[Seiji's POV]
Was it really necessary to go on a training montage like I was so sort of ani character?
The answer to the question was yes indeed.
But shouldn't I be able to et with my friends and lovers once every month or so?
The answer was no.
What I was about to do was fundantally different from normal training where as long as you put in the work, you got good results. I was going on a journey to find myself after 17 years of imitation.
It should be a journey of enlightennt. I needed to leave everything else behind and only look to the sword. At least until I finally achieve what I set out to do.
There can be no distractions.
Yoriichi was strong, he was the strongest being in the world, soone whom I could not beat if it ca to a fight even now. But I have to remind myself that he failed to kill Muzan Kibutsuji.
And I couldn't hope to accomplish what he failed to do while I was still following in his footsteps. I needed to be more.
Yoriichi failed, it was ti I stopped being his imitation.
I had to be myself and give Seiji Shigan a chance. Perhaps he wouldn't fail like Yoriichi did.
I took two weeks to recover from my injuries. During that ti, I spent as much ti as possible with everyone, especially Mitsuri and Kanae. I had to make up for all the tis I would be absent.
Tanjiro also ca to the Butterfly Mansion to finally learn under but I had to disappoint him with the change in my plans. Like a fellow purple-haired guy once said, Man plans and God laughs.
The circumstances had changed, for better or for worse. I couldn't focus on others while I existed, unenough.
Instead, I directed Tanjiro to Giyu to further his training. It was how he beca as strong as he did in the canon so it should work this ti too. My earlier influence already affected him for the better.
I also inford him of the truth behind the Hinokami Kagura and the Sun Breathing. I wrote a scroll for him in my free ti, one he could look upon if he wanted to further his training with Sun Breathing while he learned Water Breathing under Giyu.
Rengoku learned Fla Breathing from an ancestral book so he should be fine with that. Although I felt a little guilty when I promised to train him a long ti ago.
But Tanjiro was more than understanding. He even made the situation better by claiming that I would be in for a surprise when I saw him again.
The only problem was with Giyu.
"Again?" he had said with a downcast expression, "Is the fate of Water Breathing Style to be a re foundation for other breathing styles? When am I going to train my successor,"
Poor guy had trained five tsuguko and none of them used Water Breathing as their main style. With Tanjiro, that would make it seven.
Saying goodbye was difficult. I think I did a pretty horrible job making my last days happy and morable, but I couldn't help it. I couldn't live with such defeat.
Muzan was strong, but I surpassed him in skill. Although the gap between us was massive, I had hope, I had a chance. But my fight with Kokushibo was hopeless. He was not ridiculously overpowered like Muzan but he outclassed in both raw power and skills.
Kokushibo was an even worse matchup for than Muzan.
I couldn't indulge in love when I was keenly aware that it could be taken from , again. My trauma surfaced at this ti and I think I ended up making things worse.
.....
I felt a rush of warm air on my neck on my final night in the mansion. The rush of air was followed by the sll of sumr and love. A soft weight pressed down on as I lay on my bed.
"Mitsuri?" I spoke in the dark of the night, my hand running down her hair while she clung to for dear life.
I felt warm liquid on my chest, tears. Coming from the happiest girl I knew, it was more tragic than others.
"Must you go?" she begged.
They've asked these countless tis, but the answer has remained the sa—a hard nod. I couldn't, no matter how much I love; hate must co first to protect love.
She couldn't stop . And when she finally gave up, she stripped the thin kimono that she was wearing and laid bare on top of . Her eyes were cloudy and desperate as she asked if I wanted to do it.
What kind of a question is that?
Of course, I wanted to do it.
But I didn't.
The purity of a girl was about the most precious thing she had. In the age and society we live it, it was even more so. It was the sa as giving yourself fully to a man if a girl does that.
I was aware of this and although I had many chances, I never took that away from Mitsuri or Kanae. I didn't deserve to have them when they couldn't have .
I love them, and I wanted to treat them right.
Not until I could dedicate my whole life to them. Not until I could protect them from everything in the world. Not until I finally killed the last of hate in my heart so that I could love them with everything.
Until then I wouldn't rob them of their precocious gift.
"When I return, I will be enough," I said and kissed her lips before kissing her longer at her forehead.
"And I will claim you,"
My arms wrapped around and I hugged her with everything I had. I didn't know how but I didn't feel lust at that mont. I only felt love for the beautiful soul in front of .
When morning ca, I whispered my final farewell.
Then I left, to return only when I can protect the world.
..
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[3rd POV]
Sothing changed in him.
Anyone who loved him could tell that he had changed. His transformation wasn't obvious. It wasn't an eruption of anger or a spiral to despair. It was subtler than that but with equal or more weight.
Kanae could hear it so clearly. Seiji was never a man of words but sohow he made silence comfortable with his presence. But now the silence felt heavier, they weren't comfortable.
The silence around him was brimming with sothing unspoken - an unrelenting hunger or perhaps a gnawing resolve.
Even when he spoke, it was no longer a cheap imitation of a perfect voice nor an attempt to sound more attractive to her ears. His voice was steel, there was sothing hard and rigid to them.
Kanae was worried, especially when she learned how he wanted to disappear from her for years in the na of training.
She was scared. What was she going to do if he was gone from her life? Her life would truly be plunged into darkness then.
But what frightened her even more was the darkness behind his lies. There was a part of him now, that seed to be willing to break himself piece by piece for sothing he considered grander than himself.
No, there was nothing grander than him. At least not for her.
She tried to convince him sohow, but again, his voice was steel. The thing about loving the strongest in the world was that he could never truly belong to her and her alone. He also belonged to the world.
It was tragic.
"I'll be fine," he said.
Yes, but will she be fine?
"Yes, you will be fine too. I've talked to Lady Tamayo about it, you'll be fine," he said again, sothing exciting about his voice.
In the end, she couldn't stop him. How could she? He was a man and she was just a girl.
He left one morning. Kanae listened to his footsteps as he went further and further away from her. Until she could no longer hear him.
The mont he was gone, everything seed darker.
It was funny, he would often disappear for days and even weeks but she never felt this hollow before. The promise of him returning soon always soothes her sohow but this ti there was no promise.
They never heard from him again for many months. The only thing they heard were stories, about the sound of screams that haunted the forests of Japan.
Demons that were defeated, not by a nichirin sword but by a normal blade. Their body lay in pieces, so even turned into ground flesh. It would seem their regeneration was forced to the limit, they were cut until they no longer had the energy to heal themselves.
And they were left there, waiting for the rcy of the sun. Travellers had found these scenes all over Japan, the horrifying screams attracted attention since they were never killed instantly.
No one could ignore those screams of agony, not unless you were incapable of hearing them in the first place. People claid that it was the work of a demon who tortured them out of deep hatred.
The people who were more aware, like the Hashiras, could tell that soone had used those demons as training dummies. Practising the art of the sword on their body until their regeneration reached its limits.
Seiji did it because of both reasons.
"Two birds with one stone," he had said while he walked along the forest.
..
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