" Hmm so Haku what breath style do you use?" I asked wanting to know about the stoic guy in front of me.
" Oh! I use Flame Breathing." Haku replied but there was a hint of anger on his face. It passed by in a flash but I still noticed it.
' Hmm can't expect anyone in this world to have a normal fucking childhood. Most of these kids hold more trauma than War veterans.Wait. Weren't Kyojuro and his family the only ones with Flame breath or something? Last I remembered there clan held the line of succession for the Flame Hashiras and there was one in every generation. Same with the Water Hashiras but those guys weren't related by blood.' I again began to spiral down the Conspiracy theory lane.
' I don't even wanna know what other changes I have brought into this world.' I thought while deciding to focus on the exams and the people in front of me.
" What about you both?" Haku said while trying to start a fire.
" Me and my brother both use Breath of beasts. We came up with it ourselves." I said with a straight face. Sometimes my acting skills suprise even me.
' I don't know if Muzan and his little eyepatch demons are out there and I still don't trust these guys enough to tell them about my Breath styles at least not until I'm under the presence of the Pillars but by the way things are going I'm pretty sure that this is plan isn't gonna hold. I need to gain his trust. From the way he talked about his master even if his master wasn't an important guy he'll still be in an older generation. I can probably use him.' I thought while speculating about the older generation of Demon Slayer Corps.
The reason I was so interested in these old geezers? Well there was a saying in my old world.
"Always be wary of an old man in a profession where people tend to die young."
All of them have secrets and I'll take any help I can to make sure that everyone survives against Muzan.
" Oh! You came up with a breath style for yourself? How cool." Haku said with stars in his eyes.
" Okay this is atrocious to my eyes. Let me start that flame for you." I said while grabbing some dry leaves, a branch and some rope and use it to make a Dr. Stone style lighter.
' Haha never thought I'll use the same technique as Senku. This is the power of the Kingdom of Science.'
I was then quickly able to start a fire under the starry eyes of Haku.
" That's so cool where did you learn that?" He asked really impressed. At least that's what his voice conveyed.
" Oh I learned this by myself. Me and my brother grew up in the mountains without any parents to take care of us. But don't worry we still had the wolves and boars there to take care of us." I said while starting to cook some meat on the fire. I don't want someone to say things like 'Oh I'm sorry' because as much as I appreciate the gesture it hurts Inosuke a lot more but now that he knows about the whole thing I haven't seen his reaction to someone saying that.But I don't wanna take a chance so I explained our situation in one go.
'What kind of organization is this? They don't even teach them how to light a fire. I wonder if half of the new recruits die of starvation?' I thought while wondering how this organization produced people like Yorichi but at the same time don't teach their recruits anything. Other then the cleanup crew there was basically no one that received any kind of training or support from the organization. Hell even the Hashiras don't train with each other. I can understand wanting to give freedom to your best fighters but having your organization's strength so concentrated into just a handful of people is honesty a bad idea.
" By the way Inosuke why the hell are you so quite?" I said to Inosuke while he was startled by my voice.
" N- Nothing Nii san. I was just resting my eyes." Inosuke said while rubbing his eyes.
" Hmm just eat something before going to sleep." I said while taking out my secret weapon from our bag.
' With this I'll finally be able to cook something great. Mwahaha.'
What was my secret weapon you might ask?
Well the answer is simple. It was salt, spices and pepper which I bought on our journey towards this mountain from the money Gramps gave us.
Not to brag or anything but I used to be quite the cook in my previous life, something I took a liking to because I usually cooked for myself.
Soon a fragrant smell filled the area and I could see Fenris and Cerberus visibly salivate while Inosuke was the same as them. The only one who kept his composure was Haku, probably because he has a master and could at least eat human food.
I gave everyone some meat while I took some for myself. I could see the tears flowing down Inosuke's eyes as he took a huge bite.
As soon as I took a bite even I myself gave one manly tear from the taste.
' Despite not being as tasty as the food I made in my other life it's still a thousand times better than eating raw meat.' I thought while making plans to introduce the pack to other cuisine than just raw meat.
" You cook quite well Asura even I haven't seen many people make meat as tasty as this." Haku complimented me while eating the meat.
" Thanks.Well the only food I remember eating was meat and plant roots so I guess right now I can be considered a food expert, at least in the meat department." I said while slightly puffing out my chest and trying to give my best ' I'm proud of myself ' expression.
Haku chuckled a little while Inosuke was too busy devouring the food.
" Oi eat slowly guys the food won't run away. Seriously even Fenris is better behaved then you two." I said while patting Inosuke's and Cerberus's back so they don't choke on their food.
' Seriously they both sometimes are so similar in behaviour that it's scary.' I thought while scratching the back of my head in embarassment.
" So Asura will you and Inosuke go into the Mountain together?" Haku asked while rubbing his thumbs against each other with his head down.
' Oh he must be thinking of joining our group since it will give him a better chance to survive. Well he isn't like Sanemi and Obanai so his personality isn't bad also I'm quite interested in his background. But I'll have to see his skills to judge if he could be in the group or not and this exam will be perfect for that.'
' I wanna know what level of Flame Breathing he can use and I can more than likely make Inosuke turn into a team player faster. At least Inosuke gets along with him.'
" Oh, yes me and Inosuke will be going inside together. If you want maybe you can come with us?" I asked with a smile on my face which suprised Haku.
Haku was now visibly beaming and gave a sigh of relief.
' Can't blame the guy. I mean the amount of deaths in the final selection is so high even I was shocked. It's hard as hell to survive unless you've plot Armor or a literal Hashira as your Master or relative, with the only exception to that rule being my little brother.'
"Then I'll be in your care. Thanks for the food." Haku said before going to sleep.
" Inosuke let's rest. Tomorrow will be a rough day." I said while burying my head in Fenris's fur while the wolf also goes to sleep with me.
*The Next Day*
*At Dusk*
*Asura's POV*
The Sun was already starting to go down and most of the participants were already here.
' Hmm maybe they start the exam at night so the participants directly land in combat to check their alertness. Guess the Demon corps maybe salvageable.'
' Also why are there so many people here? In the show there were less than 40 but there are more than 70 already here and I can smell more scents ascending the mountain. Ahh this must also be related to the changes of the world.'
' Sigh. Well I won't say no to more manpower. Wait where's Ino-.'
My thoughts were interrupted when I smelled a smell unlike any I've ever smelled before. I felt euphoric, the smell itself was giving me physical pleasure, it was like smelling a bunch of flowers in a field but in my case I could smell the whole field at once.
I turned around to look at the trees in the direction the smell was coming from but sensed no-one there.
*Unknown POV*
'Hmm, he sensed me. This one is quite good.' I thought as I started to leave the Mountain.
' Hopefully he'll survive but I'm not too sure about his chances.At least not with that thing on the loose.'
*ASURA'S POV*
'Someone was definitely there. Maybe they ran away from here? But why? Wait there's a similar smell coming from someone ascending the mountain.' I thought while looking at the direction of the entrance and saw Tanjiro Kamado himself climbing the stairs.
' The show really didn't do justice to the guy. He looks quite more handsome than I thought, no wonder he got Kanao.' I thought while looking at the young Demon Slayer with the Hanafuda earrings.
' Well can't approach him right now. I gotta observe the changes on the test first. Also the guy is a Muzan magnet even I gotta wait before being able to travel with him.' I thought not knowing that this world is gonna give a big "Fuck you" to my plans in a few days.
"All participants that came here to participate in the final selection please pay attention." Said some random mob from the clean up branch.
[Author Note: sorry i forget the name of the branch. *Kowtow*]
Then the Ubuyashiki's youngest daughters explained the rules to us about how the test will be conducted.
' They're honestly quite creepy looking. What's with that stoic face and creepy eyes.' I thought while listening to the rules when the guy again whispers something into the girls ear and then leaves the vicinity. The girls expression falters for a bit but then returns to it's neutral state.
"Due to some reasons a devil has also been released in the mountains to test the participants. If you do not wish to die then please run as soon as you see it." The girl said with the same neutral expression and creepy eyes.
' Well Fuc-.'