Pillar training. Trial one : Former hashira Uzui Tengen.
“Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow!! The hell are you people doing?! I got no clue! Your stamina's low as hell! This is just basic running, man! If you're gonna be this slow, beating an upper moon gonna be a dream within a dream, okay?!”
As you would expect of a training with a hashira, Uzui was almost killing everyone.
“Hey! Hey! Hey! I didn't ask you to lick the ground!” He angrily hit the back of one of the various slayers doing push-ups on the floor with a wood cane. “It's not break time yet, so go for another round!”
“You're all useless, you've got no substance…. oh, very good, Y/N!”
“? I'm not doing anything?” Y/N confusedly looked up at him, she has been playing with a stray cat she found all this time.
“Excellent job!” He only ignored her, not even trying to hide his favoritism.
“Oh, right, can I leave early?” She finally left the cat alone and got up to talk to him directly. “Me and Tanjiro are going to visit Giyuu.” She completed, letting out a tired yawn and stretching her arms.
“Huh? Why?”
“Master's request. You know how Giyuu is, with the gloominess and all.” She shrugged.
'Who the hell is this girl??!' The other poor corps members were scared to death, they didn't know if they should be mad at the biased treatment or at the way she talked so informally with the hashiras.
Pillar training. First, Uzui does the initial hazing basic with stamina training, then Kanroji handles the hellish flexibility training, and Muichiro deals with the quick movement training.
Then the snake pillar focuses on sword skill revision, the wind pillar the infinite pounding training, and the rock pillar trains muscle reinforcement.
Even the pillars get to improve by facing waves upon waves of swordsmen. If anyone's heart rate and temperature get high enough for the mark to appear, everyone wins.
Those who already had the mark will train, so they can continuously stay in the marked state.
Once every member of the demon hunters received this information, they became very motivated to prepare for the upcoming fight.
Except for one man.....
“Excuse meeeeee, Tomioka-saaaaaaaan, heeeeeey, helloooooo, Giyuu-saaaan, it's meeee, Kamado Tanjirooo-”
Tanjiro and Y/N were both standing in front of his home door, but there was no answer at all.
“… Do you think he's not home, Y/N?” Tanjiro turned to her with a sad frown.
“You don't understand Tanjiro! The way to communicate with Giyuu is….”
“Is wh-” Just as he was about to ask what it was, Y/N suddenly slammed the door open.
“GOOD MORNING, GIYUU-SAN! HOPE YOU DON'T MIND THE INVASION OF PROPERTY!” Giyuu, who was sitting in the middle of the room, jumped from surprise.
To Y/N, the way to communicate with Giyuu is forced interaction, so if he doesn't want to open the door, she invades the house! That's obviously the only correct answer.
.
.
.
“And so, everyone's training.” They both sat down in front of Giyuu and Tanjiro was earnestly explaining what was going on with the corps.
“I know.” He coldly said. 'So close.'
“Ah! So you knew already. Oh, uhh… I'll be allowed to return to duty in seven days, so can you train me when I out?”
“No.”
“Why not, though?” Tanjiro insisted. “I smell the anger in your body, but why are you mad?”
“I'm mad because you didn't master the water breathing, you needed to become the water pillar.”
“I'm really sorry about that, I've discussed this with Urokudaki-san before too, it's not rare to change breathes or to create an offshoot of one, and water breathing is one of the basics breaths, so there are a lot of derivatives.” Tanjiro nervously said, trying to explain himself.
“That's not what I was talking about. Someone has to be the water pillar right now because the water pillar seat is vacant.”
“…? The water pillar seat is vacant…? Isn't that you, Tomioka-san?”
“I am not the water pillar.”
Tanjiro confusedly tilted his head.
“Go away.” Giyuu started to leave.
“H-he's leaving-! What should we do?!” Tanjiro whisper-yelled to Y/N, who jolted.
'If sweet Tanjiro didn't work, then-!"
Giyuu was stopped when something suddenly hugged his arm, he stumbled at the sudden impact and exasperatedly looked back. “What are you doing?”
“U-uh, well… I- um-” Y/N did that without thinking because she wanted to stop him from leaving, but she didn't think about what to say next!
Still, Ubuyashiki's letter…
Y/N, Tanjiro… how are your injuries? Unfortunately, I can't move now. I want to talk to Giyuu, but I can't do it anymore.
This is a very important time now, I want everyone to work hard as one, would you be willing to talk to Giyuu? I want giyuu to stop turning his back to us all alone, and forward with us.
Could you have a serious talk with him?
Y/N kept Oyakata's words in mind.
“Giyuu, uh… did you…” She exasperatedly side-eyed Tanjiro, who gave her encouraging thumbs-up for her to keep talking.
So, looking back at Giyuu, she ended up blurting out : “….did you already have lunch?”
“Wha-”
“Me.” She pointed to herself. “You.” She pointed to Giyuu. “And him!” She pointed to Tanjiro. “Let's all go out, together!”
In moments of desperation, Y/N's first thoughts end up always being food. Maybe she only proposed that because she was hungry herself in the first place.
But it's not like it was for nothing! If what they needed was to have a serious conversation, then forcing Giyuu to go out with them to eat would be a perfect situation to talk! Yeah, it was a perfect idea!
Thanks to Y/N's weird ability that made people have a hard time refusing her, Giyuu ended up accepting.
It was being a pretty awkward walk, though.
Giyuu was walking quickly and was quite far from them, probably hoping they would lose him.
“Y/N, he still looks very gloomy…” Tanjiro commented, both staring at his back with frowns.
“I know… but what should we do?! I barely convinced him to go out with us…” She cried.
“Ah! Let's try telling him a joke!”
“I doubt that's going to work- whoa!” Tanjiro suddenly grabbed her wrist and started to run up to Giyuu.
“Go on, Y/N! I trust you!” Tanjiro brightly said, now they were both walking on opposite sides of Giyuu.
The thing is, Y/N only knew bad jokes, so this plan was fated to fail from the start.
“Okay, uh… what do you call an alligator in a vest?” Giyuu only side-eyed her, signalizing that he was listening.
“An in-vest-igator.”
Silence.
“Pfff-” Tanjiro suddenly covered his mouth and muffled away a laugh.
“….Tanjiro, don't tell me that you ACTUALLY found that funny-” Y/N approached him with a disbelieved look.
“N-no way-” He responded, though his shoulders were trembling.
Y/N stared at him in silence, and then suddenly said : “…. Did you hear about the italian chef who died?”
“W-what?” He looked at her.
“He pasta-away.”
“HAHA-” Tanjiro once again slapped his hand against his mouth, hugging his stomach with his free hand like he just heard the funniest thing ever.
“Did you hear about the guy who invented the knock-knock joke? He won the 'no-bell' prize.”
“PPFT- s-stop!”
“Wanna hear two short jokes and a long one? Joke, joke, jooooooooookeeeeee.”
“N-no more! Please-!”
“What's red and bad for your teeth? A brick.”
“HAHA-”
Giyuu stared at the two playing around with no reaction, he didn't know if he should be more surprised at the amount of bad jokes Y/N knew, or of the fact that Tanjiro actually found them funny.
Furthermore, the 'plan' of making Giyuu laugh with a joke was a total fail. Actually, it only resulted in Y/N discovering a new weakness for Tanjiro instead.
“Okay, this is the place!” Y/N pointed to a restaurant.
“Wow! From where do you know this place, Y/N?”
“I came here with Uzui and his wives before! It was fun."
Oh yeah, Uzui remembered very clearly the day that Y/N guilty-tripped him into buying her food after she threw the 'I'm poor and almost died because you forced me to go to the red-light district arc' card.
“Anyway, this is place is really good! And you guys know why?!” Y/N asked them with a mischievous smile.
“W-why…?” Tanjiro asked, sweat-dropping at her expression, he had the impression she was about to do something weird.
They sat up in a random free table, and as Y/N happily ordered for them, Tanjiro and Giyuu couldn't help but feel suspicious at how eager she looked.
After a while, a plate with three manjus was put on the table. “Ta-da! Death manju game!”
“Huh?”
“Two manjus are delicious! One manju is deadly spicy! I even saw some people being carried to the hospital before because of it!”
“H-Hospital?!”
“I played this game with Uzui, but I asked the waiter to change all of them to the spicy one in secret and made him eat first, hehe!” Y/N commented, smiling like she was remembering a fond memory.
'A devil! An adorable one, but still a devil-!' and for the first time ever, Tanjiro finally caught a glimpse of Y/N's true face.
“S-so…” Tanjiro gulped. “Who's going to pick one first?”
“Go on, Giyuu! You're the guest.” Y/N happily offered to him, he didn't look pleased, obviously.
He trembled as his hand reached out to the manjus, he had a surprisingly serious expression and seemed to be sincerely calculating which one to pick.
After he picked one, Y/N and Tanjiro both made their choice, and now the three were holding their respective manjus.
“Thanks for the food!” Y/N happily exclaimed, biting down on the manju without showing any kind of fear.
“A-ah! Thanks for the food!” Tanjiro imitated her, though he was internally praying for his life.
Giyuu also nonchalantly ate his.
“Mine's safe!” Y/N gulped down the food in her mouth.
“Mine is fine too, phew…” Tanjiro sighed from relief.
They both turned to look at Giyuu, waiting for a reaction. “… Mine tastes normal, too.”
“Whaaa?! No way, did they forget to put the bad one?” Y/N questioned, starting to tear-up.
'Wow, she's really sad about it-' Tanjiro sweat-dropped.
“It's okay, y/n! It still was a fun experience, you know, with the danger feeling and all.” He tried to cheer her up, patting her head.
“Damn, I was hoping for something funnier.” Y/N put her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her hands, letting out a disappointed sigh. “I knew I should have brought Zenitsu instead!”
Zenitsu felt a disturbance in the force.
“…. You should bring Akaza, actually.” Tanjiro commented.
“I would, but he doesn't eat human food.”
“That's too bad.”
“You look suspiciously disappointed about it-”
As Y/N and Tanjiro discussed the possible next victims, Giyuu kept eating the deadly manju, and because they were so absorbed in the conversation, they didn't notice the pink aura around his head.
“… Do you want a bite of mine, Y/N?” Giyuu suddenly offered.
“Huh? Sure…” Y/N felt a bit suspicious about it, but still took a bite of his.
And, after five seconds : “Euhk-” Y/N slapped her hand against her mouth, like she was about to vomit.
In the end, it turns out that it was Giyuu who had a high resistance to spice.
“Y-Y/N?”
“Tanjiro, I think I'm seeing the light-” Just as Y/N said that, she suddenly seemed to have blacked out, her head hitting against the table.
“AAAH- WATER-! SOMEONE BRING WATER!!”
Someone brought the water just after, and Y/N quickly gulped it down in one go.
“Phew… are you okay now, Y/N?”
“Zzzzzz-”
'SHE SLEPT!!'
Now, Tanjiro was left alone with Giyuu.
The thing is, it was a bit hard to hold a conversation without Y/N as a mediator, and since the reason why Giyuu was there in the first place was sleeping, his gloominess expanded by 100x.
After a while of awkward silence, Y/N finally started to sit up.
“Y/N! You're awake, thank god!”
“.....hic!”
“Hic?” Tanjiro's happiness was instantly broken.
“Haha…ha! What's up with your faces? You guys look all gloomy and boring, hic!”
“N-no way-” He exasperatedly looked down at the cup of 'water' Y/N had drank, and it turned out to be sake, someone probably mixed it up because of how similar the liquids look.
'Y/N, why are you so unlucky with alcohol?!'
Y/N slowly turned to look at Giyuu, he sweat-dropped at the way her face lightened up. “Wow! Who's this handsome guy? Wow! Wow! So handsome!”
“Hey… is there a way to fix that?” Giyuu asked to Tanjiro while pushing Y/N, who kept trying to hug him.
“She will sober up.....eventually.” He tiredly said.
“Eventually?”
“Oh! But don't worry! This is way less worse than last time, at least she even isn't trying to take off her clothes!”
“Take off her clothes?!”
“Take off the clothes? Haha! Who would be so stupid to do that? Hic!”
'….you…' They both sweat-dropped.
“Hey, hey! Handsome guy, why don't you marry me? I swear I will make you happy!”
“Please be sober first before making such a proposal.” Giyuu sighed.
“Whaaa…? But I'm totally sober right now, hic!”
“No, you aren't. Go back to sleep.”
“Don't wanna!”
“Hey, Y/N, you will only marry someone if he's handsome?” Tanjiro asked, he seemed very serious about the answer.
“Yeah! And if he has a loooot of money too!” She happily said, lifting her arms.
He clasped her hand with both of his. “I swear I will work hard, Y/N!”
She tilted her head in response, exclaiming excitedly despite not understanding what he meant : “Okay! Work hard then!” She patted his head.
“You too, work hard!” She turned to Giyuu and also patted his head, while he blankly sat there, questioning his life decisions.
'Work hard on what, exactly?' He thought.
“Huh?” She didn't stop petting his head. “Whoaaa! Your hair is so soft!”
“Is it?” He blankly questioned.
“Ehehe, soft hair-” She ignored him, nuzzling against his hair like a cat.
“Can you st-"
“Zzzzzzzz-”
“Phew, she finally slept.” Tanjiro let out a relieved sigh.
“Let's take her back to the butterfly mansion.” Giyuu nonchalantly said, carrying Y/N on his back.
“Oh, sorry for the trouble.....”
The way back was silent, Y/N had finally woken up in the middle of the way, but was embarrassed for getting drunk again and ended up staying silent.
When they arrived at the mansion, Tanjiro entered first and went to check if Shinobu was around, since she would definitely kill them if she saw Y/N's state.
“You know…” Y/N suddenly spoke up. “I think you carried me like this before…”
“… I did. Though you at least were sober at the time.”
“Wow, how mean.”
More silence.
“I'm sorry. I was supposed to cheer you up, but I just caused trouble instead.” She buried her face further in his neck.
“It's okay, it's not your fault they mixed the drinks anyway, and as I said before, it's hard to be mad at you.”
“Maybe I should hurry up and build my alcohol resistance already.” Y/N sighed.
“Please don't drink without anyone around, you're dangerous when you're drunk.”
“Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!” She playfully said.
“…”
“Jeez, I was trying to do a heartfelt apology, and you completely ruined it.”
“As I said, I don't need an apology, since I had fun.”
“…. You truly did? Or you're just saying this to make me feel better?” She rested her chin on his shoulder.
“I truly did.”
“If you're lying, I will seriously, completely, get mad at you.”
“I'm not. It's never boring when you're around.”
“Aaaww, don't say such cute things! I might get mixed signals, you know?”
“You're welcome to get as many mixed signals as you want.”
“Wha-”
“Y/N! Giyuu! It's safe!" Tanjiro interrupted them, making it impossible for the girl to question what he meant.
"Until tomorrow Giyuu!" He excitedly waved goodbye to him as they both entered the mansion.
"Goodbye...."
'...wait, until tomorrow?'
They still had to talk with him and make him open himself, so they would be sure to go annoy him everyday until he caved.