Chapter 41: The final test
[Seiji's POV]
(The demon hideout)
"Seiji! From the side!" Giyu yelled while slashing the heads demons around him.
'Already on it.'
"Wind Breathing : First form." I whipped my sword and it created a gust of wind. Then I took in huge volumes of air with my mouth before releasing it with great force.
"Dust Whirlwind Cutter."
I became a whirlwind of blades. A green tube made of wind energy covered my body as I minced everything in my path. I did not even aim for thier heads, I merely reduced them into scraps of meat.
Wind Breathing was the most violent Breathing Style. It had zero accuracy or fitness, which was why I had a difficult time getting used to it.
You just slash everything in your path like a tornado which ripped apart anything in its path.
There was no targeting weak points, there was no efficiency. You just slice everything into tiny pieces so that you hit the target.
It was very primal. the main concept was basically Nah, I'd slash. There was nothing else to it.
The Wind Breathing itself gave you an incredible burst of energy. It allowed you to explode with extreme force but unlike Thunder Breathing where you utilize that for linear speed, Wind Breathing lets you devastate everything in your surroundings.
It was great for slaying groups of demons.
The aftermath of my attack was blood and flesh raining down on me. I felt my eyes twitch as I was drenched in decaying blood of demons.
"I hate this breathing style." I murmured. I hate the style, I hate what it does and I hate its Hashira.
Then I whipped my sword to clean it from blood and looked towards the remaining demons. Although we had killed a couple dozen of them, there were at least 20 or so demons remaining.
Demons were like animals.
While the stronger ones with Blood Demon Art were able to survive by themselves and even have territories where they hunted, the lesser demons would form groups to survive.
The demons in this hideout were such lesser demons. They were not strong enough to survive on thier own so they worked together.
"Run." I said and the demons who were frozen in fear immediately scattered around to save thier horrible lives.
I could see Giyu on the opposite side of this abandoned mansion and he was also mowing down the demons like a well-oiled machine.
My eyes glowed purple in the dark as I scanned the environment, The position of each demon, the direction they were running to and the placement of objects in the mansion were immediately registered in my mind like a mental map.
I took into account all of the movements I saw around me, I determined their speed and where they would be by the time I reached them. I predicted around 4 seconds into the future.
Then I acted on that future.
"Water Breathing : Third Form."
"Flowing Dance."
I danced. My footsteps were perfect so it looked like I was sliding on the floor instead of taking steps. My movements were elegant and flawless as I left behind afterimage wherever I went.
I slashed - not directly at them but instead at the place where they would be in the future.
I string together different attacks and different sets of movements into one flowing motion. To the normal eye, it looked like a comic character in action where phantoms were drawn to signify movement.
My long blade left a trail of water as I cut off the demon's head from the most random angles.
Water could flow through a mountain, flow over the mountain, flow under the mountain or flow around the mountain. It took any path possible but in the end, it always went through. It could not be stopped.
Similarly, my blade found thier vulnerable necks no matter what they did. They could cover thier necks, move thier heads, duck under, or try to block.
But no matter what they did, they found themselves headless.
Time resumed and my blade cutting through the air made a sound akin to flowing water. In an instant, I chopped off the heads of thirteen different demons.
Thier world spun as thier heads fell to the ground. Thier last vision was of thier own headless bodies with my silhouette standing in the middle.
Goodbye and go to hell.
The world is better without you.
...
"Thirteen huh." I said and smiled, "That's a new record."
While I bask in my new accomplishment, Giyu finished off the remaining seven demons. And thus, the mission was complete.
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(A few hours later)
The old mansion finally caught on fire. The flames ranged and consumed the building, burning the remnant shadows of the demons along with the dark history of what happened there.
I could feel hot air blow past my cheeks, making it quite uncomfortable so I took a few steps back and stood beside Giyu.
"The mission is done." he said with a stone for a face. He neither looked pleased nor mad, he was just blank. As if he he was looking at a rock in the middle of a road.
I gazed at my reflection on my blade and I had a similar expression. But if one looked closely, they would see small hints of satisfaction in my eyes.
I stopped looking and sheath the sword on my back.
It has been a week and a half since I met Giyu Tomioka. The mission we were given took longer than expected since the demons were very adept at hiding.
Even I, with my cheat eyes, was having difficulties and we had to track them down for more than four days.
Giyu said these types of missions were mostly given to Gyomei since his perception of the world was different from ours so he could easily find demon hideouts.
But we did not do badly at all even compared to Gyomei. The demons were spread into many villages and they had fake hideouts to cover thier tracks which was quite tricky.
Demons were as smart as humans if not more. So what they had was a proper organisation that required to be destroyed from the root. And that took time.
But it was a good thing for me because it meant I got to learn more about Water Breathing and spend time with Giyu - who by the way, was absolutely adorable in character.
I wonder if this is what Rengoku felt when he was with me.
Giyu was introverted and appeared cold on the outside but deep down, he was a very kind soul who liked the company of others. He also had deep traumas and a massive inferiority complex but I mean, who doesn't have a few screws lost in thier head in our line of work?
The past week has been fruitful. We fought a lot of demons and even though they were weak, it allowed me to study Water Breathing by watching Giyu fight. Coupled with my own training and my innate affinity with the breathing style, Water Breathing quickly became the one I was most proficient with.
"The third form of Water Breathing that you executed back there was incredible." Giyu said suddenly, breaking the silence. Well, not really since I was deaf but you know what I mean.
"Thank you." I said with a smug smile that I failed to hide.
"Less than two weeks of training and you already became more proficient in it than me." Giyu admitted. To clarify, he was referring to the third form only. Water Breathing as a whole, I still had a long way to go before I became as good as him.
It was to be expected, I had a giant advantage on certain forms because of my eyes. The third form heavily relied on prediction and perfect flow of movement so I naturally excelled in it.
Other than that, I still had a long way to go until matched his mastery over Water Breathing.
Giyu was possibly the person who had the most mastery over thier breathing style. The only other competitor to that title was Shinjuro who had decades of experience
Just think about it. Almost all of the Hashiras in the anime had something special about them ; Mitsuri and Gyomei had superior bodies, Shinobu was a medical genius, Muichiro shared a bloodline with Yoriichi, Sanemi had his unique blood and Tengen had his shinobi background.
But then there was Giyu, who did not have such speciality other than his absolute mastery over his breathing style. But still, he was one of the strongest Hashira.
His mastery came from his trauma, pushing him to be the best he could be because he felt the need to fill up for his friend who died to save him.
He was so goated that he created the 11th form of Water Breathing which allowed him to tap into the selfless state without awakening his Demon Slayer mark.
So there was no debate, when it came to mastering thier respective breathing styles, Giyu was on top.
Therefore, even I would struggle to compete with that level of mastery.
'But would you lose?'
'Nah, I'd surpass.'
"Lets go. There is a village close by where we can rest." Giyu said and I nodded.
..
...
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(The next day)
"Water Breathing : First Form!!"
"Water Surface Slash!"
My eyes saw no hesitation in his muscles as he exploded into action. His sword swung at me with the finesse of a painter. His blade left a trail of water in its path and I felt a cold shiver wash over me.
He was serious.
I moved away quickly and Giyu cut the giant tree behind me. The tree fell to the ground, sending tremors into the earth. My eyes looked at the stump of the tree and noticed its crystal smooth top. That was a show of how clean his cuts were.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and I was forced to take a stance.
"This is a test Seiji, don't fail me." saying so, Giyu blurred and rushed at me.
...
You must be wondering how I found myself in such a situation.
Well...
Find out in the next chapter because this one is getting too long.
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