Opening her eyes the next day, Kiyomi followed her morning routine as she went straight back to working on her project after it.
Working all day and night, she finally waited for this moment.
Doing the finishing touches of another part of her "Walking in the Sun" equipment set, the abnormally large paper umbrella sat there in all its glory.
She had put a lot of effort into designing a beautiful umbrella, but in the end, she just went for a simple light purple paper and some carvings on the handle.
Kiyomi, who was admiring her work of art, selected the skills and began to prepare for her evening ritual dance.
The skill that she selected was [Sun Protection].
When standing in the shadow created by the paper umbrella, she will not be burned. Even after leaving the shadow of the paper umbrella, she gains a minute of sun immunity.
The second skill, which was randomly generated, was [Size Variation].
It allowed Kiyomi to make the paper umbrella bigger and smaller at will. This randomly generated skill was also the one to make Kiyomi grumble in annoyance.
'I made the umbrella bigger so that the shadow created would be larger. Do you know how much easier it would've been if I had made smaller umbrellas?! Huh!?!'
She decided that she wanted to test the umbrella.
Walking to the door, Kiyomi casually opened the umbrella above her head and greeted sunlight shining upon her.
As expected, the light that got through the paper umbrella didn't burn Kiyomi at all.
Kiyomi smiled triumphantly.
"Onee-san! You can walk in the sun again?! That's great!"
Tanjiro was standing a few meters away from where Kiyomi was, still holding the wooden sword in his hands.
His cheerful smile almost eclipsing the sun that was shining even more brightly as if saying "Hey! I'm the sun! Not you!"
"Mmm~ But I have to be under this umbrella, otherwise I'd still have to stay indoors."
"Eh~~? Really? But you'll still be able to teach me right, onee-san?"
With hopeful stars in his eyes, Tanjiro looked pitifully at Kiyomi.
"Of course! You are still practicing right now, correct? Show me what you've learned!"
"Yes!"
Tanjiro started to try and imitate Kiyomi's sword styles he had seen before Kiyomi left for Yoshiwara.
Analyzing Tanjiro's progress, Kiyomi concluded that Tanjiro undoubtedly can now enter total concentration breathing whenever he wants, even though the time might just be a Lil ~ bit short.
However, the breath of the moon sword style he imitated has completely deviated from their original form and intended use!
'Seems like he and the breath of the moon are not compatible.. Maybe I should remind him of the Kagura dance?' Kiyomi thought as she continued to watch and estimate Tanjiro's physical capabilities.
Finishing the demonstration with one last swing, Tanjiro wiped off the sweat on his forehead and smiled at Kiyomi like the good student he is.
"Kiyomi-sensei! How did I do?!"
"Eh!?! Why are you calling me sensei?!! I'm your big sister you know!!"
"Ah~ Well, since you've been teaching me a lot of things, I just wanted to call you sensei!"
"Ho?? Well... I guess it's fine. But you cannot call me sensei when anyone else is around, got it?!"
That would be very awkward, having your own sibling calling you 'sensei'.
Kiyomi shuttered to know what outcomes would it cause if anyone knew.
Only compared Tanjiro with the average adult male, Kiyomi truthfully told Tanjiro her analysis.
After giving him a training plan for him to follow, Kiyomi took the sword from Tanjiro's hand and set aside the umbrella on the side.
The sunlight touching her skin made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
It's like sticky water sticking to you when you have no way to wash it off.
'I have 1 minute starting now.'
Demonstrating the basics, Kiyomi explained the names of each swing and stance while doing so.
Finishing the demonstration in slightly under a minute, Kiyomi quickly opened the umbrella and stood under the shade.
She Instantly felt refreshed.
"Tanjiro, did you memorize the demonstration?"
"I memorized it!"
"Good. Now before I forget, you are to forget the sword style I use and start from the basics. I'll check up on you another day, Tan-ji-ro~! Byeee~"
Kiyomi ran off into the forest to find Tanjuro with the umbrella still shielding her from the sun.
Soon, Kiyomi arrived at their annual ritual site.
The sun has almost set, and they quickly got together all they need for their respective Kagura dance.
Starting the dance with her activating her blood demon art, Kiyomi felt something, or someone, watching her.
Her slayer mark that was on her neck also resurfaced and started to gather moonlight while Kiyomi kept dancing.
Kiyomi only felt that her neck was cold and involuntarily shrunk her neck a little, but she quickly unshrank her neck as she still needed to continue the ritual.
Dancing until sunrise, Kiyomi sped up as she narrowly dodges under the shadow of her umbrella, escaping the clutches of the sunlight.
Relieved, Kiyomi stopped her demon blood art.
The instant she did that, her system window popped up.
<> Blood Purification Results <>
<> Silently breaks Muzan's bond and restrictions <>
<> Note: Ritual can and will only be done once every year <>
Reading the results, the back of Kiyomi was instantly drenched in sweat. Not from the temperature, but cold sweat from nervousness.
'Muzan. He doesn't know that my family is the one he's vowed to kill, right?'
Kiyomi took a deep breath and reassured herself that Muzan wouldn't care about someone as insignificant as herself.
Walking home with Tanjuro, Kiyomi pondered about Muzan and the ritual results last year.
'Why isn't dad interested in knowing my secrets? And would Muzan change his plan and come here earlier than planned? These are the main questions here...'
Staring at the tall yet weakened Tanjuro, Kiyomi suddenly recalled that Tanjuro has an incredible skill that even Kokushibo could not reach in his human lifetime.
"Transparent World, right, dad?"
Once again shocked by her smart and mature daughter, Tanjuro almost tripped and fell to the ground in surprise.
"How did you know?"
"Well, I was wondering why you didn't want to know my secrets... But I guess you already knew some of them, right?"
Not breaking conversation between them, they walked in sync back home.
"...I admit, I do know that you were a kitsune when you were a kid, but what surprises me is that you were still human when I first found you."
Not bothering to hide it from her weakening and sick father anymore, Kiyomi made the umbrella bigger and unleashed her hybrid form.
Her cute loli form instantly became a very beautiful woman with fluffy tails behind her back and cute fox ears on her head.
"I wonder how I look like in the Transparent World? I changed my entire body shape, so does that change what you see in the Transparent World too?"
"....."
"Dad?"
"...I'm just suddenly very glad I have two cute daughters."
You can see Tanjuro trying very hard to hold back his emotional tears.
"...???...Wha..."
Opening her mouth and closing it, Kiyomi decided to just keep silent.
'What's up with him all of a sudden?'
"Right, I also have another thing to confess."
"..What is it?"
Taking a deep breath, Kiyomi calmly said, "The main reason I can't walk in the sun is that I'll be burned by the sunlight until I'm dead. And the process is only a few seconds if I was weak enough."
"...So you're also a demon that was in the folklore?"
"Yes, the man-eating kind of demons. But I eat fish."
Now, Tanjuro was even more confused.
"..Fish? I mean now I understand why your body refused to ingest anything other than fish but... fish???"
"Fish." Kiyomi reaffirmed.
"Fish.." Tanjuro repeated, dazed by the surprise brought by his adopted daughter.
"Yep."