his eyes rounded and glistened and gave out a laugh with a wide smile before pulling me in a hug. kyoujurou put a hand against my cold cheek and kissed me, tanjiro zenitsu inosuke mitsuri, and everyone else that was involved popped up and cheered and threw flower petals at us. and just like that our time at the swordsman village ended with a joyful atmosphere.
********
the pillar training had begun and we all became busy, when tanjiro arrived at my training session he told me he used another breathing passed down from his family for generations.
sen:" hmm hinokami kagura huh, i have never heard of it"
tanjiro:" i thought so... sigh"
sen:"but you already know the different forms correct?"
tanjiro:" yes!"
sen:" well then lets test it out"
tanjiro:" huh?"
sen:" you said the backlash from changing yo different forms makes you unable to move right? then we'll have to do something about that and help you perfect it, in short we're sparing"
we took our stances and form after form we clashed, it really is a strong breathing technique i thought.
sen:" try continuously swapping between breaths"
tanjiro did exactly that and after a few times switching between the two he collapsed from tye backlash.
tanjiro:" sorry sen san but thats all i can manage"
i squat down beside him and patted his back. and grinned at him.
sen:" you did well get some rest and continue after it should help increase the time you can use both breaths before collapsing"
i went to check on the others who had arrived and explained the routine, i checked their forms and many of them are incredibly flimsy its a surprise they even survived this long. i directed those who already had a breath yo traina nd perfect their forms while i led the breathless to help them develope their own or pick up an already existing one. i should find myself a tsugoko i thought. tanjiro is already kyoujurou's tsugoko along with zenitsu and inosuke kanao is shinobu sans and genya is gyomei sans. everyone else isnt worth looking at.
******
training ended and it was time for the pillars to take turns training in each others, i only needed to go to gyomei and obanai sans places, when i first entered his training area i thought it was a torture chamber. i could see the young slayers tied up around the rooms.
sen:" o-obanai san? why are they tied up"
obanai:" because they all suck and pissed me off"
sen:" i see aha ha..."
i said nervously i was able to avoid hitting most of them but obanai sans incredible precision made it hard to avoid all of his attacks without grazing some of them. "im so sorry" i thought.
it was evening and training had ended for the day, kyoujurou picked me up from obanai's training center and brought me some snacks.
kyoujurou:" good work for today"
sen:" kyoujurou i feel so bad for those tied up slayers"
kyoujurou:" AHAHA dont you? both shinazugawa and iguro tend to be harsh towards the juniors"
sen:" are you sure its just the juniors? shinazugawa sure did enjoy beating me up a few days ago when i was at his session i still have bruises from then"
kyoujurou laughed as he watched me pout and eating the snack he brought made by senjuro.
kyoujurou:" sen lets get married next week when things calm down a little"
i had forgotten that we were engaged has it already been 3 weeks since then, i looked at him and nodded. i had never imagined that the boy i saw all those years ago in the forest would become my husband walking beside me hand in hand. he chattered away about what our wedding would be like as i stared at him, listening to him talk made me happy that i was able to spend time with him like this once again. senjuro greeted us at the door and hurriedly went to prepare dinner.
sen:" senjuro wait up ill give you a hand"
senjuro:" its ok nee-san you should go rest with nii-san"
sen:" no i wont allow that"
i chuckled
*******
the training proceeded as always tanjiro improved incredibly fast and soon enough he was able to move on to the next session.
tanjiro:" thank you sen san ill be going now"
he waved before running off to misturi san's station. i left a set of orders for the rest of the people who was still here some of them had been here since the training started and its almost been a month. "should i.... give up on them?" some of them heard and flinched and shrunk. kyoujurou picked me up to go visit the ubuyashiki estate to inform him of our marriage plans hoping he would allow it.
ubuyashiki:" i give you my blessings amane had told me about it before im glad to be able to see my children get married"
sen:" thank you oyakata sama"
we both bowed to pay our respects and shortly left afterwards. i visited the butterfly estate along with kyoujurou to see yushiro and tamayo and give them the news.
sen:" tamayo san~ yushiro"
i said as i hopped over and gave her a hug, she smiled and patted me on the back.
tamayo:" what brings you here sen?"
sen:" well i missed you why else, oh and i have some news for you"
tamayo:" and whaf news would that be"
i grinned and i went and pulled kyoujurou in by the arm
sen:" we're getting married next week!"
yushiro gawked and made a face that said wtf and nearly dropped a glass, tamayo looked shocked and happy while kyoujurou slightly blushed.
yushiro:" GAH HUHHHH?"
tamyo:" you're all grown up now im happy for you"
shinobu overheard and entered the room.
shinobu:" ara ara whats this? rengoku san you're finally getting married congratulations"
sen:" i hope you all can attend before the battle starts"
kyoujurou:" humu we haven't told the other hashiras yet but we will"
they nodded and said they will try to be there, now all we need to do is await the day to come and hope the battle doesnt start anytime soon.