"The blade agaisnt injustice"

➳

Training under Tokito was...

Tough.

Your schedule didn't leave you a moment to rest, it was so overwhelming that you had fainted like fifteen times due to exhaustion in those two months you'd been training.

First; you had to wake up at 5am and sleep at 11pm. The whole day was divided into sections of 3 hours each with 30 minute rests in between. There were different activities for every day of the week, but you were sure that Tokito didn't put much thought on planning them, he just came up with something different every week.

Second; you had to sharpen your senses by spending some nights inside the misty woods avoiding getting attacked by snakes, bears, and a couple crocodiles. By sunrise, your hair was a nest, your eyes souless and you couldn't feel your limbs.

Third; you had to do high intensity exercises to strengthen your body and get more resistance. Not to mention that you had to do all of this while memorizing Tokito's explanations on mist breathing.

SPeAkInG oF wHiCH

Fourth; this precious boy gave the vaguest, weird-ass explanations you had ever listened to. He would say a short statement on how one posture works, then leave without giving you the oportunity to ask questions. Sometimes, the explanations were just three words long (◕‿◕)

Fifth; you had mastered the Total Concentration Breathing thanks to all the tremendous effort you were forced to put into your training. This not only helped your body's lungs and heart, to the point in which you weren't coughing as much as you used to, never had heartache and high intensity exercises didn't make you hyperventilate as much as they did before.

You still sweated like a pig though.

Lastly; your master was absent the majority of the time. He was either training on his own inside the woods or garden, or going on missions without you —obviously—.

Therefore, he would wake you up, tell you what you were going to do while you wrote down everything, 'cause he wouldn't repeat it twice. The rest of the day, you didn't see him at all. However, somehow, he knew whenever you took an extra break or did something wrong even when he was gone.

Thankfully, throughout those two months, Shinobu had visited a couple times to make sure you were okay and replenish you medicine supply.

『 °*• ❈ •*°』

"Wake up"

Your eyelids felt heavy, but your master's particular scent —minty? Like the sensation of sleeping on a valley at noon, with the fresh grass tickling your skin— was enough to know that you should leave the soreness of your body aside and do an effort to open them up. Your orbs met with a mint color, completely beautiful to the point that you wished you could see them forever.

Waking up from your reverie, your face turned red when you realized the closeness between the two. You jumped back, hitting the wall behind your futon. Your master, however, seemed to not care at all.

"Today you're going to put in practice your swordsmanship skills"

Rubbing the beaten part of your head, you processed what he was telling you.

"Swordsmanship...?"

Your eyes widened as well as your mouth at his statement.

"Does that mean that we're going to train together?" you asked, beaming with happiness as you jumped closer to him making him lean back a little, his usual deadpan expression changing a little when his eyes got bigger and his eyebrows raised a bit. His lips slightly parted in subtle surprise.

There was barely 10 centimeters of distance between your faces.

You stayed there, your mind just glitched for a minute.

"Ah! S-Sorry!" you hurried to pull yourself back, placed your hands over your burning cheeks and shut your eyes tightly.

Tokito stood up from his kneeling position.

"Hurry up"

After he left, you calmed your poor heart, put on your training clothes, tied your hair into a high ponytail and headed towards the garden. Tokito was swinging a wooden sword masterfully, you had to catch your breath at the glorious sight in front of you.

He threw one sword at you without saying anything, but you understood what he meant by that.

Taking a defensive position and holding the sword as he had taught you to, you stared at each other, silence filling the air. Without hesitation, you leaped towards him, causing your swords to clash.

As you tried to hit him, he remained serene, avoiding every attack with ease and basically putting all your efforts to shame. Every single time, he hit you in the back, stomach, legs or shoulders making you fall and bite the dirt. And every single time, shaking and mentally cursing at the pain, you stood up.

Finally, he hit you so hard that you could barely breathe, coughing several times and spitting saliva.

Panting, your hand searched for your sword, assuring your hold on it and supporting on it to stand up.

Tokito, looking down at your defeated figure, lightly frowned.

"Why are you still standing up?"

Without answering, your teeth clenched, your legs moving forward to attempt another hit against him.

With only one move of his hand, he made you fall to the ground aggressively.

Again, you began coughing.

He sighed and pushed you down with his foot when you tried to stand up once more. His foot pressed with harsh force against your lower back, making it impossible for you to move no matter how much your squirmed.

"Give up"

"No" you insisted, tears streaming down your face, feeling so powerless, so humiliated.

The pain spread through your weakened body, nerves screaming you to shut it down.

Pressing his foot harder, you feared he would hurt your spine. He was being too aggressive, showing no emotion in contrast of the salty river you were crying.

"You have full concentration breathing now, that's enough to help your health. You're not cut out to be a demon slayer, so give up."

You shut your eyes tighter, the pain growing worse.

"No"

"Why? You have no reason for being a slayer, you're just wasting my time. Give up."

Teeth gritting, fists clenching so hard that your nails pierced your palms, blood drops staining the dirt, mixing with the pool of tears you had shed.

"I-I can't"

Tokito released his foot from your back, your whole body shook. You slowly went back up in all fours, there wasn't any strength left to properly sit up.

You face down, crying in pain. It hurt, way more than you had imagined.

"I have no family, no friends. The few nurses I knew were killed by those demons. If I had no idea about the Corps, I would have had nothing to live for."

You faced up to look at him with your shoulders sank and teary red.

"How can I live a peaceful life after finding out about all of this? After seeing innocent people die just like that, without the opportunity to defend themselves? Why do the weak always get stepped on? Why must we all die?"

Shaking your head, the weight of determination hit you.

"I can't live when there's people who sacrifice themselves, like you or Shinobu-san. And even people as strong as you might die, so why can't I do something against that injustice? If I can at least use myself as a shield for you, then so be it. But I won't stand here and do nothing while you're all out there protecting mankind"

You forced a smile, frowning. Showing him that you were confident about what you were saying.

"So... You can keep bringing me down. I'm not gonna give up! Rough training will only make me a stronger demon slayer!"

Your vision became blurry, dizziness clouding you until you finally fainted.

Tokito closed his eyes and let out a long sigh before walking over to you, leaving his sword aside. He picked you up bridal style, just so he could return you to your room.

He placed you on the futon, sitting seiza style, observing you expressionless. Without even blinking, he sat there examining your beaten down figure. After a few minutes in which only your breathing could be heard, he stood up to leave, closing his eyes.

That was the first time you'd ever said something to him confidently.

«Foolish thoughts will get you nowhere, [Y/N]. This world is ruled by injustice.»