“You're faster than before, Tanjiro! Make your muscles' transition from tense to relaxed smoother!”
It was the fifth day of Muichiro's training. “Good, just like that! That way your physical strength will last longer!”
Like a true protagonist, Tanjiro had made extreme progress very quickly.
After the training ended, Muichiro approached him with a bright smile and said : “The movement of your legs and hips flow perfectly! You can go on to the next hashira, Tanjiro!”
“Huh? Already?!” Tanjiro perked up.
“Yes.” Muichiro responded with a happy grin, flowers floating around him.
“But it only has been five days!”
“Well, you're performing exactly as I told you.”
“Huh...” Tanjiro awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
Four members nervously approached the two, one of them asking while fidgeting furiously : “we've been here two weeks… so, can we also…?”
Muichiro's smile dropped instantly. He turned to look at them, his face emotionless : “What are you talking about? Not you guys. After you finish working on your swing, you have lessons in striking until the practice dummy breaks.”
'The difference between us is incredible!' They all cried.
Muichiro sighed, still glaring at them as he turned back to Tanjiro. “Also, where's Y/N? She also has done great progress and can go to the next hashira, but I didn't see her anywhere…”
“I think… sniff.. I saw her go outside a while ago…” One of the crying guys commented.
“Really? Oh, I will go tell her then! Thanks for everything, Muichiro!” Tanjiro smiled brightly, politely bowing at the pillar before leaving while waving goodbye.
Y/N. You will be okay. I will always be there for you.
“I know…” The girl whispered, she was resting against a tree while exasperatedly trying to control her erratic breathing.
We are so close to the end, we can do this.
'Did Douma really fell for it?'
Y/N doubted that was the case.
Douma liked to act like he was an idiot, but the truth is that he was far from it.
Y/N thought of two possibilities of what could have happened yesterday :
The first was that Douma was desperate enough for affection to the point it affected his critical sense.
And the second was that he only pretended to fall for it.
But then, for what reason?
She was glad she was able to stop him before he did a massacre, but what was she going to do now?
Y/N can't tell what he's thinking at all, and it truly scares her.
Tonight, will she have to act like that again? She doesn't want to, even though he deserved it.
It's true that he deserved to be manipulated and used, just like he does to the unaware humans of his cult, and just like he does to the people he kills to never even remember their names or the fact that they ever existed.
It's just that Y/N doesn't want to be a bad person.
But, the thing is… she's not even sure about who she is anymore.
Y/N, the earring guy is approaching. I know it's hard, but you need to calm down now.
“Y/N! There you are! You know, Muichiro said-” Tanjiro ran up to her with a big smile, but stopped at a considerable distanced away from the girl when he noticed something was weird.
Y/N's soft and comforting smell wasn't there. Instead, there was a heavy, suffocating one.
Her back was facing him, and the fact that she didn't turn to face him and smile like she always did scared him.
“Y/N, are you okay?”
Y/N, he's calling you.
“Is something wrong?” He took a step forward as Y/N rested her hand on the tree's trunk for support.
He's getting really worried Y/N.
She knew that. It's just that it's hard to smile when you don't feel like you're yourself.
You need to respond to him.
“Are you not feeling well? I can-” Tanjiro was about to delicately rest his hand on her shoulder, but Y/N finally turned over to him.
“I'm sorry, I spaced out for a bit!” The bright smile she always had was on her face. “I hope I didn't leave you talking alone for too long!”
Tanjiro slowly blinked. What was all that? Y/N was acting normal, but that smell was still there...
He noticed something is wrong.
'Please don't ask anything, I really can't do it today.' Y/N thought, the fear of being questioned making her unconsciously press her hand on the tree's trunk.
“Ow!” She felt a sharp pain in her finger.
“Ah! Are you okay?” Tanjiro gently took her hand, frowning worriedly as he looked at her fingers.
“It's okay, just a splinter.” Y/N blankly said while staring down at the boy panicking over the silliest, smallest cut she ever had.
For some reason, by looking at him being so worried over something so unimportant, her vision started to blurry.
“But-” Tanjiro looked up, his eyes widened after seeing the silent tears seeping out of her eyes. “Ah- you're crying? Does it hurt that much?”
“... Yes, it really hurts.” She softly mumbled in response.
The boy frowned, he had a feeling she wasn't talking about the splinter.
He wondered what he should do now. Ask her about it?
No, Tanjiro knew that whatever was happening, Y/N did not want to talk about it at this moment.
So, instead, he gently raised her hand, kissing the finger that was hurt. “Pain, pain, go away.”
Y/N tilted her head, confused. “What are you doing?”
Tanjiro jumped, his face turning completely red. “Ah! Sorry! It was what I did with my siblings when they got hurt- but you are not a kid- I'm really sorry-! I was just-” He kept talking nonstop.
Y/N blankly watched him panic and tumble around in his words, until… “Pfft-”
“Eh?” He finally stopped talking nonsense.
“Ahaha! Haha-Hahaha!” She hugged her stomach, laughing loudly. “I'm- I'm not a kid but- Haha! Why are you so adorable? Hahaha!”
“It's good that you're having fun with this.” Tanjiro pouted, after all, being laughed at is not really a good feeling.
“Oh, sorry-! Pff-” She wiped a tear coming out from her eye. “Thank you, Tanjiro, I actually feel really better now. Guess your no-pain spell does not only work with kids after all.” Y/N completed, smiling softly at him.
His face got red again, but for a different reason this time.
He truly, deeply liked her. So much that it hurt.
He hated seeing her sad or in pain. He hated that he couldn't be of more help to her, but most important :
When she smiled genuinely at him like this, his heart beat so fast that he sometimes thought he was going to die on the spot.
“Oh, what were you going to tell me after all?” Y/N changed subject.
“Huh…? What?” He mumbled, still seeming to be spacing out.
“You came here to tell me something, right?” She chuckled. “What was it?”
“Oh!” Tanjiro finally snapped out of it. “Muichiro told me that we can already go to the next hashira!”
“Really?! In just five days?” In response to her question, Tanjiro nodded.
“Wooow!” Her eyes sparkled. “Wait, I totally have to say goodbye to him- Tanjiro, can you wait for me a bit?”
“I always will.” He smiled gently at her.
“Aaaww, how romantic of you!” She playfully responded, running over inside while waving to him. “See you in just a bit!”
He watched her leave in silence, waving back while smiling as the wind gently blew the tree's leaves.
『 Kanroji's Mansion 』
“It's good to see you, Y/N, Tanjiro!” Mitsuri welcomed them very warmly. “Come on in!”
“Long time no see! I'm glad to see you look so well!” Tanjiro bowed.
“You too, Tanjiro!” She responded.
“It's really nice to see you again, Mitsuri! How are you today?” Y/N said.
“Oh my!” She put her hands on her cheeks. “Now that you're here, I'm feeling better than ever! I can't believe I'm going to train you!”
“I hope to learn a lot from you.” Y/N smiled.
“Do you keep bees? I smell honey!” Tanjiro interrupted them.
“Oh! You noticed? That's right! If you put honey in your pancake, it's insanely delicious!” Mitsuri grabbed both Tanjiro and Y/N's hands, taking them inside the mansion while talking nonstop about food.
“And slather on the butter! Tea is at three, I'll make pancakes, so look forward to it!”
“Wooow, pancakes…” Y/N was already daydreaming about food.
'Butter…? Pancakes…? Tea?' Despite the blank smile Tanjiro had outside, he was not understanding anything.
For Kanroji's training, everyone wore the same outfit.
It was similar to the leotards gymnasts and ballet dancers used, though everyone looked pretty embarrassed to be using them, well, they did show a lot of skin.
Tanjiro specifically was having a very hard time, not because he had a problem with using them (In fact, he was the only boy there who wasn't embarrassed), but because Y/N was using it too.
You see, to a boy from taisho era that also grew up in the mountains, completely exposed legs seemed to be very scandalous.
“Whaa, You look so cute Y/N! I really wish I could get a painting of you in these!” Different from Tanjiro, Mitsuri jumped happily in excitement. “After the training ends, there are many other clothes I want you to try! That's okay with you, right?!”
“Of course.” Y/N smiled brightly.
“Kyaaa!!” She hugged her tightly, she seemed pretty excited about it.
In Kanroji's exercise, they mostly had to learn to dance to the music, but what was hell was actually the flexibility exercises.
These 'exercises' mostly consisted of stretching via brute force, seeing Mitsuri forcing people to do splits was pretty traumatizing.
Though for Tanjiro, the hardest part of this training was probably looking at Y/N in the eye.
“Tanjiro, do you wanna-” He ran away, leaving a confused Y/N behind. “A-”
'He's… He's totally avoiding meeee!' And she panicked.
The other members stared blankly at the girl running after him from a side to the other while crying loudly. “Tanjirooooo! Talk to meeee! Do you hate me noooow???”
“It's not like this!” He exclaimed back, though he was still running away from her.
“Than say it to my faceeeee-!”
Tanjiro gulped and suddenly stopped running, Y/N also stopping right behind him.
“I-” He turned to her.
“So?” She tilted his head.
Yeah, he can't do it. His eyes keep going down to her legs and he feels terrible for it!
Tanjiro had given up, walking over to the closest wall. “I'm. The. Oldest. I. Can. Do. This.” He started to bang his head against it.
“You really shouldn't do that, your inhuman forehead's gonna break the wall.” Y/N blankly said with an empty smile, she didn't understand at all what was going on.