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After several days of intense collaboration between Kael and Shinobu Kocho, they successfully optimized Insect Breathing. The transitions between the forms—previously fragmented and taxing—were now as fluid as a digital combat script. Furthermore, the raw kinetic output had been significantly buffed.
Kael had even engineered a fifth form.
"Insect Breathing, Dance of the Scorpion: Stinger."
Kael demonstrated the move with clinical precision. With a backhand thrust, his arm seemed to extend an extra few inches as his joints "overclocked" the momentum. The blade sank into the bluestone floor like a knife through soft tofu.
Shinobu watched, her purple eyes wide, memorizing the bio-rhythm requirements.
"Sakuragi-sen—" she started, about to ask for the technical specs of the thrust.
"Call me Teacher!" Kael interrupted with a grin. The roles had flipped; the Calculating Survivor was now the primary instructor. Hehe, someone bring me my pointer.
"...Teacher," Shinobu muttered, her cheeks flushing slightly. She was genuinely impressed. If Kael were just ten percent more serious and fifty percent less flippant, she might have said it with more conviction.
While the breathing techniques were being refined, the research on Wisteria Toxin reached a major milestone. Using samples from the demons of Mount Fujikasane, Kael completed the isolation and purification of the active sunlight-carrying element. The toxicity was now high enough to "flatline" a Mutant Demon on contact.
Speaking of Mount Fujikasane, Kael and Shinobu had already paid a visit to the Hand Demon. That particular glitch in the Corps' assessment system—a demon allowed to grow powerful by gorging on new recruits—had been permanently deleted. Kagaya felt a wave of relief upon hearing the news; the "remedial measures" were now complete.
"Chirp, chirp~"
Xiao Bai, the yellow-and-white cockatiel, fluttered down and landed on Kael's shoulder, immediately nuzzling his chin.
"Snuggle time already?" Kael chuckled. Xiao Bai was working overtime as a carrier pigeon. Mitsuri's letters were filled with an endless longing that could barely be contained on paper.
"Just in time. I've prepared a supply drop for Mitsuri. Take this to her." Kael held up a bundle of gourmet snacks and medical supplements weighing roughly thirty pounds. Xiao Bai, a bird that weighed less than a phone, tilted its head in disbelief.
"Chirp?"
"Yeah, maybe a bit much for your payload capacity," Kael admitted, scratching his head. He tucked a small, neatly folded reply into the bird's leg-tube instead. "Go on, get moving."
The extra food was distributed among the staff of the Butterfly Mansion. Kanzaki Aoi, who had joined the mansion after finding herself unable to face the front lines of combat, accepted a box of snacks with a formal bow.
"Thank you, Kael-kun," she said, her businesslike demeanor cracking as she saw the high-quality sweets.
"If you eat my desserts, you have to be my wife," Kael said with a cynical smirk.
"Ah?!" Aoi's twin-tails practically stood on end. She was barely a teenager and definitely wasn't ready for "motherhood," regardless of how much Kael matched her aesthetic.
The three little dot-eyed girls of the mansion—Sumi, Kiyo, and Naho—blinked in unison. Endless snacks if we marry him? Their young minds began running the math.
"Kael-kun, who exactly do you want as a wife?" Shinobu's hand landed gently on Kael's shoulder. The air around her grew ten degrees colder.
"Just a joke, Sensei," Kael laughed, but his tone shifted to concern as he looked at her hand. "You've trained yourself into an injury again. Don't you know the principle of gradual load?"
He took her hand, inspecting the raw abrasions on her palm and the webbing of her thumb. Shinobu's obsession with revenge drove her to push her frail body far beyond its biological limits. Kael asked Aoi for the external medicine and began bandaging her with the focus of a Ripperdoc.
"If you don't take care of your hardware, you won't even be able to hold a cup by the time you're thirty," Kael critiqued.
Shinobu stared at him, her heart giving a sudden thud. He was being... gentle. It reminded her of her late sister. Panic flared in her chest, and she hurriedly thanked him before vanishing into the mansion.
"Just a 'thank you'? I was expecting a proposal," Kael sighed.
By nightfall, the plan was set. To continue the wisteria research, they needed more "live tissue" samples. The demons on Mount Fujikasane were thinning out, and Kael wanted to experiment with Hybridization—cultivating wisteria in soils enriched with demon blood.
"Why don't we just go catch some demons in the wild?" Kael suggested.
"...Alright," Shinobu agreed. She needed to get back into the field anyway.
Kagaya approved the mission the next morning, a motherly smile on his face as he watched the two stand side-by-side. "What a well-matched pair," he thought. "A pity he's already married, or I'd be playing matchmaker."
Kagaya, don't be so rigid! I can handle a second slot in my network! Kael thought, reading the Master's expression.
"There are rumors of a demon on the snowy mountains to the north," Kagaya said, sliding a newly forged Nichirin Blade across the table to Kael. It was a standard-issue blade, featuring a beautiful water-ripple pattern from the quenching process. "Go there. Also, the new Water Hashira is on mission nearby. You should get acquainted."
"The Water Hashira? Shinobu says he's a man of few words," Kael noted, strapping the blade to his waist.
"Giyuu is just... socially un-optimized," Kagaya chuckled. "But he's gentle. I think you'll get along well."
Kael and Shinobu bowed and walked out into the crisp morning air, ready to hunt.
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