On this day, it happened that all three of the sisters were out on missions, leaving the garden unusually quiet.
Igarashi found Kuguruma Natsunishi.
He began to arrange the next task for this junior brother he thought so highly of.
"Your current training has yielded some results, so let us begin the next subject."
The Storm Hashira spoke gently: "Kuguruma, do you still remember 'Constant'?"
Constant?
Kuguruma Natsunishi racked his brain for the fragments of information the cultivators had mentioned in passing, and after a long while, he finally managed to squeeze out an "Oh."
Aside from the name, he couldn't remember a single thing!
Had he skipped over this entire part?
Seeing his awkward expression, Igarashi immediately knew what was going on in the boy's mind.
Everything about this junior brother of his was excellent.
He was just prone to daydreaming and spacing out quite often.
Igarashi didn't get angry; instead, like a patient teacher, he began to re-explain the key points of breathing techniques to Kuguruma Natsunishi.
"Total Concentration: Constant."
Whether it was his own Storm Breathing or the five basic styles.
They were all combat techniques that stimulated the body's potential through specific rhythms of breathing.
Furthermore, as long as one persisted in training, it would imperceptibly strengthen the practitioner's physical constitution, and even their spirit and energy.
"Total Concentration," on the other hand, was a way to trade a burden that briefly exceeded the body's limits for a stronger burst of power in a short duration during combat.
Under this crushing form of breathing, a person's lungs would be expanded to their absolute limit.
It might be for a second, or perhaps several seconds.
Swordsmen would briefly obtain power beyond their limits, allowing the weak to overcome the strong and defeat powerful enemies.
Since "Total Concentration" had so many restrictions.
Naturally.
Someone would raise another question.
Is there a way to extend the duration of Total Concentration?
Is there a way to reduce the burden Total Concentration places on the body?
The answer was, of course, yes.
That was "Total Concentration: Constant."
Over a thousand years, many brilliant and talented swordsmen had sought ways to go a step further with Total Concentration.
They indeed succeeded.
Though they took different paths, they all eventually arrived at this realm that later generations called "Constant."
As for the method of training...
The Storm Hashira did not state the method directly, but instead posed a question: "Kuguruma Natsunishi, in your view... what exactly is a 'Breathing Technique'? And what is 'Total Concentration'?"
Kuguruma Natsunishi blurted out: "First Stage Genetic Lock and Kaio-ken."
The Storm Hashira: ?
What nonsense was this child talking about again?
"Kuguruma, be serious."
He straightened his expression slightly, and the casual look on the teenager's face finally receded a bit.
This time, Kuguruma Natsunishi thought for a moment before saying: "Breathing techniques should be a skill similar to breath-control techniques or hard qigong."
"The principle might be removing the brain's self-preservation limits on the body, or briefly strengthening functions through the massive secretion of adrenaline... something like that."
It was the first time Igarashi had heard such a novel explanation.
And brain limits, adrenaline...
This was not knowledge an ordinary child in this era of the Far East would possess.
He suddenly remembered that besides brewing a good cup of coffee, Kuguruma Natsunishi had also gradually revealed a refined medical skill over these past few days.
Igarashi had some vague suspicions in his heart.
He had expected the other to say, like any other swordsman, that breathing techniques were simply a special form of martial arts; this explanation had completely derailed his prepared lecture.
The young swordsman instead felt a touch of interest and asked more curiously.
"Then Kuguruma, what does Total Concentration look like in your eyes?"
Rather than teaching Kuguruma Natsunishi, the Storm Hashira was now treating him like a Hashira who was proficient in breathing techniques.
It was no longer an instruction, but an exchange.
Because this was a key dialogue that prevented the teaching from being skipped, Kuguruma Natsunishi had no choice but to answer honestly.
"Total Concentration..."
Kuguruma Natsunishi recalled the sensations he felt while using breathing techniques during this time.
He spoke in a somewhat vague manner: "Overloading? Or perhaps an output burst that ignores the body's self-protection mechanisms?"
"I always feel like relying too much on this technique isn't good..."
"The side effects on the body are quite large."
"Who knows, one day I might end up with toxic heart disease from all this accumulated stress... no, I might not even live to see that day."
In Kuguruma Natsunishi's view, the breathing technique itself was a skill that harmed the body.
If you called it an external art.
Its core involved breathing meditation and even visualizing the power of natural realms.
But if you called it an internal art.
It could neither prolong life nor nourish the body.
He even suspected that even if one practiced breathing techniques to the extreme, their lifespan might not increase much.
On the contrary, one might suffer premature aging due to the accumulation of internal injuries.
Perhaps... it was more like an internally practiced hard qigong?
Kuguruma Natsunishi figured that if he had a choice, rather than relying on "Total Concentration" which damaged the body, he would prioritize improving his basic attributes and swordsmanship.
Ten thousand combat power multiplied by a two-fold Kaio-ken was only so much.
It would be better to just train his base combat power to over a million as soon as possible and charge straight to Planet Namek.
Kuguruma Natsunishi's words caused the Storm Hashira to unexpectedly fall into silence.
The burden of "Total Concentration"?
This was a perspective that most swordsmen rarely pondered deeply.
Trading "bodily damage" for a "stronger burst" seemed like a matter of course to many people.
After most swordsmen crossed the threshold.
What they considered was how to sustain the burst for a long time, or whether they could reduce the side effects of the burst.
But very few people thought like Kuguruma Natsunishi.
Instead of chasing a burst, why not improve one's basic overall attributes?
Had the training path for "Total Concentration" been headed in the wrong direction from the very start for hundreds of years?
The doubt only lingered in the Storm Hashira's mind for an instant.
He quickly suppressed it.
If breathing techniques were merely a competitive sport or ordinary martial arts training.
Then "Total Concentration" might indeed be an extreme and misguided path.
But when he thought of those man-eating demons, and the chasm-like physical difference between the Twelve Demon Moons and the human body.
Everything changed.
Even if Total Concentration had massive side effects, it was acceptable.
Because including himself.
All those who held a blade had long since made their resolve.
As long as the demons could be eliminated.
Forget side effects—even their lives could be thrown away.
"Your way of putting it is indeed very novel, but we shall discuss the price of breathing techniques later."
"After all, at this moment, your senior brother still needs to teach you 'Constant'."
The Storm Hashira gently steered the topic back: "Kuguruma, if it were you, how would you try to strengthen the effects of 'Total Concentration'?"
Practice a few more breathing techniques?
Understand the Total Concentration effects of all of them, and then using them would naturally be more thorough?
Kuguruma Natsunishi muttered to himself.
He knew, of course, that his answer didn't have much reference value.
Normal swordsmen wouldn't practice multiple breathing techniques simultaneously; even if they did, it was always after switching styles, focusing primarily on the new style.
So Kuguruma Natsunishi gave another answer he wasn't quite sure of: "As I just said, reducing side effects, or maintaining it for a long time."
Since the strengthening multiplier couldn't be changed...
Naturally, one could only reduce the skill consumption and increase the duration.
The Storm Hashira finally nodded and said: "Exactly. 'Constant' is achieving exactly that with 'Total Concentration'."
Next, he told Kuguruma Natsunishi about the "Constant" training methods he knew.
Some swordsmen relied on high-intensity physical training, using extreme respiratory pressure to crack or even blow up specially made gourds.
Others fought companions while holding their breath or while underwater with restricted breathing, forcing out the body's potential at the limits of oxygen deprivation.
And some simply went to high mountains where the air was thin, completing rigorous training in a sustained low-oxygen environment.
The methods might differ.
But in essence, they were all doing the same thing.
Strengthening and tempering the swordsman's lungs.
Forging the swordsman's cardiopulmonary function to be more powerful and resilient.
Kuguruma Natsunishi was puzzled: "So, Brother Aizen, you're not going to send me to the mountains or the seaside to train next, are you?"
Igarashi shook his head: "No, right here in Yokohama."
In the city?
Could it be the high-intensity physical training and gourd-blowing method he mentioned?
Kuguruma Natsunishi: "Then how do you plan to have me train, Brother?"
Igarashi smiled slightly, his tone calm as usual: "Let's start by making coffee."
Kuguruma Natsunishi blinked his eyes.
Making... coffee?
Was there a glitch in the game's audio and subtitles?