"'The nine heavens hang inverted, hiding the Milky Way'… is that a new haiku?"
"No. I came across it while buying books earlier. It's a verse form called[poetry]from a country across the sea." Hiru smiled faintly. "The wording is a bit hard to understand, but it reads so simply and elegantly that I studied it a little.
They say this style was brought over before the Heian period, but because it's obscure, very few people study it. I only became interested in it in the last two hundred years."
Yoriichi's fingers brushed lightly along his sword hilt. "Poetry, huh…"
"Ah—sorry. Did it make you think of your wife?"
"A little. But after all this time, she must have reincarnated already." Yoriichi sat down beside Hiru, lifting his head to look at the full moon hanging seemingly within reach. "Even now, I still feel a bit of regret."
"What?"
Hiru's eyes moved between Yoriichi and his sketchbook before he set his brush aside. "Brother, what responsibility are you taking on yourself this time?"
"I regret that all this time, I've been unable to give her a world without demons." Yoriichi lowered his head and set his long sword horizontally across his lap, gently tracing the patterns on the scabbard. After a moment he spoke again, "But it should be soon. Miss Tamayo said Muzan has recently started acting more openly, and the so-called Twelve Kizuki have become unusually active. If we can just get accurate information…"
"Mm. Yes. Once we have the exact location—and with you here—it'll end quickly."
"Yes. I hope so." Yoriichi paused. "Speaking of which, Hiru probably doesn't know."
"What?" Hiru turned toward him. "What don't I know?"
"My older brother's Breathing Style—it's the Breath of the Moon."
Yoriichi lifted his face again, and the bright full moon reflected in his eyes made him look, for a moment, like a white-haired, pale-eyed divine who had wandered into the human world. But his voice carried unmistakable sorrow.
"A moon that should have been pure and flawless…"
Hiru froze briefly, then fell silent. After a long while, he picked his brush back up. "Yes… it should have been flawless."
After that, neither of them spoke again. Hiru quietly sketched the landscape before him, while Yoriichi meditated beside him. They stayed there until sunrise the next morning, when the light refracted through the mist rising from the waterfall, creating bands of rainbow-colored glow. Only then did they get up and head back toward Urokodaki's cabin.
...
As they neared the hut, Yoriichi suddenly turned his head toward the forest. "Mr. Urokodaki?"
Only then did Hiru follow his gaze, eyes settling on a thick tree. "There… I didn't hear footsteps, but judging by the presence, yes—it should be Mr. Urokodaki."
Wearing a wave-patterned haori, Urokodaki stepped slowly out from behind the tree. He was inwardly surprised by their sharp senses, though his expression remained unreadable.
"You certainly took your time finding that wood."
Hiru instantly lowered his head. "Sorry. After getting lost, I got distracted by the scenery."
"Scenery?" Urokodaki looked him over. "What scenery could this foggy mountain possibly have?"
"The beautiful sight of moonlight pouring down like a waterfall!"
Hiru lifted his head and took out his sketchbook, offering it enthusiastically. "Because the humidity was too heavy, I only did a rough sketch. I'll try to redo it properly in the next few days. Though black and white suits that pure atmosphere, without color it still feels like something's missing…"
Urokodaki stared at the drawing in silence for a long moment before finally speaking. "…It seems you truly dislike swordsmanship."
"Huh?"
"If you devoted even a third of your artistic talent to swordsmanship, you wouldn't have thrown your blade at a demon during the exam." Urokodaki closed the sketchbook and handed it back. "Let me see the wood you gathered."
"Okay!" Hiru removed the basket from his back. "Here they are!"
Urokodaki looked at the evenly sized pieces of wood—each one covered in knots. After a moment of silence, he said,
"Hiru."
"Yes?"
"Go find smoother pieces."
"I specifically picked these…" Hiru lifted one of the logs. "Look at this grain—"
"You're just a beginner." Urokodaki ignored Hiru's disappointment. "But don't waste them. Go practice splitting them. Start with a wood-splitting axe, then use a katana, and finish with a dagger. When you can split them all evenly into pieces as thick as a finger, then bring me the wood."
"Huh?! Why do I have to split firewood?"
"To learn woodcarving, you must understand your own body. Controlling your strength is the most basic first step." Urokodaki walked toward the cabin with his hands tucked inside his sleeves. "If you can't even do that, then don't learn."
Yoriichi smiled as he watched Hiru puff out his cheeks before sulking off with his wood toward the chopping area behind the cabin. Then he followed Urokodaki's steps.
"Mr. Urokodaki really is an excellent teacher. All these years, I've never once managed to get Hiru to practice this willingly."
"It's simply the common tendency of cultivators—we can't bear seeing good seedlings wasted." Urokodaki's voice was calm. "Too bad Hiru is only interested in drawing. I don't know how much this will help him."
"Sabito truly told you a lot."
"That Sabito boy rarely compliments anything, but this time he did speak quite a bit about the two of you." Urokodaki stopped walking and looked at Yoriichi. "I heard from Sabito that you can kill demons with an ordinary blade. Is that true?"
Yoriichi gave a slight nod. "As long as the Breathing Style's [Form] is embedded within the blade, yes. But this method easily damages the weapon. If someone isn't familiar with it, it's even more distracting. And it's an overloaded use of the technique, which can injure the lungs. So it's still best to channel the power of the [Form] properly through a Nichirin Blade."
"I see. And how did you come up with such a method?"
Yoriichi paused briefly, then smiled. "How should I put it... it was sort of an accident."
"Oh?"
"Hiru said he wanted to see a Breathing Style sword strike without the [Form] showing. He wanted to try drawing me. So I thought about concealing the [Form] entirely inside the blade." Yoriichi looked slightly embarrassed. "The moment I did that, the sword in my hand shattered completely. The fragments flew everywhere. It took years of practice to manage it properly afterward."
"Hmm… that truly is a bit of a fluke," Urokodaki said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "It's also fortunate that you're a genius."
"I'm just an ordinary man with some talent in swordsmanship," Yoriichi shook his head. "And the origin of this technique is so trivial it's embarrassing to explain."
"Doesn't that simply prove your talent?" Urokodaki resumed walking. "Whether it helps or not, would you like to join the Swordsman training later?"
Yoriichi froze for a brief moment, then a faint smile curved at his lips as he followed. "Then I'll gratefully accept."