Li Xuan had not been in the Butterfly Mansion long before Shinobu came rushing back in a flurry.
"Could you not draw any blood?" Li Xuan's voice reached her the moment she opened the door.
Shinobu froze for an instant, then nodded slowly. "His skin is too hard. He will not open his eyes."
"Then say to him exactly this, 'Li Xuan asks you to spit some blood for me.'"
"Will that work?" Shinobu asked, puzzled.
"It will." Li Xuan's tone left no room for doubt, and Shinobu could do nothing but obey, though she did so with only half her belief behind it.
When she returned to where Gyokko's head was resting, she spoke Li Xuan's words aloud.
To her surprise, the head obeyed. Blood welled from the mouth and the eye sockets, trickling down as if the thing were answering a command. The sight made Shinobu frown in bewilderment. What manner of person was Li Xuan who could make a demon do such a thing?
…
"Mist Breathing, Tenth Form. Mist Sky Brings Flame Rain."
Li Xuan swung his Nichirin blade in an arc. A veil of mist rose with the motion, climbing toward the sky and condensing into a cloud that hovered like a living thing. He slashed again and a mist that took on the nature of water flowed into the cloud. As if at his bidding, heavy rain began to fall across the courtyard in a sudden downpour that filled the air with the smell of wet earth and the metallic tang of iron from his blade.
He slashed a third time, converting another slice of mist into the nature of flame, and wove it into the cloud. The moment the fiery mist joined the mass, the cloud split open and dissolved, scattering into nothingness.
"Did it fail then…" Li Xuan muttered to himself. The result was spectacular and urgent, a sudden rain, but the attempt to combine mist, water, and flame into a lasting effect had not succeeded. It could summon rain. It could not produce the intended union.
Shinobu watched from the eaves, having seen the spectacle. She stepped into the yard and voiced what she had been thinking. "It is dramatic and forceful, yet I still do not understand the purpose of your experiments. Why do you focus on these sword forms?"
For more than a month Li Xuan had been conducting experiments in the courtyard. During Shinobu's work on Gyokko, the two had gradually become somewhat familiar with one another, enough that she spoke to him with a tone that combined curiosity and gentle reproach.
In Shinobu's view, sword forms existed to accentuate the strike of the Nichirin blade so that the head of a demon could be severed cleanly. Even the Water Breathing forms that produced a thin mist did so to cover and conceal an incoming cut. Li Xuan's attacks seemed to operate by some other logic. His sword was a conduit. The damage often came from something else. His own Mist Breathing, Second Form. Great Mist Flame Column, had followed that pattern.
Shinobu found that confusing. Demons regenerate famously. Even if their bodies were shattered into hundreds of pieces, they could knit themselves back together. Without the decisive severing of a Nichirin strike, other wounds would be meaningless. Why then work on techniques that abandoned the cut?
"Perhaps I just enjoy it," Li Xuan said, fingers pressing his chin as if thinking aloud.
To Shinobu, hatred of demons and the determination to kill them was the center of a slayer's life. Many in the Corps fought out of revenge. Many fought to protect others. All of them carried a clear conviction. A sword form that did not put killing demons at its core could feel like an inversion of purpose.
For Li Xuan, who had come from the domain of the Lord God system, demons were not the only antagonists. His priorities were different. He cared far less about strict utility. He valued novelty and interest. Strength could rise through sign ins. He could improve by relying on those mechanics. Creating sword forms was a pleasure, a private indulgence.
"Why did you join the Demon Slayer Corps?" Shinobu asked suddenly.
The question hung in the damp courtyard air. Li Xuan looked at her, surprised by the directness.
"Why do you ask?"
"Curiosity," she replied simply.
Li Xuan considered his answer. Could he say that he joined because it was the hundredth assignment given by the godlike master? Could he lie and claim he had joined for Tanjiro or for Urokodaki? He would not. He had no reason to sleeve a false motive for a woman who had lost everything to demons.
He met her purple eyes and spoke plainly. "Because it is interesting."
The reply was as terse as it was honest. It was not the noble words Shinobu might have expected. It was not about resentment or duty. It was a single raw truth. For Li Xuan, the thrill of action, the puzzles of power, the unpredictability of it all were enough.
"Interesting…" The word unsettled Shinobu. For a moment she seemed disoriented, as if the world had shifted beneath her feet.
"Anything else you wish to ask?" Li Xuan asked then, his smile warm and soft, inexplicably heavy with a quiet pressure.
Shinobu shook her head. She had no further questions. She stepped away and left the room in silence.
…
She walked straight to the Master's chamber and bowed before Kagaya Ubuyashiki.
"What did he say?" Kagaya asked, his voice gentle, a slight cough passing through him.
Shinobu repeated the entire conversation without alteration. When she finished she inclined her head and added bluntly, "He is a man without conviction."
Kagaya listened, his smile unchanged. "I am aware of that," he said.
"Is he truly fit for the Corps?" Shinobu lowered her face, the line of her mouth unreadable.
"More fit than you imagine," Kagaya answered. "Do not overthink it, Shinobu. This is not some irrational thing."
Shinobu breathed in and out slowly, her expression shifting between doubt and something like resignation. After a few seconds, as if she had reached a point of resolve, she turned to Kagaya and told him what had troubled her over the past month.
"When I studied that Upper Moon, the demon would mutter repeatedly that 'Li Xuan is a demon.' The words of a demon are unreliable, but still," she said.
Kagaya's eyebrows rose in surprise. He interrupted her softly. "That is interesting. Someone else said the same thing."
He waved a hand to his side, and from the dim interior of the main hall a small figure stepped forward. It was a petite woman Li Xuan had seen before. She belonged to a senior cadre of the Fourth Division of the Middle Province. Her name was Luo Yaya.
Luo Yaya's presence seemed quiet and unassuming. On her face there was a complexity that suggested she knew more than her outward calm revealed. No one spoke for a moment. The hall held the faint scent of incense and the soft rustle of fabric as the attendants shifted.
Shinobu's earlier unease found company in the room. The whisper of a demon, the agreement of another observer, and the knowledge that Li Xuan would not be reduced to a simple label drew a delicate thread of tension through the quiet of the headquarters.
Kagaya's voice returned, measured and composed. "A gift of talent does not always come with a known cause. We will use what we can to fulfill our purpose."
Shinobu bowed once more, reluctant but still bound to duty. Luo Yaya remained at Kagaya's side, her expression inscrutable. Outside, the sky hung low and still. Inside, matters of belief and identity paused without easy conclusion, like a recording paused in the middle of its play.