Unforgiving World (Tanjiro x OC)

Chapter 10

-

A few weeks had passed without much trouble. Amaya and her companions had healed almost completely, though Zenitsu was still properly regrowing his limbs since the poison had yet to get out of his system. Amaya had already started her training with Ichiro to get back on track a small while before the others did, but soon enough, the guys were free to join their recovery training as they were ordered to do. Their recovery training was led by none other than Amaya herself, since she didn't need to go through it again. The point of the exercises was to get faster than the purple-haired girl. At first, it didn't seem like such an issue for the clueless boys, but with the relentless training Amaya had gone through ever since she was young proved them wrong. Plus, she was a good amount of ranks above them, so her superiority was obvious.

Even after a month or two had passed, they still weren't able to catch up to her. They had some exercises such as running around a room and trying to catch the other first, Amaya had always been the winner as far as she knew. Another game they played, well it wasn't really meant to be a game but Amaya thought it felt like one, was a rather uncomfortable one. If you lost that was. Two opponents would be placed across each other, on each side of a table filled with cups of cold tea. The goal of the game was to be as quick as possible to stop your opponent from splashing tea in your face. This was done by placing a hand over the cup your enemy wants to throw in your face, but if you're even a second late, you'll end up drenched from head to toe.

Amaya remembered how confident Tanjiro had been the first time they participated, it was embarrassing really. They sat across from each other, staring the other down while Tanjiro began rubbing his neck. "Alright Amaya, before we begin... I'm sorry for splashing you in the face in advance", spoke Tanjiro, not knowing how derating that actually sounded to Amaya. She raised a slightly offended eyebrow at him, biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself from snapping back. Now that Tanjiro had spoken those words, her competitiveness rose by about 90 percent. She scoffed before straightening up, cracking fingers slightly while Tanjiro only gulped, smelling the confidence rolling off Amaya in waves.

Zenitsu and Inosuke were sitting by the side, watching closely since they were the ones who needed to go up against the winner next. Aoi, a maiden from the Butterfly Estate stood a small distance away, trying to hide her smile since she knew of Amaya's abilities. The purple-haired girl cleared her throat before nodding towards Tanjiro, signaling that he could make the first move. He glanced over the cups carefully, trying to figure out which one he'd pick to try and splash Amaya with, though Amaya already figured out his way of playing by just a simple glance at his body language. At a fast rate, Tanjiro's left hand shot out towards a cup but in reality, he was planning to grab one with his right one, his hand shooting up towards his cup.

He blinked a couple of times when he felt cold tea splashing in his face, a couple of drops dripping off his hair and onto his lap. He noticed Amaya's left hand on top of his right one, holding down the cup while her other hand had already dumped the tea over his head, leaving him stunned. Their audience immediately burst into loud laughter, Tanjiro's obvious failure was seemingly hilarious to them after all. The boy in question finally realized his position, an embarrassed blush shooting up his neck onto his cheeks and ears. Amaya didn't react any further, only reaching to her side to toss Tanjiro a clean towel. "Go dry up, the next one can go", spoke Amaya blankly, making Tanjiro nod in silence and remind him to never underestimate her speed again.

After that faithful day, he started asking Amaya to help him with training more often, his determined complexion often taking the girl by surprise. She tried denying him a couple of times to try and remain distant, but the boy proved to be more stubborn than she had thought before. Eventually she was forced to cave in, so now they not only had recovery training and extra training by Ichiro, but separate lessons with each other as well. Their schedules were absolutely packed and the only free time Amaya still had was during the night. Though the fact that Tanjiro was around her 24/7 now, didn't really help her attempts to try and have at least a little distance between them. She had tried to properly figure out what this weird and displeasing feeling was, but she had honestly given up on trying to understand it.