, one only needs to kill a few more demons to reach fifty, or kill one of the Twelve Kizuki.
However, Meikyō doesn't care about becoming a pillar or anything like that.
He had other things on his mind.
"It's almost winter, and we still haven't found any news about Tanjiro's family?"
In the evening, Meikyō sighed and frowned as she looked at the crowd on the street.
Everyone has already changed into winter clothes.
Unfortunately, the Kamado family lived alone in a remote mountain valley. The only other information they had was that they made a living by selling charcoal. However, before winter, few people would buy charcoal, so it was even less likely that Tanjiro would make money solely by selling charcoal before that time; he must have been doing something else.
Although ninjas are skilled at gathering intelligence, this era was still a very backward society with limited ways to obtain information. Meikyō searched almost the entire area under the Water Hashira's jurisdiction and the surrounding regions but still couldn't find it.
Tomioka Giyuu was forced by Meikyō to go on missions to even more distant places.
"So be it. If I get it, I'm lucky; if I lose it, it's my fate. In any case, even if I don't find the Kamado family, Tanjiro will still eventually join the Demon Slayer Corps."
Meikyō could only console himself with this.
He had just finished a mission and was taking advantage of his free time to gather intelligence.
The town is located at the foot of a mountain, and from time to time, villagers from the mountains cut firewood and make charcoal to sell in the town.
Because entertainment options are limited in this era, aside from daily cultivation and missions, Meikyō's greatest enjoyment is soaking in hot springs and savoring delicious food.
After all, he's the kind of person who wouldn't neglect his taste buds and stomach even on the battlefield of the Shinobi World War.
Just as Meikyō was about to ask a passerby for information about local delicacies, she quietly spotted an acquaintance.
She was a very beautiful young woman, dressed in a proper and elegant kimono that did not hinder her movement. She had light pink eyeshadow on her eyes and long, snow-white hair styled in the way a married woman would wear, making her look like a birch tree fairy.
Oyakata Amane is the wife of Ubuyashiki Kagaya Demon Slayer Corps. She comes from a family of priests.
"Senior Amane?"
Hearing Meikyō call her name, Oyakata Amane turned around gracefully and saw Uchiha Meikyō.
"Oh, it's you, Meikyō."
"What are you doing here, Senior Amane? Are you also on a mission?"
Meikyō stared curiously at the Nichirin Blade in Oyakata Amane's hand.
"No, I simply found a descendant of that Progenitor Swordsman."
Oyakata Amane shook her head.
"According to records, the powerful swordsman who created the Breathing Technique was named Tsugikuni Yoriichi. Even the Demon Slayer Corps has not left much information about him. We only recently discovered the whereabouts of the Tsugikuni clan."
"It is said that the Breathing Technique used by that Progenitor Swordsman is completely different from our current Breathing Technique. It is the source of all Breathing Technique and the most powerful Breathing Technique. However, it was lost a long time ago. For many years, the Demon Slayer Corps has been trying to restore this Breathing Technique, but they have never been able to find a way. So we started looking for the descendants of that Progenitor Swordsman in order to obtain some relevant information."
"The descendants of the Tsugikuni clan have now evolved into the Tokito clan. Only two brothers remain, who make a living by chopping wood. Although they have not inherited the Ancestral Breathing Technique, I wanted to try to recruit them into the Demon Slayer Corps. Unfortunately, the elder brother is very wary of outsiders and refuses to come down the mountain."
Oyakata Amane's cool, clear eyes were fixed on a distant mountain.
Meikyō followed her gaze and looked into the distance.
As darkness fell, the mountains appeared calm and somber under the night sky.
Tokito family?
He remembered that the future Cloud Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps was named Tokito Muichiro.
"Did Amane want to bring them into the Demon Slayer Corps because he believed that people with the same bloodline as the Progenitor Swordsman would be more likely to become strong?"
Oyakata Amane first nodded, then immediately shook her head.
"It can only be said that this is part of the reason. A person's talent and personality are largely influenced by their innate bloodline and genes. Of course, postnatal growth is also crucial, but statistically speaking, it is indeed more likely that the descendants of the strong will become strong."
At this point, Oyakata Amane gave an example.
"Just like the Rengoku family, for hundreds of years, the position of Flame Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps has been held by members of the Rengoku family. There has never been a vacancy in the past generation. Flame Hashira like Kyōjurō have perfectly fulfilled their duties as Pillars."
"As far as I know, the first group of swordsmen who mastered the Breathing Technique were the strongest group of Pillars among all the swordsmen in the history of the Demon Slayer Corps, and the first Flame Hashira to master the Flame Breathing was also among them."
"However, besides these, the location where the Tokito family lives is also very dangerous. Those remote mountain forests are the easiest places to be attacked by demons, because if they were in a bustling town, once the news spreads, it would likely attract the attention of the Demon Slayer Corps swordsmen."
"But recently, there have been many cases of people going missing here. I suspect that there are ghosts around, but I haven't been able to find any trace of them, and I haven't been able to convince the Tokito family."
Oyakata Amane lowered her head and sighed softly.
"Actually, if you ask me, we could just tie them up and take them down the mountain, then try to persuade them properly."
As a ninja who values efficiency, especially one from the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Meikyō did not approve of Oyakata Amane's indecisive and slow approach.
Oyakata Amane smiled slightly but did not reply.
Everyone has their own way of doing things, and in the months since joining the Demon Slayer Corps, Meikyō has perfectly deepened the impression of the word "ninja" among the members of the Demon Slayer Corps.
Concise, efficient, with strong execution capabilities, and possessing powerful intelligence gathering and analysis abilities, tactical planning skills, and even decent battlefield command abilities—these are the skills one must possess to become a qualified Konoha Jonin.
"Sometimes, many things don't need to be complicated. The simpler, the more effective. Things that need to be solved in the present should be solved in the present. Otherwise, it will often lead to the consequences that you least want to see."
Meikyō thought of Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage.
If Dazhuzi had joined forces with Uchiha Madara to unify the Ninja World, there would have been no Shinobi World War.
Establishing a unified regime could at least maintain peace for over a century.
On the contrary, the current Ninja World has become the very thing that Hashirama Senju least wanted to see.
The Shinobi Ninja World, which swept across the Shinobi World War and grew larger with each iteration, forced children as young as ten to take up swords and step onto the battlefield, just like Uchiha Meikyō two years ago.
The next two chapters will be posted later.