walk steady on this cruel world's path

By: Aviantei

[Shibuya Operation – Story Storm]

Part Four:

"Even Storms Can Produce Gentle Raindrops"

That night, Sensei and I returned home safe and sound to Zenitsu bawling his eyes out in a mix of relief and worry. Kaigaku wasn't present, but the next morning he eyed me with the same level of interest he always had whenever I achieved some new level of skill, probably reassessing what he'd need to do to catch up to me. Part of me almost wished that he'd surpass me already (being designated as someone's rival was exhausting), but my pride as a senpai kept me from straight up slacking off and ceding the number one spot to him. He'd notice anyways, and I wanted to hear him bitch about it even less than I wanted to spar with him day in and day out.

And just as Sensei had said, my successful demon hunt meant that I received his recommendation to enter Final Selection.

Final Selection was the test to see if you were capable of joining the Demon Slayer Corps. In concept, it was simple: survive for a week in an area populated with low level demons (captured by the Corps for this very purpose), and you could show that you had the skill to stay alive to be worth a Nichirin sword of your own. Of course, plenty of Corps members fell when encountered with higher level demons, but that was just part of the risk of the job.

Oddly enough, I found I was okay with that risk. Sensei had gone through all the trouble to train me. I at least needed to show that I had the guts to do our Thunder Breathing proud.

What I was less okay with was the fact that I'd have to walk all the way to Fujikasane-yama, which was going to be an absolute bitch. Oh, First World Problems, it's been quite some time since I had you. Did you miss me? I'm sure that all my issues seem really ridiculous in comparison to other people with First World Problems in this era, don't they?

Sure, I'd gotten used to walking over other forms of transportation during the past year, and my training gave me a lot more stamina and strength than I'd had before. But Fujikasane-yama was a literal week away on foot at a normal walking clip. If I pushed it, I could get there in a matter of days, but it wasn't going to be fun. That said, I'd be traveling on foot the rest of my time as a Demon Slayer (assuming I passed), so there was no point in whining. Walking was supposed to be good for your health, right?

And so I walked, following the instructions that Sensei had given me with a distinct paranoia that I was going to get lost and miss the whole thing. I could already imagine Kaigaku's incredibly disgusted look. Hell, forget getting a vehicle; I'd settle for having a GPS dropped in my lap so I could find my way around even if I made a wrong turn.

But by some miracle, I made it. Assuming I survived, I was going to treat my Kasugai Crow like a deity. I felt no shame for the fact that a bird was going to be better at directions than I was. With several moments of staring up at the breathtaking wisteria-surrounded landscape of Fujikasane-yama, I made my way up the stone steps and through the red torii gates to where we were supposed to gather. As expected, there were plenty of people already assembled with swords at their belts, most of them wearing lightweight jinbei to counter the summer heat that was waning a bit with the setting sun. I amused myself with trying to guess which Breathing Styles everyone used based on instinct. That one over there seemed hot-headed enough to use Flame Breathing, while the person with the wave-patterned haori was all but screaming that they were a Water Breathing user—and so on.

And then the sun set, and two children who could have been twins with their matching purple kimonos and near identical faces gave us our instructions, and we were set free into the testing grounds.

Whenever I sucked in a breath, that same acrid taste from when I'd fought my first demon was in the air, which wasn't that surprising. As mentioned, the Demon Slayer Corps dumped low level demons onto Fujikasane-yama for the sake of Final Selection. It wouldn't have been much of a test otherwise.

Starting the test at sunset meant that it would be an all-nighter, since demons were active in the dark. I'd planned my journey well enough that I'd been able to get some sleep during the day, but it was still going to be rough making it to daylight when it would be safe to rest. Considering the fact that this was a test where they didn't care if us contestants died, there wouldn't be any bailing out. It made sense in that if you couldn't survive this, there was no way you would make it as a Demon Slayer, but I also felt a bit like they were wasting potential candidates that might have done better with a little bit more training under their belts—or maybe that was the job of Cultivators like Sensei?

Thinking over the logistics wasn't going to do me any good if I didn't survive and make it back home, though, so I forged forward. As expected of a mountain in this climate, there were plenty of trees, which provided shadows for the demons to hide in and strike from. That said, since the demons here hadn't had the opportunity to eat since the previous Final Selection, they were quick to attack whenever I came within striking distance, with some of them even challenging each other for the right to eat.

I came out of things with a few nicks and scratches and an unfortunate tear rimmed with bloodstains down the front of my jinbei, but my haori was fine, and I'd lived, so it didn't matter much. As advertised, they were low level demons. Anyone with the right amount of training in performing Total Concentration and strategy could, in theory, survive the week. That first night, I slayed at least five demons, though the last one had been more because it was focused on its latest meal of now deceased Final Selection contestant—the one I'd pegged as a Flame Breathing user.

As dawn rose, I gave the best memorial I could muster, said a prayer, ate some of the rations I'd brought along with me, and failed not to vomit before passing out in a patch of sunlight.

I'd only managed to sleep because my adrenaline petered out and my energy level crashed. It just wasn't a peaceful sleep, because my dreams turned to the usual nightmares plastered with the image of the fallen potential Demon Slayer I'd buried the morning before. I woke up feeling nauseous, the phantom taste of blood lingering in my mouth.

Sunset was coming, though, so I ate some of the rations I'd packed, got some water from a nearby stream, and moved on. I was sure there would be plenty of time to process my feelings on the matter whenever my life wasn't going to be in immediate danger. I thought I had handled seeing my first half-eaten human corpse outside of a carefully arranged coffin in a funeral home extremely well. And why yes, that is the sound of me deflecting my problems with sarcasm, thanks for checking in.

That night, I didn't walk in on any demons munching down on my fellow test-takers, but I did come across bloodstains here and there, shining against the grass, seeping into the dirt. It was hard to tell if the test got easier or harder the longer it went on. On one hand, less demons to contend with the more that the contestants managed to slay. On the other, the psychological pressure of being under duress for a whole week combined with the remaining demons potentially gaining strength from their successful kills. Forget it, there was no contest: both the beginning and end of this test sucked.

Unlike my first night hunting demons, there was plenty of moonlight, and I'd tucked myself into a position against a rockface where I could see anything that might come at me. It had been hours since I'd eaten, and I'd hoped to get a snack in, but it wasn't to be as I could hear the rustling of movement in the trees to my left. Though it caused me to drop my hardtack (if I lived, Sensei was going to throw me a celebratory feast if I had any fucking say in it), my hand snapped to my sword. At that speed, it was either a demon or another test taker running from a demon, and I just needed to know which so I could give the appropriate response.

In a few moments, I had my answer—demon.

"Kaminari no Kokyū—Ichi no Kata: Hekireki Issen."

"Mizu no Kokyū—Hachi no Kata: Takitsubo!"

I wouldn't call our attack coordinated by any means. Due to the speed of Hekireki Issen, I struck the demon first, managing to score a horizontal bisection. The Final Selection candidate who'd called out after me swung their sword with the wave motions of Water Breathing, and their vertical strike sliced clean through the demon's neck. On instinct, I checked my surroundings, just in case our tussle had attracted any other enemies, but that didn't seem to be the case.

Together, the other candidate and I returned our swords to our sheathes, pressed our palms together, and gave a short prayer for the demon. It may have been a monster now, but it had once been human, so it was only appropriate to wish its soul well.

"Sorry about that," the other person said, dipping into a bow. I recognized their wave-pattern haori from when I'd been looking around before the test, and I'd been on the mark with my guess at their Breathing Style. They even had hair that was a pristine shade of teal blue that would have made Hatsune Miku jealous, and it was kept in a short bob style. "I didn't mean to make the demon run right into you; it just bolted off on its own."

I was about to say No problem, because it wasn't like there was some map that let you see where the other contenders were, but then the person stood up straight and all words failed to form from my mouth because holy hell were they pretty—and this was super not the time to be gay, but, listen, hormones are an absolute bitch. What was it called, the thing where you were more likely to be attracted to someone when your life was in danger? Yeah, whatever it was, I was just gonna blame my reaction on that.

The handle of my sword pressed against my palm, which helped me get a fucking grip on where I was.

"You must be impressive to make a demon run away instead of fight," I said. Yes, compliment their battle skills; that was a rational thing to do. Except the result was that they gave a pretty smile, and I mentally vented several strangled sounds that wouldn't have done any good to let escape from my mouth. "I've never seen someone use Water Breathing in person before. You were—uh, it was really pretty." Wow, Rairi, what an absolute disaster. All those lectures to Zenitsu and this is what you do?

At least I hadn't decided we were engaged or anything, so I still had some of my dignity left.

"Thank you. Your Thunder Breathing was impressive as well." And there was that smile again. Yeah, this was going to end in disaster. Oblivious to my inner turmoil (all that time dealing with my kōhai had taught me a pretty bomb poker face), they offered a hand to shake. "I'm Shimizu. It's nice to meet you." Well, at least I wasn't the only one with a name that was a little too on the nose.

"Rairi," I said, completing the handshake as our calluses brushed against each other. "But don't let it worry you too much, Shimizu-san—"

"'-chan' is fine."

"Right. Don't let it worry you too much, Shimizu-chan. If I couldn't handle a demon coming at me out of nowhere, I might just be in the wrong line of work." Leaning down, I found my lost hardtack and brushed the grass off of it. There wasn't time to be picky about stuff like that, so I'd eat it anyways. "Uh, are you doing okay with food? I have some rations. They kinda suck, but it's better than starving."

"Oh, I caught you while you were eating, too," Shimizu said, looking guiltier by the second. "If you're offering, I'll accept. Hey, I know! I'll keep an eye out so you can eat in peace without worrying about demons, and then we can trade off? Does that sound like a plan, Rairi—?"

I realized she was waiting for an honorific to fill in the gap, and I had to think about it for a second. Aside from the people around town who recognized me and tended to assume my gender, I only had Zenitsu and Kaigaku who were close, and they both called me senpai. Sensei, whenever he did bother to use my name, didn't use an honorific at all. "-san" was the only one that would be appropriate while being more neutral, but it still felt too much like I was putting myself above Shimizu after she'd offered a more familiar referral. And jumping straight to no honorific, while easier on my non-Japanese sensibilities, was just no. There were implications there in this culture, and had I mentioned no? The only reason I did that with Kaigaku and Zenitsu was because I'd picked up the habit from Sensei.

"'-kun' or '-chan' is fine," I said, leaving it up to her choice, and Shimizu nodded. "And, if you don't mind, I would absolutely love it if you could give me like ten minutes to shove some food down my throat." Because I had no idea how to be smooth whatsoever. Come on, this is Final Selection, not an episode of The Most Eligible Demon Slayer Corps Candidate!

Shimizu was an absolute goddess, because she had no problem keeping watch while I got to eating the stupid hardtack, and then we traded places. While we didn't end up having any other demons coming after us, it was hard not to tense up at every little sound, even if it was as harmless as a breeze rustling through the tree branches.

"I was thinking, Rairi-kun," Shimizu said after she'd finished up eating through the hardtack with zero complaints. Though I'd been called '-kun' before, it was nice hearing it from her, and wow I guess my alignment had been Chaotic Gay the whole time. Maybe it would be better if some demon did end up eating me. "The rules of Final Selection say that you need to survive to pass. It doesn't say anything about needing to survive on your own."

I blinked. That was a technicality I hadn't thought of. "So you think we should team up?"

Shimizu nodded. "Demon Slayers do work on their own a lot, but there are missions where they'll need to work together, too. If we team up, we can more easily take breaks when we need it, plus we can familiarize ourselves with each other's Breathing Styles, too." That was another good point. In theory, I knew the names of a lot of other styles, but Shimizu's Takitsubo had been the first time I'd seen Water Breathing in action. Considering that it was one of the most common styles, it would do me a lot of good to figure out how to fight side by side with a user. "I understand if you don't want to work together, but I think it would be nice."

Aaand there was that smile again. I'd known Shimizu for less than fifteen minutes, and I was already whipped. Zenitsu could never, ever hear about this.

"If you're happy teaming up with me, I don't see a problem at it." Heavens knew that I could use someone to watch my back. I cannot tell you how difficult it was to try hold off on going to the restroom for nine plus hours because you're worried that a demon is going to murder you the second you squat in a bush. "Let's make it through this, Shimizu-chan!"

As expected, having someone to work with you made surviving the second night of Final Selection a comparative breeze. Sure, the demons were still tough to fight, and I ended up with my fair share of bruises and scratches, but the damage was really nothing in comparison to getting knocked around by Sensei. Even Kaigaku's blows had more bite to them than what I'd experienced so far, and that was when he was still warming up.

Sunrise came, the demons retreated, and Shimizu surprised me by not only setting up a small fire, but also catching a local bird to cook.

A goddess. She's gotta be a goddess.

We discussed sleeping in shifts while the meat cooked, and then we fell into a comfortable silence. The more the morning stretched on, birds started chirping. If I hadn't been fighting demons the whole night, it would have been easy to think this was a normal forest.

"Rairi-kun," Shimizu said, and I snapped to attention. It was a good thing she was more focused on her cooking than me, so at least she didn't notice me trying not to make a fool of myself. "If you don't mind me asking, can you tell me more about learning Thunder Breathing? Like, who your Cultivator is and such?"

Figuring that was the least I could do in return for her doing the work to let me eat my closest thing to an actual meal in the nearing two days I'd been in here, I nodded. "My sensei is Kuwajima Jigorō," I said, somewhat still in disbelief that I'd been chosen as a student by a man who had once been one of the strongest members of the Demon Slayer Corps. "I don't know why he picked me, but I seem to be doing okay so far, so I just need to keep going, I suppose."

Shimizu smiled, and her eyes sparkled an unfair aquamarine in the sunlight. "I think you're doing wonderfully, Rairi-kun." Ugh, was I blushing? Thanks, body, I hate it. "Um, is it just you? Or were you training with anyone else?"

"Hm? Oh, I have two kōhai." Funny enough, just being away from home for a while made me miss them a bit, though I knew that passing Final Selection would just mean getting sent away more. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? Shimizu seemed interested enough, so I kept going. "I won't lie; they're kind of a pain in the ass. One of them is always begging me to spar, and the other one took ages to be able to practice without bawling his eyes out every five seconds. But even though they're a handful, they're still my kōhai, and basically the only family I have now, so I can't bring myself to hate them."

"If you have kōhai, you should take care of them." I blinked, and Shimizu seemed to recognize how forceful she'd been a second later. "Ah, sorry. I think…having someone to look up to is important. I'm sure those kōhai of yours think well of you. Um, you don't need me telling you this, but I hope you can continue to look after them, Rairi-kun. That's all."

Seeing her get all flustered just added a level of cuteness onto her already unfair pretty status, but it would be mean to drag it out just for my own satisfaction. "Don't worry. No matter how much of a handful they are, I plan to keep watching out for them. Well, assuming that I live through Final Selection anyways." The casual remark made Shimizu's expression become a bit more strained, and I scrambled to shift gears. "What about you? Do you have any kōhai or anything?"

Shimizu shook her head. "To tell the truth, I'm one of the few students my Cultivator has left." I saw her hands catch onto her pantlegs, and she stared down the cooking bird without really looking at it. "He's had lots of students, but most of them die when they come to Final Selection." I grimaced; that couldn't be an enjoyable experience. "It's not Urokodaki-sensei's fault, though! There's a demon here that's lived for a long time. Since Urokodaki-sensei is the one who trapped it, it likes to hunt down his students and kill them."

My eyebrows raised towards my hairline. "But all the demons that are here are supposed to be weak…"

"They are," Shimizu said, and there was a tightness to her jaw. "But this one's been lucky enough to survive, and Final Selection gives it plenty of people to feed on." Unfortunate as that was, it made a lot of sense. This place was supposed to be a trap for low level demons, but it could also just as effectively give a demon a perfect feeding ground to thrive on. "I actually had to beg Urokodaki-sensei to let me test. He only gave in because I said I'd just come here on my own if he didn't." Shimizu reached into the inside of her haori and pulled out a wooden mask, carved to look like a fox. Even I could tell it was excellent craftsmanship. "I wanted to come here and beat the demon that's killed so many of the students that came before me. If I wear this mask, it'll know I'm one of Urokodaki-sensei's, and it'll come after me. Even though I swore to myself I'd do it, I've been too scared to, though."

"Well, yeah," I said, "that sounds terrifying. But the fact that you even considered doing that is super admirable." If I'd had that kind of legacy in front of me, would I have been able to take a stand like that? Just like a lot of other things in my life, I had zero fucking clue, but there was no doubt that Shimizu was incredible for wanting to make a change.

Shimizu blinked at me. "You're kind, Rairi-kun." Um, I won't turn down a compliment from you, but are you sure about that? I mean, I guess I hadn't done anything to make her think otherwise, but I was pretty sure that everyone back home could have come up with a bunch of other suitable adjectives before they would land on that one. Shimizu's hands traced over the faint wave patterns painted onto the mask in her lap. "I guess I should apologize. I asked you to team up with me, knowing that I was walking into something dangerous. You don't need to stick with me if you don't—"

"And leave you to fight something like that by yourself?"

We were talking about a demon that had eaten several students of one Cultivator, along with presumably plenty of other Final Selection contenders over time. It had to be way stronger than any other demon in this wisteria-surrounded, metaphorical sandbox, and super out of the league of most people without a proper Nichirin blade. If it weren't for the fact that part of the test parameters was Attempting to leave the mountain or calling for help is impossible (yes, questionable, but I didn't make the fucking rules around here), I would have said leave it to someone much more qualified. But that wasn't a possibility, and if I just abandoned Shimizu like that, it would leave an awful taste in my mouth, and not just because I was lowkey crushing. Plus, there wasn't any guarantee I wouldn't run into this demon on my own.

If I passed and became a Demon Slayer, making a choice like that would mean that so many people could die.

"If you had to fight a demon like that on your own, you might die, Shimizu-chan. But you came to Final Selection even though you knew you'd be a target. You asked to come here, knowing the risk. I don't know if it was just for revenge or a sense of justice or whatever. But you came here. And I'd look really lame if I came back home and had to tell everyone that I ran away from a fight and left someone else all alone." But, that reasoning aside, most of all— "If something that dangerous is here, that means my kōhai might have to face it someday. I know that being a Demon Slayer is dangerous, but I at least want to make this as safe for them as possible. And, I mean, even if this is a suicide mission, I'd rather give you at least a tiny bit more of a chance to make it, Shimizu-chan."

Shimizu and I stared each other down, and I tried to make my expression as earnest as possible. I hoped she didn't try to pull that Oh, this is too dangerous, you can't come crap. I was more than capable of deciding what level of risk I wanted to take on my own, thank you very much. Of course, because I was trying not to blink, I saw the exact moment that her eyes shined over, and fat tears started to spill down her cheeks.

Oh, snap, I made her cry, fuck, I didn't mean to make her cry! Gah, this is completely different from when Zenitsu starts wailing, what the hell am I supposed to do—?!

"Thank you." Shimizu's voice was watery, but still genuine. "Thank you, Rairi-kun. I've been so scared of facing this on my own. I know I need to at least try, but all I could do was think about getting caught and—" She sucked in a sharp breath and started hastily wiping her face off with her haori, adding more water to the waves. "I know it's selfish, but I'm so glad you didn't just want to leave."

"Hey, it's okay to be selfish when your life is in danger. That's part of how you survive." I reached out to pat her shoulder, and, when she didn't flinch away, I started to rub circles into her back. "But we've been a pretty kickass team so far, yeah? Even if we have to fight, run away, regroup, and try again, I'm sure we can do something." Which may or may not have been me saying what sounded reassuring, but it was much better than declaring we were going to die.

If nothing else, I would fight with everything I had to make sure we both survived.

Shimizu had emerged from her haori, and she took a moment to blow her nose into a handkerchief before nodding. "I'm really glad…someone like you is here, Rairi-kun," she said at a near-whisper. My heart decided that very moment to throw a revolution, and my mouth flapped open uselessly—which gave me an impressive mouthful of smoke. We had, in the midst of our serious conversation, forgotten the cooking bird, and Shimizu rushed to save what she could. "Oh no, I wasn't paying attention—"

"It's okay, a little burnt meat never killed anyone—"

After salvaging what we could, we ate, decided to sleep in shifts, and let ourselves recover while we could under the welcoming light of the morning sun.

[Author's Notes]

And we're back, this time for Final Selection, baby! I'm really excited to introduce Shimizu this chapter, since she'll be important in the story to come. Writing her and Rairi's interactions is super fun, so I hope you get the same amount of enjoyment of them together as I do!

Extensive thanks go out to yikai11-teo, lisbeth-aredhel, Tora3, Sofi276, PyromaniacRabbit, ruinedartist, Henryz1981, TF Volt, KresnikMBM, JinxIt165, amgs, The Urban Spaceman, Jjwizzle566, sitisaffanah, Ale (Guest), Aku Tora, ILikeFoxes828, LucianFates, EirFantaxia, Master Kancer Of Dank, and Calamari Inkantation for the favorites, follows, and reviews since last time! I also want to make sure there are thanks given to those who did so but I might not have received an alert email for since fanfiction was acting a bit wonky when I last updated. Y'all are the best; I mean it.

So, yeah, there's literally nothing in the Final Selection rules that says Demon Slayer candidates can't team up, so we're exploiting that. Time for some relationship building, not to mention Rairi being big gay, because, honestly, what a mood.

It's time for a Taishō Era Secret! Shimizu learned a lot of her outdoor survival skills from her dad as a kid, including fire starting and cooking wild game, though it's been a while since she's had to use those skills. She practiced extra with Tanjirō's help before heading to Fujikasane-yama so she could be prepared for survival during the testing process.

Next Time: The Hand Demon is kinda gross, what the fuck even is up with this test, and a far-too-late realization. Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[02.13.2021]