Taste of Dust
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The mist was still heavy with no hint of thinning out any time soon, but it was enough for both, Sakonji and Nik to easily observe each other at such a small distance. Looking around, Sakonji nodded after a few moments and raised his arms.

"Your physical body is already capable. What you need is training and experience, that I shall be providing you." Sakonji continued, "Today's lesson will be all about me learning the true extent of your body."

The moment Sakonji's voice fell, he shot towards Nik with his hands raised. Before Nik could adjust his arms to defend, he felt his force shifting forward, in the blink of an eye, he could see the arms towards his face turn blurry while his collars were already held within Sakonji's grip, and the next thing he knew, he was already flying towards the tree.

Thud

The tree shook more than Nik's interior as a lump of saliva spurted out of Nik's mouth. Although the impact wasn't too painful, Nik's body was still affected.

"Aside from the motive to understand your full capability, you will also start your lesson on getting up."

Nik coughed softly before taking a deep breath while standing as he patted his tunic to dust off the dust.

"Getting up?"

At Nik's inquiry, Sakonji nodded and replied softly.

"Demons are physically enhanced beings that are capable of easily defeating demon slayers if we are not careful enough or determined enough.

Caution is slowly increased through experience and training. But will to get up and never accept death by lying down needs to be cultivated through harsh training."

"Taking defeat lying low?" Nik scoffed and crouched slightly while raising his arms. His stance pointed his inexperience in techniques for Sakonji could find flaws as easily as he breathed, but even then, his body remained tensed enough to not underestimate the youth. After all, Sakonji had intended to use enough strength to make Nik stunned for a few moments before he could finish his talk about getting up every time.

Alas, Nik had already gotten up by that time.

Once again, Sakonji took off, but this time, Nik also retreated at the same time. Staying still would mean getting thrown towards the trees. At this moment, Nik also understood why Sakonji looked at the surroundings before starting the lesson. He was actually targetting all the trees that he will be thrown at!

"To defeat demons, retreat is certainly a crucial tool, but against an insurmountable opponent, retreat won't open a path of living."

Sakonji whispered as he ran alongside Nik, immediately crossing his foot against the back of his calves and grabbing the tunic from the chest region as Nik tasted dust once again.

This time, the impact was even greater as he felt a distinct strand of energy flowing through Sakonji and screwing within his body, making him tremble a little in pain. 

Now, he truly felt it! It was just a sliver of energy, no doubt, and felt quite similar to that golden energy shown by Jojo and Ceasar... but it was somehow different. Nik felt distinctly attracted to the feel.

It was water.

Taking a deep breath, Nik stood up once again while Sakonji's eyes glowed softly behind his mask.

"As we continue this lesson, I will be teaching you a lot about Demons and their practice."

Sakonji whispered before walking towards Nik this time and even though Nik tried his hardest to observe his movements, the only thing he managed to observe was him falling face front.

"The existence of demons is a mystery, but their actions aren't. They are a threat to us humans and so we seek to neutralize the mentioned threat."

Nik chuckled at his words as a small cloud of dust rose up from Nik's heavy breathing as he carefully sensed the external energy within his body while trying to move his own Systems Energy to interact with the strange power and understand more about it.

"So? That is it? Neutralize the threat?" Nik smirked as he tried standing up while he matched Sakonji's gaze. "We all know it's personal. My village turned into a remnant of the past due to the demon's actions. Like hell, I am going to be so formal about slaying them."

Nik didn't know if it was right or wrong to show such a hatred in front of a tutor. But considering how his identity's family now lay within the intestines of demons, of course, he needed to show an appropriate amount of hatred.

And there was one thing that supported his actions. Every organisation requires to measure a member's loyalty before they can be exposed to the organisation's secrets. Nik did not know if the same thing also took place in this world, but he felt that being cautious and acting accordingly wouldn't be counterproductive.

"You are right." Sakonji Urokodaki nodded candidly, "Hatred is the key strength that drives us to eliminate all the demons and their creator. So, even though we demon Slayers are actually avenging our fallen loved ones, we also happen to be helping the society of humans."

"And Nezuko?"

Nik narrowed his eyes and continued.

"Where does this Nezuko enters in your hatred? She is still alive, she might kill a human.

Why are you willing to take such a risk?"

Nik asked but suddenly felt his feet slipping even when he hadn't moved and he fell once again. He immediately shot a glare at Sakonji, but continued using his stream of system energy to understand the construct of the peculiar energy.

Although he could have used [Life Vision] to find out the direction of attacks since the Power System of this world seemed to be based around the life force, Nik needed to maintain his energy reserve to actually make contacts with the external source of energy infused with the element of water.

"Why wouldn't I take the risk? My eyes are no longer clouded by vengeance, that is why I became a Cultivator.

Nezuko is just an innocent soul that was dragged into the mess of her ancestors."

Nik didn't care the least bit about her ancestors or her background. She was cute enough and that's what truly mattered to Nik's pathetically shallow heart. But Nik couldn't help but frown.

"What is a Cultivator? You mentioned it previously, too."

"Cultivator is someone who cultivates. Be it plants, demons, wars or swordsmen.

I am a Cultivator of Swordsmen who will train you and Tanjiro Kamado to become proper swordsmen."

"Whatever." Hearing such baseless information, Nik sighed and stood up once again.

What followed was a rapid succession of kissing the ground, whether Nik wanted or not. Sakonji was stronger, faster and most of all, smarter and wiser than Nik. Each of Sakonji's moves was pre-calculated with a sole focus— throwing Nik off-balance.

With each fall, Nik was taught various basic information about the demon slayers. How they were spread across the province, their common stereotypes against special demons and how the slayer organisation is viewed amongst the common society the government's opinion about the organisation.

Nik finally knew that the war between the demons and demon slayers has been kept under the covers by the organisation and publicly, the Demon Slayers are not claimed to be the part of the government at all. Nik could actually understand their thinking.

If Government officials took the demon slayers' favour, they will definitely be targeted by demons.

No point in gaining enemies just for a show of favour.

With his basic knowledge about the world being filled, he was still kept in the dark on how demon slayers actually operated, their strengths, weaknesses, their power system, the leader of the slayer society and stuff like that. 

And Nik knew, that he still had a long way before he could actually know about all this information.

With that, his training came to end after three hours of falling while Sakonji disappeared into the village as Nik decided to utilise the time to exercise his stretching practice. Although he truly wished to mingle with people, he had to hold his urge back after Sakonji specifically stated that he needed to keep a lookout for the sleeping siblings.

***

A/N : Important (Regarding the story)

Alright, some of you might have noticed when I said Sakonji had no wrinkles, and that is true. With the introduction of hamon in their basic breathing exercise, they are able to retain their youth and keep their body healthy.

For those who haven't watched Jojo or Demon Slayers, fret not, since it is a new Power System, I will take time to explain everything clearly

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