Master Blacksmith in Demon Slayer

Watching the brat present the item like a prized offering, Tetsu no Sosuke snatched it and asked, "Where's my blade?"

"Sosuke-nii! The Village Chief wants you to repair this Nichirin Blade!"

Kotetsu shouted loudly.

"Repair what Nichirin Blade? I asked about my blade... blade... wait, what? This is a Nichirin Blade?"

Tetsu no Sosuke refocused his gaze on the blade in his hand, a flicker of surprise in his eyes.

He drew the blade from the scabbard, but only pulled out half.

The other half remained inside. He tipped it out, and the broken blade clattered to the ground with a crisp sound.

He looked back at Kotetsu: "A Nichirin Blade?"

Kotetsu nodded!

Holding the half-blade, he glanced casually and spotted characters etched into the metal—Slay Demons!

"A Pillar's blade?"

Tetsu no Sosuke was even more surprised. In the Demon Slayer Corps, only the Pillars' blades bore such engravings.

And when had a blade belonging to the Nine Pillars fallen to him—a smith not yet qualified to forge a Nichirin Blade—for repair?

He tried to ask Kotetsu again, but found the kid had already bolted far off.

Kotetsu waved at him: "Sosuke-nii, do your best! If you can fix this blade, you'll be able to forge a Nichirin Blade on your own, and then you'll become a real smith!"

With that, he vanished in a flash... gone without a trace.

"...Is this kid the Day Wandering God reincarnated? How the hell can he run that fast?"

A bit speechless, he picked up the blade shard from the ground. Just looking at the two broken pieces, a strange, inexplicable sorrow welled up in his heart.

"...This blade is crying."

He examined the sword from end to end, carefully: "The blade is severely damaged—snapped clean through, with some sections curled. It must have encountered something incredibly tough to cut in battle. A demon's neck? The wear is heavy; the fighting frequency was high. Should I expect any less from a Pillar? And with the blade in this state, what happened to the swordsman who wielded it? Hmm... the blade is light. If it was forged to the user's traits, could the wielder be a woman?"

He muttered to himself, completely unaware that just from a single blade, he'd already deduced a wealth of information.

Finally, after fully assessing the sword, he laid out a repair plan.

"The curled edges need reforging, then polished and restored. The broken sections also need reforging, using repeated tempering and quenching to reshape the whole. But the snapped blade... if it can't be fused back as one in the furnace, it'll always be a flaw in the jade—too regrettable... Wait, I remember there's a plant on the mountain whose sap can fix this. Coat the broken edges with the sap, wrap the whole thing in clay, and put it in the furnace... But what was that plant called?"

He tapped his head, set the blade on the anvil, and dashed into the house to dig through his parents' notes.

Soon, he found the plant in one of the pages.

"Ironstem Grass... Does something this bizarre even exist in reality?"

Tetsu no Sosuke shook his head. Every forging technique he had came from the original Tetsu no Sosuke's memories.

And this was, after all, another world—many things clearly didn't align with the world he'd first known.

He didn't dwell on whether it made sense. Since the notes recorded it, it must work.

He prepared himself, packed some dry rations and essential tools, and headed up the mountain to find the Ironstem Grass.

It wasn't until he stepped into the forest that Tetsu no Sosuke snapped back to reality.

"Why did I charge into the mountains without a second thought the moment I thought about fixing that blade? Now that I've got the Breath of the Sun, shouldn't I be spending most of my time on that?"

He stared blankly at the sunlight filtering through the canopy: "Guess I'm just a born smith!"

Since he was already here, he stopped overthinking and focused on finding the Ironstem Grass.

And for some reason, just looking at that broken blade stirred an inexplicable, painful ache in his chest.

As if it wasn't the blade that had snapped, but him.

"I must be going crazy."

He searched the whole mountain but found nothing. If his parents' notes hadn't confirmed the grass existed up here, he'd have doubted its existence entirely.

From noon until the sun slanted westward, he finally spotted one in a crevice between rocks.

From the surface, the plant had only a few sparse leaves, but digging down revealed a thick, sturdy root packed with sap.

Tetsu no Sosuke carefully unearthed it, terrified of puncturing the root's skin and letting the sap leak.

Only after extracting it intact did he let out a long sigh of relief.

He wrapped it meticulously in white cloth, placed it in his basket, and relaxed.

Checking his surroundings: "Looks like I'm near the Mountain Top Hot Spring. I've been at it all day—perfect time for a soak."

He hadn't eaten his rations yet. Soaking in the hot spring while munching on his food would be the perfect reward for a day's hard work.

With that thought, his steps lightened.

Soon, he reached the edge of the hot spring.

He stripped off his clothes, folded them neatly, and placed them in the medicine basket. After testing the water temperature, he sank his whole body into the spring with satisfaction.

"This is... an indescribable bliss!"

The hot spring's temperature was just right. Soaking in it felt like countless hands massaging his entire body.

He was completely immersed in it, almost drifting off to sleep.

But then he quickly rolled over, climbed out, and went to the shore to grab some dry rations. Leaning against the edge of the hot spring, he picked up a rice ball and was just about to shove it into his mouth.

Suddenly, with a splash, a head emerged from the hot spring.

Her hair rippled through the warm water, tracing an indescribably graceful arc in the air.

When the ripples settled, Tetsu no Sosuke stared dumbfounded at the woman who had suddenly appeared in the hot spring.

The woman turned her head and looked back at Tetsu no Sosuke.

Both of them were taken aback, equally bewildered.

After a moment of staring at each other, Tetsu no Sosuke let out a dry cough and held out the rice ball in his hand. "Want some?"