The opening of the stripes

The wispy clouds dissipated, and the person opposite slowly walked out.

In just a moment, Tokito Muichiro felt that he had come to a very familiar place.

There are bamboo forests all around, and there are many wooden stakes standing in the open spaces. This is where he often trained when he first joined the Demon Slayer Corps.

Muichiro tightened his grip on the knife and saw the face of the demon in front of him. It was no longer just the size of the demon that had changed. The inky horns protruded from its forehead, and the pale skin was covered with mottled patterns.

There were also cloud-like patterns on the slightly loose and exposed chest. The sharp fingertips were bright red, and above the rotating pupils were written the words Upper Rank Four.

"Are you shocked?" [Muichiro] tilted his head, "Although I am not as good as Yuichi, my strength is not something you can challenge now."

"So, do your best to survive."

A smile appeared on the more mature face, followed by an attack towards the face.

Tokito Muichiro felt the pressure, and he almost held his breath to observe carefully. But the faster he dodged, the faster the opponent chased him.

Gradually, wounds of varying sizes appeared on his body. It was unknown whether it was due to excessive blood loss or hallucinations, but his movements became increasingly sluggish.

"Mushirou's 'nothing' means incompetent 'nothing'." A sentence suddenly rang out, and then echoed from all directions.

Tokito Muichiro suddenly raised his head, and then subconsciously retorted: "No! Don't talk like your brother!"

The other "Muichiro" simply twirled the knife in his hand and gave a mocking smile: "Isn't it? Be it dad, mom, or brother, you couldn't keep anything, right?"

After swallowing hard, the pair of pale blue eyes widened: "No, brother said that the "nothing" in Muichiro means - infinite nothing!"

The young man's voice was sonorous and powerful, and every word he spoke was clear and concise. Muichiro stopped smiling and felt inexplicably unhappy.

These were things his brother had never told him.

When the suffocation came, Tokito Muichiro dropped the knife because of the severe pain. The feeling of an iron hoop around his neck made it difficult for him to breathe.

A mocking voice echoed in my ears: "You even gave up the knife, are you ready to die?"

Muichiro could not answer, his chest rose and fell rapidly, his fingers turned white from exertion. He gradually felt his lungs aching under the strong pressure, and his body temperature gradually heated up due to the instinct of survival.

It seemed like a long time had passed, yet it seemed like only a moment had passed. When I felt my feet firmly on the ground again, my body was swaying and I could hardly stand steadily.

Everyone had different expressions, and from their pale faces covered in cold sweat, it could be seen that they had indeed suffered varying degrees of shock.

They fell into an illusion, but gradually they were no longer practicing against each other, but instead many scenes that they did not want to see appeared.

The loss of loved ones, companions, or even watching the only family member left in danger is such a terrible feeling that even if you pull away from it, you still feel the heaviness in your chest.

But perhaps because their lives were threatened and their emotions reached their peak, they more or less understood what the stripes were, but they were just one step away.

Feng Zhu rubbed his head and muttered something while swearing. Even though his hands hanging at his sides were clenched tightly, one could see that they were trembling slightly.

Shinobu Kocho observed the expressions of the others and confirmed her guess. She probably couldn't open the pattern, and what she saw in the illusion was not a painful scene, but a long-lost meeting with her sister who she rarely saw even in her dreams.

Everyone was asking each other questions, but Mitsuri Kanroji was unexpectedly quiet. She opened her mouth slightly and breathed rapidly as if she was in a trance.

Iguro Obanai was the first to notice the state of Renzhu. He took two steps closer and asked with a frown, "Ganlu Temple?"

This seemed to break some balance. The originally quiet room was shattered by the earth-shaking burst of crying.

"Wuwuwu, Dad, Mom - and everyone else!" Kanroji Mitsuri wiped her eyes vigorously, and big round tears fell, "Mr. Iguro?"

Through her tearful eyes, she saw Iguro Obanei, and she cried even harder, hugging the snake pillar in front of her.

"Mr. Iguro, Mr. Iguro, please don't die! Wuwu, Mr. Iguro, please don't die——"

The exposure of his emotions was enough to infect everyone. Iguro Obanai raised his hands at a loss, and the katani ball on his neck hissed.

"Ganlu Temple, Ganlu Temple, I am still here. Those are all illusions, don't take them seriously."

"Really? Woohoo..."

"Really, everyone is still here," Iguro Obane comforted, his body becoming stiff from being too close.

"That's great, Mr. Iguro!"

Rengoku Kyojuro was standing behind Kanroji Mitsuri. He had noticed the special reaction of the Love Pillar early on, but the latter actually passed him and hugged Iguro Obana first.

"Well! Mitsuri and Iguro have a very good relationship!" said the Flame Pillar in a loud voice.

Mitsuri Kanroji was stunned for a moment, then realized what she had done. Her face turned red and she covered her cheeks tightly with both hands: "Ah hey hey!"

Shinobu Kocho also smiled and said, "Mitsuri, they are all fake."

After calming down, Kanroji Mitsuri still lowered her head, and the tips of her ears were stained with red. But everyone present had sharp eyes, especially Iguro Obanai who was closest to her. Everyone saw the red heart pattern under the open collar.

"Is this... the pattern?" Fuzugawa Miyabi frowned as he observed, then felt something was wrong and looked away.

"Yes." Yuan, who had been quiet the whole time, nodded, "This is the stripes."

"Really? It seems that Mitsuri was the first to open the pattern." Rengoku Kyojuro nodded thoughtfully, and then began to look for it again, "Where is Tokito?"

At this time, Tokito Muichiro, who had already let go of the knife handle, was lying on the floor with his back. His face was even paler, and his sweaty clothes were heavy.

Although there were no wounds on its body, it looked very bad. The red cloud pattern on its cheeks was slowly fading.

Ichiro knelt down and let Muichiro put his head on his lap. He felt uneasy and angry belatedly, but he had no place to vent these emotions.

He wanted to scold Wuyilang for being so harsh, but he felt powerless because the two of them couldn't talk to each other.

After reaching out to stroke the boy's cheek, Ichiro gently wiped the sweat off Muichiro's face with his sleeve.

After that, Muichiro seemed to be deeply shocked and slept for a whole day and night.

The understanding of the patterns has also improved, and the next step is for the other members to be trained by the pillars.

"Can you do it? If not, you can practice swinging a sword a thousand times first. Remember, you have to do it within one hour."

"With this kind of strength, have you not eaten? Do you want to give the ghost a tickle?"

"Stand straight, you are holding a knife, not an embroidery needle."

The sharp and incisive words, coupled with the boy's harsh tone and expression, made everyone present tremble with fear.

So scary!

Compared to the heavy training of other pillars, the training of Kasumi Pillar is simply a double blow to the mind and body!

The one who said these harsh words was the twin brother who looked exactly like Kasumi-shira. Although Ichiro was a ghost, everyone accepted it well except for being frightened at the beginning.

So, looking at the expressionless Xiazhu, everyone looked at him for help.

Muichiro tilted his head and took the wooden sword from his brother: "Brother is right, your enemy is a demon. If you can't fight a demon, you might as well practice running away like Zenitsu."

Agatsuma Zenitsu was famous for being the fastest runner. On the first day of training with the pillars, he ran for a whole hour, but was still taken down by the Flame Pillar and the Sound Pillar.

It is said that the piercing sound of "killing pigs" scared the crows on the trees and made them fly away.

After threatening with a smile, Muichiro found Tanjiro who looked serious. He treated him differently and said, "Tanjiro is different, so do you want to try out my brother's special training?"

Tanjiro swallowed subconsciously, and when he met Ichiro's narrowed eyes, he smiled and rubbed his cheeks: "Then... please give me some advice?"

Tanjiro is the one recognized by Oichi who can open the mark, so not only the Mist Pillar, but also the other pillars pay special attention to him.

The training methods for each pillar are different, and in the case of the Love Pillar, the emphasis is on training the body's flexibility.

The bodies were bent into various shapes, and one could faintly hear the cracking sound of bones. Many people rubbed the hairs on their arms and stepped back subconsciously.

"Yeah! That's it, Nezuko." Mitsuri Kanroji encouraged with an admiring look, "You did a great job! Please keep it up."

The girl wiped the sweat from her forehead and smiled at the Love Pillar: "Yeah!"

During the break in training, Nezuko took the clean towel and washed her face with cool water. She was a little absent-minded, but she didn't know why she was distracted.

"Nezuko?" Shinobu Kocho passed by with a tray, "Have you seen Tanjiro?"

"Brother?" Nezuko raised her head. "He should be with the Flame Pillar. Mr. Rengoku seems to value him very much."

Butterfly endured it, and she just said, "Next time you have a break, go to the Butterfly House."

Nezuko blinked and understood, "Is it my brother?"

Her brother has been sleeping since he came to this world. He is rarely awake and it is difficult to communicate with him. But Mr. Yuanyi comforted her and said that her brother had something very important to do.

After saying goodbye to Shinobu Kocho, Nezuko happened to run into the Love Pillar who was carrying a mountain of sakura cakes. The latter had a distressed look on his face, but his eyes lit up when he saw her: "Nezuko!"

"I'm going to go to Mr. Purgatory to taste cherry blossom cakes together. Do you want to join us?" Kanroji Mitsuri invited, "We have prepared a lot of cherry blossom cakes today."

Inside the tray, sakura cakes were piled up into a small mountain. But Nezuko knew that in the past, Kanroji could handle it alone. Plus, with a faint blush on his face, it seemed that he had another purpose in looking for the Flame Pillar.

But the girl didn't expose him. She smiled and agreed, "My brother is there too. Let's go together."

Kanroji Mitsuri breathed a sigh of relief and nodded vigorously: "Yeah!"

At this time in the Butterfly House, three little girls gathered together, chattering away, with embarrassed and confused expressions on their faces.

Yuichiro, who was passing by, was about to look for Yuanyi, but the latter seemed to be hiding on purpose, and no one saw where he went.

"Excuse me, Master Ichiro." The little girl said timidly, and mustered up the courage to pull on Ichiro's sleeve. "Since Master Shinobu is not here, can you, can you help comfort Tanjiro?"

"Tanjiro?" Yuichiro paused.

He remembered that Tanjiro had just left and should have gone to the Flame Pillar for training. But he soon realized that the one who made the little girl embarrassed was probably another Tanjiro.

In the closed windowless room, the wooden box against the wall had been opened. The red-haired child with a gag on was hugging his knees with his eyes closed.