Upon the sun breeching through the small crack in my blinds, I force myself out of the bed.
Sitting at the zashiki, both Shinobu and Kanao arrive. Sitting at the table like they normally would, they then notice my presence and I can immediately see as question marks begin to float around their heads.
"My training under the Hashiras is finally done."
Shinobu in response to my answer drops her utensils while Kanao just sits there frozen. Smiling a little at their reactions, my attention is diverted by a thump resounding from next to me. Turning my head, I see a slumped Aoi who had her soul leaving her mouth.
"How'd you even manage to master them all so fast? I don't think anyone here knew you even swapped teachers."
Immediately whipping my head to Shinobu, I can only shrug my shoulders.
"Here often?"
Switching to Kanao who was cutely tilting her head, I nod my head.
"I plan to train for the next year here at the Butterfly Mansion, or a mountain, to be a new figurehead in the Demon Slayer Community."
"What's the point in training more, haven't you already trained for long enough?"
Hearing a slight tinge of discontent come from Shinobu as she asks this, I stare her in her pupilless eyes.
"You might feel that way, but I don't. When I pass the Demon Slayer Final Selection, I want no opportunity for demons to kill my loved ones or me. I will still die to an Upper Moon or even a Lower Moon, so I'm sorry for being selfish."
"And who are these loved ones that you wish to protect?" Kanae asks while smirking slightly.
"Well obviously all of you, as well as my teachers." I answer instantly.
Seeing both Kanao's and Shinobu's cheeks flush red for a moment, Shinobu coughs and moves on to a different subject.
Knowing that they accepted my reasoning, I prepared for my training, before getting approached by Kanao.
"Train?"
Smiling at the fact that she wanted to train with me, I nodded my head. Lowering the intensity to her level, I could tell that Kanao was not ready for Rengoku's Workout, however she proceeded to do it. Even while doing my training, I kept an eye on Kanao the entire time and would sometimes call out to her to tell her to take a short break or information on how to improve her form.
As I was training though, while swapping between the breathing forms, to try and get my lungs to become accustomed to the feeling of rapidly switching the way that I breath, the desperate feeling of something more was constantly being felt.
Thinking that this was most likely Sun Breathing, I had to figure out how to recombine the subcategories of Stone Breathing, Water Breathing, Flame Breathing, Thunder Breathing and Wind Breathing to recreate Sun Breathing. However, I had no idea where to start.
Sitting in a meditative position, I bathed myself in the Sun, thinking, comprehending, a way to achieve Sun Breathing. Sun Breathing was, after all, most likely just a weaponized form used to mimic the sun and its weakness on Demons.
Waking up from the trance I placed myself in, I saw that it was already dusk. Upon entering, I immediately saw a closed eye Kanao sitting by the door. Lightly shaking her, her eyes open slowly.
Connecting with mine, the question "Why?" utters from her lips.
"Ah, that was just me thinking about the feeling of a Breathing Form that is a progenitor to all the other Breathing Forms." I answer. "Now, why don't we do something fun together?"
Grabbing Kanao by the hand, we proceed to play games that the three little servants were more than gracious to offer us.
At night, instead of sleeping, I sat on my bed pondering. I needed a way to reach the senses that Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the original Demon Slayer, had.
After pondering for an hour or two, and reaching a multitude of dead ends, my thoughts consistently went back to the usage of my Demon Race.
Being smart, I decided to wait to change into a Demon, after all, I was in the headquarters of the Demon Slayers, and they would instantly detect my presence if I were to become a Demon.
Getting a short amount of rest, I run out to an open field away from the Demon Slayer Headquarters, where the grass grows tall, and the wind blows hard.
Upon the sun peaking just over the horizon, I began my transformation.
Feeling as power slowly started to filter into my body, the process finally finishes.
Looking at my hands, I can see that my nails had grown a grand amount. Taking a hand-held mirror from my pocket, I look closely at my face. Looking at my sharpened canines, I become startled when I look at my eyes. The sclera was colored black, and the pupil was now a bluish-white color.
Surprised at how little else had changed, I knew that the power I held had greatly increased. And upon breathing in, everything filtered in so clearly, showing that my senses had improved by grandiose portions.
Focusing my attention back on the rising sun whose rays were soon to hit me, I began the process of alternating my breathing form from Water to Stone to Lightning to Wind to Flame.
Unlike the usual pain that I experienced every time I swapped forms, I was instead greeted by a comfortable feeling, like my lungs were being embraced in a warm hug. Being then embraced by the sun, I stood there with absolute concentration, trying to capitalize on the feeling of something more.
Even after standing there for an entire hour, I didn't see any solution yet, but I knew that this was the way I had to learn Sun Breathing.
Training with Kanao for the day once again, since I had achieved a solution to achieve Sun Breathing, I began to think of the ways to improve my breathing forms. Having final forms for both Water Breathing and Thunder Breathing, I decided that I would be working off the idea of creating final forms for each breathing technique.
The process of sitting in the sun as a Demon and planning out the different ways that a Final Form can be created continued for the next month until the breakthrough for Sun Breathing finally came through.
Although, since the concepts behind a Demon and the concept behind Sun Breathing are literal opposites, the moment that I achieved Sun Breathing, it felt as though I was burning myself from the inside out. Even if I have Sunlight Resistance, it doesn't mean that I am immune to internal damage caused by the Sun.
However, upon using Sun Breathing as a human, I found that my senses had improved because of such. Also, the techniques for Sun Breathing all felt extremely varied with no set pattern to use when attacking. If I could incorporate this form into any sort of technique, it should create solar flames that are a deep and dark shade of orange, yellow, and red. Knowing that I still had eleven months remaining to learn Sun Breathing and each of its techniques, I decided to space the training for it out, taking it one step at a time, and spending much of my time creating final forms.
Starting with the easiest one to begin with, I started to create the Seventh/Final Form to Mist Breathing. The idea for this final form was based around sword intent which I had neglected for a large part.
One week into training this final form, I had managed to create it. This form is called 'Mist of Deception' in which the user swings their sword out in a variety of ways generates a large amount of mist that surrounds them, obscuring the vision of the opponent. Inside of this area, the user's sword intent in increased as clones will spawn from that intent to attack the opponent in the mist. Even if the clones can't deal any real damage, the user can move undetected in the Mist to attack their target.
For the next two weeks, I then began to work on the Sixth/Final Form for Stone Breathing. Breaking the mentality around Stone Breathing and the fact that it was supposed to be stable, the form I create is used to create one of the larger natural disasters on Earth.
The form is called 'Uncontested Might' in which the user swings both the flail and axe into the air before bringing them down by manipulating the chain with enough force to cause a crater to form and the surrounding earth to shake. However, as the problems of strength and speed still affect me, the force behind such isn't in the place that I wish it to be, however in the future it will hold great promise.
Following another week, I started to create the Seventh/Final Form for Love Breathing which was achieved with the help of both Kanao and Shinobu following Valentines.
Weirdly enough, the Form is called 'True Love' in which the user somersaults into the air and uses all other forms in an instant. The user is fast enough to create afterimages of themselves and their blade. When the user lands, they immediately use first form.
I of course thanked Shinobu and Kano for their contributions, but they were horribly confused since I didn't tell them a lick about the creation of this form.
Add another two weeks to the list and you know that I created a Sixth/Final Form for Sound Breathing. This form was created off the ideology of Sound rippling off the insides of a living creature.
I call it 'Heartbeat Burst' in which the user drops all bombs on their person before running towards the target and stabbing both twin swords into the chest area of the target. Sound then reverberates throughout the entire body of the target at a high enough intensity that it causes the heart and lungs to expand enough to explode.
Oh baby, you know what comes next.
Add another month to this training cycle and you know what you got, a brand-new form for Wind Breathing. After experiencing a heavy windstorm that nearly ripped a few patches of roof from houses, I created the Tenth/Final Form for Wind Breathing.
Following the violence of actual hurricanes, I call it 'Violent Goni' in which the user points their sword toward the target and the target gets surrounded by gusts of powerful circulating wind. The winds begin to close in on the target and cut anything that touch them.
You know what I'm feeling right now, the passage of another month as well as a new form.
Creating the Eighth/Final Form for Flower Breathing off the fact that flowers can appear in the most unlikely places at any period. I create 'Eutierria' in which the user creates a ring around the target within their mind and along this ring, the user can then move to any point along that ring and use any of the Flower Breathing forms.
Now, now, I'm moving a bit too fast, so for my next technique, I spend the next two months and two weeks to create my next form for Serpent Breathing.
This form was near impossible for me to achieve at first, however, upon creating a pungi (instrument used to charm snakes), charming a snake, and mimicking its movements, I create the Sixth/Final Form.
It's called 'Shéquán' in which the user begins to replicate the movements of a snake. After doing this movement for a while, a snake then forms from the user and consumes the heads of any opponents currently in the area that the user can see.
Reaching the finale of the breathing forms, the Ninth/Final Form for Flame Breathing takes four months to accomplish.
Unlike what I've been doing with the other forms, the Final Form for Flame Breathing is me trying to create something that shouldn't exist in the world and something that no blade known to man can handle, or any human for that matter.
However, after the months of trial and no success, I manage to find the best possible combination between flame and sword.
For a solid point 0.01 seconds, I can cover the entirety of my blade with flame. The form is called 'Amaterasu' in which the user's blade is coated in black flames that when they touch anything, it will burn until nothing is left. These flames cannot be put out.
Praising myself for becoming successful enough to create these Final Forms, the entirety of a year has finally passed. Like I said before, I had set aside the trial to create Sun Breathing Forms, but at the end of this year, I managed to accomplish the thirteen forms of the original owner. However, like what the owner had intended, the Sun Breathing forms don't have a designation of where in the list of forms they are to go.
---
The Sun Breathing forms are:
Dance – The user makes a single high-powered vertical slash.
Clear Blue Sky – The user spins their body vertically to create a 360-degree slash.
Raging Sun – The user unleashes two horizontal slashes to hit or defend from incoming attacks.
Fake Rainbow – The user utilizes this technique to evade incoming attacks with high-speed twists and rotations, thus creating afterimages. The afterimages work most effectively on enemies with good vision as they will probably fail attack the afterimage instead of the actual body of the user.
Fire Wheel – The user leaps behind the opponent and spins in the air while releasing a flaming attack in a circular motion.
Burning Bones, Summer Sun – The user unleashes a circular slash that defends from imminent frontal attacks.
Sunflower Thrust – The user makes a single thrust attack with the point of the blade.
Solar Heat Haze – The user charges towards the target, attacking it with a haze covered slash that seemingly fails to land, but does hit the target.
Setting Sun Transformation – The user backflips into the air to deliver a powerful upended flaming sword slash.
Beneficent Radiance – The user spirals into the air and delivers a powerful slash that surround the enemy.
Dragon Sun Halo Head Dance – The user unleashes a continuous fast and powerful sword attack that seemingly takes the form of a flaming sun dragon. This technique is capable of decapitating multiple enemies at once.
Flame Dance – The user utilizes a two-combo strike which starts with a vertical slash and then a horizontal one right after.
Thirteenth Form – The user continuously preforms all twelve forms of the breathing style in repetitive succession to increase the accuracy and agility of their movements while reducing fatigue.
---
Putting myself through these life-threatening challenges of forcing my body to learn such high standing forms, I also managed to get a Demon Slayer Mark that appeared on the middle of my chest.
This Demon Slayer Mark gave me enhanced capabilities, atop the ones I already have, as well as the transparent world. The transparent world is where I can see the muscles, blood flow, and joint movement of a living being.
The drawback is supposed to be death at twenty-five, but I had a feeling that any negative effects would be constantly healed by my Demon Race.
To describe my Demon Slayer Mark though, it is a combination of light-blue spirals circulating into a completely black void that lies where my heart is supposed to be.
Finding myself finally able to relax completely after a year of training, I find myself lying down on Kanae's lap.
I tried to shorten how much explanation went into creating each of the final forms so I didn't spend too much time on them, but I hope that my explanations were sufficient enough.