"I'M NOT GIVING YOU THE KEY! NOT ON YOUR LIFE! AND I DEFINITELY AIN'T TEACHING YOU HOW TO USE IT!"
Wait, are the arguing? I know it's bad eavesdropping but shouldn't I intervene?
The Mist Hashira began to move his hand upwards, making Tanjiro look curiously at him.
It was then that the small one with the mask who was just yelling was smacked in the face. Tanjiro gapped his mouth at this in shock.
Muichiro grabbed the boy's collar with the same expression; the boy struggled.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Tanjiro yelled and dashed over to the scene. The red head slapped his hand onto the Pillars wrist tightly. "LET GO OF HIM!"
Muichiro just sighed. "You're voice is very annoying."
"What are you doing to a child?!" Tanjiro looked down in shock and saw that the pillar didn't even react.
He's not even flinching! H-How?! His arms are thin, how?!
"I suggest that you let go." Muttered Muichiro as the same arm jabbed right into his chest, causing Tanjiro to fall backwards. He gripped around the area and coughed at the pain. He didn't even have the chance to clean the saliva that dripped from his mouth; he felt like throwing up.
Muichiro sighed. "You're very weak. How'd you even get into the Demon Slayer corps?"
He looked down and noticed the box on the boy's back. He pointed down at the wooden box. "That box is strange... I feel like I sense a demon?"
Muichiro went down to try and touch the box, only to have Tanjiro slap his arm away quicker than a flash of lightning. He glowered down at the Hashira; not even giving a damn if he was in the lower ranks.
A small mark formed on the back of his hand, he gave no attention to it. He looked down and found the kid's haori in his hand.
He found the kid over by Tanjiro who tried to assure him that he was okay but should into caring for himself. The boy flailed his hands around to keep Tanjiro away from him as the kid screamed.
"I'm not handing the key to anyone." The kid grumbled. "Not even under torture! It's gonna break soon."
"Have you really even been under torture? How could you know what that's like?" Muichiro mumbled. "You just seem like a kid who doesn't understand pain very well. You've had it easy while people have died."
He held his head higher and looked down in disgust. "Unlike you, a pillars time is extremely crucial. You'd understand if you thought a little. Swordsmith can't fight, they can't save lives, forging weapons is their only good side."
He held his hand over. "Key. Now."
Muichiro continued to remind the kid of his place, until Tanjiro came in and slapped his hand away.
"This— This is just— it doesn't seem right to me!" He fumed. "Swordsmiths have a very significant job as well! If they aren't around to make swords, then we can't do anything! They both need each other, they fight the same fight!"
"I don't have time for this dumb stuff." Muichiro said with the most stoic expression, lifting his arm and hitting the side of Tanjiro's neck; falling to the ground and his vision going dark.
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"Can I carry him all the way down?"
"No I'll carry him. He'll wake up—"
"His eyelids are shaking! Bye!"
Tanjiro's eyes snapped open; finding himself still amidst the trees in the forest.
"Are you okay? You shouldn't get up so fast—" the boy asked. Tanjiro sat up straight very quickly as he recognized of the voices while he had begun to wake.
"Was Haganezuka here just now?!"
"No?"
"Oh, must've been my imagination." The he remembered the Pillar. "What about the Hashira?"
"I gave him the key and he left."
Tanjiro rubbed the side of his neck. "Oh, I guess you had no other choice. Well, I don't really know the situation, so I guess it's not my place to whine about it."
"Are you kidding? I'm happy! You stood up to that guy despite him being a stranger!" The kid bowed down as Tanjiro urged him not to, but the kid did it anyways.
"What did the Pillar want the key for?" He asked curiously.
"It's for a mechanical doll. My ancestors created it, and it has one hundred and eight different movements. It's power surpasses that of humans, so it's used as a training dummy." The kid in the mask explained.
So he was going to train, that makes sense.
"Only downside, it's been deteriorating, and could break soon."
There was a mass amount of noise that echoed through the woods and breaking the silence. The kid new what it was.
"He's started!" He exclaimed. "Come!"
"Wait— what?!" He followed the boy anyways and was lead to a small clearing and he watched as the Mist Hashira had begun to slash at whatever the doll looked like. As Tanjiro analyzed the doll further, he stared in shock at the familiar figure. The doll's face had half of it missing with a blushing eye showing.
I know that face... he thought. I've seen it from somewhere...
"Why are there six arms?"
"Well, according to my dad, this doll is modeled after a real swordsman. To replicate the movements, they had to add six arms."
"Who's the person?"
The kid held his hands up. "I don't know much about the details either, but from what I've heard, it's from the Sengoku Era."
T-The... THE WHAT?!
"THE SENGOKU ERA?!" Tanjiro gawked. "Y-You mean it's more than five hundred years old?!"
"Not only that, but there is another one as well." The kid whispered in Tanjiro's ear. "I didn't want to tell him about it incase he couldn't get this one. So then I'd have to worry about two of them going missing."
Another one?!
"What does that one look like?" The red head questioned.
"Same time period as this one, only it's a woman. White hair like snow, and a similar one to this doll's, only purple and black." Explained the boy. "The construction of these dolls are so advanced that they are beyond our understanding. So if they break, we can't fix them. My dad died suddenly, and I have no siblings, so it's my responsibility to keep track of both of them. I just don't have the talent to fix dolls or swords."
Tanjiro then knew why he didn't want to give Muichiro the key. He found his burgundy orbs travel back to the swordsman who just performed a marvelous attack.
"He's a pillar, yet he's just as young as I am."
Out of the blue, there was a loud crack as they both saw a piece of the doll break off. The kid full on sweat dropped when he saw that piece of armor fly off the five hundred year-old doll.
The kid then turned the other way into a full sprint. Tanjiro called out to the boy who slipped into the forest.
Tanjiro ran around and called out his name. "KOKETSU!"
No answer.
"KOKETSU I HAVE A VERY GOOD SENSE OF SMELL AND I'LL FIND YOU!" He yelled. He heard the small sound of whimpering and looked upward; finding the boy in a tree, crying.
"Wow you're good at climbing!" He shouted upwards. The kid didn't answer, but Tanjiro persisted. "I can't help you with the doll! Don't give up! You still have a future. You have to work hard so so you can be better ten, twenty years from now. One day, you'll be able to do things you can't do now."
The kid sniffed, moving his mask to the side to wipe his eyes from the tears. "No... I can't. Everything's gonna end at my generation, and it's all my doing. I'm just a worthless boy."
The kid heard a noise directly in front of him; sounding like the ruffling of some leaves. The boy looked up questionably and found the red head hanging by one arm on a thick tree limb directly in front of him.
Tanjiro lifted his other arm and flicked Koketsu's chin. He winced at the impact.
"Don't talk about yourself like that. If you can't do it, someone else will, but you have to put forth the effort to pass it on to the next generation. So, even if you can't do it, maybe your kids or grandkids can." Tanjiro explained to Koketsu who listened intently. "I wanna beat Muzan Kibutsuji and I want to save my sister who was turned into a demon, I want to give a child I've taken under my wing to live a normal life. I might die without achieving these things, but I believe someone will finish the deed for sure."
The burgundy haired boy took Koketsu's hand and held it firmly. "Let's work hard together!"
He felt a sudden rush of emotion fuel his body, heart, and mind. He was right in what he was saying, the way he felt about being a failure, maybe he would have children of his own someday. If he wasn't able to do things he could now, maybe his own children could be passed in with the memory of it. He just has to work hard for it.
Koketsu sniffed and gripped Tanjiro's hand back. "Yeah."
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"So you're ten years old?" Tanjiro asked as he had just helped Koketsu down and walked down the path.
"Yeah."
"Nice! Yui is about—" Tanjiro was cut off as the Mist Pillar had come out of no where and tossed his sword their way. Koketsu caught the blade but almost cut his own hand because of it.
"I've finished training and I'm taking this other sword with me. So dispose of that one." He replied bluntly.
Tanjiro blinked in astonishment. "You—You're done?! Already?!"
"Yeah, it was great training." Muichiro responded in a low voice. He then turned on his feet and walked the other way, leaving the two to stand there like they were looking at a three headed person.
Tanjiro rubbed his neck; studying the young warrior from a far distance and trying to solve equations in his head.
He's something... but he doesn't have that sense of maliciousness coming from him. He's not doing it on purpose.
Tanjiro turned the other way only to find that Koketsu had disappeared once again. He called out his name about three times before seeing the boy looking over the doll that was crumbled and practically falling apart.
Then it began to grow dark in the sky above. Seeing a set of thick, dark, grey clouds beginning to cover the sun from sending rays of warmth, only now it was humid and almost too hot for them. Tanjiro watched as the rain had begun to pour from above as the boy stared at the centuries old training doll.
The red head trudged up with his geta shoes beginning to grow dirty with the rain mixing with the path.
He called out to the boy. "Why don't we make sure it still works."
They began to lift the doll upwards, it was quite heavy so two people having one another was relieving.
The finally stood it upright. "Hmm... I guess it's not move—"
The doll had seemed to come life and took a fighting stance, taking Tanjiro slightly by surprise, but a smile grew once he saw the ancient creation was moving once again.
"Koketsu! It's moving!"
"It is, now train Tanjiro." The kid whipped his head around, showing his mask. "PLEASE BECOME BETTER THAN THAT APATHETIC JERK! I'LL HELO WITH ALL I'VE GOT!"
Wait what—?
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It had been about a week since Tanjiro had begun training. And to put it into one word, he had the perfect word for it.
Hell.
It was literal hell for him since the little boy had taught him about training. If he didn't do a move correctly or end up having the doll crush him, he'd get no food nor water.
Koketsu wasn't aware of human limits and that humans can't survive three days without water. So, Tanjiro basically only survived because of the rain during training, which he thanked God for every minute of this training. The poor red head hardly had any sleep as well, circles under his eyes and his cheek bone beginning to become more noticeable.
One day he'd been walking over a bridge to cross the Sanzu River. He was feeling extremely well, but then fell dizzy because of the lack of food, and fell down into the river.
The water had felt heavy and dark, yet it was warm. It felt like hands massaging him all over his body. He saw something shining at the bottom of the river. He decided to go further in after it; upon grabbing it, he could smell inside the water.
It then happened. Tanjiro was going in directly towards the doll of ancient times, remembering that shiny rock.
What is this smell? It doesn't smell like an opening. Tanjiro thought to himself. Something clicked. Blow the head from the right.
Neck.
Left breast.
Left flank.
Right thigh.
Right shoulder.
Incoming! He quickly dodged the sword that was swung towards his face, nearly gashing his chin.
Tanjiro had done an unthinkable move, he dove right under the mass swarm of arms and used his blade to slice at the knees of the warrior doll.
The crumbling and creaky doll had stopped its movements. And Tanjiro noticed something he'd finally accomplished as he laid on his stomach in the ground. I hadn't broken my fall!
"You landed a blow, Tanjiro-San! It was soft, but you've earned some food!"
"RICE BALLS WITH PLUMS! AND SUPER HIGH QUALITY TEA!" Tanjiro shouted at the hearing of food.
Later, he was brought just what he wanted. Steaming onigiri pieces with warm tea that was just right.
Tanjiro didn't think twice and grabbed that rice ball and chomping it like a wild jaguar. He sighed in happiness at the wonderful taste and texture. It was all just perfect.
"So good... so goooooooood."
Tanjiro had now been able to predict movements of his opponents by smell, and he felt so proud of himself. The smell can be detected faster than the lines of interval; however, his body wasn't as experienced as one of a Pillar. But, he's improved by a large amount, making this a new weapon for himself.
Not long after finishing his food did he go right into the fight again with the doll.
I can recognize it's movements more effectively now! My stamina is back too!
Tanjiro had managed to swing at an angle and move in such a way that he was directly above the doll.
Okay, go for it! Give it all you've got! His blade had inches closer and closer to the neck. But... what if I break it...?
Somehow, Koketsu knew what he was thinking while he was analyzing the red heads movements. He noticed the sudden hesitation.
"Tanjiro! I don't care if you break it! I can fix it!" He shouted back. Even though he really couldn't. Tanjiro missed by just a tiny bit when he heard Koketsu. One of the swords from the doll made its way close to his head, cutting a few strands of his hair.
You can't be too nice. If you hesitate... Koketsu huffed for a split second. I don't want him to die... he's too nice.
I want him to be stronger than anyone else!
The sword had finally made its way across the neck. When that impact hit, a rush of relief and pride filled Tanjiro's heart. Although, it was too soon when he fell flat on his bottom; causing him to yelp on impact.
Koketsu rushed over the the young fighter as he gripped his bottom at the pain.
"Are you okay?!" Koketsu asked in worry.
"I broke the blade I borrowed. I'm sorry." Tanjiro hissed the pain was starting to subside slightly.
"Don't worry about— WHA?!"
The boy gasped at the sight before him. Tanjiro snapped his head around and saw just what happened.
The dolls face had soon crumbled into two, the hair piece and face falling down and breaking apart with loud cracks and ruptures. They gasped at the sight.
There, right in the middle of what could've been the doll's spine, was something they never expected.
A sword that surpassed time.