𝙸𝚝 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝙴𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚎 (𝔾𝕚𝕪𝕦𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕠) {𝓚𝓝Ⴘ}
𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 4: 𝓣𝓻𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰
Shinobu POV:
Oyakta-sama suggested we do a little ritual in which all the pillars meet up every Sunday and train together for a few hours, in order to bond.
I think I know why he came up with the idea.
There was a mission report yesterday that mass numbers of humans were getting devoured by unknown sources of demons during nightime hours. Usually demons kept to a miniumun around Hashira patrol areas, but since there were huge tornado risks in the past few days Oyakata-sama had ordered the Hashiras to skip night patrols for their own safety.
Suppose demons didn't care about natural diasters or bad weather, because altogether over four hundred humans had been found dead in the patrol areas. Once, a report even came in with a high-ranked Slayer on a misison, passing by the patrol areas and then mysteriously disappearing. They found his corpse yesterday, completely battered up by most likely a demon.
Oyakata-sama still insisted we skip night patrols, but gave us more and more missions in other far-off areas to make up for the lost lives. However, that meant more demons were gathering in the patrol areas to have a nice meal without worrying about any Hashiras.
Oyakta-sama was also giving us more joint missions, since he suspects there are several Upper-moon demons behind the mass murders in patrol areas. Just in case one of us happens to bump into a powerful demon, it would be better to have backup.
Which also meant more training sessions together so we could detect each other's skills, weaknesses and work out how to work together more efficiently.
However I didn't enjoy the training sessions as much as I had hoped. I felt like a burden and not strong or powerful enough as the other Hashiras, which was ultimately true. My poison made up for it in a battle but I couldn't use it during training, and was pretty much useless to whoever my partner was.
This Sunday I made my way to our meeting spot feeling downhearted. The sun was out, warming the training grounds. It had rained last night horridely, so I was suprised it such a nice day today. Still, it didn't cheer me up very much.
Neither did the sight of Giyu. Everytime I saw him, I thought of Kanae and that made me feel sick. I despised seeing him everytime we had a Hashira meeting, but now I had to put up with it every week?
When I walked to the group of pillars gathered close, I noticed I must have been early because neither Giyu or Muichiro was there. Muichiro was always late, however- he often forgot about meetings and someone had to send for him.
However, it was unusual for Giyu to be late. He was always either early or on time. In fact, most pillars were. Nobody liked to displease Oyakata-sama.
"Ohayo, Shinobu-chan!" Mitsuri waved to me excitedly, "Don't I just love these joint training sessions! We get so much quality time together!"
"Agreed," I smiled, "Where's Tomioka-san? It's unlike him to be late."
"Ah, well, he still has a minute to arrive, you know," Mitsuri giggled, "Maybe he decided to be puncutal today!"
"Hmm." I mused, but Mitsuri was giving me the queerest look so I quickly said, "I can't wait to see who I get as my partner today. I had to put up with Sanemi last week and I got an awful bruise."
"Ouch," Mitsuri winced, "I hope I get you! We'd make such good partners!"
"It's a little disappointing that we don't get to choose," I sighed, casting a mournful look up at everyone's crows circling above, "Instead it's the crows deciding."
"Ah, they are wise," Mitsuri giggled, "Iguro's crow put me with him last week."
"Oh, lucky you," I rolled my eyes playfully.
"Kay, guys, Muichiro's here!" Tengen called out as the youngest pillar arrived with a Kakushi hurridely dragging him, "Let's get started!"
Everyone stood in a circle and looked up to the crows overhead, completely forgetting about Giyu. To be honest, I also forgot about him a little in anticipation for the upcoming session. Maybe I would get Mitsuri? I loved watching her techniques, her breathing style was so unique.
"Caw, caw! Rengoku, Iguro!"
Rengoku grinned at the snake pillar whereas Iguro snorted and rolled his eyes.
"Tengen, Gyomei!"
The two smiled at each other. I knew everyone always wanted Gyomei since he was the most powerful and we could learn a lot from him.
"Muichiro, Sanemi and Mitsuri will be a group of three. Caw!"
"Aw, that's too bad. Next time, ok?" Mitsuri clasped my hands and grinned, then ran off to her group.
Wait, but that only leaves...
"And Giyu and Shinobu. Caw, caw! Please begin."
I looked around, my heart pounding. Everyone was already finding their own spot to train and some pillars had even already begun. Where was Giyu? This was so embarrasing, standing alone on a battleground.
A few minutes later, I finally spotted a hobbling figure nearing.
Giyu POV:
I winced as I tried to walk faster towards the other Hashiras. I knew I was late for the weekly training session.
Yesterday I didn't get any sleep doing night patrols that I wasn't supposed to. I slaughtered a few weakly demons, saved a few people, until I bumped into a former Upper Moon. A nasty battle commenced and I lost focus against him, only winning by with a small difference and a injury on my left leg, not to mention the bruises and scars across my body.
I really should have patched myself up before coming, but I didn't want to be any later. I knew I would get in trouble with the crows.
From the looks of it, everyone had already begun. How late was I?
I spotted Shinobu running up to me. Really, my day was bad enough already. I didn't need her prodding right now.
"Tomioka Giyu! How dare you! You know how awkward it was for me to stand there alone?! I really wish you weren't my partner this week! Why are you so late? Ara~ What happened to you? I thought nobody had missions today." Shinobu frowned at me.
Oh no. I knew if I told her the truth she would dob on me for sure. I couldn't have Oyakata-sama knowing I disobeyed him, even if it was for the better.
"I just.. ran into a little bit of trouble. It's nothing. I was doing a little early morning training with... um, Tanjiro and I lost track of time." I lied.
"Really? Looks like Tanjiro got a lot stronger if he was able to beat you up that hard." Shinobu raised an eyebrow. She wasn't buying it.
"Well. You know. He had the boar and the yellow kid as well." My brain couldn't conjure up their names.
"You weren't doing self-harm training, right? You know it's proven that it's a very unefficient way of training-"
"I wasn't doing self-harm training, Shinobu." I gritted my teeth. The words 'self-harm' sounded a little too familair to me.
"Alright. Just checking," Shinobu seemed to let it go, "Anyway, come on. We have to get started now."
I nodded silently and followed her to a quieter space of the battlegrounds. I let her take the lead today, I was too tired to protest.
Shinobu POV:
"We'll start with a head-on duel with wooden swords," I said, "I won't use any real poison but everytime I jab you real hard it means you've gotta use like 30% less of your real material, ok? Play fair."
Giyu didn't reply, just went along with it. I began with a slice at the knees that he could easily dodge, but instead it striked his left leg and knocked him over.
"What...?" I stared at his fallen figure confused, when he quickly stood up hobbling and used a water breathing technique to quickly strike at my arms, taking advantage of my distraction.
I decided to aim for his left leg again to confirm my suspicions, and I was right- after jabbing at his left leg his stance quickly faltered and he was knocked to the ground again. Something was wrong with his left leg.
"Stop." I held up a hand. "Is something wrong with your left leg, Tomioka-san?"
"No." He quickly stood up and his usual cold deamour turned icier.
"Are you sure? Let me check just in case." I moved forwards and reached for his leg but he stepped back, his gaze hardening.
"I said it's fine, Shinobu." He kept on backing away everytime I tried to grab his leg.
"Stop being so stubborn and let me look at it. There might be an injury you weren't aware of." I gritted my teeth. It was highly unlikely, which meant he was lying to me. I hated it when people lied to me, even though I lied to myself 24/7.
"I can take care of myself, Kocho. Please leave me alone." Giyu forced politeness into his voice and I winced as he called me by my last name. We were familair enough that we called each other by our first names, although I still liked to call him 'Tomioka' to annoy him.
"Come on." I started losing patience and gripped the fabric of his uniform with my sharp nails.
"Can we please just contuine," Giyu sighed, losing the fight in him. I rolled my eyes and silently agreed with him. If we kept on pausing, someone might dob on us and we might get in trouble.
"Oh, fine." I sighed, "But that wound better not slow you down too much. I wanna fight your full potential."
We contuined training, but I could tell that other than the injury on his leg, his overall stance was weaker. His slices felt lighter, his knees wobbled from time to time, and he seemed more careless on how he fought. It also seemed like he was lacking in energy and often faltered in defense positions.
"Are you getting enough sleep?" I asked (nosily) after a particularly easy battle.
"It's none of your business." Giyu retorted shortly, "Don't worry about me."
"I'm not worrying," I scoffed, "I'm just curious."
"Curiousty killed the cat."
"Oh, please."
But despite our joking around, I still felt worried.
A/N: And here is a very long chapter to make up for the last few shorter ones! Sorry for the little production, I'm doing my best to write as much as I can in my free time!!
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