Crossover Anime: Starting with Bankai from Demon Slayer

Chapter 358 The Bird That Opens Its Heart

In the afternoon, at the True Spirit Arts Academy, the First Cutting Technique Training Ground.

The afternoon sun slanted in through the high skylight of the temple, casting bright beams of light on the wooden floor.

The students of Class 1-B, dressed in white training uniforms, were practicing basic slashing techniques in pairs under the guidance of two retired instructors.

"Hey! Ha!"

"Your footwork is too erratic! Watch your lower body! Engage your core!"

The swordsmanship instructor shouted reprimands, his wooden sword occasionally striking students whose movements were not up to standard.

But in the most remote and secluded corner of the dojo.

The bird stood there alone.

Because of the terrifying aura he exuded in class that was almost murderous, no student dares to team up with him now.

Even the two instructors intentionally or unintentionally avoided this corner, leaving him standing there in a daze.

Feiniao held an ordinary wooden sword in his hand, watching the young sparring not far away with a bored expression.

"There are too many flaws..."

'

"That sword strike was like a weakling; even Kenichi could have knocked him down."

"His steps are too unsteady. If you just apply a little pressure to his ankles, you can make him kneel down immediately."

The bird silently complained to itself.

Even setting aside spiritual pressure and the power of his Zanpakuto, from a purely swordsmanship perspective, he is a master of unparalleled skill.

In his eyes, the actions of these freshmen were like slow-motion replays, revealing fatal weaknesses all over their bodies.

Remembering what Kinpachi-sensei said about making friends... he felt a headache coming on.

Asuka glanced at the boy closest to her.

The boy was sparring with his partner when he inadvertently caught a glimpse of Fei Niao's gaze. He was so frightened that he trembled all over, and the wooden sword in his hand flew out of his hand, almost hitting the instructor on the head.

"6

""

The bird silently withdrew its gaze.

Forget it, this kind of thing is just not for me.

He sighed and prepared to continue his great work of spacing out.

"Ouch!"

Just then, a cry of pain came from not far away.

Turning my head, I saw a rather thin boy who, while retreating to defend, tripped over his right foot with his left because his steps were too messy, and fell flat on his back on the hard wooden floor.

The wooden knife in his hand rolled to the side.

"Murata! You fell again! This is the third time this lesson!" The burly nobleman's son, who was sparring with him, complained irritably. "Are you even practicing seriously? Teaming up with you is such bad luck!"

"I'm...I'm sorry!" The boy named Murata blushed and frantically tried to get up.

But he had clearly fallen quite hard.

A piercing pain shot through his ankle, causing him to fall back down after he had only risen halfway up. Tears welled up in his eyes from the pain.

Instead of helping, the surrounding students let out a few suppressed chuckles.

"He's a commoner from Rukongai, and he can't even walk steadily with the most basic steps."

"What a disgrace! How could someone with such poor qualities possibly get into the Gotei 13?"

Hearing the harsh laughter, Murata lowered his head even further, almost touching the floor.

The bird watched this scene silently.

He looked at the thin, small figure lying on the ground, being mocked.

In a daze, that figure overlapped with the image of the toothless boy being beaten in the mud from my memory.

...tsk.

The bird smacked its lips softly.

Hey.

He took a step and walked out of the quarantine zone that was exclusively for him.

The sound was originally inconspicuous in the noisy temple.

But because it was Asuka who took the initiative to walk into the crowd, the students who were constantly watching him out of the corner of their eyes were instantly frozen in place.

The laughter stopped abruptly.

The sound of wooden swords clashing also stopped.

Everyone watched in horror as the black-haired youth, exuding a terrifying aura, walked step by step towards the center of the arena.

"What...what is he going to do?"

The burly nobleman who had just been complaining about Murata turned pale with fright when he saw Asuka walking straight toward him.

My legs started shaking uncontrollably, and I didn't even have the strength to back away.

The swordsmanship instructor also noticed the abnormality and was greatly alarmed, cursing inwardly.

He thought that the fierce bird was angered by the noise of these newbies and was preparing to teach them a lesson.

"Asuka! Stop! This is a dojo! You're not allowed to..." The instructor roared as he charged forward, his hand already on the real sword at his waist.

However, Asuka did not go to see the nobleman who was almost scared to death.

He walked up to Murata, who was lying on the ground, and stopped.

"Can you stand up?"

Amidst the incredulous gazes of the crowd, the legendary ruthless monster slowly bent down and extended his large, calloused hand.

Murata was trying to get up despite the excruciating pain in his ankle when he suddenly saw a hand in his line of sight and looked up in confusion.

Faced with those pitch-black eyes, devoid of any glimmer of light, he was completely stunned, his mind blank, and he could only instinctively nod dumbly.

With a slight effort, the bird easily lifted him up from the ground, as if it were a kitten.

"Th...thank you..." Murata stammered, his face as red as a ripe tomato.

He never dreamed that the most terrifying person in the whole school would actually take the initiative to help him.

Feiniao bent down to pick up the wooden sword that had fallen to the ground and casually weighed it in his hand.

"Your lower body is indeed unstable," he said calmly. "When you stepped back just now, your body weight was completely on your heels."

"When your opponent presses forward, your instinct is to speed up in order to dodge, which causes your body to lean backward and naturally lose balance."

Everyone stared at the bird in shock.

That illiterate man who couldn't even recite a basic incantation, and who was rumored to be a beast who only knew how to kill with brute force...

He's patiently instructing a complete novice on footwork?!

Murata was stunned, and he subconsciously looked at his feet.

"But...but the footwork the instructor taught us requires us to maintain an even distribution of spiritual energy on the soles of our feet when retreating..." he explained somewhat aggrievedly, "I...I can't control my spiritual energy well, so I always miss my footing..."

Forget about that bullshit distribution of spirit particles.

Asuka interrupted him without any politeness, which made the instructor of the sword-slaying technique, who was not far away, turn pale and then red, but he dared not refute her.

"Your foundation is too weak right now; it's not the time to be thinking about these things."

"In a life-or-death struggle, if you're still thinking about how to circulate spiritual energy, your head would have been chopped off long ago."

Asuka casually tossed the wooden sword back to Murata: "Hold it tight. Don't treat it like a piece of wood for practice; treat it like a part of your body."

"Now, separate your feet to shoulder width."

He walked to Murata's side and gently kicked the inside of his right foot with his toe.

"Turn your right foot slightly outward, lower your center of gravity..."

Under Asuka's strict guidance, Murata stopped thinking about those complicated theories of spiritual power control and instead followed Asuka's instructions to adjust his body's rhythm time and time again.

Swish.

After several attempts, he finally completed a standard backstep.

There was no stumbling, no loss of balance.

His body moved backward smoothly and quickly, as if it were mounted on a sliding track, with the wooden knife in his hand still firmly protecting his chest.

This move would have been even more perfect if it weren't for the injury on my foot.

"I...I did it?!" Murata looked at his feet in surprise, hardly believing that he had done it.

"This is just the most basic way to exert force."

Seeing Murata's excited expression, Asuka poured cold water on his enthusiasm: "The most important thing about swords isn't how flashy the sword techniques are."

"It's about whether you can stand firm when facing death, and whether you can hold the knife firmly in your hand."

"As long as you stand firm, it won't be so easy for others to knock you down, and you'll have a chance to win."

After saying that, Feibiao didn't linger any longer and walked back to his secluded corner to continue his aimless daydreaming.

The dojo remained eerily quiet.

Suddenly, Murata blushed and bowed deeply to Asuka's retreating figure.

"Asuka-kun! Thank you so much for your guidance!" Murata's voice trembled slightly with excitement: "I..."

I will practice even harder in the future!

The bird didn't turn around; it simply waved casually as a response.

At this moment, behind a hidden paper window outside the sword-slaying dojo.

Instructor Ohara Mugoro stared wide-eyed, his mouth slightly agape.

That usually serious and rigid face was now filled with disbelief.

"This...is this really the legendary Asuka who cut out one of Aizen's eyes and is known as the one who keeps the living away?" Ohara muttered to himself.

He even suspected that he might be under the influence of some kind of illusion-type Zanpakuto.

Standing beside him was none other than Sakamoto Kinpachi-sensei, who was holding a cup of hot tea and smiling broadly.

"I knew it, Coach Ohara."

He gently blew on the steam rising from his teacup, looking at the no longer so cold figure in the dojo, his eyes filled with relief.

"He's not some monster that only destroys... He's just a child who's been alone for too long and has forgotten how to reach out to others."

Coach Ohara remained silent for a long time.

Finally, his slightly open mouth slowly relaxed, revealing a relieved smile.

"It seems... that making you the homeroom teacher was indeed a wise decision."

"You flatter me. I've only solved his problem of not fitting in. You guys still need to work on his literacy too," Jinba said with a smile.

Coach Ohara nodded: "Hopefully, these three months will allow him to truly integrate into this place and gain something from it."

4

"It definitely will."