Stone Cold | Tanjirou Kamado

3. The sweet embrace of home

“I can’t help it, you are just so strong!” he exclaimed with more enthusiasm than Ayaka tolerated. “When you cut off the arms of the demon in a second I was so impressed! It was so cool you could see it coming!”

Ayaka 's eyes settled on him for just a moment, ignoring his compliments. She didn’t need them, she already knew that. However, there was something bothering her. 

“You are dirty”, she commented, pointing a finger at him. She took a step away from him. 

A confused grimace painted itself on Tanjirou 's face. He brought his arm up to his eyes.

“I don’t see any dirt”, he said, looking at her even more confused. 

«Of course he doesn’t see it», Ayaka thought.

Her sight came with disadvantages. She could see every one of the speck of dust on Tanjirou’s uniform. Although the boy wasn’t very clean either. Ayaka’s nose wrinkled uncomfortably again, unable to drift her gaze from the filth on his skin. 

“You went under the floor, right? On the swamp”, she said, taking it for granted. “I can even feel the grease emanating from you, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. You are lucky, none of our crows have assigned us any missions and my parent’s house is near. “She frowned again.” You can take a bath there.”

“Do I smell that bad?”, Tanjirou whispered to himself, sniffing at his own arm. 

A moment in silence passed (which felt like heaven) until Tanjirou talked again. 

“Can I call you Aya then?” he asked. Ayaka just shrugged. 

“You can do whatever you want as long as you don’t use honorifics, I don’t care”, she commented without giving it too much thought. 

The Sun was starting to rise over the horizon when Ayaka and Tanjirou left behind that village. 

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It was near lunch when they finally got to the rice field Ayaka had been raised on. 

The memories hit her strongly, going back to her mind after so long. If you followed the earth path to the right you’d get to the village. 

It wasn’t very big, just enough to not draw attention to itself. 

It had certain small shops, majorly on the market. If Ayaka hadn’t forgotten, she swore there was a small mochi shop. In her family they had the habit of buying a bit on New Year 's. The melon flavoured one was her and her grandma’s favourite.

The majority of the people lived in the village, and they worked on the market or similar jobs as artisans or on the rice field. 

Many of the farmers had travelled to the big cities to work on factories and the industry. So a big part of those that worked on the rice field had moved away to near towns over the past decades.

Fortunately or not, Ayaka’s father was too weak to work a job as tough as a factory’s, making her parents stay on the known and comfortable rice fields. 

However her parents didn’t live in the village, but at the end of the crops. Near the river. 

And to go there, Ayaka had to cross all the way over there. This only made the people working there whisper as they went. 

This was why she hated the rice fields. 

She tried to ignore them, but she couldn’t help but tense at hearing their voices. Why couldn’t they just shut up?