Chapter 62: Master of Breathing Styles
[Seiji's POV]
My arm stung after throwing my sword. You could imagine how taxing it would be, to use Thunder Breathing and Wind Breathing simultaneously when Thunder Breathing alone strained the body.
If I were not such a bullshit character then it would've been impossible for anyone.
You have to remember that no one could learn sun breathing because it was really stressful for the body, so Yoriichi had to teach the early Hashiras a watered-down version of sun breathing and help them shape their style.
In a way, one breathing style was all the human body should be able to take.
But I was an anomaly due to my body which was trained perfectly since I was young and because of my impeccable mastery over breathing styles - mixing breathing styles was like using two languages in one sentence.
Still, even I had limits. My current limit was using two breathing styles at once. Of course, this was still more taxing to the body than normal breathing so I mostly used it to finish my opponents instantly.
Fortunately, I was constantly improving my technique and my body was also growing stronger so I pushed this limit day by day. Eventually, I hope to be able to use all breathing styles at once.
"Still won't stop after being warned huh?" I said with mirthless chuckles while looking at the scene kilometres away.
I inhaled sharply
Raven flew off my head and I lowered my body, locking my joints like a spring. Purple lighting crackled around my body, and the ground caved in due to the weight of my raw strength.
Then I exploded out with the speed of lighting and the intensity of Thunder.
"Thunder Clap and Flash, ten fold."
Although I just spammed the technique before, I forced my body to do it once more. I would count this as my monthly leg day.
In just half a minute, I reached the place where the fighting took place. The demons immediately turned around to flee but it was all too late.
Should've taken the warning when they had the chance.
The world was in slow motion from my perspective as I carefully inspected the situation. The lower moon was ranked 5 and with a glance, I could tell that he was weak - much weaker than the one I slayed before I became Hashira.
The rest of the demons were also nothing in my eyes. They could be a threat to middle to lower-ranked Demon Slayers but in front of a Hashria, they were canon fodders.
They were ants.
Seeing that, I deemed it to be safe enough to train myself. If they posed a real threat, I would've been more cautious but they did not.
So let's do this, let's use three breathing styles all at once.
An important lesson I learned about mixed breathing was that there were some breathing styles that were impossible to mix. This was because of their opposite nature.
For example, if you tried to use two breathing styles at once, you could use; Thunder Breathing and Wind Breathing, Thunder Breathing and Flame Breathing, Wind Breathing and Flame Breathing.
But you could not use Flame Breathing and Water Breathing or Water Breathing and Wind Breathing. They just had completely different concepts behind them.
So you could say there were some breathing styles you could use together and some others that you could not, no matter how skilled you were.
But, this changed when you use three breathing styles at once. At this point, you could use any breathing styles you want and mix them together.
So it was possible to use Water Breathing, WInd Breathing and Thunder Breathing together even though Wind Breathing and Water Breathing opposed each other.
This was because Thunder Breathing acted as a bridge that connected them.
Wind Breathing was explosive, violent and chaotic.
Water Breathing was about precision, adaptability and accuracy. Then there was Thunder Breathing which was a mix between both, it was an explosion but also controlled and precise. If you remember, what made Thunder Breathing so fast was that you explode out but concentrating on a single point and linear path.
Therefore it acted as a bridge between the two completely opposite breathing styles.
"Esoteric Art : Breathing Styles." I whispered while the demons fled.
I actually had a name for this. Water Breathing, Wind Breathing and Thunder Breathing all together.
"Storm Breathing : First Form."
"Tempest Fury."
My arm exploded to action as every fibre of the muscles in my arm worked together to produce raw strength in a single instance - Thunder Breathing.
A shockwave erupted and a small hurricane formed from my swing. Wind blades came to life and ripped apart flesh and bones - Wind Breathing.
My arm did not lose accuracy even when it moved with such force. The kinetic energy of my swing was controlled and I hit only what I wanted, the demons. Even the wind blades only hit the demons, nothing else, not even a mosquito was not harmed in my attack - Water Breathing.
*BOOOOOOOM!!!*
A violent gust of wind turned the demons into mashed flesh and they splattered around the forest. But none of the mess came to my direction.
"...."
"...."
I remained silent and stood in my place. Not because I was trying to act cool but because my body was genuinely stuck. I kid you not, using three breathing at once was not kind to the body.
I only used one attack and I felt like I just worked out the entire day. This was why I would never use it against a serious opponent yet, it was too ineffective and cripplled my body.
The human body has limits.
I exhaled all of the air in my lungs and finally, I could feel my body again. Although fatigued, I could move.
I turned around to lock eyes with Kanae who had awe and wonder in her eyes. My male ego was pleased to impress a pretty girl like her, which by the way was one of the reasons why I did what I did. Training myself was the main reason though.
"Long time no see," I said.
But she did not respond and shifted her eyes to somewhere else. Rude!!
"Behind you." she said, I read the movement of her larynx so I moved before her words fully left her mouth.
I drew my blade, sharp and in perfect condition, and sliced behind me. I could see behind me from the reflection of my blade so my blade easily found the neck of the lower moon.
The sharp edge of my sword bit into his flesh. I did not even put much force as his own momentum pushed against the blade and sliced off his head.
His body crashed on my back, blood stained my clothes before he fell. But his decapitated head fell in front of me and landed near my foot.
It gave me the chance to stare down at his pathetic state before he disappeared. Luckily, his blood stain also turned into dust.
Heh, if Giyu could one-shot lower moon five, so can I.
...
"How did you do that? Do you have eyes behind your back?" Kanae asked me.
She just saw me use three breathing styles all at once and wanted to know how I was aware of what was happening behind me. She has priorities all right. Like some of you, complaining about the logic behind my deafness when literally there are much stranger things that define logic here.
"There is a reason why I always kept my blade in pristine condition." I said, "I could see him from the reflection when I drew my blade."
"Oh." she nodded with a realisation. Then she fully stood up and gave me a beautiful smile that was just enough.
"Welcome back Seiji. Please don't leave us for so long again, things were difficult without you," she said.
"Next time I go on a vacation, I'll have already killed the demon king." I said, causing her to laugh, not knowing that I was dead serious.
"You saved me again huh, how many times did that make?"
I shrugged, "I'm not counting but a few times."
"I can't thank you enough. I'm not sure if there even is anything I can do to repay you." she said while tilting her head.
"You don't need to repay me anything, you give me free healthcare. That is more than enough." I said. If only she knew how much that meant to me.
"But.." I said and crossed my arms and said sternly like a father scolding his daughter.
"You took an investigation mission by yourself huh? I thought I told you not to do that."
"Uh,,,,," she was lost for words, "Sorry?"
How do I explain to someone that they will die soon so they need to be careful and take my words seriously?
"Wait, can you even do that? Why should I follow your words like a little girl? What are you, my husband?" she asked me in return but soon lost her heat under my narrowed eyes.
'Is that what it would take to make her listen to me?'
"In my defence, the Demon Slayer Corps was short on manpower. Although I'm ashamed we found out this way, you were doing three Hashira's worth of missions so your absence meant the same as the absence of three Hashiras suddenly. I needed to step up or people would continue dying" she said.
That was reasonable. If not for the fact that she would die and last time I checked, the dead helps no one.
Well, now that I was back, hopefully, nothing bad would happen. I have done so much that the butterfly effect would probably change the future of Kanae by now.
It's just that I wanted to make sure, at least until she turned 18. Maybe then I would relax a bit.
I sighed, "That's fine, now that I'm back please avoid dangerous missions okay?" I said. Investigation missions were dangerous specifically because you had no information beforehand. You could be tracking a random demon or the Demon King himself without even knowing.
A normal slaying mission where the demon was already identified was much safer compared to it.
A short silence followed (actually it is always silent for me but ykwim) before I broke the silence by asking..
"Wanna catch a bite?"
It's literally midnight. What a dumbass question.
"Sure!" she said and flashed a smile.
Okay, maybe it was not a dumbass question. She seemed happy with the idea, enthusiastic even.
"Let's go."
And so we did.
Soon after, the fact that there would be no restaurant open during the night hit me so we literally had to catch a bite.
At first, I hunted and tried to kill a rabbit for food but Kanae stopped me, saying that it was too cute to eat. Then I went after a wild pig but she said it was too dirty and ugly to be eaten. Talk about being spoiled.
Finally, we found a deer and it was acceptable to the Flower Hashira.
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[IMAGE]
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