I always seem to be a the last one awake, as my roommates already seem to be making a ruckus.
"Nooo- the medicine tastes bad!!"
"I thought we were over this?" Aoi was already getting frustrated with Zenitsu.
Zenitsu was always whining about his medicine, so no he wasn't over it. I stretch and swing my feet over the side of the bed, my feet touching the wooden flooring. I take a big breath- oh? Touching the floor, I can already feel how Zenitsu is squirming a bed away. I can feel the steady breathing of Tanjiro across the room, Inosuke doesn't seem to be around.
"Where's Inosuke?" I ask, facing Tanjiro.
"Good morning (Y/N), I think he's already outside,"
"The tailors got your design, they said it's would only be about a week before it comes in." Aoi chimes in, taking a break from struggling with Zenitsu.
"Great, thank you Aoi. Would you like any help?"
"If you think you can get him to take it, be my guest."
I hum at her response, getting up and walking over to Zenitsus bed. Stepping around the table with the medicine.
"You've gotten good at that," Aoi comments, patting my shoulder as I pass, a sense of pride emanating from her. I smile, although I'm not short on praise around here, between Zenitsus compliments and Tanjiros encouragement, it's always nice to hear it from someone else.
"Thanks, been practicing. It's almost second nature now, but I still struggle sometimes." I tap the table before setting my hand down, I've learned that if an object is solitary I'll have to find it through vibrations.
I pick up the medicine cup, and sniff it. I cringe, it smells worse than usual. I sit next to Zenitsu on his bed. He's already squirming away from the medicine.
"C'mon Zeni, you've gotta know you're almost done with this."
"But it's so bad I just wanna-" he paused in the middle of winding himself up, "almost done?"
"Mhm, it's been about a month or so and you're already back to your normal size it seems. So this could be your last one."
"You're just saying that to get me to take it," Zenitsus usual thrashing was replaced by suspicion.
"No really, think about it. You stop taking medicine when you get healthy, and you're basically already there so this could be it. You've been taking it everyday right?"
"Mhm"
"See, you're doing so good about it, you can finish this strong, for me?" I angle my face towards Zenitsu, a soft smile and a light tilt of my head. I can feel him fluster from here and I know it's working.
"Well- I- You're so cute, how can anyone say no to that face?!" He shuffles closer, as if to hug me, but I stay calm. He's not paying attention, so now's the time to strike. As he's in his little fantasy world fawning over how cute and nice I am, I put the cup in his and and wrap my own around his.
I guide the cup to his face and he drinks it on his own, forgetting the medicine momentarily. I slide myself away from him quickly as he realizes what I've done.
"IT TASTES SO BAD, HOW COULD YOU BETRAY ME LIKE THIS?!"
"It's done, you took your medicine Zeni, aren't you glad?"
"YOU USE THAT CUTE FACE FOR SUCH DECEPTION, I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS?!"
I laugh him off, walking towards the door and sliding it open. Sticking my tongue out in mockery as I slip out of the room. I've gotten good at navigating the house alone, at least to the courtyard and back.
I know it's bad manners but, I've stopped wearing shoes. Inosuke was right, I need to be able to feel things and with my current wardrobe this is the compromise. I feel the sun on my skin and I know I've made it to the courtyard. I hear Inosuke rustling around somewhere as I sit on the veranda and take off my socks.
"You're here early," he notes jumping from wherever he was to the middle of the yard.
"Mhm, excited to get started."
"Wanbero said he wants to spar today, and since that wimps technique is defense based you'll have to be on the attack."
"We have names, you know-"
"Yea yea, so get over here and pick up your sword."
Setting my socks aside, I slide onto the grass. It's still cold and a little damp with morning dew. I walk over to Inosuke, rolling up my sleeves to my elbows.
"Are you sure you can't just cut them off?"
"Yes I'm sure." I stop in front of Inosuke and reach out. Instead of placing it in my hand Inosuke tosses it to me. The hilt smacks me in the face before I get the chance to brace myself, a hollow thump echoing the courtyard.
Inosuke breaks out into laughter as I struggle to grab the training sword before it hits the ground.
"HAhaha, ah. That was funny. You'd be able to catch things if you cut off your sleeves."
"I have a new outfit coming in next week that won't have this problem, so don't worry about it."
"Whatever you say, now get into your fighting stance."
Grabbing the sword I turn it the right way and plant my feet shoulder width apart. One foot forward one foot back, hands gripping the wood right hand over the left. I leave the sword in front of me ready to move it as needed.
"Put your feet further apart."
"Relax your shoulders more."
"Feel the world around you."
I follow his instructions, my center of gravity is more towards the ground, making me harder to knock over. My shoulders are less tense allowing me to move them more freely. I focus on what I feel around me.
The sun was warming the earth, a light breeze from my right side, somewhere a bird chirps, and in front of me is my boar headed opponent.
"Tell me what I'm doing,"
He moves and now there's only one point of contact with the ground.
"Standing on one foot-"
"What foot?"
I focus harder he's leaning right, I think.
"Your left foot-"
He launches off the foot and towards me. I move into a defensive stance. Angling my wooden blade diagonally to intercept any slashing attacks he might use. He touches down closer and suddenly he's running full speed at me.
I hold my position, trying to prepare for whatever he's going to do. He sees how I'm going to defend so he's going to do what he can to go around my defense.
As he gets closer he raises his practice swords and I change the angle of my defense just in time. Our swords clash with a crack, the vibrations running down my arms.
I jump back, letting go of the sword with one hand and touching the ground with the other. I push forward keeping low to the ground, and I thrust my sword upward where Inosukes torso should be.
He shifts his weight to the side and I twist my legs in response, my shin making contact with his calf. He fumbles for a moment and I take the chance to force myself up, in close quarters I can't move my sword very well so I result to shoving him with my free hand. Knocking him back for just a moment, but Inosuke is quick to recover.
He jumps to the side to try to get a new angle of attack, but I adjust myself each time. Inosuke wasn't going to stay idle for long, so I decided to take a chance and rush forward.
He responds in kind, rushing me from down low. He's done this before, he's either going to go to take out my legs or jump up to headbutt me at the last second, a technique he learned from Tanjiro.
I decide to chance that he's going to go for my legs and as he's almost on top of me I quickly step up, using his shoulder to go over him instead of around him. Suddenly, I find myself being thrown into the air. I can't orient myself and I don't know how high I was thrown. This is bad. Focusing my breathing isn't helping, as there's nothing within my range.
I can't help but scream as I fall, dropping my sword and flailing as if to catch something that will slow my descent.
"What's going- OH MY GOD, (Y/N)!" It's Tanjiro, he must've heard me screaming and come out, how nice of him.
"It's awesome, right? I went to headbutt her at the same time she tried to vault me and she went flying!" Inosuke responded, "Hey! Get back down here so we can train it again!"
Tanjiro makes a disappointed grumbling sound and I'm getting close enough to the ground to feel his moments, he stops close enough to be right under me.
"I've got you!"
All at once we hit the ground, me on top of him. Although, it was thankful that Tanjiro tried to catch me I don't think he was prepared to. I lay across his torso face up and try to catch my breath. My throat hurts from screaming and I'm still disoriented.
"Shit," I mumble and I feel my blood pump faster. I smile and scramble to get up. "That was awesome!"
"What?!"
"Yeah!"
"I was like whoosh! I don't even know how high up I was!" I start hyping myself up about it with Inosuke.
"To the top of most trees, at least! Probably higher!"
"I felt like I might've flipped a couple times,"
"You totally did!"
"Too bad I dropped my sword, that would been a sick attack!"
"Let's do it again!" Tanjiros voice cut in.
"You guys are nuts! (Y/N) you can't even see where you're going and you don't even have a nichirin! You're learning to protect yourself not to help us! You're in enough danger as it is!"
I loose my momentum but Inosuke interrupts before I can talk.
"She can fight, she's getting pretty good at it!"
"She's not a demon slayer!"
"So what? If she can fight then she can fight!" Inosuke reasons.
"Fighting with us isn't like fighting demons! We're holding back with her!" Tanjiro is starting to get frustrated, and while I already knew he was going easy on me it still hurt to hear. Inosuke pauses and for a moment I think he gave up arguing.
"We were supposed to be going easy on her?" Inosuke asks genuinely and I'm elated to hear it. That means Inosuke has been training me with everything he's got, taking me seriously and making sure I have what it takes to fight.
"She doesn't have a breathing style! You're not supposed to use it when you spar with her!" I interrupt their argument with a question.
"You've been using beast breathing every time we fight?" Inosuke scoffs.
"Yea," he says as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, "How else are you gonna learn how to take a hit."
I grin, and I can tell it's the biggest most ridiculous grin that I have ever smiled. I jump into Inosukes arms, hugging him.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" I can feel Tanjiro deflate a little, but I don't care. "You take my training seriously! Ah! You're helping me grow! You're the best Inosuke!"
Inosuke doesn't hug me back but I can feel his joy at my praise. He slings me up onto his shoulder, holding me steady with one arm.
"Haha! I am the best!" He celebrates with me. I'm not always sure if he understands me completely, but he seems to know what I need in the moment.
"Is that what you want? To learn to fight?" Tanjiros voice doesn't betray his emotions, even though I can feel them. He's hesitant and scared. "You don't even know what we're up against half the time."
I pause, his words hurt a little but I can't hold it against him. "You don't understand, I know I can't help you, but if my defensive against demons is just waiting for them to attack? I'll be toast, they're faster and stronger than me."
"But you're-"
"I know I'm blind, I'm sure demons will try to take advantage of that!" I'm starting to get frustrated too. I don't need babysitting.
"That's not-" Tanjiro tried to cut back in, but I put a hand up to stop him. I take a breath to calm myself. Then I motion for him to continue.
"You're talented, (Y/N), you really are, but without a nichirin or a breathing style your attacks won't be effective against demons. It's not physically possible, that's why I wanted to teach you to protect yourself in the first place. So you can wait for one of us to come help."
I'm frustrated, beyond frustrated. I know he's right, I really do. I don't want him to be right.
"Fight me."
"What?"
"You heard me fight me. Don't hold back."
"YEAH!"
"No!"
"If I'm all the stuff you claim I am, then I'll lose and I'll listen, I'll stay back and I'll hope that none of you died and one of you will come save me-"
"I didn't mean it like that-" I interrupt Tanjiro by poking him in the chest.
"If I win, then I'll continue to do what I've been doing. I'll make my own decisions in battle and will take whatever consequences come with them."
"No holding back!!" Inosuke cheers and I hold my hand out.
"We're not supposed to fight-"
"Then we're sparring, just don't hold back."
"What if I-"
"Then do it, this was my choice. I choose to fight you -no holds barred- and I know that you might hurt me. My choice," I'm stubborn and continue holding my hand out. Tanjiro sighs heavily.
Finally he takes my hand and shakes it in agreement.
"YES! AHAHAHAHA!" Inosuke is cheering, I don't know who for but he's excited.
I take a deep breath and wander over to where I think my training sword landed. I stomp my foot twice, feeling the vibrations go out onto the ground. Since living things give off vibrations and non living things don't, this is how I find my sword. The vibrations bounce off something to my left, and the thing doesn't return the vibrations.
I walk over to pick up the object, and I was right. It's my wooden sword. I take a deep breath, and turn my focus outward. Tanjiro has grabbed a training sword and is moving back to the middle of the courtyard and I move to join him.
I nod towards Inosuke, who begins refereeing.
"Alright! No holding back, and if you give up, you lose! Ready? Go!"
I jump back, Tanjiro is a mostly defensive fighter. If I attack, I'll be playing into his strengths.
He jumped back as well, surveying my movements. He knows that I know how he fights, but I know he doesn't want to fight me, so I doubt that he'll attack. It's silent for a moment and Inosuke fidgets from the sidelines.
"Cmon! Do something!"
I jump forward, aiming to Tanjiros left. He parries my sword and begins to counter, but I try not to let him. I move my sword thrusting it into his abdomen, and he jumps back. If I can corner him, maybe against the wall of the courtyard, I can limit his movements and he won't be able to defend. As I'm thinking that he jumps and I loose him.
"You know how I fight, but you forget who taught you to fight." Tanjiro isn't taunting me, but he's chosen an annoying way to make his point. He lands further away, almost near where the fight started. I grunt in frustration, following after him.
I go to strike again but he moves, to the right completely avoiding my attack. Tanjiro almost taps my ribs with his sword and I curse. I get low to the ground, bending back wards, avoiding his thrust. I reach a hand back near my head, holding my weight and since my momentum is already moving behind me, I follow it flipping myself backwards.
Upon landing, I throw myself forward again, switching to a more Inosuke style attack. I hold my sword with one hand, readying my other hand to mirror the movements.
I slash diagonally at Tanjiro with my sword, he deflects it with his sword, but I follow my attack with a punch. Since Tanjiro keeps both hands on his sword, he can't block my punch and I smile as my fist makes contact with Tanjiro's ribs, his arms above his head after deflecting my sword.
"Haha! First hit goes to (Y/N)!" Inosuke shouts and I feel accomplished, but I can't let up now. Redirecting my sword I trust upward, towards Tanjiro's neck, but he twists himself backward and avoids the attack.
We both steady for a moment, waiting for the others attack. He's holding back, he hasn't used any breathing techniques yet. I huff in frustration.
"What is it going to take for you to take me seriously!?" I yell, charging him. My wooden sword clashes with his, a sharp thwack echoing the courtyard.
"I'm not going to hurt you!" He pushes his sword forward and down, redirecting our blades. My blade is to the ground on my left, so I kick up with my right foot, using my sword as a counter balance. I kick the junction of Tanjiro's shoulder and neck, causing him to stumble to the left. My momentum is going upwards to as I rotate with the kick I follow the movement with my sword, slashing at Tanjiros stumbling form.
He rolls further left, away from my attack and that only angers me.
"Stop holding back damnit!"
I rush him again, remembering the forms he taught me. Choosing the first form I speed up, the first form relies on momentum to build up a powerful slash. I know that I won't be able to use the full power of the attack so I put double the energy into it, hopefully that will make it land like it's intended to.
I push past the exhaustion in my muscles and bring my sword up to strike. I can't let him know that I'm beginning to tire out, the fight with Inosuke took more out of me than I thought.
Tanjiro jumps over my attack, and I can feel a change in the air. It's wet. I continue forward, ducking and rolling. The air is quiet and damp as Tanjiro lands.
"Did you just water wheel me?"
There's a pause.
"You dodged it."
I'm baffled, excitement filling me. The adrenaline renews and I can tell my grin is a little unhinged.
"Yes!" I roll backwards, extending my body at the last second, flipping me into a standing position. I spin around to face Tanjiro and ready my blade and further pushing my focus outward.
Inosuke is practically vibrating with excitement from the sidelines as he watches, and Tanjiro is distinctly worried. I thrive off of Inosukes excitement, using it to bolster my own.
I throw myself back into the battle, jumping up to get an aerial attack, moving my sword to pierce downward. I catch the edge of Tanjiro's haori pinning it to the ground. If I want to keep Tanjiro pinned I'm going to have to change tactics.
I let go of the sword, balling my fists. I go for his throat. If I can interrupt his breathing then I can stop his attacks.
He swerves my fist, but I grab the collar of his shirt. I bring my knee to where Tanjiros stomach and ribs meet. He wheezes in response.
"Yeah!!"
Tanjiro's loss of breath means more opportunity for me. I rip my sword from the ground, bringing it up to Tanjiro's throat.
"Yield."
Inosuke shouts and suddenly I'm lifted into the air.
I did it. I curl myself around the boar headed man holding me, knocking his mask off. I'm practically curled around Inosukes shoulders. I knock my head against his, gently headbutting him.
"You did it! Hahaha!"
I laugh with Inosuke, basking in my victory. It's shallow and I frown, only two of us are celebrating. My laughter dies out and I settle myself, climbing out of Inosukes arms. I sit next to Tanjiro.
"You were holding back."
"I-"
"You were."
"I was. I don't want to hurt you, or you to hurt yourself."
"I know, but no one else is going to pull punches."
"I know."
There's silence and I rub Tanjiro's back.
"Did I hurt you? Like for real?" I feel Tanjiro shrug.
"I'll have a few bruises but I'm fine. You knocked the breath out of me, I was surprised." I smile proudly at his words.
"Aoi taught me some weak spots that everyone has. She said that demons will fight dirty so I should know how to as well. Although, I don't think they'll always work."
"They won't, but it's good that you know. Not every enemy will be demon, there's people who do bad things too."
I hum in acknowledgement.
"You fight well. I'm sure if you had a nichirin, you would've been able to use a breathing technique."
I beam and face Tanjiro, clasping his hand.
"You mean it?!"
Tanjiro half heartedly squeezes my hand. He's worried, and I know why.
"I'll be safe, Tanjiro. I don't want to fight, but I want you to be able to fight without worrying about me. I can't expect you to be able to save me all the time."
"But I wil-" Tanjiro starts but I cut him off.
"You're in more danger than I am. You're on the front lines of these demon fights, and as much as I believe in you, I need to be prepared for the worst case scenario. I hope it never happens, but if I have to try and fight a demon to make sure someone is there for Nezuko and to make sure you get a proper burial, I will."
It's quiet in the courtyard, or as quiet as it can be after Inosuke decided to go back to training, our talking must've bored him.
"Okay."