The Flower and the Butterfly

Final Test

I spent the whole night training my total concentration breathing, unable to sleep. I only stopped when someone knocked on my door. As I got up, I felt my body a bit stiff from being still for so long, but my movement wasn't too bad. I walked to the door and opened it. In front of me was Mitsuri.

-"Good morning, Kanroji-sensei," I said with a tired voice.

-"You're taking your time waking up! Did you already want to skip training?"

-"No, no... It's just that I was training... I couldn't sleep because of it, but... Maybe you'll be impressed today!" I said, starting to get excited to see Mitsuri's reaction. She just sighed and began walking, with me following right behind her out of the mansion. We went to the same training spot as the previous day.

-"Alright! What do you want to show me?" I got into the pose I was in before and started breathing. I stayed like that and demonstrated that I could use the breathing technique for fifteen and a half minutes. Mitsuri was surprised by this.

-"Wow... Your progress is... impressive. Were you training while you slept?" she asked curiously, and I nodded. She looked quite surprised that I had made that decision without her telling me to.

-"Well, now we move on to the fourth training session. After this, we'll repeat all the others every day until you master at least three forms of Flame Breathing and one of Love Breathing..." I didn't feel lazy or down knowing there would be more to do because I knew it was possible.

-"Alright, Kanroji-sensei. What's next?" She smiled at my "enthusiasm" and asked me to follow her.

I did as she said, and we returned to the mansion's courtyard. This time, I saw the three boys training together, not just Tanjiro. Anyway, we walked past them. Mitsuri was actually heading towards Kanao, who was sitting down.

-"Hello, Kanao-san. Could I ask you a favor?" Kanao took a coin from her pocket, flipped it, and then stood up. Mitsuri whispered something in Kanao's ear, and she nodded, going to a corner and grabbing two wooden nichirins. Then Mitsuri turned her attention to me and said:

-"First, warm up. Then, we'll start your training. In this session, I want you to fight Kanao using your breathing technique. Of course, it's the first time, so it's just to see how you'll do. Later, I'll teach you to use a better nichirin and see what type you adapt to." Fighting Kanao using total concentration breathing—I wouldn't underestimate her, as I had already realized everyone here was strong, whether boys or girls. So, I began to warm up a bit, mostly stretching my legs, something very simple. After that, I grabbed my wooden nichirin that was leaning against a tree, took a deep breath, and got into an attack stance. I had a small notion of how to fight with swords, nothing much, just the basics. Then, with Mitsuri signaling us to start, I rushed at Kanao. She was very fast, and I had a lot of difficulty executing movements with the breathing technique, but I also felt my attacks were stronger with it.

Even so, Kanao was obviously stronger and dodged all my attacks, landing a strike that knocked me down. With just one attack, I lost. I felt a lot of pain, and Mitsuri spoke.

-"Thank you very much for your time, Kanao-san!" she said while Kanao put away her wooden nichirin. Mitsuri extended her hand to me, helping me up. Then, she told me to get into a pose, and I obeyed. She corrected some posture errors I had made.

-"Alright, now... attack like this!" She made a simple forward slash and then an upward slash in the same pose as me, without holding a nichirin, just making the arm movements. I repeated it like her several times, but she said I was wrong.

-"That's not it. You need to put more strength into the attacks and maintain your speed of descent and ascent, not to mention that you're not using your breathing correctly."