Chapter 10 - Zoro

A/N: Thank you for all the support so far guys. This is the start of the next arc of the story and there will be no more huge time skips. If anything it'll be a year here or there at most, but I will avoid doing so if possible. Enjoy!

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At a cliffside near Shimotsuki village, two figures stood facing each other at a good distance away.

"Ready, son? I won't hold back."

It's been four years since Hana has started learning Flower Breathing from Terumi. This makes Terumi sixteen years old this year, his tall 190cm figure stood ready, holding his partner, the Great Grade Sword, Asahi in his hand.

Terumi nodded as his mother's warning, breathing in and out, readying himself.

'This is the year I set out. Asahi...I'm ready. I will make Kozaburo-sensei proud.'

Hisssss

White breath came steaming out of Terumi and Hana's mouth, taking a combat stance.

"Breath of Flower, First form: Cherry Blossom!"

"Breath of Sun, First form kai: Dancing Flash!"

The two figures disappeared from their spots at blinding speeds, illusory flowers and flames sprung forth from their midair clash before the two appeared back on the ground.

Ting.

Crack.

"Heh, I guess this is it. You're ready."

Terumi stood up, without a single scratch on his body. While Hana stayed knelt down with her broken sword.

"Haa, no mercy for your own mother? I'm going to have muscle aches for days!"

"Come on now, mom. No need to be so dramatic, I know you better than this by now."

"Hmph, you're not cute at all anymore."

"Haha, let's go. Kuina is waiting for us."

'I'm finally able to beat mother at full power using the breath of flower. All that training is finally coming through. This past year, I've finally mastered Total Concentration: Constant. My overall abilities have improved severalfold compared to when I was twelve. I don't think I would even need to use any breathing forms to beat any east blue pirate.'

'My path forward from here is to learn more techniques, Haki, and experience more combat in order to get stronger. As far as breathing styles, I've mastered Water, Flower, Thunder, and Sun Breathing, as well as a few moves here and there that interested me. I haven't mastered the other styles as it took me a long time to fully learn to use Sun Breathing without any stamina backlash.'

Terumi starts touching the scar above his left eye as he starts thinking about his progress.

'Hmm, it seems to be getting bigger. Before it was just a line across my forehead but now it's transformed into a larger mark. I started wondering if it's the Demon Slayer 'Mark' but it doesn't really have any special pattern, it just keeps growing steadily. I've tried to push my heart rate to over 200 bpm but could never do it. Closest I've gotten is 190 bpm when I was training with mom. Maybe I need some kind of small push to be able to do it.'

'It would be great if I could actually utilize the mark's abilities, never mind the incredible physical boost from the mark, the 'Selfless State' ability of the 'Transparent World' could make me unrivaled in this world. Haki is what the residents of this world rely on in combat, observation Haki is all about sensing your opponent's intent in order to predict their moves, even seeing into the future by sensing what they will try to do. But what if I had no intent? The Selfless State allows me to completely mask my intent, which could render observation Haki useless.'

'Either way, I don't know whether or not I'll awaken the Mark or not, so I shouldn't rely on it. I need to focus on things I actually can achieve, like learning the Rokushiki to improve my foundation further, and Haki.'

Terumi smiles excitedly as he thinks about the future.

'My path has just gotten started. There's still so much to learn, I can't wait.'

Arriving at the front of the Shimotsuki estate with his mother, Terumi hears a voice shouting inside.

"I'm here to challenge this dojo!"

Terumi smiled, hearing a familiar voice from the distant past.

'He's here.'

Stepping inside, Hana raised an eyebrow at the green-haired youth standing there with a flag on his back. Terumi could barely hide his grin.

'So that's what happened, interesting.'

Koushirou, Kasumi, and Kuina stood in front of Zoro, with bewilderment on their faces.

"You want to challenge our dojo? Why? What's your name? Where did you come from?"

Koushirou asked politely.

"My name is Zoro! 8-years-old! I don't know where I'm from but my uncle said I arrived with him at this village on a ship seven years ago! I'm here to challenge this dojo and take it over! Also, why is this place so hard to find? It took me a week to get here!"

The boisterous youth spoke loudly and then pointed at Koushirou. The party looked at him with an increasingly bewildered expression.

"You are the master of this dojo right? I challenge you!"

At this point, Kuina could no longer handle this farce with an angry stress mark appearing on her forehead.

"Do you even know how to use a sword? Where's your weapon?"

"No, I don't! Just lend me one of yours!"

Several more angry stress marks appeared as Kuina's eyebrows twitched.

"Oh, is that so. Okay. As the heir to the Shimotsuki dojo, I accept your challenge in my father's place."

"Hmph, I don't want to fight women. I've already beaten several men already from other villages on this island already. I want to challenge the dojo master!"

Terumi thought to himself and could barely contain his laughter.

'There are only two other villages on this island. How did he get so lost that he ended up in other villages before arriving here, considering the fact that he lives here? His sense of direction is even worse than I thought.'

Kuina was reaching her boiling point.

"Listen up, brat, you couldn't beat me if you tried! Now, do you want to challenge the dojo or not!?"

"Fine, let's make this quick."

Everyone gathered inside the main training hall, on the bamboo mat stood Kuina holding a bamboo shinai. Zoro stood opposite her, holding the sword like it was a baseball bat.

At this point, no one could contain their embarrassment any longer, covering their eyes as the youth who clearly has no idea what he's doing readied himself for combat.

"Here I come!"

Zoro ran forward, still holding the bamboo shinai like a baseball bat.

"Ha!"

"Ack!"

Kuina simply landed a single hit on Zoro's head as he charged straight at her, making him fall unconscious.

'Well. That was something.'

Terumi looked at the rest of the group who had ugly smiles on their face, clearly expecting this result.

"What do we do with him now?"

Kasumi covered her mouth and chuckled.

"I'll take care of him, don't worry. He's a very spirited youth, isn't he?"

Koushirou smiled and nodded.

"That he is."

Kuina huffed in anger as she came over to everyone else.

"What even was that? He didn't even know how to hold a sword."

Terumi chuckled as he heard Kuina's comments.

"Now now. He's young and I doubt he's had any formal training."

Terumi glanced over to where Zoro lay as Kasumi tended to him.

"I can tell that his talent is tremendous though, one day he might surpass us all."

'Not that I'll let him though, sorry Zoro, but you'll have to challenge me if you want the title of the best swordsman in the future.'

Kuina shook her head and scoffed at what she heard.

"No way, he couldn't beat me even if we fought a thousand times."

Terumi laughed out loud upon hearing that.

"Hahaha, well, that might be true for now, but we'll have to see in the future. Let's see what he wants after he wakes up."

Koushirou nodded in agreement.

"Yes, although the boy is unrefined, I can see that he has a fire to him. Not unlike a younger Terumi in the past."

"Ugh, now you guys are pulling my leg. There's no way he can compare to Nii-san."

Terumi patted Kuina's head, hearing the compliment.

"Okay okay, how's your training been? Any progress?"

"Yeah, I'm now able to use Total Concentration Breathing for a full twenty seconds. I've almost learned the first through sixth form of Breath of Flower."

Terumi nodded.

"Not bad. Keep working at it."

'Her talent is quite incredible indeed. She's about on pace with me when I was her age. Though I did personally teach her with my mother, so I'll take some credit for myself.'

Hana yawned in boredom and then spoke.

"Okay, can we go now? I believe it's time to start your daily training, Kuina."

"Yes, sensei!"

...

A little while later, Zoro woke up in cold sweat.

"W-what happened?"

Terumi stopped his sword-swinging practice as he saw Zoro wake up in the room behind him. He called out to Koushiou who was overseeing the other youths.

"Koushirou-sensei, he's awake."

Koushirou came over and entered the room with Terumi.

"Hello young one, how are you feeling?"

"My head hurts, but I'm fine. What happened?"

Terumi chuckled and spoke.

"You charged at Kuina and lost in one hit."

Zoro's eyes widened.

"What? How can this be..."

Koushirou started examining the boy more closely as he fell into a state of contemplation.

"Zoro-kun, if you'd like, you're more than welcome to join my dojo. Here at Shimotsuki dojo, we have no requirements for entry on students, most of the other kids your age come here to train as well."

"If I join, will I get to fight that girl again?"

Zoro spoke with excitement, as a fire in his eyes lit up.

"Yes, the person who beat you was Kuina, my daughter. If you train hard, maybe you'll be able to beat her one day."

"Okay, then I'll join."

'Simple and straightforward, huh? Just what I'd expect from Zoro.'

Koushirou nodded and then brought out a student uniform he had stored in his pocket, fully expecting this to happen.

"Here's your uniform. Training starts in the morning and ends in the afternoon. Our facilities are free for you to use whenever."

Zoro hurriedly changed into the uniform, and then ran out to the field excitedly.

"Wait, I-"

Koushirou and Terumi watched as Zoro started running around widely.

"Where's he going..."

Terumi did not comment as he knew that with his terrible sense of direction, he's probably looking for the training field. The one that's on the other side of the building he just exited.

After a minute of running around pointlessly, Zoro came back.

"Why is this place so confusing? Where's the training field?"

Koushirou sighed seeing what terrible sense of direction the boy had.

"It's on the other side of this building, the opposite way of where you just headed."

Koushirou walked out and pointed to where he needed to go, Zoro nodded, and then immediately proceeded to start going the wrong way.

'Oh god, this is too funny.'

"Zoro-kun, wait. Let me just take you there."

"Huh? Okay. Also, can you guys give me two swords to train with?"

"Oh, Nitoryu (Two Sword Style). Are you interested in learning it?"

"Well yeah, that girl beat me using only one sword. So if I use two swords, I'll win for sure."

Koushirou and Terumi blinked with a blank expressions on their face.

'What is this logic?'

They both thought.

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A/N: I see a lot of people asking about the lifespan issue of the mark, so I will explain it. SPOILER FOR THE DEMON SLAYER MANGA STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW, YOU ARE WARNED.

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The creator of breathing styles and original bearer of the mark, Yoriichi Tsugikuni lived to be 85 years old. I theorize that it's because the nature of the mark is tied to breath of sun, it's stated in the manga that one of the requirements for the mark to appear is for demon slayers to be in contact with a breath of sun user, Tanjirou being the catalyst for the other pillars getting the mark. So the breath of sun user themselves shouldn't be affected by the lifespan issue.