question of the chapter:

french fries or hashbrowns?

i really love french fires. or anything potato actually

i will forever be greatful to the person who discovered potatoes

thank you for reading! :))

16 : hashira training

thwack!

"ouch!"

"AHHHH!"

"EIKO SAMA! HELP!" (they call eiko 'eiko sama' and muichirou 'tokito sama')

eiko looked at the lower rank slayers, irked. it was the 3rd week of the hashiras' training for the lower ranked slayers.

her training was one of the last, but since none of the slayers had clear the first few with mitsuri, muichirou and tengen, she had no one to train and was now taking part in muichirou's training.

"can't help you. i'm a student here too. get stronger."

eiko did admit, she thought muichirou might be going too hard, until she saw the lower ranks' strength. 

"go harder." she had told him when they were resting and the two cousins got to talk.

"mui!" eiko ran into the butterfly mansion's room where muichirou was resting after being told he had just woken up from being unconscious for 2 days.

"nee san, i remember!" was the first thing muichirou said to her. "yuichirou, mom, dad, uncle, auntie...i remeber everything!"

eiko hugged her cousin as the water works started.

"are...are you crying?" muichirou asked.

"no, my eyes are practicing water breathing- of course i'm crying! i'm so happy you're okay and that you remember!"

muichirou started to cry, the crying effect affecting him.

the 2 cousins had a crying fest and everyone avoided the room for a while as the 2 caught up, eiko demanding to hear about upper moon 5.

"tokito san!" kotetsu came running in. "you're okay!"

eiko immediately thought of kota. she kinda missed him.

"the hashira meeting will be tomorrow." eiko informed muichirou. 

the meeting was mostly about the demon slayer mark and amane informing the hashira about the upcoming hashira training.

-

eiko stood at the entrance of the training room.

it had been a week when some the lower ranked slayers passed the other hashiras' training centres. 

"come in." she spoke to the less than 10 slayers, most of them having just came from obanai's station. "you'll be heading to the stone pillar after this?" she asked.

they nodded.

"alright then, your objective is to land a hit on me."

they all stepped into the darkened training room.

eiko shut the door close with a thud, the lights automatically shutting off.

"in the dark. use you senses. if i hit you, get up and try again."

the slayers panicked as their vision decreased into nothing. eiko continued to give instructions. 

"each day we'll focus on different types of training to enhance your senses. on the fifth day we'll practice everything."

thwack! she used her wooden sword to hit a slayer. "we'll change the sense trained everyday. complete 3 sets of the 5 days or land a hit on me and you'll pass."

she hit another slayer in the head with her bokken.

"today we will remove sight."

she hit another slayer and he immediately got back up. "we'll train to fight without sight, hearing, smell, vestibular (movement and balance) and the last day we'll train everything."

some slayers quietly complained but one sentance silenced them all.

"if the stone hashira can do this, you can too."

three hours had passed.

the door of the training room was finally opened and the lights automatucally switched on. 

"take a break while you have your lunch. we'll continue again after lunch."

"hai! eiko sama!"

-

tanjiro had just woken up from a 7 day coma, gotten yelled at by haganezuka, watched inosuke crash through the window and now zenitsu was yelling at him too.

but he was happy.

probably the happiest and most excited demon slayer to start training.

he went of to uzui, whose mood changed completely, saving the other slayers from uzui's scoldings for a while.

he completed uzui's stamima training in 10 days and headed to muichiro for quick movement training. he then completed mitsuri's flexibility training, iguro's sword skill revision, shinazugawa's infinite pounding training, and finally, he reached eiko's sense enhancement training, after his training with sanemi was cut short.

"where's the moon pillar's training ground?" zenitsu grumbled. he and tanjiro had been wandering around for a while.

until zenitsu's sharp ears heard a groan.

"i suddenly don't want to go to the moon pillar."

they saw a slayer fly towards them, followed by a rather loud sorry from eiko.

they arrived on the training ground and saw the demon slayers sprawled out on the floor, panting.

"hey, where's the moon- AHH!" zenitsu jumped as eiko appeared right behind him and tapped him.

"looks like you'll need to work on your spatial awareness."

eiko repeated the instructions to them and they joined the group training. that day was tje day they were putting everything they trained the past 4 days to the test.

"start." eiko said as she disappeared into the trees. they were training in the forest near jer training room.

zenitsu looked around nervously.

he paled and was about to say something but it was too late.

he heard the sound of the wooden sword swung through the air and into his stomach. tanjiro, who was standing beside him, saw zenitsu fly and aimed his sword at where eiko was supposed to be based in his smell, but she was gone. he felt stomach getting hit and flew too.

by the end of the second session which lasted 2 hours, only 1 person managed to land a hit on eiko's haori.

she went around giving feedback, congratulating the swordsman that passed.

"tanjiro, you sense of smell if great, it has helped you defeat many demons so we'll work harder on enhancing your other senses."

"zenitsu, you have sharp hearing and that's really good. like tanjiro, you'll work harder on enhancing the other sense."

"hai eiko sama." the two chorused. 

they were close friends, but during duties, she was their superior. outside duties, they just called her by name.

"alright then. everyone, take a break."

day two: sight removal training

the slayers gathered in the dark room and eiko gave out blindfolds to those who wanted a challenge. tanjiro used his sense of smell to locate eiko and zenitsu used his hearing, but she was too fast, evading any of tanjiro's incoming attacks. and she was rather quiet, zenitsu only being able to pick up the very soft sounds of her footsteps.

day three: smell removal training

the slayers took pills to temporarily remove any smell. tanjiro suffered quite a vit at first, his best sense suddenly gone. but he eventually got the hang of it, but not as good as with smell. zenitsu did fine, almost getting eiko with his thunder breathing speed, but she moved out and combatted with a moon breathing form, and he crashed into another slayer.

day four: hearing removal training

the slayers wore earplugs and headphones that had loud music in them. zenitsu struggled. so did tanjiro, with the music not letting him focus. the two eventually learnt how to turn the music out.

day five: movement and balance training.

the slayers headed to the training room, and those who just joined stared in surprise as the room's floor started to rise, and started to tilt left and right with the flick of a switch.

"techonology!" eiko had exclaimed happily and the slayers steadied their balance when the floor suddenly moved. eiko increase the vigour of the tilting of the floor and the training started, as slayers worked on their balance and tried to execute their breathing styles on ground that wasn't flat.

the floor moved up and down, amd tilited left and right. tanjiro and zenitsu struggled.

well everyone did for this training.

after 4 days of training, they were once again in the forest. today was the day were they would be able to put everything they were training for to the test. zenitsu noticed the ground was flat and knelt down to kiss it. 

he was traumatised from the moving uneven floor. "flat ground i love you so much." he paused. "no as much as nezuko though."

they noticed that their senses had improved. it was only a little, but they knew how to use them better. nonetheless, the still couldn't land a hit on eiko, and ended up staying for the full 15 days of training.

"your senses have improved a lot. you have pass, head on to the stone hashira. see you soon!" eiko waved as she waved them leave. she turned to the newest batch of demon slayers that had juat arrived from sanemi. "head in. we'll start right away."