Kimetsu no Yaiba: Breath of Smoke

*

Seven-year-old demon sat motionless on the ground, blindfolded. The crowd swirled chaotically around him. Each of them hoped not to be caught by him. They all shouted together, evenly like professional singers:

- Kagome Kagome! The bird in the cage!

The demon child still didn't move. He listened attentively to the voices around him. Boy or girl? Someone small with a quiet voice, or maybe fat one roaring like a bear?

- When, oh when will it come out in the night of dawn!

The little demon moved his head. In the throng of sounds, he finally picked up one familiar voice. Now all that's left to do is wait for a favorable turn of events.

- The crane and the turtle slipped! Who's behind you now?!

The boy stood up. He had received a gift from fate, which he intended to use eagerly. He turned one hundred and eighty degrees, jumped, and knocked a boy with flaming hair three years older then him to the ground. He did all this so quickly that the knocked one understood what had just happened a few seconds after hitting the ground.

- Sorry Shinjuro, but I won again - laughed the boy taking off the blindfold.

A large group of children played Kagome Kagome, a game popular on each Japanese islands. One person would play the role of an oni demon and then have his eyes covered, and the rest would line up around him, running around together and singing the above song. The task of the previously chosen one was to guess who is behind his back based on the tone of the friends' voices. The role of the merry devil was played by Kemuri Rengoku - the adoptive son of the flame pillar clan. He was an extremely thin but tall boy whose chin was high above the heads of his peers. For these reasons, he somewhat looked like bamboo. Although huge, it is thin. He had small eyes, the main part of which was occupied by coal-black irises covering practically all the screla. Unlike most of his countrymen, he did not have the yellowish skin of Asians, his complexion was paler even than people's from the west. From the top of his head to the back of his neck, his hair was thick, dark as kasugai crow feathers. By themselves, without any combing, they always lay evenly next to the skin, which in turn made the shape of his head look a bit ovoid.
The person knocked down by him was his older adoptive brother Shinjuro Rengoku. The future father of Kyojuro and Senjuro. They had known each other and had grown up together since they were little, so the lack of blood ties was not important to them in establishing a brotherly bond. Of course, they would get into fights from time to time when one of them took a toy without the other's permission. Or when the second ate the cookies hidden by the first. But I think every sibling has experienced it at least a hundred times.

- Then it's my turn - Shinjuro replied, taking the rag from his brother.

He braided it in front of his eyes, and Kemuri tied the knot in the back. Then the black haired boy joined the group. He grabbed the girl with dark hair and red eyes with his left hand as right took a boy with a weight that gave him predispositions to be a sumo wrestler

- Kagome Kagome! The bird in the cage! When, oh when will it come out in the night of dawn! The crane and the turtle slipped! - The children sang happily again.

- Who's behind you now?! - Kemuri shouted the loudest of all, straight into his brother's ear.

Shinjuro jumped up with the intention to pay his brother back. He was going to take him down just like Kemuri did. He hadn't expected that the black-eyed one had let him know about his presence. The boy jumped to the right and pulled the girl from the side to his place.

- Don't mess with me, Ke... - When the flame-haired boy took off his blindfold, he fell silent in embarrassment.

Beneath him lay his future wife Ruka. But let's not get too far ahead. Pair of young people stared at each other with blushes on their cheeks for a few long seconds. Shinjuro was about to leap to his feet, first to apologize to the girl for the misunderstanding, and then to cut off his brother's head. Unfortunately, another family member interrupted him.