Am I Home? (Demon Slayer x Fem!Reader)

Chapter 10: Change of plans

The next few days followed the same schedule.

Get up at the break of dawn, run some laps, then do some more laps with the shoulder pole. Lift some buckets of water like they were dumbbells and then some core exercise. The core exercises always changed. That first day it was those Russian twists. The next it was just some simple sit-ups. Other times Uzui would make you plank for minutes on end, or make you go from planks to push-ups and then back to planking. Your whole body would shake every single time.

You just didn't have the strength in your arms, and that reflected every time the two of you reached the second half of the day with form training. Not once were you able to hold the wooden katana up for longer than fifteen minutes. It would just get lower and lower, until Uzui would fix it, only for it to promptly hit the ground right after.

The only good thing that came out of those times was how you learned to avoid Uzui's attacks. Not that it was easy, no it wasn't at all. 

Any time you would lose focus, Uzui was right behind her ready to either deliver a swift kick to her side or to smack her with the wooden sword he held. It would also have her end the day with more bruises than she could count.

But every following day, you took your time in observing Uzui. The times in which he would catch you, you would watch the way his body moved. The tensing of his muscles when he would reel back to give the blow.

The first time you tried to dodge, Uzui had nicked you on your ankle and not your calf where he was aiming for. A sick grin came to his face as he caught onto what you were doing and upped the anti. The day you finally avoided his kick was a day to remember, as it surprisingly took Uzui off balance and you took the opportunity to push him over out of impulse.

Uzui had stared at you so hard before bursting out in laughter. "How flamboyant of you (Y/N)! Not only did you perfectly dodge, but even counter attacked!" 

His smile was contagious and you couldn't help yourself from smiling either.

Out of everything you had been doing that week, this was the most improvement that you'd shown. You silently watched as Uzui got up, brushing the dirt from his clothes as he straightened up. He put a hand under his chin in thought for a moment. You could almost see the lightbulb light up above his head as he got an idea.

Taking the wooden katana from you, he made his way back to the weapon rack, taking out two smaller swords. The sight of them reminded you of how Uzui would wield the two gigantic blades that usually resting on his back.

He used to have them on all the time when he visited you back at the Butterfly Estate. Now when he was training you, he had them packed away probably in his room, since he hadn't left to go on any missions since you arrived at his estate.

Was he trying to teach you how to dual wield instead of using a single blade?

That seemed to be the case as Uzui placed the two into your hands.

You looked down at your hands, the weight of the two blades a lot more comfortable than the katana was. Looking back at Uzui, you could still see the grin on his face. "They're more comfortable to hold than the katana..." He nodded to your words. "I suspected as much." 

Uzui brought up how he noticed how much you struggled with the single blade, and that using a real one would be even worse as the metal would make it that much heavier and harder for you to use. The two smaller ones, a Yoroi-doshi (in your left) and Wakizashi (in your right)* he explained, however, were both smaller and a lot easier for you to use. This meant that you would have to work even harder on your strength and speed.

Another thought passed through Uzui's mind. "Let's spend the rest of the day getting you used to these. Tomorrow we'll be going out." His spontaneous decisions had stopped surprising you at this point. You've gotten used to them from the time that he would randomly visit you at the Butterfly estate to the rude awakenings you got every morning to start training.