"Now shoot I said which earned me a confused look from both of my friends.
"Monke, take bow and monke shoot shoot. Boom." I said slowly while making hand signs to make them understand.
They both looked flustered and immediately shouted.
"We understood that much but why?" They both said in unison.
"Just do it!" I said as I made a cross mark on two trees to check their aim.
Haku was the first one to try it. I already had my assumptions about it but I wanted to see them Confirmed before my eyes.
Haku took a deep breath and then focused his eyes. He slung the arrow and let go and the arrow hit the mark perfectly.
"Wrong. Next." I simply said which got Haku even more confused.
"But why? " He asked.
"You'll understand. Now next." I simply said and Zenitsu came forward with shaky hands and shot the arrow.
Well, I could've probably thrown the arrow with my hand and it would've reached closer to the mark.
Zenitsu's arrow completely missed the mark and fell a few feet away from him.
'Sigh. Why am I disappointed I mostly expected this to happen. I'll have to do this.' I thought while moving towards Zenitsu who seemed ready to bawl his eyes out after seeing his arrow shoot out and land a few feet away from him.
"Relax," I said as I moved behind Zenitsu and held the bow, and supported his arms.
'I would've preferred if I was teaching a girl.' I thought.
'I would've preferred if it was a girl teaching me.' Zenitsu thought with a lewd smile on his face.
"Oi, focus. Now I need you to focus on your Breathing technique and try to gather energy in your arms instead of your legs." I said to Zenitsu. Right now I wasn't sure of how the Breath of Thunder/Lightning worked but if my assumption was correct this would be a big haul.
'Let's do this Aizawa style baby' I thought while chuckling in my mind.
Zenitsu was confused but then he seemed to try giving it his all but I could see he was getting distracted. His palms were already starting to sweat.
"Hey, remember when I told you to keep your hearing open at all times. Yeah, fuck that. Right now I want you to only focus on yourself. Close all the outside sounds. The only thing that exists in this world is you, the bow, and the target. Now breathe in and breathe out slowly." I said and Zenitsu relaxed a bit.
He started to gather his strength in his arms and I could see his veins bulge and If I could see his face I would've seen his eyes go white.
My hands started to burn from the lightning he was gathering but I didn't move. I allowed him to take his time.
Then Zenitsu shot the arrow. And Holy Shit is this guy powerful.
Zenitsu fell and I could see he was hurt and in pain but he still tried and he succeeded.
No, he didn't hit the mark perfectly. Hell, the bow broke in two and so did the arrow the only way I could say Zenitsu succeeded was because of the tree in front of me. Well more like half a tree.
I made Zenitsu lie on the ground and went to check.
'This guy is a monster in himself.' I thought while looking at the charred piece of metal that was the bow tip embedded halfway through a tree after having destroyed its previous target.
The amount of penetration force required for this would be insane, to say the least. Even though Zenitsu got hurt by his strength that was something I could work on. Strength utilization wasn't something easy to learn, and I spoke with personal experience. I had to gain experience in that Department.
I went back to Zenitsu and slowly made him sit on the ground. Haku was already looking at Zenitsu like he saw a ghost.
'Big power comes in weird packages, I guess?' I thought while Zenitsu started to look around.
I threw the arrow tip towards him and as soon as he caught it he shouted.
"Ahh, hot hot hot hot," Zenitsu said while throwing the arrowhead from one hand to the other. Suddenly Haku caught the metal tip and he didn't even flinch as he held the metal tip.
He opened his hand and there was no burn mark there.
'Interesting.'
"Now Zenitsu looks there," I said while suddenly jerking Zenitsu's head towards the Direction of the destroyed trees.
"Ahh, which demon did this. Run." Zenitsu shouted at the top of his lungs. He forgot about his crisped hands and immediately got up ready to run away but I caught him by his collar.
"You did this," I said calmly.
"Me?" Zenitsu said while pointing a finger towards himself.
"Yes, you. This was your strength. I would say I was impressed but in terms of Aim, you have no Aim. Seriously your target missed the mark by a hell of a lot not to mention your crispy hands." I said while pointing at Zenitsu's hands.
"I'm the same as him. I would've complimented you if it weren't for your hands that look ready to crumble to dust." Haku said which got Zenitsu to look at his hands and immediately shout again.
"Here," I said as I cut my arm and allowed Zenitsu to drink my blood to heal his injuries faster.
Zenitsu's wounds started to close and he visibly relaxed.
Why did I do such a dangerous experiment? Well the guy survived being hit by lightning it wasn't like he was going to die from shooting an arrow and I helped him to heal, didn't I?
"Now you see Zenitsu this was your own strength. Your own power. This was done by you and you alone. Although your aim sucks the raw power in that arrow surpassed your normal strength by a lot. So wanna learn archery?" I said to Zenitsu but suddenly Haku asked a question.
"Aren't demons only killable by Nichirin blades and sunlight?" Haku asked a fair and smart question in my opinion.
"Well, you know that those Nichirin blades are made by the Blacksmiths right? They're some of the best out there and it isn't like they don't make weapons other than swords. I heard that most of them are crazy for blacksmithing." I said a half-truth.
It was true that the Blacksmiths from the Demon slayer corps made some of the best weapons in this era but it was also true that if the arrow didn't hold then Archery would become a useless skill for Zenitsu when he powers up.
But that's where the Nichirin metal comes into play. Unlike normal metal which can get scratches from me trying to claw at it or change it's shape when I try to bite it, Nichirin doesn't follow the same rule.
That metal was strong as hell. Unlike what the Anime may make you believe. There's a lot more to the Demons than stronger Demons having stronger Necks. My fights were proof of that. The Nichirin blade didn't even get a single scratch when I tried to claw at my sword and the fact that my sword is maybe centuries or even decades-old also proves how strong Nichirin actually was.
I had a great number of ideas regarding the arrows but I didn't have the authority to order the Blacksmiths around. At least not for now.
If I could get them to make pure Metal arrows for Zenitsu then it would be a huge power up for him. It's not like I needed the whole arrow and bow to be made of Nichirin. As far as the bow and arrow body was concerned that can be made from Normal Metal but the tip could be made from Nichirin.
It's not like the Blacksmiths don't like to make weapons other than swords. Gyomei's Axe and Mace and Mitsuri's sword don't exactly scream 'Conventional Weapons'.
The bow can be made flexible I was sure of that because Mitsuri's sword also worked on a similar concept but right now these were just speculations.
It wasn't like I was gonna ask Zenitsu to completely give up on Swordsmanship it would be a waste of his talent but someone like Zenitsu if trained properly could work as an amazing archer.
This would also allow Zenitsu who looked ready to crumble down and die at any sign of Danger to gain more confidence.
For starters he could help out a lot more from the back as support without having to be directly involved in the confrontations while I could slowly build him up to better confidence.
"Now it's your turn," I said as I threw the other bow at Haku.