Shoto kept following Tengen's crow (which he learned his name is Nijimaru) over to his estate. Shoto didn't know what to expect, all he knew is that Tengen was a duel wielder and that he used Sound Breathing, a breathing technique he created himself. He was thinking that maybe this training with Tengen was going to more than just develop his duel-wielding skills, but to also get more knowledge on how to make his own breathing technique. He saw an estate up ahead, which he assumed it was Tengen's. He didn't know much about Tengen at all, so for all he knew he might have kids or might have a place like Tokoyami's dorm that's all dark and ominous. Who knows?
"COME ON! I'M TRYING TO CLEAN THIS UP OVER HERE!!!"
"I ALREADY CLEANED UP THAT AREA DUMBASS!!!"
"WAAAH!!! TENGEN SHE CALLED ME A DUMBASS!!!"
"KNOCK IT OFF! WE HAVE SOMEONE STAYING OVER FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS SO BEHAVE YOURSELVES WILL YA?!"
Shoto heard all the screaming from outside the estate and he could tell they were three different girls screaming at each other.
"Why does he have three girls staying at his place? Are they servants or something?" Shoto wondered.
When Shoto walked up to the door, it opened in front of him and revealed Tengen with most of his hair down and in clothes that seem to be good for training.
"Hey Shoto, heard you walking up here. You ready to get started?" Tengen asked.
"Yeah, but I heard a lot of screaming outside, who was that?" Shoto asked.
"Oh, well that was-"
"TENGEN!!! MAKIO'S CALLING ME A DUMBASS!!!"
"I AM NOT YOU IDIOT!"
"YOU DID EARLIER!"
"WOULD YOU TWO CUT IT OUT?!"
Three women either run or walk into Shoto's view, seeing that the three of them look around Tengen's age. Maybe they were his sisters? Though they didn't really look that closely related to each other to him.
"Well, I guess I'll introduce you now," Tengen said, turning around towards the three women. "The shorter one over there is Suma," he said, pointing at the shorter one of the three.
Suma appeared to have shoulder-length black hair, short bands, and blue eyes. She appeared to be crying, clearly upset about something, probably was the one who was being called and dumbass and an idiot earlier.
"The one with yellow bangs is Makio," Tengen said, pointing at the one woman with yellow bangs.
Makio seemed to be of average height for a woman, along with her black hair being tied up in a ponytail with her yellow bangs hanging loosely. Her pale skin and large golden brown eyes were pretty noticeable and piercing, and from the way she was staring daggers at Suma, she was probably the one who called Suma a dumbass and an idiot.
"Then the last one with long hair is Hinatsuru," Tengen said, pointing at the woman with long black hair that was held up in a ponytail.
Hinatsuru seemed to be similar in height to Makio, and like her, she has her hair up in a ponytail, though her hair was much longer and completely black. She also had big eyes that were colored violet with a beauty mark beneath her left eye, which gave her a gentle appearance that Shoto hasn't really felt from any of the Hashira he met. Shoto assumed that she was the one who tried to break up the fight between Suma and Makio.
"Oh... hello," Shoto greeted, a little nervous with all of them looking at him.
"AHHH HE'S SO CUTE!" Suma shouted out, immediately leaping onto Shoto and giving him a big hug, catching Shoto off guard.
"Suma! You're gonna scare him!" Hinatsuru scolded.
"But he's so cute!" Suma said, trying to defend herself. "Tengen! Can we keep him?"
"We can't keep children you idiot!" Makio shouted out, marching over to the two of them. "He's supposed to be here for training! Not to be our kid!"
Shoto was just confused, he had no clue why they were acting like they were all going to adopt him. He turned over to Tengen to ask the question that's been in his head the entire time. "Uzui-"
"Just call me Tengen here Shoto, feels weird to be addressed formally in my own house," Tengen said, interrupting Shoto.
"Okay, Tengen, who are these women?" Shoto asked.
"Oh, these three are my beautiful wives," Tengen said, nonchalantly.
Shoto's eyes widened, it was rare to find anyone practicing polygyny back in his world, but then again he wasn't in his world anymore. "Oh, okay."
"I guess it's not exactly traditional to find people practicing polygyny, but I didn't think it was that rare," Hinatsuru noted.
"I'm not from this... world, so polygyny is rare where I'm from," Shoto told her.
"Oh, I see," Hinatsuru said.
"All the more reason to not keep him Suma!" Makio said, trying to pry Suma's arms off of Shoto.
"Awwww! Come one! He doesn't have to go back!" Suma shouted out, still trying to hold onto Shoto.
"Could you... not... squeeze me... so tight..." Shoto said in a strained voice, trying to convince Suma to let go of him.
"Let go of him Suma!" Hinatsuru said, then walking up behind her and chopping her neck, which made her let go of Shoto.
"Thank you, but is she okay?" Shoto asked, looking down at Suma.
"Don't worry about her, let's just get to training and see what you got," Makio told him, walking over to Tengen.
"I agree, let's get to training, which is what you're here for," Tengen agreed, turning around and walking into the estate.
"Go on Shoto, I'll worry about Suma over here," Hinatsuru said.
Shoto nodded and walked into the estate, following Tengen and Makio. The whole place was set up like the Butterfly mansion, very traditional yet quite impressive, though it wasn't as big.
"You wondering why this place isn't as big of a place as the Butterfly Mansion right?" Tengen asked him.
Shoto was caught off guard by the question, not expecting him to notice. "Yeah, I was wondering why it wasn't as big, after all, your wives also stay here right?"
"That's true, though it's just me and my wives here, while at the Butterfly Estate, a bunch of people like the three little girls, Aoi, Shinobu, and her younger sister I think her name was Kanao live there. That place is also the infirmary for the Demon Slayer Corps, which of course needs a lot of space for that so it can house a lot of people at once," Tengen told him.
"I see," is all that Shoto said while looking around the place.
"Anyways, what's your breathing technique kid? Gotta be cool for Tengen and Rengoku to go through all this and train you," Makio asked.
"I don't have one just yet," Shoto told her.
"Yeah, Rengoku said he wanted him to get his sword technique down first before he learned Flame Breathing," Tengen added.
"Huh?! What did you do to impress them without a breathing technique?" Makio asked, surprised at what Shoto and Tengen were saying.
"I told you I wasn't from this world didn't I?" Shoto asked.
"You did, but that shouldn't be the only reason," Makio said.
"It's a part of the reason," Shoto said.
"I want to see how strong his quirk can get with our breathing techniques here," Tengen stated.
"Quirk?" Makio questioned.
"Basically a superpower, over 80% of the population in my world has a quirk," Shoto explained.
"A superpower huh? What's your quirk then?" Makio asked.
"It has to do with ice and fire if I remember," Tengen said.
"Yeah, it's called Half Cold Half Hot, I can use ice with my right side and fire with my left," Shoto explained.
"I can see why Rengoku wanted to train you and teach you Flame Breathing, but why are you here for training with Tengen then?" Makio asked.
"I want to learn more about duel-wielding, and Kyojuro told me that he wasn't good at it, so he told me to train with Tengen," Shoto explained.
"Why would you want to duel-wield in the first place Shoto? Rengoku didn't explain it when he sent the letter, I asked when I wrote back but I think he wants you to tell me yourself," Tengen remarked.
"Well, remember how my quirk is basically two quirks in one?" Shoto asked.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Well, I wanted to duel-wield because I wanted to use two breathing techniques the way I use two different powers, one sword using Flame Breathing and the other hopefully using something related to Ice Breathing," Shoto explained.
"You wanna learn two breathing techniques, not just learn, you want to learn one and create another?" Makio asked.
"Sounds interesting, if you want any tips on creating your own breathing technique I can help as well, though to get more detail you might wanna go to Tomioka since he knows Water Breathing," Tengen said.
"You're supporting this Tengen? I've never heard of this before," Makio said.
"I haven't either, but considering the fact that Shoto is different from everyone, maybe he could do it," Tengen said.
"Whatever you say," Makio said.
They walked through the estate a little bit more until they got to a big training room, which had everything from training dummies to actual steel katanas. Shoto looked around the room, taking in all the training equipment and different practice swords.
"Pretty cool huh?" Makio asked him.
"Yeah, though I never thought you'd find something like this here," Shoto told her.
"Huh?!"
"It's just different than what I'm normally used to, you normally have a training area separate from everything just in case you blow something up," Shoto explained.
"Huh, I guess that would make sense, you're from a different world after all," Tengen said, thinking about it. "Anyways, you wanna get started? I know I am because I want to see what Rengoku was talking about when he said you were stiff."
Shoto saw Tengen grab two of the practice swords that were lined up against the wall, obviously eager to get started. With that, Shoto walked up to the practice swords and grabbed two just like Tengen did, getting ready to spar. "Yeah, I'm not a fan of waiting around anyways."
Although Shoto didn't seem too excited, he actually was looking forward to training and sparring with Tengen. Although he liked training with Kyojuro, he couldn't do much in terms of teaching Shoto about duel wielding other than the basics and his breathing technique. Training with Tengen would allow him to actually see and train with someone who actually uses duel-wielding daily, which would do him a lot of good in the long run too.
"Alright, let's see what you got Shoto," Tengen said, getting into a battle stance.
Shoto didn't say anything back, just put his swords up into a battle stance similar to Tengen's. After a second, Tengen immediately disappeared from Shoto's vision, as if he teleported. It caught Shoto off guard for a split second, that is until he felt a shift in the air near him. He moved his swords to the side, ready to block whatever attack came. Tengen appeared again, making his swords clash with Shoto's, though he was able to push Shoto back due to their difference in height, making it seems as if Shoto wasn't holding up well.
"You were able to sense me, interesting, although you need to learn how to stand your ground when you're going against opponents that are much taller than you," Tengen noted.
Shoto knew how to deal with it, he always has because of his father, but he had a harder time now since he isn't using his quirk and using swords instead.
"Though I have a feeling you already have your own way to deal with that, but you might wanna learn how to translate it to swords," Tengen told him, right before he shoved Shoto further back.
Shoto managed to regain his footing after a second, inhaling and exhaling to control his breathing again too. "Calm down, it's nothing different besides a new mentor, just think of it as another sparing match with Kyojuro, that's all it is. Control your breathing and fight back." Shoto was repeating this mantra through his head as he regained his footing, getting ready to strike Tengen himself.
Hinatsuru and Suma soon walked in and stood beside Makio, who was watching their interactions spar the whole time.
"Hey, how's everything going?" Hinatsuru asked.
"I think it's going okay, he's not dead yet so that in itself is good," Makio responded.
"Why do you have to talk like training is supposed to be a life or death experience?" Suma asked, not liking the way Makio worded everything.
"You know the training Tengen was put through! For all we know he could train him the exact same way you dumbass!" Makio shouted over to Suma, who immediately started tearing up.
"Alright that's enough," Hinatsuru said, getting between the two of them before something started. "You have a point, but I doubt Tengen would the boy through something that intense from the start, or even at all. All we know is that Tengen was asked to teach him more about duel wielding, and from the looks of it most of the basic skills that a demon slayer would need has already been set. I doubt Tengen would do much more than teach Shoto how to duel wield properly unless he asked to do more."
"I guess that's a fair point, but still, all things considered, he's only been training for a while, yet it looks like he's got a good start to everything," Makio mentioned.
"Well, he has been getting training from Rengoku remember?" Suma pointed out.
"And what does mentorship have to do with that?!" Makio asked, shouted at Suma.
"Well Rengoku is pretty good at teaching, maybe the way Rengoku was teaching him was doing well, or he's just a good learner," Hinatsuru responded for Suma.
The three women turned back toward the two training, seeing that Tengen and Shoto were standing with their swords in front of them, as if they were waiting for their opponent to attack first.
"I can see what Rengoku means by "stiff" now," Tengen said, relaxing his stance and walking over to Shoto.
"You do?" Shoto asked, relaxing his stance as well.
"Yeah, I do," Tengen said, stopping in front of Shoto and leaning down to Shoto's eye level to talk to him. Tengen raised his right hand, then immediately brought it down chopping Shoto's head, scolding him. "Stop acting like you're using two different weapons!"
Shoto was caught off guard by this, he first rubbed his head in the area that Tengen hit, then looked up at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Don't swing your swords as if they're two different weapons," Tengen said, gripping his own swords and swinging them around. "It's better to use the two swords as if they're one weapon, two halves of one whole I guess you could say."
Shoto was confused by that statement, the swords are two different weapons, not two halves of one whole, why would he think otherwise? "What do you mean?"
"Even though, yes, you are holding two swords, I get it, I'm not dumb," Tengen said, trying to dismiss any thought in anyone's head that he was crazy. "But when you list your weapons or fighting style it's just "duel-wielding" or "dual swords" not listing exactly like "2 different swords" so why should we fight as if we're using two different weapons?"
The "two halves of one whole" concept wasn't clear to Shoto and was flying right over his head, and Tengen could tell just by the blank stare Shoto was giving him. Tengen sighed, using his right hand to scratch the back of his neck trying to figure out how to explain the concept to Shoto. That is until he realized and remembered the reason Shoto was doing all of this.
"Hold on, your quirk," Tengen started to say.
"What about it?"
"Your quirk is technically two different quirks in one right?"
"Yeah, it's not called Half Cold Half Hot for no reason," Shoto said.
"Exactly, but it's still one quirk, even though it's two different powers, like one power from each side, it's still one quirk in one body, right?" Tengen asked, trying to take a different approach.
"Yeah, but I can only use one at a time- wait..." Shoto started to say, trailing off when he realized what Tengen was trying to say.
"From the look on your face, I think that gave you an idea of what I'm talking about," Tengen said. He took his left hand and decided to give Shoto a reassuring head pat for their first training session together. "I'll let you think about it for today, let's start training together again tomorrow and eat dinner in a bit since it's almost time for dinner."
The three wives immediately realized the time and rushed out of the room without Tengen and Shoto knowing to prepare dinner, after all, training is exhausting.
"Thank you for doing this Tengen," Shoto said, bowing towards Tengen.
"Honestly, it's getting fun seeing you train, if this turns out good I might even consider taking a Tsuguko at some point. I don't know, probably not since not everyone has interesting skills like you do," Tengen said.
"I appreciate that, anyways, I'll start thinking about that, after all, I am learning more about this so I can see how to use both sides at the same time."
"You don't know how?" Tengen asked.
"I can switch between them pretty easily, but using them both at once isn't easy unless I'm standing still and only concentrating on my quirk and nothing else," Todoroki said, looking down at his hands.
"Well, hopefully, this plan of yours works and you can do what you want with your quirk," Tengen said, walking out of the training room and leaving Shoto on his own.
Shoto was still looking down at his hands, which were now clenched together, ready to get training. "I know I can do it, I just need to practice, and soon..."
"I'll beat you, big brother."
A/N:
A little fun fact, did you know Tengen Uzui's First Form of Sound Breathing is officially called: Ichi no kata: Todoroki
Todoroki translates "to roar, a roaring fire" so yeah, I found that cool ( •̀ ω •́ )✧
Anyways, ( ﾟдﾟ)つ Bye