Minor spoilers for the Mugen Train Movie...
Kimetsu Academy: The Dojo
11:20 a.m
Rengoku: "hmmmm...."
Tanjiro: "hmmmm...."
Inosuke: "hmmmm...."
Zenitsu: "hm- hmmmm..."
They all sat down next to one another, staring at each other in the eyes. Rengoku staring into Tanjiro's while Inosuke, wearing his boar mask, stared into Zenitsu's. A table beside them had a timer on it, saying that it's been twenty minutes since they started.
Inosuke: "HMMMMMMMM!!!!!!" He crossed his arms and growled as steam came from the nose of his boar mask.
Zenitsu: "Wh- hmmm?"
Inosuke: "HMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he stepped closer to Zenitsu and got all up in his face.
Zenitsu: "..I-Inosuke?" He backed up, with a look of concern on his face. Tanjiro and Rengoku ignored a kept staring at one another.
Inosuke: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He threw his hands in the air and started running at Zenitsu.
Zenitsu: "EEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!" He screamed and ran away, closing his eyes and beginning to cry as he did.
Inosuke: "HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!!! I WIN!!!"
Zenitsu: "Wh- huh?" he asked, wiping the tears from his eyes.
Inosuke: "You blinked!! That means I! The great Inosuke WON!! HAHAHAHAA!!!"
Zenitsu: "Aw-! well- That's not fair! You had that stupid thing on your head the whole time!! That's cheating! Right, Mr. Rengoku?"
Rengoku: "What you start with, you end with." He stated, still staring into Tanjiro's eyes as the timer ticked.
Zenitsu: "...what does that even mean?" He whispered to Inosuke who just shrugged.
Tanjiro's eyes had become red from straining his eyes, Rengoku looked the same way since they started.
Tanjiro: "Crap... I have to blink... I can't keep my eyes open for much longer." He thought to himself, his eyes twitching repeatedly as he did. Glitter began to form around Rengoku's head, blinding Tanjiro and making him close his eyes in the process.
Rengoku: "Aha! Victory is mine!"
Tanjiro: "Wh- What was that?"
Zenitsu: "Oh, sorry Tanjiro. I just thought the room needed some more light." He apologized opening another blind mid-sentence.
Tanjiro: "Oh... alright then." He rubbed his eyes.
Inosuke: "Hehehehaha!! Genkoku! That was great!! Do a staring contest with me next!!!"
Rengoku: "Hm. Sorry, I can't right now. The bell for your class is going to ring soon! So go eat your lunch as quickly as you can, also, My name is Rengoku!" He stated all with a smile on his face.
Inosuke: "aw.."He slouched his shoulders and looked down, even his boar mask looked sad.
Zenitsu: "About time, I'm starving." He yawned, stretching and heading over to the door.
Tanjiro: "Right, let's go Inosuke." He rose from the floor and walked over to the same door as Zenitsu.
Insouke: "Fine, but next time Monzoku!!" He exclaimed and pointed at Rengoku.
Rengoku: "That was nowhere close to my name!"
Inosuke: "Yeah, yeah. Whatever." He ran behind Tanjiro and Zenitsu.
Rengoku: "Ah! Right!! Don't forget, keep trying to be better versions of yourselves!"
Tanjiro/Zenitsu/Inosuke: "Yeah!"
The three exited the room, waving goodbye to Rengoku and closing the door behind them.
Rengoku: "..." He sat idly in the room for a bit. He took out his phone not too long after to check his messages, he looked through his contact list and stopped on one, opening it. Rengoku sent more than enough messages to this person, all being unread. His smile wasn't there anymore, his eyes looked pained and disappointed.
Rengoku took in a deep breath and just as he was about to exhale, he felt the presence of someone standing behind him. He turned around swiftly to see who or what it was but to his surprise, no one was there. He blinked twice before getting up and shaking his head. Rengoku left the room but took a glance behind once again before he did. That presence felt familiar to him, far too familiar.
Sometime later...
Registration Class
Tomioka: "Agatsuma."
Zenitsu: "Here.." he answered in a soft tone and raised his hand, Giyu's eyes snapped over and glared into his.
Tomioka: "dye your hair black."
Zenitsu: "eh- but sir.. I keep telling you this is my natur-" He stopped mid-sentence by Giyu dashing towards him and slapping him across the face. It happened so quickly that it almost looked as though he teleported.
Tomioka: "DON'T TALK BACK!"
Zenitsu: "That's so unfair!" He mumbled as the blood came out of his mouth. Zenitsu had been slapped so hard that he flew past Genya and into the wall at the back of the class, the class next door even heard the thud that he made on impact.
Giyu fixed his hair by swiping it to the left and pulling the clipboard of all the students' names listed on it. Tanjiro and Inosuke tried pulling the dazed Zenitsu out of the wall as everyone else ignored and went back to having a normal school day.
As everyone carried on with their business and awaited for the next class, they were abruptly interrupted by a knock on the door followed by Rengoku busting through the door with a smile on his face.
Rengoku: "Young Kamado! Young Hashibira! And Young- ew..." His voice lowered when he looked over to Zenitsu.
Zenitsu: "Hey Mr. Rengoku." He waved at his flame-haired teacher, he had a purple eye and missing teeth.
Rengoku: "...ah- ehem. ANYWAYS! I would like you three to accompany me on a surprise journey!" He cleared his throat.
Tanjiro: "A journey?"
Rengoku: "A Surprise Journey!!"
Zenitsu: "I'm in." He said with his voice being broken apart. Everyone looked at (except for Giyu) Zenitsu with worried looks on their faces.
Inosuke: "Look man, I don't even know what we're going to be doing. But it's probably best that you stay out of it."
Tanjiro: "..."
Zenitsu: "..."
Everyone in class: "..."
Inosuke: "What? You got a problem?" He stopped and glared at everyone, in response, they all let out a sigh of relief and turned their attention back over to Rengoku.
Rengoku: "So? Can they?"
Tomioka: "...just get them back before cla-"
Rengoku: "GREAT! FOLLOW ME!!"
Tanjiro: "Um, but where are we going to go Mr. Rengoku?"
Rengoku: "That's what makes it a surprise young Kamado!"
Rengoku pulls Tanjiro and Inosuke outside of the classroom and had them follow him into the cafeteria.
Seeing the cafeteria look so empty and quiet, felt peaceful, but eery at the same time... seeing as how every time the two were in this part of the school it was filled with students and talking.
Inosuke sat down usually where he and his friends would sit, Tanjiro did the same as Rengoku sat on the seat opposite to theirs.
Inosuke: "So? What do you want?" He asked in an annoyed tone. Tanjiro looked to him and then to Rengoku.
Rengoku: "Hm, yes. Have you two seen any improvements in yourselves as of late?"
Inosuke: "Improvements? I'm the embodiment of improvements!!"
Tanjiro: "I think I've improved..."
Rengoku: "...Young Kamado, have you been practicing?"
Tanjiro: "Ah- I- Yes! I'm sure by now that I could win in an exercise against her."
Rengoku: "Don't think, you can set your mind to anything, believing in yourself to achieve what it is you want. In other words, have some courage."
Inosuke: "Yeah Kojrio, have some courage, you big baby."
Rengoku: "Ha Ha!" He laughed aloud. "Okay, okay, let's try not to insult anyone young Hashibira."
Tanjiro looked down at the table, he seemed anxious. Rengoku took notice of this and jumped up from his seat, alarming both Tanjiro and Inosuke.
Rengoku: "Tanjiro! Inosuke! You two have done a great job, so do not fret!"
Inosuke: "But I wasn-"
Rengoku: "Inosuke, you wanted to become more of a gentleman, correct?" Inosuke nodded. "Then you can start by leaving the boar mask at home from now on!"
Inosuke: "...But-"
Rengoku: "Tanjiro! You wanted to have a warm heart and a smile that would make everyone feel at peace, correct?"
Tanjiro: "Yes."
Rengoku: "Then you can start by not changing your facial structure to make it like mine! Try going home and coming up with your own."
Tanjiro: "R-Right!"
Rengoku: "And about Ms. Tsuyuri.. you can meet me in the gymnasium, from there on I will push you to your maximum limits, and go beyond plus ul-... um... go beyond Ms. Tsuyuri's capabilities!"
The two boys looked into Rengoku's eyes with hope and wonder. Rengoku's smile was enough to keep on warming their hearts even more than they already were.
Rengoku: "Now go forth to your next classes, before Ms. Kanae snaps my head off! HA! HA! ...hehehe... I'm not joking, seriously go."
Tanjiro/Inosuke: "Yes sir!"
Insouke and Tanjiro left the cafeteria in a hurry, not wanting to miss Kanae's class in the slightest. Just as they left, Rengoku felt a cold breeze blow onto his back. He slowly turned to his shoulders to see a white smoke dancing in and out of existence.
"Kyojuro..."
A quiet voice called out to him, it was the voice of a woman. Rengoku turned around to see a woman dressed in a traditional kimono, she had semi-long black hair tied loosely at the end in a ponytail and large dark red eyes with circular white pupils, similar in appearance to that of Tanjiro's.
"Kyojuro..."
The voice called out to him once again, this time Rengoku was looking directly at her with his back still turned away. His heart stopped beating and he himself began to feel cold from the inside.
Bullets of sweat began to run down his face, he was so shocked that he couldn't even breathe, his pupils shrank and his lips quivered.
The woman's face neither looked happy, sad nor angry, the only emotion he could understand coming from her was... disappointment. She closed her eyes a slowly began to fade away in the white smoke.
Rengoku ran over to her, but before he even took a step closer, she had already vanished. Even though the woman was already gone, he still ran further, feeling colder and colder until he bumped into someone and fell onto the ground.
Rengoku: "ahh..." He groaned as he rubbed his head in pain. A person stepped out from the icey air surrounding them and took in a deep breath.
Makio: "Okay, what now? If this is one of your teacher's lounge adventure thingys then I don't want any part of it." She sighed and held a frozen piece of meat in her hands, she was wearing gloves with a thick coat.
Rengoku: "Huh? Oh, sorry... I thought I saw something..."
Makio: "Well the only thing your gonna see is this load of chopped-up meat going into one big ass fridge." She stated as she turned around and tossed the piece of meat into a fridge. "Anyways you should get out before you freeze to death, don't want another accident right?" She chuckled so long that Rengoku ended up awkwardly joining in with the laugh. "No but seriously get out." Her face switched back to her normal annoyed look in an instant as she said that.
Rengoku: "Oh- yeah, right..."
Next Chapter: Summer's Eve
Coming out in 65 billion years