Hearing the dejection and slight hurt in Kanao's voice, Kanzaki Kumo instinctively offered her a word of comfort, reacting faster than he could even think.
Only afterward did Kanzaki Kumo realize something was off and return to the main point.
"The point is, you learned Flower Breathing that long ago? And just from watching for a while?"
The special training Kanzaki Kumo had given Kanae had naturally taken place right after she passed the Final Selection. During that period, Kanao had indeed often sat at the edge of the courtyard watching the two of them train.
But back then, she had not even turned ten.
Moreover, from Kanao's account, she had initially wanted to learn Kanzaki Kumo's moves. Only after trying for a while and finding she could not learn them had she switched to learning Kanae's moves.
Even so, for Kanao to reach this level in what had amounted to less than three months was still astonishing.
"Mm..."
Kanao nodded without saying anything more, simply staring straight at Kanzaki Kumo.
In truth, Kanao had first thought of learning a Breathing Style a little earlier than that.
It had been on the night Kanae was sent by Kanzaki Kumo to Sakonji Urokodaki to learn a Breathing Style, when Shinobu Kocho first opened her heart to Kanzaki Kumo, when Kanao realized that all she could do at the time was promise to obey him in the future.
At that moment, a new thought had appeared in Kanao's simple inner world-find a way to help Kanzaki Kumo.
From then on, Kanao had often watched Kanzaki Kumo train, trying to learn his Thunder Breathing.
Unfortunately, Thunder Breathing's physical demands had been a little too high for her at the time. On top of that, Kanzaki Kumo's training movements had been so fast that