Functional Recovery Training Part 2

(Tanjiro's POV)

'So we ended the day soaking wet once again, Zenitsu' said Inosuke with a depressed tone.

Zenitsu replies, 'I should change my name to Monitsu already...' They were very depressed because they can't win Kanao in the tag game and the relfex training.

I try my best to cheer them up, 'Come on guys, don't give up! You guys can do it! Let me tell you two the secret to win Kanao!'

Zenitsu and Inosuke widen their eyes and focus their attention toward me, 'Really Tanjiro! What is the secret! Tell us, hurry!'

'You guys can do full focus breathing for short period of time right?' I said.

Zenitsu nodded and answer, 'Yeah, why do you asked?'

I smile and continue saying, 'Well try to do full focus breathing for a whole day without stopping. You will see the results when you do that.'

He just widens his eyes in shocked, 'Is that even possible?! It's very tough to maintain full focus breathing even just for a short time... To do it all day... I will die!'

Inosuke just says, 'Really Monjiro! I will try it now.' He immediately enter full focus breathing and hold for a while. About one minute or so, he collapses onto the floor while panting very hard.

I quickly run to his side and warn him, 'Don't do the full focus breathing for a long time immediately, Inosuke! You have to train your lungs capacity first! Come Zenitsu, Inosuke, lets go to the garden to train now. I will be your guidance when you have trouble in the training, come.' They quickly follow me to the garden and sit down in a row.

I stand in front of them and start explaining the training to maintain full focus breathing for a whole day, 'To train your lungs capacity, you have to do meditation every day and control your breathing speed and pattern. Then run around the garden until sunset everyday until you reach your limits. The last training is building your whole body strength. You can see there are two large boulder tied to a sturdy tree branch. Try to pull the ropes that are tied to the branch as hard as you can. Do that exercise until your whole body is ache. When you finish all these exercises after two weeks come and seek me for the final exercise. Now go! You guys can do it!'

Zenitsu raises his hand and asks, 'Tanjiro, is this a little too much?'

I smile and reply, 'Come on Zenitsu, is not so hard. If you don't do these training, you cannot do full focus breathing for a long time. When you do full breathing for a long time without training, your lungs and ears will hurt. And you will feel that your heart is coming out from your ear. You will feel like you are dying. Do you want to experience that?'

He quickly shakes his head and started to train with Inosuke. I smile at the my two hard-working friends and went inside the estate. Time to refine my swordsmanship. I enter the training room again and found a wooden bokken. I grab it and get into a sword stance. I cycle through my sword techniques trying to refine them to a higher level. Suddenly someone enter the training room.

I turn toward the person and greet her, 'Hello Kanao! What are you doing here? Are you going to train?' She jolted up a bit when she heard my voice. She thought no one is in the training room.

I walk toward her and ask, 'Do you want to have a spar with me, Kanao? It gonna be fun.' She quickly take out a coin and flips it into the air. She catches the coin and it landed on head.

She looks up toward me and says, 'Yes... Tanjiro. I would love to.' with a calm tone.

I reply, 'Sweet! Here's the wooden bokken. We will start after a few minutes.' while tossing the bokken toward her.

She grabs it and immediately get into a sword stance. I smile and also get into a offensive sword stance.

'Go all out on me, Kanao. No need to hold back.' I said. She nodded and immediately rushes toward me. She swings her bokken down toward me but I quickly parry her bokken to the side. I sidestep and swing my bokken to her side.

She widens her eyes in surprise by my speed and quickly take in a deep breath, 'Breath Of Flower. Second Style Plum Spirit.' She rotates her bokken around her really fast forming a defense around her. Her techniques immediately deflect my bokken back away from her avoiding my strike.

She plants one of her leg hard onto the ground infront of me and release another sword technique, 'Breath Of Flower. Fifth Style Peony of Futility.' She do flurry of nine consecutive slashes that flow and weave in on themselves. I was surprised by her swordsmanship. It is quite refined but it can't take me down that easily.

I quickly take in a deep breath before her strikes hit me, 'Breath Of The Sun! Fourteenth Style Parhelion Sun Dance!' I twist and rotate my whole body in high speed. All of her strikes went through me and I vanish in flames. She widens her eyes and feel something on her neck. She looks down and see a wooden bokken on her neck. She turns to her back and I was behind her.

I smile and say, 'I won, Kanao! That was a good match. Let rest for a while.' while putting down my bokken. I stretch my body and sit down on the floor while patting the floor beside me to invite her to sit beside me. She takes out her coin again and toss it up into the air. The coin lands on her palm and it is on head. She slowly walks toward me and sit down right beside me.

The atmosphere around us become very silent and awkward. I try to break the silent, 'Ne Kanao, what kind of breath style do you use? It is very fascinating to watch when you were using your breath style.' She just looks at me and smile.

I say again, 'Kanao, how long have you been trained by Shinobu?'

She take out her coin again and toss it into the air once again. This time it landed on tails. She tilts her head and smile sliently.

I begin to sweat in awkwardness, 'Why is she not saying anything. No don't give up Tanjiro! Talk to her until she speaks.'

I ask her, 'Why do you filp your coin whenever we talk?'

She tosses the coin again and it landed on head.

She replies, 'I decided to flip this when I'm not being instructed. I decided whenever I should talk to you or not. Head means "I will take" and tails mean "I will not talk". It was head so I talked.'

I smile as she begins to talk, 'Why can't you decide on your own, Kanao?'

She replies, 'It doesn't matter. None of this matters. So I can't decide anything by my own.'

I say, 'I don't think anything in this world that's not worth caring about. I'm sure, you have a small voice in your heart Kanao. But it's important to abride by your orders too. Could I borrow your coin?'

She widens her eyes in confusion, 'Eh?... Sure... Ah...'

I grab her coin and go to the middle of the room infront of her, 'Thanks Kanao! Alright, I'll settle this through a flip!'

She just stared at me curiously, 'Settle what, Tanjiro?'

'About whenever or not, from now on, you'll will listen to your own heart, Kanao!' I just toss the coin into the air really high.

'Heads! I call heads! If it lands on heads, you'll live by what your heart desires, Kanao!' I said while grabbing the coin.

When I caught the coin, I slowly walk toward her and open my hand to reveal what side did the coin land.

(Kanao's POV)

Which is it? I couldn't see the moment it landed because of his back. When he opened his palm, it landed on heads. He jumps up in excitement and put his hand out giving me the coin.

When I grab the coin on his palm, he suddenly grab my hands and get close to me while saying, 'People are driven by their hearts, so your heart can grow stronger than ever! Try and make your own decision, Kanao! I better go now. I have to teach my two friends about the breathing exercise. Good luck!' He lets go of my hands and walk toward the exit.

I quickly get up from the floor and yell, 'Why did it come out heads?' I saw the way he flipped it. I don't think he used any tricks...

He stops and turn toward me while smiling warmly, 'It was by chance. Beside if it was tails, I planned to flip it lots of time until it landed heads. Is farewell now, Kanao!'

Suddenly my pink-lilac eyes shine in a spiral circle. My once emotionless eyes become more lively. The world around me become more brighter and more colourful than last time. Now a new feeling has blossoms within me. That feeling was love. I have never experienced this kind of feeling in my entire life. This is a mysterious feeling but I feel pleasant. I hope I can learn about this new feeling more but for now, I just want to stay this way.

(Tanjiro's POV)

I walk to the garden were Inosuke and Zenitsu are training. On the way, I notice the three young girls about 8 years old.

I walk toward them and greet them, 'Hello Naho-chan, Kiyo-chan, Sumi-chan. How are you girls doing?'

They reply, 'We are fine thank you, Tanjiro-san.'

I ask, 'Great! Ah! I can request something from you girls? Can you all take a futon beaters? You all have to help me out to train my friends. If they ever stop doing full focus breaths while they are sleeping, beat them hard with these futon beaters.'

They nodded and agree my request, 'Sure Tanjiro-san. We will do it.' They quickly get a futon beater each and follow me to the garden. When I arrived there, Zenitsu and Inosuke are laying on the grass panting heavily.

I walk up to them and say, 'Whoa good job you guys. Now time to rest. By the way, when you guys sleep at night, make sure you maintain the full focus breaths. If you two ever stop, you will get beaten up by futon beaters, understand?'

Zenitsu just widens his eyes in stunned, 'Are you crazy Tanjiro?! Do you want us to die! Your training are already too hard for us to even do! Now you want us to do that! I don't want to die!'

'Come on now Zenitsu. Just do this for a week then you are done. You will have a rewarding result when you finished your training.' I said.

Inosuke replies, 'Fine Monjiro! I accept your challenge!'

I say, 'Great, Inosuke! You don't want to fall behind now, Zenitsu.'

'Fine, Tanjiro. You better cook rice balls for me!' Zenitsu said. They return to the medical room and rest for the night while training full focus breaths. When they are asleep, I leap up the estate's roof and get into a meditation position. I slowly inhale and exhale deeply. I relax my mind and think about my breath style. I have to find a way to maintain my demon crest markings for a long period of time or forever. Okay, time to try it out. I take in a deep breath and my mark manifested replacing my forehead scar. After holding for one hour, my mark quickly reverted back and I start to pant heavily. I really can't maintain it for long. Steady your breath, let the air circle through your lungs.

Suddenly there a voice in my head, 'Tanjiro, change your breathing pattern. Keep up that breathing pattern and steady your breath. Your stamina will last for a whole day.' It was my tou-san voice.

I widen my eyes in realization and change my breathing pattern. The scar on my forehead slowly manifests into a red demon crest markings. It slowly synchronize with my body and immediately my whole body feel more stronger than before. I touch the mark on my forehead and smile. Look like my mark will be permanently on my forehead from on now.

Suddenly a figure appears beside me, 'You're trying hard there eventhough your two friends were asleep. Are you lonely all by yourself' It was Shinobu.

'No, I just training by myself but thanks Shinobu.' I replied.

She look up at my mark and ask curiously, 'What happen to your forehead scar, Tanjiro? Did you get a new tattoo?'

I answer, 'No, actually this is a demon crest marking. It increase ones abilities dramatically.'

She tilts in confusion, 'A demon crest mark? This is the first time I see this. You said that it increase ones abilities, right? Do you think I can get it?' while touching the mark on my forehead.

I reply, 'Well, I don't think you can because it takes a toll on your body after you use it but with training maybe you can.'

She nodded and says, 'Yeah. Oh, by the way, everyone recognized Nezuko-san existence. And you all were severaly injuried. And then, I wanted to entrust my dream to you. A dream to get along with demons. I'm sure you can do it.'

Suddenly I pick up a sudden change of her scents, 'Are you angry, Shinobu? You smell as if you're always angry for some reason. Eventhough you're smiling all the time.'

She widens her eyes and look down, 'I guess so... I might usually be angry.From the moment my beloved nee-san got slaughter by demons. Everything I saw the tears of people whose loved ones were taken away by demons, Everytime I heard their shrieks of despair. The anger inside of me continued to grow and get larger. I have repulsive feelings that I can't do anything about the deepest part of my body. And I'm sure the other pillars are similar. Well, now they saw the demon who has never eaten a person, Nezuko-san and they remembered her. I don't think anybody will lay a hand on her since Oyakata-sama is okay with it. My nee-san was a kind person like you. She sympathized with demons and she felt sorry for them even on the verge of her own death. I could never think about things like that. Have pity on those who killed people? That's just crazy talk. But if that was how nee-san felt, I have to follow in her footsteps. If there is a way to end all this without slaying these pitiful demons, I have to continue thinking about it. I will not let the smile which my nee-san said she loved burn out. But it's just... a little tiring... Demons tell nothing but lies to protect themselves. They have no sensibilities and their bare instinct to kill people.Please do your best, Tanjiro-kun. Please protect Nezuko-san to the very end. When I imagine you doing your best in my stead, I feel relieved. I feel much better about it.'

I stand up and put my pinky finger out, 'I will do my best, Shinobu. I promise I will fulfill your nee-san's dream and protect Nezuko. I promise.' with a determine tone.

She smiles and cross her pinky finger with mine, 'Sure, It's a promise.' She immediately jumps down from the roof and go inside the estate. Well it's time to go to sleep. I have to help Inosuke and Zenitsu tomorrow. I jump down from the roof and enter the state to get some rest.

End