Love Breathing

Love Breathing takes the emotion of love as its theme and expresses it through gymnastic, rhythmic attacks. Its techniques rely on superhuman flexibility and agility to produce wide, weaving cuts that work at medium to long range. When the style is performed, the user visualizes pink and green sparks and trailing pink lines that follow the path of each strike.

Mitsuri Kanroji created the art herself by reshaping the Flame Breathing she had studied under Kyojuro Rengoku, tailoring it to her own body. Her unusual muscle density grants her immense strength without bulk, letting her hit hard while moving with remarkable suppleness. Because the style depends on that rare physical makeup, only she can use it, and it is best paired with a whip-like katana, though an ordinary blade also works. She first developed it while fending off wolves conjured by the demon Hairo's Blood Demon Art.

Six forms exist at minimum, five of which are demonstrated. The First Form, Shivers of First Love (Chapter 112, Episode 49), is a single dashing slash that winds through a target and strikes several spots at once. The Second Form, Love Pangs (Chapter 123), whips out one long, looping swing that cuts from many angles, while the Third Form, Catlove Shower (Chapter 122), leaps upward into a series of arcing strikes.

The Fifth Form, Swaying Love, Wildclaw (Chapter 123), somersaults into the air and releases dozens of rapid winding cuts that form a whirling storm of slashes. The Sixth Form, Cat-Legged Winds of Love (Chapter 182), repeatedly extends and retracts the elongated blade to layer arcing cuts in quick succession.

Mitsuri Kanroji is the creator and sole practitioner of Love Breathing. The style holds the unique distinction of having its invention shown on the page, born in the heat of battle rather than recounted after the fact.