𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗜𝗫 ╱ cloud breathing

     "Urokodaki-sensei, I don't think I can learn Water Breathing," Sayuri admitted to her teacher one evening while Giyuu and Sabito chopped wood outside. She'd been the first down the mountain tonight, and it was the first time. After failing for well over a month the girl decided she had to adjust her training.

     "I had an inkling you'd be telling me this."

     "You knew?" Sayuri gasps disgruntled, before taking a moment to ponder and realize who she was talking to. She bows her head in a short apology and calms her outburst, "You were waiting for me to find the courage to speak up about it."

     "Yes, and you feel you are well-versed in a new type of breathing style correct?"

     "Mhmm! When I was alone in the mountains before I came here. I felt it in my lungs... and my entire body. I don't know how to describe it."

     "I believe you will find the words in time, and I will offer as much help as I can," Urokodaki hums behind his red mask, "-This will make it harder for you to learn, but you've shown much concentration and determination since that night."

     The night Sayuri said goodbye to her past. For now, at least.

     "I promise to keep up with your training, Sensei. Please let me stay."

     "You thought I would kick you out for this? There's something I didn't expect." At the man's words, gentle yet battle-honed arms wrap around Sayuri in a hug, "You are a daughter to me as Giyuu and Sabito are sons. Please do not fret about such. When you return from Final Selection, you may stay at any time for however long you'd like."

     "Thank you Sensei."

     "Cloud Breathing, Second Form; Clouds of Imperception!" 

    "Water Breathing, Third Form; Flowing Dance!" 

      Sabito advances toward Sayuri with a winding and stream-like movement to slash everything in his path. Sayuri decides on the newest form she'd created, pushing her body to move with accelerated force before slowing down and disillusioning the other of her path. By doing so, she learned that it had given the appearance of teleporting around the arena and offered a large playing field of attacks from who-knew-where. 

     When Sabito halts to a stop in the clearing of trees, his movements still eerily as he listens for even the smallest click of a tree branch. The problem he and Giyuu both had sparring with Sayuri is that she was silent, not even her labored breaths after spending so much energy reached their ears.

     It was a small breath of the wind crossing his cheek that had made Sabito lurch forward to avoid the blade reaching for him. Sayuri huffs and tries to follow his movement until a foot colliding with the back of her knee causes her to fall to the ground. Giyuu's grin is only temporary before the girl rolls away and leaps back up to regain her footing.

     "Yuri, you're getting too good at this!" He complains, because now that Final Selection was a month away, Sayuri had worked day and night to catch up to the two Water Breathers. In the mornings she'd be outside following Urokodaki in practiced movements, then at nightfall, she went through combined training with both Giyuu and Sabito at her side. Granted, she was also attempting her own style of breath which meant she didn't have to stand under waterfalls or get kicked into cold lakes.

     Sayuri often took this free time to stand atop tree branches and race amongst them. In the beginning, she'd near broken her ankle falling, but now she could attempt it with elegance. Giyuu found her meditating too, something she said helped her when she was alone with Miso. In his opinion, the best part was when she invited them to cloud gaze. They'd point out all sorts of shapes until Sabito fell asleep, only to be reawoken by Sayuri comically wrestling him back to consciousness.

      From the evenings into the dark of night, Giyuu listened to Sayuri write in small notebooks for hours. Sometimes he'd accompany her and fall asleep against the brunette's shoulder, her braided tendrils (something Sabito did for her as well) tickling his forehead. The notebooks were titled Cloud Breathing, something incredibly unique to only Sayuri. She explained all the time to her friends how she wanted to share it one day. Sabito promised someone out there would be willing to learn it, but only if Sayuri named one of the breath forms after him.

     "Fine. How about, 'Sabito's annoying'? What do you think Giyuu?"

     "I think it describes him perfectly!"

     "You two are the worst!"

     Though all three were working hard and exhausted themselves to the bone, it was their sibling bond that kept them laughing and motivated. If they weren't strong enough to take care of one another during Final Selection, there would've been no point in their training. Sabito had the strength to be the Water Pillar, Giyuu concluded many months ago. Maybe Sayuri even a Cloud Pillar.

      He was content with never reaching that status, understood that soon he'd be the one falling behind. Not that it made his heart ache too much, but both of his companions had more mental and physical prowess than Giyuu possessed. His inferiority only had to vanish through Final Selection, long enough for them all to become Demon Slayers. Just so that Sayuri and Sabito could fly through the ranks.

      "Giyuu, aren't you listening?" Sayuri's question brings Giyuu back from the pit of memories and thought he'd fallen through. The boy flushes a pretty shade of pink and beams brightly,

     "Ah, yes sorry! I'm just thinking about Final Selection!"

     "Don't let it eat away at you, okay? We're going to make it through, look how far we've come!" Sayuri nudges Giyuu behind her and blocks Sabito's incoming strike with a defensive stance. When she exclaims another form she practiced, titled Stream Slash, it effectively takes Sabito off guard and he trips to the ground with a blade held to his neck. Sayuri had won again, her fifth time for the month.

     "That's cheating!" Lavender eyes narrow in short-lived frustration. The reason being Giyuu's worried features and pinkened cheeks, "What's wrong?"

     "Nothing! I was just a bit worried about Final-"

      "Well, there's no need to. The demons there are no match for what Urokodaki-sensei taught us."

      Giyuu thought about how far these two would go once again. They demonstrated everything he could never have.

      Moments later, Urokodaki was shuffling through the trees, lugging the unknown behind him from a rope over his shoulder. Despite its weight compared to their teacher of older age, he had no problem with the transport over coarse terrain. The retired Pillar deserved nothing but respect for his duties both young and old, taking the lives of monsters and teaching others how to do the same. All three children bow their heads to his arrival,

     "I have prepared your final test."

     Behind him were three circular stones of sizeable proportions, around that of their heads if not a bit larger. Little enough to drag but too heavy to carry. Urokodaki brings them before his students before heaving them into a line with fairly little struggle. The three stand with their heads tilted to the sides, unsure of what their teacher could possibly make them do with such weighty objects. Surely they wouldn't have to carry them down the mountain? It wasn't as if they were blessed with Urokodaki's strength yet.

     "You are to each cut through a boulder, and only then are you allowed to enter Final Selection. I want it to be clean down the middle. Understood?"

     Cut through a rock of that size? There was no way a blade was made to even slash a stone. Soft flesh and material? Yes. Not this. Sayuri gawks at the man, both Giyuu and Sabito having wide eyes in similar feeling. Anxiety spikes within them at the thought of Final Selection being a month away.

     "Forgive me for saying this Sensei, but isn't that impossible?" Sabito questions, swinging his blade in thought but never hitting the boulder. His gaze tilts back to Urokodaki, who replies with nothing but empty words,

      "It isn't impossible if you wish for permission to go." 

     "But-"

     Before anyone could complain, Urokodaki readily leaps out of the clearing in an escape from the spinning thoughts of his students. The time it takes for his instructions to fully settle in makes for a long and very awkward silence, especially when three sets of eyes glare at their boulders. Frustration ticks inside of them, and Sayuri is the first to make the move.

     "Well, Sensei said it was possible so-" She raises her blade above her head, toned muscles tightened when hauling the sword back down onto the hard surface. The metal easily snaps off at the moment of the strike, Giyuu and Sabito watch the girl's soul leave her body.

    "Oh."

     "Umm, Yuri, your blade broke."

     "Huh? Oh yes, I'm aware Sabito."

      Both boys step over to examine their own obstacle. There were no hints within the outer layer, no weak point that would cause it to shatter, no secret lines to show them where to lay their sword upon. It was a mental stump through and through. If this was their final test, none were going to pass.

     A flash of pink vanishing into the forest was something Sayuri noticed in an instant, trained to be high on alert and always perceptive of her surroundings. It wasn't just sight either, as reading emotions, hearing the smallest buzz of a bee, and even smelling rotten auras were only a few of the things the students could sense.

     "Is someone there?" Sayuri asks to the timid forest, leaves swaying in response, but nothing out of the ordinary making itself known. Sabito and Giyuu raise an eyebrow toward her, not sure if breaking her sword tipped her exasperation into disillusionment. The hyperfocus she retained on a fixed point before her told them otherwise as she likely had to of sensed something.

     "It might've been an animal. Maybe we should call it a day and think it out for tonight? We won't get anywhere smashing our swords against stone for hours." Sabito grabs Giyuu's hand and the two start walking back to their cottage, pausing when Sayuri doesn't follow. Maybe she didn't hear?

     "Yuri!" Sabito tries again, luckily bringing her back and running to grab his other hand. On their path home, she looks back a few more times. Sayuri could've sworn there was a person there.

     When arriving back to greet Urokodaki, there was no sign of him. It was later that night when he never returned that the conclusion was made; their final test was to be figured out by themselves. Urokodaki could no longer teach them anything they didn't know, the rest had to be learned through discovery or experience. He would return in a months time to examine each boulder regardless of whether or not it had been cleaved.

     The first couple of days had seen no progress and brought much hardship to the trio. With the sun burning high in the sky and sweltering heat upon them, pale skin gradually tanned from the open clearing susceptible to the blazing rays. Sayuri now had to switch on and off with either Giyuu or Sabito because of her broken blade. During their off-time, she led meditation sessions to keep minds sharp and on track. They even sparred more than they spent time on the boulders, hoping and waiting for anything to click.

     It was four days later that Sayuri noticed her again. She'd seen a small hand waving at her behind a tree trunk before a much younger girl popped out to smile. She had tender cyan eyes and black hair to her shoulders, unswaying even in the stronger evening breeze. The pink from before had been the color of her flower-patterned yukata with a sleeveless purple haori atop of it.

     At first, Sayuri had tried to chase her down and it freaked out Sabito and Giyuu, who were certain she was hallucinating. Then after multiple attempts resulting in failure to find the disappearing girl, she decided her approach wasn't going to work. Sagiri Mountain did not allow unwanted trespassers, therefore the mysterious figure wasn't putting them in danger. She also bore a kitsune warding mask identical to their own, with blue and yellow flowers adorning it.

     When returning home one evening and after a hearty meal settled inside her stomach, Sayuri continued to record all she could about Cloud Breathing while listening for the boys to fall asleep. The moon was already halfway through its journey before she tucked away the notebook and proceeded to leave the cottage with Sabito's sword. Surely he wouldn't mind her borrowing it for a few hours.

     Keeping a sturdy hand on the hilt at all times, Sayuri headed back for the opening in the mountain where three obstacles lay unsolved. She eyes the stones with a tinge of annoyance before noticing the little girl standing directly behind them. Her voice was incredibly airy when she joyfully spoke,

      "I was hoping you'd come."

     "Who are you?"

     "Makomo," She hums blatantly and twiddles her fingers behind her back, "-I'm one of Sakonji's foster children, a student too."

     "I didn't know he was teaching more, why didn't he tell us?"

     "He's so talented and kind, I love him very much." She dances smoothly around the question and glances at the boulder between the two of them, "Let me help you."

     "You know how to cut through that?" Sayuri questions Makomo's offer, then nodding eagerly, "What do I have to do?"

     It was from then on that the young Water Breather had guided Sayuri's movements and corrected her bad habits. Each minute that passed was another 60 seconds of getting better and stronger. Instead of holding her sword at an uncomfortable angle, Makomo had corrected her stature to that of defense and it provided the proper tilt of her wrists. Sayuri's slashes became harder and more concentrated as she forced her power out of a thousand different threads weaved into one. The smallest of senses sharpened, muscles springy yet tough, heart rate slowed, and breathing long.

     Makomo had told her all about her training under Urokodaki and loved to express her fondness for the father figure she was adopted by. Never once did she touch on her past and swerved the questions as if they were scorching fire. Sayuri didn't feel the need to coax an answer from Makomo either, because she didn't want to scare off the only female she'd been in company with for so long. In her eyes, it was kind of like having a younger sister. If she too was taken in by the elder man, in a way it was the truth.

     "Please pass this on to Sabito and Giyuu," Makomo requests on the third night of their secret meetings. She sits on the back of a defeated Sayuri with a dreamy focus on the moon, "-I'm going to go rest."

    "Why don't you come to stay in the cottage then?" Even with Sayuri's cheek smushed into grass and dirt, she slides her head to find Makomo's complexion appear saddened. A flash of her pink yukata flies into the heights of the forest without an answer. Sayuri no longer even felt a trace of her presence. So, getting back up to her feet and brushing off the dirt, she sways home with new bruises littering her skin. Makomo certainly was strong for her little size.

     "Sayuri!" Sabito calls to her the next morning, interrupting her and Giyuu stretching through Urokodaki's sequences. Holding a spoon in his hand for cooking their breakfast with what they were constantly supplied (always when away from the home), he points it accusingly,

     "Why are you sneaking out at night?"

     "It's not sneaking! I'm taking extra time to work on Cloud Breathing," She half tells the truth, because Makomo had truly been helping her to hone in the meaning and feeling given to the technique. She'd even begun to try a new form the previous evening, though rough and unrefined. She decided to take inspiration from Water Breathing's fifth form, and the compassion of its users.

     "You'll exhaust yourself too much, what good are you then?" Sabito chides and returns back inside to tend to the food. Sayuri frowns at the blatant truth, Giyuu smiling to soothe the running emotions,

     "He's just worried. Aren't we all?" He ties his loose hair in a scruffy ponytail at the nape of his neck, "None of our rocks have even a dent."

     "I think I'll be able to teach us how."

     "You think?" Sabito's head now peeks out the door again, listening to the conversation despite being inside. He was skeptical of her but would never admit it outright, he would always give his friend's ideas a shot. No matter how silly, "What do we have to do?"

     "I can show you what I practice when I'm gone, besides the Cloud Breathing."

     "Alright then, come and eat first though!"

     Everything was a rather neat system after that, Makomo teaching Sayuri what to pass down to her companions. Sabito and Giyuu were highly fast learners and could even improve upon what was expected of them. Days easily bled into weeks of improving upon improving as the three worked arguably harder than they ever had before. Returning home late and leaving just at sunrise became routine, fitting in large meals when they could. Sayuri still fled to Makomo for hours in the dark, only the moon illuminated their highspeed sparring. One wrong move could all but break a bone if wanted with how far they'd come.

     A week before Final Selection had dawned on the children far too fast, and upon waking from much needed slumber, Giyuu and Sabito couldn't find Sayuri.

     "Why didn't she return? She always does!" Giyuu felt his heart beat faster than it should've, because of course he should have more faith in the girl he considers a sister, but with such a big moment only seven days away he couldn't help it. Sabito is grabbing their blades and hastily urging Giyuu along,

     "Let's go check the clearing. She could've exhausted herself."

     That was exactly what had happened as the two fretting boys find Sayuri fast asleep against a tree, broken sword underneath her palm. They decide on letting her rest for just a while longer before making her return to the cottage for proper food. Working on an empty stomach was nothing but a hindrance.

     "Giyuu, look at that." Sabito points behind them. A singular split boulder had fallen into two halves precisely down the middle.

     "She did it! With a broken blade too!"

     "Looks like we'll have to catch up. But it doesn't make sense how she learned so much without Urokodaki-sensei here to assist us. Right?"

     "Hmm, maybe some things are better left unanswered," Giyuu hums joyfully, waiting eagerly for Sayuri to wake up and show them how to cut their own rocks. Sabito nods in agreement and leans down to pick up the girl's calloused hands, sighing at the bloody rips in them from working the skin too hard.

     Once Sayuri comes back to consciousness hours later with dark circles under her eyes. Her exhaustion was no match for Sabito and Giyuu's excitement as they promised to follow every step Sayuri used upon her boulder. It was by nightfall that six halves of stone lay successfully broken. From a tree, Makomo clasps her hands together cheerfully and considers her duty done. She just hoped to see the three of them make it back alive.

     Urokodaki greeted them with hoards of sweet fruits and treats, considering it a gift for accomplishing the task he'd given his students and to make up for his abandonment. Though hating to leave those he called his children, it was necessary to find their way without instruction. Now, they'd properly proved to be ready for Final Selection. 

     They'd be leaving in two days. 

☁️

𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘 ╱ sorry if this was bad omg,
my brain had been fried from the
end of the semester this week </3

btw i'm pretty sure makomo
trained w/sabito, but during
giyuu's backstory she wasn't
mentioned? i hope putting her
in the last final selection is ok
w/you guys!

gumiguro-