Shinobu Kocho, an eighteen-year-old girl living in Japan, is a young adult who recently lost her sister to a man-eating demon. Due to this event, she has been plagued by intense nightmares about what happened, hiding all her pain behind a smile. Now...
I wake up again with the same nightmare; I guess I'm getting used to it, I think to myself as I get up.
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Soon, I head to the bathroom to wash up, putting on my usual clothes before leaving my room. As I step out, I see Aoi and the girls having breakfast in the kitchen. I woke up earlier today, and I start to smile as I approach to have my meal too.
-"Kocho-san woke up earlier today," Aoi, one of the caretakers of the mansion, says surprised.
-"Is everything okay?" Sumi, the girl with red ribbons and another caretaker of the mansion, asks while I serve myself some rice on a plate. Kiyo and Naho continue eating silently.
-"Yes, yes, I just woke up earlier." I see that the answer wasn't very convincing, but they accept it anyway. I eat the rice together with them. Today is the day of the mission with Mitsuri. Well, I'll finish eating and look for her, so I can get this over with. As I finished eating, I bid goodbye to Aoi and the others and head to the location where I had told Mitsuri to wait for me after the last meeting. Since she wasn't there yet, I decided to wait a little... and a little longer... and a little more... I really did arrive earlier, but how can she be late for her first mission as a Hashira? I let out a deep sigh. Calm down, Shinobu, it's just a mission. From a distance, after another ten minutes, I finally see her coming, wearing a different outfit. The clothes are still the same demon slayer uniform, but now with a skirt instead of pants, green stockings to cover her legs, and a neckline. She looks tired.
-"Uh... uh... sorry!" she says, panting and bowing.
-"It's just that... they hadn't finished my clothes yet, and I got distracted by something..." I just smile as she speaks.
-"It's okay, no need to explain," I say, placing my hands in front of my chest.
-"Huh?" But Mitsuri looks confused; she probably expected some scolding or something.
-"Shall we? We're already running late." With that comment, I turn around and start walking towards the location that Oyakata-sama had told us to go.
-"A... and wait, I'm coming," Mitsuri says, standing up straight and taking quick steps right behind me. How did she become a Hashira? She doesn't even seem to know how to concentrate her breathing. She's already tired and acts childish, and on top of that, she created a breathing style? I won't understand, I thought, clenching my fist. I was irritated, but I tried to hide it.
The Breathing Techniques, or Concentrated Breathing, consist of accelerating the blood in your bloodstream and the beating of your heart. This raises your body's temperature, allowing you to maintain a human form and become powerful like a demon. To use this power, you must increase the capacity of your lungs, allowing the greatest possible amount of air to be absorbed into the bloodstream. When the blood is accelerated, your bones and muscles enter a state of "panic mode." When the blood boils, you become stronger. These breathing styles take on different forms, such as water, flames, or even serpents. In short, they are combat techniques.
