章 63: Chapter 63
Three weeks had passed, during which time I sparred with the Hashira more and helped those falling behind in their training. I was also assisting Nezuko with her Blood Demon Art.
I dodged a fiery downward axe kick from Nezuko that left a decent sized crater. Side stepping a fiery roundhouse aimed at my head, I caught her leg, coating my hands in cursed magic, and pushed her away. As she stumbled backward, I pressed forward and aimed a stomp at her head. She quickly did a handstand, rotating to kick me in the side. 'Clever girl.' The kick barely moved me an inch, but it changed my trajectory enough for me to miss her head.
With her other leg, she wrapped it around my neck, pulling herself up and readying an elbow strike aimed at my face, also on fire I noticed. I grabbed one of her legs to prevent her from choking me and blocked the elbow with my other hand, gripping hard enough to shatter the bone. Seizing the moment of pain she felt, I pulled her off by her leg and threw her to the ground, planting my foot next to her head.
"Yield?" I asked.
She stared at me in frustration but nodded slowly. "I yield."
I stretched out my hand to help her up, which she accepted. One of the other things I was working on with her was helping her speak better. Having not spoken for over two years, her vocal muscles had weakened.
"You did better than yesterday." I said, patting her on the head. Eri ran over with some water and food.
As we sat down to eat, with Nezuko watching, I spoke again. "While you're physically strong, Nezuko, you're not built for pure strength based attacks. You need to incorporate more Shundō and feints to build up momentum for your strikes."
When I first started teaching Nezuko, I introduced her to the movement technique I used, put your weight on the leading foot and toes and push the ground away from you. Eri had asked if it had a name, and when I said it didn't, she decided to call it Shundō. I had also realized some fatal flaws in the technique, primarily its lack of direction changing capability mid-use. I could stop when I was in front of an opponent or halfway there, but that left me exposed momentarily. When in constant motion, the technique couldn't let one change direction, and I hadn't yet figured out how to overcome that limitation.
"Try condensing your fire and localizing it to increase speed." I suggested to Nezuko. "Other than that, good job." I gave her a thumbs up, and Eri patted my shoulder.
Turning to her, she said. "Papa, can we spar now?"
I smiled and patted her on the head. "Of course." I stood up and walked a short distance away from Nezuko. Eri and I stood not far apart, ready to spar.
She withdrew the wakizashi I had given her while I picked up a stick roughly the same size. Outwardly, I gave Eri a happy smile, inwardly I was wishing Shinobu would stub her toe every day. 'Damn woman.' Shinobu had approached Eri and asked if she wanted to learn from her, including her Insect Breathing. Eri had immediately agreed, and when she asked if it was okay, I couldn't help but say yes. 'I swear that woman enjoyed my reaction.' Since then, Shinobu had been taking time off when she could, either from the joint training sessions with the other Hashira or from her own regimen, to teach Eri.
I was against it. Even though I could have stopped Eri from training, I didn't. I knew I wouldn't always be there for her, and it reminded me of what the chief had once told me about giving her room to grow. 'I should've said no, though.' I thought, sighing as I gestured for Eri to begin.
She took a deep breath, exhaled, and then charged forward using Shundō. I had decided that if she was going to learn how to fight, it would be based on speed. If she was too fast for her opponent, they wouldn't be able to harm her. To prove my point, I blitzed behind her without using Shundō and tapped the stick on her head, causing her to stumble and fall.
"Yield?" I asked, watching as she turned around, pouting while rubbing the top of her head.
"That was mean, Papa!" she complained.
I tilted my head. "Are you going to give up?"
Her pout deepened, but she shook her head and picked up the wakizashi again, getting back into her stance. I did the same, though more relaxed, and gestured for her to come at me.
The moment she took a step, I blitzed in front of her and softly tapped her on the head with my hand. "Yield?"
She pouted again but nodded this time. "You're stronger than I was at your age, Eri." I ruffled her hair, picked her up, and carried her back over to Nezuko, who was watching with a smile. Eri sheathed the wakizashi.
"Really, Papa?" she asked.
I nodded. "Yeah! When you get a bit older, I believe you'll be faster than me."
I sat back down to enjoy some food. "Now, let's dig in. After that, we'll spar again, Nezuko."
Nezuko nodded and groaned, falling back onto the grass.
Four more days had passed, and tension was rising. It wasn't just the Demon Slayers who were on edge, the villagers were, too. Eri and I had walked to different villages nearby to patrol and see if anything unusual was happening. We noticed that parents, mothers and fathers alike were becoming anxious, as if they feared something might happen to their children or themselves. Whenever I looked at Eri, I felt the same unease. I suspected it was related to the impending final battle between Demons and Humans. 'Maybe I'm starting to get a parent's instinct.' I thought, sighing as I glanced up at the sky while heading toward Kagaya's compound. He and the Hashira wanted to finalize the details of our plan against Muzan and the other demons.
'Muzan...' I mused. 'While I won't make the mistake of overestimating myself, I believe I have the best chance of fighting him on a somewhat equal footing.' I didn't know exactly how strong he was, but I knew he had to be stronger than both Doma and Akaza. Whether he was stronger than them combined, I wasn't sure. 'Guess there'll only be one way to find out.'
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