The Colorless Blade

The morning mist was blown away by the wind, and the training ground was already full of people, but they were all yawning and complaining.

"Raise your arm higher, push harder," Asuka said as she passed Kenichi, showing no intention of going easy on him out of consideration for their acquaintance. Instead, she poked Kenichi's forearm with the hilt of her shallowly cleaved sword.

Kenichi frowned, his body tensing up instinctively as he tried to straighten his arms as Asuka had instructed.

Imagine the wind as an extension of your arm...

Another person passed by, and Asuka, as always, shared his understanding with the other person without reservation. However, his requirements for the movements were quite demanding, and most people could not do them.

As Rika walked towards the training field, she smiled as she watched the players complaining on the field.

Ever since Ms. Arashizaki handed over the morning exercise work at the training center to Asuka, everyone has been getting up earlier and earlier each day.

During this time, Asuka continued to hone her sword techniques with Professor Arashizaki while trying to share her experiences with everyone at the training center.

Rika could tell that ever since Asuka became a full-fledged Demon Slayer, her teacher had been planning to retire.

Either they're grooming him to be a "stepson," making him a new "pillar," or they're planning to have him take over the training center...

As for Rika, she only wanted to stay quietly in Hayama and take care of Brother Kuang Jin and Sister Lingyin's graves...

"Asuka, there's a visitor in the guest room who specifically asked for you."

She called out to Fei Niao, who was instructing him during training, which caused a burst of cheers in the audience.

Visitor? Looking for me? Feibiao was a little confused. He didn't know many people here, and it was so early. Who would come?

He opened the door to the main and guest rooms, and the morning sunlight slanted in, shining on Professor Arashiki, who was in the main seat, and the person in front of him.

The person was wearing a simple kimono, with a loose-fitting long robe with a sun pattern over it, and a large straw hat on their head with several wind chimes hanging from it.

As the bird pushed open the door and entered, the person looked up, revealing a strangely shaped mask with a round face, puffed cheeks, and a half-smile... a clown mask?

Before him lay a long, narrow wooden box wrapped in gray cloth.

"Asuka, who is this...?"

"My name is Steel Tomb."

Before Lanqi could even introduce himself, the strange man interrupted him, his deep voice coming from behind the mask:

"I crafted this sword myself and brought it with me personally."

A katana? Oh, you must be a craftsman who forges Nichirin swords.

Asuka closed the door, bowed to the visitor at Arashizaki Teshin's prompting, and sat down in front.

When he rushed to Fujikasayama, the selection was already over. So he could only randomly pick a piece of the remaining tamasteel for his colleague from the Hidden Division. The colleague told him that someone would deliver the sword to his door in fifteen days at the earliest.

"Thank you, that's me..."

"This is the Nichirin Blade... I forged it!" Haganezuka interrupted everyone else once again, starting to unpack the cloth bag in front of him.

Asuka and Arashizaki exchanged a glance, and the other simply shook his head helplessly. Then, Haganezuka continued:

"The Nichirin Blade is forged using the minerals closest to the sun—[Scarlet Gorilla Sand Iron] and [Scarlet Gorilla Ore]—making it an excellent material capable of absorbing sunlight and using it to slay demons..."

"I've heard that you didn't defeat the demon with a Nichirin Blade. How did you do it?"

When Steel Tomb said that, Asuka was also taken aback.

I didn't expect Shinsuke and the other two to report in such detail, they even mentioned their use of the asagi...

He hesitated for a moment, then looked at Arashiyama-sensei, took off the asauchi from his waist, and carefully handed it to Hidetoshika.

"I was just using an old, handy sword that I had on hand; in the end, I still had to use a Nichirin Blade to behead him."

Although it was a very important weapon to him, after testing it over time, he found that to everyone else, the Asauchi looked like an ordinary broken sword, with nothing special about it.

Steel Mound took the asahi, and his arm jerked violently.

He carefully pried open a bit of the blade, examined the rusty corrosion on the asakusa, then looked at Asuka, and finally, puzzled, returned the asakusa to Asuka.

"A very special knife... but that's not why I came today..."

He opened the dark wooden box in the cloth bag, took out the long knife inside, and handed it to Fei Niao.

Like the old Nichirin sword that Professor Arashi gave him, the scabbard of this sword is also a simple dark black, without any complicated patterns, only a heavy and restrained texture.

Steel Mound looked at the sword in Asuka's hand and happily gestured wildly.

"The Nichirin Blade is also called the 'Color-Changing Blade,' because its color changes according to the wielder's power and state of mind..."

"I heard you were able to defeat a ferocious demon who knows Blood Demon Art all by yourself. You must be quite a formidable young man. I spent seven days of my entire being meticulously forging this Nichirin Blade for you..."

"Quick, quick, pull it out! Let me see what color it is!"

"Ah~~ It must be blue, the blue of the sky, the blue of the wind... or maybe not, it's emerald green... or perhaps moon white? I'm so curious, let's pull it out quickly!"

Seeing Haganezuka's animated gestures, Asuka frowned slightly, but still solemnly drew back the scabbard and pulled out the Nichirin Blade with a clang.

hum-

As he raised the blade, a deep and long humming sound emanated, attracting the attention of the three people inside the room.

The eyes beneath the Iron Mound mask narrowed instantly, staring intently at the swirling, billowing energy emanating from the Nichirin Blade. Arashizaki Teshin also straightened up, his gaze turning grave as he looked at Asuka.

At first, a free and light rhythm resonated in the bird's heart, and the blade at the hilt began to respond to this rhythm, emitting a bluish-green light.

But soon, a cold, oppressive wave, carrying a dark aura, came and instantly dispelled the rhythm.

Almost instantly, a cold light flashed on the blade, and then a strange change occurred.

Near the base of the hilt, a thick, dark red color, like congealed blood, suddenly spread out, carrying an almost eerie, viscous feel, as if it had just drunk its fill of life.

The dark red color spread rapidly upwards, causing Steel Mound and Arashizaki to freeze in their tracks.

Red? It's actually red?

However, before the red could fully spread, another extreme, seemingly all-consuming black suddenly surged up, entangling the dark red and relentlessly pursuing it until the last glint of cold light at the tip of the blade.

Black and red form a distinct yet strangely intertwined boundary on the cold blade.

It lacked even a trace of the verdant green, pale blue, or any other color that symbolizes agility and wildness that a Breath of the Wind should possess.

But before the color could fully set, the two arcs of light seemed to cancel each other out and disappeared without a trace!

All that's left is the gleaming blade of ordinary steel...

"This is..." Arashi Saki was very puzzled, his eyes filled with doubt.

"What's wrong, teacher? Can't I have black and red?"

"...That's not entirely true. It's just that black is less common, and two-tone Nichirin Blades are even rarer..."

This color has never appeared among users of the Breath of Wind technique, but it is very similar to the blade of the Blade of the Breath of Flame technique, at least the current Flame Pillar's blade is like this...

He had seen the swords of four users of the [Pillar] level talent Wind Breathing, including himself, and none of them were like this; their imagery was all related to wind and sky.

As for the color appearing and then disappearing... that's unheard of...

The reaction from the Iron Tomb was even more intense.

The clown mask trembled, and behind it came increasingly loud, almost uncontrollable gasps and growls.

He shook his head, moved closer to Asuka's Nichirin Blade, and examined it carefully several times before finally letting out an incredulous roar that even the disciples on the training ground could faintly hear.

"You bastard!!!"