Read Demon Slayer : The Silent Journey Chapter 5: Training arc

Chapter 5: Training arc

[Seiji's POV]

The next phase of my life was full of hurdles and self-discovery as I walked the path towards strength, it was not an easy road.

If my life was a book, I would name this Chapter of my life 'The training arc'.

Firstly, I was adopted by the community leader of our village. Contrary to my expectation, we did not move to our mansion due to fear that it might be a bad omen or haunted, especially with the way my parents were brutally slaughtered. But they did use our field to cultivate like I expected.

It was at this point in my life that I realized greed was only a small fraction of human nature. Just because people were greedy, that did not mean they were bad people.

Humans had flaws, but they also had a soul. With the help of my enhanced eyes, I could see lies and deceit from miles away, so believe me when I say there was no lie, humans were kind.

They were good people.

Although I could never love them like I did my previous family, I was glad they were there for me. It must've been tough to handle me in my early days when I wouldn't open up to anyone and live an isolated life with the excuse of being deaf.

But they were persistent. So at one point, I gave in and I was happy I did.

The family who adopted me were two old couples - they were 40 but it was considered old when the life expectancy was 42 years old - they had no more families as thier two daughters already got married and moved out to thier husband's household.

But even though it was only us three, we always had guests as uncle was the leader of the village. They could either bw travellers or traders and since there were not such things as hotels, they would stay in our house or any other house they could find for the night. So we were never lonely.

My training started after I was fully healed from the injuries and at first it was mainly about building muscles with the help of my past knowledge and fully utilizing the transparent world.

Other than building a stronger body, I also did everything I could to gain strength. That includes swinging wooden swords (sticks) many times to get myself familiar with the action.

The transparent world became vital in sharpening my movements. I could see how my muscles twitched and worked when executing a specific action and even without any prior knowledge, I was able to teach myself to move perfectly.

I called it perfect movement. Since it barely cost me anything to use the transparent world, I always had it active and with it, I was able to monitor each action I made every day. I would then correct my own movements until I moved with perfect fluidity.

I never wasted movements in any action I did. I made sure only the right muscles were working when I executed and used just enough power.

Having the transparent world virtually active also made me extremely familiar with the human body. After two years of living in that world where I could see everything, I was capable of predicting future actions with ease.

I learned the hidden pattern in movement and I was able to predict future actions by analysing the current state of a body. At one point, it felt like people were talking to me with thier body. I could understand everything by just looking at thier body, movement itself became a language to me.

Correct, I had learned the language of the body.

One more interesting thing to note was that having the transparent world perpetually active made me sleep a lot due to obvious reasons. My brain worked overtime to process all the information I got from my eyes so it took a toll on my brain. I had to sleep at least 12 hours every day.

This would be even worse if I was not deaf. Luckily, the part of my brain which should process my sense of hearing was free and more of my brain was able to focus on my sight alone.

I hoped this minor drawback would be fixed by the time my brain fully matured.

So three years passed just like that and during that time, my improvement could be summarize into three things, enhanced physique, perfect movement and body language.

At the age of 11, I realized I was no longer making much improvement other than my physique so I started looking for other ways to get stronger.

That was when I learned that there was a Kendo Dojo in the city of Tokyo which was not too far away from our village - it was only around half a day travel on foot.

I asked my uncle to buy me a bicycle to go back and forth from Tokyo to the village every day. He did not protest as I rarely ever asked for anything and it was bought with my inheritance money anyway.

That was also why I was never expected to work on the farms to help them. Not only were they cultivating the fields which were legally mine, but they also used my inheritance to buy everything I needed. So they left me alone to do what I wanted.

At the age of 11, I joined the Noma Dojo which was located in Tokyo. This was also the first time I realized just how strong I was.

So, how strong was I?

One word, overpowered.

It might not seem impressive at first but the two skills I had developed, 'Perfect Movement' and 'Body Langauge' were an absolute cheat. Coupled with my physique which was apparently as strong as a 15-year-old, then you have someone who could beat the master of the Dojo with ease.

On the first day, the Master of the Dojo and I had a spar on my request. We fought and that was when I realized that fighting was different for me compared to everyone else.

How so you may ask, well...

Fighting to me, was a conversation.

When we started the spar, he did not move his lips but the Master spoke. His first attack was a straight verticle slash and he told me how many times he had practiced that one single swing, over ten thousand times.

The way the muscles on his right arm tensed much more than his left told me that he was right-handed. His eyes that were looking at the left side told me that normally, his attack would be blocked and countered from the left.

His feet were planted firmly on the floor, showing his absolute lack of fear towards me. And it also told me that he had no interest in fighting aggressively, he was only trying to demonstrate his skill.

His tight shoulders told me exactly where the swing was going to end and how much force was put into it. His bent elbow screamed his next move to me, a horizontal slash from the right.

It was overwhelming.

He talked a lot.

The master told me everything without opening his mouth. The craziest thing was that it happened in under a second.

I dodged his swing with perfect movement. I was like water which found the easiest and most effective way to flow.

After I dodged, the Master had a surprised look on his face and then he used another attack. Just like I expected, it was a horizontal slash from the right side.

I also blocked that with minimal effort. There was no waste of energy when my bokken slammed against his. His attack barely slipped off mine when the wood met.

Then it was my turn to attack and right when I thought of attacking, the Master spoke again. This time, he told me about every weakness he had and how he was going to protect himself.

His hesitance to step back told me of his arrogance, his greatest weakness. The middle finger on his right was not gripping the handle properly, it was injured.

The tight movement on his hips told me of the back pain he had, a combination of old age and many years of training. His right eye was better than the left which caused an imbalance in sight, he most likely wore glasses to read.

He shifted his body weight to his right foot and that told me how he would have a hard time moving to the right. He blinked and I stepped in.

I was not fast nor did I put power in my footstep but the ease at which I moved made me twice as fast and looked triple as fast.

I was in front of him and I swung at his right side. He quickly took a step back in a show of expert footwork and then he tried to block.

But here's a thing about perfect movement, I only used the necessary muscle group and strength in my actions. So it made it extremely easy to discard said action and make changes midway.

So in an instnat, I changed my swing to an upward slash that would cut his hand which held the bokken while he tried to block my first attack. But he was experienced, he saw through my attack.

With a body superior to mine, he leaned back, almost in a falling motion, to dodge the slash.

But he told me he was going to dodge like that even before he did. The way his muscles were currently working and tensed told me exactly what he could and could not do in his position.

So I changed the slash again to a stab. I took a step forward and lunged at him. The master could no longer block and right when he stumbled to a stop my bokken hit him, stabbing not at his heart but his pancreas.

I could see exactly where I was hitting and without a doubt, he would've died.

There was a long moment of stunned silence from him. His body completely froze in shock

Then he said with a strained smile, "Stabbing is not allowed."

Right. Kendo was a sport and I remembered the referee talked about the rules of the spar before it started, I didn't look to know what he was saying.

I dropped my bokken and bowed, "I'm sorry. it's my loss."

That day I realized the full extent of the skill I had mastered with the help of the transparent world. Although it was nothing to boast about compared to people like Muichiro Tokito who became a Hashira after two months of training when he was the same.

But I think I was decently strong enough.

I did not know the limit to my skills but if I could easily read a master Kendo like a book, I suppose I would not have a hard time slaying weaker demons.

After the spar, I was immediately deemed a prodigy, a once-in-a-millennium genius.

In this part of my training, I did not use my transparent world and I learned sword skills from the master and learned how to fight without the help of my eyes. Perfect movement was always there so I still easily became the strongest in the Dojo without the transparent world. It only took me half a year.

I would learn sword techniques in the Dojo and then after going home, I would completely master that technique and even make improvements with the help of the transparent world.

Cycling back and forth every day from the city to the village built my body to be stronger and also increased my stamina many times over. I was able to carry baggages and other objects in my travels after a while. The villagers used me like a mailman but I did not mind and used it as strength training.

I entered many competitions during my time in the Dojo and obviously, I emerged victorious in every competition. I even got some fame to my name and added wealth to my inheritance.

And just like that, two years passed and I was 13 years old.

This was when I experienced the hardest part of my training.

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Author : So what do you think of Seiji's powers and abilities? I made this status to keep up with the information.

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[Status :-

Name : Seiji Shigan

Age : 13

Physique : Trained adult

Height : 5'5

Main power : Transparent world

Skills :-

1. Perfect Movement - This gives him the ability to move perfectly with no wasted strength or movement. It allows him to move by working only the necessary muscle groups so he can conserve energy but also make changes in his action mid-way. It is exactly as its name suggests. This no longer requires the use of the transparent world and remains passive unless he learns complicated movements or techniques which he has never seen or done before.

2. Body Language - This requires a transparent world and using this skill, Seiji literally understands body language. Even the tiniest twitch of your muscle or your breathing pattern and even your heartbeat tells him everything. Seiji can perfectly predict movements before they ever happen but this depends on how experienced the fighter is. If the opponent is top tier, Sieji might only be able to predict thier next move. You are telling him everything basically.

-End]

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