Roy pushed open the door and entered the forest.
Winter had passed, and the green plants of early spring were starting to sprout... The eternally sunless Sagiri yama was now faintly tinged with green, teeming with life...
Sabito silently followed him out, while Makomo stayed with Urokodaki Sakonji, occasionally stirring up a shadowy wind to help clear away the wood shavings scattered by the carving, before heading out....
Roy maintained his stance, his feet rooted to the ground, using his waist as a fulcrum to drive his core, activating his elbows to coordinate with his hands, swinging and cutting non-stop, with nearly five thousand strikes completed.
"How many cuts now?" Makomo leapt into the tree and stood with Sabito.
Having become confused after counting past three thousand, she decisively gave up and left the task to Sabito.
"Four thousand nine hundred."
"Hmm?"
Makomo glanced at the time of day; there was still a long stretch of daylight before dusk, and it was already four thousand nine hundred cuts. Could it be...
"Is Eiichiro going to break through today?"
"I'm not sure if he'll break through." Sabito said, "I only know that he ate some dumplings and drank some hot tea, taking a half-hour rest in between."
Makomo: "...."
That's just like him... If it were someone else, their jaw might have dropped.
The young girl reminded herself not to be surprised; she should have been used to it by now... Her gaze went blankly towards Roy, and with a lift of her brows, she was startled again. How come, after a night, Eiichiro seemed to have grown taller?
"You noticed too?"
The young swordsman's sleeves and pants cuffs were noticeably shorter, revealing his wrists and ankles...
Sabito sighed faintly: "When my parents were still alive, they once told me a story, saying not to enter the bamboo forest after rain, lest the bamboo shoots rise quickly and whip people."
"I didn't believe it back then, but now..."
The fox-faced boy laughed at himself: "Even if Eiichiro suddenly told me he was transformed from bamboo, I wouldn't be surprised."
"You're joking, senior," Roy lifted his hand for another cut, the blade light whistled, scattering the mist.
"I'm not joking." Sabito crossed his arms enviously, "If I had one-tenth of your strength back then, I wouldn't have died at that guy's hands."
"I don't even need one-tenth; I'd be fine with one-twentieth," Makomo, resting her chin in her hand, called out to Roy, "Hey~ Eiichiro, can you tell me what to eat to grow as fast as you?"
The young girl was always hung up on her height, even in death she still remembered... Sabito glanced at her helplessly, not knowing what to say.
Roy swung his sword again, smiled, and didn't answer.
He couldn't possibly say "Eat you."
It concerned soul resentment, and the current senior fellow disciples were not necessarily any worse off than Muriel Antonio's sister, especially since they practiced Breathing Techniques, their souls were refined and almost tangible, certainly... with abundant Life Energy.
At this thought, Roy was surprised to find that he was suddenly tempted by "craving," having the notion of targeting his fellow disciples, furrowing his brow as he quickly realized something was amiss...
Inside his own inner world, there were actually many "negative emotions" lurking, usually unnoticed, now surfaced when he calmed down for careful examination...
Some came from the vengeful spirits killed by the terrorist "Joker," some were from the girls tortured to death by the "Meat Grinder" Harrison and other Nen users, some from "Muriel Antonio's" sister and victims he turned into "artworks" and pressed into meat paste, and even... Minamino Guangzhi whom Roy first rescued was among them....
These "victims" themselves held no malice towards Roy, always lurking without any intention to riot, until——
Today, prompted by Makomo's words, the "craving" stirred, beginning to be active...
Roy furrowed his brows, pondering... As an individual, a person is inherently complex, the "human heart" can never be entirely immaculate, there will always be a bright side and a sordid side... They exist separately, yet are opposites unified...
That being said,
'Since I chose to accept them, inevitably I must also accept their "sordidness" as well...'
The young man gradually gained clarity, raised his hand for a slash, but it veered off.....
'This is the so-called "law of equivalent exchange," to enhance strength, one must bear the risks brought by "increased strength"...'
"Shh——"
Sabito noticed that Roy's stance had already deformed and quickly advised Makomo not to distract him further.
Makomo, understanding the situation, kept silent.
Roy, with his brow tightly knit, having realized the problem, promptly adjusted his stance back to normal, continued swinging his sword, his mind racing, contemplating how to eradicate these negative emotions, otherwise if they accumulate, it's highly possible, as his father Silva mentioned... to have a distorted mind, succumbing to madness...
Unnoticed over time....
The young man swung his sword,
The count surpassed five thousand, five thousand five hundred... five thousand six hundred... five thousand seven hundred... five thousand nine hundred... nearly reaching six thousand...
At the moment when Sabito counted to "five thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine"——
The setting sun broke through the mist, casting a beam on Roy's face, warmth spreading through his heart,
He paused slightly, his eyes "boom" ignited with two suns....
Shattering the illusions and confusion...
'Yes... The sun rises, the night departs...'
'As long as there's sunlight, all filth naturally retreats....'
A spark of enlightenment...
Roy, inspired spiritually, gently closed his eyes, silently visualizing the sun in his heart,
"Buzz..." An inexplicable rhythm emanated outward from him as the center, penetrating Sabito and Makomo, causing their spiritual bodies to quake!
Taking another look, focusing... the Shallow Strike gripped in Roy's hands began to glow with spots of red,
At first only a sparse few dots, then a line, subsequently connecting into a whole, and finally spreading across the entire blade, blooming a dazzling red glow in the ever-foggy Sagiri yama...
As the young man slashed diagonally——
All the "negative" emotions lurking deep within his heart crumbled at a single blow, transforming into wispy black smoke, flew out from the top of his head, dispersed by the wind into nothingness...
Next came a massive fiery slash, extending nearly thirty meters, severing the wooden posts, gouging the ground, cleaving the birch tree, stopping at an inch from Urokodaki Sakonji's toe...
"Boom!"
The birch tree toppled, stirring up swirling snow....
Amidst a vast expanse of white, the old man who came to observe his disciple practicing under the cover of night, his "Celestial Dog Mask" on his face cracked and fell in half, revealing a shocked and speechless wizened face beneath!
'A red blade... burning with flame-like Sword Qi...' His memory instantaneously reverted to years past, the day his cherished disciple... Tomioka Giyu completed training, also the day of his own sorrowful disappointment...
That day, Giyu passed the Mount Fujikasane selection with Sabito's help, formally becoming a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, waiting at home for the swordsmith to deliver his sword... He clearly remembered the words spoken by the other party when letting Giyu test the sword——
He was looking for a swordsman who could make the Nichirin Sword turn red, or rather... the entire Swordsmith Village was searching for this swordsman...
And now...
"Haganetsuka Hotaru, the person you were looking for, has been found..."