KNY | The Mechanics Of Love (Tanjirou X Zenitsu)

Chapter 4 | Questions

Zenitsu's POV

When I turned around I was not expecting to see who I saw. I tried to stay calm but this man was wanted, he had all sorts of bounties on his head. The agents had been after him ever since he showed up a few years ago. I was 13 when he first started making it all over the news. Nobody knew what he looked like, nobody knew his name, nobody knew where he had come from.

But what we did know was that he probably had very little left to live for because of all the eternally, stupidly dangerous things he did.

"Why are you following me?" I asked again in a surprisingly steady voice.

"Why do you think so?" he asked, avoiding my question.

His voice was something odd, maybe it was the mask that obscured it, but there was something beneath it. Something beneath the threatening tone and cold stare of the mask. A fox mask with a sun on the ear and red eyes along with red dot on the sides of the mouths.

He was in all black with his hands shoved in his pockets in a relaxed stance. He wasn't expecting me to fight him, and he wasn't here to fight me. He was too calm, too relaxed.

"Why are you avoiding my question?" I pressed.

"Why did you save the girl?"

It took me a second to comprehend what he was asking me, but when I realized he was talking about the little girl from the other day something dawned on me.

"I had help, didn't I?" I asked with a raised brow.

"If you knew you couldn't have saved her then why go back for her? You could've died" he insisted.

"I didn't know, I didn't know I couldn't save her, I didn't know that there was a possibility that I was about to die" I said.

"And you still went back for her, you didn't know what you were getting into but you still went back. Why?"

"In fact, even now I don't know why I didn't just run for it, maybe it's because I knew I'd feel guilty if I left her" I sighed, "I heard her and I saw her, I couldn't just leave her" I said as I turned back to look up at the sky, "I guess I could ask you the same question, why you saved the both of us, you were the one who stopped the car. But that's not what I want to know; I answered your question and now I want you to answer mine. Why were you following me?"

"I don't know, it's the same reason why you saved the girl" He said seriously.

"Then why did you come here tonight?" I asked again.

He was quiet for a minute, one could have guessed that he had left, but I could hear his heartbeat standing right behind me.

He started coming closer, until he was right behind me. I didn't move, I was frozen. He placed a gloved hand on my shoulder, and then slithered up my shoulder, where his fingers gently wrapped themselves around my neck. Squeezing just slightly.

"You aren't scared," he said.

"Why would you save and then just kill me later? I've never met you before, I don't have a bone to pick with you, there's no reason for me to be afraid because I know you don't have a reason to do anything to me" I mumbled and stared right into the red glowing slots on the mask where I knew his eyes were staring right back.

"Maybe I don't need a reason" he said lowly as his fingers tightened their grip into my skin.

And still, I wasn't scared, the tone in his voice assured me that he wouldn't hurt me.

He let go of my neck, and I watched as he backed away.

"You shouldn't trust strangers, especially when they're well known criminals" he said as he turned around and started to walk away.