[Seiji's POV]
I watched with bathed breath as Kanae stood over Kanao while the little girl was stumped on the ground. I was sweating bullets as Kanae stood there, nacingly with a wooden stick in her hand.
Kanao too was still in fear, I saw that she even halted breathing altogether. I knew then that as her guardian I had to do sothing.
So I slowly reached for a piece of rock beside and threw it towards my left, Kanae's head snapped towards the sound imdiately and she shifted her attention from Kanao.
Kanae could not see anything, so she used her ears to guide her to the direction of the sound. Luckily, she walked away from Kanao, but the direction she was walking to—the place where I threw the sound—was where Muichiro was standing.
He glared at when Kanae ca his way, and I gave him a thumbs-up with a mischievous smirk.
Kanae carefully made her way towards Muichior. Her steps were steady to ensure she didn't trip over herself. Her ears were always listening for any sound.
Muichiro quickly realized he had to change his position to make sure Kanae didn't catch him, so he carefully moved away from his place. But that proved to be difficult as there was the tiniest crunch with each of his steps.
It was late autumn, many trees had shed their leaves to prepare for the coming winter. As a result, the training ground was filled with dry leaves that had fallen.
The leaves were where I had the idea of playing hide and seek like this in the first place. At first, I thought it would be insensitive of but turns out, Kanae enjoyed being included in gas and activities again instead of just sitting around like a doll.
Kanae changed the direction she was going with each crunch that Muichiuro made. She was slowly getting closer and closer to Muichiro until the boy crouched down and took a deep breath.
"Mist Breathing : Fourth Form," I could see it from the pattern of his breath.
"Shifting Flow," Muichiro turned into a white mist and dashed to the other side of the training ground in an instant.
There was no sound in his movent as if he was as light as a feather. The dry leaves scattered, blown up by the wind of his movent.
I cursed under my breath, unknowingly.
"That's cheating,"
Imdiately, Kanae snapped her head in my direction like a killer robot. I realised how fucked I was when she marched towards , way faster than she approached Muichiro.
Because this ti, she was sure it was and not just any other sound.
I tried my best to move away while being as quiet as possible. But maybe being sneaky was not ant for the deaf. I could not hear if I did a good job or not.
In the end, Kanae reached and she smashed her wooden stick on my head.
*BONK!!*
"And he loses again, blowing the minds of the audience with his seventh losing streak!" Shinobu said when the ga was over.
It was , Kanae, Muichiro, Kanao, Rengoku and Shinobu who were playing the ga. Mitsuri had gone out on a mission, more determined to beco a Hashira as quickly as possible when she saw Muichiro surpassing her.
Rengoku was here from the injuries he suffered when fighting the Upper Moon Five, Gyokko.
It was one of the biggest things that happened in the two months that have passed. Rengoku encountered Gyokko in one of his missions and he quickly called upon another Hashira like I told them to.
The fight went on between the Fla Hashira and the Vase demon for so ti before Sanemi ca as reinforcent and they both ended the demon.
Rengoku was not gravely injured but the poisons inflicted by the demon would take a longer ti to flush out of his system.
My thought was cut off when I felt two arms wrapped around and my face was forced into two soft globes of flesh.
"I'm sorry, does it hurt? I don't an to target you or anything," Kanae explained herself fearing that I might be upset that this was my seventh consecutive loss.
"You're just so bad at it," she said with a chuckle.
"It's fine," I said. I didn't take the ga seriously anyway, I would've utilized my eyes otherwise.
"I'm sure I will lose the next round Seiji, don't worry!!" Rengoku also offered nicely with that giant grin.
He was wearing hospital clothes instead of his Hashira uniform and it was quite odd seeing him without his signature haori.
"Are you having fun?" I asked Kanae. I took ahold of her hands and unwrapped her arm around .
I gave a chaste kiss on her hand.
"More than you would believe," she said and that was all I needed to prepare myself for my 8th loss.
Maybe I should use my eyes next round since Muichiro cheated by using his breathing style?
It was one of those beautiful mornings. The little things that made life worth living.
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[Demon Slayer Headquarters]
..
In the Hashira eting of Autumn, you could feel a positive energy in the air. Every Hashira couldn't help the small smile on their faces. There were many things to be happy about this month, there was zero casualty in the Demon Slayer Corp, and the activities of demons had plumted, with every new Lower Moon being killed off like flies.
And there was the fact that we were going to have a newHashira and an Upper Moon was felled the sa month.
The war was slowly going in favour of humans. It was everything we slayers could hope for and more.
Even Ubuyashiji seed to have grown younger. I could see it clearly how he was filled with the unique vitality of a victor.
"We have a new Hashira with us today," Ubuyashiki started. His wife propped him up in a sitting position and he looked at us with his white unseeing eyes.
"We just had a new Hashira in the last Hashira eting so this is an unbelievable mont. But what is even more surprising is that I have two Hashiras to introduce this morning,"
It felt surreal even for who knew about the story. From another perspective, it would seem like the qualification for being a Hashira was lowered in favour of quantity,
But I knew it was not. It was just that talents were rising, as if the world was preparing the humans for the impending war, and the surge in demon activities had given opportunity for said talents.
All of the Hashiras had attended the eting. We stood in a horizontal line facing Ubuyashiki who was sitting on the veranda of the main building. There were the two new recruits standing in front of him.
"Let introduce our new comrades, the two of them will be joining the ranks to fight alongside you," he said and gestured to the two people standing in front of him.
The two new recruits were facing us, one hid his lower face in bandages but you only really needed half his face to tell that he did not give a fuck about the situation. On the other hand, the girl next to him wore her heart out. You could see the nervousness, the joy and the pride on her face.
"Iguro Obanai, the new Serpent Pillar or Snake Hashira," Ubuyashiki said and the boy stepped forward.
Well, not really a boy since he seed even older than but he was quite short. He was even shorter than Mitsuri who stood beside him.
"And..." Ubuyashiki took a pause and turned his head towards with a knowing smile.
"Mitsuri Kanroji, the tsugoku of Seiji Shigan. The new Love Hashira," he said and Mitsuri stepped forward and bowed to us.
She was nervous for sure but she was already introduced to most of the Hashiras so she was not tense. On the other hand, Obanai had a calm facade but my eyes saw that he was anything but.
It was not anything he could help with either. This was the first ti he had been surrounded by this many powerful individuals. Most of us were even stronger than him.
The tension in the air alone was unlike anything he had ever felt before.
His body instinctively felt that and it was tense and ready to explode into fight or flight. He carefully examined each of us with his heterochromatic eyes, his snake hissing softly in his ear.
Looking at it from an outsider's perspective, it was understandable that he was nervous.
The Hashira eting was and always is, the gathering of the strongest humans. This was a gathering of the pinnacle of humanity, strong enough to hold up the whole world as pillars.
A wall that stood between innocent humans and the evil demons.
Even with our human nature and seemingly innocent interactions, all of us were killers of the highest order.
I only observed Obanai for a few more seconds before my eye shifted again to Mitsuri and they never left. I was content with gazing at her happy smile for the whole eting.
I was so unbelievably proud. Even more than when Muichiro beca a Hashira. It was difficult to feel proud when he did it so easily and effortlessly.
But Mitsuri? I have seen her efforts and the hard work that she put into getting where she is now.
"Tch, what are you looking at?" Sanemi barked sharply when Obanai observed him, maybe a bit too closely.
I made the sa mistake with Tengen before. No one liked being observed too closely, especially when it was the type of observation that search for weaknesses or a way to beat them.
We were all seasoned warriors, we could feel it.
Obanai refused to look away and engaged in a staredown with Sanemi.
He never changed, always picking at the newcors every single ti.
"Serpent Breathing? Is that even a real thing?" Sani asked. I could see that it was a normal question but his face made it an. It was like an insult now.
"And how the fuck did that co from Water Breathing?" he side-eyed Giyu.
Hmm, Love Breathing sounded way more ridiculous but I think Sanemi thought himself bigger than harassing won and children. Or maybe Obanai pissed him off from his vibe which was eerily similar to Giyu and .
"You're funny," Obanai declared instead of answering and he finally looked away to observe the other Hashiras.
That thoroughly pissed off Sanemi but he was held down by Giyu.
Honestly, our new dynamics would be fun.
At one point Obanai's eyes fell on . He stilled, rather dramatically before he narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.
Anyway, I was really not interested in what he thought of . But with this, the Hashira was finally complete like the original story.
Everyone was here now. It was all ten of us.
We were ready.
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[IMAGE]
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Author : This is the end of the tiskip.
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