After analysing the wound pretty quickly, Rengoku tought to himself that Samuel was stable enough to be carried while he ran, what would end up being way faster than reorganizing and bringing him with the caravan, something that could take hour and they didnt had that much time available.

Rengoku then took Sam in his arms and brought him to his own wagon, the first if the caravan, and once he was there, the Hashira left him to be watched by his assistant and went all the way back to the end of the caravan to retrieve Samuel's backpack, as he asked him to, in his way back to the his wagon, he also noticed he left the boy's sword on the ground and took it as well. Putting the backpack on his back and the katana on the other side of his belt, Rengoku ran back and took Samuel in his arms.

A few moments later he was already sprinting to the village's direction to help the amazing boy in his arms. After just a few minutes, Rengoku looks at him again and gets relieved the bleeding didnt spreaded any further, meaning Samuel was efficient in stopping the bleeding with the tissues. The Hashira then literally jumps in the huge boat and starts screaming:

—SHINOBU! SHINOBU WHERE ARE YOU?

A woman with purple'ish eyes, shiny as amethists, with her recently made 15 years old appeared from a corner.

—What is it Rengoku? Why are you scre — she sees the wounded boy in Rengoku's arms — Bring him to the medical bay! Now!

They both get to one of the rooms inside the boat where Shinobu left her medical equipment. When they arrived Rengoku put him on top of a table while the girl put on a cloth mask and some sterilized leather gloves. She opened a drawer and from inside a leather kit she picked some tools, needles, medical string, a scalpel and prepared an emergency surgery.

—What the fuck happened Rengoku? Who is this boy?

—We didnt had much time to know our names, we had an incident with a group of demons on the caravan. He knows my name though, I believe he must be the boy Tomioka told me about a couple weeks ago. Its the only explanation for how he performed.

—A group? How many? Five, maybe six? — she asked as she started taking off the tissues from the wound.

—There were about twenty of them.

—TWENTY? —she asks astonished already cleaning the blood and sweat with water and now rubbing alcohol around the wound to sterelize it, preparing to remove the sword — For Budah, how many died?

—Surprisingly no one, just a few of them were left with light wound like scratches and bites.

—But how? The caravan was enormous, and you may be fast, but I bet not even the old Thunder Hashira could kill 20 demons alone without a single death in that situation — Shinobu applied some coagulants and platelet reinforcers to help stop the bleeding and help the healing process.

—The thing is, this amazing boy took care of a good share of the demons, from the twenty he eliminated eleven of them.

—Oh wow, what is his Slayer rank? Because he surely deserves a promotion after that.

—He isnt a Slayer...

—He is not? — the girl asks, finding that very strange as she finishes stitching the lung after draining the flow of blood with a manual pump —The how could he do this?

— I sincerely have no idea.

—Well, competence aside, he was very careless to let the tip of his sword go inside his chest like that.

—Oh, no no. This isnt from his sword. Its from the last demon he fought.

—A demon? With a sword?

—Yeah, he used a sword, I dont know if it was a Nichirin or a normal katana, but I think he used to be a hunter because he used Thunder Breathing.

—So thats how he was left with a sword shrapnel in his chest, he was stabbed?

—No, he dealt with the situation very well, he seems to have created a Breathing Style faster than Thunder Breathing?

—Faster than Thunder? Impossible. And besides, no one has invented a Brathing Style ever since Obanai a couple years ago. Even mine is still under develpment and its been since I was 12 years old. And both of us had formal training from the Slayer Corps before doing it.

—I know, I know. But believe it or not, this boy seems to have done it.

—Well, what was its element then?

—Thats somethinh else I found very odd, it didnt had any element.

—What do you mean it didnt had any element? — Shinobu already started stitching his muscles and skin — Even Mitsuri's breathing that was based on yours has Love as an element, it creates pheromones that are able to cause confusion and hallucinations, or even the Tengen's Sound Breathing that creates powerful soundwaves with each clash.

—Yeah, I know. I think he called it... Speed Breathing? I guess he put so much effort into incrasing he attack's speed that this could be the "purest" breathing I have ever seen, simply nothing wasted on flashy elements, everything focused on destroying the enemy as fast as possible.

—I see... this boy, does he have a Nichirin to kill the demons? Did he stole it from someone? — Shinobu asks as she finishes the skin stitches and prepares the surgical dressing.

—No, it seems to be a normal katana, extremly high quality tho, its been ages since I saw something that well made. It shattered the demon's sword and even made a dent on my own Nichirin, and you know how the blacksmiths put a lot of effort into our hashira swords.

—If its not a Nichirin, how could he kill the demons?

—I think he can explain it better once he wakes up, the only thing I know is that the first time he cut the arm of the ex-Slayer demon, as expected, the arm insantly grew back, but when he splashed a pruple liquid on the sword and cut him again, he couldnt regenerate anymore. The demon didnt vanished until I cut both halves with my sword, but he was basically dead.

—That... no, it cant be. Only I know how to make that poison...

After finishing the surgery successfully, something only Shinobu could do in the time given, the two of them sat on their chairs and kept thinking about that whole situation. As it was still night and neither of them had rested, they ended up falling asleep right there.

On the following day, Sam wakes up with his chest covered in a properly made dressing and take some time to remember the previous day's events. He looks around and notice he was in some sort of room, and looking at his chest, it was almost completly healed, he takes off the dressing and notices only a small scar.

Shinobu wakes up right away as she was using a light sleeping technique to wake up in case of any sort of complication or problems. She then looks at the boy and notices he had the bandages ripped from his chest:

—Amazing, its almost totally healed.

—Heh, I always had a good healing rate.

—Okay, we will have to perform some tests before you do anything, but dont worry, we are almost arriving at Mount Aso.

—So are we really on a boat? Are you the doctor Rengoku told me about when I almost passing out? Wait... those purple eyes, your connection with him... are you the Flower hashira Kanae Kocho?

—No haha, not exactly, you almost guessed though, Im Kanae's sister, my name is Shinobu Kocho. And you are?

—Oh right, Im sorry. I didnt even introduced myself to Mr Rengoku. My name is Samuel Rodrigues, miss Shinobu.

—Samueru Roduriguesu? — she tries to pronouce the foreigner name.

—Just call me Sam. Its fine.

Then Rengoku started laughting a little as he was just awaken and found it funny

—Ha, can you imagine? Sam-san, it would be funny spelling your name like that.

—I never tought about it...

—But whats with that name? Never heard anything close to it — Shinobu asks, still intrigued about the sonority of his name

—Im a foreigner, I came from the Americas, my father told me it was in some sort of political chaos and he decided we should go back to Japan to reconnect with our family roots.

—I see... and uou wish to become a Slayer right?

—Yes miss, a demon killed my mom and brother a few weeks ago, and when I went to kill him, he revealed me his creator, Muzan Kibutsuji.

—Wait, he revealed it to you? Just like that?

—Well yes, he was only a beheaded head when I did it so it was easy to take that information from him. If I remember right I even made a a sketch to that Slayer, Giyu Tomioka.

—Oooohh, so it was you who Tomioka told me about. He sent a letter saying you should appear here in a month or so, but you arrived way earlier.

—Well, as you saw yesterday, Im very fast.

—Wait right there you two, how were uou able to see Muzan's face? We barely knew his name, no one has seen him for decades, maybe even centuries.

—Its a little odd to explain. When I interrogated the demon he probably was so afraid he saw in me the thing he feared the most, Muzan himself. My eyesight is exceptionally accurate, to the point I can detect traces, hidden paths, analyse muscles by observing the skin and rank demons by strenght and even detect facial expressions and emotions to the point of both are really focused on something, I can see a glimpse of what theyre looking.

—AMAZING! — Rengoku screamed excited — You will surely be a great Slayer boy, your skill is an uncut diamond.

—Right, but Sam... if I may ask, how were you able to kill the demon in your house without a Nichirin?

—I didnt. I cut him whole with the Eleventh Form of my breathing style until his energy ran out and he couldnt regenerate anymore.

—Wait, wait. Not only you developed a Breathing Style, but also eleven forms for it?

—Well... yes? I basically mixed what I learned with some users of the Thunder Breathing and what Ive heard about Wind Breathing and also Water Breathing. Add that with my expertise in martial arts and the sword style my father thaught me and I created the Sokudo no Kokyu, the Speed Breathing.

—That is...

—AMAZING! You really are a prodigy, the salvatio to a generation of weaklings. If you get the adequate training, you could become a Hashira in less than three years. It would be EXCEPTIONAL!

—Rengoku, could you please stop screaming? He is still recovering.

—Actually im almost recoverd, you did an amazing job stitching me up and I think my body took care of the rest. I believe a day or two will be enough to get me back to 100%

—Yes, but you still have a lot of blood on your lungs, it will take at least one month for it to come out naturally.

—Wait, blood? Do you have a bucket or cup here?

—A bucket, why do you need a bucket? — the teenager asks confused trying to relate that with the blood in his lungs

—HERE BOY! — Rengoku says loudly giving Samuel the requested bucket

Samuel then starts breathing ina cyclic and "circular" manner, generating a air flow from his lungs to his mouth, almost as if he was forcing himself to vomit, but with his lungs. After a few tries, he manages to force a vomit reflex on himself and starts coughing a considerable ammount of blood inside the bucket. Right away he coughs a little more cleaning his throat.

—What the hell? How did you...?

—Its a secondary breathing style develped to get rid of water from drownings, I learned it from a fisherman. According to gim he developed this technique because he was contantly inhaling water from fishing huge fishes and eels.

—Thats awsome, almost a form from Water Breathing.

—Never tought about that. Now that you mentioned it there is some water in my backpack, could you please get it for me Mr Rengoku?

—Right... water, water where are...? — he searches the backpack and find the canteen — Here it is.

—Thank you — Sam drinks the water as if it was the last thing on Earth — Way better

—Hey Sam, you... your backpack?

—Yes? — Sam asks back to Shinoby while closing the anteen and putting it on a close desk — What about it?

—I couldnt help but notice, there are numerous flasks with diverse liquids inside, what are those?

—Oh, right. About that, theyre mostly medicine and poisons, various kinds tagged with the plants I used. Usually I smash them with a mortar and pestle and then I can filter or destilate it to make the effect more potent.

—The poisons you mentioned...?

—Oh, for demons only, all made with wysteria and other plants too. Generally I use a cloth piece to spread through my katana, but it can also be used by cutting the flasks with my sword and drenching the blade in it. The purest version I made so far needed three filtering processes and 7 vapor destilations, destilating more than that makes a burnt oil that doesnt work anymore and filtering only reduces quantity. But that one os so pure it can immobilize and stop the cure for even high level demons.

—By Budah... it took me months to master this technique...

—Well, I hope my findings are of some help to you then, I take notes in my diary, you can read it later if you want.

—Young Samuel — Sam gets caught off gaurd as Rengoku pronounces his name correctly — I have a last question, since we are soon to arrive at the island.

—Go ahead and ask it.

—Your sword isnt a Nichirin, is that right? — Sam confirms — But it seems incredibly well made, you know who smithed it?

—Well, I really wanted to know too. According to my father, the blade has more than 300 years, it was passed generation to generation in our family, always from the father to the older son.

—Its exceptionally well built, right? After all, you were able to do something few Nichirin can do, that was cutting a demon's skull. Only the most well built Nichirin and the most skilled users can do that easely.

—Wow... I never heard about that. I mean, I always tought it aws just easier or more simple to cut the neck than the skull, but apparently the skull is jus too hard, is that it?

—Precisely, its not even too hard to cut the skull, for most slayers, it is basically an impossible task to be done.

—I see... well, I know that with my sword and the wysteria poisons I made, I was able to defeat every demon I encountered so far, but I believe using a Nichirin would make it even easier, that's why I want to oficially join the Slayer Corps too.

—GREAT — Rengoku screams once again — You're a very lucky young boy, because I see a lot of untapped potential in you. Im sure you will be a beacon of light in that weak generation of slayers, so to assure your sucess, I will make of you my Tsuguko!

—WHAT? — Shinobu and Samuel scream in disbelief at the same time

『To be continued』*