Chapter 12 : 12th Stance

After reading the letter, it was as if time had stopped. 'There's no way this letter is true!', he thought anxiously, denying the authenticity of the situation. 'It's probably a prank right', he thought before smiling...."But this isn't funny", he said before a tear rolled down his cheek.

The first stage of Mourning is Denial, which was certainly what Takeo was going through right now. He couldn't this could be true at all, 'As if master could lose', he thought, knowing he was very strong.

But before he knew it, he began crying until snot came out of his nose, 'It's all my fault', he thought as he banged the floor with his fist. "If only I was stronger!", he shouted

In the other room, Yuko was eating some acorns with leisure before he heard Takeo shout suddenly. Causing him to drop his acorn onto the floor, breaking it in the process, 'What is that bastard doing?!', he thought, before he charged his little legs into Master's room.

Inside he saw a horrible sight, a crying Takeo smashing his hand into the ground until he flooded the floor with blood, breaking some of the bones in his hand in the process, whilst he smashed the wood into pieces.

"HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING!", Yuko shouted at Takeo, but no matter what he said, Takeo couldn't hear him, as he blamed himself for the death of his master, and anger at his weakness. Going through the second stage of mourning immediately.

After multiple attempts of getting Takeo's attention. Yuko finally had enough. Looking at a letter on the floor, 'That must be the cause', he thought, before he ran towards it. Whilst Takeo was blaming himself, Yuko was reading the letter addressed to him. He didn't a-lot, but got a clear image of what happened...that Takeo's master had more than likely died.

'So it's because', Yuko thought, before he ran towards Takeo, jumped on-to his shoulder, raising his paw before scratching Takeo on his face to get his attention.

The 'attack', stopped Takeo's actions for a moment, allowing Yuko to speak, "HEY! Are you gonna waste your time crying, or are you going to do something about this", Yuko stated, before he waited for Takeo's reply.

.....After a 2 minute silence, Takeo finally raised his head. His blank, emotionless face greatly contrasted to his previous innocent emotional one.

"Hey-", before Yuko could continue, Takeo had gotten up and put Yuko down on the floor, before he walked to the box Master Kenzō had left for him. Inside were 2 books, he grabbed both of them before picking up his sword and exiting the house....still harbouring an emotionless face, before his purple eyes shone dangerously.

Right before he continued moving forwards, a bird carrying a letter came from out of the sky and landed on Takeo's shoulder. Taking the note of the bird, it read :

"Takeo if you ever read this, that means that you found the Flame-Thunder Breathing Style I left you. After using make sure you burn it, and I've already prepared a letter of recommendation for you to participate in the Final Selection by using a fake name so you don't have to worry, just make sure you practise hard.

Sincerely, Master Kenzō".

Putting the letter away, Takeo began walking forward, not with determination growing inside of him....but with a demon slowly coming out.

TAP! TAP! TAP!

Before Takeo could leave, Yuko ran outside and shouted, "HEY! WHERE ARE YOU GOING! WHO'S GOING TO FEED ME!".

Stopping in his tracks, Takeo turned around and looked at him, his face still not showing no emotion, scaring Yuko, before he turned back forwards and disappeared into the forest.

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<10 Years Later>

On the mountain peak, a young man was staring at the sun. Standing at the height of 5'7, his long white hair flowed in the wind. His eyes closed, before he opened them, revealing his purple eyes. Wearing a mask that covered his mouth and nose only, gave him a mysterious vibe. The rest of his clothes were tattered and hand-sewed after they ripped through training. At this point he had no spare clothes left, and so he decided to head home after a long time.

Appearing out of his pocket was a black squirrel. Looking around and noticing they were going home, Yuko was excited, "Were finally going home!", he shouted.

After Takeo left after that day, Yuko had no choice but to follow him so he could survive off of him. And after more than 10 years, he had accepted his Master's death. Of-course he wasn't going to let Zamuza or the Demon Slayers off.

The reason he wasn't going to let them off was because if the Demon Slayer's actually helped, instead of kicking him and deeming a traitor for letting Muzan go, his master wouldn't be dead.

He wanted to not only eradicate every Demon, but also the most powerful Demon Slayer's to show that his master's style is the best. But his most pressuring issue, was to find and make Zamuza feel pain he has never experienced. His eyes shone in anger, as he unknowingly spread his aura, making the birds and other animals in the area run from fear.

'It's him again!'.

After calming down, he finally reached home.

He opened the door, and inside everything was covered in dust, moss started growing in the house, and plants surrounded the roof.

He sighed, "Haaa~", before he went inside with Yuko.

For the next few hours, he went on a cleaning spree, wiping everything down in an attempt to return the house to it's former glory. Going outside, he cleared all the plants on the roof, and raked the leaves off the roof too.

After everything was clean, he took of his robe and went to wear a new one. When he went to his room he remembered that he'd grew and couldn't wear such tight robes. So he went into his Master's room after a long time, opening his closet revealing numerous robes to choose from.

Settling on a red and yellow robe went to the dining room, ate with Yuko, before he went to his room and went to sleep on his bed for the first time in years.

Before he closed his eyes, he remembered that the Final Selection would happen in a couple days.

"Good", he said before closing his eyes and falling asleep.