A Long Forgotten Heart <kny oc>

CHAPTER 11: Training with the devil

Word count: 1022

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"Caw! Training! Training! Head to the wind estate!"

Kirumi looked up from her plate of food to see Suki standing by the window

And, of course, she was not delighted to hear her message... At all

~

Kirumi breathed heavily while dodging every single thing she could. She had not gotten the chance to attack, at least once

In fact, she was even failing at dodging the attacks she got thrown... And let's not forget the hundreds of insults she was getting

"How did you even become a Hashira? If you just keep dodging you won't ever win!"

Kirumi didn't know if this was supposed to encourage her or make her give up on trying to survive

"Stops moving away! Fight back! Attack back!"

Kirumi knew she could try, but she just didn't know if she should...

She would waste energy if she tried, mostly when the chances of her actually reaching him were really slim

Cough

Kirumi felt like her stomach had just been pierced, like an enormous rock had been thrown at her

"Why are you so distracted?... They put us on the same team, so, at least, try to do a good job"

Kirumi looked up at Shinazugawa, and she couldn't understand... She really couldn't

How could someone be so strong? How could someone be so fast?

But well, she didn't get to answer her own questions before a sword was directed at her face, and her survival instincts acted up and made her back away before standing up

'Does he want to kill me?'

"Well, at least your survival instincts work..."

Kirumi looked up at him again, only to see an expression on his face that she could not figure out

He looked confused and annoyed, while still looking mad

He sighed, "You..." He pointed his sword at her "If you don't try your best, I'll be the one to kill if you... And I don't care what the hell your problems are!"

Kirumi then saw his usual expression... A one filled with hate, but it was still weird, he seemed to have a bit of compassion, but it's not something that Kirumi worried about right now

"You're weak because you want to be weak... And as a Hashira, you should never... want to be weak"

Kirumi looked away. She didn't know what to say after that... But she knew he was right

She never tried to become stronger, the only thing keeping her alive was luck... But she couldn't change that

She was too indecisive to act up about being stronger, she couldn't do that... She had decided not to be stronger for the sake of making her life a little bit easier