Around noon, Chiba Yo and Zenitsu arrived at Peach Mountain.
As they walked up the road, Chiba Yo saw a charred big tree by the roadside, which had now sprouted tender branches and green shoots.
"This tree is truly tenacious," Chiba Yo sighed.
"I think I'm the more tenacious one..." Zenitsu looked at the tree, and an unpleasant memory came to his mind, so he said unhappily.
Zenitsu's hair was originally black, but once, to escape Kuwajima Jigorō's training, he climbed onto this tree and refused to come down. As a result, a sudden lightning bolt struck the tree on a clear day, and he was also struck by the lightning, causing his hair to turn yellow from then on.
Of course, it's also possible that the lightning struck him, and the tree was just an incidental casualty.
"Ah?" Chiba Yo felt a bit confused after hearing Zenitsu's words and let out a questioning sound.
"Nothing, let's keep going." Zenitsu naturally wouldn't tell others his embarrassing past, so he laughed it off and continued walking forward.
"Oh." Seeing this, Chiba Yo didn't ask any more questions.
Walking along the path, a wooden house appeared before them. In front of the house, an old man wearing clothes similar to Zenitsu's was stretching.
The old man was slightly short, with white hair, scars on his face, and a wooden prosthetic on his right leg.
This should be Zenitsu's teacher, the former Thunder Pillar, Mr. Kuwajima Jigorō, Chiba Yo thought to himself.
"Grandpa!" Upon seeing the old man, Zenitsu joyfully called out and then happily ran towards him.
The old man also noticed Zenitsu upon hearing the sound. Facing Zenitsu, who was happily running towards him, the old man picked up the cane at his feet and then swung it at Zenitsu, who was running towards him, at an extremely fast speed.
"Gra... Ah!"
Zenitsu, with his eyes narrowed and a smile on his face, hadn't finished speaking when he made intimate contact with the cane and was directly knocked to the ground.
"Unruly disciple! Why did you run back!"
Kuwajima Jigorō thought Zenitsu had run back because he couldn't endure the hardships of the Demon Slayer Corps, so he shouted at him with a sense of disappointment.
"Uh, Senior Kuwajima, Zenitsu just finished a mission with me. Since it was on the way, he wanted to rush back to visit you." At this moment, Chiba Yo also walked over, looking at Zenitsu lying on the ground with some sympathy as he explained to Kuwajima Jigorō.
From Kuwajima Jigorō's actions, Chiba Yo could already tell what state Zenitsu was in during his previous training.
Clatter.
After hearing Chiba Yo's words, Kuwajima Jigorō's expression changed from anger to stupor, his eyes became like black beans, and the cane in his hand fell to the ground.
A moment later,
"Zenitsu!"
Kuwajima Jigorō suddenly shouted, then bent down and picked up Zenitsu.
"Zenitsu, are you okay! I'm sorry, Grandpa misunderstood you."
Looking at Zenitsu, who was extremely wronged in his arms, Kuwajima Jigorō's face showed an embarrassed and regretful expression.
More than ten minutes later, the three entered and sat around the table.
After Kuwajima Jigorō had comforted him for more than ten minutes, Zenitsu's emotions eased a lot, but his left cheek was still a bit swollen.
"Yo, this is Teacher Kuwajima, who I told you about before," Zenitsu explained to Chiba Yo while rubbing his face, and as he spoke, he gave Kuwajima Jigorō a resentful look.
Because of what had just happened, Kuwajima Jigorō somewhat dared not meet Zenitsu's gaze, beads of sweat appearing on his face as he casually shifted his sight elsewhere.
"Grandpa, he is a friend I met in the Demon Slayer Corps. He is currently the active Yang Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corps, and his name is Chiba Yo." Then he introduced Chiba Yo to Kuwajima Jigorō.
"Senior Kuwajima." Chiba Yo smiled and greeted Kuwajima Jigorō.
"So you are that once-in-a-century genius of the Demon Slayer Corps. Truly, heroes emerge from the young!"
Kuwajima Jigorō listened to Zenitsu's introduction, then looked at Chiba Yo and exclaimed with some surprise.
Although he was no longer on the front lines of the Demon Slayer Corps, he was still very well-informed about what was happening within the Demon Slayer Corps. The name he heard most often in recent news from the Demon Slayer Corps was Chiba Yo.
He joined the Demon Slayer Corps for only a week before participating in the Final Selection, and he almost single-handedly killed all the demons on Mount Fujikasane.
Then, in less than a month, he encountered and slew Lower Moon Two, becoming the tenth Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corps, the first to break the numerical limit.
He researched and developed the Crimson Blade, an ability that could suppress demon regeneration, and selflessly taught it to the Demon Slayer Corps. All these things made Kuwajima Jigorō extremely interested in this Demon Slayer Corps genius he had never met, and he also felt great admiration for him.
Now that he had met Chiba Yo, and he was also a friend of his disciple Zenitsu, Kuwajima Jigorō was very happy.
"Senior, you flatter me. I am just an ordinary member of the Demon Slayer Corps," Chiba Yo said modestly, feeling a bit embarrassed by the praise.
Kuwajima Jigorō smiled upon hearing this and then said to him, "You are being too modest. What I just said came from the Master's own mouth, and I absolutely trust the Master's judgment. If he describes you this way, it must be because you have too many outstanding qualities.
Also, your teacher Rengoku Kyoujurou, I have already heard about how he fought to the death against an Upper Moon to protect everyone on the train. Both you and your teacher are the pillars of our Demon Slayer Corps now.
Zenitsu, you must..."
Kuwajima Jigorō was about to habitually tell Zenitsu to emulate Chiba Yo and them, but then he saw Zenitsu's resentful and wronged eyes. Remembering his previous actions, he immediately stopped short.
"Ahem, Zenitsu is also working very hard. As long as he works a little harder, he will definitely be able to become a Pillar in the future."
Kuwajima Jigorō coughed twice with his right hand clenched into a fist over his mouth, changing his original intended exhortation into a mix of encouragement, praise, and exhortation.
"Why did your praise for me turn into 'effort'?" Zenitsu mumbled softly. Kuwajima Jigorō simply pretended not to hear and dared not respond.
"Indeed, Zenitsu has been working very hard recently. His training is very diligent, and he can now hunt demons by himself. His current strength is quite good," Chiba Yo said, nodding in agreement with Kuwajima Jigorō's words.
Zenitsu's mood improved greatly upon hearing Chiba Yo's words, and he nodded repeatedly, saying, "That's right."
"Hahahahaha, is that so? That's really great."
Kuwajima Jigorō's face turned a bit red with happiness after hearing Chiba Yo's words. He was extremely happy and proud to hear a current Pillar praise Zenitsu.
"Honestly, I put in a lot of effort when I used to train Zenitsu. I set countless traps to prevent him from escaping in the middle of the night, and I broke many ropes trying to drag him back. It's truly not easy for him to be able to train diligently on his own now."
Speaking of training Zenitsu, Kuwajima Jigorō recalled his past training of Zenitsu. Besides supervising his training, he also had to find ways to prevent Zenitsu from escaping every day, and he wasn't gentle in his methods for that.