Chapter 4
"YES!" Fairy Tail cheered out once again as the scene faded to black.
The cheer and claps for Tanjiro's success, however, continued on, as the mages of Fairy Tail celebrated the first true happy moment since the very first moment that they all started watching the recording. The heavy atmosphere that once haunted the guild had been completely lifted, allowing them all to enjoy the excitement and happiness for the older Kamado.
"Heh. I knew he could do it." Gray said with a small smirk, rubbing his nose before he glanced over to Juvia when he saw her cheering and smiling at him, making the ice make mage return the gesture with a smile of his own.
"He did it!" Lucy smiled as she cheered along with Natsu and Lucy, who were both laughing loudly as they bounced up and down on the table where they were all sitting around together. "Tanjiro really did it."
"Hell yeah! Way to go, Tanjiro!" Natsu roared as flames burst out from his mouth, showing just how excited he was. Even though he was jumping on the table and breathing fire everywhere, no one cared to stop him, not even Erza, who sat there with her arms crossed on her armor's breastplate and a small, satisfied smile on her face "You are the best!"
"I am so proud of him." Mira said, wiping a small tear at the corner of her eyes.
"With this, he's one step closer to saving his sister and turning her back to human." Makarov said with a nod of his head, as Mirajane left the bar to go start serving food and drinks to everyone when they began to start ordering again, though not before she gave the master a nod in agreement. Reaching out, the master grabbed the remote control that Mira had left behind to pause the recording for a bit, allowing the members of his guild to have time celebrating and enjoying the moment before they could watch again, acknowledging the fact that they needed it after everything that they had witnessed.
Tanjiro and Nezuko's journey together in the cruel, merciless world that they were living in had only begun, after all.
"Alright, now that everyone has settled down. Let's continue, shall we?" The guild master asked, smiling warmly at his family once everyone had quieted down and returned to their seats, with Natsu and Happy jumping off the table they had been standing on to sit down on their chair again. Handing Mira the remote control, Makarov let the barmaid take over the recording again, pressing the play button to continue it.
It did not take long for the sight of Tanjiro and his sister to return. Tanjiro, who sat at a table writing something down a notebook, looked much better than before the scene faded to black, as he was currently dressed in clean, fresh clothes, and there were also no bruises or cuts on his body or face, letting them all know that some time had passed since the day Urokodaki accepted the young man as his student.
To their surprise, however, Nezuko appeared to be still sleeping. Even though it was nighttime, it did not look like she had moved or been moved from her position before, still laying in the middle of the house with a blanket covering up to her chest, and that bamboo muzzle in her mouth, giving them all the impression that she had been asleep the whole time.
"Hey, don't tell me that she hasn't woken up at all." Natsu inquired, crossing his arms on his chest and speaking everyone's thoughts aloud.
"Don't be ridiculous. Look at Tanjiro, some time had probably passed already. There's no way that she could have been asleep all that time." Gray tried to reason, but his tone was enough for everyone to know that he wasn't so sure about that himself.
"Some demons may enter a long period of hibernation to regain their strength." Mira pointed out after thinking very carefully about it. Being someone with the powers of demons, Mira had done a lot of research on them, even the type that she hadn't taken over so she knew a fair bit about the type of demons that they had in Earthland "Maybe Nezuko-chan is the same as them?"
"That's right. She hasn't been… eating at all, so sleeping might be the only way for her to recover. She looked pretty out of it after they defeated that demon together after all." Erza said, nodding her head in agreement, reminding them of how Nezuko had just been standing behind her brother, doing nothing but stare blankly into the forest.
"Regardless, I believe that we will know if she has really been sleeping all this time soon." Makarov pointed out with a thoughtful look, as he was also thinking hard about Nezuko's strange condition. After that, the recording was continued.
Grabbing his haori, Tanjiro then stood up and walked toward the front door, after giving his sister a look. There was a sense of worry in his eyes as he gazed at Nezuko, who remained motionless even as her brother proceeded to leave the house.
"Let's go." Urokodaki said, as he stood waiting for Tanjiro outside of the house. With a nod of his head to the man, the red-haired young man closed the door to follow after the masked old man, who led him into the forest near his house to start his training.
As the scene changed and switched to the white kanji word for 'destroy', the mages of Fairy Tail then heard Urokodaki's voice, as if he was talking to them.
"The Demon Slayer Corps has around several hundred members. It's an organization unrecognized by the government. Yet, it has existed since ancient times and we continue to hunt demons today."
The mages of Fairy Tail instantly straightened themselves up, as they were all eager to hear more about the demon slayers and their organizations, who hunted demons and protected the humanity of their world from them.
"But as for who's leading the Demon Slayer Corps, that remains a mystery."
"Hey, isn't that the douche who tried to kill Nezuko?" Natsu asked, pointing his hand at Tomioka as the scene changed to him and a group of shadowy figures, who stood over a cliff looking down as an army of demon slayers, who all wore black uniforms with the kanji word for 'Destroy' on their backs.
"So he is a leader of the demon slayer corps." Lucy stated in realization, as her eyes widened slightly in amazement.
"I knew it. He is indeed very strong…." Erza nodded her head, having had a hunch from the moment she saw how Tomioka had faced off against Tanjiro and Nezuko and what little trouble that he had dealing with the younger Kamado. She had acknowledged the fact that he was an amazing and powerful swordsman, even for their standard. Many swordsmen she had faced in the past wouldn't be able to move as quickly and easily as he had done in the snow, especially while facing a demon.
"Heh, so that guy is another real deal huh? I wonder how strong he and the rest of the leaders are." Natsu grinned, punching his fist as he got excited at the thought of seeing the demon slayers and specifically the leaders themselves in action.
"Demons. Staple food... humans. They kill humans and feed them. No one knows where and when they first appeared. Their physical prowess is remarkable. Wounds heal in a blink of an eye. Flesh is restored after being hacked off, and limbs can be newly regenerated."
"Ah, well, we have seen arms growing from a decapitated head, after all." Levi said, shuddering at the memory of the demon the Kamado siblings had fought and defeated together.
"I have a feeling that the kids are not going to get much sleep later tonight." Wakaba spoke to his friend, Macao, after lighting up a cigarette. It was his fifth one. If the journey of Tanjiro and Nezuko was just going to get a whole lot darker from then on, then he's going to need a lot more than just a pack.
"Some demons can shape-shift, others have otherworldly powers. They can only be killed by sunlight or decapitation with a special sword."
"Special sword, huh?" Erza inquired, her visible eye widening slightly in interest "No wonder why that demon was able to survive getting its head kicked off by Nezuko, you gotta chop their heads off with a special weapon, or at least, one that is made of a special material."
"The demon slayers are probably armed with this type of sword." Lucy pointed out, making Erza nod her head in agreement.
"And the sword Tomioka was using to fight Nezuko was probably one of them." The scarlet haired young woman said.
"The demon slayer battles the demons with their own mortal bodies. Since they're human, their wounds are slow to heal, and once lost, their limbs don't grow back!"
"Even so, they battle the demons, they protect humans."
"And Tanjiro is going to train to become one of them." Natsu said, grinning as he pumped his fist in the air "Let's go Tanjiro. You can do it!"
"We all believe in him, Natsu-kun." Mira said with a soft laugh, hiding her smile behind her hand as she poured for herself a drink. She had a feeling that Tanjiro's training to become a demon slayer was one of the only times that she could allow herself to relax for a bit, knowing that the two brother and sister was in no actual life-threatening danger; because she had the feeling that Urokodaki wasn't going to take it easy on his student.
"I am a trainer." Once again, Urokodaki's voice was heard, as Tanjiro ran his way down the mountain, avoiding all the traps and obstacles that had been set up for him "I literally train swordsmen. There are many trainers, and each of them trains their pupils with their own regimen in their location. To join the Demon Slayer Corps, you must survive The Final Selection process held on Mt. Fujikasane. Whether or not you are eligible for Final Selection is up to me."
"So in order to become a demon slayer, you must pass a test, and the one who decides whether or not you are eligible to participate in the test is the trainer themselves." Erza said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "This Final Selection test is probably going to be super difficult." The scarlet haired mage concluded, making many nod their heads in agreement.
"Wait… Urokodaki-san said in order to join the corps, Tanjiro must survive the final selection?" Lucy then pointed out, her eyes widening slightly in shock before she asked "Does that mean people can lose their life in it?"
"I believe that is the case here." Makarov nodded his head and spoke in a serious tone, sending a chill down the spines of the members of Fairy Tail.
'Starting today, I'm going to keep a journal for Nezuko. I'm descending the mountain again. I am going to train for my hardest so I won't die during the Final Selection.'
Tanjiro's thought basically answered Lucy's question and Makarov's words for them, causing a heavy atmosphere to once again befall the mages of Fairy Tail.
"I have a feeling… that if they are not going to give it their all right from the start, then they won't be able to fight the demons of their worlds." Makarov said with a heavy sigh, having expected it to come to this. Their world… it was so much cruller and merciless than theirs.
"Heh, I am not worried at all. Tanjiro is going to overcome that test and become a demon slayer for sure!" Natsu roared, throwing his flaming fists into the air as he tried to lighten up the atmosphere and kick off everyone's spirit again. A few younger members of Fairy Tail couldn't help but laugh at him, while the older ones just shook their heads at the pink haired dragon slayer before smiling. Indeed with the young man's burning spirit and attitude, they all felt a lot better than before.
As Tanjiro continued to sprint his way down the mountain, the red haired young man was able to avoid a wooden log that came at him from the side, before leaping over a hidden wire trap with a look of determination on his face. Although, the determined look instantly dropped and replaced with one of horror, as several knives were flung through the air and flew at his head, forcing him to dodge at the last possible second and making the knives stab into the trunk of the tree behind him.
"Oh, good reflex." Erza said, smiling at Tanjiro as the boy continued to sprint his way down the mountain while avoiding the other traps on his path "He's getting much better than before."
"Still, that was way too close." Lucy couldn't help but say, holding her chest and taking deep breaths to calm herself down.
'After repeatedly descending the mountain, day by day, I'm starting to learn how to avoid most of the traps. It's because I'm much stronger now, and because I'm even more adept at detecting scents than before.'
'Even so... the traps are getting more and more difficult.' Tanjiro thought as he grabbed onto the other side of a pitfall full of knives to narrowly avoid falling down and getting impaled. "As ifhe's actually trying to kill me.
"Damn, that old man isn't going easy on Tanjiro at all." Gray commented.
"The harder Urokodaki is on Tanjiro, the better. He needs to be ready to face the demons and protect his sister, even from fellow demon slayers." Makarov pointed out, making the mages of Fairy Tail nod their heads in agreement before picking up his mug of beer and taking a drink.
"Ugh, I hate to think that one of those guys will come after Nezuko thinking that she's the same as any other demons." Natsu said with a huff, crossing his arms on his chest as he continued to watch Tanjiro's training as it was shown on the screen.
"You really can't blame them." Mira said with a shrug of her shoulders, knowing from experience how hard it was for some people to not prejudice something that had been going on for such a long time "Nezuko-chan appears to be the first special case, after all."
Scene changed, and the older Kamado continued to write in his journals as he sat in Urokodaki's house, with Nezuko still sleeping soundly behind him.
"I guess Natsu was right." Makarov said with another sigh, while the mages of Fairy Tail widened their eyes at Nezuko worriedly "Nezuko hasn't been woken up at all.
"How long do you think she is going to sleep?" Erza couldn't help but ask, looking over to Mira knowing that her best friend would know more about this than anyone in the room.
"It's really hard to tell, but I think it depends on how tired she was. I don't think I have ever heard of a demon who needs any more than a few days of rest time to fully regain their strength, but Nezuko-chan is different. She's not a demon of our world, so she will be different." The white haired barmaid answered, making Erza nod her head in understanding before turning back
'I made my descent today, sword in hand. But the sword really hampered my movement.' Narrated Tanjiro as he ran down the mountain while wielding a sheathed katana in his hand, appearing to be having a relatively much more difficult time sprinting than the last scene.
"Oh yeah. If you are not used to it, then you probably will have a lot of trouble running down the mountain with a sword in hand, as its weight is going to tip your balance toward it." Erza explained, pointing it out with a finger pointing at the ceiling. "It is very important for a swordsman to be able to move and maneuver around with their weapons at the ready in one of their hands. Urokodaki is training Tanjiro toward the right path."
"Wow, you are certainly well versed in these sword stuff, Erza." Natsu laughed along with Happy, who clapped his hands for the scarlet haired mage alongside a few members of Fairy Tail as she simply smiled smugly back at them in response with her arms crossing on her chest.
Running the sword in hand, it did not take long for Tanjiro to get caught in a trap and ensnared by a rope that pulled him into the air and hung him upside down hanging upside down, leaving him flailing around while trying to free himself.
"Use the sword, Tanjiro!" Natsu called with a straight face.
"Urokodaki-san might not be allowing Tanjiro to use the sword at all, Natsu." Lucy pointed out to her pink haired friend, who crossed his arms on his chest and huffed in annoyance.
"991... 992...!" Scene changed, and Tanjiro was seen swinging his sword vertically while counting loudly, with Urokodaki watching on the side.
'I swing the sword today. Well it's not just today, I have been swinging the sword every single day. After descending the mountain, I swing my swords until my arms nearly fall off.'
"1000!" Tanjiro yelled as he concluded the final count of his swing and stopped, his arms falling limply to the side in soreness and exhaustion.
"500 more!" Urokodaki yelled from the side, causing Tanjiro to cry out in shock and horror.
"I used to train like that back when I first learnt my swordsmanship." Erza said, smiling fondly at the memories of the day that she trained to become the mage that she was today "My sword teacher told me that if you were going to swing your swords, then your arms better had the strength to do so. Weak arms meant weak swings, resulting in ineffective strikes, especially against enemies with strong defenses, so he made me swing my swords thousands of times every single day for two months straight. My arms were so sore at the start of the training I couldn't even hold a fork after, but it got better overtime."
"No wonder why you are so strong. Your arms really have gorilla strength, Erza." Natsu laughed loudly in amusement, with Happy soon joining him. Instantly, the scarlet haired mage turned her head and glared at the two, effectively shutting them up with a nervous look in their eyes.
"S-sorry…"
Later on that day, Tanjiro was found sitting at his table and fighting the sleepiness in him as he continued to write down into his journal.
"Come to think of it, while it's very nice of him to write a journal so his sister might know what has been happening while she's sleeping," Lucy couldn't help but ask. She was someone who wrote a journal, so she understood how Tanjiro must have felt (even though her journal got read all the time by Natsu and Happy whenever the two decided to crash her home) "but can she still read? I mean… I think that she can, but it's hard for me to think that she will be interested in reading."
"It's the thought that counts, I guess." Levi pointed out, making Lucy smile and nod her head in understanding.
'Today, I survived my hellish training for what seemed to be like... a few hours ago. No breaks, no time-outs, just pure, hellish training that nearly cost my lives. Now I know why Urokodaki-san wants me to become a better Demon Slayer. I have to push my limits if I want to survive The Final Selection that is due in who-knows-when.'
The mages of Fairy Tail couldn't help but shudder at that. The more they heard about the Final Selection, the clearer of a death trial it became.
"Swords break easily." Urokodaki said with an object in front of them.
"And that's a fact." Erza pointed out as she summoned a katana and held it straight up "It is made of steel doesn't mean that it can't break. You can even break it yourself if you are not careful with how you are wielding it, or inexperienced."
"Is that why you have so many swords, Erza?" Gray asked, pointing out the fact that Erza herself was a walking armory of close ranged weapons.
"They usually come with the armors, but yes, I do have spare just in case." Erza nodded her head in confirmation, smiling smugly as she put her katana down, having a feeling that she might need it around for later as the recording continued on. "It never hurts to prepare for the worst."
'That's what he told me beforehand.' Tanjiro spoke, continuing to narrate the story.
'Though, it's strong vertically, it's weak horizontally. So... you need to apply the force straight along the blade. The blade's direction and the direction in which you will apply the force must be exactly the same.' Urokodaki explained as he showed Tanjiro how to wield the katana, performing a quick demonstration by slicing the training dummy in front of him neatly and perfectly.
"It's a must for these types of one edge swords." Erza said, as she showed her guildmates the other side of her katana, which wasn't sharp. "You can't cut anything with this side of the sword, so you must strike with the sharp side, while applying the force along with the direction of your movement."
With that said, Erza shot up from her chair and demonstrated a cutting strike with the katana, cutting an empty table clearly in half much to the shock of everyone in the guild as those around her backed off to avoid suffering the same fate as the poor table
"See?" The scarlet haired mage asked, smiling smugly as she made a sheathing motion with the sword at her left hip.
"Yeah, we saw it!" The whole Fairy Tail cried out dramatically at Erza, who flinched with her visible eye widening in surprise before realizing what she just did.
"Why do I have a feeling that we are going to need to replace a lot of tables?" Makarov couldn't help but say, sighing longingly at the destruction of his guild while Mira just laughed softly in amusement behind her hand.
Then the masked old man added, in a threatening voice "If you ever damage the blade, in other words, break it, I'll snap all of your bones!" Tanjiro flinched nervously, sweat-dropping at that.
The scene then went back to Tanjiro writing his journal, looking sleepy but soon snapping himself awake while rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. "Nezuko... I'll keep working hard, okay?"
"You are the man, Tanjiro!" Elfman said with tears flowing down his cheeks.
Morning came Tanjiro could be seen wielding his swords, facing Urokodaki as he acted as his training partner when suddenly, Tanjiro's vision spun, before the boy found himself being flipped and slammed into the ground in one swoop.
"Today, I did nothing but fall. Training to break my fall and get up from any position." Then, with a battle cry and a somewhat dramatic face, Tanjiro charged at Urokodaki, sword above his head "I wielded my sword and I charged at Urokodaki-san, really trying to kill him. In contrast, Mr. Urokodaki is bare-handed and unarmed, but he's ridiculously powerful!" As Tanjiro said that, he was grabbed by Urokodaki and threw the dark red haired young man behind him.
"Wow, for an old man, he's indeed really, really strong." Lucy said in amazement.
"He knows how to use Tanjiro's momentum against him." Erza explained, borrowing the remote control from Mira to rewind the recording a bit, so that she could point her finger to Tanjiro's foot "Tanjiro's footwork is not firm right here, mostly because he's running and inexperienced, so Urokodaki is able to exploit it and throw him off his feet. After that, Tanjiro's own momentum do the rest of the work for him."
"So that's why you were able to throw Natsu so far whenever he charges at you?" Macao asked, as the mages of Fairy Tail burst out in laughter, while the aforementioned mage just huffed with his arms crossing on his chest.
"If he's being serious about attacking me then I will never be able to do that." Erza simply said as she returned to her seat and gave Mira back the remote control.
After training, Tanjiro once again returned to Urokodaki's house. "Nezuko, I am home." The young man announced, greeting his sister who was still sleeping before heading over to his table to continue writing his journal.
"Okay, this is getting worrisome now." Gray couldn't help but say, as Juvia nodded her head worriedly in agreement "Is it okay for her to sleep that long? Does she need to eat or drink? I mean… I know these demons eat humans, but…"
"Not necessary, some demons can live for years without needing to eat anything. They will be weaker than those who feed regularly, yes, but it's not like they can die of malnourish." Mira pointed out, before saying as she looked worriedly at Nezuko, who continued to sleep behind her brother "Still, some time must have passed, and yet Nezuko is still not waking up."
"Total Concentration Breathing?" Tanjiro couldn't help but ask, repeating Urokodaki's words.
"That's right. I'm going to teach you all ten of the Water Breathing forms."
"Water breathing? Is he going to teach Tanjiro how to breathe under water or something?" Natsu couldn't help but ask, feeling a little confused at the name.
"I believe it's the name of the sword technique Urokodaki is about to teach Tanjiro." Erza shook her head and explained to Natsu "He did mention he was going to teach Tanjiro all ten forms of the technique, after all."
"Ah I see. So finally we get to see some interesting stuff!" The fire dragon slayer cheered excitedly, as the other mages of Fairy Tail straightened themselves up to watch the recording more closely, with no one more interested in it than Erza herself.
"About time he gets some real training from the old man." Gray said with a nod of his head.
"Remember to take a long breath so the oxygen flows into every cell in your body. This will enhance your body's natural healing power, and both stabilize and energize your spirit." Urokodaki said, showing Tanjiro how to do Water Breathing. "Relax your upper body while bracing your lower half. All right, breathe!"
When he said "breathe", the red haired young man literally inhaled all the air they could breathe in.
And it was mimicked by Natsu and Happy, with the pink haired dragon slayer inhaling strongly like how he was normally eating fire in battle.
"I don't think he means breathing like that, Natsu." Lucy said with a nervous chuckle.
"Wrong!" Urokodaki declared as he struck the poor boy in the abdomen with the palm of his hand.
"Oww..."
"Next Forms!"
"Right, like this?"
"Wrong!"
Once again, Tanjiro did the wrong form and was struck in the stomach.
"Like this?"
"Wrong!"
"This?"
"Wrong!"
"This?"
"Wrong!"
And again, Tanjiro did the wrong forms and was struck repeatedly in the stomach, so much that the boy grabbed onto his stomach and cried out in pain.
"Ouch… I feel that." Gray winced, unconsciously wrapping her arms around her belly.
"At this point, Tanjiro obviously doesn't even know what he's doing. Look at those funny poses." Mira giggled as she pointed out all the forms that Tanjiro just did.
'Next, he told me to become one with the water.'
"Is Tanjiro going to submerge in water or something?" Natsu asked, but he immediately got his answer when a waterfall came into the scene, with Tanjiro and Urokodaki standing on a cliff overlooking it "Ooohhh…"
"Get in there!" Urokodaki told Tanjiro, and then just kicked the boy off of the cliff.
"What the hell!?" Both Natsu and Gray cried out dramatically with their hands in the air, as the mages of Fairy Tail watched Tanjiro doing some funny poses before falling into the lake below them.
"Well, uh… he did say Tanjiro needs to become one with water." Lucy said while chuckling nervously. Having gotten used to seeing much ridiculousness around the guild and being one of the only people acknowledging it with a rational mind, she was among the first to recover from the shock of what just happened.
"He doesn't mean it literally, does he?" Wendy couldn't help but ask.
"Nezuko!" He fell to the water as he shouted out her name. Next, he could be seen meditating directly under the waterfall, his hands in a prayer with a determined look on his face, despite being slowly pushed down by the violently pouring water above him "I am water!"
"Tanjiro sure is determined, we have to give him that." Makarov said with a small chuckle, drinking another beer as the members of his guild laughed wholeheartedly at the face the dark red haired young man was making.
"He care for his sister greatly." Mira said, nodding her head while smiling at Tanjiro, who kept on getting back up no matter how many times the waterfall pushed him down.
'It's been six months since Nezuko was last awake.' Tanjiro thought sadly as he reentered the house and gazed at his sister "Urokodaki-san summoned the doctor right away and had him examine her, but he found nothing wrong.But it's not normal for her to stay asleep like this.'
"It's already six months for them?!" Lucy blurted out in shock "And Nezuko has not woken up even once?"
"At this point, I don't think it's normal at all for Nezuko to stay asleep for so long." Mira shook her head and said. While there's still a lot that they didn't know about the demons of the Kamado siblings' world, sleeping for six months straight without waking up once was definitely not normal even if Nezuko could recover her strength that way.
Next day later, Tanjiro found himself descending down the mountain again
'My descents are getting more dangerous, and the air is getting even thinner as I train' Tanjiro thought as he ran as fast as he could down the mountain, sliding down a steep path and carefully maneuvering around the thin ledge. 'Time and time again, I think we might die.' As he thought that, a wooden log with long spikes swung down and came at him, but Tanjiro sliced it with a clean cut with the sword in his hand before deflecting the throwing knives with ease.
"Oh, he handles himself so well now." Erza spoke up with her hands clapping repeatedly for Tanjiro, watching him as he stood over all the knives he had deflected as they stabbed into the ground while the sun rose over the horizon.
"I have nothing more to teach you."
'A year after we arrived at Mt. Sagiri, he told us all of a sudden...'
"Huh!?" To the surprise of the members of Fairy Tail, Urokodaki suddenly declared, while standing over Tanjiro as the boy tried to catch his breath after training.
"Wait, that's it!?" Natsu asked in surprise, having been expecting Urokodaki to show Tanjiro some cool tricks with the swords that he had seen Erza doing several times in the past, or at least a form of the water breathing technique that he had taught Tanjiro.
"Some more time must have passed." Makarov inquired, making everyone nod their heads in understanding "Tanjiro has been training every single day for an entire year, after all, so the amount of training he has gone through must be a lot."
"Guess we will know soon if he's ready for the Final Selection." Cana said, looking quite drunk after drinking so many barrels of beer to swallow down the heavy atmosphere from earlier.
"Moreover, it appears that it's been a year and Nezuko-chan hasn't woken up yet." Lisanna pointed out, making the members of Fairy Tail around her to widen their eyes in realization and shock.
"The rest is up to you! Whether or not you can improve to the next level." Urokodaki continued to tell him before turning around to start walking away as Tanjiro straightened himself up "Come with me!"
And with that, the masked man started leading his student deeper into the forest, arriving before a huge boulder wrapped in rope, making him gasp at the sight.
"Listen, If you can slice this boulder, I will allow you to enter Final Selection."
"OH wow! Now that is some difficult challenge for Tanjiro." Erza couldn't help but say, her eyes widening slightly as she looked at the sturdy border Tanjiro was looking at "It won't be easy even if Tanjiro has the strength to do so."
"Heh, I bet I can punch something like that to pieces." Natsu grinned as he punched the palm of his hand with his other flaming fist while feeling all excited.
"Sure that you can, flame brain." Gray said absently, much to the annoyance of the pink haired dragon slayer.
'We can really slice this thing with my sword?" Tanjiro thought as he gazed at the border before him "My sword will snap.'
"As I said, it won't be easy even Tanjiro has the strength to do so." Erza repeated her early sentence, looking a lot more serious than before. "He needs to know where to hit as well. If he ends up striking it blindly, he might even start damaging his sword, or even breaking it."
"Then how is he going to do it?"
"Use the water breathing technique Urokodaki mentioned, I suppose." Erza answered Wendy's question with a shrug of her shoulders, knowing that she had to watch more to see how he's going to truly do it.
"Urokodaki-san, please wait!" Tanjiro called when Urokodaki suddenly started walking away "Urokodaki-san!"
'After that, Urokodaki-san never taught us anything ever again.' Thinking that, Tanjiro finally turned back to face the boulder, and unsheathed his sword from its scabbard before running at the boulder as fast as he could, coming at it with a swing of his sword while putting as much power behind it as possible "HAAAAAAAA!" The young man cried and struck the giant piece of rock, but sparks were all that he could make from his attack, as the boulder itself remained completely unscratched.
"That's a very good sword." Erza pointed out with an amazed smile "It doesn't crack even after that. So at least we won't have to worry about Tanjiro accidentally breaking it as a whole."
"But still, can he cut the boulder in half after that?" Mira couldn't help but ask, to which Erza only responded with a shrug of her shoulders, not feeling entirely sure herself.
Seeing that his attack did not work, Tanjiro decided to do it again, again and again, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even put a single scratch on the boulder. With a heavy sigh, the dark red haired young man decided to train a bit more in physical exercises, going through a variety of push-ups, sit-ups, squats, pushing himself beyond his limits to prepare for another go against the boulder.
Repeatedly, he tried but even as another six months passed, he still could not slice the border, and as he started hitting it harder than before, his hands became the victim instead, with the skin getting torn off and shaking uncontrollably from the stress of striking his sword.
"Come on Tanjiro, you can do it!" Natsu cried out, dragon fire bursting from his body as he cheered for the red haired young man. "Don't let such injuries hold you back! Keep pushing!"
'I felt frustrated. Not enough!' He balled his hands into fists. 'I wasn't training hard enough!"
"Hell yeah!" Natsu, along with some of the younger members of the guild, cheered for Tanjiro, watching as he got up and continued with his training, holding his sword firmly in his hands while ignoring the pain that he was feeling
As the sun descended slowly over the horizon, Tanjiro was left breathing hard before the boulder, as no matter how many times he had tried to cut it, he still ended up failing miserably.
"Am I… hopeless!?'
The mages of Fairy Tail looked on worriedly when such thought went through Tanjiro's mind.
I'll almost give in! I'm breaking down! Is Nezuko going to die without waking up?'
"Hey hey, what are you thinking?!" Natsu cried out in shock, feeling more and more worried at the negtative thoughts that Tanjiro was having.
"The boy must be quite frustrated at himself for not being able to do it after so long." Makarov said with a small sigh. "I doubt that he will give up, but he won't be able to make any progress having those things in his mind."
"Don't give up now, Tanjiro!" Elfman balled his hands up into fists and cried out determinedly for the young man "Think of your sister, keep training. You can do it!" But to his and everyone's surprise, Tanjiro started smacking his forehead against the boulder for his failures.
"KEEP WORKING TANJIRO! YOU CAN DO IT!" The dark red haired Kamado cried out as he leaned against the boulder before smashing his head against the boulder one more time.
"Shut up!"
To the mages of Fairy Tail's surprise and amazement, an unfamiliar voice cried out, stopping Tanjiro from smacking his head any further.
Startled, the boy instantly looked up and widened his eyes when he saw a boy around the same height and build as he was sitting on top of the boulder. He had thick, spiked, peach-colored hair of varying lengths, the longest reaching his shoulders.
Meanwhile, for clothing, he wore a green kimono, patterned with a geometric hexagon design of yellow and a darker green, tied off at the waist with a piece of black fabric, below which he sported a pair of tattsuke-hakama pants and over which a plain white haori. Around his calves, he wore a pair of kyahan, that bore the same design as his kimono, which his pants were tucked into, as well as black tabi socks and a pair of zōri on his feet.
In addition, he also had a fox mask, which he wore over his face, decorated by a large scar and being secured around his face by a thick piece of red rope around his head, the ends of which hung down from behind each of his ears.
"Huh? Who is this dude?" Natsu asked in surprise.
"Does it matter? He stopped Tanjiro from hurting himself again." Gray pointed out, despite noticing that even though Tanjiro had smacked his head really hard against the boulder, not even a single scratch was on his forehead.
"A man shouldn't whine. It's unseemly." He said, while sitting directly on top of the boulder.
"FACT!" Elfman cried out with a thundering voice, causing Evergreen and those around them to cover their ears while backing away from him.
"No matter how much you suffer, bear it in silence." He stood up from the boulder. "If you're a man. If you call yourself a man."
"BIG FACT!" Elfman thundered once more, with a voice even louder than before, so loud that some of the windows cracked "This masked man is a real man!"
"We can tell. Now keep your voice down, damn it!" Evergreen cried out, huffing as she sat down her seat, but Elfman simply smirked as he gazed at the masked oranged boy, who then leapt from the rock and used his wooden sword to strike Tanjiro, who raised his own sword to block it. What he did not expect, however, was for the mysterious boy to kick him, sending him tumbling before crashing head first into the ground, even though he was able to instantly regain his balance and get back on his knees with a roll.
"Slow. Weak. Immature!" The orange haired boy said as he stood on his feet "That's not what you call a man."
"Is this guy Elfman in that world or something?" Gray asked in shock, while Elfman just continued to cheer out dramatically in pure excitement. "What is up with him?"
"Still, you can't help but see that his words are getting Tanjiro back." Mira pointed out, smiling as she looked at Tanjiro, whose downed expression had completely been wiped from his face.
"What are you doing?" Tanjiro then asked to the boy while looking at him in shock
"I'd like to know what you think you're doing." He replied.
"What do you mean? I'm training." He plainly said, not knowing what he meant by that.
"How long do you plan to keep your butt on the ground without even taking a stance?"
Widening his eyes, Tanjiro slowly pushed himself up and got on his feet, taking a stance with his sword pointing forward.
"Come on. Come at me." The masked boy taunted, raising his hand to make a come over gesture.
"But you have a wooden sword... and I have a real sword." Tanjiro stated worriedly, pointing out the fact with concern on his face.
"I wouldn't worry too much about that." Erza shook her head and stated seriously "With the movements he just did, I have no doubt that he can even fight Tanjiro unarmed just like Urokodaki, let alone with a wooden sword."
"But who is he?" Mira inquiried in curiousity with her head tilting a bit to the side "How come Tanjiro has never met him before?"
"He might be another student of Urokodaki." Makarov said, taking a wild guest judging from the fact that the boy was also a swordsman. Although just like Mira and the others, he had no idea why the boy was never mentioned before as Tanjiro trained with Urokodaki, who also did not mention that he had another student beside Tomioka Giyu "Regardless, if he can help Tanjiro then it'll be amazing."
"Well, well! Thank you for worrying about me." The masked boy said with a mocking laugh "So, you think you're actually going to injure me!" With that said, he charged over to Tanjiro and clashed his wooden sword against the darked haired boy's sword handle, making him struggle to keep himself from being pushed back.
"I'm more powerful than you, because I have sliced that boulder!"
The mages of Fairy Tail gasped in surprise, finding it hard to believe that the boy had done it after seeing Tanjiro struggling against the boulder.
'Wait, him? He sliced that boulder? He thought as sweat trickled down his face, before the masked boy broke the sword lock and then jumped upwards, twirling around to land vertically on its trunk before coming down to attack Tanjiro from behind.
Tanjiro instantly turned around, and used the flat side of his sword to block his attack, causing the masked boy to jump back but instantly he was on the move again, moving faster and faster around Tanjiro, making it hard for the older Kamado to keep up to him.
And before he knew it, he was struck down by the masked boy and was crashing into the ground.
"Woah!" Natsu gasped in amazement, before a smirk made it to his face as he looked excitedly at the masked boy "I see I see. So this guy isn't bluffing after all."
"Moving that amazingly, I doubt that he's not a demon slayer." Erza said before continuing "Though, he doesn't dress like one."
"You have not mastered a single thing! Particularly, the breathing technique Urokodaki-san taught you... Total Concentration Breathing." The masked boy said while Tanjiro struggled to push himself back to his feet, causing the dark red haired boy to widen his eyes in surprise.
'He knows Urokodaki-san? And the breathing technique, too?' Tanjiro thought in surprise, as he turned around to stare wide eyes up at the masked boy.
"All you did was memorize it as fact. Your body has no clue what it needs to do." The masked boy continued as he pointed his wooden sword at Tanjiro "What the hell were you doing for a whole year and a half?" And with that, he started to attack Tanjiro again, striking his wooden sword repeatedly at the dark red haired boy with violent but effective strikes, forcing him to block while taking on a defensive stance "Slam it into your flesh! More! More! So that you'll never forget the secrets Urokodaki-san taught you! Pound it into the marrow of your bones!"
"Ohh, now this is more like it!" Natsu said while watching the two fought, feeling blood pumping strongly in his veins Tanjiro started fighting back and the two traded blows against one another.
"I am trying!" Tanjiro said through gritted teeth as he blocked another strike from the masked boy, and countered with one of his own. "I'm trying every single day, but I am not making any headway! I can't go on any further!"
"Go further! If you're a man, if you call yourself a man! There's no other way to go but forward!"
"Hell yeah! Tell it to him, mysterious boy!" Elfman cried out. Even though he was no longer shouting, the determination on his face was enough for everyone to know that he approved every word the masked boy said.
"He's pushing Tanjiro." Mira said, smiling as she nodded her head in agreement to her brother, understanding what the masked boy was trying to do to help Tanjiro "This is so good for him."
"GAHHHH!" Tanjiro cried out, and came at the masked boy with everything he got, stabbing his sword forward only for him to swiftly dodge to the side before coming at Tanjiro with a vertical strike from below, hitting Tanjiro's chin and knocking him out, leaving the dark red haired boy to collapse on the ground.
"What a counter!" Erza said in amazement.
"But… is Tanjiro alright?" Lisanna couldn't help but ask, looking worriedly at Tanjiro as blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Then suddenly, a little girl entered the scene and smiled softly at the masked boy, who turned his head around slightly to look at her from over his shoulder.
She was a girl of a short stature with pale skin, who possessed gentle eyes of a deep cyan color, and black hair that came down to her shoulders, spiking outwards at the ends, and short micro bangs over her forehead.
For clothing, the girl was dressed in a red yukata with a pink and white flower dot pattern, over which she sported a dark-purple sleeveless haori and a paler brown piece of fabric tied around her waist. On her feet, she wore a pair of sandals, tied around her ankle from her heel and closed at the toe. She also had a fox mask, but instead of wearing it on her face, she had it on the side of her head, being additionally decorated by two blue flowers painted on its left-hand side.
"Who is this girl!?" Natsu and Gray asked, almost at the same time.
"Another mysterious person appears." Makarov couldn't help but say, while rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"I will leave the rest to you." He said, and the girl nodded her head at him.
Later that night, Tanjiro jerked awake, staring up at the girl who appeared to have been watching him while he was out.
"Are you all right?" The little girl asked softly.
"Did you see that just now?" Instantly, Tanjiro shot up and asked loudly in amazement. "What a strike that was! Not a single bit of wasted motion! It was really beautiful! I want to become like that! You think I can become like him?"
"Wow, really, kid?" Wakaba asked with a deadpan expression, as some of the older men in Fairy Tail burst out laughing in amusement "You wake up to a girl watching you and the first thing you asked her was if she saw how you got knocked out. Really smooth."
"I think it's nice, you know, for Tanjiro's heart to set on learning." Mira pointed out with a smile "He accepts that he's defeated, and the first thing he wants to do is to learn how to be able to do the same thing."
"It's a good mindset." Makarov nodded, smiling before he looked at Natsu and the younger generation of his guild. "Maybe you can learn it from him, kids."
"Whatever, ji-chan!" Natsu said absently, and he was totally agreed by everyone else, while the guild master just laughed and asked for another beer from Mira.
After hearing what Tanjiro said, the girl made a small smile before nodding her head to the dark red haired boy and speaking to him.
"I'm sure you can, since I'll be looking after you." She said, finishing with a smile that radiated nothing but kindness and innocence.
'She's so cute.' He thought while blushing
"Ah, so our boy Tanjiro is indeed still a normal healthy young man." Macao laughed while clapping his hand with his friends as if he was celebrating "I was a bit worried there."
"Zip it, you perverted old men!" A female member of the guild cried, causing Macao to go red in the face.
"Who are you?" Tanjiro couldn't help but ask, before the scene changed and they heard him narrating the story again 'The girl's name is Makomo. She told me that the boy's name was Sabito. Makomo also pointed out my defects. She corrected my unnecessary movements and bad habits. When we asked her why she was doing those, and where she came from, she didn't tell us anything.'
"I see… if she can point that out for Tanjiro, then she must be quite skilled with the sword too." Erza said, nodding her head while silently agreeing to the girl that Tanjiro did make a lot of unnecessary movements while striking his sword, having observed his fight with Sabito as closely as she could.
"Oh damn, ji-chan, do you think that she's also a student of Urokodaki?" Natsu couldn't help but ask, looking at the guild master who had a thoughtful look on his face.
"It is a possibility, Natsu." Makarov confirmed with a nod of his head.
"Both he and I love Mr. Urokodaki very much."
'That was Makomo's pet phrase. She and Sabito weren't siblings. She said that Mr. Urokodaki raised them after they'd been orphaned.'
"Oh, that explains it." Lucy said, smiling softly as she watched Makomo putting a flower crown on her head. However, when the word 'orphan' was mentioned, many members of Fairy Tail couldn't help but smile sympathetically at Makomo, as they were all just like her, orphans who had been fortunate enough to find family in Fairy Tail.
"There are other children besides us." Makomo said as she looked down at Tanjiro, who was gazing up at her with a surprised look on his face "They're always watching you both, Tanjiro."
'Makomo is somewhat a strange girl.' Tanjiro tilted his head. "She speaks in such an abstract, dreamy way.'
"You see, Tanjiro." Makomo then started explaining "Total Concentration Breathing accelerates your blood circulation and your heart rate. That causes your body temperature to spike, making you strong as a demon while staying human. The important thing is to expand your lung capacity. When you bring lots of air into your blood, and when your blood gets excited, your bones and muscles scurry to heat up and grow stronger."
"I see I see…" Erza nodded her head repeatedly while writing down a notebook with a pencil.
"What are you doing, Erza?" Natsu couldn't help but ask, leaning over to take a peek at what Erza was writing down.
"I am noting down their training method. It appears to be within normal human's boundaries, so I want to try it out later, see if I can do it like them." The scarlet haired mage explained, as she closed her notebook after finishing writing down Makomo's explanation on Total Concentration Breathing.
"I am not sure I get it at all…" Tanjiro thought with a look of complete confusion on his face, before he decided to ask "Then… how can I do that?"
"Train to death."
"What the fuck!?" Macao and Wakaba spoke simultaneously with a sweat drop. For a young girl who had such an innocent smile, the way she told Tanjiro to train to his death made it sound even scarier than it already was.
"At the end of the day, there's nothing else you can do."
"She does have a point. If you don't train with everything you got, then you cannot expect to achieve the result that you want." Makarov said with a firm nod of his head, making the members of his Guild nod their heads in agreement.
And with that, Tanjiro started to train like crazy, even harder than before, not stopping regardless of whether it was day or night. He trained until he collapsed, his body shaking from the stress of being pushed to its very limits.
'Until my arms and legs were ready to fall off... Until my lungs and heart were ready to burst, I swung our swords.' Tanjiro thought as he tried to catch his breath, glancing at his sword which had fallen out of his hand and dropped on the ground "But still...'
The scene then changed for a brief second, showing Sabito handling Tanjiro with ease as he struck the Kamado boy down with a horizontal swing of his wooden sword, seemingly having no problem against him.
'We just couldn't beat Sabito.'
'Not until six months later.'
"So… does that mean Nezuko-chan has already been out for two whole years!?" Levi calculated in shock, almost not being able to believe it.
"It appears so." Mira nodded her head in confirmation, looking the most worried out of everyone in the guild.
"I am sure that Urokodaki will inform Tanjiro if anything happened to his sister." Makarov spoke up, trying to lighten up the mood of his children. "For now, let's focus on the end of Tanjiro's training, shall we?" He asked with a small, warm smile, making them all nod their heads at him in agreement.
'When I challenged him that day, Sabito was wielding a real sword.'
"After six months, finally." Sabito said as he slowly unsheathed his sword, while he stood facing Tanjiro "You have the look of a man."
"Agree!" Elfman said, and it wasn't just because Tanjiro now had a firmer look on his face. He appeared older as well, with his hair reaching down to his shoulders.
"Today's the day I win!" Tanjiro thought, taking a stance similar to that of Sabito as the two stared intensely at each other, with Makomo standing on the sideline and watching them.
'Head-on battles are simple. Whoever's stronger and faster wins.'
The mages of Fairy Tail held their breaths, knowing that the final confrontation had come.
Taking a deep breath, focusing on channeling his breathing, Tanjiro got ready.
At the same time, both swordsmen disappeared from sight, vanishing from sight as they ran at each other with speed far greater than anything they had ever done before.
'On this day, in this moment, for the first time, my blades reached Sabito's first.' Tanjiro thought, as he brought his sword down before Sabito could do it. As a result, the orange haired boy's fox mask was sliced in half vertically. Tanjiro couldn't help but widen his eyes a little when he could finally see Sabito's face behind the mask, as he looked straight back at him, smiling softly.
"YEAAHHHHH!" The mage of Fairy Tail cheered loudly in excitement.
"Hell YEAH TANJIRO!" Natsu cried out as he leaped onto the table and celebrated with both fists in the air, unable to contain his excitement. "Eat that, masked guy! Tanjiro won!"
Makarov, meanwhile, was the only one who wasn't smiling, despite feeling just as happy as the others.
'The moment we won, Sabito smiled. He looked sad and happy. A relieved kind of smile.'
"Tanjiro..." Makomo called out with a soft smile "You did great. Don't forget what you just did. Win, okay, Tanjiro?"
"HUH!?" The mages of Fairy Tail gasped, ceasing all forms of celebration as they watched Makomo vanishing into thin air, as if she was never there to begin with.
"Wait… what happened?" Natsu asked in shock as he stood on the table, too surprised to move an inch of his muscles. "Where did she…"
"I have a theory about who the two of them might be. I was afraid that it might be true, but…" Makarov shook his head and said in a calm, somewhat sad tone, as Natsu spun around to look at him.
"What do you mean, ji-chan?" Natsu asked, but Makarov did not answer his question, simply gesturing his hand to the scene as it continued.
As Tanjiro looked away from where Makomo has been standing, to turn his attention back to Sabito, his eyes widening even further when he saw that the masked boy was gone as well, and the spot that he once stood, was taken over by the giant boulder that Tanjiro had sliced in half with his sword.
'My swords, which I was sure had slashed Sabito's mask… had sliced the boulder.'
Even after being confirmed by Tanjiro himself, there was no celebration between the members of Fairy Tail, as they were all still too shocked and confused to even utter a single word.
End of Chapter 4
Note: So sorry for the long wait guys! I finished writing this chapter over a week ago and posted it on my p/atreon but got totally stuck with life issues that I wasn't able to send this chapter up after.
Anyway, hope that everyone has had a great time reading. Don't forget to leave a review once you have finished reading, make sure to check out my discord and p/atreon for new chapters of my stories the moment they are available, as I always post them up there first before bringing them here (both links can be found in my profile)
See you in the next update!
