Breath of the Void

Breath of the Void: Chapter 21

College is the true never-ending grind

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The following days passed fairly quickly for Musashi, between supervising Shuten and strategizing with Himejima. The other Pillars were working hard, wiping the other Slayers into shape and also training amongst themselves. They had all thrown each other into one another's training grounds, Shuten watching and drinking all the while.

Of course, the training never lasted long before some sort of fight broke out and Uzui would happily show off his prowess at using a sword one-handed. He was quite skilled, but his ability had certainly dropped. No longer could he match Kyojuro blow-for-blow, but he still had the skills to make the fights worthwhile.

In other news, Tanjirou was back on his feet. Musashi herself hadn't seen the boy at her training as of yet, but she had heard things. So far, he had been through Uzui's, Tokito's, Kanroji's, Irguro's, and Shinazugawa's training and was currently at Kyojuro's. Nonetheless, he was advancing quite quickly— of course, his friends and almost every other Slayer was currently struggling to bypass herself and Shuten.

She had also heard that Tanjirou was no longer allowed to be near Shinazugawa after a fight had broken out— but that wasn't any of her business. Despite the fact that she had asked the boy about it. And was certainly not holding onto the fact that he got so riled by a boy that every single one of the other Slayers had to separate and hold them apart.

Nope, not at all.

And she certainly wasn't still amused by it and still snickering about it while said boy's laugher sounded in her ears.

The pale-haired woman stretched her back out as she sat on the engawa of the Rengoku estate. Training had ended for the day and while Kyojuro had to patrol for Kanroji (the Love Pillar was too nauseous and fevered with Shuten's upped dosage of poison), Musashi did not.

In the other room, she hard Senjuro playing a game with Tanjirou, Zenitsu, Inosuke— the three boys and Nezuko were technically supposed to be Kyojuro's students, though with everything going on and what, it had been a bit more difficult to say that one or all the boys were his successors officially, but they did live with the family— and Tokito (a sort of "son" so to speak of Kyojuro's, and therefore Musashi's, not that she minded. The boy was already starting to call her 'Musa-Kansan' so all the more reason to adopt the kid when this final fight was over). Soft hums alerted her of Nezuko, the girl happily wandering over to Musashi and sitting next to her.

"Hello, Nezuko," she hummed and the girl beamed a bright, wide, and toothy grin. Musashi laughed a bit at it. The girl turned demon really was a sweet child. Musashi wondered how much of it was taken from her human self.

"Hel-lo," she said slowly, swinging her legs as she sat next to her. "Good... Night?"

"Yes, it certainly is a nice night out," she said in response, reaching over and patting Nezuko. The girl hummed happily, leaning into her touch like an affectionate cat.

"How are the boys?" she asked before a Shinjuro's roar of laughter could be heard— coupled with a startled screech from Zenitsu and laughing from the other boys. "Never mind. That answers it."

Nezuko hummed, bobbing her head a bit absently as the two lapsed into silence.

The sky was bright and the moon was quite beautiful if she did say so herself. Shuten had since left the property, though that was to be expected as she usually went out to either bother Himejima or wrestle more drinks from Ubuyashiki.

The only sounds around them were those of the bugs and the faint voices and laughter from the boys and Shinjuro inside.

Musashi hummed again, blinking as the girl shrunk down and crawled into her lap. She smiled, humming and moving her hands to her hair. She slowly worked out the few knots as Nezuko hummed, swinging her legs still as she fiddled with Musashi's yukata sleeves.