(Training)

"Let's start with a simple spar to see what we need to improve. However, you will need to show me your worth,"

Using your left hand, you grabbed a bokken beside you and threw it over to Muichiro.

Muichiro caught it perfectly in its handle and nodded. He then got into his fighting stance.

You selected another bokken from the sword rack and stepped back three steps. You established your fighting stance across from Muichiro and began scrutinizing his fighting stance.

It may be indiscernible to the eye of a neophyte, but the stand of his has numerous openings. If you want to finish the fight in mere seconds, You could leap into the air and land beside him, then kick the back of his leg to divest his footing and let him fall into the ground. By then, you could point the sharp end of your bokken at his neck, and victory will be yours.

However, victory is not what you desire.

He must improve, and that is your objective.

His fighting stance is, nevertheless, outstanding for someone who has only been training for two months. It is comparable to someone who has trained for years.

With a slight nod, you signaled Muichiro that the fight had begun.

"Mist breathing, 4th form, Shifting flow slash," Taking a deep breath, Muichiro uses his bokken to strike you at a blinding speed. Without leaving your position, you deflect his attack with your bokken, sending him flying into the air.

The wind brushed Muichiro's hair as his eyes widened. He thought he saw an opening. However, it was not.

Your stance is impeccable, with no openings. Muichiro may have a short memory, but he is adamant that he has never seen anyone with such flawless fighting stance as yours.

It's similar to your aura. Your eyes following him around like a fly sends a clear message to him that he has no chance of winning this fight. He will, however, give it his all to prove himself worthy of the title of hashira.

"Mist breathing, 6th form, Lunar dispersing mist," Muichiro then releases a series of countless ranged attacks downwards, aiming to hit you. Your leg moved away from the affected area with ease to avoid getting caught on the constant slashes of Muichiro's attack.

Muichiro's aura thickened as soon as the sole of his geta hit the ground. He's a lot more serious now than before.

"Mist breathing, 1st form, Distant haze," You turned around and deflected his attack again with your katana. You jumped back and got into your fighting stance.

"Harmony breathing, 1st form, Vibrating string," You spun into the air, sideways, and held the handle of your bokken tighter for easy access as soon as you unleashed a slash.

"Mist breathing, 3rd form, Scattering mist splash," Muichiro created a circular slash, trying to deflect your attack. He did. However, you still managed to cut his left shoulder.

You jumped back to have a proper distance.

"Mist breathing, 5th form, Sea of clouds and haze," Muichiro dashed forward and unleashed a flurry of slashes.

Like an instinct, your feet moved unconsciously to avoid his attacks.

Muichiro sighed.

"Mist breathing, 2nd form, Eight layered mist," to make up for his failed attempt. He unleashes eight more slashes.

You flipped backward to avoid his attack. However, he managed to make a small thorn at the bottom of your haori.

As soon as you see slight damage to the fabric of the haori, your hold on the bokken's handle tightens.

Now that you finally observe how he uses all of the mist breathing forms. You finally decided to finish the spar.

"Harmony breathing, 3rd form, Melody of the lyre," You dashed forward to Muichiro in a blink of an eye, then struck his bokken, causing it to fly towards god-knows-where.

Now that the number of openings in his stance has increased, you kicked his leg, causing him to lose balance. Afterward, you pointed the tip of your wooden katana on his neck, signaling that you have won.

After a few seconds, you step back then offer your hand to him to help him stand up.

"Not bad," You patted Muichiro's right shoulder.

"I'm still weak," He murmured and gazed at his hands.

With a smile, you gently gripped his right hand, causing him to turn his eyes back on you.

"No, you're not. I just got the upper hand, since I have years of experience, unlike you,"

Muichiro replied with a slight nod and turned his eyes to the yellowish sky with his mouth slightly apart.

Suddenly, a smell of blood caught your attention. You gazed at Muichiro's left shoulder and saw a fall of blood from a fresh cut, causing the fabric of his demon slayer uniform to darken.

You slid your hand on your haori and took a white handkerchief. You gently placed it on Muichiro's wound to stop the bleeding. Muichiro turned his attention to you.

"Let's get this cleaned up, shall we?" Muichiro nodded.

Removing your hand on the handkerchief, Muichiro held it in place and followed you inside the house.

"Why is the bokken here sharp? It is supposed to be used for trainings,"

"I don't know, ask the kakushi who brought that here,"

After cleaning up the wound, you and Muichiro resumed the training.

"Get in your stance," Muichiro nodded and got into his stance.

"Do you see what's holding you back from doing your breathing forms properly?"

Muichiro gazed at his stance and immediately realized his flaws. He immediately fixed it by fixing his posture and placing more of his weight on his right leg.

You smiled and nodded, assuring him.

"How about openings? Do you see them?"

He then turned his eyes down back to his stance. After a few seconds, he shook his head.

"Try harder. I want you to realize your flaws before I correct them,"

He checked again, but he still couldn't see his flaws. It seems like they were hiding from his eyes and only visible to your sight.

You sigh.

"Here," You came up to him.

"I'm going to strike you, and I want you to deflect all of them using your bokken," He nodded.

You strike the side of his stomach using your bokken. As expected, he blocked it. You then strike his right foot, he uses his bokken to stop it from hitting his skin, but you can see the struggle on his face. Then you moved your katana at his neck, and this time, he didn't manage to block it.

"That's only some of your openings. Now, what are you going to do to fix it?"

He tried to fix his stance by slightly moving his katana on the right.

You cocked your right brow upward.

"No,"

An hour has passed, and Muichiro still has no idea how to fix his stance. You kept on striking him to guide him on knowing his flaws. Now his patience faded away like dust.

"Can you just tell me how to?"

"No,"

"Why?"

"Because I hate spoon-feeding,"

"what?" He raised his right brow. You sighed.

"In fighting, every move you make can cause an opening if you're not careful. I want you to learn how to fix your stance yourself because I will not always be there to fix it."

You gazed at the sky and gripped your black haori.

"Sensei, am I doing this right?"

"(Y/n), you know better than this, and I'm certain that you're aware that your stance has a lot of flaws," You pouted.

"Actually, I'm not aware," Your sensei chuckled at your response.

"In fighting, every move you make can cause an opening if you're not careful. I want you to learn how to fix your stance yourself because I will not always be there to fix it."

Your heart feels like it is tearing as you remember your sensei's words. Those words feel soft as cotton and as beautiful as flowers, but the more you remember them, the more your heart wilts to death.

'You were right, sensei.'

You took a deep breath and returned your eyes to Muichiro.

"Now try to fix it yourself," You pointed your wooden katana to Muichiro.

Muichiro fixed his stance, then gazed at you.

"Is that it?"

You shook your head.

Muichiro stared at you dead-panned. He then let out a sigh.

A few minutes have gone by, and you're getting bored. Your crow, on the other hand, is busy flirting with Ginko.

"I feel like I want to go on a moonlight date with someone this evening," Tori sings beautifully.

"And? What does that have to do with me," Ginko replied, uninterested.

"I know your a little slow, but I need you to get the hint,"

"Please die," Ginko fluttered her eyelids.

---

"Is that it?" Muichiro asked, feeling uncertain about his stance. He's tired, and he wants to get over this. It's getting boring. He feels like he's getting tired not because he's overtraining his muscles but because he's not training at all.

He is training, but he's stuck on the first part of it.

You attacked all the openings that you saw earlier, and now he blocked them all.

You stepped back and smiled at him proudly. Suddenly the wind behind you got more turbulent. However, it feels warm. Your eyes blink as a strange feeling suddenly comes in touch with your shoulder. You swore that you felt the warmth of your sensei's hand on your shoulder.

"I did it," His lips curved a little for a millisecond. Then his expression returned stoically.

Your lips curved to a smile even more.

'I know that you can do it, Muichiro. I'm sorry if I held you back from becoming a demon slayer before,'

"Now let's do the swings,"

You ordered him to make a thousand swings, and he did. He finished doing it in only about an hour. Afterward, you commanded him to swing his bokken a thousand more.

Afterward, you asked Muichiro to have a 15 minutes break.

Then you ordered him to master his breathing forms more thoroughly.

For dinner, you decide to go home and cook for a while since Muichiro is out of groceries. There's nothing to cook in his house. Does he even cook? Or did he forget how to cook either?

Why are you surprised in the first place? He's always a poor cook. He doesn't cook since he not only burns their food and turns them into charcoal, but he also nearly burns their house to a crisp on multiple occasions.

After cooking, you returned to Muichiro's residence and went to the training area. You placed the bento boxes on a wooden bench and went over to Muichiro.

"Are you done?"

Muichiro wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and shook his head.

"I'm still improving the last three forms of the mist breathing,"

"Since it's almost 8:00 p.m., Let's eat first. You must first replenish your energy before continuing so that you can perform better in your training,"

Muichiro nodded and walked over to the sword rack behind him. He then placed his bokken back in its place.

He then walked back to you.

As the moon behind him casts its light on his body, his delicate pale skin appears to be silver. His skin is as smooth as a bar of silver, yet he also has the appearance of melted wax.

You reached into your haori and gave him a handkerchief.

Thankfully, you have about a thousand handkerchiefs stored in your room and 25 in the pocket inside your haori. You always bring many of them since you usually run out of them because of your habit of giving them away to sweaty people.

While Muichiro used the handkerchief to wipe his face, you and Muichiro walked over to the wooden bench where you left the bento boxes.

You sat on the bench and patted the seat beside you, motioning Muichiro to sit there. He sat beside you and handed you the handkerchief.

"Please keep that," Using the back of your hand, you moved Muichiro's hand back to him with an awkward smile.

"Okay,"

You then turned your attention to the bento boxes.

"Here," You handed him a bento box and chopsticks.

"Thank you," He opened the bento box.

It's filled with chicken tonkatsu, rice, and vegetables.

"Itadakimasu," You and Muichiro silvery spoke before using your chopsticks to pick up a piece of chicken.

As Muichiro took a bite, he immediately raised his eyebrow. The taste seems so familiar. However, he can't remember when or where he last ate it. As the flavor exploded in his mouth, curiosity caught him like fish in a net.

"Where did you buy this?" Muichiro asked.

"I cooked it. Why?"

"It's just familiar," He murmured.

He never ate anything that you cooked before. However, the whole box is so familiar. Deja vu? He doesn't really know.

"The recipe is taught to me by a lovely woman who has two sons. Her sons are twins, and that food is her youngest son's second favorite dish,"

"I can't blame him. It's good," Muichiro replied before turning his focus to the sky.

"Of course you can't," You chuckled and turned your gaze to the sky.

The night sky is truly breathtaking. It's beautiful yet filled with mystery. It's a work of art painted every night to remind humanity that the day is over and that a new one will begin in a few hours. In the midst of the shadows, it was a promise of a dazzling day and hope. The warmth offers coziness to everyone who needs it in the rising cold.

However, it also brings harm to everyone. The demons begin their journey as the moon rises, their lust for blood growing stronger every tick occurs on a clock. Echoed screams filled the nights and keeps on reverberating in the memories of those who have survived the demon's cruel deeds.

Why do they even exist?

If demons didn't exist, life would have less suffering.

But you can not blame them. Most demons are also victims.

They are victims of the cruel actions of humans, stepping down on them like an ant and seeing them as if they are filthy and covered in mud.

However,

If demons didn't exist, Yuichiro would still be alive.

'I'm sorry, Yuichiro. I'm the reason you're not with us anymore, why you died at a very young age. I'm sorry. If I could turn back the time, I would do it to save you,'

Every day you apologize to Yuichiro for being a failure.

'Yuichiro, I promise, I'll do all in my power to make Muichiro remember his past, even if it means giving up my last breath and I-,'

You always make promises to the night sky. But why?

You can't even keep even a single one of them.

You promised to protect the twins, but you can't.

You promised to keep them away from harm, yet it seems like you pulled them to it.

Yuichiro died at the age of 11

Muichiro lost his memories, and now he can't even express a single emotion.

And all of those happened because you can't keep your promises.

Now you're just hoping that Muichiro could get his memories back.

However, when he does, you weren't sure if you could stare at him directly in the eyes.

------

A/N:

Ayo, I'm back!! Sorry for the wait, but I hope ya'll like this chapter.

Anyways, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE 1.1K READS!!!

See ya'll in the next chapter next Thursday :)

BYE!!! ❤️❤️

Bokken - is a Japanese wooden sword used for training and is usually in the shape and size of a katana.