Chapter 112: Final Training — Hinokami Kagura
For a time, Hancock and Rengoku trained side by side, intertwining their breathing techniques.
Of course, what they exchanged was not flesh but the Breath of Demon Slayer and the Breath of Affection.
They honed their forms together, sharpening the precision and artistry of each technique.
Rengoku's Breath of Demon Slayer took the Breath of Flames as its foundation, but its forms had grown far more complex—dozens of times more intricate than the originals, and all the more powerful.
Take Unknowing Fire for example. Compared to its original Flame Breath counterpart, the Demon Slayer version that incorporated traits of Wind and Thunder outclassed it in every aspect—speed, power, and execution.
Yet the Breath of Demon Slayer was not without flaws.
The most glaring drawback was stamina.
With the Breath of Flames, Rengoku could unleash Unknowing Fire a hundred times without issue. But with the Demon Slayer Breath, his body gave out after barely ten uses.
The ultimate form Purgatory was even worse. In his past life, a single strike left him drained, two would completely exhaust him. In this world, where his limits had risen, he could manage it five times at most.
But with the Demon Slayer Breath—just one strike was enough to consume ninety percent of his strength, even when using only a wooden blade.
If he were to wield Enrin Kitetsu itself, wreathed in true flame, then the Breath of Demon Slayer: Purgatory could rightfully be called a finishing move.
Meanwhile, Hancock too had begun to shape the forms of her own style: the Breath of Affection.
"Nine forms already? Truly, your talent never ceases to amaze me, Hancock!"
At first, Rengoku thought she might even surpass Tokito Muichiro in sheer prodigious talent.
But then, the truth revealed itself.
"Tell me, why is it that all nine forms of your Breath of Affection are simply Flame Breath techniques—translated into kicks?"
Indeed.
Her nine forms were all Flame forms, adapted to her legs.
Breath of Affection, First Form: Love at First Sight — a straightforward rush-and-strike identical to Unknowing Fire.
Breath of Affection, Sixth Form: Cross of Yearning — a double strike with a feint, no different from Crossfire of Crimson.
At his question, Hancock hesitated only briefly before proudly thrusting out her chest and declaring:
"Training alongside you, Kyojuro… these forms were the easiest for me to adapt."
(And besides, this way we'll look like a perfect couple♡.)
That last thought she kept firmly to herself.
Still, despite her Breath of Affection being largely Flame techniques reimagined, her natural gifts as a warrior ensured none of its brilliance was lost.
A relief, indeed.
And so, the two continued—studying, exchanging, and refining their new breaths together.
Rengoku often slept in his tent outside to meditate, while Hancock longed to stay beside him under the stars. Yet at Rengoku's urging—and his sisters' protests—she reluctantly returned to her palace chambers each night.
These solitary meditations helped Rengoku clear his mind and refocus.
For the first time since shouldering the endless duties of a Vice Admiral, his suspension had given him time and space.
And in this rare freedom, his thoughts turned only to three things—three sword dances and their accompanying music.
The three sword dances and their music, learned in the Kingdom of Alabasta:
The Sword Dance of the God of Rebirth
The Twin-Blade Hymn of the Sun God
The Triumph Song of the God of War
When Rengoku beheld them, a fleeting memory from his past life stirred.
For seven days he practiced those dances, and with each step the images grew clearer in his mind.
It had been eight years since he came into this world.
He had long held on to the sharpest memories: Total Concentration Breathing, the Rengoku bloodline, the Demon Slayer Corps, Lord Kagaya, and Muzan Kibutsuji.
But fleeting fragments—things that had not left much of an impression—had blurred into near oblivion.
From Alabasta, one such fragment had been pulled back into the light.
Hinokami Kagura.
He remembered the boy Kamado asking once, "Isn't this simply the Breath of Flame?"
The so-called "Hinokami Kagura"—a sacred dance transmuted into swordsmanship.
The word Kagura was easy to understand. Any dance offered to the gods in worship could be called a kagura.
Thus, the three sword dances and songs of Alabasta, too, were kagura in nature.
But what of Hinokami itself?
In Japanese, hi can mean two things: fire or sun.
The Kamado family dealt in charcoal; perhaps Hinokami Kagura was the Dance of the Fire God.
Or—though it seemed a mad hypothesis—what if it meant the Dance of the Sun God?
It was a bold thought. One the Corps, he knew, would never have considered.
Even so, even if he yielded a thousand times and admitted Hinokami Kagura was indeed the Breath of the Sun—without ever having seen the forms of that breath or its sword techniques, how could he hope to restore them?
It was a maddening reality.
Yet in the long hours of solitary meditation, he began to see it from a different angle.
He remembered the Memoirs of the Flame Hashira—the book his father, Shinjuro Rengoku, had read endlessly.
After reading it, his father had left the Corps, a broken man.
Rengoku himself had avoided the book, fearing its words might corrode his spirit as well.
But to avoid was not the same as never seeing. Living in the same house, he could not help but glimpse fragments, hear snippets, recall a few scattered words.
Moments surfaced in his meditation like shards of glass:
—Reporting to his father that he had become a Flame Hashira.
—Returning on leave to visit Senjuro.
—Training his brother, while glimpsing his father idly picking his ears in the distance.
And in those moments, faint characters from the text had imprinted themselves on his memory.
Somewhere within the memoirs of the Flame Hashira were records—hints—of the Breath of the Sun.
After all, the first Flame Hashira had lived in the same era as the Sun Breathing swordsman.
Surely, somewhere, there would be descriptions of the forms he wielded.
Even a single fragment recalled would be enough.
But however hard he pressed, the memories would not surface. His willful rejection of the text back then had sealed them away too deep.
He had to break that seal.
Hinokami Kagura… the word kagura was surely the key.
Thus, Rengoku refined his theory. He had already disproven one idea—that the Breath of the Sun could be recreated simply by merging the five major styles, as in his Demon Slayer Breath or Hancock's Breath of Affection.
That left the other hypothesis: Hinokami Kagura = the Breath of the Sun.
And even this divided into two possibilities:
1. The Breath of the Sun was originally a kagura dance itself.
2. The Breath of the Sun was so fluid and natural that it could be performed as a kagura.
To test the first, Rengoku drew both Enrin Kitetsu and Shusui.
If kagura was the key, then he must dance kagura himself.
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