ALL NOVEL A Demon Slayer
[Seiji's POV]
The rest of the trial went by pretty easily as the hand demon was probably the strongest demon on the mountain.
It was just a test, the final selection, so of course the demons on the mountain were not that strong. I learned that I was too overqualified for this trial, which was to be expected as even Tanjiro did not have such a hard time with it and he only trained for two years while I trained for seven.
But I did not fuck around for a week. Instead, I actually made use of the test and all of the training opportunities that it presented.
A demon's body was hard to read compared to a human's. This could not be any clearer from my fight with the hand demon.
The history of a man was etched into his body. You could tell what kind of movements he had done most through his muscle constitution which in turn tells you what his job was. Farmers had strong backs and forearms, smiths had large shoulders and triceps, artists had long nimble fingers and unique tendons etc.
Even in the case of a swordsman, you could tell a lot of things such as how strong he was, which was his dominant hand, his weakness etc.
But demons were a little trickier than humans with thier regenerative abilities and the way they could simply get stronger by eating humans. Then again, there were demons whose bodies surprisingly told me that they trained but these demons were one in a hundred.
So I utilized the opportunity to learn more about demons and thier bodies.
I looked upon Yoriichi as an example. He too was born with the transparent world and it was his deep understanding of the human body that gave birth to breathing styles. He was also able to develop Sun Breathing forms made to kill Muzan by seeing his weakness.
This kind of research - acquiring a deeper understanding of my own body and my enemies was just as important as your standard training.
Other than learning about the demon's body, I also learned a lot about their behaviour and habits this week.
Specifically, I learned how to hunt demons when they were doing everything to avoid me and how to find their hiding spot during the day.
Here's a fun fact, most demons usually have a cave or a shady place where they would hide during the day. But there were also many demons who had no such places or could not reach them in time.
What did these demons do?
Well, apparently they buried themselves underground.
"Like this dude." I said while looking at the freshly dug and closed soil. I put a little focus on my eyes and I was able to see through the ground.
Lo and behold, a demon was sleeping underground like a corpse. Sometimes, they would even dig out whole tunnels to stay away from the sunlight.
I took out my Nichiren blade and stabbed the ground. He was buried very shallow so my blade was able to pierce him right at his throat. His body soon disintegrated, and he died even without realizing it.
I eventually stumbled upon Rengoku as well on the sixth day. We decided to stick together from then on and we hunted the demons together.
On the last night of the final selection, we did not even have to hunt demons as most of them were annihilated and the survivors hid very well and refused to ever surface again even during the night.
And just like that, the trial came to an end.
I passed.
With flying colours might I add.
..
..
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"Welcome back to all the remaining participants and congratulations to all of you. I am glad to see you are safe." Lady Amane said while the sun slowly rose on the horizon.
The final selection had ended and other than Rengoku and I, there were a total of twelve more participants who were able to survive through the week.
The number surprised me quite a bit as I remembered only six or so people passed when Tanjiro took the test. But then when I thought about it, it made sense that there were more survivors, considering I went on a demon-killing spree.
"From today onwards, all of you are officially Demon Slayers. First of all, we will all issue uniforms for you so we must take your measurements. So please, be patient with us and stay put."
"Secondly, all of you will have your rank engraved on the back of your hand. I'm sure most of you are not familiar with the Demon Slayer Ranking so let me explain." Lady Amane said and she went on to explain how the ranking works and what must be done to reach each rank.
The rank goes like this :-
1. Kinoe
2. Kinoto
3. Hinoe
4. Hinoto
5. Tsuchinoe
6. Tsuchinoto
7. Kanoe
8. Kanoto
9. Mizunoe
10. Mizunoto
All of us were assigned the rank of Mizunoto and we would have to climb up the ranks from there. There were also the Hashiras or pillars as they called them but those were said to be impossible to achieve for most people.
Well, not for me though.
"Hahahahaha, I would be sure to reach the rank of Hashira and take my father's duty upon my shoulder."
And him too.
"Now onto the next topic." Lady Amane said and she clapped her hand.
Her action made me alert and focused, so I was able to see the disturbance in the air. I followed it and turned around.
I saw thirteen crows flying towards us and they all flew down to each of the participants. Except me.
A bird did fly near me but it was not a crow. Instead, it was a strange sparrow with the colour combination of red, white and black.
There was also a notable feature about it that immediately attracted me. It was the absolutely dead eyes. They looked like the eyes of a dead fish and the bird radiates a lot of attitude.
I turned to Rengoku who had a normal crow on his shoulder. He had his usual radiant smile on his face while he told the bird he was looking forward to working together with him.
"Hey, I think mine is broken." I said while pointing at the sparrow that was flying just above my head.
Rengoku gave me a look before he bursted out laughing. He said, "It fits you."
If I didn't know he was so nice I would take that as an insult. I finally offered a hand to the bird but instead of perching on it like a normal bird, it sat on the palm of my hand like sitting on a nest.
I spent a minute just staring at its dead eyes, expecting the sparrow to at least say something but it was neverending quiet.
Fuck.
Did they really give me a mute bird just because I was deaf? I mean, it won't really make a difference but come on, how am I supposed to use him as a messenger?
The fact that it was not a crow did not bother me since I knew there were demon slayers with different birds as the messengers. Zenitsu also received a sparrow instead of a crow.
But hey, at least give me a working one. Is that too much to ask?
Wait, is this what discrimination feels like?
"These are your Kasugai Crows. They will be your valued partner as a Demon Slayer and will act as messengers to facilitate communication." Lady Amane explained.
I observed the other participants and thier crows. Although I expected it to be tricky, it was not difficult to read the words coming from the crows. The throat contraction and tongue movement were almost the same as humans.
"So, what is your name?" I asked and looked at my sparrow's dead eyes.
"..."
"..."
"You don't have a name?" I replied and that raised two issues.
One, my sparrow did not have a name. It was a 'she' and she was asking me to name her. Second, how the fuck was I able to communicate with her?
I knew the world of Demon Slayer had many supernatural elements with ghosts teaching the character and demons basically having magic spells but I really wanted to know how I was able to understand her completely.
She was staying so still so maybe it was something about her eyes.....nope they were as dead as ever.
I shook my head and stopped thinking about it. Instead, I used my brain to come up with a name for her.
"How about I call you crow?" I said to the sparrow.
She looked me dead in the eyes and said it was too lazy and she would not appreciate being associated with her annoying colleagues.
"Raven then." I said. It was close to what she was - which was a Kasugia Crow - and her dead eyes and attitude reminded me of Raven from Teen Titans.
"From now on, you are Raven." I said and she jumped on top of my head and made a nest on my hair.
"Now for the final task, all of you shall select an ore to create your nichirin blades often referred to as colour-changing katanas." she said, "It will take anywhere from 10-15 days for your blades to be ready but you shall choose the ore now."
The workers living in the mountains came out and brought different ores with them. The participants were made to select their preferred ores one by one.
When it was finally my turn, I raised a question.
"Lady Amane, will it be possible to write a letter to my smith so that they can make a few changes on my blade?" I asked.
Lady Amane nodded, "That will be possible. Just make sure you to not ask something outrageous."
I said thank you and then proceeded to pick the biggest ore in the pile because what I was about to request would undoubtedly take a bigger ore than others.
.....
"You may all leave the mountain as official Demon Slayers." Lady Amane said after everything was done.
And that day, at the age of 13 years and 10 months.
I became a Demon Slayer.
.
.
[Image of Raven]
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