Author : Double chapter cause I'm so fucking nice.
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[Seiji's POV]
We went back to the house again. After cleaning Giyu's wound and determining that it did not need stitching, I wrapped bandages around his torso.
Then I let him rest on the futon while I leaned on the wall and stood in the corner of the room.
There was silence in the room until it was broken by Giyu. He started giving me the context I was asking for.
"I never did pass the final selection," Giyu confessed.
"There was a boy, his name a Sabito. His family got killed by demons the same as me and we grew up together under the guidance of Urokodaki. We quickly became friends and after years of training, we took the final selection together." he paused and his eyes became unfocused, as if he was looking back into the past.
"I was weak. I was pathetic. I was immediately wounded by the first demon I encountered. On the other hand, Sabito was strong and he had a heart full of justice. He saved me and everyone else who participated in the final selection. In the end, everyone passed except Sabito himself. He died that day."
"You see, I passed out immediately after my first encounter and Sabito had to protect me throughout the week. In the end, that cost him his life. Although I survived for seven days in the mountain and therefore passed the exam, I didn't kill a single demon. So could you really say I passed? "
"...." I did not comment and simply stared at his figure and the vulnerability of his eyes.
"It should've been me who died that day. Someone like me isn't worthy of being the Water Hashira. I don't even deserve to stand next to the likes of you and the other Hashiras."
They were heavy words coming from him - someone I considered to be one of the best Hashira. It was sad how much people could hide inside themselves.
Giyu truly believed that it would've been better for the world if he was the one who died that day. He felt like he robbed the world of a genius like Sabito who could truly make a difference due to his weakness.
He also developed an inferiority complex since that day.
The reason why he trained so hard and why he never stopped working was to compensate the world for the lives he had stolen. He tried to fill in the imaginary status of Sabito who he truly believed would've been a greater man if he was still alive.
"So you see, Seiji. I want you to take the mantle of the Water Hashira." he said and a single tear fell from his eye. It made my heart ache that the first emotion I saw took over his face was not joy but raw sadness.
"I don't deserve it."
...
...
Bullshit.
If what I knew from my past life and what I've seen in the past two weeks were anything to go by, there was no one else more deserving of the title.
But he didn't believe that. What can I do to conceive him?
I racked my brain, trying to remember what Tanjiro said when he experienced the same moment. I clearly remember him saying something to Giyu that ultimately resolved everything.
It was just one phase. But that was enough to remind Giyu of what was important and move forward from the past.
What was it?
"Life is all about moving forward." I said suddenly.
"...." Giyu looked at me in confusion, "..what?"
Shit, that was not it.
"I will answer your question later but first, tell me if these lines remind you of anything or give you flashbacks."
That was what happened in the anime. Tanjiro said something to Giyu which reminded him of what Sabito said to him in the past. Then poof, things were resolved.
The only problem was that I can't remember what Tanjiro said.
"Pain is a wound, and wounds heal."
"....."
Nope. How about this...
"To overcome tribulations is to become stronger. "
"..."
Still no?
"It's not about the people we lost but the people we save."
"....."
"The deaths of our comrades have meanings because we the living refuse to forget them."
"...."
"The ones who die have no regrets because they entrust their will to the living."
.. Nope that's from attack on titan.
"What are you doing really, Seiji?" Giyu finally asked.
Goddanm it. I can't remember the damn line.
Forget it, I'll just say what's on my mind.
...
"I'm saying that no one gives a shit about your sad story except you." I said. Was that too harsh?
Giyu had a visible reaction as he recoiled back. Yeah, I could imagine it was not a reply you would expect after pouring your heart out to someone.
But it must be said.
"Do you know you are the only one who cares? Do you think Sabito would ever regret sacrificing his life for you? How can you be so selfish."
"Sabito gave his life for you because you are worthy, Tomioka. He entrusted everything to you and it is your duty to live on and pass down thier will and memory. You can't just escape their trust and brood about how unworthy you are. You have to live strong for them and cherish the life they sacrificed themselves for."
There, I said it.
I saw his eyes go wide and his hand came to hold his cheek. I was uncertain whether or not what I said was good or bad.
But the silence was too awkward so I decided to give him some alone time.
"I'll make dinner." I said and went out of the room.
..
..
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[3rd POV]
*Slap!*
"Don't you ever say that you should've died again! The next time you say something like that, we are through. How can you even say something so selfish?"
The stinging pain from the slap Sabito gave him, Giyu could still remember it so vividly to this day.
"Your sister knew what she was doing when she sacrificed her life to save you. So don't you ever insult her choice or her memory again by saying something like that. You have to keep living, and pass on the future your sister gave you."
That was a conversation he had with Sabito a long time ago and what Seiji said reminded him of it.
'How can I forget something like that when it was so important?'
"I'm sorry Sabito. I'm sorry big sister Tsutako. Forgive me." Giyu said with tears falling from his eyes.
It took two friends to get that idea inside his thick skull. But now he knows.
It didn't matter what he felt because this was bigger than himself. Even if he thinks he is unworthy, he must keep on fighting for them and pass down a better future just as they did for him.
He owned them that.
He wanted to quit being a Hashira just because he was feeling bad about himself? Oh how truly selfish he was.
Now he knew better.
'Thank you, Seiji, thank you Sabito.'
'For being my friend.'
..
The next morning, thier journey together came to an end. Giyu's Kasugai crow flew around in the sky and informed him about his next mission.
"Giyu Tomioka! You are to hold an investigation in the village of Kamatsuka! Kaw!! Kaw!! Giyu Tomioka! You are to hold an investigation in the village of Kamatsuka! Kaw!! Kaw!!"
"Thank you for what you said yesterday. I couldn't even put it into words how much it meant to me." Giyu said with a bow.
"It's okay dude, I'm glad I could help." Seiji said with a flat voice that sounded exactly like someone who had not heard thier voice in a long time.
There was no emotion in his voice. It was only a cheap imitation of the contraction of the throat box.
Giyu smiled softly and gazed at the purple eyes of Seiji. He didn't like those eyes at first solely because it felt like they could see through everything but now he gazed upon them fondly. It was one of the only ways to communicate with his friends. He had to make sure those eyes were looking at him before he spoke.
"Farewell then, until we meet again."
"Until we meet again, Water Hashira." Seiji added kindly and this time, Giyu did not feel any insecurity because he had finally accepted the title.
The Water Hashira.
'That's me.' he thought to himself.
And then they separated. They were comrades fighting for the same cause but their respective journeys led them to different paths.
Giyu felt lighter than ever as he ran through the forests. Because for the first time in his life, he did not hate himself.
And he swung his sword, not for the sake of compensating but with a purpose.
All of which were possible only because of a certain purple-haired, purple-eyed, deaf boy.
..
..
..
[IMAGE]
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Author : Time skip starts from the next chapter. As you all have voted, it will last around 5 chapters with some details about what happened in those time skips.
Thanks for reading.
[Seiji's POV]
(1 month passed)
My journey continued after I separated from Giyu. It was weird at first - not having a companion in my missions - but Raven made sure I was never lonely.
What I did while I was on missions was training Water Breathing like crazy. I wanted to master it to perfection like Giyu does since it was a style that best suited my fighting style.
I mostly used Water Breathing while I slew demons as well and with each passing day, I was getting better and better.
During this time, I also ran into Rengoku again much to my absolute joy. He was as high-spirited as the last time I'd seen him and he was incredibly to see me too.
He congratulated me on my quick ascension to the rank of Hashira and expressed his admiration. My eyes saw not a hint of envy or jealousy on his face even though he clearly wanted to climb the rank as well, which made me like him more.
Rengoku himself was making progress in climbing the ranks as he had become 'Kanoe' rank. My eyes could see that he was getting stronger than the last time we met as well.
We grabbed food and drink and spent the whole day chatting. We shared stories of our travels and he was especially curious about how I climbed the rank so quickly and how his father was during Hashira meetings.
He also has had many adventures that have made him grow in both strength and character. I was glad he had a relatively safe time but I also warned him about the strength of the Lower Moons and although I knew he wouldn't take the advice, I told him to prioritize his safety if he encountered one.
He simply laughed and did not promise anything.
We stuck together for as long as we could and we trained a lot together. I helped him refine his sword skills and he shared his unwavering motivation with me. I was glad to have met my friend again.
In the end, we parted ways and planned to keep in touch using our Kusagai crows to send letters.
Other than meeting Rengoku, nothing significant happened during the month.
..
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(2 month later)
A Hashira meeting was called and every pillar gathered in the headquarters. No one was late or absent.
I had never attended a Hashira meeting before so I was quite excited at the prospect. The meeting basically consists of briefings and statistical reports.
Each Hashira shared their experience in their missions and every significant encounter they have had. Some of them were,
1. Shinjuro encountered a lower moon but it managed to escape before he could slay it.
2. Kanae reported about a demon that had a rather troublesome blood demon art, spreading diseases. She brought up the importance of medicine and vaccines in the Demon Salyer Corp and asked Ubuyashiki to give her resources to improve the medical teams of the Flower Mansion.
3. Gyomei brought up an issue of the increasing groups of demons. With the emergence of four Hashiras - Kanae, Giyu, Sanemi and me - the demons were being hunted more than ever and they resorted to living more in groups compared to the past years. He said this could be dangerous for the lower rank demon slayers so he proposed the idea of more group missions instead of individual missions for thier safety.
Other than these three, the rest of the Hashiras did not have important things to share.
Then we went over the statistics. There were a total of 21 deaths in the Demon Slayer Corps which was a massive loss for just three months. There had been an increase in the death rates and the cause could be directly traced back to what Gyomei had said.
There was also a report on all of the demons slayed by the Hashiras and the amount of missions completed. Suffice it to say, I was the one with the most missions completed while Sanemi was the one with the most kill count.
The moment that was revealed, I immediately felt a spark of rivalry with Sanemi. We both had the advantage, he had his special blood which can attract demons and I had my eyes which allowed me to easily complete missions by locating demons.
Then Ubuyashiki gave us a briefing on the activities of the demon. He showed us a map with all of the demon sightings and we traced thier movement. It was there that each of the Hashira was assigned territories which we needed to keep an eye on. Plus, any lower-rank demon slayers who need assistance in that area will call upon us for help.
I was assigned the eastern regions as they had the most villages.
Many other minor things were also discussed in the meeting and the whole thing took nearly a day.
..
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[1 month later]
I returned to the Flower Mansion for this month's break. Shinobu was in the mansion much to my delight and funnily enough, she was still not a demon slayer yet as she missed the latest final selection.
"How've you been Shibi?" I asked as her face lit up upon seeing me.
"I've been well." she said with a barely restraint voice. She immediately grabbed my hand after that and pulled me inside.
"Why did you not visit again sooner? Come on, I have many things to show you!!" she said excitedly.
Apparently, she had been making great progress in her research of Demon poison. She said it was all due to my advice that she even thought of developing it.
Then there was also her sword, which she had modified by chipping off almost the entire body of the edges, leaving only the sharp tip.
She immediately asked me for a spar which I entertained. She asked me my opinion on her newly created fighting style which heavily relied on stabbing and she shared her vision with me. She would have a personalised sword that would allow her to apply poison to her blade.
She had lots of ideas. Just coating the sword with poison would not work as that would be almost useless and would chase away the demons with the smell of wisteria. So she had to be creative in its design.
A sword whose tip acted as a syringe, a sword with storage for poison at the tip, and a sword that had a small pipe running along the body were some of the ideas she had.
I also proposed some ideas like using a rapier, hoping to give her some inspiration.
So for the next two days, we spent time together on such matters. We would also go out at night, just the two of us, under the moon.
It would've been romantic if not for our reason for going out. To haunt and experiment on demons.
To test her poison, we haunted demons together and used them as lab rats.
I spent all four days of my break doing such things before I had to leave again.
..
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[2 months later]
I spent this time mastering my breathing styles. I felt like I had perfected Water Breathing so I began trying to learn the eleventh form of Water Breathing.
For a whole two months, there was absolutely no progress in learning the eleventh form but I did not give up. I never expected learning such an overpowered skill to be easy anyway.
I could perfectly replicate the laminar flow and the breathing patterns but what I struggled with was achieving the selfless state. It was almost impossible to bear no hatred, animosity or hostility when fighting against demons.
It was clear that I would need to face some traumas and fix myself mentally to learn the form but I believe I could find a loophole with the help of my eyes. There had to be some tricks other than having to stop myself from hating the demons.
Because honestly, I don't think I will ever not hate them.
I visited Rengoku and Giyu during this time to have bro moments but other than that, it was filled with missions, training my breathing styles and trying to learn the eleventh form of Water Breathing.
..
..
In no time, a total of 6 months have passed.
.
.
.
[IMAGE]
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Question : Did you enjoy the chapter? Do you think this kind of time skip is better than doing [2 years later]?
Is it boring?
Share your thoughts. I can use it to improve in my next book.
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