The days after followed the same routine.
You never bothered to look at the corner of your room anymore. Sleep came and went, some night worse than others as nightmares plagued you. Times you had breakfast in the mornings after a nightmare were hard on you. You had to ensure the girls of the Butterfly Estate that you were ok and that you'll get better rest the following night.
Then it was on right to recovery training. You were plowing through Aoi faster as the days passed. Getting closer to beating Tsuyuri at the tea game.
By no means was it boring. Being able to be active after so many weeks on bedrest was great. You could feel how your body was getting stronger. All the exercise was keeping your mind occupied from the lump of clothes in the corner of your room.
There would be days that you would find yourself sitting on the engawa* drinking some tea with Tsuyuri. It was on those days that you could find yourself either fully relaxed in the atmosphere you and Tsuyuri created. Or you would have to briskly blink the tears from your eyes as you stared holes into the wall, your mind spiraling back to the nightmare and pain of how you got here in the first place.
Your thoughts would always go back and forth. How were sucked into the manga? Was there any way to go back? Continually you had to remind yourself that you were getting stronger. That this was the best way to help you find a way back home. Sometimes you had to physically shake your head to rid yourself of those thoughts, right now, you just had to survive. Tsuyuri would then give you a look at your actions. Her brows would furrow minutely, her hand moving to the coin in her pocket, but you were fast enough to wave her questioning glance off. Opting to tell her it was nothing that she should worry about before going back to the tea in your hands.
Then, one morning, you woke up feeling the best you ever had since entering the world. There was no soreness that you could feel on your body, and you didn't have a nightmare that night. Sparing a glance to the corner of your room for the first time in a while, you bounded out for some breakfast before training started for the day.
Naho, Kiyo and Sumi perked at the sight of your well rested demeanor. Aoi even spared you a smile as the six of you ate. Tsuyuri was quiet as usual, only nodding her head in greeting as you entered the room.
The food was the same as always, and made you miss the simple meals you would have with your family, but you didn't have any of those thoughts today. No, you were buzzing with some sort of energy as you ate.
It didn't take long for you and the rest of the girls to finish, moving quickly to the training room to go through the stretches. No thoughts of the days before in your head, only words of encouragement. This was the day, you could feel it in your bones. You let out a determined breath as you deepened your stretch with the girls. Their own words supporting you through it all.
After a warm up with Aoi (succeeding in stopping her from getting you wet with tea,) Tsuyuri sat across from you.
You let the smile drop from your face as the two of you stared each other down. Not even letting yourself blink, you watched as her hand stretched out to the cup right in front of you. Quicker than you thought, you moved before Tsuyuri could breath.
Her eyes were wide, feeling the cool liquid of the tea seeping into her hair as she watched your straight face morph into an elated expression. The sparkle in your eyes was stronger than ever as you tried your best not to cheer for your own progress.
Wiping the tea from her hair, you followed Tsuyuri to the mats for the final part of the training. It was at this moment that you calmed your heart rate. Getting too excited would be your downfall. You were suddenly pulled into your memories of back home, when you would be either playing a game with your siblings or a sport with your friends and teammates. Any time you had gotten cocky with even the slightest success, something would always knock you down from that pedestal.
This time it would be different, and from the look on Tsuyuri's face, you could tell she felt the same.
The both of your sprang into action as soon as Aoi gave you the go ahead to begin. The others in the room could only watch with open mouths as the both of you were sprinting. They had no idea you had it in you to run that fast.
As you continued to catch Tsuyuri off guard with the sudden pivots you were making to catch her. You could almost feel like another pair of eyes were watching you. Letting yourself slow down only for half a second, you used your peripherals to see magenta eyes and white hair. Without a doubt it was Uzui.
Not bothering to meet his gaze, you tipped your head forward in acknowledgement before continuing to pursue Tsuyuri. Having someone like Uzui watching you train left you with shivers going down your spine. But there was no way you were going to let that stop you.
You thought about it as your breathing came out harder from chasing Tsuyuri. Being able to see and notice someone entering the room when no one else did must have been a feat on it's own, and something you were sure that not a lot of people would have been able to do. Thinking about this brought a smile to your face. At that moment, you were 100% sure that being in the Demon Slayer universe was changing your body.
Not only did you no longer need your glasses (they were missing and more than likely broken from the fall anyway,) but all of your senses had heightened. Back home, you liked to pride yourself on your sense of hearing and smell. It wasn't so much that you were able to smell and hear everything. However, you'd be able to tell right away what someone was making from the smell of the ingredients. Or you could hear someone calling your name from across a field. The downside to your hearing, from what you believed, was that you had issues listening to someone talk if there were other people talking or if someone was playing music around you. You had issues concentrating and focusing your hearing to the one talking to you directly.
Being here had only increase these senses of yours, not to the extreme extent that you knew how Tanjiro's nose worked, but enough to give you a surprise as you guess correctly what you would be having for meals before even entering the room to eat.
Hearing the shift from Tsuyuri's clothes had you pivoting once more, gaining you an opening that you weren't expecting. Taking it in stride, you proceeded to tackle Tsuyuri to the mats knocking the air out of the both of you.
A boisterous laugh shocked the other four while you got off of Tsuyuri, giving her a helping hand as she too got up from the mats.
"Wonderful! How flamboyant that was!" You turned to Uzui as he approached you, a glint in his eye that gave your spine another set of shivers to run down. As happy as you were that you finally tagged Tsuyuri, just seeing the look on Uzui's face had your subconscious shaking in thought of the training he's to put you through.
"Thank you Uzui-sensei!" You bowed deeply to him. As much as his large stature intimidated you, you felt your pride swelling in your chest from his complement. Before you could forget, you bowed to Tsuyuri as well. "Thank you as well Tsuyuri-san. I enjoyed training with you." Your mix of English and Japanese was still a bit of a loss on the girls of the estate, but they had a general gist of what you were saying.
Without skipping a beat, Uzui had you thrown over his shoulder and was carrying you out of the training room. "Time to being your training with me then!"
The girls watched as your eyes widened at his words. They didn't know what he said, but with your mixed expression of dread and excitement they knew it could only be good for you.
~~~~~
Uzui had ended up taking you out of the Butterfly estate, surprising Kocho by stopping by her office to let her know that you were going to be with him for probably the next week or so. The sight of you laying limp on his shoulder amused her. She made sure that the Kakushi brought the stuff that you needed from your room in a bag for you to carry with you.
A sigh escaped you as you watched the Kakushi struggle to keep up with the speed that Uzui was using to travel. It's the first time you're finally getting out of the Butterfly Estate and here you were, slung over your supposed mentor's shoulder like a sack of rice.
You couldn't help your eyes from wandering over to the two giant blade that were practically in your face. They were much bigger up close than when you first saw them the first day you woke up here. You were temped to just reach out and touch the handle of them, but had no idea if and how Uzui would react. To be safe, you tucked your hands under your chest as a way to also help yourself from bouncing your face off his back.
"How long are you-" You words were cut off as the world spun in your vision, only to find yourself standing on your own two feet. Giving Uzui a questioning glance, he only grinned in response.
"First lesson, try to keep up!"
And then he was off. Leaving you with your mouth agape. There was no time to lose, shaking your arms and legs out, you started off with a jog. You didn't want him to take such a giant lead on you, but you had to keep him in your sight. If you lost him... There's no knowing how long it would take him to realize that you were no longer following him.
After a few moments of jogging, a thought crossed your mind, making you look up to see that the sun had already passed halfway through the sky.
"..."
Nope, no way were you going to be out here still trying to catch up while it got dark. The growing pressure of being left behind in the dark where demons roamed was enough to kick yourself up a gear.
Now you were running. You could still see the wisps of his metal headband glinting in the sun a fair distance away. Taking control of your breathing, and making sure you knew you wouldn't keel over, you pumped your legs and pushed off the ground at a pace that surprised the Kakushi that were about to reach you from behind.
Their eyes widened at the speed you had increased your run into. By no means were you going to catch up with Uzui today, that was a fact, but the sheer determination they could feel radiating off of you left them smiling. At least until they realized that they still needed to give you your bag.
They took off in a sprint, calling out for you only for their words to go in one ear and out the other as your mind was solely on the sight of your soon to be sensei.
* An engawa, or en, is an edging strip of non-tatami-matted flooring in Japanese architecture. They resemble a porch or sunroom as they may run around the rooms on the outside of the buildings.