The Dancing Star

Chapter 9 - Three Steps Back

The Dancing Star

Chapter 9

12Thirtypain03

WARNING: This story is rated M for mature-rated content. If some acts of violence, blood, or anything easily triggering make you uncomfortable, please leave and do not read. Any change to a character, when introduced, killed, changed into a demon/human, or more will be labeled in the chapter of occurrence. If a character has died in a chapter, that chapter will give a cause of death to that character.

Urokodaki's House

It had been a couple of days since Tanjirou and Nezuko had been given the task to swim against a river current.

And whilst the next day they were able to reach the completion line, having successfully swam against the current, Urokodaki had another plan for them.

*pant* *pant* *pant*...

Tanjirou wanted to collapse. It took him numerous tries, but he had finally managed to pass or at least make progress in this newer, more strenuous version of Urokodaki's training.

As if trying to swing against a river current to a complete line, Urokodaki had instead made it so that Tanjirou and Nezuko both had to continue onwards beyond the line. To make it as far as possible up the river.

It was quite an exercise, even for them. Considering Tanjirou and Nezuko had to gain their energy through sleeping or other non-traditional demonic means, it made it a bit more difficult for them.

In addition, since Tanjirou and Nezuko both were raised in the mountains, where there was no river, they never learned to swim. And for a mountain and village, neither of them knew anyone adept at swimming.

That meant that alongside training to build their overall body strength, they also had to properly learn how to swim.

Tanjirou did not even know what it was like jumping into a body of water, and the first thing he realized was how cold it was. It surprised him, considering he thought the snow on the mountain was colder than water.

"I mean, if water is ice melted, then I would have thought that water would be hotter than snow..." Tanjirou thought back then. Now he knew better.

But it took him and Nezuko a week before they were able to completely reach the point, and maneuver around the curves of the river.

Of course, because of the mountain, Urokodaki sometimes made them swim up the river, up the mountain.

That was the hardest part. Which took another two weeks. In total, Nezuko and Tanjirou spent around a whole month training their body for strength and endurance.

Even if they were demons because the fact they did not eat human flesh meant they had to build their strength through other conventional means.

Of course, Urokodaki was unsure if Tanjirou and Nezuko both were able to be trained humanly, however, considering their progress and the fact they were excelling quicker than many humans, Urokodaki seemed to think this was fine.

However, Urokodaki did realize that even then, Tanjirou was remarkably weak compared to many demons. At least by physical capabilities. He is seen that even Nezuko is stronger physically than her brother.

"Something different happened to Tanjirou compared to Nezuko... Or that Tanjirou needs to eat more demons to gain more strength..." Urokodaki thought. It was a conversation he had with Giyu multiple times.

"Well considering Tanjirou ate the demon that he and his sister fought, it could be a possibility that he gains more strength by consuming demonic flesh," Giyu told Urokodaki. "Again, sleeping and training could help, but it seems that this is more effective for Nezuko."