'Well fuc-' I thought while cursing my bad luck.
'Now what the fuck are these devils they never used the word devil to refer to those Demons except that joke about "Demon Slayer" translated into "Devils blade". Guess I gotta work harder in this selection then I thought. Well,whatever I just gotta survive for 7 days. I'll avoid conflict but considering how much of a Danger Magnet Tanjiro and the others are I'll probably have to step in.'. I thought while making plans about how to save as many lives here.
Then we were all told to enter the Mountain and survive. Yeah good luck surviving with those eternal fuckwards in there.
I knew that most of these people won't survive but the one I was most worried about was Zenitsu.
Despite the guy being incredibly powerful he just can't let go of his fears.
I look around and see that most people are entering the forest alone.
' Yeah go ahead and give up the only advantage your species has against those demons.Why don't you also go inside naked see if you can survive.'
We were never told explicitly to not form groups and we could enter the mountain with whatever we wanted and no one was going to stop us. They never said anything about that.
In the end what mattered was survival. Despite the demons being individually stronger than most of the participants we had an absolute advantage in numbers.
I decided to give up on saving those mobs all by myself and just gave them tips to try and survive together. I mean there are more than 100 participants for this exam and there can't be more than 20 to 30 demons here otherwise it would be a death sentence to send these amateurs into that mountain.
Most people took my advice and looked at each other as if realising for the first time that humans were a social species.
Then everyone started to form groups and everyone had a group of around 3 to 5 people.
I decided to ask Zenitsu to enter my group because I didn't trust any of these guys also no one was sparing him a glance. I mean really who the hell is the demon here.Zenitsu at first was extremely afraid of my appearance. Well can't blame the guy I don't exactly give off sunshine vibes like Tanjiro but when he saw other people quickly forming groups and no one else approaching him he immediately accepted.
He then proceeded to faint due to seeing Fenris and Cerberus behind me in their normal size. I had asked them to change their size from normal dogs to their original size so they had better agility in the forest.
I slapped Zenitsu awake and told him that we should start entering the mountain and he just gave me a scared look and gave the most miniscule nod imaginable.
I even asked Tanjiro to enter my group but the guy rejected me but not before thanking me for asking and then politely taking his leave.
He was most likely not sure if he was allowed to have travel companions. I mean the guy was trying to become a demon slayer despite his sister being a demon herself and the demon slayer Corps's uniform and sword spelling out "KILL/DESTROY DEMONS" wasn't exactly a subtle hint at the organizations's thoughts on what should be done to demons and those that travel with them.
' That guy is too pure for this world. Well,let's start this test.'
I entered first with Inosuke, Haku and Zenitsu in my group. I asked Fenris and Cerberus to go help those mobs survive.
I didn't care if most of these guys died but I still needed support from the other Demon slayers of my generation to execute my plans flawlessly. This organization will require an incredible amount of work and some of there traditions are most likely generations old so I'll have to be the one to burst their bubble for survival.
As for them owing me a favour if Cerberus or Fenris protected them. Well most people can't forget my appearance and my wolves aren't exactly forgettable either.
I especially asked Fenris to follow Tanjiro. We can't have our protagonist dying to some random demon can we?
I entered the forest with my group and we started running through the treeline and ascending the mountain as we felt the air getting thinner and thinner.
We literally had no encounter with any Demon for hours but due to me and Inosuke growing up in the mountains we had quite a good control of our sleep schedule. We could basically become nocturnal if required and when you live in a mountain and sleep on a bed made of dirt sleep becomes a chore and a liability.
One thing that suprised me was how fast Zenitsu was. From his appearance I was sure that he had even consciously started his breathing techniques but he was still able to move quite fast. Wouldn't expect anything less from the future Thunder Hashira.
Guess the guy has quite good subconscious control over his Breath of lightning, if only he could consciously use his breath style and it's techniques.
Me and Inosuke were already used to the thin mountain air so we had basically no problems. But still I decided to use Wolf Breathing and the results were better I my lungs felt much better and my senses were sharpened. There was the occasional Azure colored lighting traveling above my body but I don't think anyone would mind.
Haku was also using his Breath of Flames from time to time to forcefully extract oxygen from air so his combat strength doesn't drop. But one thing I noticed was that whenever he breathed out there were blue wisps coming out of his mouth.
' Looks like the breathing techniques can also be used for other purposes than increasing physical prowess.' I thought. This little experiment confirmed my doubts by a lot.
One thing I was sure of was that for using the 'Breath styles' for such miniscule tasks and in such a way that it doesn't affect your body by much requires a lot of practice. Even though my Breath styles took a lot of time to improve the Breathing Patterns for such basics were ingrained into my bones with my blood and sweat. I made sure of that myself.
That meant that Haku had quite a good control on his Breath of Flames as for Zenitsu, the guy was the Tsugoku of the previous Lightning Hashira so the breathing patterns would be ingrained into his very being just like me which allows him to use them subconsciously.
Can't expect any less from the Hashiras of any generation. Those guys are hell bent on finding successors before they're even 18.
That's how we spent our first 3 days in the forest without any encounters with any demons.
*3rd Day*
*Around 4PM*
Right now we were camping in a clearing in the forest. Due to having better instincts and stamina I usually slept less during the last 3 days and made sure that everyone had proper rest during the day.
Zenitsu and Inosuke were like fire and water and didn't get along at all.
Zenitsu called Inosuke 'Boar head' and was convinced Inosuke was a demon but Inosuke never took off his boar mask.
Inosuke on the other hand called Zenitsu 'Spineless monkey' or 'Crunchy Brows' due to Zenistu being scared of the most miniscule of things. The guy was literally startled when a squirrel jumped at him from a bush as for him having one of the most wierd eyebrow styles in the series? Well with a appearance like mine I guess I can't comment.
After a while I decided to step in so there aren't any problems in the group. I just bonked Inosuke on the head and that was more than enough for him to understand my message.
Zenistu on the other hand was even easier to control. He was kinda intimidated by my appearance but I didn't wanna use something like that to convince him so I just talked to him in a civil manner and told him that I was sorry for my brother's behaviour.
Zenitsu immediately apologised and said that he shouldn't have behaved like a brat and Inosuke seeing his brother apologising for his mistake immediately apologised to Zenitsu.
Zenitsu seeing Inosuke apologising was surprised at first but then he gave a gentle smile.
' Seems like the guy read his thoughts for the first time to make sure he was being genuine or not. Honestly I'm kinda jealous, an ability of this kind can absolutely be a game changer in battles.' I thought while feeling a little jealous of the guy.
[Author: You greedy bitch. What about your sense of smell? That's cool isn't it?]
'What am I supposed to do with it? Sniff a dog's butt? The guy can hear people's thoughts!!!! Just let that settle in your mind for a second.'
[Author: Okay, fair enough]
Zenitsu being able to hear other people's thoughts was certainly a broken ability but I was sure the manga and anime didn't even scratch the surface of how broken this ability can be in battle if used properly but I was sure I could do something about implementing it in battle. I just had to make an effective enough strategy.
After that although the both of them still talked back and forth there was nothing serious happening.
*Exposition no Jutsu end*
*Back to the present*
I was looking at the Sun from the branch of a tree when I suddenly smelled something quite familiar. It was the stench of blood and quite a heavy one at that.
Most likely there was a demon nearby waiting for the Sun to go down to hunt us.
" Looks like I'll finally get to have some fun."