Emmanuel_Capricorn
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DS : Chapter 186
🕑 Added 2025-04-29 16:49:38 +0000 UTC[Seiji's POV]
'What am I missing?'
It was a question I've asked myself more times than I could count during my one-year training.
I started my training arc strong. Obsessed with killing Kokushibo, I trained in the style of Moon Breathing. I learned it from from my memory, replaying my first fight with him again and again until I could move like him and fight like him.
It was not just for the sake of imitation either, I was trying to become Kokushibo himself so that I could find out what his weakness was. And I was successful for the most part.
I became a human version of him, I mastered Moon Breathing as I did with every other Breathing Style.
After that came the discovery of what it meant to be a real swordsman. I realized that I could not be limited to forms, I could not be limited to the enhancement of breathing styles alone. I had to be powerful in every inch of my body and sharpen every little skill until they became deadly techniques of their own.
I created Ice Breathing, which was arguably the most complete breathing style in the world. It was on par with Sun Breathing in its sheer genius and technical complexity.
Ice Breathing did not focus only on the expansion of lungs or breathing patterns, it also focused on simple footwork, casual swings, theoretical techniques and even balance.
It was also the only Breathing Style that could manifest its own element. Its effects were not just imaginary, the ice was real.
That sounded like the final power-up didn't it? The conclusion to my evolution as a Demon Slayer. t was the pinnacle of what could be achieved in this universe.
Other swordsmen literally became demons for their Breathing Style to be on the level of Ice Breathing.
But by that point, I was only three months into my one-year training, and I felt immensely unsatisfied.
There was something missing in me.
Something so huge that it made me feel like a half-finished puzzle. It made Ice Breathing feel insignificant.
But what was it?
"What am I missing?" the words echoed in the silence of the night.
More than once, I suspected that it was the supernatural that was missing. Perhaps it was my own humanity that was holding me back.
If I were to become a demon or something similar using the Blue Spider Lily, maybe then I would feel complete.
Maybe then I would be able to dog-walk my enemies like I wish I could.
If I was already this strong as a human, imagine a demon version of me. The Blood Demon Art that would come with my demonification would only be overkill, like strapping a nuclear on a nuclear missile.
But I didn't go that far. No, I refused to stoop that low. I would not become what I wish to kill, I believed I was stronger than that.
What would be the point of everything if it meant losing myself? I had people I loved, and more importantly, I had people who loved me.
To step away from Yoriichi's legacy and to carve my own path was so much easier said than done.
So I paused, like most warriors do at some point in their life.
I stopped trying to force innovation and allowed creativity to take its time.
I started again from the beginning, like a complete nobody who wanted to become the strongest swordsman in the world.
I went as far as recalling my past life knowledge to search for inspiration in people I thought were fictional.
Who were the greatest swordsmen in fiction that I know of? Dracule Mihawk, Kenshin Himura, Sasaki Kojiro, Atomic Samurai, and even Ichigo.
I looked at these figures to guide me. I spent the next month wandering around and gave myself an opportunity to simply observe the world around me.
To find what could be, you need to know what was.
Eventually, it happened.
And it t happened in the most unexpected way.
...
I had put away my things on the ground before I engaged in a fight with some demons I found in the dark forest. But when I returned after killing the demons, I found one of my things broken.
A glass container lay shattered on the dirt as medical spills spilt out.
"That's interesting," I said to myself.
It was interesting because it was not my intention to break the glass, quite the opposite actually. At this point, I had such high mastery over my sword and techniques that I rarely destroyed things during a fight. Even when I go full force, I never cause collateral damage to the surroundings.
But here, the glass container which I specifically put away for safety was broken.
"It must be due to Thunder Wind Breathing," I said while scratching my head. Indeed, I used Thunder Wind Breathing during the battle. It might sound overkill but I was training it.
And the demon probably deserved it.
It was the fastest Breathing Style and my sheer speed created a high-pitched sound that could shatter glass in the vicinity. It even chases away animals.
That was not new by any means, but at that moment, I found it to be awfully interesting.
So I played with it for a bit.
I took the largest fragment of the shattered glass and tried to break it using the sound of my speed. It was harder than anticipated but after ten minutes, I was able to shatter the glass without touching it.
Crack!!
I never took the time to understand how breaking glass with sound worked, but under close observation, I found that the glass shattered when the vibration released by my sword matched the natural vibration of the glass.
That made me realize something.
Vibration.
Sound was vibration.
And I could see vibrations, which means I could see sound. Although I was deaf, sound itself was still very much a part of my life.
I just saw it instead of hearing it.
"Of course, I have been doing that all my life, haven't I?" I said to myself.
How else would I be able to communicate with others if not for my ability to see sound? Although I was deaf, it became almost impossible to tell that I could not hear.
It started with reading lips, then reading the movement of the throat and then the vibration of the vocal cords. Eventually, I was able to understand what people were saying just by looking at the vibrations that came out of their mouths when they spoke.
I had been unconsciously training the ability to see vibrations all my life.
I looked away from the shattered glass on the ground and looked at my surroundings. My eyes released a glow of realisation and it was like I was seeing the world with different eyes.
Not literally. More like I was just now noticing some things that I'd seen all this time yet ignored. Exactly like how one ignores the things he sees in his peripheral vision.
It was not the first time I saw it but it was the first time I cared enough to notice. Everything in my surroundings had a natural vibration. A rhythm that they released just by simply existing.
My eyes caught a giant boulder in the distance. I walked towards it while observing its natural frequency. The atoms in the rock were constantly moving, causing the vibration.
It was very different from that of glass. While glass had one single frequency, the boulder was complicated and had different frequencies at different layers.
"I wonder..." I said while standing in front of the rock almost twice my size.
I picked up a small rock and started beating my sword to create a vibration similar to that of the boulder. It took forever but at that point, I was too invested to just give up.
The night passed, and the sun rose. It was already past noon when I was finally able to match the natural frequency of the boulder.
After that, I proceeded to stab the boulder with my vibrating sword and there was zero resistance. But the moment my sword plunged into the boulder, it reacted violently.
BOOOM!!
The boulder shattered with a simple poke, just like how the glass shattered. The sword I was holding in my hand shattered too.
I smiled, it was just like I expected.
It took too much time and effort. It would be easier for me to cut a mountain normally than to cut a simple boulder this way.
But the prospect of my new discovery gave me ideas. I was searching for something different and new and this was exactly what I hoped for.
So for the next few weeks, I focused on my new discovery.
And even I could never expect where that would lead me.
"Back to you," I said while looking at the boulder in front of me. I used my newly acquired iron rod to beat my weapon and tune its vibration to the frequency I wanted.
It only took me a few minutes to do so. It was much easier to tune a sword when you knew what to do. It was like a normal person and a musician tuning a guitar. The normal man might take days or years to tune a guitar correctly without help, while the musician could do it in a few seconds.
After I was done, I drew a line on the boulder with my vibrating sword but the frequency was unlike last time.
This time, the vibration was more controlled and I aimed at the molecular level. Shattering the boulder-like glass was no longer my intention. What I tried to do was vibrate my blade just enough to separate the internal bonds of the rock along a precise cut.
I drew a line, and then the boulder split in half.
It was as easy as that.
Everything has a rhythm – a natural frequency at which it vibrates at the molecular level. And if you know that and use it to your advantage, then you could cut anything.
I guess I've found it.
It was only just the beginning but I saw the endless potential of this simple concept. It was a new path to grow that was completely my own.
Yoriichi built a whole power system from breathing. I was about to do the same with sound.
How ironic.
The deaf weaponizes sound.
...
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