“… that's underwhelming.” Douma tilted his head, sighing like he was faking disappointment. “I was expecting to see a stunning beauty, you know?”
“Wha-!” His insult made Y/N snap out of her surprise. “Excuse me?! For your information, I'm very pretty! Almost angelic, humbly saying!”
He stared at her blankly, and then rested his chin on the palm of his hand while smiling. “I'm prettier.”
'He's- HE'S SO ANNOYING- and the fact that he's right annoys me even more!' Y/N was shaking from anger, no wonder everyone hates that guy!
“Oh? Now that expression is interesting! Are you mad? Annoyed? Offended? Or everything at once?” He tried to reach out to her face once again.
“Hey! Paws off!” She smacked his hand away. “What the hell are you doing here anyway?! Surely, you didn't come all the here just to call me ugly, did you?”
He stared at the hand she smacked in shock for some seconds, and then giggled. “Why do you think I'm here?”
Y/N stared blankly at him, waiting for him to say that it was a joke and finally tell what he's going to do, but he just looked back at her with a grin. Is this guy being serious?
“Uh.....lunchtime?” She answered, unsure.
“Oh well, I wouldn't mind eating you, but I don't have permission for that.” Douma said, getting up and shrugging. “Now, stay quiet while I eliminate y-”
“W-Wait!” Y/N exasperatedly got up. “Have you ever heard about the knight's principle?”
“The what?” He tilted his head, confused.
“When you're facing an opponent who's waaay weaker than you, it's common courtesy to let them lay a hit on you first!” You can probably tell, but Y/N is totally just coming with bullshit right now.
“…. Really?” He frowned.
“Yeah.” She nodded.
“Okay then, go on!” Douma said a bright smile, opening his arms and waiting for her to do a move.
The thing is, Y/N's bullshit wasn't that far-fetched. You see, Douma's strength is also one of his biggest weakness.
Because he's used to always being above everyone else, he's incapable of taking his opponents seriously, that's also what led him to his defeat in the manga.
It's obvious that he didn't buy Y/N's suggestion at all, but he knows that it doesn't matter what she does, she can't kill him.
The reason why he's letting her have a hit, is simply because he's curious about what she's planning to do.
Y/N prepared her sword, she felt the sweat dripping down her forehead thanks to the nervousness. 'I have no attack that can kill him in one hit. I mean, maybe reality rupture, but I would die after, so it's pointless.'
She shook her head, her hands trembling on the handle of the sword. 'I don't need to think about killing him, what I need is to buy time. Paralyze him enough so I can reach Akaza. He can't defeat Douma, but he would last longer than me in a fight.'
After she finished organizing her thoughts, she prepared to attack. Douma's eyes narrowed when she took an attacking stance.
'I will use the secret technique that was taught by a dear friend to me a long time ago!' She ran in douma's direction, lifting her sword like she was about to swing at him.
One second before her sword could touch Douma's neck, he raised his arm, ready to defend, and then….
In an unexpected move, Y/N raised her leg and harshly kicked his crotch instead. 'Hiro, thank you for your teachings!'
“AKAZAAAAaaaaaₐₐₐₐₐ” After the damage was done, she ran off while calling for Akaza.
'I kicked upper moon two on the balls. I Kicked Upper Moon Two On The Balls. I KICKED UPPER MOON TWO ON THE BALLS.' Y/N was deeply panicking as she ran inside the mansion, invading Akaza's room.
“Hey, what the hell?!” He got up from his futon, annoyed. He seemed to really like sleeping recently.
“Akaza! Woxvksakka-” She hugged him while crying, her words incoherent thanks to the sobbing noises that mixed with them.
“Calm down! I can't understand shit about what you're saying-!”
In between her sobs, Akaza could recognize the words 'douma' and 'balls', but he has no idea how they are supposed to connect.
After a while, she managed to take him to the forest where she last saw Douma, but…
“There's nobody here.”
“What?! No way! I totally-GYAH!” Akaza suddenly pulled her into a protective hugging, punching off what it seemed to an icicle that had flown in her direction.
“So it really was true! You really betrayed the lord for the sake of a girl, I'm impressed!” Douma appeared beside them, Akaza pulling Y/N behind him to stand in between the two. “Whoa! Now that's a scary expression!”
'T-that's- THIS BITCH WAS ABOUT TO IMPALE ME WITH A FUCKING ICICLE???' Y/N had a delayed reaction.
“Hey, Y/N!” Douma inclined to look at her, who was still hiding behind Akaza's back.
“Don't call her by her first name, you freak-”
“That was a really low blow you did back there!” Douma exclaimed while looking directly at Y/N, he was entirely ignoring Akaza's existence, she could see the irk marks all over his head. “What happened to the knight's principle you were talking about?”
Y/N shrugged in response, saying with a smug grin: “There's no rule saying that I can't kick the balls.”
Douma's smile twitched a bit. If he had emotions, he would probably feel annoyed now.
“Hey, what the hell did you do?!” Akaza, confused by the conversation, suddenly turned to Y/N, who gasped in offense.
“What do you mean, what I did?! For your information, this little shit attacked me first, he even called me ugly! So, I kicked his balls in self-defense!” She argued back while accusingly pointing her finger at Douma.
“No way, you kicked his balls?! How?! Why are all of your encounters with upper moons like this?! What's next, you're going to defeat upper moon one with a tennis ball??”
“If you get me a tennis ball, I will be sure to do it!”
“I WAS BEING SARCASTIC, YOU DUMB-”
“I WAS BEING SARCASTIC TOO! YOU NEVER GET MY JOKES-”
“HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME-”
'What the-' Douma blankly watched them screaming each other. That's…. Not how he was expecting their relationship to be.
“Okay, back to me eliminating Y/N-” He tried to step in, only to be interrupted by Y/N's glare.
“Shut up, gay eyes! We are having a moment here, shoo, shoo!”
'This brat-' Even though he was still smiling outside, there was a vein about to pop on his forehead.
“HOW I AM SUPPOSED TO UNDERSTAND YOUR JOKES IF THEY DON'T EVEN MAKE SENSE HALF OF THE TIME?”
“EXCUSE ME? THEY DO MAKE SENSE!”
“OH YEAH? SO TELL ME HOW ASKING MUZAN WHO IS BILLY JEAN WOULD MAKE SENSE?”
“… Well, she's definitely not his lover-”
“SEE?? YOU'RE DOING ONE OF THOSE JOKES THAT WOULD ONLY MAKE SENSE IN THE FUTURE AGAIN!”
“IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEM, WHY DIDN'T YOU EVER TOLD ME BEFORE?”
“I DIDN'T TELL YOU BECAUSE YOU GET MAD, JUST LIKE NOW-”
“OH YEAH? THEN I WON'T TELL YOU THAT IT'S ALREADY MORNING AND THERE'S A SUN RAY ABOUT TO BURN YOUR FOOT!” Y/N exclaimed back, frantically pointing to his feet.
“Wha-” He looked down at the same time a sun ray touched his foot, the pain from the burn making him grab it and jump a few times like a cartoon. “OW! FUCK-”
“Let's go back before the sun burns you away.” Y/N sighed.
“What should we do about him, though?” Akaza weakly pointed at Douma.
“Oh.” Y/N froze. “Leave him there to burn, I don't really care.” She started to walk away.
“If you do that, I'm turning you and your friends into ice cubes before going down.” Douma commented with a faked smile, letting out a giggle when Y/N turned back to him in quick steps.
.
.
.
“Daki, new roommate for you.”
“Oh, who-” Her eyes almost popped out of her skull after she saw who was the new 'roommate'. “GYAAAAAH ISN'T THAT UPPER MOON TWO-”
“No questions, please bear with it for a bit, it's just for today.” Y/N said, putting her hand in front of Daki's face and interrupting her screams as she pushed the demon inside. “And you, as soon as the moon appears, I want you gone, got it?”
Douma didn't answer her, and even though he was still smiling, the way that his rainbow eyes seemed to be always analyzing her made Y/N feel very uncomfortable.
“If you hear someone coming, push him under the bed or something, just don't let anyone see that guy, SPECIALLY Shinobu.” She decided to ignore him and turn to speak with Daki instead.
“O-okay.” Daki nodded, awkwardly side-eying Douma a few times, even though It's just for today, what the hell is she supposed to do with upper two the whole day?!
Y/N sighed as she closed the door of Daki's room, Akaza was waiting outside, he seemed as uncomfortable as her.
“Hey, do you know what he's thinking?” She asked.
“I have no idea.” He shook his head. “It doesn't seem like he's here to kill you, though. If he were, you would already be dead.”
“Ugh. Even upper moon one would be better! I can't deal with that person!” She grabbed her head, furiously pulling her hair.
“… No, I think it was better that he was the one who came here.”
“How so?” Y/N questioned, frowning like she heard something absurd.
After this, Akaza explained what were the two ways to survive a Douma encounter :
One : Be strong enough to defeat him or escape, which is already really unlikely.
Two : Be interesting, he often spare humans that pick his interest.
However, Akaza was not sure if the reason Y/N survived was because she fit in what Douma would consider “intriguing”, since that in the end, it's simply impossible to tell what his intentions are.
What he did know, is that Douma deliberately intimidated Y/N for her to put him inside the mansion, but he doesn't understand WHY he did it.
After all, If he's truly here to kill her or the people of the mansion, it's not like he NEEDED her help to go inside in the first place.
“I need to go to the training, Tanjiro is supposed to start today, but I would rather not leave that man by himself here, I don't trust that thing at all.” She mumbled while staring at the door, biting the nail of her thumb in anxiety.
“You can go, I watch him.”
“Huh?” She jolted. “Are you sure? I thought you hated being out of your room?”
“I do, but if you don't show up at the training I'm sure a bunch of people would come looking for you thinking you are sick or something, it would be annoying.”
“Yeah, but-”
“And even if you watch him, in the possibility that he does try to do something, there's not much you would be able to do to stop him in the first place, so I guess I would have to watch him either way.” He shrugged.
Y/N smiled blankly at him in response, even though he was right, his choice of words annoyed her. A lot. “I will be leaving then, be careful.”
She started to run off, but suddenly stopped in the middle of the way, running back to Akaza as his serious expression changed to a confused one.
“What is it? Did you forget something?” He crossed his arms, frowning.
“Not really.” She shook her head. “It's just that I noticed that you've been helping me a lot recently, I don't think I ever thanked you for it.”
Wow. That caught him by surprise.
He cleaned his throat to recompose himself, and said with a prideful voice : “that's right, it's only obvious you should realize your mistake-”
“Thank you, Akaza.” She cut his monologue off, smiling gently at him. “If there's ever something you need help with, be sure to tell me!”
And she finally left, waving goodbye as she disappeared in the distance.
Akaza stared at her. Him? Needing help? What a joke. It was even more of a joke that she expected he would ask HER, of all people for it, someone so weak that he could kill in a single hit.
If it were any other person, he would feel annoyed, maybe even disgusted. After all, there's nothing that he hates more than weak people.
But it's her.
Akaza turned to stare at the room that Douma was in. He remembered how troubled Y/N looked.
'I really… should find a way to get rid of him.'
『••✎••』
“Oh man! It has been a while! I heard you fought another upper moon, I gotta say, the only people who are in tip-top shape around here are the lucky ones, so lemme just whip that lunky body of yours back to good condition!” Uzui welcomed Tanjiro.
“Oh my!”
“You're finally here!”
“Eat as much as you like!” His wives also welcomed him.
“Y/N here will explain how everything works to you!” He exclaimed, patting her head.
“Yay…” She gloomily said, raising her hand despite the lack of energy.
“Y/N, are you okay? You look as if you didn't sleep at all.” Tanjiro asked her with a worried question.
That's because she didn't sleep at all thanks to the whole Douma ordeal. Moreover, the anxiety and fear of coming back to the butterfly mansion only to see everyone dead, or him simply deciding to attack the corps as a whole, made her unable to rest.
Even so, she had to do her best so Tanjiro could succeed properly in the training, so she would not give up!
“Okay, Tanjiro, fighting!!” She suddenly exclaimed.
'She got energized all of a sudden-!'
“Uzui's special physical training start with 100 push-ups!”
“Wha-”
“And then-”
“Good morning, Y/N!” A passing demon slayer greeted her.
“Oh, hi! Good morning!” She greeted them back before turning to Tanjiro again. “And then 100 sit ups!”
“Okay! And then?” Tanjiro didn't seem intimated at all, despite the crazy numbers.
“And then-”
“Good morning Y/N, are you skipping training again?” Another member of the corps interrupted her.
“Wha- I'm not skipping training! I'm doing the important job of introducing the new participant to the training schedule!” She exclaimed back, offended.
“Yeah, sure.”
“It's true!”
'Wow, it's been only ten days, but she has already made so many friends-' Tanjiro stared at her in awe.
“Anyway, explaining it briefly before I get distracted again!” After a while, she finally turned back to Tanjiro. “One hundred sit ups! One hundred push-ups! One hundred squats, and then finish with a 10 km(6.2 miles) run! If you can do it and by the end of the day you don't feel like you're going to die, then you can pass on to the next hashira!”
“I see, and what about you, Y/N? Can you do that training?”
She proudly puffed her chest in response. “Hohoho! Of course, I can! It's child's play to me!”
“Huh? But if that's the case, why are you still with Uzui? Why didn't you start the training with the next hashira?”
“Oh… well…” Y/N suddenly started to fidget awkwardly, she remembered very well what happened when she questioned about not being passed on to the next hashira :
“What? Why do you want to go, Y/N?” Hinatsuru approached her, frowning sadly.
“Did you not like the onigiri we made?” Makio questioned, teary-eyed.
“WAAAAAAAH, DON'T LEAVEEEEE!” Suma hugged her tightly, crying loudly.
“….there were some technical problems.” Y/N sweat-dropped.
“That's fine, I'm happy that I at least get to train together with you!” Tanjiro smiled, he genuinely seemed happy.
After this, they both went to the training area to join the others, however, after doing the first push-up, Tanjiro looked around only to notice that Y/N was gone. “What the-”
“If you're looking for Y/N, don't bother, she is always skipping training.” Another member commented, before going back to his training.
As you can see, Y/N is very famous. Though it's for the wrong reasons.
Tanjiro finished his training after a while, she truly wasn't kidding when she said he would feel like he was dying after.
Even so, he got concerned after noticing that Y/N still hasn't appeared, and to be honest, he got pretty anxious every time she disappeared for a long time, maybe he got traumatized after she appeared with upper moon three.
“Yyyyy/nnnn! Are you here? Yyyyy/nnnn??”
He called out for her while looking around the garden.
“Yyyyy/n- Eek!” A kakushi suddenly appeared, slapping his hand against his mouth while putting his finger in front of his own mouth to signalize Tanjiro to be quiet.
After this, the kakushi silently pointed to a tree, and there Y/N was, sleeping under it.
Some corps members seemed to have found her too, they panicky shuffled around before covering her with a blanket and leaving the girl alone to rest.
“Don't wake her up, I'm watching you!” The kakushi whispered before slowly letting him go, leaving while glaring at the poor boy.
“Phew…” He let out a relived sigh, silently approaching Y/N and gently putting his hand against her forehead to check her temperature. 'She's not sick. I guess she was just tired this time.'
“Hmn…” She suddenly squirmed a bit, making Tanjiro panic.
'Ah! Did I wake her up?'
“He…hehehe… hot dogs…” She suddenly mumbled in between snores, going back to sleep peacefully.
'I guess not.' He sweat-dropped.
With a relieved sigh, he sat beside her, Tanjiro didn't want to leave Y/N alone in the open like this, so he decided to wait for the girl to wake up.
The blanket she was covered up with seemed very comfortable, he smiled softly at the sight.
After all, even though Y/N herself doesn't notice it, the people around are always taking care of her.
She suddenly shuffled a bit, the blanket falling on her lap as she raised her hands to scratch her eyes, drowsily mumbling : “…tanjiro? Is the training already over? Sorry, I was only going to rest a bit…”
“It's okay. You can sleep more if you'd like.” He offered, smiling gently at her.
“…okay, only a bit, then.” She let out a yawn, before resting her head on his shoulder, he jolted in surprise with the action.
“Y/N? Hey-”
“Zzzzz-”
“…” Tanjiro forgot that she tends to fall asleep quickly.
Well, guess he's stuck there forever because no way in hell he's moving from that position.
'Tomorrow… I need to do my best too… for Nezuko… and… for her…' Maybe it was the garden, or it was the way that the weather was perfect, not too hot or not too cold, with a conforming breeze blowing on their skins, but after a while, Tanjiro felt drowsy too, falling asleep and resting his head on top of Y/N's head on his shoulder.
He wasn't sure for how long he slept, but the sky was already orange when he felt someone poking his cheek.
“Oooi! Tanjiro?” Y/N's continuously poked him.
“I'm awake…” He drowsily responded.
“Sorry for waking you up, but it's getting a bit late, so…”
“It's okay.”
“Hm.” She smiled happily, getting up and offering her hand to him. “Let's go back!”
He took her hand, and at the same time, he felt a bit disappointed that this moment ended as they walked back to the mansion while holding hands.
“Whoa! Your hand is really warm!” Y/N commented, squeezing his hand before smiling.
“Thanks. Yours are pretty cold, though.” Tanjiro blankly responded.
“Wha- That's mean! Just so you know, people with cold hands have warm hearts!” She proudly said, faking offense.
“I believe in that theory.” He smiled at her, slowing raising their interlaced hands to his face and kissing Y/N's knuckle.
“….WheRE did you LEarN thAT?!” She screeched, flicking his forehead.
“Ow!” He covered his forehead with both hands as Y/N walked away from embarrassment.
Tanjiro silently watched her leaving, he giggled at how embarrassed she was as he ran over to walk beside her.
'I'm sure, we will make many more memories together in the future…'
.
.
.
To Y/N's happiness, everything was still in place in the butterfly mansion when she went back, there also wasn't any sign of fights, which means that Douma really didn't make a move.
Since everything is okay, all that was left was changing her clothes and going back to sle-
“What the- Why the hell are you still here?!” She exclaimed as soon as she saw Douma there, walking around like it was his house.
“I was bored.” He smiled at her.
“Do you think I care?! Leave!” She started to try pushing him, though he wouldn't budge at all. “Where's Akaza?!”
“… It will take a while for him to heal. Oh! But don't worry, I was considerate of your situation and didn't let any of his blood spill around!”
“YOU- WHAT DID YOU DO?!”
He tilted his head, he seemed genuinely confused. “You do know that he's a demon, right? He won't die.”
“Even so, you shouldn't-” Before Y/N could even finish her scolding, footsteps appeared, making her jolt.
“Oh, there's someone coming. What will you do, Y/N?” He looked down at her, he seemed amused with the situation.
'Goddammit!' She tackled him inside the broom closet, locking the door as they fell to the floor and some brooms hit their heads.
“…Oh, my. I was sure I heard voices around here…”
She recognized Shinobu's voice from outside, she let out a relieved sigh when she heard the footsteps of the woman leaving, it would be really troublesome if she saw him.
“That was close! Though I don't hate this proximity, how long should we wait?” Douma suddenly commented, and now he said it out-loud, Y/N noticed how cramped this place was.
Even so, she sat up in front of him, not saying anything.
“What is it? The expression you're doing is quite scary-” Without even letting him finish, she raised her hand, slapping his face so harshly that a loud sound echoed.
“Hey. Are you fucking with me right now?” She grabbed his collar, pulling him close while glaring at his face. “Did you even think about what was going to happen if she saw you? Of course, you didn't, since that's what you do, you DON'T think. I don't know what you're doing here, but if you aren't here to kill someone, then leave already and stop annoying me.” She let him go, leaving the closet and harshly closing the door behind her.
After this, Y/N mopped over to her room, only after getting inside and laying down on her bed that she finally finished processing what she just did.
'I… I SLAPPED HIM! AAAAAAH! NOW I'M REALLY DEAD! I WAS SO MAD THAT I DID IT WITHOUT THINKING-'
And of course, she panicked a lot.
'Ether, if you are there, be ready to prepare another reincarnation.'
On it.
'Not even attempting to comfort me?'
…
'Wow. Okay, then.'
『••✎••』
“Welcome back, Master Douma.”
『 The Eternal Paradise Cult 』
Unexpectedly, Douma ACTUALLY listened to Y/N and left, and the reason for it was...
“Master, are you okay? Your face is very red…” One of the cult members asked, her face looked concerned.
“Oh, this?” He put his on hand on his cheek. “Listen, I… think I've fallen in love.”
“WHAT-”
Back in the butterfly mansion, Y/N felt a shiver down her spine. She had the impression that something troublesome was about to happen.