"Please! Accept me as your student sensei! Teach me the ways of the sword!" a young black-haired boy shouted, bowing to an old man as he kept his smile on the boy. "I can't, lad. You're young, you have a better life living like a normal person" he says, turning away from the boy and walking away.

The boy who now started to lose hope, ran up and hugged the old man's leg and cried out, "I want to be strong! I want to fight! I want to avenge her death! Please! I will do anything!" he shouted to his heart's content with tears trailing down his cheeks. The old man looks down, his smile changed to a serious one, he kneels to one knee and places his hand on his head.

"You lost the precious person that you hold dear, my boy? Is that what led you to the path of vengeance? Or to a path to protect and make sure that your experience won't happen to others at your age?" he says, as the boy lets go and the old man once again stands up.

"If you are willing to be my student, you must have the determination and a strong will to be accepted under my care." he says, as he wipes away his tears with the sleeves of his Yakama, as the old man then started running telling the boy to follow him, he obliged.

......

The boy finally caught up, exhausted and breathing hard with his tongue out. The old man smiles, seeing the will of the young lad, ready to give him a cup of water. "This is once a barracks, now a humble home of mine, memories that kept me up to my feet. You, my boy, will remember your past as a reason to live, a fuel to your will to fight the demons!" the old man says, full of determination and knowledge of his experience of his prime.

"What's your name?" he asks, as the boy looks up at him and finally regained his breathing. "I'm-" he says but cut off right away. "Starting today I will call you... Student!" he says, his smile beams to the young lad who nods and accepts his new name. "Thank you for accepting me, Sensei!" he says, feeling grateful to the old man.

His Sensei told him that he will train him hard after a full rest. After dinner, the boy noticed the old man readies a sleeping mat for him, he thanks him and sleeps. "Wake up, my dear student!" the old man shouted, as his student woke up in a daze of what was going on. Until his vision adjusted to see his sensei with a wooden stick and the same smile on his face. "I have readied a dummy for you, my student. First, I must see what you got with handling a sword" he explains.

The boy rubs his sleepy eyes grabs the wooden stick and followed where his sensei led him to an open area behind his home, a stuffed dummy standing in the middle with a drawn circle on the dirt. "Every mistake you make has a consequence, my student. May it be big nor small, I will mold you to perfection!" he roars, fueled with the will of fire in his heart.

-Stance and Sword Handling Training-

And so it began, the boy trains, and each mistake he makes, he'll get hit by a bamboo sword by his sensei, who watches him and scans for any error in the boy's stance. He even noticed a very small error in how his student grips the stick, so another hit of a bamboo sword to the head for the boy and scolded him for the reason why. This repeats and the boy accepts it knowing that someday it will all pay off... but it will be a long, long, long way to go for him.

During the first week, the old man trains him on how to hold a sword properly and to slash and slice his opponent the right way. And after weeks passed by, with the growing number of bumps on his head and bruises on some parts of his body, the young student achieved nothing but more intense training. Surprise, it actually took him 4 months to master the sword but also to strengthen his body by starting with heavy exercise instructed by his sensei. "401, 402, 403, 404, 405... Come on, student my boy! You still have 95 more to go!" he reminded for the boy to do push-ups.

At each end of the day, the boy sleeps with body aches and bruises that hurt and sting like hell that will make him cry to sleep. But the longer under the close guidance of his instructor, he started to see his progress start to bloom. His body became rip and even manage to do push-ups with ease and felt to continue further till the limit of his newfound strength. His swordsmanship skills hone to where it meets the standards of his sensei, and all of this happened in 6 months.

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...

After another day of early training and helping the folks in a nearby village, they both sat in front of the fire just outside the old man's home, eating their meals for the night. As the old man stares blankly at the fire.
"You know, I think it's time to tell me your real name." his sensei says out of the bloom, student looks at him in shock, probably choking but swallowing the food in his mouth.

"L/N, Y/N... Sensei" he answers, as the old man smiles. "Y/N my boy, for all the hardships you've been through of my hellish training. You are the first to actually stay this long and even manage to achieve this much. I'm proud of you" he says, rubbing the head of his student as Y/N smiles back at him.

"Thank you, Sensei." he says. "Please, call me Hiroshi. I regret you calling me 'Old Man', it took a toll on my mental health and destroyed my young look" he laughs, and Y/N laughs with him. They both enjoyed the night together, sharing stories of his past to which Y/N listens. And when the fire started to die out, its time for them to head inside and get some sleep. Tomorrow will be another day of training, but Hiroshi has contemplated his student's progress, so he has changed plans for the training tomorrow.

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...

-Flame Breathing Forms Training-

"Today, I will teach you about breathing technique, sadly, I only know the flame breathe form but it should be enough for you to start with and learn more of other breath forms along the way." he says, and right away, Y/N's breathing training started.

He expects it to be easy due to how he survives Hiroshi-sensei's hellish physical training but nothing can compare to how hard it actually is to perform his forms and breathing techniques. After the day ended, he is exhausted and tried his best but to no avail. Hiroshi understands how hard it is to achieve it in a week. The next day, Hiroshi wakes up to see his student not to be found inside the house, he walks out to be meet Y/N doing a repeated slashing form with a bamboo sword, early in the morning. Hiroshi's smile beam with pride at how far his dear pupil progressed.

10 minutes of rest later, Y/N started once again to perform the flame breathing forms, but this time he manage to try 3 forms but leads him exhausted in the end. Hiroshi cheers but soon went back to his strict mode of teaching, by strict is he punches Y/N's stomach, letting the air out in his body, and telling him to focus his breathing more to perform the flame breathing forms precisely.

"First Form: Unknowing Fire" he charges forward with high speed and slashes the dummy's head, while also leaving a trail of flame behind him. He felt like his lungs are going to explode from just performing the first form, as he breathes heavily to take in as much oxygen as his body can.

Next after the long recovery, Hiroshi plans to throw a boulder towards Y/N as he uses the second form to slice the boulder in half. "Heave-Ho!" Hiroshi throws the boulder towards Y/N as he stands there breathing and idly standing by, waiting for the perfect moment too, "Second Form: Rising Scorching Sun" he slashes upward, slicing it in half and landing behind him in separate ways.

"I think that should be enough for today. Tomorrow, you will need to perform the third and fourth forms of flame breathing, I already sent a letter for you to join the final selection next week. I hope that after all your hard work, you'll finally join the demon slayer corps." He says, but Y/N noticed the tone in his Sensei's voice.

"You're not sure of this final selection, Hiroshi-sensei?" he asks, Hiroshi smiles a little but saddens quickly replaced it. "I... You're like a son that I never had, Y/N... You're the first to come up to me to train you... Others were too afraid of my way of training, but you, you bested all of it" he says, as Y/N walks up to him and hugs him.
Hiroshi tries to laugh it off but his tears gave away, he returns the gesture. Y/N L/N, the first and probably his last student under his guidance is soon to be sent to the final selection to join the ranks of the Demon Slayer Corps.

"I will never forget everything, otousan(father)" Y/N says, as both of them spend the rest of the evening like a father and son.

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...

A week came by, Y/N woke up to see a box and a rectangular shape box resting beside him, he looks around to find Hiroshi-sensei but maybe went out to buy food from the nearby village. He opens the first box to see new clothes to replace his worn-out and teared-up one, also adding a Haori of just white. He then gets to open the rectangular shape one to reveal a nichirin sword with its scabbard. He grabs it and pulls the blade to see a beautiful red as the base and orange on the sharper area.

"You like my old sword, Y/N? It took me 2 days to polish and sharpen it" he walks up, as Y/N sheathed the sword and bowed to which his head would touch the wooden floor. "Thank you, I'll promise that I will make you proud!" he says, as Hiroshi laughs in joy and claps his hands together. "You already made me proud, just make sure to live your life to the fullest. Protect the innocent, serve the corps like your life depends on it!" he boasted, Y/N looks up and nods his head with a smile. "Come on, let's enjoy our last meal together before you depart." he says as they both sat together and enjoy the meal they had. "Cheers for the first student to sent out to the final selection, L/N Y/N!" he cheered with a cup of sake in hand and Y/N did the same except he is just plain water.

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Y/N's POV

I woke up with a raging headache, as I tried to rub it away. 'I must have accidentally drunk sake than water' I said in my head, regretting the fact that it hurts my head. After a long while, I stand up supporting myself with the wall, and head inside. Seeing the old man resting peacefully in a futon that I gave him when we first went to the nearest village since then he sleeps with no back pain or having a rough time sleeping.

"Sensei, it's time for me to leave now... You should go easy on yourself with the sake too once I'm gone" I said, laughing to myself but he didn't wake up. 'Weird, he isn't a heavy sleeper even if he's drunk' I thought as I shake his arm a bit. Now that my senses came fully, I noticed how his stomach didn't rise or fall as a sign of breathing and I quickly move closer and place my hand above his mouth and nose. "No breathing" I whisper, my heart sunken at this realization, I place my ear to his chest, praying to the Gods above to tell him this must be a dream. 'No heartbeat...' I thought, tearing up as I hugged Hiroshi-sensei. He peacefully passed away with a smile on his face, leaving me once again to be alone in this world...

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...

After burying his body behind his home, I picked the spot where we always trained. 30 minutes of mourning and praying for his safe journey to the afterlife, I stood up and turn around, as I started to walk away the wind caught up to me but felt as if someone pushed me from behind. I looked back to see no one, but realize who it might be. "Keep your head high. Protect the weak as that is what every strong individual should always do" I repeated what Sensei always tells me after training. 'That's the spirit, my boy!' I thought what sensei might say, looking down at the grave, I bowed and bid farewell before leaving.

-:-

Author-kun: Hello readers! I finally released this beast of a book to the wild (Wattpad). Comment what you guys/gals thought about the chapter, and sorry about the sad ending, it's a planned plot for this book back in 2020.

PS: This Chapter is mostly written/made on my phone, the rest will be made on my laptop. Hope it won't break this time