College is the true never-ending grind
The following days passed fairly quickly for Musashi, between supervising Shuten and strategizing with Himejima. The other Pillars were working hard, wiping the other Slayers into shape and also training amongst themselves. They had all thrown each other into one another's training grounds, Shuten watching and drinking all the while.
Of course, the training never lasted long before some sort of fight broke out and Uzui would happily show off his prowess at using a sword one-handed. He was quite skilled, but his ability had certainly dropped. No longer could he match Kyojuro blow-for-blow, but he still had the skills to make the fights worthwhile.
In other news, Tanjirou was back on his feet. Musashi herself hadn't seen the boy at her training as of yet, but she had heard things. So far, he had been through Uzui's, Tokito's, Kanroji's, Irguro's, and Shinazugawa's training and was currently at Kyojuro's. Nonetheless, he was advancing quite quickly— of course, his friends and almost every other Slayer was currently struggling to bypass herself and Shuten.
She had also heard that Tanjirou was no longer allowed to be near Shinazugawa after a fight had broken out— but that wasn't any of her business. Despite the fact that she had asked the boy about it. And was certainly not holding onto the fact that he got so riled by a boy that every single one of the other Slayers had to separate and hold them apart.
Nope, not at all.
And she certainly wasn't still amused by it and still snickering about it while said boy's laugher sounded in her ears.
The pale-haired woman stretched her back out as she sat on the engawa of the Rengoku estate. Training had ended for the day and while Kyojuro had to patrol for Kanroji (the Love Pillar was too nauseous and fevered with Shuten's upped dosage of poison), Musashi did not.
In the other room, she hard Senjuro playing a game with Tanjirou, Zenitsu, Inosuke— the three boys and Nezuko were technically supposed to be Kyojuro's students, though with everything going on and what, it had been a bit more difficult to say that one or all the boys were his successors officially, but they did live with the family— and Tokito (a sort of "son" so to speak of Kyojuro's, and therefore Musashi's, not that she minded. The boy was already starting to call her 'Musa-Kansan' so all the more reason to adopt the kid when this final fight was over). Soft hums alerted her of Nezuko, the girl happily wandering over to Musashi and sitting next to her.
"Hello, Nezuko," she hummed and the girl beamed a bright, wide, and toothy grin. Musashi laughed a bit at it. The girl turned demon really was a sweet child. Musashi wondered how much of it was taken from her human self.
"Hel-lo," she said slowly, swinging her legs as she sat next to her. "Good… Night?"
"Yes, it certainly is a nice night out," she said in response, reaching over and patting Nezuko. The girl hummed happily, leaning into her touch like an affectionate cat.
"How are the boys?" she asked before a Shinjuro's roar of laughter could be heard— coupled with a startled screech from Zenitsu and laughing from the other boys. "Never mind. That answers it."
Nezuko hummed, bobbing her head a bit absently as the two lapsed into silence.
The sky was bright and the moon was quite beautiful if she did say so herself. Shuten had since left the property, though that was to be expected as she usually went out to either bother Himejima or wrestle more drinks from Ubuyashiki.
The only sounds around them were those of the bugs and the faint voices and laughter from the boys and Shinjuro inside.
Musashi hummed again, blinking as the girl shrunk down and crawled into her lap. She smiled, humming and moving her hands to her hair. She slowly worked out the few knots as Nezuko hummed, swinging her legs still as she fiddled with Musashi's yukata sleeves.
The older woman braided the girl's hair as she hummed, smiling when the child-sized demon looked up and beamed at her. Nezuko certainly was different than any other demon— she almost reminded her of Onui or Tasuke at times.
It was interesting.
"How long do you think we have?" she asked softly and the girl stopped her humming, blinking and looking up at her with a tilted head. Musashi smiled. "I'm just thinking aloud," she told the girl, patting her head.
A rustling of fabric made Musashi look up before Shuten dropped from above. The Oni had a self-satisfied look on her face as she held two jars of sake in hand.
"Good moonlight, darling," Shuten greeted as Nezuko perked. When the two first met, Nezuko had seemed to have been drawn to the elder being— and Shuten remarked that Nezuko, having cut the ties to Muzan, was more Oni than Demon. Of course, it could have just been the fact that without Muzan holding onto her, Nezuko's natural instincts to respect and revere an Oni had kicked in.
Musashi waved lazily as Nezuko hopped off of her lap, trotting to Shuten and reaching up. The younger demon pat the Oni with a hum and Shuten pat her cheek in return.
"Yes, yes," she said, walking back to the engawa and sitting next to Musashi. "Another demon showed up at Kaguya's home."
"Oh?" Musashi asked as Nezuko climbed back into her lap. The oni nodded, pouring a dish of sake before handing it to Musashi. She took it as the Oni poured one for herself.
"Two, actually," she said after a moment. "A woman and a boy. Tamayo or something. Docile, and here to help, I suppose," Shuten hummed, drinking from her dish. Musashi nodded slowly, drinking as well.
"I don't remember him talking about another demon, but perhaps he knew one," she said simply. Shuten just nodded and the two fell into silence.
"So have you figured out what you're going to do?" she asked after a moment. Musashi hummed a bit.
"Sort of. Himejima and I have a sort of plan, but it's iffy at best. Hopefully, Muzan is as prideful as we suspect," she said with a sigh. Shuten scoffed.
"I'm sure he is. Prideful brat."
"Isn't he… older than you?"
Shuten shrugged. "Who knows. I hardly know when I was born, just what year my legend started picking up speed."
"Fair enough."
Musashi finished her dish and Shuten took it from her, both women turning as the front door slid open.
"I am here!" The Flame Pillar's voice called into the house. Choruses of 'hellos' came from the children from where they were playing, along with a gruff 'welcome back, brat' from Shinjuro. Musashi hummed, leaning back on her hands and turning to glance into the house, seeing a flash of red and orange.
"Welcome back, Kyojuro," Musashi called, "We're out back."
"OH!"
Footsteps sounded from inside before the Flame Pillar appeared from another room, grinning as usual.
"Hello, hello! I'm back!" he said happily as he sat down next to Musashi. Shuten waved lazily, humming as she drank more.
"Welcome back," Musashi hummed, "Guessing Mitsuri got back up on her feet?"
Kyojuro nodded, leaning over and kissing her cheek. "Yup, Mitsuri was able to get on her feet and take over the rest of the patrol," he said, nodding. Nezuko gave Kyojuro a toothy grin as well as Musashi leaned on him. The demon crawled into his lap and he pat her, humming.
"That's good," Musashi said, nodding as Shuten hummed a bit as well.
"Anything interesting out there?" she asked, raising a brow.
Kyojuro snorted, "Not by your standards!"
"Fufufu, I see… a shame, then." The Oni lamented, abandoning her sake dish in favor of just drinking from the jug. Kyojuro just shrugged.
"Maybe for you," he said simply. "But knowing what you find interesting, it's probably for the best for us!"
"Hm, you're probably right," she agreed, shrugging.
(x)
"That's it, Zenitsu! Use what Rnegoku taught you last time!"
The sound of wood against wood sounded in the clearing as Musashi parried the Thunder Breath user's sword. Armed with her newest weapon, a Naginata, instead of her swords, she was finally facing the previously downed slayers. She had sent a group on ahead to Himejima already, as she had deemed them strong enough and well enough, but neither Zenitsu nor Tanjirou had been a part of that group. Inosuke has been, though. He had overcome the poisons quite quickly, interesting Shuten and making Musashi proud.
She stepped to the side to avoid a slash from the boy, spinning the pole-arm to block Tanjirou and another Slayer— a boy named Kinji, if she remembered correctly.
A few others were still struggling to stand, some still staring at Shuten in fear as the Oni drunk herself to oblivion.
Tanjirou lunged forwards, the energy around him crackling and Musashi raised a brow, preparing to block the attack. That certainly was new. Though, then again, Tokito and Uzui had told Kyojuro that his fighting style had changed. No longer Water Breathing but Sun? Now that was interesting.
Musashi only grinned, meeting the boy head-on as their weapons clashed. Her movements were hardly as fast as she would like, but that was the price of taking Shuten's next strongest poison— even though she didn't have to. The Oni had warned her and the swordswoman had been prone and cursed her cockiness the next few days afterward— thankfully, Uzui had been happy enough to oversee both her and Kyojuro's training areas while the latter fussed over the former. Ubuyashiki's response?
Orders to rest up, and a lecture on how not to overexert herself via Kasugaigarasu.
Just like a real father would, she had thought.
Thankfully, she was back to normal for the most part.
Musashi moved her head to the side as Zenitsu's blade was thrust much like a western-style rapier would be towards her head. She just grinned again. The boys were getting better, using their breathing to control and disperse the poison.
She dodged and blocked Zenitsu and Tanjirou before she knocked Kinji and another Slayer off their feet.
Tanjirou lunged at her again, determined to strike her with his bokken, but to no avail as Musashi fend him off. To many of the Slayers, this was becoming far more difficult than they had expected— seeing Musashi standing there without two bokken like they had expected her to have had made them think that it would be an easy fight. Instead, they learned that she was just as powerful with a pole-arm weapon.
Shuten had made a comment on how they expected the Pillars to be the strongest if they couldn't adapt to using other weapons.
Musashi then proceeded to kick their asses.
She dodged another strike from Zenitsu, knocking his legs out from under him before she ducked under a swing from another Slayer, eye flicking over to the bamboo that was rustling before she rolled out of the way of Tanjirou. Kyojuro stepped out into the clearing, watching with a smile on his face as per usual. A few of the other Slayers startled at his arrival, leaving them open to Musashi's attack as she knocked them over. Genya came out of nowhere suddenly, having been waiting on the edges of the clearing.
She had passed the boy already, but he insisted on staying back for another round of fighting.
He leaped forwards, slamming his foot down on the pole of the naginata, startling Musashi. The blade lodged into the dirt below and she had a split second to dodge a fist thrown at her face by the young Shinazugawa. The boy was still planted on the weapon, keeping her from pulling it up, least she get hit in the face by him.
She let go and jumped back before she gazed at the Slayers in front of her.
She let out a breath, relaxing her posture. "Enough," she said, smiling. "I've held you here long enough. You're all very strong and I can tell you're improving. Though some of you might not have been able to get up and fight, your new resistance and control over your breathing should save you from most other poisons."
"So.. So that means we pass?" Tanjirou asked.
"Indeed, Young Kamado!" Kyojro spoke up from his spot at the edge of the clearing, startling several Slayers who hadn't realized he was there. "For those who cannot stand right now, rest and move onto Himejima's training tomorrow. Those who can, it would be best to test yourselves at Himejima's trial."
Musashi nodded in agreement. "Indeed, that would be the best in order to test your limits."
She clapped her hands. "Now, if you can move, please help your comrades who cannot."
There was some shuffling as the Slayers who could got to their feet and helped their comrades up. Kyojuro walked over to Musashi as the Slayers ambled out of the clearing, wrapping an arm around her waist.
"That was nice of you to do," he said and she hummed.
"Well, best let them think I was merciful and then face Gyoumei with determination rather than be disinherited because it took them so long to get past Shuten," she said simply.
Kyojuro just chuckled.
"Those poor souls won't know if they were better off staying with you or not."
I'm currently working on a Hobbit/Fate fanfiction because I binged the movies two weeks ago
Guest: Yep, but it was more or less a big sort of "de facto" situation with Ibaraki + the Pillars don't exactly know that. Shuten's too lazy to correct them. I have some problems with Fate's version of events, being someone who was going to minor in History, so I do tend to take liberties and readjust things (for example, Nasuverse Musashi never wrote the book of 5 rings nor did she have any siblings that we know of. History Musashi had at least one older brother)