Slayer of the Five Leaf Clover

Chapter 3: Discovering Ki

(Asta's p.o.v.)

It's been 3 weeks since I left my village and started my journey to become a Demon Slayer. We've left the Clover Kingdom's borders and crossed into the Grand Magic Region that separates the Spade Kingdom from the other three nations. We finally made it the mountain that Urokodaki was telling me about, where he would train me to become a demon hunting swordsman. We walked until we came up to his house that was at the foot of the mountain. He opened the door and I followed him inside. He turned to me and said, "Tomorrow morning is when we start training, for now you should rest. Because, the training will be rough." I nodded in understanding. I hoped that the training would be tough, I wouldn't have been worth it if it wasn't. Urokodaki lead me to a guest room and said, "This is where you'll be sleeping, sorry if it isn't much." I looked inside and saw that it only had a futon, a desk so low that you have to sit on the floor to work on it, and one window. Sure it wasn't luxurious, but it was way more spacious than what I used to sleep in. I said to my teacher, "It's fine, it's actually a lot better than what I'm used to." On the way to the mountain, I told Urokodaki about how I used to live at the church, and about how the nun and priest their would try to get me to stop training. He told me that maybe they wanted to keep me safe. I knew that. I've always known, but they didn't understand how important it was for me to get stronger, or how it felt to be born powerless. He also told me that he had over a dozen students before me, and they were all killed by a demon. I really felt bad for him. But enough of about that, let's get to it.

Next morning

Urokodaki began my training by leading me up the mountain and said, "To start off your training, I want you to find your way back to my house from here." He then disappeared once he told me my first drill. I was puzzled by the fact that Urokodaki gave me such an easy task. "If it was climbing up the mountain over and over, that would have been difficult." I thought. I just started running down the trail that I just came down, thinking that this would've been easy. I soon discovered that it wasn't going to be that easy. I accidentally hit a trip wire and a rock came flying and hit me in left side of my head, I was surprised by that and took a couple of steps to the right and fell into a pit trap. When I was at the bottom, I realized what he wanted me to do. 'I see, there are traps set up all over this mountain, I have to learn how to avoid them.' I said to myself. But there was also something else that made this more difficult. The air up on the mountain was thin, I couldn't breathe and it made me dizzy. However, I found out a way to deal with it. I had to control my breathing. Then, I just had to sense the traps. I thought maybe I could detect them by using all of my senses together, from the sensations on my skin to the scents in the air, I had to feel it out. I continued running down the mountain. The next trap that went off was swinging log trap that came at me from my left. I managed to dodge it, but I then walked into another trap that I couldn't dodge in time, a bamboo tree that was set to swing at me once triggered. I continued running into traps on my way down the mountain, some I dodged, some I couldn't. After two hours, I managed to get back to Urokodaki's house. He was sitting on the front step waiting for me. When I got back to his house he saw that I had quite a few wounds from the traps he set. My teacher stood up and said, "You've done better than I expected for your first try. We'll treat your wounds then move on the next lesson tomorrow." I nodded and we went inside so Urokodaki could treat my wounds. I sat down and he began applying medicine on my bruises and cuts. Afterwards, he started to wrap bandages around my head and arm. As he did so, he asked, "How did you learn to avoid the traps?" I explained that I did it by feeling my surroundings, using all of my senses together. He replied, "Asta, what you were doing was detecting something the people of the Land of the Rising Sun call Ki. "Ki?" I asked. "Yes, a person's glance, breathing, scent, the way their muscles move, the hint of their presence, all that living energy people give off taken together is called Ki. Those who learn to sense ki, are able to predict incoming attacks, and detect the emotional state of others, they can even tell when someone is lying or not. It's not something that many demon slayers can do. Even the high rank ones can only detect things with one of their five senses. You my boy, are an interesting case." I didn't realize that I had such a rare ability to the demon slayers. It made me feel like I'm unique. Urokodaki then said, "Asta, do not let it get to your head. If you get to relaxed in battle, you will end up dead." I replied, "I know, I won't ever let my guard down, even when I defeat my opponent." He nodded and said, "Good, I had too many of my students die already, I don't want any more to die." I told him, "I won't die, sensei. I will not die until humanity is free from the demons!" He was surprised under his mask, and he laughed before he patted my head and said, "Of all the people I've met in my life, you are, without a doubt, the most interesting one of all." I simply smirked at his response.