Chapter Four
"So, Tanjiro." I start off after a few hours of walking in silence.
"Yes, Ruby?"
"You seem to be familiar with these mountains."
"A few, yes."
"How so?"
"Sometimes I would run through them, smelling the air."
"Why would you smell the air?"
"My sense of scent is strong. If I catch a scent I can remember it."
I pause from walking.
"So, you remember the scent of the demon that attacked your family?"
"As clear as day."
My eyes harden with anger.
"I'm going to help you kill that demon. If you ever catch the scent, point me in the direction and lead me to it so that I can strike the demon down."
"Ok but, why do you feel so strongly about this?"
I look him in the eyes, my eyes showing determination.
"Because nobody should ever have to go through losing family members before their time to go."
"You lost someone too, didn't you?"
"My mother. I was young but the last thing i remember is her saying she would be back. She never came back."
"Ruby, I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault."
"I know but..."
"But nothing Tanjiro. I've grown accustomed to it and I've learnt to deal with it. Don't be sorry for something you can't control."
Tanjiro fell silent for a few minutes.
"What was she like?"
"She was amazing. Whenever me or my sister felt down she would bake cookies to cheer us up. She always knew what to say or do. She was the perfect mother."
"She sounds too good to be true."
"That's what some say, but she was my mother and she was real. And I miss her."
A few hours later we arrived in front of a cabin.
There was a man standing in front of it with a red demon mask with a long nose.
"Which one of you is Tanjiro?" He asked.
"I am" Tanjiro replied.
The man looked at me.
"And you are?"
"My name is Ruby Rose."
"Why are you here?"
"Call it moral support. Tanjiro is my friend and I will follow him anywhere."
"You sound naive."
I held back saying something that Yang would say in favor of my eye twitching.
"I used to be. But not anymore."
"How so?"
"I know there's evil in the world. And a lot of people kill just because they can. And I know that monsters exist, demons that only want to destroy humanity."
The man stayed silent.
"Would you wish to join Tanjiro in training?" The man finally asked.
"Yes."
The man nodded.
"My name is Sakonji Urokodaki. I will train the both of you until I deem you worthy to enter the Final Test."
Tanjiro seemed determined and I nodded with a smile.
"We begin tomorrow."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tomorrow ended up being before dawn broke.
We got led up a mountain.
"Make it down before the end of the day." Urokodaki told us.
We both nodded and he disappeared into the fog.
"I can smell the traps. The air is thinner up here than I'm used to." Tanjiro tells me.
I blink. The air seems about as thin up here as it was at the cliffside of initiation into Beacon.
"So you can say where and when to dodge?" I ask him.
He nods and takes off running.
He's about as fast as my jog but I follow his lead.
He gets hit by almost every trap as I manage to dodge the logs that seem to come out of nowhere. I guess having a past in Remnant helped me out.
We managed to get down the hill before the end of the day. Tanjiro passes out from exhaustion and I carry him inside, years of training with Crescent Rose making him feel light.
The next morning Urokodaki gave us each a katana.
All I could think about was Raven. How she betrayed everyone just so she wouldn't die.
The fucking coward.
I focus on what Urokodaki says and I get the hang of the katana pretty quick.
He tells us to do a thousand dry swings and we do. Once we finish, he tells us to do five hundred more and I hear Tanjiro whine.
I hold back laughter at that.
By the end of the day, I realize that a katana uses different muscles than a scythe. This is going to make me proficient in three weapons.
Scythe, sniper, katana.
That's a nice résumé.
