The Sun Will Always Rise Again

Chapter 11: Little Foxes

The descents on the mountain trail were getting more and more dangerous. The air was even thinner where the two of you now started to train.

For example, you were once crawling on a narrow path on the edge of the mountain. You were so focused on not falling down, constantly fearing for your life while repeatedly telling yourself don't look down, when you heard something slip. You got so scared and clung to the hard stones in front of you, as a yelp escaped your mouth. Then your head moved to your right and you shivered at the sight. Tanjiro nearly slipped off the the mountain path.

"T-Tanji!", you were stuttering out of fear for him, "Can I help you?"

"No", he pressed while he thankfully managed to pull himself up, "I got it, don't worry."

"How can I not! You almost fell- AH- ", something started to crumble beneath you.

Tanjiros eyes widened as he looked down at your feet "[n-name], you're-!"

"Don't say it! Lets just keep moving!!", you were almost crying at this point. That was the day, where you started to be deathly afraid of narrow paths combined with heights. You would never enjoy a hiking trip ever again after this experience...

***

On top of everything, you had extra training with Urokodaki. You were working on mostly trying to control your emotions and your demon half. Urokodaki was trying to provoke you and you had to transform. It was not as easy as you thought it would be. It took so many tries to even get you to that certain point of anger or frustration, where you turned into a demon. And getting you to transform was only the first part of the ordeal.

Secondly, it was important to test your abilities and to take over your new powers, in order to be able to use them to your advantage in a battle. Moreover, you tried to learn how to snap out of it again, which was not so easy either. It took forever to learn how to fully control your demon half.

After around four months you were able to deliberately turn your demon half on and off. You also could use your amplified abilities, like strength and speed, at all times even when you were not fully turned. However, this took a lot of concentration on your part and that focus was not so simple to hold up when you were being under constant attacks from Urokodaki during these extra lessons.

When you did not let your demon half come out, you also did not get weakened by its side effects. These consisted of dizziness, strained muscles on your left and tiredness as the aftermath. Nothing that a good rest and some tasty food could not fix though.

Of course, you were not a full-fledged demon, you were still able to walk under the sunlight and you of course had no special abilities of some sort. Thankfully, you also did not feel an immense hunger for humans ever since the day you first discovered this part of you. And even if you did, the hunger was so minor there was no way you would give in to it. The thought was so insanely gross to you, that even if it would be your only option to survive, you were sure you would never resort to it.

Everyone was glad that you started to get the hang of your new abilities. Especially considering that your sword art was more than...questionable. You were only able to perform one breathing technic correctly and it was the fifth form called Blessed Rain After the Drought. It was easy to you, because you only had to change the grip on your sword and swing it in a single flowing strike that would cause little to no pain. Urokodaki called it a sword strike of kindness, becaue it was usually used when the enemy would willingly surrender. Which namely, did not happen too often when fighting against demons.

However, it was not like you could not perform the rest of them at all. On the other hand, you were not exactly doing them right either. They just did not have the intended effect. You were able to use the breathing styles in one way or another, but it definitely did not look as cool as you imagined it. That was a little depressing.