To The Stars | Tokito Muichiro x OC

Bonus Chapter: Kanamaru Special

There was a set pattern of who would be receiving their medicine first every month, and the one on top of that list was none other than the former Water Pillar, Tomioka Giyu. The man may have learned how to smile and show his emotions, just slightly, but by the stars was he horrible at taking his medicine.

"Caw! Drink it! Drink it! Drink it! I said drink it, you rotten fish-eyed pain in the feathers!" Jabbing his beak and talons into Giyu's cheek, Kanamaru continued to caw and screech, ignoring the man's whine. "Drink it, you insufferable shitbrain! If you don't drink it, I'm calling Tanjiro! No! I'm calling Urokodaki! No! Kanzaburo! Tell your stupid master to drink his medicine!"

"Okay, okay, I get it." Nursing his bruised and slightly bleeding cheek, Giyu took one of the packets of medicine, grimacing as he went to boil some water and prepare a teacup. His own crow, who could no longer fly due to age, nuzzled against Kanamaru, who was nestled into the piles of blankets Giyu had made for Kanzaburo. Giyu made it a point to not look at Kanamaru, who he knew was watching his every move in case he tried to throw the medicine away.

Was it really his fault when the medicine tasted absolutely nasty? Giyu had been drinking that thing every month for the past decade, and it never got easier. It was almost as if every month, that thing got nastier. The nastiness would stay in his throat for two days if he was lucky, and up to a week if he wasn't, and Giyu wasn't a lucky person.

"Drink it while it's hot, you insufferable idiot! Aoi told you that!"

"Yes, yes, I get it." Sighing, Giyu poured the boiling water into the cup, putting the ground medicine into it before stirring the medicinal drink. It was at a time like this when he wished he didn't lose his arm because he needed that extra arm to pinch his nose. The medicine was just that nasty.

When Giyu was finally done with his tantrum and finished downing the medicine in one gulp, and when Kanamaru made sure that he wouldn't be throwing it up, the crow huffed. But even though Giyu was a pain to convince, the Water Pillar did understand the effort made to make that medicine, so he always drank it, and that was enough for Kanamaru.

"Kanamaru, huh?" Sanemi noticed the crow nestling against the blankets he always had prepared near the window. "Is it Medicine Day today? Thanks for always working so hard."

Sanemi took his medicine without a lot of whining, so Kanamaru liked him. Yes, he made an unpleasant face every time he drank the medicine, but Kanamaru didn't need to peck his face to get him to drink it. Still, he stayed nestled in the blankets as Sanemi prepared his medicine.

"I'm planning on visiting them soon." Them, as in the pillars who died in the battle. "Genya can walk a little bit now, so he wants to tag along. I'm sure he, Hoshizora, and Tokito got a lot to talk about."

Did they? Kanamaru remembered them getting along, throwing jokes and laughing with each other after the fight in the Village of Swordsmiths. But that was, too, short-lived because they were busy with Pillar Training, then the final battle happened. Even so, Genya was someone Inori considered a friend, though she had always called him her patient.

"Kanamaru, why don't you just stay in one place? With Uzui and his daughter who is literally named after that brat?" Sanemi stirred his medicinal drink, downing everything in one gulp. He grimaced, swallowing his disgust in favor of stroking the crow's head. "Aren't you twenty this year? That's old in your standard, right?"

"Caw. No. I'm healthy."

Sanemi highly doubted it. The crow may not look as pathetic as Giyu's crow, but Kanamaru wasn't as strong as he used to be. Though Sanemi would rather have him flying around the country and pecking the cheeks of anybody who refused to drink Aoi's medicine, anything was better than seeing him refusing to eat or drink as he cried in front of Inori and Muichiro's grave.