I'm alive lol
Been really busy and ended up taking a "small" break from the book, I'm sorry :(
I admit that since the book is so close to the final battle, I've been a bit scared to progress with the story, but I will try my best to finish this book!
All I can say is that doesn't matter how long it takes, I will complete Sakura Blossom. I mean, I already wrote 100+ chapters, that's too much work to simply throw away lol
I know I always say this after a big break, but thanks for staying with this book despite how long it takes to update sometimes, knowing that there's so many people waiting for it makes me incredibly happy <33
『✦』
The next morning, Zenitsu, Tanjiro and Y/N walked to Gyomei's state.
“I didn't mean for this to happen, the mark isn't clear and training isn't bearing fruit…” Tanjiro comments to Zenitsu while they walk, still looking upset over the fight with Sanemi and his inability to make things up between the Shinazugawa brothers.
“Actually, it is. You guys stood up against the wind hashira, that's incredible.” Zenitsu blankly says.
“Oh, really…?”
“By the way…” Zenitsu approaches Tanjiro to whisper in his ear while glancing over at Y/N, who was following silently behind them. “Isn't Y/N a bit different these days…? I feel like she has been a bit… colder, I dunno.”
Tanjiro's eyes widened, so it truly wasn't just him who noticed! “Yes, I noticed that! I-” he comments while thinking: 'I knew he could be observant when he wants to!' A speck of respect appeared in his heart.
“I mean, she's still pretty cute! But now she's cute and cool!” Zenitsu gushes over her, immediately crushing that speck of respect Tanjiro just had.
The blonde then approached Y/N. “Y/N-chan, you're looking specially cute today!”
“Oh, really?” Y/N blankly answers. 'Sleep deprivation works wonders, I suppose.'
“Yes, really!” He nods quickly to reaffirm his compliment.
She blinks slowly. “By the way, Gyomei's state is pretty deep in the mountains, right? And we're still so far…” She sighs, not feeling like walking thanks to that rainbow-eyed demon that decided to torment her the night before, she's definitely NOT in the mood for trails.
She looks up at the way ahead, grimacing at how much more walking they would have to do, and then back at Zenitsu. “Hey, Zen Zen, let's hypothetically say I would want you to carry me the rest-”
“GET ON!” He immediately crouched down and offered his back to give her a piggyback ride.
'Wow. He didn't even let me finish-' She blankly thought as she hops on his back, he started to walk pretty happily while carrying her, like that act itself was the biggest honor he was given in life.
Tanjiro stared at them as they walked side by side, and it was quite the deep stare too. 'Why Zenitsu...? I mean, technically, Y/N is closer to me than she is to him, right…? So why didn't she ask me to carry her-'.
Zenitsu, with his hearing, sweat-dropped at the sounds coming from his friend. 'Damn, he's so desperate that even I am starting to feel bad-' He shook his head. 'Wait, no! I shouldn't feel bad! Y/N choose me! I should rub this in his face!' He says as his expression changes to a smug smirk directed at Tanjiro, who gasped in offense and turned away with a pout.
“I think we're almost there…” He mumbled while still sulking slightly, his expression brightening up as he sees what's ahead. “A waterfall! Someone's there!”
Directly under the crashing falling water, Inosuke and other two random corps members sat while exclaiming: “Thus have I heard! In the presence of Buddha! When in shravasti! At jetavana vihara!”
“Whoooa!” Zenitsu and Tanjiro gasped in shock at the scene, slowly turning behind to see Gyomei carrying huge logs and rocks on his back while crouching on a flaming ground. “If you extinguish your heart and mind… even fire is cool….”
“Welcome to my training site.”
“Excuse me, sir, I think your floor is on fire!” Y/N approaches Gyomei with a blank smile.
“I'm pretty sure he knows that, Y/N.”
After that, Gyomei shows them how his training works. “What's most important is the body's base… the legs and hips. Stabilizing the body with strong legs and hips leads to accurate attacks and solid defense.”
He shows them a waterfall, with someone people standing under it and looking like they are about to die. “First, you will train under the waterfall.”
Then, he shows then three incredibly big logs. “Then you will carry three logs.”
… And then an incredibly big boulder. “Last, you must push this boulder… one cho.(110 meters)”
“My training consists of these three simple things. Burning you with fire below is dangerous, so I will not require it.” He finishes his explanation.
“Really? No fire? Dang it…” Y/N sighed, Tanjiro made a new mental note to never let her get close to fire.
“Sorry, Zenitsu passed out.” Tanjiro said while holding on to his unconscious body, he freaked out after seeing the training.
“Throw him in the river.” Gyomei flatly responds.
Tanjiro does as he says, and as soon as the boy came in contact with the water, he instantly screeched. “GYAAAAAH! T-THAT'S COLD!”
“It's colder than the middle of the winter! I could die!! What's wrong with this mountain river water?! It's abnormal!! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna puke!!” He desperately tries to leave the water.
“Zenitsu…” Tanjiro softly calls out, trying to calm him down.
“Land! Land!! Whoa! My guts are in danger!! They're crying out! They're saying they'll die!”
Even when he managed to get on land, he was still freaking out. “Hyaaaeee! HYAAAEEE! It… it's no use! Even out of the water, it's too late! I'm gonna freeze to death!”
He then saw a bunch of corps members attached to boulders, almost like they were hugging it. “Press against the rocks… they're warm…” Muraya says while trembling.
Zenitsu immediately jumps on top of one. 'They're… warm!! Rocks are this warm?! It's like my mother holding me in her arms!!'
“Brrr… that's cold… This is hard… waterfall training is harsh…” Tanjiro mumbles while walking through the river.
Y/N's head suddenly pops out from under the water, she was holding a fish in her mouth. “I caught lunch!”
'How can you think about food right now?!' Zenitsu thought while still attached to the boulder.
“Amazing, her love for food is so big that she's not affected by the cold-” Murata comments through trembling.
“....or she's just stupid-” Another corps member comments, making Zenitsu grab his hair. “DON'T SPEAK THAT WAY ABOUT MY ANGEL!!”
Tanjiro walks over to the waterfall, where Inosuke was training under, Y/N swimming beside him with only her head out of the water, like this was a fun river bath and not a hellish training. 'Inosuke is doing his best, so I should too… Hm? I don't hear him chanting the nenbutsu chant anymore!'
After looking closely, he notices Inosuke was actually dying under that waterfall. “Huh?! Inosuke?! NO!!”
Tanjiro brought Inosuke back to life with a CPR, and then subjected himself to the waterfall, while you are under there, you can chant the nenbutsu to help concentrate, or to show that you're still conscious.
After he finished, he too ended up attached to a boulder like everybody else, he speaks through chattering teeth: “Just getting hit by the waterfall is hard, water has a lot of force, if I didn't tense my body up, I feel like my neck would've been broken…”
“Whoa… you and that boar are amazing, on my first day, I couldn't do waterfall training until evening. I couldn't get used to the water…” Murata responds while trembling, his teeth also chattering. “Now that I'm able to stand on the waterfall for 30 minutes, I have to do log training…”
“T-that's impressive, Murata...”
“Well, I've been here ten days…”
“I got another one!” Y/N appears with another fish, putting it in the pile of them that she already formed through their conversation.
“Does she really not feel cold at all…?” Murata sweat-drops.
“Tanjiro! Tanjiro! You will grill them for me, won't you?!” Y/N approaches the boulder he's glued to with sparkling eyes.
“S-Sure…”
“Yay! Then I will go catch more!” She happily jumps back into the freezing river water, making all the corps members watching visibly gasp.
'She went back willingly?!'
After a while, everyone was around a bonfire that was grilling fish.
“That guy's incredible. The rosary-rattling old guy.” Inosuke comments, chewing on a fish while Y/N messed with his hair, she rarely gets a chance to since he's always using that mask! The hairstyle she made on him was currently space buns.
“You mean Himejima, the stone hashira? Don't give him strange nicknames.” Tanjiro responds.
“The first time I met him, I was shocked. Without a doubt, that guy..” Inosuke talks while eating the bones of the fish, Y/N already changed his hairstyle to pigtails, he didn't seem to mind her messing with his hair at all.
“You're eating the bones too, Inosuke?” A corps member comments awkwardly.
“... That guy is the strongest member of the demon slayer corps.” Inosuke finishes his observation.
“Oh? Really? Himejima smells different from others, maybe he'll manifest the mark soon.” Tanjiro cheerfully responds.
“I wouldn't be surprised.” Inosuke says while chewing on his tenth fish, his hairstyle was now a ponytail. He occasionally raised the fish he was holding for Y/N to take a bite, it was quite surprising to see nobody other than Inosuke sharing his food so casually.
“I don't believe it! I bet that old dude can't move that rock one cho!” Zenitsu exclaims, looking mad. “He just enjoys tormenting the younger guys!”
“No, I've heard he can push even bigger rocks…” Tanjiro awkwardly says.
“Do you believe everything you hear? They're fooling.”
“No, no…” Gyomei appears pushing a big boulder easily behind them at the same time Tanjiro says: “You have good ears, so you should be able to tell when someone's lying and when they aren't, right?”
“Namu amida butsu... Namu amida butsu...”
Everyone stares in shock. “Oh… there he goes…” Tanjiro comments with a blank smile.
“Whoaa!” Y/N runs over to the hashira and hops on top of the boulder while he's pushing it.
“Aaah! Y/N! This is dangerous! Come back here!” Tanjiro exasperatedly tries to run over to her.
“Wow! So quick, it's kinda like a bus-” She waves goodbye from the top of the boulder as Gyomei's pushes it away, slowly disappearing in the distance. “Bye Tanjiro!!”
“Tell me what's a bus first-!” He exclaims back, but she was already too far.
“HE TOOK Y/N!” Zenitsu freaks out.
"Underling is smart, she's staying close to the enemy to study his weakness." Inosuke comments while nodding to himself.
'Isn't she just messing around?' Murata sweat-drops, staring at the three guys. 'What's wrong with them??'
She eventually came back while talking about how fun it was. Now, every time she sees Gyomei's pushing boulders around, she jumps on top of them like it's an amusement park attraction.