章節 43: Swordsmith Village Arc (Part 1)

"Now, let's truly see the appearance of the blade and if you've kept it in good repair, shall we?" Tecchin says maniacally, most likely vying for the chance to beat me up.

Entering what appeared to be Tecchin's own personal workshop, Tecchin immediately heated an instrument, pulled my sword out as far as he could, and plunged the heated instrument into the gap between the sheathe and sword. Having pulled the sheathe backwards, Tecchin then proceeded to pour a liquid into the sheathe until it eventually overflowed from the edges. Seeing Tecchin tug on the blade once more, it comes out glistening. Wiping the sword down with a towel, Tecchin examines the blade closely.

"It appears as though this blade has not yet failed you. And such an interesting color to boot. This old coot is certainly proud of such fine work. It'll take some time to make a new sheathe for this weapon, so please, rejoin your friends and enjoy our springs. They're rather useful when trying to remove stress."

Bowing to Tecchin, I arrive at the hot springs to find everyone except Rengoku inside it. Rengoku was just standing on the edge of the spring, smiling while staring off into the distance. Not even wanting to ask why he was just standing there, I joined everyone else in the spring.

"Shiro, I met Genya Shinazugawa when we came here, but he immediately hit me and then ran away. And I thought that we could be friends since we were both in the nude. Man-relationships are had." Tanjiro happily exclaims, floating over to me.

"Sanemi has a brother?" I scratch my head, clearly not remembering having ever met one of Shinazugawa's siblings when I was being taught under him. "Oh well, not like it's important anyway."

The time in the hot springs ended rather quickly and I was immediately met with a crying Mitsuri, who's bosom looked like it was about to spill out.

"Shiro… Listen! I got ignored! I greeted him and he ignored me!"

"Who did?" I ask.

"I don't know!!! I asked him his name and he ignored me! Isn't that just cruel? I'm a pillar! Now all that good energy I got from coming out of the spring is completely gone!"

"Well, the boy you met at the spring might have been Genya Shinazugawa, someone from Inosuke's batch."

"Oh! Is that so…" Mitsuri deflates, "That'd mean he's Shinazugawa's Little Brother, right? But he told me he didn't have one. Mabey, they don't get along. That's so tragic."

"Truly, now let's go and eat dinner, I hear that they're using Matsutake Mushrooms."

Reinflating, Mitsuri exclaims, "Whoaaaa!!! You Serious!?"

Following the scurrying Mitsuri, all of us sit at the Chabudai. Before I can even get halfway through my meal, I look over at both Rengoku and Mitsuri who already have several bowls stacked next to them.

Yet almost like she was feeling my gaze, Mitsuri turns toward me and worriedly asks, "Do you not like woman who eat a lot of food?"

"I don't mind."

This instantly brightens Mitsuri's demeanor, and she eats with even more gusto. Ending the meal with me feeding Kanao, I watch as Mitsuri instantly integrates herself amongst the Kamado Family, having all of the children hug her within three minutes.

"How?" Is all I can utter.

"Well, I have five siblings and I get along with all of them. So, I guess I was just bred to handle children." Mitsuri seemed to realize the implication of her words as I watched her face grow crimson. Yet, she didn't even try and correct her mistake.

As if to add fuel to the flames, Tanjiro, completely unaware of the mood, asked Mitsuri, "Kanroji-san, why did you join the Demon Slayers?"

"Huh? Me? It's kinda embarrassing… see… I joined so that I could find a gentleman who would marry me for life!! Girls naturally like men who are stronger than themselves. Girls want to be protected by them you get it. Mabey this is hard for a man to understand." Throughout Mitsuri's explanation, she'd constantly shoot gazes over to me.

Tanjiro was of course completely confused by her reasoning, but I saw a couple of nods come from Shinobu, Kanao, and Nezuko.

Hopping on over to me, Mitsuri then whispers into my ear, "I heard there's a secret weapon in this village that makes people stronger. Let's go look for it."

Hearing the word secret in a sentence, my curiosity instantly shot up and I left the group alongside Shinobu, Mitsuri, Kanao, and an also ever-curious Nezuko.

"What are we looking for?" Shinobu asks.

"Dunno, I just heard that there's a weapon that's hidden out here. Could be a sword, or it could be something else."

"Pretty." Kanao commented the woody scenery that surrounded us.

Nodding my head in agreeance, I see slight movement in the forest, and it turns out that it's Muichiro Tokito who's getting yelled at by what appears to be a kid.

"Oh Muichiro~!" Mitsuri yells, and I can visibly see a shiver run up Tokito's spine as he robotically turns his neck towards us.

Yet upon connecting eyes with me, Tokito let out a sigh.

Making our way over to him, the kid? begins to yell at him.

"Go away! I'm not handing my key over, no matter what! And I definitely ain't teaching you how to use it."

This reattracts Tokito and he raises his hand against the kid before then lapping him across the face. Watching as the kid crumbles to the ground, Tokito then leans down and grabs him by the collar, easily hoisting him up.

Rubbing my eyes tiredly, I say, "10/10 Tokito, but may I ask why it is that you're beating that kid up?"

"He has something I want."

"Get off me!" The kid screams, "I- I'm not handing this key over to anyone. Not even under torture. 'It' is gonna break very soon!!"

"Have you even been under torture?" I start.

"Not even adults can endure it, so it's impossible for you." Shinobu adds.

"It seems like you're just a dumb kid who doesn't know his place." Tokito finishes. "And so what if it breaks? Just make another? You know, in all this time that you've been grumbling and mumbling, do you know how many people have died?"

"!?" The kid reacts.

"This is what happens when you get in the way of a pillar. Unlike you people, a pillar's time is extremely important. You understand that if you thought a little. Swordsmith can't fight. They can't save lives. Making weapons is all they're good for. Come on. KEY. Understand your place when you act. You're not a baby anymore you know."

"Oi, Tokito." I stare at him threateningly, "You're going a bit far there, your words are a bit cruel. Plus, so what if swordsmiths can't fight. Demon Slayers depend on them every living moment. If what they made is to fail us, then in turn we die, and no one is saved. So, instead of saving the lives of everyone, which is our job, they save our lives, that's their job."

Tokito stares at me blankly before turning back to the kid and holding his hand out, "Key."

The kid looked between me and Tokito, but eventually gave up on resisting Tokito, handing over a very rusted key.

Watching as Tokito happily walked away, the kid speaks to me, "I thank you for speaking up for me…"

"And I apologize for being unable to let you keep that key of yours." I bow. "What was is for anyway?"

"It was for a mechanical doll. It's something that my ancestors made, and it has one hundred and eight different movements. It easily surpasses that of humans, so it's used as a training dummy."

"So, Tokito is going to use it to train…"

"Yes, but it's slowly deteriorating, and it might break soon."

Immediately after saying that, a *crack* sounded out, alerting all of us.

"He's already started?"

"Seems so." Mitsuri answers.

Heading in the direction we saw Tokito head, we see Tokito dodging against the strikes of a doll.

"That… is the battle doll my ancestors made long ago. Yorichi Zeroshiki"

"Six arms?" I hear Kanao ask.

"It's arms? Well, according to my dad… this doll is modeled after an actual swordsman. They had to give it six arms, or they couldn't replicate his movements."

"And those swords it holds are real, right?"

"Of course." The kid boasts. "And this battle doll dates back to the sengoku era."

"It's more than three hundred years old?" Shinobu exclaims, "And it still hasn't broken?"

"Its construction is so superb that we can't hope to achieve that level even now. So, if it breaks, we can't fix it anymore… My dad died suddenly, and I have no siblings. So, I must be the one to fix it. But I don't have the talent to fix blades or dolls… The name's Kotetsu by the way."

Upon utterance of his name, I watch as Tokito cuts through the armor of the battle doll. Kotetsu sees the same thing and immediately runs away, tears streaming from his eyes. Sending Mitsuri to closely follow him, Tokito rips an arm from the doll so that he can replace his nicked blade. Stalking past us, I make my way over to the doll and stare down at it.

"Can it move again?" Nezuko asks, feeling bad for Kotetsu.

"Well, let's see."

Lifting the doll from the ground, I place it upright, its sword arms sticking straight out. For a moment nothing happens, but then the doll goes into motion, taking a swordsman stance. And Kotetsu comes back at just the right moment to see exactly that.

"It's moving Kotetsu-kun. By the way, name's Shiro."

"That it is, Shiro, now, please become stronger that that shitty indifferent jerk…!! I'll help you."

"Ah, sorry Kotetsu, but that'll be impossible."

"Huh!? Why's that?"

"Because I already am."

Kotetsu stares at me for a moment before being just like Tecchin and slapping my face silly. "Then why didn't you beat him up?"

"Because he was once my teacher, so it wouldn't feel right." I answer then I turn to Kanao and Shinobu, "Yet these two can beat him up for you, so why don't you let them train with this battle doll?"

"Eh, but they look kinda weak to me."

Appearing next to Kotetsu in a moment, Shinobu looms over him, "Say that again, I dare you."

After that and setting Shinobu and Kanao up with a movement teacher, I watched as the days passed and they got better at moving and fighting with a sword, even getting stronger. Kotetsu tried to starve them, but I prevented that from happening.

Within a week, the two of them could finally land hits on the doll and Shinobu, who was borrowing a full blade, sliced the neck of the doll, also shattering the blade that she held. As the head of the doll fell off, it revealed a hidden blade.

"So, it appears that a 300-year-old blade was stuck in this thing. No wonder such a mechanism can't ever be replicated, the intent of that sword is what's been keeping it going." I gape.

"No, that's wrong, there are actual mechanism in this thing." Kotetsu deadpans. "But anyway, whichever of you want this, p-p-please take it!"

Without even a moment of hesitation, Kanao struts up to the blade, rips it from the doll, and then partially unsheathes it, revealing that it's rusted. Yet, upon that revelation, something started to break through the underbrush, revealing a completely jacked Haganezuka.

"I've seen everything… Leave it… to me…" Taking the blade from Kanao's hand without receiving resistance, Haganezuka continues, "I will deal with the rusted blade. Allow me to refine it with my Nichirin Polishing skills that have been passed down the Haganezuka line for generations."

Watching as Haganezuka disappears into the undergrowth of the forest, we head back to our residence.

Late at night, I still wonder as to why it was that my sword sheath and sword itself still hadn't come back to me, since it had been over a weak since I had sent it in. So, here I was now, with Kanao clinging to my side, walking to Tecchin's residence.

Along the way, I see a small pot on the middle of a path.

"Ooh, pretty pot."

Yanking Kanao backward when she tries to head towards it, I stare at the pot, unmoving.

"Not even I can get a break for long, can I?" I sigh.

"Why?"

"It's almost like I'm a magnet for dangerous individuals, for you see, my dear Kanao, that pot is a belonging of an Upper Moon Demon… Meaning, the Village has been invaded."