"Daki, Gyutaro, Akaza! I'm back! Are you guys already frie...." Y/N opened the room's door.
"Oh-" Akaza was hanging from the ceiling with a rope tied around his body, there was also a bonfire under him.
"WHY ARE YOU GUYS TRYING TO COOK HIM-"
.
.
.
"Aaah! Haganekuza-san! So, you're feeling better now? That's great!" A week later, Haganekuza had come to visit Tanjiro.
"Isn't it hot today? Why don't you take off your mask?" Come on Y/N, with the face you're making, everyone can tell your true intentions.
"Haa....haa.....haaa...haaa....haaa" The swordsmith, however, didn't respond to either of them, and just kept breathing erratically.
"You sure don't look okay, though?!"
He didn't answer again, and only silently took out Tanjiro's new sword, handing it over to him. "Ah... The sword... Thank you very much..."
"Please have a seat, are you okay there?" Goto offered to Haganekuza, who sat down while still breathing heavily.
"Haa....haa....bla....blade..." He managed to mumble out.
"Blade?! Yeah, let's take a look at the blade!"
Tanjiro then finally unsheathed it, the blade had a different depth of black that made it seem like the sharp part had flames. "Amazing... there's a different depth of black here."
"And the steel is good quality, the previous wielder must have been a very strong swordsman." Haganezuka completed.
Oh, look, they're talking about your father, Y/N. Aren't you feeling proud?
'What about Mirieth?'
Bye.
"- The character 'metsu' for destruction, the swordsmith who forged this sword, made it to destroy all demons. He didn't leave a single clue about his identity, and there was nothing but that character. Apparently, the demon hunters hierarchy was established after the blade was made, and that's why only the pillars get the characters 'destroy all evil demons on them'."
"Oh, I see now, what an amazing sword..." Tanjiro trembled before confusedly looking down at the blade again. "But I don't think I saw the character when I used it last time..."
Just after he said this, Haganekuza suddenly started to produce a scary aura and pounced on Y/N, pulling her hair while continuously poking her cheek. "THAT'S BECAUSE THIS LITTLE GODDAM DIPSHIT TOOK THE SWORD FROM ME WHEN I ONLY MANAGED TO FINISH THE FIRST STAGE OF THE PROCESS!"
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Hey- I'm not into this shit! At least take your mask off first! Ow! Ow!" She squirmed in his grasp.
"I DIDN'T EVEN GET THE RUST OFF, IMMA KILL YOU TWO!!"
"W-we are sorry! Let Y/N go, please? She was just trying to help me-"
Haganekuza ignored him and kept rambling : "The fact that there are irremovable scratches on this blade right now is making me cry waterfalls, the pain is physically killing me!"
He finally let go of Y/N to pull Tanjiro's cheek instead. "Thanks to you dumbasses using the blade during the grinding process, I had to restart the whole thing from scratch!"
"I'm so sorry!"
"Yeah, Tanjiro is truly sorry, Hotaru."
"DON'T CALL ME BY THAT NAME-"
"But this guy had some pretty bad wounds himself." Goto interrupted them. "There were broken bones all over his body."
"He's right! Tanjiro suffered a lot, so you have to be nice to him!" Y/N completed Goto statement, hugging Tanjiro and resting her cheek on top of his head while accusingly pointing her finger at him.
'That's not the face of someone who's suffering, though-' Goto thought, sweat-dropping at how happy Tanjiro looked.
"IMMA STILL KILL YOU!" Haganekuza exclaimed.
"He wasn't listening at all!"
"Listen Tanjiro, Y/N, you know you're going to have to bring me mitarashi dumplings from now on until the day I die, right?!" He grabbed both of their ears and pulled them.
"O...okay! We'll do that!"
"Thank you very much!" He nodded in approbation and then started to storm off. "Take care!"
"I only heard rumors about him, but he's pretty intense..." Goto commented.
"Actually, he was pretty mild today, it looked like he was in pain."
"You're kidding-"
"Actually, Tanjiro's right....he even didn't choke me this time..." Y/N gloomily said.
"...why do you sound sad about it?" The kakushi said, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance.
"You people have been babbling on and on for a while...." Genya's voice interrupted them, he was laying on a far away bed.
"Sorry Genya, we're done now, sorry for the com-" Tanjiro was about to apologize, but the wall suddenly exploded.
Inosuke had suddenly crashed through the window, Goto exasperatedly avoiding being hit. "WAAAAAGH!"
"INOSUKE! WHY'D BREAK THE WINDOW?! YOU DUMBASS! KOCHOU-SAMA'S GONNA KILL YOU! AND THE DEBRIS HIT Y/N TOO!" Goto exclaimed, slapping the boy's back and pointing to Y/N on the floor.
"It's okay Inosuke, I'm totally finee...." Y/N dizzily sat up, blood starting to seep out from her nose. "Oh.... everything is dark all of a sudden...."
"AAAAAAH! NOW KOCHOU-SAMA'S GOING TO KILL ME TOO!" The kakushi started to cry even more loudly, tackling Y/N and shoving a handkerchief against her nose.
"AAAA- UNDERLING! ARE YOU OKAY??" Inosuke approached her, confused about to do.
"Huh? Inosuke... you look kinda plain today..."
"THAT'S THE WALL, Y/N! NOT INOSUKE! WAAGH-!" Goto panicked even more.
'I want a different room!' Genya covered his ears, annoyed.
"ANYWAY! SINCE YOU'RE ALIVE, UNDERLING, I WILL TELL YOU! WE GONNA HAVE A SUPER HARD TRAINING SESSION! LOT'S OF STRONG PEOPLE COMING TOGETHER TO TRAIN.... AND SOME HUBBLE DUBBER I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT."
"? What do you mean?" Tanjiro questioned.
"NO CLUE AT ALL!"
"Oh...okay."
A special training session began. It was called 'pillar training'. Those who ranked lower than pillars training with them one by one.
Usually, the pillars would train only their successors and no one else, and that's because pillars were busy. Pillar had many things to do, like protecting their assigned regions, gathering information on the demons, and improving their swordsmanship.
But ever since Nezuko conquered the sun, the demons suddenly stopped appearing, it was like the calm before the storm.
And because of that, pillars only had to focus on night patrol and day training now.
"Apparently..." Zenitsu was explaining the details of the training to Tanjiro.
"Oh, I see! Amazing!"
"No. It's not. It's horrible. It's living hell. Who thought of this crap? That piece of shit should die."
"Hey!" Y/N flicked Zenitsu's forehead. "Don't listen to him, Tanjiro! It's actually kinda fun-"
"NO, IT'S NOT! THAT EASY FOR YOU TO SAY Y/N! BECAUSE OF HOW INSANELY CUTE YOU ARE, THEY ALL GO EASY ON YOU!"
"Haha... is that so?" Y/N said in response, awkwardly laughing.
"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH SHE TURNED THINGS INTO CHAOS, TANJIRO!" Zenitsu turned to Tanjiro, pointing to Y/N like she was a monster.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You had to see! A girl slipped, and then she held her all prince like, and now there are suddenly a bunch of girls asking me to introduce them to my handsome friend! What's up with that?!"
Tanjiro confusedly tilted his head. "But I thought that you were already used to Y/N being popular with girls?"
"It's the first I have been called handsome by people, haha!"
"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING IT OFF?!" He grabbed Y/N's shirt and started to frantically shake her. "WE DIDN'T EVEN GET MARRIED YET, BUT MY RIVALS HAVE ALREADY INCREASED TO ALL THE FEMALE MEMBERS OF THE CORPS TOO!"
'Oh. So he's jealous of Y/N.' Tanjiro sweat-dropped.
"There, you're exaggerating it." Y/N patted his head.
Even so, Zenitsu kept crying. "Sniff- CAN'T YOU STOP BEING SO PRETTY JUST FOR A SECOND?!"
"I'm not sure what do you mean by that-" Y/N sweat-dropped.
"Oh, Zenitsu!" Tanjiro said, making him stop shaking Y/N to look at him instead. "I forgot to say thanks, I couldn't use one of my legs back when I was fighting upper moon four, but I managed to cut his head off thanks to the lighting breathing trick you taught me before! I mean, it wasn't as fast as you were, of course, but thanks. This is why having connections with people actually helps out, I'm sure everything you learn at the pillar training will help you reach a great future."
"....Aaaaaaw, you dumbass! You really think that will make me feel better?" Zenitsu responded with a goofy smile.
'Oh. He's feeling better.'
Just after he left, a crow suddenly tackled Tanjiro, harshly pecking his forehead. "Gyaaah! What are you doing?! You meanie!"
"Letter from Oyakata-sama! You both need to read it now."
"Letter? For us? You went through all the trouble?"
"Ngh." The crow nodded.
"Hmm... I wonder what it's about?"