Muzan: My daughter can't be that weak!

"Teacher? Teacher, what's wrong?"

Seeing the tall figure opposite her turn to the side and remain silent, and whose breathing seemed heavier than before, Yukina panicked.

She quickly stood up from the cushion and leaned her head forward a little.

Kokushibo closed his eyes.

For centuries, whenever that figure inadvertently enters my mind, it is accompanied by an almost physiological, turbulent and complex mix of emotions.

Disgust, resentment, self-mockery...

He had long been accustomed to coexisting with this emotion, and was also adept at quickly suppressing it and locking it away in the darkest corner of his heart when it churned.

"...It's nothing."

He turned back around, his voice barely audible.

The gazes of the six eyes returned to the papers on the table, as if the momentary lapse in composure had never occurred.

"Let's continue..."

He paused briefly, adjusting his breathing, "Next is... は行..."

He took up his pen and steadily wrote は below あ.

Xue Na observed his expression and, seeing that he was truly alright, she finally felt a little relieved.

She obediently knelt down again, placed her little hands back on her knees, and tried to draw her attention back to the character that looked like a small flag, carefully repeating after her:

"ha..."

Time slipped away quietly amidst the soft scratching of the pen against the paper and the varying pitches of the reading aloud.

"...ん."

Kokushibo wrote down the last pure kana and lifted the pen.

"n……"

Xue Nai read it aloud softly, then looked curiously at the two large rows of characters on the paper, densely packed and neatly arranged.

Wow, there are so many!

I've learned so much today!

"This... is all... the fifty sounds."

Kokushibo put down his pen and glanced at the complete array in front of him, from あ to ん.

After a moment's thought, he decided to test the initial results first.

Then, extend your finger and, starting from the あ row, tap each kana in turn.

Yukina took a deep breath, straightened her back, and followed his fingertips intently, smoothly reciting each word: "a, i..."

She hardly paused, except for a few hesitant pronunciations, but she was able to correct herself quickly.

It was completed in one go from beginning to end.

Kokushibo listened quietly.

He thought that it would be good enough if she could remember most of it on her first encounter, but he didn't expect her to be able to read it so smoothly.

"you……"

"Very clever..."

He never hesitates to praise.

This child's comprehension and immediate memory abilities are much stronger than he expected.

She can almost master the pronunciation after just one clear explanation, which is quite good for a child.

Upon hearing this praise, Xue Nai was first taken aback, and then, immense joy exploded on her little face like fireworks.

Her eyes instantly sparkled, and the corners of her mouth involuntarily turned up, revealing a small, slightly shy smile.

oops……

I actually read them all aloud!

Could it be... that I am a legendary genius?

The little voice in her mind had already started dancing happily, and she could even imagine the look of shock that might appear on her father's usually expressionless face when she ran up to him and recited all the kana fluently in one breath!

Just thinking about it makes her feel a great sense of accomplishment.

Kokushibo looked at the child's undisguised joy and the way he straightened up even more instantly, as if a tail was wagging behind him, and said nothing more.

He prepared to move on to the next step, following the teaching steps he had planned in mind.

He picked up his pen and casually wrote a hiragana on another blank sheet of paper.

It's not in order, but rather a random selection from the middle of a row.

"How is this pronounced?"

He gently turned the paper toward Xue Nai and asked in a deep voice.

In his view, since he could read them fluently in sequence, recognizing individual characters should not be a problem.

Xue Nai confidently leaned over to take a look.

Then, the smile on her face froze slightly.

The character on the paper looked somewhat familiar, but not quite so.

Is it...?

Or め?

It seems to be in the third line?

Her small brows furrowed unconsciously as she tried to recall the memory.

What row and what number is this character in?

I clearly read it aloud just now, I definitely remember it!

"Um……"

She hesitated, tentatively uttering a sound, "mo...?"

Kokushibo blinked one of his six eyes.

Did I see it wrong?

He assumed she was sitting a little too far away and couldn't see clearly, so he pushed the paper closer to her and repeated in a low voice, "...look carefully."

Xue Nai immediately leaned her upper body even closer to the table, supporting her chin with her small hands, her face almost touching the paper, her expression more serious than ever before.

She stared at the character, her lips moving slightly.

「あいうえお……かきくけこ……さしすせそ……」

Yes, she was memorizing the Japanese syllabary from scratch, trying to locate the lone character in front of her by counting in sequence.

Kokushibo: "..."

With his keen hearing, he naturally picked up on the subtle whispers and the content being recited.

It's understandable to forget something when you're nervous after just learning it...

He made excuses for her in his mind.

As Xue Nai carried the object to a certain spot, her eyes suddenly lit up, as if she had finally found a clue!

"mu?"

She tried again, and her voice was a little more certain than before.

very good……

Kokushibo remained silent for a moment.

Still not right...

He didn't correct it immediately, nor did he show any impatience. He simply took out the paper with the complete sequence of the fifty sounds from behind him and placed it side by side with the paper that only had one word written on it.

"Read it again... from this..."

He pointed to the complete picture.

Seeing the familiar arrangement, Xue Nai's slight unease vanished instantly, and a confident light returned to her eyes.

"OK!"

She answered crisply, then took a deep breath and, looking at the complete Japanese syllabary, recited it clearly and fluently from beginning to end: "あいうえお、かきくけこ……"

After reading it aloud, she breathed a slight sigh of relief, feeling that she had performed quite well.

But just as she looked up and her gaze inadvertently swept over the piece of paper next to her with only a single kana written on it, the memory she had just recited so fluently was instantly activated and compared.

"what!"

She gasped softly, her face flushing red. Her previous confidence turned into embarrassment, and she lowered her head.

"That was... me... I misread it..."

This time, she recognized it and read it correctly.

Kokushibo's gaze moved silently between her lowered head and the two pieces of paper.

……I see.

The child did learn the pronunciation of the fifty sounds, but the way he mastered them was linear and sequential.

Once the characters are isolated and removed from the good line in her mind, she needs time to reposition them.