Flowerbound [Kimetsu no Yaiba]

🌺 Chapter 14 🌺

"Now then, follow me!
Follow yours truly!"

Once the children had thanked the crows and the Demon Slayers, they parted ways and headed off to descend the mountain. The children had headed toward the direction of their home with the gifts from the Kasugai crows while the Demon Slayers followed Matsuemon as he flew into the dusk sky high above them.

"Are you coming?" Ajisaika inquired as she turned her head to look in the direction of Inosuke, who was still banging his head around on the tree trunks. He immediately came, shouting about wanting to fight them. "Good,"

With Matsuemon as their guiding line, the four of them continued their path down the mountain. Tanjiro was leading the group, dragging along the knocked-out Zenitsu while Ajisaika followed right after him, keeping her eyes on Inosuke with the way he was behaving.

Inosuke kept challenging Ajisaika for fights, calling her all sorts of flowers yet none that even came close to her true name. But Ajisaika remained calm, listening to his shouts and threats. Maybe her calmness kept him at bay, and he soon turned onto the next person.

"Fight me!" shouted Inosuke for the nth time, now rounding up on Tanjiro when he finished with Ajisaika. "I swear I'm gonna find a weak point and bring you down, loser!"

"My name's not 'loser'!" Tanjiro told him, getting Inosuke on his nerves as well. "It's Kamado Tanjiro!"

"Kamaboko Gonpachiro!" responded Inosuke and Ajisaika gave him an absurd look. "I'm gonna bring you down!"

"Who the hell are you talking about?" asked Tanjiro, his own voice getting louder and louder.

"That would be you!" shouted Inosuke.

"No, it's someone else!" Tanjiro told him.

Ajisaika rubbed her forehead and wondered where she had gone wrong to be in the company of such loud individuals. She loved her brother but he was getting pretty loud as well, although she could understand his frustrations. The two of them continued to argue until Zenitsu rose from the dead and challenged them to something none of them could defeat him at –

"Can you talk any louder!"

The sun had completely set across the horizon by the time that the pair of sibling crows, Sakaki and Matsuemon, had brought the Kamado siblings Ajisaika, Tanjiro and Nezuko as well as Agatsuma Zenitsu and Hashibira Inosuke to their destination. This destination brought them to a large lodging made entirely of beautiful wood and stone – and upon the gate was a painting of "... a wisteria family crest..." spoke Ajisaika in recognition.

"Rest time!" shouted Matsuemon as Tanjiro held him in his hands. "Rest time! Since you've sustained injuries, you're to rest until you're fully recovered!"

"You sure it's okay to rest?" Tanjiro inquired. "I just fought a Demon while injured, you know. And Ajisaika was injured as well – we both fought well even though..."

"Ke-ke-ke," responded Matsuemon.

"Ke-ke-ke?" repeated Tanjiro in confusion.

However, before Matsuemon could begin to continue this strange behaviour, a stranger individual swooped in – Inosuke grabbed onto the crow's feathers, announcing, "Let's eat this thing," Matsuemon stiffened and quickly flew to hide behind Ajisaika.

"You are not going to eat a Kusagai Crow, Inosuke-Kun," Ajisaika told him, not very keen on this behaviour right now. "They are not for consumption, they are supposed to guide us,"

It was all that took for Inosuke to start grappling with Ajisaika – fortunately, it was more with their words than their limbs this time around, but Tanjiro could only sigh as Ajisaika threw Inosuke on the ground and restrained him against the dust. The two of them thrashed around as Inosuke tried to put Ajisaika under him but she would flip him over and slam his face into the mud again.