Breath Of The Flower

"Ehem- now that our little chat is over, shall we begin our lesson?" Yuna said with a smirk.

"""Yes!""", three energetic replies came from the children.

~~

"Seeing that Enmei is new here, I will repeat what we will be doing again", after seeing the nods on her daughters she continued,

"You children are too young right now so it might potentially damage your body if you strain it too much, Kanae is at a good age to begin tougher training, but Enmei and Shinobu needs more work~ We will start with the usual breathing exercises, I want you all to continue breath like this until at your limit, try doing it as much as you can. Remember, by doing these breaths you will be able to exceed you body limits and possess a boost of energy, this is particularly useful when in a battle"

"After that we will continue with a light workout, which is running and light weights. Then we will do the breathing exercises again and lastly we will learn about medicine until Enmei has to leave, any questions?"

They all shook their heads.

"Ok now, Kanae, Shinobu, I want you two to do the breathing exercises whilst I teach Enmei"

"Yes moth- Sensei"

She turned her head to the young boy.

"What I will be teaching you are basic breathing techniques, it will hurt but you will get use to it.", she started to explain the technique slowly, step by step and making sure he understood. "One more time!"

Enmei began to suck in a large amount of air, upon feeling a burning sensation in his lung, an indication that he is at maximum capacity, he proceeded to let the air out through his teeth. Not in a fast rate, but slow, it was painful to breath, making him wince slightly.

"Good job Enmei, it was perfect", Yuna praised whilst petting his head.

Causing the boy to blush a bit. His brother and father only patted him and never praised him much, hearing these words from his teacher caused a slight bubbly feeling in his c.h.e.s.t, making him happy, is this what having a mother feel like?

It felt hard, extremely hard and big in his small palms. The shape was also strange with two circular shapes and the outer layer was smooth.

"What is this?" He asked.

"A gourd", Yuna answered.

"How am I meant to break this?"

"By breathing".

Hearing this Enmei suddenly felt enlightened, his face brightened as he readied himself. He took a deep breath and threw- the gourd across the yard. It landed surprisingly far, taking to account of his weak and feasible arms.

A loud bank and crack came from across the field.

"Did I break it?" Enmei asked in an excited tone.

"Yes... you broke it..." Yuna said, she felt speechless.

"Hah- Sorry to say Enmei, but what you did was wrong", Yuna explained and Enmei's eyes became wet. He felt so sure! "What I meant was that you were meant to exhale into the gourd and break it, not throw it"

Enmei's face felt hot and a bright shade of red covered his cheeks.

"It's ok, why don't you try again", she tried consoling the boy.

He quickly nodded and began to inhale.

—-

"Huff-huff", after numerous attempts Enmei couldn't break the gourd. He was left out of breath and his c.h.e.s.t hurt.

"Don't worry, we still can't do it either", Shinobu said with sparking eyes.

"Now kids, we sill begin our next lesson." Yuna interrupted.

The two pairs of eyes made its way towards her. "From here-", she pointed to toward the pond on the left corner,"to here-" then to the mansion on the right,"I want you to run 3 l.a.p.s each, after that go into the mansion and stretch your bodies" She explained. The distance between the two points was probably around 500 meters.

"I've been wondering for a while now, but why do you have a bell?" Shinobu asked Enmei.

"It's because I'm blind, the bell helps we "see", when it makes a sound, I can hear where must things are"

"Oh~ it that why you always look so dazed" (Shinobu)

"Woah that means your hearing is really good!" (Kanae)

"I heared that some demon slayers have special traits, like the water pillar with his sense of smell" (Kanae)

"Really? I guess being blind makes all my senses better.." (Enmei)

"Enmei-chan you are really m.a.t.u.r.e for your own age!" (Shinobu)

"I- I want to grow up soon and be of help to Aniue!" (Enmei)

'No... I feel that both of you are being too m.a.t.u.r.e...' Kanae thought.

"Enmei-sama, I have come to pick you up!" Tsuna called out to the boy. Enmei hearing her voice peaked his head from the pile of medical books. He let out a sigh of relief.

—-

"How was you day?" Enya asked his son, he was sitting in bed.

"In all honesty, it was painful." Enmei started to recount all his painful experiences, from the breathing to the bone breaking stretches after the run, then the mountains of medical books. This was too much for a 5 year old.

"I'm sure you will handle it, since you still have meany years ahead of you", Enya said with a grin.

"Eh?"

What Enmei didn't notice was how weak his father looked, bandages and strange markings appeared around his body, he sat helplessly in bed and never left the room, but sadly Enmei was too preoccupied and young to realise, how precious this time is.

And so a year quickly passed.