Pushing limits

Shin left his room with Makomo next to him. When night came around the two demons finished what they were doing and took a bath, Makomo couldn't stand at first but her regeneration kicked in to fix that problem.

He reminded het to bring him back the 25 nichirin swords. He didn't need them but he knew she would have most likely done it anyway.

When the two walked downstairs Susamaru looked at Makomo with envy seeing how cheerful she was. 

She didn't need to imagine what it was like since she was able to hear Makomo's voice from her room.

Shin turned to the small demon by his side. "Bring everyone outside alright?" 

Makomo only nodded her head and walked off to Susamaru. While Makomo was doing what he asked, Shin went outside to wait for his servants. 

'Mn, I should probably look for lower moon one or two. After becoming rank five I feel like I could take their position without much difficulty, and now with my new sword It'll be easier."  He thought to himself looking up towards the moon.

Shin was deciding whether to let the girls fight him one by one and give his position to the strongest of them but decided against it.

It didn't take long for them to come out of the house, Shin moved ahead and stood in front of them.

Even when they didn't say anything he could see they were curious and slightly tense. "What is it, master?" Susamaru asked.

"We will be working on your synchronizationon and teamwork, you three will fight me at the same time without holding back." Shin said.

He remembered those two slayers and how they moved in sync. No matter what he did he would be blocked off and almost killed in every direction he went.

If it wasn't for the lord summoning him at that exact moment he would have undoubtedly died. If he was lucky he would have been able to escape but heavily injured in the process.

This training wasn't just for them to learn how to synchronize. It was also to help him improve himself dealing with situations like before.

The girls nodded their heads. Shin made a small sound of approval seeing how they didn't ask any questions, it showed that they had completely dedicated themselves to him.

Makomo unsheathed her sword, Susamaru summoned her temari, and strings formed on Tsuzu's fingers. She was surprisingly still able to use the blood demon art Rui gave her even when he died.

Shin took Seijakusei from its scabbard. It produced a sharp ringing sound showing that his current sword was better than his last.

Tsuzu and Susamaru's eyes shuddered a bit hearing it. Makomo looked at it with stars in her eyes, seeing the sword motivated her to complete the goal her master gave her quickly.

"Begin." Shin wasn't going to go all out on them but that didn't mean he wouldn't push them to their limits if they didn't do well with synchronizing.

The girls hesitated knowing that they were going to do something they wouldn't be able to forgive themselves doing, but they reminded themselves this was nothing but training.

Susamaru was the first to attack, she threw the temari in her hands at an incredible speed towards Shin. To Shin, the fast temari were moving quite slow.

He simply cut the ball in half with a single swing of his sword. He was about to attack Susamaru but felt something coming towards him from behind.

He swiftly turned around to see Makomo thrusting the sword in her hand towards his chest. Shin moved to the side dodging the incoming sword and swung his at the girl.

"Duck!" Susamaru suddenly yelled.

Hearing her, Makomo jumped back and ducked before Shin's sword could reach her, a ball passed over her towards Shin who only cut it in half like before. 

He was interrupted once again when he was about to rush towards them by the feeling of something tightening around his wrist.

Makomo quickly dashed in front of him then sent a barrage of slashes towards Shin to distract him from the sensation.

Shin brought up Seijakusei and blocked her attacks.

Suddenly he felt something tug on his wrist yet it didn't slow him down in the slightest. He pulled forward and the sound of threads snapping followed.

Susamaru didn't stay idle. She grew two extra arms then summoned more of her temari before rapidly sending them out, but in the process would disturb Makomo's momentum.

Shin turned his top row of eyes to Tsuzu, she was standing next to Susamaru trying to control her spiders to the best of her ability.

He decided not to say anything. He would tell her at the end or she would figure out what she was doing wrong mid battle. 

Shin wanted to pressure the girls, first on that list was Makomo. He began going on the offensive and sped up his sword swings. 

It didn't take long for Makomo's eyes to not be able to keep up, she quickly took a step back and drew her sword in an arc as blood red water shot out of her sword. Seijakusei made contact with Makomo's blade and sent her flying back.

Shin vanished from the girl's vision and appeared behind Makomo. He struck towards her back but she hurriedly maneuvered her body around him and landed on the ground.

Before she could do anything Shin was already in front of her with his sword coming down. She knew trying to block it would be useless so the girl hopped to the side.

Unlike what she expected, his sword curved towards her mid swing. Makomo dashed back but Shin immediately gave chase.

Susamaru and Tsuzu's eyes couldn't follow the two demon's speed. Makomo was barely able to keep up, each time she wanted to use a breathing technique he would cancel it out.

She was beginning to panic under the pressure but as if something clicked inside her mind she began to calm down. Her uneven breathing steadied, her sword swings smoothed out, and she became less tense.

She felt her body become lighter and move on its own. Her movements sped up and her momentum built at every swing of her sword, her swings becoming less forced and more natural.

Shin didn't know what it was but he felt something was about to happen, so he raised the difficulty to push her further. 

Instead of panicking like before a calm smile formed on her face as her attacks slightly lost their strength but became quicker. 

Makomo took a small sharp breath, suddenly she stopped running and shot towards Shin at high speed.

"Water Breathing: Eleventh Form: Flash Flood!" 

Blood colored water rushed behind her sword like a flood that pushed her forward and would cut anything that makes contact with it.

Each step she took water formed under her feet and boosted her momentum, it reminded him of her 9th form when she moved without limit but more deadly and quicker.

Shin slightly smiled seeing her push on, she was moving as fast as him at his limit before he became lower moon five, which was still pretty fast. Shin moved his sword towards hers causing the two blades to clash.

*Clang!*

Shin pushed her back, even though she was faster than him at that moment he still had more strength than her. 

Makomo flew past the other two demons who couldn't understand what had just happened.

Now that Shin got what he wanted from Makomo he turned towards Susamaru. He sheathed his sword then ran towards the temari down.

He remembered how he told himself he'd teach the girl what he knew, now was a perfect time. 

Susamaru wanted to throw a temari at him but it was already too late for that, she quickly sent out a punch instead seeing him close. 

Shin caught the girl's arm before turning around, lifting her on his back, and throwing her over him onto the ground.

Susamaru was left stunned yet she didn't have time to think as Shin had already lifted his leg and brought it down towards her head.

Susamaru rolled away and jumped onto her feet. The place where her head once was had a small crater in it.

Shin wasn't planning on hurting Susamaru severely. It was only enough force to knock her out. 

He ran towards Susamaru at high speeds before throwing out his fist towards her. Susamaru did the same, causing their attacks to clash.

The temari demon was sent flying back with her arm breaking. It quickly regenerated and she dashed back towards Shin.

The two demons kept exchanging blows, Susamaru's fist barely did anything to him. Yet instead of stressing, she was grinning away like a child.

Shin sent a 'light' punch to the girl's stomach causing her to falter and gasp for air. She slumped over his arm causing Tsuzu to think the fight was over but all of Susamaru's arms grabbed onto Shin's arm.

Shin was slightly surprised when she did the same thing he did to her earlier. When he hit the ground her foot was already coming down towards his head.

He only nodded his head in approval before grabbing the girl's leg and throwing her away. She had learned the move only by seeing it, there were some flaws but it was still impressive.

After Shin taught her a few more techniques he sheathed Seijakusei. "Alright, that's enough."

He didn't get what he wanted out of this but it was still good. Makomo created her own form and Susamaru progressed in martial arts.

He turned toward Tsuzu. Other than him she was the only one that didn't progress, this didn't surprise him in the least, she had never fought before since she was always in the back controlling her enemies like puppets.

The others would have to teach the small demon to know when to go back and not stand on the front lines. Her blood demon art worked well for support after all, though it could be used for close combat if used properly.

He sighed seeing her not look at him and placed his hand on her head. "You did your best, those two will help you get the hang of things, alright?" 

""Mn."" The girls made a sound of agreement hearing his words.

"I understand." Tsuzu said, nodding her head.

Shin looked at the girls. "Let's go to a town to eat or something."

""Yes, master!""