During lunch, Jigoro Kuwajima kept staring at Kanzaki Kumo and making little grumbling noises, leaving Kumo utterly baffled.
After a while, Kumo could no longer stand Kuwajima's grumbling and finally spoke up. "Look, if something's wrong with your nose or throat, why don't we skip training this afternoon and find a doctor first?"
"Hm? You just said 'skip training,' didn't you?"
The moment he finished speaking, Kuwajima thrust his wrinkled, scarred face right in front of Kumo, who nearly choked on his rice.
Kumo reached out and pushed that face a little farther away. Thinking back over Kuwajima's strange behavior that day, he finally caught on.
"You've been planning to talk me into quitting since first thing this morning?"
"Mm-hmm." Seeing that Kumo had figured it out, Kuwajima readily admitted it. Ever since meeting Kumo in the Medical Department, he had never given up on the idea, nor had he ever hidden it from him.
"Stubborn old man..." Kumo muttered, then went back to eating. As long as the little old man was physically fine, nothing else mattered. There was no way he would be talked into quitting anyway. Only learning a Breathing Style sooner would give him some sense of security.
He still had to visit Kanzaki Keizan's grave in a few months, something he had done every year for the past several years. On the way to Mount Momiji yesterday, Kumo had even specifically asked the driver to show him a map, confirming the locations of Mount Momiji and Kanzaki Keizan's burial place and the distance between them.
It was quite far, requiring an overnight stay away from home.
Thinking about it now, before his memories awakened, he had simply been lucky and lived close enough that he almost never had to stay out overnight. Otherwise, by the time his memories awakened, he might have been a few years younger.
Now that Kumo knew demons existed, going out without any means of protecting himself always left him feeling unsafe.
So he set himself a small goal first: grasp the basics in two months, spend another three becoming proficient, then prepare to visit the grave.
As Kumo considered his short-term goals, something suddenly occurred to him, and he looked up to ask, "By the way, when is the Demon Slayer Corps' Final Selection this year?"
When Kagaya Ubuyashiki had explained things earlier, he had only mentioned that the Final Selection took place once a year, without giving a specific date.
"You want to take the selection this year?! Forget it! There's no way I'm agreeing to let you go this year!" Kuwajima reacted to Kumo's question as though something had set him off. His spit nearly landed in Kumo's rice bowl, but fortunately, Kumo's visual talent was strong enough for him to protect his lunch.
Putting Super Vision to use like this-I really am a clever little fellow, Kumo thought.
Yes, Super Vision was the name Kumo had given his cheat ability.
It couldn't be helped. Even across both his lives, he had spent very little time in academic classes. When it came to names, his approach was simple and blunt.
"I didn't say I was going this year. It just occurred to me, so I asked." Kumo waited until Kuwajima had calmed down before continuing.
"Either way, forget about this year. The final test is next month. You may have some talent, kid, but don't even think about meeting its requirements in a month." Kuwajima still sounded rather huffy.
"Oh, all right, then." Kumo nodded. He had never expected to become a full-fledged swordsman this year anyway. His physical foundation genuinely still needed work, and making up for over a decade of inadequate nutrition would take time.
Being able to catch Jigoro Kuwajima's Nichirin Blade earlier did not mean he could wield a blade in battle. The difference in the strength required was considerable, especially when his future enemies would be demons with physical abilities superior to humans.
Not everyone was like Gyomei Himejima, who could suffer over a decade of malnutrition and still spend an entire night pounding out "hand-beaten beef balls," then train properly for a while and pick up a flail to cosplay as an attack helicopter.
After lunch, Jigoro Kuwajima promptly flipped Kumo over and pinned him to the ground.
There was no need for misunderstanding. The little old man had not awakened some priestly proclivity toward this young boy, whose looks had improved considerably along with his living conditions. He was simply helping massage Kumo's leg muscles.
After all, Kumo had spent the whole morning standing, and the afternoon's schedule called for lessons in basic sword techniques. How could he learn with his legs trembling?
Years of martial arts practice had allowed Jigoro Kuwajima to develop a set of muscle-relaxing massage techniques. Although the process hurt like hell, in less than an hour, Kumo's legs had recovered eighty or ninety percent of their strength, allowing him to participate normally in the afternoon's lessons.
"Watch closely, brat." Jigoro Kuwajima tightened his grip on the wooden sword and took his stance. His entire bearing changed immediately.
"Thunder Breathing, second form: Rice Spirit."
Accompanied by faint rumbling thunder and lightning-like flashes of the blade, five sword flashes shot out from Kuwajima's position in an instant, leaving five scorch marks spread in a fan across the ground before him.
Kumo's eyes widened in surprise.
His Super Vision had let him see every detail of Kuwajima's movements, but seeing them clearly only made him more astonished.
It was not because Kuwajima moved fast enough to turn what should have been five consecutive strikes into five nearly simultaneous slashes. It was because he had actually seen electricity on that wooden sword!
Wait, wasn't that supposed to be just a visual effect? Kumo demanded inwardly. Unfortunately, no one could answer him.
But his surprise was immediately followed by delight, for no other reason than-it looked cool! Really cool! Incredibly cool!
Now Kumo's determination to learn a Breathing Style grew even firmer.
I should have held back a little... Since when did discouraging someone from learning become harder than encouraging them? Jigoro Kuwajima thought.
With Kuwajima only recently recovered from severe injuries, executing a move of that caliber was quite strenuous. He had intended to demonstrate a difficult move so Kumo would recognize the difficulty and give up. Instead, he had overdone it and made Kumo yearn to learn a Breathing Style even more.
While Kuwajima was considering the next step in his plan to discourage him, Kumo had already picked up a wooden sword and begun swinging it.
With his eyes half-closed, he recalled every detail of Kuwajima's movements, breaking them down one by one before attempting to imitate them with his wooden sword and correcting himself. Soon, aside from being much slower, he could perfectly reproduce the movements of Kuwajima's last technique.
Having just worked out his next plan to discourage Kumo, Kuwajima came back to his senses, saw this scene, and was utterly dumbfounded.
Being able to become a Hashira meant Kuwajima's own talent for swordsmanship was already exceptional. Yet Kumo had reproduced the movements of Thunder Breathing's second form after watching him demonstrate it just once.
He had not even slowed his movements down!
At that moment, Jigoro Kuwajima witnessed firsthand, for the first time, how terrifying a monstrously talented person could be. Even his resolve to talk Kumo out of it wavered considerably.
He began to wonder whether his well-intentioned attempts to discourage Kumo might instead hold back the boy's talent.
But soon, he had no time left to think.
Because after repeatedly checking that his movements were correct, Kumo actually began imitating Kuwajima's earlier breathing rhythm.
To execute that difficult sword form, Kuwajima had used Total Concentration Breathing.
As a result, the instant Kumo, unaware of this, tried it, his vision went black and his whole body toppled stiffly backward.
"You brat!" Seeing Kumo attempt to imitate his Total Concentration Breathing right off the bat, Kuwajima was so frightened that he used his own Breathing Style just to reach him quickly and interrupt him.
Kuwajima caught Kumo as he fell stiffly backward, then quickly patted his chest and back several times, finally helping him catch his breath.
"Hah-hah-"
Only after gasping for a while did Kumo fully recover from an attempt that had nearly killed him. For that brief moment, he had thought he would suffocate to death, and had even dimly seen Kanzaki Keizan waving to him.
"You wanted to use Total Concentration Breathing on your first day learning a Breathing Style? Why don't you just fly straight into the heavens!"
"Ow! That hurts, that hurts..."
Once he saw that Kumo was all right, Jigoro Kuwajima's temper flared. He raised his wooden sword and gave him a furious series of knocks.
In the end, though, Kuwajima could not bring himself to hit hard. Only the first blow actually hurt Kumo.
Once Kuwajima settled down, Kumo retorted indignantly, "Shouldn't the blame for this accident lie with you? You were supposed to demonstrate a technique, but you went straight into Total Concentration."
"I was showing you the power of Thunder Breathing!" Kuwajima retorted loudly. If Kumo ignored his flushed old face and wandering gaze, he really would have believed him.
Before you continue