“Soo… Uhh… Shinazugawa's dojo was around here, right?” Tanjiro asked, his crow resting on top of his head and giving directions.
“NO!! TURN RIGHT AT THAT CORNER OVER THERE!! BIRD BRAIN!”
Y/N covered her ears, letting out an annoyed sigh. She always knew how loud his crow was, but having a scrawny voice screaming in her ear all day just after a terrible night wasn't really helping her mood improve.
“Aaah! That right!” Tanjiro was about to turn, only for someone suddenly appear in front of them and grab Y/N, it was so quick it barely gave them time to process.
“AAAAAAAGH! ZENITSU?!” Tanjiro shrieked.
“L-L-LEMME OUTTA HEEEERE!” Zenitsu hugged Y/N, his weight making them both fall to the ground as he was still attached to her. “TANJIROO! Y/NNN! PLEASEEE!”
“Run? From what?” Tanjiro asked with a concerned expression, exasperatedly trying to pull him off Y/N.
“I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE! I CAN'T! I-I-I MANAGED TO GET THIS FAR ALREADY! I HAD TO CRAWL OVER THE FENCE AND HIDE MYSELF LIKE A LIZARD! I CAN SEE MY CORPSE GETTING MANGLED!”
“It's okay Zenitsu, you don't need to train if you don't want too.” Y/N smiled gently at him.
“Y-Y/N!” He sniffed, touched.
“Just remember that each second you expend escaping, everybody else that is training properly is getting stronger while your chances of dying are rising.” Her gentle smile was still there, but her aura got darker.
“NOOOOOO! I'M SOOOORYYY-” As Zenitsu was crying, a hand suddenly grabbed his head, they all looked above to see a not very happy Sanemi glaring down at them.
“Choose. Go back to training, or I slaughter your ass.”
“GYAAAAAAAH! GIMME A BREAAAAK!!!” His cries only got louder.
“Calm down!” Tanjiro pleaded to no avail.
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAH-”
“ZIP IT!” Sanemi karate chopped his neck and made him instantly pass out, walking off while coldly saying : “Carry him.”
“There you go, Tanjiro!” Y/N blankly threw the unconscious Zenitsu at the poor boy, she was just not in the mood to carry people.
“Ah, okay- There we go…” He carried him on his back, a look of sympathy on his face. 'Sorry Zenitsu, let's work hard together…'
She got up, dusting her [skirt/pants] as she and Tanjiro started to follow Sanemi.
“Thank you for guidance, I'll be training with you starting today! I'll be in your care!” Tanjiro politely exclaimed behind the hashira.
'Nobody left. Everything is fine.'
With this in mind, Y/N smiled like she always did, like yesterday wasn't real. “I'm really looking forward to training too!”
Sanemi turned back to them, glaring angrily at the girl. “I see that you still act like a fool, huh? When will you grow up? Always smiling like everything isn't crumbling around you, when will you start to take things seriously?”
She didn't budge, still smiling brightly at him. Y/N was already used to Sanemi's harsh words, showing a reaction right now would only make him suspect that something wasn't quite right.
However, what really surprised the girl was when Tanjiro stepped up to stood in front of her.
“Do you really think that she acts like this because she's genuinely always happy? If you actually took the time to know her, you wouldn't be saying that!”
Her eyes widened, he was defending her just like that? With no hesitation? Sanemi despises demons and she brought multiple upper moons in, so technically speaking she was the one in the wrong here, and even so he was defending her?
“Don't get cocky, bub. I haven't accepted you for shit.” He glared angrily at the boy still protectively standing in front of Y/N.
“That's totally okay, I don't accept you either! You stabbed Nezuko and is always rude to Y/N after all!” He gently grabbed the girl's wrist, starting to walk off with a triumphant smile.
Y/N stared at him in shock as they slowly left the hashira behind. “... Why?”
“Huh? Did you ask me something?” He looked over his shoulder.
“Why did you say that back there?”
He stopped walking, frowning confusedly at the girl. “Why didn't YOU say anything?” He asked back at her.
“What?”
He completely turned to her. “Y/N, why did you save those demons?”
Her eyes widened. “Because... I believe they are good people. They just needed an opportunity, they still will be punished for the lives they took in the end, but while they are still alive... I just them to be able to be happy for once..”
'Right. I might have saved Daki and Gyutaro for now, but when they die, I won't be able to save them from hell… I intend to turn them into humans, so they can at least live the rest of their lives normally, but the seraphic breathing is only for demons…'
“See? If that's your opinion, then you have to own it! Sanemi isn't wrong for being mad, but just because you guys think differently, you shouldn't let him walk all over you like this!” Tanjiro finished lecturing her.
“I just feel bad-”
“Even so, don't let him talk to you like this! But… I guess that if you really feel that bad in talking back to him, then next time he's rude to you, just tell me!”
Y/N tilted her head, confusedly asking : “What will you do if I tell you?”
“Of course, I will headbutt him with all my might!” He answered triumphantly at the girl.
Her eyes widened in surprise for a second, before her cheeks instantly puffed. “Pfft-…Hahaha!” She started laughing loudly, hugging her stomach for support. “You- haha-! What an answer! But really should stop headbutting everyone in your way-!”
“Hey! I was being serious here, don't laugh!” He pouted, though he didn't really look offended.
“I'm sorry! I'm sorry!” She took a deep breath, the corners of her mouth still trembling.
“Though…I'm glad I made you laugh, even if it was accidentally.” He smiled gently at her. “You looked a bit downcast today, so...”
“Huh?”
“Let's go to the dojo before Zenitsu wakes up! He's going to fight a lot when he does….” He commented, starting to walk off and leaving a dumbfounded girl behind.
'Tanjiro. He notices more than I thought he did…' She stared at him leaving, walking slowly behind the boy as her eyes looked dull.
'I wonder what would happen if I told him about Akaza. About Douma, or about everything else… I wonder if he… would help me get away from this situation…If I say that I need help…' Her hand slowly started to reach out to him, only for her to halt halfway through. 'No. What am I even thinking? I can't do that.'
She took a step back, shaking her head to put herself together. 'Nobody can ever know. I am fine alone. I will solve this by myself.'
You're not alone.
'…I know.'
You can tell Shinazugawa's training is hard just from looking at Zenitsu, when he woke up, he got so mad at Tanjiro he yelled at him with blazing hatred, he wouldn't stop hitting him. “Ow! Ow! Ow! I'm sorry!”
By the way, Rengoku was also participating in this training! The corps members would draw lots every day to see who would train with Kyojuro and who would train with Sanemi.
It was pretty funny to see how obvious it was who drew who, the ones who got sanemi looked dead inside while the ones who got Kyojuro cried in pure relief.
Y/N looked down at the stick with a red tip, she got Kyojuro.
She glanced at Tanjiro and Zenitsu, both were holding a stick with a black tip, they got Sanemi.
“I can't believe it…” Zenitsu looked like he was about to go crazy.
The girl was excited to see Kyojuro, but…
“Here Zenitsu. Let's trade.” She held the stick in front of him.
“You… you would do that for me?” Zenitsu sniffed, looking up at her in total admiration.
“Just take it before I regret it.” Her smile twitched in annoyance.
And so, the training started. It was a simple Shinazugawa's beat down session where he slashes at you nonstop, there's no resting until you either vomit or faint, even Iguro gave more breaks!
Shinazugawa was specially fierce against Tanjiro, if he let his guard down even for a moment, he would get hurt so badly that his injuries regressed.
“Ughh…” He vomited again after another beat down.
Y/N stared down at him, letting out a sigh. She was planning on just waiting for her turn properly because she wanted to avoid doing anything that could affect Tanjiro's training, but this was just painful to watch.
“Tanjiro, rest a bit, okay?” Before he could react, she took the training sword resting on his side.
“What are you doing? It's not your turn yet, he didn't pass out.” Sanemi narrowed his eyes at her.
“I'm just so excited about this training! You don't mind, right? Tanjiro already trained a lot!” She smiled at him, an irk mark appearing on his head, he clearly looked annoyed.
If he was attacking Tanjiro THAT fiercely, she already had a feeling he wouldn't have mercy on her either, in fact, he probably hated her even more than he hated him.
He barely gave the girl time to process before launching at her, immediately going for a fierce strike in which she quickly defended, a small shockwave emitted.
They started to change extremely quick blows, Y/N's expression looked blank, concentrated.
'Akaza... It's not like I intended to bring him to the humans side from the start, I can just consider this a variable.' She avoided Sanemi's sword that was about to hit her face. 'He didn't manage to kill anyone before going down in the manga, so…'
“Who's that girl? Amazing…” People started to watch them fight, amazed.
“Is she a hashira? She's fighting equally with him…”
“I don't think so?”
'This timeline…this timeline can still work… If it progresses exactly like the manga, then!' Her eyes widened in realization at the same time she quickly thrust the sword in Sanemi's direction, he avoided it narrowly.
Sanemi looked even more annoyed, the speed of their traded blows started to increase scarily.
“Hey… shouldn't someone stop them?” A swordman said. “I mean, look at their faces, it's like they are trying to kill each other or something-”
Shinazugawa's strength was starting to make her take steps back. “So you finally decided to drop the act, huh?”
She was too concentrated on keeping the rhythm of her attacks and defenses to respond, her expression was blank.
“Why are you even trying to fight? Just have the demon friends you love so much do the work in your place, you just love doing that, don't you? Throwing your problems to others!”
Y/N thought she could get over everything easily. She thought she could convince herself that his words didn't affect her, she thought she could trick herself into thinking that Akaza leaving like that didn't hurt because it was expected.
But in the end…
Her eyes burned with threatening to fall tears, her vision got blurry and she lost her rhythm, Sanemi brutally swung at the girl and when she tried to defend herself with the wooden sword, it broke down in pieces with the force of his attack.
He quickly went for a second blow, his sword hitting her face in full force as she harshly fell down on her butt.
She tried to catch her breath, but everything just looked blurry, her ears ringed loudly and her heart beat excruciatingly fast in her chest, blood kept dripping down her nose and mouth.
Sanemi glared down at the girl, coldly throwing the broken sword in her direction, it falling down right by her feet. “Go grab another one.”
Y/N blankly looked up at him in response, not saying anything as she silently wiped the blood from her face and stared at her bloodied hand. 'Ah. I lost.'
“Did you not hear what I said? The training isn't over yet, go grab ANOTHER sword and come back for you to lose again.”
She gritted her teeth in annoyance, getting up and walking off without a word.
“Poor girl…” The others stared at her leave in pure pity. “She looked like she was crying…”
There was a barrel filled with the wood swords, it was a far walk from the place everyone was training, so having to fetch one yourself was a bit of an annoying work.
Y/N grabbed one of the swords, staring coldly at it.
You can't decide whom to save or what to do because you're too soft.
Her hand started to tremble.
Your sacrifices have no meaning to them.
You just love doing that, don't you?! Throwing your problems to others!
“Ah! Y/N, there you are-” Tanjiro, being the worried person he was, immediately ran to check up on her after hearing the others commenting that she was crying. 'Look at her, she must be really upset-'
SNAP.
She broke the sword in half. With her hands. “This motherfucker….” Y/N mumbled with a murderous expression, cleaning the blood from her mouth and nose with the back of her hand. “Aiming right for the face, typical of an asshole-”
Tanjiro rubbed his eyes, not quite believing what he was seeing just now. “Y/N…?”
She jolted, turning to him like nothing happened and smiling brightly : “What is it?”
I don't think acting sweetly is going to work when you're still holding the two halves of the sword in your hands-
'Shut up, will you?'
Tanjiro decided to deny the reality and just act like he saw nothing. “You know, don't feel bad for losing! You were pretty amazing back there, so-”
“... Don't worry, I'm not upset because I lost. I mean, I am a bit mad, but it's not entirely because of it.” She reassured him.
“Than what happened?” He frowned, worried.
“Uh, I-”
“Y/N!”
Someone suddenly lifted her up, the girl's eyes sparkling after seeing the person in question. “Kyojuroooo!”
“Y/N!”
“Kyojuro!”
He started to swirl her around like they were a couple having a reuniting at an airport.
“What are doing here?!” She excitedly asked.
“My training area is over there.” He pointed at a location, both Y/N and Tanjiro tilting their heads to see several people fighting each other.
“I heard from Zenitsu you drew Sanemi from the lots, it's good to see you're still alive! Hahaha!” He bluntly said, making her laugh awkwardly in response and deciding not to tell him about how Shinazugawa, in fact, was already in the process of killing her. “What are you two doing here anyway?”
“I broke my sword in the training, so I was just fetching another!” She said. “Tanjiro is just accompanying me, I suppose.”
“You broke it, huh?” He tilted his head. “Was that Sanemi too?” He pointed at her face, she looked down to see her nose slowly dripping blood again.
Her face burned in embarrassment as she quickly rubbed it off with her sleeve. “T-This is nothing! In fact, I'm way better off than the others were!” She explained.
“I see!” He nodded. “Don't be discouraged, Y/N! If it's you, I'm sure you can win against anyone!” He patted her head.
“Y-you think so?”
“I sure do!”
'Amazing, he cheered her up so easily… No wonder she likes him that much…' Tanjiro watched them interact with a frown.
“I will be going now! See you again later!” Y/N said, grabbing another sword and quickly running off.
“Huh? What is it, Kamado? Do you have something to say to me?” Rengoku asked, noticing that he wasn't leaving.
Tanjiro jolted, like he snapped out of a daze. “No! I don't have anything to say!” And he ran off with a pout. He was not jealous! Definitely not!
By the end of the day, Tanjiro's condition was not… really good. He looked like he was attacked by a swarm of bees.
'It's just day one, this is bad… I'm bruised and covered in vomit…' He mopped besides Y/N, who was keeping a respectful distance from him. 'I feel completely heartbroken…'
Y/N also had some bruises, but was surprisingly okay. In fact, she had to go fetch another sword about more five times that day, the girl was able to hold her own against Shinazugawa so well that her sword just ended up always breaking before he could actually beat her up like the others, and it's not like he can just violently beat an unarmed person.
As she and Tanjiro walked around the corridors, they heard a voice exclaim around the corner : “Wait! Brother!”
They both hid behind the wall and popped just their heads out to see what was going on, what a pair of busybodies!
What they saw was Genya meekly approaching Sanemi. “I wanna talk to you about something…”
Sanemi, in response, glared coldly at him. “Wow, you're annoying, you know I have no brother. Now cut the crap, or I'll shred you to pieces.”
Genya didn't respond, looking down sadly.
'This doesn't look good…'