"What's this?"
Watching the brat hand over the object like a treasured offering, Tetsu no Sosuke caught it and immediately asked, "Where's my sword?"
"Sōsuke-nii! The Village Chief wants you to repair this Nichirin sword!" Kotetsu shouted.
"Repair a Nichirin sword? I'm asking about my sword... Wait, what? This is a Nichirin sword?"
Tetsu no Sosuke refocused his gaze on the sword in his hand, his eyes gleaming with intrigue.
He drew the sword, but only half of it slid out. The other half remained in the scabbard. When he tipped it out, the broken fragment clattered to the ground with a crisp sound.
He turned back to Kotetsu. "Nichirin sword?"
Kotetsu nodded enthusiastically.
Holding the half-blade, Tetsu no Sosuke casually glanced at it and noticed an inscription: Slay Demons!
"A Pillar's sword?"
Tetsu no Sosuke was even more surprised. In the Demon Slayer Corps, only the swords of the Pillars bore such inscriptions.
But when had it become his responsibility—a swordsmith not yet qualified to forge Nichirin Blades—to repair the swords of the Nine Pillars?
He turned to question Kotetsu further, but the boy had already bolted off into the distance.
He was still waving, shouting, "Go for it, Sōsuke-nii! If you can fix this blade, you'll be able to forge Nichirin swords on your own! Then you'll finally become a true swordsmith!"
With that, he vanished in a flash, leaving no trace.
"...Is that kid the reincarnation of the Daytime Wanderer? How the hell can he run so fast?"
Speechless for a moment, Sosuke picked up the broken sword from the ground. Just looking at the two pieces, an inexplicable sorrow welled up in his heart.
"...This blade... it's crying."
He examined the blade meticulously from tip to hilt. "The blade is severely damaged. It's snapped clean in half, and parts of the edge are curled. It must have encountered something incredibly tough to cut through in battle—a demon's neck? The wear is extreme, indicating frequent combat. No surprise, considering it belonged to one of the Nine Pillars. But if the sword is in this state, what about the swordsman who wielded it? Hmm... the blade is remarkably light. If Nichirin swords are forged to match the wielder's characteristics, could this have belonged to a woman?"
Muttering to himself, he remained completely unaware that he had already deduced a wealth of information from a single sword.
After thoroughly examining the entire sword, he devised a restoration plan.
"The curved blade needs to be reforged and then polished to restore its shape. The damaged body must also be reforged, using repeated tempering and quenching techniques to reshape the entire piece. But the broken blade... if it can't be melted down and reforged as a single piece, it will forever remain a flawed masterpiece—a truly regrettable imperfection. Wait, I remember there's a plant on the mountain whose sap can repair this. I can coat the broken blade with the sap, wrap the whole thing in clay, and then put it in the furnace... But what was that plant called again?"
He tapped his head, placed the sword on the anvil, and rushed into the house to search through his parents' notes.
Soon, he found the plant he was looking for in one of the pages.
"Iron Stem Grass... Does such a strange thing really exist in the real world?"
Tetsu no Sosuke shook his head. All the forging techniques he possessed came from the memories of the original Tetsu no Sosuke.
But this was, after all, another world, and many things clearly couldn't perfectly align with his initial understanding of the world.
For now, he disregarded the question of its plausibility. Since the notes mentioned it, it must be effective.
After preparing some dried rations and essential weapons and tools, he set off up the mountain to find Iron Stem Grass.
It wasn't until Tetsu no Sosuke stepped into the mountain forest that he finally snapped out of his daze.
"Why did I rush into the mountains without a second thought the moment I thought about repairing that sword? Now that I've mastered Sun Breathing, shouldn't I be dedicating most of my time to honing it?"
He stared blankly at the sunlight filtering through the canopy above. "I guess I'm just destined to be a swordsmith after all!"
Since he was already here, he decided to stop overthinking and focus on finding Iron Stem Grass.
For some reason, just looking at that broken sword filled him with an inexplicable, unbearable ache. It felt as if the blade's fracture mirrored a wound within himself.
"I must be losing my mind."
He scoured the mountainside, but his search yielded nothing. If it weren't for the notes in his parents' journals confirming the grass's existence on these slopes, he would have doubted its very existence.
From midday until the sun began to dip westward, he finally discovered a single stalk growing in a narrow mountain crevice.
At first glance, the plant appeared to have only a few scattered leaves. However, digging deeper revealed a thick, sturdy rhizome brimming with rich sap.
Tetsu no Sosuke carefully excavated the plant, taking great care not to puncture the rhizome's skin and cause the sap to leak out.
He didn't breathe easy until he had extracted the entire plant intact.
After meticulously wrapping it in white cloth, he placed it in his basket and finally relaxed.
Surveying his surroundings, he realized he was near the mountain's hot spring. "Perfect," he thought. "After a long day's work, a soak in the hot spring is just what I need."
He hadn't eaten his dried rations yet. He imagined himself soaking in the hot spring while savoring his meal—a perfect reward for his hard work.
With this thought in mind, his steps quickened.
Before long, he reached the hot spring.
He carefully folded his clothes and placed them in his medicine basket. After testing the water temperature, he gratefully lowered himself into the steaming pool.
"This is simply... indescribable bliss!"
The hot spring water was at the perfect temperature, enveloping him like countless hands massaging his entire body.
Completely immersed, he nearly drifted off to sleep.
But he quickly flipped over, climbed out, grabbed some dried rations from the shore, and leaned against the edge of the spring, a rice ball in his hand, just about to take a bite.
Suddenly, with a plop, a head emerged from the water.
Long, lustrous hair rippled through the hot spring water, tracing an indescribably beautiful arc in the air.
When the ripples subsided, Tetsu no Sosuke stared in stunned silence at the woman who had suddenly appeared in the hot spring.
The woman turned to look at him as well.
Both were equally surprised and bewildered.
After a moment of mutual staring, Tetsu no Sosuke cleared his throat awkwardly and offered the rice ball in his hand. "Want some?"
"Thank you..." The woman accepted the rice ball blankly, unsure whether to eat it or not.