Divergence (1) - 11

I had felt it.

When all the Hashira had drawn their weapons on me.

I could feel the power coming off of them.

And I knew that I was currently weaker than all of them combined right now.

Honestly, it was depressing.

I know, I only trained for 2 and a half years, but I had trained like my life depended on it, bleeding all over the ground after every single day!

I thought that that was enough for me to be able to win against the Hashira, but evidently, it wasn't.

Taking this to heart, I decided to go with Tanjiro to the house of Shinobu.

After all, I needed a training ground, and a strong sparring partner.

You see, during these past few battles, I had relied on surprise and overwhelming strength to completely destroy my opponents.

But, after fighting with the Wind Hashira, I saw myself making too many mistakes, I was literally only able to play with him because of the speed I had as a demon.

I figured out that, I was a complete novice when it came to real life and death battles.

And I wanted to change this.

So, I traveled with Tanjiro to Shinobu's house where we met back up again with Yasu, Inosuke, and Zenitsu.

When I arrived, I had noticed Kanao's stare on my back, but didn't react to it.

After all, she was probably only curious about me.

Anyways, after we got situated, I immediately left the house as I didn't want to be anywhere near the three as they started screaming their heads off. Honestly, I didn't know how Yasu could stand it.

Well, anyways, I completely moved all of my belongings outside, which literally, were only my Chokuto and a pair of spare clothes, and asked for a mat to be brought outside everyday, so that I could sleep on the roof.

I would never, under no circumstances, sleep anywhere near that group.

Of course, it wasn't just because they were loud assholes, no, I also didn't want to give Yasu the chance to figure out my identity.

And then, finally, after a week or so of just staying on the roof the whole time, Shinobu appeared beside me.

"Are you okay, Nameless?"

She handed me a piece of paper, and I gladly accepted it so that we could communicate.

"Yes."

"But you haven't come down from up here the whole time that you've been at my house, aren't you hungry?"

"I prefer to abstain myself."

"Well, if you say so. Now, onto the point that I want to get at, would you like to join in with the others on their rehabilitation training?"

"I will, but, do you want to make a bet?"

"A bet? Hmm... if it piques my interest, then I'll be happy to accept it."

"If I defeat Kanao, could you be my sparring partner for the rest of the time that I'm here?"

"What makes you think that you can defeat her?"

'Uhm, I literally kinda kept her at bay whilst Tanjiro was running away.'

Seeing my silence, she continued.

"Unlike the Wind Hashira, Kanao is well trained to not let her emotions run rampant, you won't be able to attack her the same way as you exploited him."

Hearing this, I scribbled something else out.

"So, do you agree or not?"

She thought about it for a second.

"Yes."

With that she jumped off the roof, and I followed her.

Walking into the house for only the second time, I followed Shinobu as she led me to the room.

And so, she stood in the back corner as the trainer lady explained the rules of the games to Zenitsu and I.

She did offer for me to do the stretching part, but I just politely declined with a single wave of my hand.

Seeing this, she made the little girls start torturing Tanjiro, whilst I moved on to where Kanao was sitting, and where the tea game was.

Sitting down in a perfect Seiza, I didn't think it was fair, so I closed my eyes.

I'm pretty sure the others were surprised, but I just focused on the cups in front of me, feeling them with my other senses.

"Go!"

Immediately, I grabbed a cup of the medicinal tea, and, before Kanao could do anything, I splashed 3 of the cups on her.

Opening my eyes, I saw her own eyes, filled with complete and utter shock.

Standing up, I put my hand out, gesturing to the tag area.

And, once again, as soon as it started, I won by lightly touching her hand.

Looking over at Shinobu, I only walked over to her and handed her a piece of paper.

On it, it read, "I won, so meet me at sunrise outside to spar tomorrow."

I then coldly walked out of the room.

...

In the morning, as the sun rose, Shinobu appeared next to me on the rooftop.

"I have one favor to ask of you before we start."

Grabbing my piece of paper, I wrote,

"Go on."

"Could you please teach Kanao some things. I know that that I'm overstepping my bounds, but she said that she really wanted to learn from you."

'She must have flipped a coin on this...'

"I'll do it, it should help me get a better grasp of my techniques anyways if I can teach it to another person."

"Then that's settled, so now, why don't we head done to do our fight. I wouldn't want to destroy my lovely house after all."

"Lead the way." Was all I wrote, before we both jumped down to the outside training grounds.