The Talk

(A year later)

"I've been here for a whole year, huh…"

It's 1512 now and not many events took place for the past year. So, I spent some of that time reading books or hanging out with Kuina and Zoro.

However, most of my time was being used for training. Some of the training was getting easy, so I wanted to spice things up a bit.

I decided to copy the training that Tanjiro and his friends did when they were rehabilitating at the butterfly mansion.

Some examples are tag, flinging cups of water, extreme stretches, running on fences, and pulling boulders up.

To get the most out of this training, I got most of the disciples, Kuina, and Zoro to do this training with me.

I made sure to tell Koushirou about these activities and what they teach us and he was all for it.

The disciples were just sad that they had to do more things, lazy bastards, Kuina was skeptical with this kind of training while Zoro just wanted to lift boulders, the brute…

I made sure to change their minds about this training by completely destroying them in each activity.

That certainly changed their minds alright…

It was a nice change of pace to the regular lessons since it was usually just sword training and some light core exercises.

After introducing the training to them, it was time for my personal training. I was going back to practicing with Total Concentration: Constant.

Since my lung capacity increased massively because of the frequent use of Total Concentration Breathing, I should be able to practice it!

Whenever I go to bed, I take some disciples and tell them to hit me when my breathing pattern changes.

They look at me weirdly of course, but I guess the chance to hit me changed that look. I adamantly told them if they hit me for no reason or if they leave their post, I make sure to go extra hard on them when we train, they quickly nodded their heads.

Of course, I'm not a slave driver, so I told them they could take shifts with each other to lighten the load. I also told Koushirou to lighten their training.

Training this breathing technique is a lot harder than I took credit for…I've been training it for a couple of months now and I'm still not used to it.

Though, I can still see the effects it has since I'm beating more adults in my matches.

Oh! I also finally defeated Kuina! I was proud at that moment but…someone else was feeling differently…

(3 months ago)

*WHOOSH*

*WHOOSH*

*CLACK* *CLACK*

I backpedaled away from Kuina to give me more space. This was the longest we ever fought one another.

I could see she's out of breath but I'm still fine.

My training is showing progress…let's finish this.

She dashed at me, swinging her bokken horizontally.

I bend backward, dodging the attack. Letting gravity do its work, I leaned to the left and placed my left hand under me.

I bend my elbows and use the momentum of the fall to twist around and sweep her off her legs.

"WH-"

*THUD*

She fell on her side. I quickly stood up and put my bokken next to her neck.

"The match is over! The winner is Noah!"

Surprised gasps could be heard throughout the dojo.

"Well done Noah!" Said Koushirou, clasping my shoulder, but I didn't pay attention to him…I was more focused on Kuina.

She looked confused, distraught, and frustrated.

I wanted to go to her but before I got the chance she started to run away.

"Kuina!" Koushirou yelled out. He raised his hand out to her only to put it back down…just standing there…but not me.

I rushed after her. After a while, I see her sitting on an open porch. She has tears in her eyes.

"W-What do you want! Are you here to gloat about your victory…"

I didn't say anything, I just walked up to her and sat with her.

We sat there in silence, waiting for one of us to speak.

Finally, she began to speak.

"…My father was right…girls really are weaker than boys…" She said with extreme sadness in her voice.

"He's right, girls are weaker than guys."

She looked at me with a betrayed look and opened her mouth, but I wasn't finished yet.

"But not in the way you're thinking." I face her.

"Girls are usually weaker than boys not because they are physically weaker than them, but because they don't have the same conviction as boys to reach bigger dreams or ambitions. Most girls would have easier dreams because they were taught or told to, but you don't. You have a grand dream, it's just that your conviction is constantly being affected by your surroundings. Being told that you could never fully reach your dream will certainly lower your conviction."

I took a breath after finishing my short speech before smiling at her.

"But I won't, I believe you can reach your dream…to become the greatest swordsman in the world!"

She stares at me with shock in her eyes before she also starts to smile.

"Thank you…Noah…"

She then let out a sigh

"But…that still doesn't change the fact that I'm still physically weaker than boys. There must be a way to become stronger…"

A grin appeared on my face.

"I think I know of a way to help you get stronger." I get up and walked in front of her.

I raised my hand to her.

"The first lesson is…to breath."

(Present)

From then on, I started teaching her Total Concentration Breathing. Her talent showed when she was getting the hang of it, but she still has a while before her lungs were strong enough to practice Total Concentration: Constant.

I tried teaching it to Zoro since I also want him to get stronger too, but he didn't see the point in it...the fool…

Maybe I have to wait for him to lose against Kuina when they both use real swords in their fight…

Though I have to be careful around that period, that's when Kuina will die…

"Come on Noah, let's spar with each other!" Kuina greeted me with a smile.

And I'll be damned if I let that happen.