Dimension Travels

Chapter 18: Time Passed (Part 2) and Final Selection

Rinni's POV

Tengen, Gyomie, Kyojuro, Obanai, Mitsuri, and Shinobu all wanted to teach me their breaths. But sadly I couldn't master each one of those. They would train me for a month and I just couldn't do the attacks like they were supposed to be done, let alone master it. Yes, I could perform it to some extent but I could never do their attacks because it just didn't feel right... I know! Lame excuse, but it just doesn't feel right whenever I do their breathing styles. I can't really explain it that much but that's how I feel. If I couldn't do the attacks efficiently then the power of each attack just goes down, sometimes making it to the point that it was useless. It was because of that feeling I made my own breath that was derived from the breath of rock, the breath of metal. 

I discovered it by accident.

I was doing well with the breath of rock but once again, I couldn't do it efficiently and once again it didn't feel right. Like, it was almost complete but there's something missing. So out of my frustration, I hit a tree, cutting it all the way. I ran away in fear thinking it would fall on me but it didn't. I could smell the strong metallic scent that is present in the blood, iron, as I stared at the tree. It stood still for a good minute or two before it quickly fell down like it should have the moment it was cut. During that one or two-minute time frame I pushed the cut part a little bit, thinking it was just stuck and that my cut made it stable there, but nope. It completely stayed still for a few minutes as I poked around. I soon told Gyomie about it and in turn, he told the other hashiras. Since then I trained myself and developed it.

By the 5th month of my solo breath training, I already had 7 forms. 

The first form was Iron Clamp, it paralyzes the enemy where the cut originated. Depending on how strong an enemy is, is the time they're paralyzed. Like demons without a blood demon art can be paralyzed for a good  30 minutes. If the demon has a blood demon art it will last for roughly around 15 minutes.

The second form was Copper Cuts, it is a multiple slash attack. With this, I can do a quick succession of various cuts to either distract the demon or get in a much closer range. I can also somewhat also use this to protect myself from any projectiles.

The next form was Silver Slash, a one-slash burst attack, which means I put a lot of power into this. If I do use this, it needs to count. It either has to be a finishing move or something that can disable a demon.

The fourth one was Cobalt Strike, I used the blade of the ax and thrust it at the enemy, but it was very dangerous because it was more oriented in very close combat. 

The Fifth one was called Nickel Block, it's a defensive move. Pretty obvious from the name, so no explanation for you.

The sixth form was Cesium, a mercy kill attack since cesium is known as the softest metal. 

Finally, the 7th form was Poisonous Lead, this kills the enemy with lead poisoning, which surprisingly worked on demons, though it just made them sluggish. How did I find that out? Well, I went with Mitsuri and Obanai on one of their missions, the rest was history.

Oh speaking of which, Remember when I said to Obanai to wait until I turned 14, and then we'll both see who's the short stack then? Well true to my word, I did have a sudden growth spurt from 4 feet 9 inches I grew to 5 feet 7 inches.

Anyway, I was a month away from being sent to the Final Selection when an incident with my breath occurred. I was training with Kyojuro when it happened, he was observing how quickly I can do my breathing style. He watched as I kept doing all my forms to get used to them quicker and swapping in between. I suddenly felt like I had made a new form as my breathing had changed and had a different feeling compared to the other ones I had. I was excited and tried to attack. I suddenly felt like something was so wrong, I felt so weak. My muscles felt weak like jello. Kyojuro could only watch as I suddenly fell to my knees. I didn't even reach the target I was supposed to hit before I collapsed, not moving.