Handsome...handsome guy?
Hearing Chika's shout from afar, Tokito Muichiro was momentarily stunned, and the sword he was about to swing stopped.
It was such a close call! If Muichiro's sword had cut down another 10 or 20 centimeters, this precious automaton would have lost an arm.
Chinatsu and Mitsuri emerged from the bushes not far away, and Muichiro slowly opened his mouth as he watched the two who had suddenly appeared.
"It's you...you're all here too..."
Muichiro spoke indifferently, using "you" to describe Chinatsu and Mitsuri out of helplessness. In this state, Muichiro couldn't even name the members of the Demon Slayer Corps; they were all no different from small animals in his eyes.
Shinobu Kocho: A tiny swallow
Uzui Tengen: A monkey who loves to pat his own head
Obanai Iguro: The Quiet Wildcat
Beiming Island Xingming: The Strong Bear
Kyojuro Rengoku: The Passionate Owl
Kanroji Mitsuri: A beautiful little chick
Sanemi Shinazugawa: A wolf with a seemingly volatile exterior but a gentle heart
Giyu Tomioka: An Immovable Display
As for Chinatsu...
Muichiro looked at Chinatsu in front of him, and for a moment he couldn't say what Chinatsu resembled, but he was certain that she was definitely not a "display object".
"Why are you stopping me?" Muichiro tilted his head slightly, puzzled, and asked.
Chika approached the mechanical figure with a disgruntled expression, checked its injuries, and breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that the mechanical figure had simply lost its mobility due to aging mechanisms.
"You, you, these mechanical figures are very precious. You treat them like cabbages by the roadside. Once you cut one down, you can't make a second one."
"Oh, I see. Well then, the training objective has been achieved, and the results are alright, but they're somewhat disappointing..."
Muichiro said something indifferently and turned to leave. However, before leaving, he took one of the six Nichirin Blades from the mechanical man's hand, because his own Nichirin Blade had been quite worn during the battle with the mechanical man.
As Muichiro left, Mitsuri watched his departing figure with some worry, and said softly, "Tokito-kun joined the Demon Slayer Corps in a state of amnesia. It's really worrying. I hope he can regain his memory soon..."
Chinatsu, who was standing next to her, nodded. Although Muichiro was a Pillar and looked mature, he was actually only 14 years old, younger than Tanjiro, and the same age as Nezuko.
As Muichiro left, Mitsuri sighed, turned around, and focused her gaze on the Yoriichi automaton again, reaching out to take one of the Nichirin Blades held in the automaton's hand.
"Breath of Flame!"
Mitsuri carefully switched her Breath of Love to Breath of Flame. Small flames appeared on the Nichirin Blade in her hand, and then... nothing happened.
Mitsuri awkwardly scratched the back of her head and said, "Before Mr. Rengoku became the Flame Pillar, I followed him to learn Flame Breathing. After Mr. Rengoku became the Flame Pillar, I became his [stepchild].
However, my learning of Flame Breathing was never very smooth. In the end, I created Love Breathing based on Flame Breathing and became the Love Pillar. Looking at these ordinary Nichirin Blades in front of me, I couldn't help but think back to the time when I was still training Flame Breathing under Mr. Rengoku...
Mitsuri placed the Nichirin Blade back into the automaton's hand, and soon after, Kotetsu, who was in charge of Yoriichi's automaton, rushed over.
"That...that..."
"Don't worry about us, Muichiro has already left. You should quickly check if there's anything wrong with this automaton."
"oh oh!"
Xiao Tie quickly walked over to the Yoriichi automaton, and after some fiddling, the Yoriichi automaton restarted, and Xiao Tie finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Xiao Tie wasn't stupid; he immediately realized that the two people beside him had protected his mechanical puppet. He turned to face Qianxia and Mili and bowed deeply.
"Thank you so much. This automaton has been managed by our family for generations, but I don't have the skills to forge swords or repair automatons. If it really breaks, I won't be able to fix it and I won't be able to face my ancestors..."
Xiao Tie's words were full of self-blame and inferiority about his abilities. Qian Xia took two steps forward, squatted down, and reached out to touch his head.
"You're at most 10 years old, right? Don't say you have no talent at such a young age. Even I, a layman, think this mechanical man is amazing. It's not shameful for a 10-year-old not to be able to fix this mechanical man. You need to have confidence in yourself."
Chika smiled and expressed her opinion to Kotetsu. Although Kotetsu was wearing a mask, the tears streaming through the gaps were enough to prove his current feelings.
"Um!"
………………
night.
Tanjiro sat cross-legged on the floor of the wooden house. Ever since he recalled the concept of the "transparent world" that his father had talked about when he was a child from Chinatsu, he had been working hard to train in that direction.
Even after sitting cross-legged for a day and a night, Tanjiro didn't feel much growth. After all, this was the Transparent World, and it was very difficult to train without the aid of life and death.
Beside him lay an ordinary Nichirin Blade. This was not his own blade that had been forged; it was merely a substitute provided by the sword-forging village before his own Nichirin Blade was completed. However, even as a substitute, it was still of a fairly good quality.
"The level my father mentioned is really difficult to achieve, but I will work hard. I have a feeling that if I can achieve that, my strength will increase dramatically!"
Tanjiro was filled with fighting spirit. The next moment, the door he was in was pushed open. Tanjiro turned his head and looked at the door. It turned out that Chinatsu and Mitsuri had returned.
"Good evening, elder sister and Miss Kanroji!"
"Hello, Tanjiro and Nezuko!"
Chinatsu and Mitsuri sat down in the room and asked each other what everyone had done that day. Just then, Tokito Muichiro happened to pass by in the corridor.
Chinatsu quickly noticed Muichiro. She turned to look at him in the corridor and asked, "Muichiro? Is something the matter?"
Muichiro, who had been called to a stop, turned his head towards Chinatsu and saw a group of people huddled together with her. Puzzled, he walked into the room step by step.
"I'm looking for the swordsmith in Iron Cave Forest. Do you know him?"
"I know him! I know him!"
Tanjiro eagerly raised an arm from the crowd, and Muichiro, seeing this, found a spot and slowly sat down, asking Tanjiro about the Iron Cave Forest.
Tetsuya Mori is Muichiro's new swordsmith. The Nichirin Blade he took from the automaton was ultimately just a replacement. When the blade broke, he naturally had to forge a new one. However, he did not know this swordsmith, nor did he know where he was.
The people in the room chatted casually until their door was slowly pushed open from the outside, and a dry, brittle hand reached into the room…
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