"Long time no see, Mr. Tsugikuni!"
As Tanjirou approached, he greeted Riezel with a hint of excitement.
"Oh, hey there." Riezel nodded. "It has indeed been a while."
Back when Riezel was first welcomed into the Rengoku residence by Kyoujurou, he and Tanjirou used to meet quite frequently. However, since he began developing his new breathing style, attempting to evolve Sun Breathing, he hadn't seen Tanjirou much.
Tanjirou would often drop by when Riezel was experimenting with Sun Breathing, but at that time, he was fully immersed in his experiment, neither noticing Tanjirou nor exchanging greetings with him.
On top of that, after Riezel completed the evolution of Sun Breathing, Tanjirou went off on missions, away from the headquarters.
From this, if counted, the two hadn't seen each other for at least a month or two, which could indeed be considered a long time.
After a month or two, there hadn't been any significant changes in Tanjirou's body, but his breathing had become much more balanced and stable than before, proving that he hadn't neglected his practice during this time.
His strength was still steadily increasing, steadily growing.
"So, you're in this village too?" Riezel asked casually.
"Yes!" Tanjirou nodded repeatedly. "Mr. Rengoku asked me to come here to practice. He said a big battle might be coming, and if I didn't want to be left behind, I'd better improve my strength as much as I could."
As he said this, Tanjirou cast an admiring gaze toward Riezel.
"I saw your training session just now. You're truly amazing, Mr. Tsugikuni! Even though the Hashira are so strong, you single-handedly defeated them…"
Although Tanjirou knew Riezel was strong, especially after witnessing him defeat the Upper Three with a single slash, he hadn't expected Riezel to become so powerful in just a few months, let alone to become the head instructor of the Demon Slayer Corps.
He had heard that the head instructor held the same status as the Master, which meant it was above the Hashira!
'Was it too impolite of me to just rush up and say hi like that? Should I bow down first, lower my head even lower than my knees?'
Luckily, as Tanjirou was thinking this, Riezel intervened timely, interrupting his drifting thoughts.
"Honestly, you're not bad yourself."
Riezel assessed Tanjirou with a glance.
"I can feel that you've gotten much stronger than before. Your strength should be close to a Hashira by now, right?"
Riezel wasn't just making idle talk.
During the incident on the Mugen Train, Tanjirou had already mastered 'Total Concentration - Constant.'
Since 'Total Concentration - Constant' was the minimum requirement to approach the strength of a Hashira, one could strive to reach the rank of Hashira by learning it.
Additionally, Tanjirou had also become Kyoujurou's Tsuguko after the incident, so while Riezel was evolving Sun Breathing, he received guidance from Kyoujurou.
Clearly, this made Tanjirou much stronger than he was during the incident. Although he hadn't reached the strength of a Hashira yet, he wasn't far off.
Currently, Tanjirou was probably equivalent to the limit of Level 3, just one step away from reaching Level 4, where the strength of the Hashira lay.
At this level of strength, disregarding the Upper Ranks for now, the Lower Ranks were definitely no longer Tanjirou's opponents.
If Tanjirou could awaken the Demon Slayer Mark as in the original work, he should immediately gain strength equivalent to a Hashira, right?
Unfortunately, the side effect of the Demon Slayer Mark was a problematic thing. Riezel didn't want to harm this innocent and kind-hearted boy, so he decided not to mention it.
"No, no, no, I still have a long way to go!"
Tanjirou shook his head repeatedly, not daring to accept Riezel's high praise.
Riezel didn't mind either and casually asked again.
"What about your two buddies? They didn't come to this village with you?"
"You mean Zenitsu and Inosuke? They did come!" Tanjirou said honestly. "It's just that Inosuke said he wanted to defeat the wild boars and bears in the area, so he headed into the mountains and disappeared. As for Zenitsu, after getting a letter yesterday and reading it, his face suddenly turned pale, and he vanished this morning."
"Is that so?"
Riezel paused for a moment, then quickly back to normal.
"What about your little sister? You didn't bring her along?"
As he asked this, Riezel gestured to Tanjirou's empty back.
Tanjirou's back, where the wooden box that should have been with him at all times was now missing.
"Ahh... that? Ahaha..." Tanjirou chuckled awkwardly. "Nezuko can't be exposed to sunlight after all. I came here to practice, so I just left her in the dorm."
"Umu." Riezel nodded in understanding. "Well, since you're here to practice, go find Rengoku; he's resting over there."
With that, he turned and was about to leave, but Tanjirou suddenly called out.
"Wait, Mr. Tsugikuni! Can I ask you something?"
At his question, Riezel halted his steps, turned around, and looked at Tanjirou with a smile.
"Do you want to ask about Sun Breathing?"
Riezel spoke as if he had seen through Tanjirou's intention.
"Y-You already knew?" Tanjirou was taken aback.
"I guess so..." Riezel nodded with a faint smile. "Ever since the incident of the Mugen Train, I thought you might ask me about this, but I didn't expect you to endure until now."
"Ahahaha... it's because I never found the right opportunity..." Tanjirou chuckled awkwardly while scratching his head.
"Then ask now." Riezel stated calmly, crossing his arms. "I'll tell you what I know."
"Thank you!" Tanjirou exclaimed joyfully, thanking him fervently.
"No worries, it's nothing." Riezel shook his head.
"In that case, I'll get straight to it."
Tanjirou stared earnestly at Riezel and began to ask the question that had been on his mind for months.
"Excuse me, do you know about Hinokami Kagura?"
"I do." Riezel nodded frankly. "That's the dance passed down through generations in your family, right?"
"Yes..." Tanjirou took a deep breath and continued, "My family lives on the mountain as charcoal sellers. It's been passed down for generations, and supposedly, we've been in this business for hundreds of years until my generation."
"I had a father, a mother, and many little brothers and younger sisters."
At this point, Tanjirou's face showed a hint of nostalgia and a tinge of sorrow.
"Two years ago, Kibutsuji Muzan attacked my family, killing them, and turning my little sister, Nezuko, into a demon..."
Tanjirou recounted the painful events, a story well known to Riezel, who was familiar with the original work.
Originally, Tanjirou led a happy, ordinary life, much like most people, just an insignificant member of society. His father, bedridden for years, had passed away earlier, leaving behind a small family.
Before Muzan's attack, the Kamado family had been relatively content, but after the attack, Tanjirou's peaceful and ordinary life came to a tragic end.
Due to his job of selling charcoal down the mountain, Tanjirou narrowly escaped death, but his family perished, leaving only one survivor, his younger sister—Kamado Nezuko.
Even though Nezuko survived, she fell victim to Muzan's transformation and became a demon that fed on humans.
If not for the deep bond between Tanjirou and Nezuko, and his success in awakening her human nature and preventing her from succumbing to her demonic instincts, his younger sister might have become a target for Demon Slayers.
"My condolences..."
Riezel sighed, merely patting Tanjirou's shoulder since he was unsure of how to console someone.
"Thank you, but it's okay... I've learned to move forward, not dwell solely on past sorrows."
Tanjirou wiped his wet eyes and shifted the conversation back to business.
"Although my family only sells charcoal, we perform Hinokami Kagura annually to honor the Fire God."
"Hinokami Kagura is our ancestral dance dedicated to worshiping Lord Fire God."
Tanjirou sought answers regarding his family's traditional dance.
"I just happened to use Hinokami Kagura during a fight with demons and found it to be a super powerful breathing style. Ever since, I've been wondering how it became a breathing style..." Tanjirou said, sounding unsure.
Observing his hesitation, Riezel spoke up.
"So, after witnessing my battle, you noticed your family's dance is identical to the Sun Breathing I used, correct?"
Upon hearing this, Tanjirou nodded in agreement.
"I've learned from Mr. Rengoku that Sun Breathing is the original breathing style, the first and strongest one..." Tanjirou said, looking confused. "But why would Hinokami Kagura be so similar to something so incredible?"
In fact, Tanjirou had previously asked Kyoujurou the same question and received an astonishing answer, which Riezel now revealed.
"You must have figured it out by now, right? Hinokami Kagura is actually just Sun Breathing."
Riezel smiled and locked eyes with Tanjirou.
"Actually, you already knew the answer; you just didn't want to believe it."
"Am I right?"
After becoming Kyoujurou's Tsuguko, Tanjirou had already inquired about his family's Hinokami Kagura, even demonstrating it in front of Kyoujurou, ultimately receiving confirmation from him.
"Umu! What you just used was the Sun Breathing that Young Tsugikuni used!"
Kyoujurou affirmed it back then.
Even so, Tanjirou still wasn't convinced.
Why?
Why would Hinokami Kagura, a sacred dance passed down through generations in a family of mere charcoal sellers, be the strongest breathing style?
Actually, the answer was quite simple.
"It's pretty simple, really... your family is the inheritor of Sun Breathing, simple as that."
Riezel unveiled the secret.
"During the Sengoku period, Sun Breathing's creator, Tsugikuni Yoriichi, was close to your ancestor and demonstrated all the forms of Sun Breathing right in front of your ancestor's eyes. Even those hanafuda earrings you wear? They were actually his, given to your ancestor by him."
Clearly, this was why the Kamado family's Hinokami Kagura was Sun Breathing.