Bab 14: Sound Breathing
Staring rather confused at the gateless and wall-less Sound Compound, I proceed to walk forward.
Looking at my feet while I walk, I notice a small strip of tile breaking a patch of grass, most likely there to represent the borders of the Sound Compound.
Looking up after finding the borders of the area, I see a very tall, wide-set man of a bulky muscular build with lightly tanned skin. His hair is white and uneven in length, the longest strands reaching his shoulders, and is styled with the more notable, shorter clumps arching up to fall as bangs between his eyes on either side of his face. He has quite thin, maroon eyes that appear to slant inwards, each with one long eyelash flowing to the far side of his face. His uniform is a sleeveless and dark turquoise version of the standard Demon Slayer uniform, along with a wrap of burgundy cloth around his calves where his hakama pants tuck in, and white strapped sandals. He also wears two tick, golden rings around his upper arms and what appears to be a pair of fingerless blue gloves, secured around his middle finger with a band of white and his wrists with another set of thinner golden rings, this time with two on each side. As well as this, the man sports a white head-wrap that covers his hair, leaving only a thin ponytail visible to fall behind his head from between its layers, which is adorned with a large headband of pale gray that's decorated by six light pink gemstones, three large and arranged in a line, and three small arranged in a triangle to the far left. A chain of smaller, pale blue gemstones hangs from each side of this headdress, framing his face, and he also wears what looks to be red eye make-up around his left eye, consisting of alternating large and small dots that run inwards, towards his eye.
"I see that you're enraptured by my flamboyant appearance, but you didn't come here to appreciate me, you came to train in my flamboyant breathing art." Uzui states while walking towards me.
On his back I notice dual Nichirin cleavers that rest firmly upon his back connected by a silver chain. Once standing in front of me, Uzui quickly looks me up and down before nodding his head in slight approval.
"You will come to worship me soon as I will teach you more than what you learned at that hotheaded compound."
Wondering whether he meant Rengoku or Shinazugawa, he leads me around his compound towards a pile of rocks. Knowing what this meant, I quickly put the boulder on my back and start running around the Sound Compound.
Halfway around his entire compound, a sudden high-pitched, blaringly loud sound rings through my ears. Feeling like my head was going to explode and my vision quickly dims, the sound stops, and I reorient myself ever so slowly.
No longer feeling those nauseous feelings, I look towards the building at the center of the compound and see Uzui smiling widely while pointing both of his Nichirin cleavers at me. Thinking that this training would revolve around him consistently sending sound waves, I gulp down the bile climbing up my throat and start running.
Compared to when I trained with Shinazugawa, each of Uzui's attacks didn't hold killing intent, as they weren't meant to kill. So, after two hours of torturous running and my brain being an absolute mess, I finally get the time to rest. The remnants of the ringing remain, and I hold my head and prevent myself from vomiting.
"I was rather hoping to see you flamboyantly throw up your insides, but I guess you're better than I previously expected." I hear Uzui state while squatting down next to me. "I saw your minor improvements as time progressed, so I know that you'll soon be able to flamboyantly survive my sound attacks."
Grunting to reply, I let myself rest longer before beginning the next exercise. The twisting feeling of my gut as the sound blasts through my ears continuous to get worse until the nausea becomes too great, and I vomit. Even after regurgitating, I barely feel any better. Compared to when you're sick, I'm experiencing external problems that can't be rid by my insides.
Toughing it out, I continue my training and head back to the Butterfly Mansion feeling completely drained. Even when I had eaten "flamboyantly" with Uzui, it did little to recover my lost strength and I felt at the edge of passing out. Knowing that this sort of training would continue, I could only groan.
Going the next day, Uzui decided that we would start with something different. Handing me two practice cleavers, Uzui smiles.
"Since you're going to be learning my godlike breathing technique, then I'll need to flamboyantly teach you the correct way to wield twin Nichirin blades so you can properly exercise my form."
Telling me that, Uzui grips the two blades on his back and unsheathes them incredibly quick.
"You should find pleasure in learning from one of the greatest and most flamboyant sword wielders of the entire Demon Slayer Corps."
Uzui then begins to exercise precise and deadly powerful strikes as he swings his two blades. Contrary to my expectations that Uzui would be held down by the chains that connected the two swords, it seemed to give him a greater sense of control and power with each strike.
Wondering how Uzui could reach such a level and with two blades no less, I continue to watch the spectacle that is Uzui. Finishing with his show, he then looks to me with solid expectation. Being the ambidextrous person that I am, I move the blades hilts comfortable in my hand and spread my senses across the blades, once again stopping before I can even reach a quarter of the way. As I begin to swing my swords, a problem is quick to become apparent.
"Stop, stop!" Uzui yells out. "That's not flamboyant enough! The purpose is to give each sword its own movements, making you both unpredictable and powerful. Stop making the same movements with both arms."
Having not worked with two things in my hands at the same time and forcing them to move differently, I know that my brain hasn't reached the point where it could conduct those different movements.
"Ai, what exactly did I expect?" Uzui asks himself. "This is his first time it seems."
Having disappointed Uzui within the first hours of the day, he makes me switch to the other exercises before he can anger himself even more. Once we reached muscle reinforcement, which Uzui wasn't willing to do yesterday since I didn't have enough strength to go on, started to squeeze my muscles with a ring of sound, manually trying to compress them.
Gritting my teeth, I go back to the Butterfly Mansion completely sore and unable to lift a single finger. Continuing the gruesome training for the next week, I finally managed to reach a high enough comprehension of dual wielding that Uzui was willing to explain Sound Breathing and the forms associated with it.
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The Sound Breathing Forms are:
1st form – Roar – The user lifts both twin swords above their head and slams them down with great force whilst simultaneously creating an explosion with bombs, causing a loud sound resembling thunder.
2nd form – Echo – The user slashes both twin blades while crossing their arms, forming an X shape, and dropping bombs that sends out two ranged attacks that go towards the target. When the user pulls their blades back, the attack is pulled back to the user.
3rd form – Distortion Waves - The user hits the back of one of their twin blades on the back of the other while releasing bombs to send out a wave of disorientating sound in all directions.
4th form – Constant Resounding Slashes – The user holds their swords apart while spinning them rapidly in conjunction with the releasing of bombs, this makes the technique a combination of offense and defense.
5th form – String Performance – The user holds one of their swords with a reverse grip and spins the other using a chain that connects them. This is coupled by the release of numerous bombs to detonate.
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"Sound Breathing is used to mimic the flamboyant disorientating loudness of sound. All my techniques are used to create huge amounts of sound to be able to confuse the target and close in on them. Our movements are like the flamboyancy shown in Thunder Breathing. We should be able to manipulate and generate sound to use to our advantage. Important note by the way. Since this is Sound Breathing, we should be able to read our opponents movements by deconstructing them into sound and then analyzing the pattern. This is the flamboyant might of Sound Breathing." Uzui explains properly.
Remembering the high-pitched sound that I've been bombarded with for the past week, I slowly felt my breathing pattern start to change as I remembered such. Taking note of Uzui's own breathing pattern while I was creating my own, I managed to achieve Sound Breathing by the end of the day.
"I'm surprised that you were able to comprehend my flamboyant breathing art so quickly, I would have expected you to take longer."
"Well, after you blasted me more than five hundred times with a disorientating shrill, I think it'd be rather disappointing if I didn't comprehend it." I grumble. In return for my comment, Uzui only laughed slightly before speaking.
"I want you to witness my godlike form, so watch closely as this is the only time, I will flamboyantly reveal myself."
With each one of his techniques, the one thing I noticed was the inherent addition of bombs for every single technique. The forms seemed rather easy to comprehend, but when it came to the timing on when to drop the bombs, I noticed Uzui very specific in his timing.
Finishing, Uzui looks at me with a wide smile in a haughty manner. Upon seeing my eyes not on him but on the slightly blackened ground where the bombs had blown up, he shakes his head as if he forgot something.
The very next day, the entire Rengoku training was cut short by four hours and those extra four hours were then used for Uzui to explain the types of bombs he used, when they must be dropped for each technique, and how to make them.
Getting the crash course on bomb making the day ended with me now knowing how to make a bomb with the materials from my surroundings. He then proceeded to give me a small waterproof pouch that contained a plethora of bomb making supplies since Sound Breathing heavily relied on their existence.
Now, with all pieces of Exodia in my hands, I now had to spend the time controlling each piece.
For the next three weeks, beyond gaining mastery over the dual cleavers, I managed to finish my teaching under Uzui. My movements clearly represented the flamboyancy shown by Uzui, making me gain a new tier of understanding over blades and their uses.
Uzui was a clear master when it came to wielding a blade, so with his teachings, I could now exert absolute control with my senses over a quarter of a blade. Although that might seem like a small gain, that amount of control had huge differences compared to when I started.
Having finished my tutelage under Uzui, I quickly thanked him before returning to the Butterfly Mansion. Once again being engulfed in a hug by Kanae, she then told me of my next teacher.
"The next request you got was from Mitsuri Kanroji, the Love Hashira, who says that she'll make your blade hold the powerful feeling held inside of you." Kanae then turn serious as she continues. "Make sure not to fall for her charms though. You must remember that a person *or persons* here is waiting for you."
Not hearing the part that Kanae had mumbled, I let myself get comfortable in my bed.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone