The Beginning Of A New Regimen
And here we are once again at a new chapter for Breath of the Rifleman! A quick disclaimer before we go too far: All properties belong to their respective owners, I only own my OCs. And a quick shout out to groche9655, Lonetaker and Noble Eight for their contributions to this and the next chapter. Now then, with no guest review questions to answer, let's dive right in!
Morning: The Butterfly Mansion
"NOOOOOO! PLEASE! I CAN'T POSSIBLY TAKE ANY MORE!" Yelled Zenitsu as Subaru felt a vein forming on his head. Even despite being in an entirely separate room, The Matagi, his friend and his now possible girlfriend had still all been awoken by the sound of the blond slayer's screaming. Tanjiro, of course, wanted to go see if there might be a problem despite Subaru's protests and low and behold, it had been the same issue they'd walked in on yesterday.
"We go through this every day," said the head medical assistant, who Subaru had learned was named Aoi Kanzaki, "due to the venom you have the most severe injuries out of everyone here Zenitsu, so take your medicine this instant!"
"But I really-," Zenitsu started to say before Subaru rolled his eyes and produced his Derringer from his sleeve. He'd taken the liberty of moving it out of his bracer as a precaution the day before. Or in this case, incentive.
"You can drink the medicine or eat a bullet," said Subaru as he pointed his firearm at Zenitsu's head, "what's your stomach telling you right now?" The Blond Slayer merely trembled at the sight of the twin barrels in his face before accepting his cup and reluctantly drinking his medicine.
"Subaru," Chided Tanjiro, "I'm sure the helpers at the mansion have succeeded in giving him his medicine before without threatening him."
"Just yesterday they threatened to restrain him," Subaru pointed out as his weapon disappeared back up his sleeve, "and I am not listening to him whine all morning." Tanjiro would've argued further but one of the other helpers, the girl with a red sash named Kiyo Terauchi, approached them and handed them each a tea cup with medicine in it. The two accepted and drank without complaint, with Tanjiro even seeming to like the flavor.
"Hey!" Exclaimed Zenitsu, "Tanjiro and Subaru's medicine goes down easy, don't they?! I'll bet it's different than mine, so I'm calling favoritism, favoritism!"
"Zenitsu please," Said Tanjiro with his hands up in a pleading manner, "this is the hospital ward, you need to pipe down!"
"And yes, the medicine is different because we only got the shit beaten out of us," Subaru reminded him, "you nearly got turned into an eight-legged arachnid." Zenitsu might've responded to that if someone else didn't speak up first.
"You all seem to be doing well," said a male demon slayer as he and a female slayer walked in.
"Oh, Murata!" Said Tanjiro with a good bit of relief in his voice, "you're alright."
"And Ozaki, good to see you made it off the mountain," added Subaru.
"And got a new uniform, no thanks to you," replied Ozaki as she crossed her arms.
"Hey it ain't my fault you got caught in that ball of web yarn," replied Subaru, "just be happy I was able to get you out of there before you wound up like some of those others we saw."
"Yeah yeah," said Ozaki as she reached into a bag she'd brought with her and pulled out Subaru's cloak, "I guess at the very least I should say thanks, so, thanks for helping me get through that nightmare."
"Hey us slayers need to stick together in situations like that," said Subaru as he accepted his cloak, "and thanks for bringing this back. You even washed it for me?"
"I was just trying to get the smell of sweat and spider juices off of it so the house wouldn't stink," replied Ozaki. Subaru simply nodded with a slight smirk at this comment as Murata spoke up next.
"Anyway, a good number of slayers managed to make it out thanks to you guys and the hashiras dealing with those demons," said Murata, "though it looks like all of you got pretty banged up in the process. Is it true that you took one in the throat boar boy?" The Slayer's question went unanswered as Inosuke merely laid there in the same depressed state he'd been in for the last couple of days. "What's the matter with him?"
"He went through quite a bit on the mountain," explained Tanjiro, "it'd be best if you just let him be for now."
"But you know for this guy to be so listless is-," Murata started to say before he was interrupted.
"Tanjiro, Subaru," said Zenitsu from his bed, "who are these people?"
"This one here is Murata," said Tanjiro as he indicated the male demon slayer, "he fought with us on Mt. Natagumo when we arrived."
"And this is Ozaki," said Subaru as he pointed to the girl, "she and I managed to escape that trap of puppet spider strings and then we had to work together to survive a woman with a spider's lower body wielding a bisento and her little sister who melted Ozaki's clothes. Which reminds me, what did you do with my rifle?"
"A shinobi and this mute guy with a cloth mask showed up not long after I was taken to a medical ward," explained Ozaki, "they knew your name and about your rifle so I decided to let them have it. They said it'd be fixed after a good few days and would probably show up with Tanjiro's sword."
"Hidan and Izayoi," said Subaru as he crossed his arms, "I guess if anyone has a replacement barrel it'd be them."
"By the way," said Murata as he pointed at Zenitsu, "what happened to him?"
"My arms and legs are short right now because I nearly got turned into a spider," said Zenitsu.
"Which is why you need to take this medicine!" Exclaimed Aoi, startling the blond slayer.
"But there's only so much gross a person can take!" Complained Zenitsu before Aoi held up a finger to his face.
"Well if your arms and legs don't go back to normal, don't come crying to me!" Said Aoi.
"How can you be so cold?!" Whined Zenitsu, "that's such a cold thing to say!"
"You don't even know how good you have it!" Aoi shot back. "With just this medicine and lots of sunlight, you won't even experience any lasting effects!"
"NO WAY!" Zenitsu said loudly as he hopped over Inosuke's bed and hid behind Tanjiro, "Gross is gross, no two ways about it!"
"In case you're wondering," Subaru whispered to Ozaki, "he had no balls even before the spider venom got into his system." The Female Slayer merely had a disgusted look on her face while Murata suddenly seemed very depressed.
"It looks like you lucky dogs are at least getting to have fun," said Murata as a gloomy air hung around him, "I was summoned to the Hashira meeting to report on the Mt. Natagumo incident. And it was terrifying! Every one of those Hashira are terrifying, and they were pissed about how the quality of newer slayers has declined because some of us didn't follow orders on the mountain. They said things like: "Who trained them?" I mean what good do they think asking someone at my rank will do? I mean, Hashira terrify me."
"You might want to keep that to yourself," said Subaru as he and the other occupants looked up to see one said Hashira was standing right behind Murata.
"Hello there," said Shinobu, causing Murata to nearly jump out of the stool he'd taken next to Tanjiro's bed.
"Ah! Hashira, er I mean, Lady Kocho!" Said Murata as he shot up in a panic.
"Yes, hello there," repeated Shinobu with her same smile on her face.
"Hello to you! And Goodbye!" Said Murata with a quick bow before grabbing Ozaki and racing out of the room.
"Oh my, goodbye to you too," said Shinobu as the two slayers closed the door behind them. The Insect Hashira then turned her attention to the injured slayers. "How are your recoveries coming?"
"I think we're a lot better now than when we came in," replied Tanjiro with a smile.
"Zenitsu's still a bitch though, so he's got a long road ahead of him," commented Subaru. But Zenitsu didn't respond due to the fact that he was staring at Shinobu with that same irritating lovestruck gaze that he'd given Nezuko so many times.
"Then let's begin your rehabilitation training, shall we?" Said Shinobu.
"Rehabilitation training?" Repeated Subaru and Tanjiro. Shinobu merely smiled and clapped her hands together in the affirmative. For some reason, Subaru was certain he really wasn't going to like what was coming.
Two Weeks Later: Butterfly Mansion
The basic idea behind rehabilitation training was for one to rebuild their stamina. Though what no one told them up front, was how much it fucking hurt! From start to finish something was hurting during the training such as their joints, their limbs and on occasion their pride. It was so draining that every day that Subaru, Tanjiro and Inosuke came back, they would look absolutely haggard and sleep-deprived, going straight to bed as soon as they got back. One of the few upsides during this time was that Subaru got extra affection from Nezuko, who would cuddle with him to help make the pain go away.
Obviously, he didn't tell Zenitsu about this because there was no way he had the energy to deal with him yelling about being jealous on top of everything else. But even that couldn't last forever, because after days of prodding and forcing Zenitsu to take his medicine, the blond slayer would be joining them for their current rehabilitation training and for the proceeding days afterwards. "This is scary," said Zenitsu as he followed along with his hand gripping the back of Tanjiro's shirt, "I don't wanna go, I really don't wanna go." Ordinarily, Subaru would've made fun of him or at least made a comment to frighten him for the fun of it.
But given the last two weeks, he needed as much energy as he could get right now as they arrived at a large dojo-like room. Like many training dojos, it had a long wooden floor with numerous small windows on the upper parts of the wooden walls. To their right was a group of four sleeping mats and in the center of the room was Kanao who was sitting at a table with several cups of water in front of her.
"All right," said Aoi, who was now out of her usual medical robes and wearing the standard demon slayer uniform, "since you'll be joining us from today onward, Zenitsu, I'll go over the process once again." She pointed to the beds first where the three helpers in white dresses, Kiyo Terauchi, Sumi Nakahara, and Naho Takada, were stationed. How they weren't related was still a mystery to Subaru given how similar they all looked. "Those girls will help limber up your bodies to dispel the effects of being bedridden for so long."
This was quickly demonstrated with Inosuke being the first victim as two of the girls held his legs while the third girl buried her foot in his back and pulled his arms towards her. It was no surprise the boar boy collapsed once they let him go. Aoi then pointed to Kanao. "You'll do reflex training next. In each of those cups is medicated water and your objective is to throw it onto each other, but should your opponent block your cup before you pick it up, then you can't move that one."
Tanjiro served as the demonstration for this exercise as he sat across from Kanao. Not hardly a moment after the signal was given, Kanao splashed some of the medicated water on him in the blink of an eye. His next attempt didn't go much better as he managed to grab a cup, only to have it blocked by Kanao who threw more water on him. "And finally, full body training," explained Aoi as Kanao now stood in the middle of the room, "in simple terms, you play tag. You'll be up against me and Kanao here."
Subaru was about to stand up to endure his own torment and humiliation before Zenitsu interrupted Aoi with a raised hand. "Excuse me, can I ask a question," said Zenitsu.
"Is there something you don't understand?" Questioned Aoi.
"No, it's just, I need to talk to the three of you," said Zenitsu as he stood up slowly, "so all three of you, let's go."
"I'm not gonna," replied Inosuke as he remained sitting on the floor.
"JUST SHUT UP AND COME WITH ME LIKE I SAID!" Ordered Zenitsu in a voice that for once actually carried some fierceness in it. What happened next was even more amazing as he managed to drag all three of them outside of the dojo by the backs of their shirt collars. The trio of slayers was so stunned they didn't even know how to react until Zenitsu released them and pointed an accusing finger in their direction. "Now sit up straight all of you miserable bastards!"
"What did you just say-GAAAH!" Inosuke was actually stopped from speaking by Zenitsu throwing a surprisingly powerful punch that sent him spinning into the wall.
"Zenitsu, what are you thinking?!" exclaimed Tanjiro as Subaru noted the blond slayer had used total concentration breathing just now. "Tell Inosuke you're sorry!"
"How dare you all act like you were coming back from Hell when you were actually in Heaven!" Yelled Zenitsu. "All you did was frolic with girls all day, so why did you come back looking so haggard?! In fact, you should all get down on your hands and knees, apologize and commit Sepukku!"
"I should've figured this was the problem," said Subaru with a sigh, "we weren't hitting on the girls in there, dumbass."
"And how can you even accuse us of such a thing?" Questioned Tanjiro.
"Just shut up and listen all of you! Got that!" Zenitsu yelled back before grabbing Tanjiro. "You get to touch girls! You're bodies are getting massaged, you can touch their hands playing that cup game and when you play tag you can touch their whole freakin' bodies! Each girl has two boobs, one behind and two thighs, and they already smell nice and are mad fun just to look at! It's sheer Heaven!"
The blond slayer was practically jumping and spinning in the air at this point. "You say all that but the only thing I ever heard out of your mouth was bitching about taking medicine," Subaru pointed out.
"And when you lose to someone smaller than you it destroys your soul!" Inosuke fired back.
"Oh poor Inosuke," said Zenitsu in a mocking tone, "you've never been chummy with a girl before, have you? Right, you were raised in the mountains so you're a way late bloomer! I feel so sorry for you!"
"I've stomped on female kids before!" Said Inosuke as he moved closer to Zenitsu in an attempted intimidating manner.
"That's the worst thing you could do!" Said Zenitsu, "you're not gonna get any girls that way!"
"I can get as many girls as I want!" Inosuke yelled back as the argument continued.
"Yeah, no, they can probably hear all of this yelling," Subaru whispered to Tanjiro, "Not that Zenitsu had a shot with any of the girls in there anyway."
"Either way we really should try to stop this," said Tanjiro, "we're still not in good enough shape to be hitting each other."
"Perhaps I can offer some assistance," said a voice from behind the two as they turned around to see Izayoi in his full Shinobi attire.
"Ah, Izayoi," said Subaru, "what brings you here at this time of day?"
"Hidan and the others at the swordsmith village managed to get this cleaned up," said the Shinobi as he handed Subaru his Webley revolver and Matagi knife, "they were the least damaged items. The rifle and bayonet will still take some time."
"The good news is this'll do just fine for now," said Subaru as he checked to see that the chamber was loaded before firing it in the air, stopping the argument between Inosuke and Zenitsu. "Alright dick heads we're burning daylight. You do realize, Zenitsu, the more time spent out here yelling at us is less time spent in there with the girls, right?"
"Ah, you're right!" Exclaimed the blond slayer in realization as he rushed back inside at a surprising speed. "Please train me well!" They heard from inside the dojo.
"You should probably keep that to a minimum," said Tanjiro as the three of them reentered the dojo where Zenitsu was currently getting his limbs stretched by the three assistants, and loving it.
"I won't make any promises," said Subaru as he put the revolver back in the holster which had also been brought with it. In the meantime, Zenitsu was doing surprisingly well in his first session of rehabilitation training. He showed no signs of pain from the limb stretching, moved faster than Aoi at the cup game and then proceeded to catch her within a few seconds during tag. Though he predictably got clobbered by the blue-eyed girl for hugging her during their game of tag.
It was honestly the most impressive thing Subaru had ever seen Zenitsu do and it only served to motivate him to try a bit harder, because he was not losing to a whiner like him! And he wasn't the only one. "I'm gonna kick some butt too!" exclaimed Inosuke with his fists in the air. The Boar Fighter then proceeded to splash Aoi in the face before catching her by the ankles in tag, and holding her upside down as he laughed triumphantly.
As for Subaru, he made use of his quick drawing technique after enduring the limb stretching to grab his cup first and stop just short of splashing it on Aoi. "I can be a gentleman when I want to be," he remarked. Then, when it was time for tag, Subaru managed to use total concentration breathing to catch up to Aoi and tag her on the shoulder after chasing her around for a couple of minutes. Though his good mood at his success was short-lived when he saw Tanjiro was soaked with medical water due to being on a losing streak.
Fortunately, depending on how one looked at it, everyone got soaked upon going up against Kanao. Subaru could now see why she had been named a Tsuguko, her speed was incredible. Not a single one of them could move fast enough to grab their cup before hers and none of them were able to outrun her during tag. It went on in such a manner for five days before Inosuke and Zenitsu quit showing up entirely.
Subaru himself was admittedly a little down at their losing streak as he and Tanjiro made their way back to the shared room they were using. Neither one of them spoke because they were deep in thought on how best to tackle Kanao, potentially literally if it came to it. But the two of them were broken out of their thoughts by the sound of three small voices. "Master Tanjiro, Master Subaru," said Sumi with the other two mansion helpers standing behind her, "are you both alright? We've been calling out to you for some time."
"Oh, we're sorry," said Tanjiro as he rubbed his head bashfully, "we were just lost in thought so we must not have heard you."
"Is there something the three of you need," asked Subaru.
"Well," said Sumi as she and the other girls looked around sheepishly for a moment before pulling out a pair of white cloths, "here's a towel."
"Oh, thanks, you're all so kind," said Tanjiro as he and Subaru accepted the towels, "this is a big help."
"I do wonder if it means we stink though," commented Subaru as the two toweled the sweat off of their brows.
"We were wondering," said Kiyo, "do the two of you maintain Total Concentration Breathing around the clock?" The answer they received was a confused look from the two slayers. "As in you maintain it morning, noon and night, even while you're sleeping."
"No, I've never done that," said Tanjiro with a dumbfounded look on his face.
"I didn't even know you could do that," added Subaru as he looked at Tanjiro, "My old man taught me enough to easily kill the average demon, so, I guess he didn't think I needed it assuming he was able to do it himself."
"Is it even really possible to do that?" Questioned Tanjiro.
"Yes it is," replied Kiyo, "Master Kocho says it makes all the difference in the world."
"Ordinarily just using that technique really takes it out of me," said Tanjiro, "But we should use it around the clock?"
"Has anyone actually mastered this technique before?" Questioned Subaru.
"All of the Hashira and Miss Kanao have mastered it," affirmed Sumi before all three of them spoke at the same time, "Please work hard at it!"
"I see," said Tanjiro with renewed determination, "alright, we'll give it a try!"
"If it helps us not get our asses kicked again, I'm up for it," added Subaru as he put his fist in his open palm.
Some Time Later: Hospital Ward
It was strange even to Subaru to see Inosuke in such a deflated state. He'd gotten so used to the loud, boisterous Boar Fighter who was always looking for a challenge that seeing him just lying around seemed unnatural. On the other hand, Subaru didn't mind quite as much as Tanjiro that Zenitsu had stopped being so noisy. There was only so much whining he could take.
But regardless of his own personal feelings it was still depressing to see two people lazing about over their failures, especially for someone like Tanjiro. "Isn't it time the two of you came to training," said Tanjiro, "you won't get any better if you just sit around sulking and feeling sorry for yourselves." This didn't get any response from Inosuke, who was laying on his stomach while Zenitsu suddenly stood up and looked out the window.
"For me," said Zenitsu, "that was a good job. So just tell them my injury took a turn for the worse!" He then turned and began almost skipping away. "Hey Kakushi lady! Would you like to have some tea with me?"
"I can always kneecap him and make it official if you want," The Matagi whispered to his friend.
"Subaru," said Tanjiro, "there are better ways to motivate someone besides shooting them."
"Oh you want motivation," said Subaru, "then it'd probably be best to get a really mean trainer or something of the sort. All of my solutions right now involve shooting at him."
"We should probably just get to training then," said Tanjiro with a notable sweat drop on his head.
A Short Time Later: Butterfly Mansion Training Ground
Subaru could safely say that after two years of training, both he and Tanjiro could use and sustain Total Concentration Breathing for a short time without thinking too much about it. In theory, all it should take was getting used to applying the technique for a much longer period of time. Problem was, there was a shitload of difference between maintaining something for a few minutes and maintaining it for literally every waking moment of every day! A fact which quickly made itself known as both Tanjiro and Subaru collapsed to the ground in exhaustion before weakly pulling themselves onto the porch.
'Holy crap,' thought the Rifleman, 'even when I used the breathing technique for several minutes to steady my aim for a long range shot, it never hurt this bad. Trying to keep it going like this makes it feel like my lungs are going to explode or something! And that doesn't even account for the painful ringing in my ears!' Tanjiro wasn't faring much better as the two got back to their feet.
'Alright Subaru, think,' mused the Rifleman, 'Father always taught you to remember the basics in a sticky situation and this shouldn't be any different.' And if he remembered correctly, it all came back to the lungs. So, if he was having trouble maintaining a prolonged Total Concentration Breathing technique, it meant his lungs weren't strong enough just yet. That meant only one thing, he needed to work hard and strengthen his lungs even more, just like when he was first learning to use the technique.
"Um, excuse us Master Tanjiro and Master Subaru," said the three helpers as they suddenly poked their heads out from the side of the mansion, "we might have something that can help." They proceeded to bring out a pair of brown gourds with red string tied around them. Subaru quickly noticed one of them was taller than the other.
"So are we supposed to drink out of those or break them?" Questioned Subaru as he eyed the gourds.
"You blow into them," explained Kiyo as they also handed the pair some rice balls, which the slayers happily consumed, "Whenever she would train Lady Kanao, Lady Shinobu would often have her blow into gourds."
"That is a neat training technique," complimented Tanjiro as he took a bite of another rice ball, "are we supposed to make some sort of sound with them?"
"Actually, it's closer to what Master Subaru said earlier," corrected Kiyo, "you blow into them to make them explode."
"When I said 'break them', using my breath to do it was not what I had in mind," said Subaru as he and Tanjiro now looked uneasily at the gourds. The swordsman rapped on the smaller one with his knuckles a few times, only further hammering home the difficulty they now faced.
"We're supposed to make something this hard explode?" Said Tanjiro.
"Yes," replied Kiyo, "and it's not an ordinary gourd either. It's a special kind that has been reinforced to be even tougher." 'And that petite girl Kanao blew it apart with her breath?!' thought Subaru and Tanjiro at the same time. "The gourds also get bigger as you progress. The one Lady Kanao can explode right now looks like this." The other two helpers brought out a gourd that was the size of a small person.
'Fuckin' A, that's gigantic!' Thought Subaru. 'This is gonna be way harder than either of us thought.'
The Next Day: Butterfly Mansion Dojo
"So those two aren't coming today either," said Aoi after hearing the news from Subaru and Tanjiro.
"I'm sorry," apologized Tanjiro, "we'll try again to bring them tomorrow."
"You needn't concern yourselves with those two anymore," said Aoi, "we're already working on a solution for that. In the meantime, just work hard as you can." The two nodded as they continued on with trying to maintain Total Concentration Breathing throughout the day. The both of them had taken the approach of running through all of the exercises they were taught before becoming demon slayers with the addition of maintaining the breathing state the entire time. It was painful to say the least and the day somehow went by slowly yet quickly at the same time.
It would be on a break of sorts while Subaru was walking down the hallway that he would have an unexpected encounter. "You seem to be working hard," said Shinobu, causing Subaru to jump a bit as the Insect Hashira had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
"Gah, Shinobu," said Subaru as he felt his breathing slip for a moment before trying to go back to maintaining it, "uh, how can I help you?"
"You recall that not so long ago you gave me a list of ingredients you said were necessary for your weapons," explained Shinobu as she handed said list back to Subaru, "and you'll be happy to learn that we finally acquired some of the, rarer, items on it. I must say I'm rather happy to see that Genjirou senpai managed to perfect some of his demon poisons despite no longer being part of the Corps."
"Father never liked leaving anything unfinished if he felt it was extremely close to completion," said Subaru, "I got more than a few memories of him mixing what I thought was some kind of herbal supplement at the time. Turns out he'd been putting the finishing touches on a few of his nastier poisons. Though I doubt he ever imagined he'd actually be passing them down to me."
"During the time when he left the Corps, Genjirou senpai was more than certain that my sister and I would be capable of carrying on his legacy of poisons and pharmaceuticals," said Shinobu as she signaled for Subaru to follow her into a type of office where a number of small shelves were, each containing some type of special ingredient. "I wish we'd been able to live up to his expectations." The Hashira sighed then as she took a seat, her smile slipping for a moment as a more exhausted look crossed her face.
"Given that both you and your sister became Hashiras," observed Subaru as he too sat down in a provided chair, "I know my Father would be more than proud of the two of you, given that he was never able to obtain the rank of Hashira himself."
"Well truthfully he never cared about obtaining such a rank," said Shinobu, "it was always about the hunt for him. Money, rankings, titles, all of them were just a means to an end for Saburo Genjirou. As a Matagi he was very respectful of tradition, as I imagine you well know, but he also saw the way the world was changing around us at the time and voiced his belief that newer methods of thinking and slaying should be applied. The Master of course listened to every word he had to say in the few meetings they had, but the trouble was convincing the rest of the Corps that there were methods besides decapitation with a nichirin blade that could kill demons. My sister was one of the few willing to try such a method by incorporating both her sword and the use of poisons, teaching me along the way."
"By the looks of it, you've come up with some of your own variations," noted Subaru as he looked at the names of some of the ingredients, "correct me if I'm wrong but not all of these poisons would actually kill a demon?"
"My sister's idea," said Shinobu with a sad smile, "she was a very optimistic person, to the point that she actually pitied demons and believed everything could be better if we learned to become friends with them. To that end, she created a number of poisons that would only stun or paralyze a demon and even one that killed relatively painlessly."
"It sounds like she and Tanjiro would've gotten along famously," said Subaru, "he prayed for a dying demon that had killed dozens during Final Selection, was horrified by what Muzan's curse would do to them if they mentioned his name, complimented one demon's ability to play the tsuzumi drum, and even showed pity to the dying demon that had nearly killed me, Inosuke, him and his sister after trying to steal her away. I imagine if it wasn't for him being around, I wouldn't have given a second thought to tearing demons to shreds without a hint of remorse. But after seeing one person get turned into a demon against his will by Kibutsuji and going on a rampage, I sometimes wonder how much I should actually blame some demons for their actions."
"If not for Tanjiro, would you still love his sister Nezuko?" Asked Shinobu suddenly as her trademark smile returned to her face.
"That'd be the biggest irony of all," said Subaru, "I most definitely would've loved her, even let her consume some of my own flesh if it meant she didn't have to suffer pain. After all, what better show of love is there then a little bit of sacrifice?"
"I doubt there is any better show of love," said Shinobu, "which is why I've decided to teach you how to mix a few of my less lethal poisons, among other things. Also, I've arranged for another teacher to help you and your friends along with your training?"
"Another teacher?" Repeated Subaru with a quirked eyebrow, "I thought only the Hashira and Kanao had managed to master Constant Breathing."
"That is correct," affirmed Shinobu, "which is why the teacher we've requested is a former Hashira, specifically the former Sound Pillar. I hear he's even gotten into firearms since his retirement, so he'll be a perfect fit for all of you. His name is Itami Kumon."
Unknown Forested Road
A sneeze broke the otherwise serene silence of the land as a bald man wearing a shade hat and an old military uniform quickly wiped his nose with a scarred and callused hand. "Well well," he said as he reread the letter he'd received while walking, "it's times like these I sometimes regret retiring. It looks like I got some grabastic pieces of amphibian shit that need molding into proper war machines. Well if it's a nightmare training regimen they want, I'll be the worst damn nightmare they've ever seen."
It seems the grace period for healing is over and the time for intense training has begun. How tough can it get you might ask? A heck of a lot tougher than at least two of the slayers are gonna be expecting. But that's for next chapter. In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Be sure to stop in next time as our heroes are introduced to the sadistic training regimen of former Sound Pillar Itami Kumon! Who may bear a striking resemblance to another well known Gunnery Sergeant. 'Til then.