Slayer of the Five Leaf Clover

Chapter 9: Final Selection part 2

(Asta's p.o.v.)

It's the second night of Final Selection, and it was rather uneventful for a while. I hadn't seen a single demon since the previous night. Then came morning. I went over to the mountain spring I found the other day, and saw another examinee getting a drink of water. It was a boy around the same age as Mitsuri. His hair was blonde with red tips, his eyes were gold with red irises.

  He noticed that I was there and turned to me. He smiled and said with a loud voice, "Hello there, little one." I replied, "Hi." He asked, "It looks like you managed to survive well, despite your age, what's your name?" I answered, "Asta. You?" He introduced himself, "I'm Kyojuro Rengoku, son of the Flame Hashira, Shinjuro Rengoku." I was puzzled by what he meant by 'Hashira'. So, I asked, "What's a Hashira?" He replied, "You don't know? The Hashira are the most powerful Demon Slayers in the Corps." I was intrigued by that fact. I asked, "So, they're like the equivalent of the Clover Kingdom's magic knight captains?" I answered, "Oh, you're from Clover, huh? Well, to answer your question, yes they are. Why don't we talk while we still have daylight?" I nodded and we sat down and talked. Kyojuro asked, "I'm quite surprised to see someone so young taking the Final Selection, your master must've seen a lot of talent in you?" I replied, "I think he did, but he was hoping that I wouldn't complete my training until I was 13." He asked, "Who is your master, by the way?" I responded, "His name is Sakonji Urokodaki." Kyojuro was surprised when I told him. I asked him, "What? Why are you so surprised?" He answered, "Urokodaki is a former Hashira!" I was now the one who was surprised, the old man never told me that fact. Kyojuro noticed this and asked, "He never told you?" I answered, "No, but he told me that he had other students, although they never survived Final Selection." He had a curious look on his face, he asked, "Asta, why do you want to become a Demon Slayer? Even after hearing about Urokodaki's previous students, you are still determined to join the Corps. What is it that you want so badly that you would risk death to get?" I told him my story, about how I was treated in my village, and how I met Urokodaki. "I see. You want to become a Demon Slayer because you're tired being weak, and you want to be someone others can depend on. I must say that quite an ambitious goal you have, and a humble one as well." It was then my turn to ask him, "What about you? Why do you want to join the Demon Slayer Corps?" He told me, "My family has been in the Demon Slayer Corps for generations. I had been trained since I was very young to become a slayer by my father. But that is the family tradition. My reason is live a life my late mother can be proud of." He told me about his mother and how she died from an illness when he was still a young boy. I felt both sorry and envious of him. Sorry for losing his mother so early in his life, and jealous that he had a family growing up, when I had no one. I told him sorry for his loss, and that I hope he survived the exam. He wished the same of me. I said, "Well, it's about noon, let's scare up some lunch. We'll need all the energy we'll need for the night." Kyojuro replied, "You're right, we'll need all the energy we'll need to get through the night." " Though I wish there was some wild game up here, we'll probably get tired of eating nothing but fruit for the rest of the week." I complained. He replied, "True, if only there was some fish in this spring. I'm hungry for some meat right now." "Maybe one of us will find some animals." We stopped talking and went over to the trees to pick their fruit. Fortunately, we found there were more than just persimmon trees in the vicinity of the spring, there were even apple trees on the south side. We ate our fill and rested for the next few hours.

The 4th day of Final Selection.

I had been walking around the mountain, looking for any other examinees in case they need help. As of yet, I hadn't run into anyone yet. I continued to walk around until I heard a scream off to my left, and immediately ran towards where it was coming from. I saw a young girl being surrounded by three demons. I drew my sword and rushed over to save her. I called out to the demons, "Hey!" They turned to me and did a horizontal slash at the closet one. It blocked the strike with the claws on its right hand and countered with it's left. I jumped back and readied myself for them to charge. One of the demons said, "Well, what do you know? A little kid is taking Final Selection, the Demon Slayers' must be pretty desperate to let someone like him in here." The demon who blocked my attack replied, "Yeah, how pathetic!" I said mockingly, "At least I did get caught and caged like you three idiots." They instantly got mad and charged at me. I took a breath, and unleashed my attack.

Water Breathing Fourth Form: Striking Tide!

Water materialized from my blade, and fluidly weaved and slashed all three of their heads off. Their bodies fell to the ground and began to disappear. I sheathed my sword and walked over to the girl. The moon shines through the trees and I got a good look at her. She had shoulder length, black to purple hair with a butterfly hairpin on the back of her head, purple eyes and pale skin.

I asked her as I offered my hand to help her up, "Are you ok?" She replied, "Yes, thanks." She took it and stood up.