Kanao Can't Communicate

•~chapter twenty-six: karaoke~•

Right when the after-party of the culture festival came to a close, Kanao and her friends found themselves dragged (quite literally) over to a karaoke center.

Kanao looked up at the center apprehensively. She turned around in surprise when Inosuke began to yell loudly.

"Disciples! We are here to sing and celebrate my achievement of a successful maid cafe!" he shouted. His announcement sparked many cheers among his classmates that had been invited to karaoke.

After they all rented a room and got drinks, they headed inside. Kanao and Tanjiro were the last ones to go into the room, because Kanao was just nervously staring at the doorknob.

"Have you ever done karaoke before, Kanao?" Tanjiro asked. Kanao nodded, much to his shock.

"Eh?" he said incredulously. "So, did you sing?"

Kanao shook her head, and Tanjiro's sudden incredulity was replaced with confusion. His unspoken question was answered when Kanao wrote, I've been to karaoke once, but only Kanae-neesan sang that night.

Tanjiro nodded in understanding and he led Kanao into the karaoke room.

Everyone had already settled on the nice and comfy couches that lined the room. They were passing a little tablet around, so they could put in their songs.

Right as Kanao sat down, the tablet was passed to Kanao so that she could put in her song. Unexpectedly, her hand began to tremble after she placed in her song, and they were still shaking even as she passed the tablet to the next person.

Tanjiro watched her tremble with a look of concern filling his face. Her trembling didn't let up for the whole time. She even continued to tremble through Zenitsu's cringe-inducing love ballads and Inosuke's heavy metal songs.

At long last, it was Kanao's turn to step up to the karaoke machine. With shaking hands, she picked up the microphone. Tanjiro watched her with the same look of concern etched upon his face.

Kanao's song started, and no matter how hard she tried, no sound would come out of her mouth. Her friends, who obviously knew about her communication disorder, tried cheering her up...but they went about it the wrong way.

"Its okay, only the purest people on this room can hear the beautiful voice that is coming from Kanao-chan's heart!" Zenitsu said consolingly. His classmates nodded eagerly, although this made Kanao feel even worse.

The song finally came to an end after a few more awkward minutes of eager whispers and trembling. While her friends were cursing the machine for giving Kanao a score of zero, Kanao stumbled over to her seat and sank down low.

Tanjiro wanted to offer her some consoling words of his own, but at that moment, he heard his song come up.

"Oh, Kanao. I'll talk to you after my song is finished, alright?" Tanjiro said, before getting up from his chair. Kanao nodded, and she watched Tanjiro as he picked up the microphone.

~▪︎Lemonade - Jeremy Passion (link to the song can be found above. also, tanjiro has a decent singing voice in this fic, lol)▪︎~

She's my sunshine in the rain
My Tylenol when I'm in pain yeah
Let me tell you what she means to me

Like a tall glass of lemonade
When it's burning hot on summer days
She's exactly what I need

She's soothing like the ocean rushing on the sand
She takes care of me baby
She helps me be a better man
She's so beautiful, sometimes I stop to close my eyes
She's exactly what I need
She's my smile when I'm feeling blue
She's my good night sleep when my day is through yeah