CHAPTER 13

*THWACK!*

*THWACK!*

Two bokken clashed together relentlessly as Issei had a look of total concentration.

Shinobu was facing him with a casual look on her face as she parried another attack.

"Don't focus on the attack! Focus on your opponent! Your hands should move on their own following your command!!"

Issei jumped back a little and thrusted forward with his weapon again.

Don't focus on the weapon…

Heeding her advice, Issei forgot about doing a perfect thrust, instead he started analyzing her every movement of muscles.

From the most meager movement of her muscles to her eye direction.

She will make a low sweep!!

Issei jumped upwards without any second thought with a confident expression.

*SWOOSH!*

*THWACK!*

*THUD!*

Issei fell down on his butt on the ground since she instead of a low sweep, she ran forward and delivered a slash.

"How?"

He thought he had totally saw through her mind, but the reality seemed to be much different.

"Don't blindly believe what you see! Your intuition is better than your five senses…"

"Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste and Touch! Everything can be a misconception! But always believe in your intuition!"

Shinobu sighed a little due to not getting any sort of response. Her mesmerizing eyes stared deep into his as she said

"Don't be so down, Ise. You are talented, more than me. You will be able to easily beat me if you continue to train."

"I know… I know that! But what about now? I can even hold my own ground for ten minutes!"

Shinobu stared at him with for a few minutes before she broke down into laughter

"pfft… HAHAHAHA!!"

"What is so funny?"

Issei had a annoyed look on his face as he crossed his arms.

It had been almost a year since Issei has arrived in this world. His appearance was same, bit with some slight maturity and increased height. He was almost 14 years old now.

"It is very funny to hear that, even more when you are talking about beating a official demon Slayer when you haven't even taken the final examination test."

Final examination test was held every year by the Demon Slayer corps to admit more demon slayers into their ranks.

One can only take the test after getting the approval from the trainer. Being a official demon Slayer, Shinobu obviously had the right to train someone else.

"So what if I am not a demon Slayer yet? I will still defeat you!"

"It is good to dream high..."

[[Stop being stubborn then and use the boosted gear!]]

Issei never once used the boosted gear while fighting her after that one time. He felt like that would basically be cheating. Moreover, he wouldn't feel satisfied unless he defeats her with his skills alone.

{Huh… I also wonder when you will finally unlock the forbidden grimoire… I am itching to see its power again.}

[[Like that would be more powerful than the boosted gear…]]

{It IS better than a fancy red gauntlet, excuse you!}

[[Such audacity! What use can a old dusty book can be?]]

{Issei! Promise me! Once you unlock the forbidden grimoire, you will tell this delusional lizard, which power is better!!}

[[ I have no qualms with that. Make sure to prepare a hole, so that you can hide your face in there!]]

[That is in the future, guys. I have to first defeat her before anything else!]

[[Listen, Issei! Boosted gear is your own power, there is nothing wrong in using that to win!!]]

[I get that, I will use it to fight my opponents in the future, but not with her. I want to defeat her using what I learned!]

[[I understand your point, Issei. Your pride is something you inherited from me, so I can see why you are so adamant. But…]]

[[… Too much pride can also cause your downfall. I realized that too late, I hope you won't repeat the same mistake.]]

[Ddraig… Can I ask you something?]

[[Go ahead]]

[What was that fight all about? Like, I don't understand what would lead to two heavenly dragons fight to death.]

[[ There wasn't any dramatic story behind it. Only some minor argument which escalated into a full fledged fight...]]

For some reason, Issei wasn't sure if that was true. He felt like Ddraig was trying to hide something.

…

Issei stood in the middle of the forest in dark night. The eery feeling coming from the darkness was giving him chills.

His ears perked up as he caught the subtle noise of leaves rustling in distance.

He took is stance and waited with bated breath. This was his last test.

Yesterday, Shinobu suddenly walked up to him with a sincere expression and broke it to him.

"Ise-kun, your training is almost over. You have nearly gained all the qualifications needed to become a demon Slayer!"

"Really? But I still can't use my breath style."

Every individual had their own breath styles. That also meant that they won't use the breath style use the breath style of their trainer.

It is something that just instinctively comes to your mind at some point. But, there are some cases when the breath style of the trainee is the same as the trainer. In that case, the trainer is more than free to pass down his knowledge.

This doesn't seemed to be the case with Issei and Shinobu. Issei was sure that he didn't had the insect breathing, this made the things difficult since he could think of so many possibilities of his breaths styles.

Breath of Dominance.

Breath of Dragon.

Breath of fire.

Breath of devil.(Forbidden grimoire)

This led him not be able to grasp any breath style properly.

"Don't worry about that, there are many who can't use breath styles until they do a few missions. All that matters is that you had fully mastered 'TOTAL CONCENTRATION BREATHING, CONSTANT'."

Shinobu's words were quite optimistic but the lack of justification behind them made Issei think that he failed.

He was quite unsatisfied with his own result. Even though he knew that mastering total concentration breathing, constant was a great achievement in its own. He couldn't help but see his failure more than his own achievement.

Just the thought that someone else had already mastered the same thing in the same age made him double his training.

Total concentration breathing, constant was a breathing techniques which increases the oxygen supply in body, increasing the blood flow to different organs. This was a temporary boost in physical capabilities, and this technique meant doing it constantly.

Meaning that his physical Strength would be at least double from a average human.

Now standing in the middle of a creepy forest, Issei was waiting for his test. He had to stay sharp at every moment since he didn't knew what to expect.

The wind caused the leaves on the tree to rustle making a sound which subtly distracted Issei. As if on que, a arrow flew from somewhere in his direction piercing the air.

Issei was more than expecting something like this to happen, moving his head to the side, he effortlessly dodged the arrow causing it to get stuck on the ground behind him.

He looked at the direction from where the arrow flew from and wondered from where did she got that from in the first place.

He didn't knew why, but he never thought that there would be that sort of medieval weapon in this world.

*SHING!*

The sound of drawing blade from the sheath came from his back causing him to look back!

Looking back he didn't saw anyone.

'Shit!'

A trap! Why would she use a sword when Issei was empty handed. This was supposed to be a test, not a battle!

Out of reflex, he crouched down missing the giant piece of log which was aimed at his head!

'What the hell is going on!!'

Looking upwards, he saw that the log was tied down by a rope which made it swing in a pendulum motion.

He jumped forward in a haste while the ground where he was crouching was now was filled with spikes.

'She is really going all out…'

"Well well well, look at my surprise. Who do we have here. A fresh piece meat!"

Jumping down from the tree branch, a demon landed on the ground on all fours as he looked at Issei like he was a loaf of bread.

Now how did a demon get here?

Is this also a part of the test?

If so, then she is really not holding back at all.

This could be bad! He didn't had a weapon with him for now! He could only rely on total concentration breathing and if push comes to shove, the Boosted gear would be the last option.

"A piece of meat? That sounds creepy coming from a ugly load of shit like you."

"So the kid has a toxic mouth, huh? Kekeke, I am quite curious to see the reaction on your face when I will eat you."

"Is that so… only if you could defeat me first."

The demon leapt at Issei with a savage expression. Raising his razor sharp nails, he attempted to scratch him!

Issei already had total concentration breathing used constantly, his calfs exploded with power as he jumped back and missed the attack.

Using his momentum against him, Issei grabbed Demon's forearm and kneed him in the stomach making it flew some distance away.

Without wasting any time, Issei chased after him and delivered a punch straight into it's face as soon as it was about to reach the ground.

The demon crashed into a tree and slid down to the ground. Opening it's eyes, it couldn't find Issei anywhere.

"It's time to kiss the graveyard!"

Issei's voice came from above, looking up Issei had his fist reeled back while the veins on his forearms were bulging.

*BOOST!*

"YOU BASTAR-!"

"GAAAAAHHH!!"

The demon screamed in pain as the ridiculous amount of power behind Issei's punch caused it's head to get smashed inside.

The Demon's face looked deformed while blood splattered all across the tree's stem.

*RUSTLE!*

The sound of footsteps from behind caused Issei to look back immediately.

"Good job, Ise-kun. As I expected from you, now there is only one thing which remains…"

Issei knew what she was referring to. The job isn't done until the subject is dead. Naturally, she wanted Issei to kill the demon.

Demons cannot be killed by unconventional methods. The only way to kill demons is to use a sword specially made for demon slayers, or sunlight.

Shinobu had a different sword than her's in her hand. She handed it over to Issei with a casual expression.

"This is your own Nichirin blade, Ise-kun. Use it to kill the demon and pass the last test!"

Issei took the sword sword and Drew the blade from the sheath under the expactant gaze of Shinobu.

'Why is she acting so-'

His thoughts were interrupted as the blade of the Katana shined for a moment before the previous White colored blade changed…

It was now a combination of crimson red and green. The red colour was on the sharped side of the blade while the green color on the blunt side.

"Amazing... I have never seen such a beautiful Nichirin blade."

Looking at the Two perfectly divided sides of the blade, Issei couldn't help but associate green with Ddraig and Red with the forbidden grimoire for some reason.

"Now don't be so slow, finish up as quickly as you can…"

Issei turned around and looked at the unconscious demon without any change of expression.

He raised his blade in the air and brought it down slicing the head of the demon into two halves.

Guiltiness for killing someone?

Nauseousness by disgust?

Overdramatic way of killing?

Nah, who cares about that? It's not like it is the first time he fought with the intent to kill someone!

He thought as he looked at Shinobu from the corner of his eyes.

Anyways, he quite liked this new weapon. Not only does it represent all his powers, but it was the first gift he received by Shinobu!

In this world, he could confidently say that she was the person closest to him. Even after living under the same roof, Issei didn't interacted with Kanae that much since she was always busy with missions and other work.

While on the other hand, he spent most of his time with Shinobu training for hours.

"Congratulations, Ise-kun! You are now qualified to take the final examination test. How do @#$_&#$+$-$(#@&£¥¢€¥¢¥=}¢}°¢^°…."

His eyelids suddenly felt heavy while his Body turned scalding hot. He closed his eyes while feeling as if he was losing control of his own body.

"*@#¢£€.."

"•£¢€£€.."

"Ise!!"

"huh?"

His eyes shot up as if he was woken up from a sleep, but to his surprise he found out that he was still standing at the same spot.

"Are you feeling that tired?"

"huh? Uh... No, it's just…"

"Let's go home, you can rest then…"

"hmm"

Issei silently followed behind Shinobu while feeling a bit out of it.

What was that just now?

Wait! WHAT?!!

He exclaimed mentally as he saw his hand fading away lightly. Not only his hand, but his whole body started turning transparent.

[Ddraig! What's happening!!]

[[It seems to be some sort of spell which is forcefully teleporting you somewhere.]]

[Then stop it!!]

[[ I would've… if I could…]]

Issei looked at Shinobu's back as weird feeling of panic and desperation washed over him.

He wasn't afraid to be taken away somewhere unknown, but the fact that he wouldn't be able to see her again…

He reached out his hand in his direction in a desperate attempt. His hand has almost mostly faded and only his upper torso remained…

He wanted to shout out to her, at least tell her that he was thankful for what she did for him…

To tell her that how much she meant to him…

But…

It seemed that that was too much to ask for. His voice didn't come out as he finally faded away…

After a few moments, noticing the lack of the sound of footsteps behind her, Shinobu turned back only to be met by the sight of trees and darkness.

"Ise!"

She called out for him, believing that he was maybe trying to prank her.

"Ise! We don't have time for this. Sister will be at home soon!"

"Ise!"

Only silence replied to her shouts as Issei had already been forcefully thrown into another cycle of fate…