Years Ago

The rain was light.

So close...

It was funny how such a light little sprinkle could refresh Sabito more than anything else. It was like the skies were rewarding him for his progress.

I'm so close to cutting this stupid boulder.

Sabito took a relaxed breath. The wind blew at his peach fuzz hair and tickled the scar along his cheek as he sat atop a stone boulder with a thick rope tied around it. His grey eyes tilted towards the cloudy skies before he glanced at his blade, its pristine edge despite overuse against the rock below. This was their final test before the final selection.

Just a little more...

After they passed this hurdle, they could finally become demon slayers.

I need to push a little more.

Sabito took a deep breath as he stood atop the boulder, his blade in his hand as he tilted his head to the side. Next to him was a boulder of slightly more diminutive stature and size, its surface filled with more minor scratches versus the large scars staining Sabtio's rock. A boy with a red haori, short black hair, and blue eyes lay atop it, catching his breath while the drizzling skies quenched his thirst.

"You ready to keep going, Giyuu?"

Sabito wanted to cut this boulder as soon as possible.

"Or you gonna keep lazing around?" Sabito joked as he watched Giyuu groan in response. The sprinkling rain echoed through their little isolated training camp on Mt. Sagiri. They had been at this for months yet hadn't made any progress. Not any real progress, at least.

"A few more minutes, Sabito..."

A few minutes of rest wouldn't hurt.

"My arms feel like jelly," Giyuu mumbled as Sabito laughed beside him. The two shared a slight smile as the rain started falling harder. The slight showers turned into heavy downpours before Sabito could blink, and the wind blew past his grey eyes like rampant gusts. A storm was coming.

Of course, it's storming...

They didn't bother moving, though. They had stayed out during storms before. Nothing else mattered other than cutting this boulder. They had to.

Dammit.

They had to become demon slayers.

Our clothes just dried from the last one.

Sabito sighed at the thought as he rested his hands behind his head and lay back on his rock. His eyes closed as he took in the air and thundering rain before he heard Giyuu speak from next to him, barely able to raise his voice above the storm.

"Hey Sabito..."

"Yeah, Giyuu," Sabito responded as he tilted his head towards his friend. His grey eyes quirked in confusion as he watched Giyuu looking at the sky with a deep gloom around his words, "The final selection..."

Giyuu looked tired.

"If I die..."

Sometimes, he got like this on rainy days.

"Can you take my haori," Giyuu asked with a thick plea, his head tilted towards the sky so he couldn't see when Sabito picked up a stray leafy branch and threw it at him, "What are you talking about?" Sabito said almost offendedly, "You're not going to die."

Sabito swore Giyuu could be overdramatic sometimes.

"Stop thinking like that. It's bad luck."

"None of Shisho's other students have survived it, Sabito." Giyuu retorted as he heaved the sopping-wet tree branch off him and tossed it to the ground below. His gaze stubbornly stuck on the ground so as not to notice the way Sabito flinched at the grim reminder of their situation, "It's just us."

All of Urokodaki's previous students had died in the final selection. Sabito and Giyuu had even been held back two years to work on the basics to ensure they wouldn't follow the same fate.

"I'm not like you, Sabito."

On some level, Giyuu and Sabito knew they were Urokodaki's last students.

"I can't even do the forms right half the time."

If they passed the final selection, they would be the only ones to do it, and Giyuu couldn't see himself in that position. Not when so many others had failed to do it. He couldn't see himself surviving it...

"You're incredible..."

But he could see Sabito surviving it just fine.

"Meanwhile, I don't even know where to start on this stupid boulder," Giyuu mumbled as he rubbed his finger across the pitiful scratch he had left on the boulder so far before sparing a glance at the scars Sabito had already left on his rock.

"If anyone is going to survive, it'll be you."

Sabito would probably cut it soon, and Giyuu would be stuck here. He would be forced to chip away at this big rock with no idea how to cut it because he couldn't keep up with Sabato. Not truly. He made it this far because he could use Sabito as a reference whenever he got stuck, but he still lagged behind in everything they did together.

"I don't want her haori to be left alone."

Giyuu figured he would lag in the final selection, too.

"So, can you just say you'll take it?" Giyuu asked with a depressed expression. His eyes tilted back towards his friend, only to see a foot flying towards his face. A pained yelp escaped his lips as he was kicked off the rock and landed in a heap on the muddy ground. "Hey! What was that for!?"

"For being gloomy, I needed to knock the doubt out of you," Sabito replied with a smirk, as Giyuu frowned in response. Sabito watched his gloomy friend rub the new bruise on his forehead before Sabito walked toward his boulder. "Now stop whining."

Sabito was close. He could feel it. Every inch of his skin was wet and heavy, but the weight grounded him. It made him look at the boulder and ignore it. The choice to focus on his sword instead of what he would use it on was instinctive.

"I have something I need you to understand."

Sabito took a deep breath as he raised his hands and relaxed his shoulders. His eyes closed for a fraction of a second as the world was drowned out. The pitter-patter of heavy rain on his skin and around his body lulled him into deep concentration.

Control my emotions...

It was like Urokodaki had tried to teach him. A water breather had to control their thoughts. He had to be able to flip between a still pond to a raging stream in an instant. It had to be like rain, where an entire cacophony of droplets could mix until it made that dull thrumming sound.

Control my thoughts...

Until a raging storm was nothing more than a drizzle.

Down to the last drop.

Sabito's eyes flashed open, and his arms moved on instinct. The rain bounced off him as all his muscles tensed, and his sword was brought down in a single, swift, and powerful swing. One where water seemed to pour from the edge of his blade like a raging river before it connected with the thick rock.

'SLICE'

Then, cut it like butter.

"I won't promise you shit," Sabito murmured as the thick rope fell to the earth, his breath escaping him in a shaky relief as he turned back with a broad smile, "If you die, I'll throw your haori in the mud. I'll spit on it and leave it for trash. I'll rip it apart."

Sabito saw Giyuu's eyes widen in surprise and genuine admiration. A hint of self-deprecation tinted the edge of Giyuu's eyes as Sabito pointed to the sword in Giyuu's grip and ordered: "So hurry up and cut your boulder. Hurry up and prove you won't die in the final selection. Do what I do, Giyuu. I know you can do it. You always do it, even if it takes a while."

Whenever Sabito found a way forward, Giyuu was always right behind him. If Sabito discovered a trick to a new movement, Giyuu would watch him do it and then learn to mimic it. Giyuu learned just as much from watching Sabito as he did from Urokodaki.

"Quit giving up before you start, Giyuu."

Giyuu might think that made him weak, but Sabito thought it made him strong.

"Your sister didn't die so that you could give up."

Strong enough to follow in his footsteps.

"She did it so you could live, so you have to live."

Strong enough to cut the boulder before the final selection began in a few months.

"You aren't allowed to die in the final selection, idiot."

Giyuu was strong enough to survive the final selection, and even if he wasn't, it was fine.

"So stop whining and man up."

Sabito wouldn't let Giyuu die in the selection.

"We aren't heading back till you get it."

Sabito wasn't planning on letting anyone die in the final selection.

"Until then, I'll cut as many boulders as you need me to."

He was a man of his word, after all.

Present Day

Giyuu followed his master in a daze.

He's dying.

After they left the old hut, no word was spoken, and Giyuu ambled behind his master towards the top of the mountain. They took a hidden path that even Giyuu hadn't known about; he had never come across it during his training.

His body's falling apart.

Giyuu didn't pay attention to the new trail or the fact that they were heading towards a foggier outcropping near the very top of the mountain. No, he only watched his master walk, his eyes dull as he saw the slightest tremors in every step. The tiniest hints of strain on the older man's hands and neck suggested that even walking this far up the mountain was a struggle.

How long has it been like this?

Urokodaki's body, which had endured decades of strain and trauma, was finally buckling under the weight of the world. Time eventually killed all, and it finally came for Urokodaki, yet his steps didn't falter. Urokodaki kept walking up the long-forgotten trail, ignoring the creaking of his bones and strain of his muscles as he got to the bottom of a small cliffside near the very top of the mountain, with Mt. Sagiri's peak in sight in the clouded skies.

"We're here, Giyuu."

Urokodaki spoke softly, waking Giyuu from his morbid thoughts. Urokodaki gave a small chuckle, his old body screening as he jumped seamlessly towards the top, pulling himself up to see the last secret hidden near the top of the mountain. His breath came out in a dry yet relieved puff as he walked towards the still lake near the top of the hill, isolated from the other streams and rivers that littered the mountainside.

It has stayed the same since then...

Urokodaki's thoughts were grateful as he walked towards the still lake with a tiny island at its center, a measly few rocks sticking from the surface. It was surrounded by still water, grass, and dirt that helped to quiet his footsteps, which softly echoed through the silent air as he made his way toward the soil that surrounded the shore.

This place will do.

Meanwhile, Giyuu had scaled the cliffside easily and had stopped in frozen surprise once he'd come to see the lonely lake. Nothing was living up on this foggy hill; even the birds had stopped chirping, and the lake was still as it could be. Its surface was as flat and reflective as a mirror, only showing a mirage of the cloudy skies and the small mounds of dirt surrounding its shores. Some had grass overgrown from decades of past time, and others were dug within the last few years, yet all of them held white fox masks, each painted with a unique design, of which he only recognized two.

Makamo...

A mask with the slightest flower designs.

Sabito...

A mask with a pale scar by its mouth.

So this is where he buried you.

The sight was sobering, leveling the cold reality of why he was here. His eyes struggled to keep their dullness; his mind struggled to stay still as he walked towards the lake of empty graves and knelt next to his master, who had already gotten to his knees and began digging a new hole. Next to Sabito's tomb, the last of Urokodaki's children to die.

"Why hello, Giyuu..."

Urokodaki was digging his grave, yet he didn't sound fearful or scared. His tone carried a hint of confidence and a streak of amusement.

"Care to join me?"

Urokodaki's voice sounded relieved, relieved that he would finally get to die and see his children again.

"...Yes, Shisho."

Giyuu's voice sounded so soft he might as well have been the one dying.