So moment of impulse but I decided to publish this chapter 1 day ahead. Why? I don't know either.
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A few days passed and you were on your way to see Aoi (after breaking a few of your fingers) to see Tanjiro, Inosuke, and that last guy. Tanjiro noticed you first, smiling as he ran up to you, his friends following behind him.
"(Y/n)-san! It's good to see you!" he smiled, greatly reminding you of Kyojurou who held the same (if not more) energy as your back (slapping) patting friend.
"Same goes to you Tanjiro." you greeted, noticing he and his friends looked like they were leaving. "Are you leaving to go somewhere?" you asked, raising a brow.
He nodded. "Yeah! We're gonna go to the Flame Pillar since Shinobu-san told me he might be able to answer my questions."
"Do you even know where he is?" you asked them, Tanjiro gave you a nod while Inosuke looked cconfused and the yellow haired dude just looked at you with puppy dog eyes.
"Yeah! Shinobu-san gave him a message and told me I should be able to meet up with him at the Express Train!" he told you happily as you furrowed you brows.
"It's been a few days so I thought that he was finished with that mission." you thought before forcing yourself to relax, ignoring that sinking feeling in your gut. "Maybe he spent a few days preparing."
For whatever reason, you prayed that his mission would be a success and that he would return safe and sound.
"(Y/n)-san? Are you alright?" Tanjiro asked, snapping you out of your thoughts. "You smell like there's something troubling you."
You took a step back, your face visibly paling as you stared at him with a confused look. "Smell?" sure you spent a few days with him and found he's got a weird personality but this–
He seemed to notice your look of confusion before breaking into a smile, laughing. "I forgot to mention but my nose is rather sensitive."
"Even so, sensitive people don't just “smell” emotions." you sighed, knowing it would be rather rude to say that and from what you heard, one of the guys in his group could “hear” the difference between humans and demons. "I see." you looked at your (broken) fingers. "Well, I should go see Aoi now. Good luck you guys."
You both waved goodbye at each other as you went to see Aoi, who was glad your injuries were less severe than before (when y'know, you broke your freaking ribs?). You headed back home and sat on your patio as you stared at your broken fingers which just so happened to be on your dominant hand.
"How nice." you said sarcastically, staring at your fingers with a bored look. "Holding a sword will be painful for a while." though you knew your number of missions would decrease because of this injury, you were still most likely gonna push yourself.
"Damn demons and their love for plucking fingernails." you gritted at the memory, barely avoiding his blood demon art (which so happened to be targeting your fingernails) and broke a few fingers instead.
•••
"Are you sure you're alright coming with me? It's pretty late at night." Muichirou asked, turning behind him to stare at you, noticing your recent injuries.
It was late at night, you finished doing your rounds and was about to retire for the night, only to run into Muichirou who was currently looking for a demon that ran away.a
"It's fine." you reassured him. "Finding and killing a demon shouldn't be so hard, I'll go to bed after that." you told him, speeding up to walk beside him as you took his hand in yours. "And you're here with me."
He kept silent, bringing his free hand to his mouth as he looked away, the soft glow coming from the lantern which you held in your off hand wasn't able to fully illuminate the place, the dark successfully covering his pink dusted cheeks.
(Before editing: the dark successfully covering his link dusted cheeks).
"Alright then, I won't tell you to go back if you wanna stay." he told you, gripping your hand, afraid that you'd suddenly disappear again like last time. "Just stay close to me."
"......" you chose to keep silent, unable to answer that question for a special reason. "I'll try." you answered nonetheless to reassure Muichirou since you didn't want to worry him further than he already is.
He wouldn't say it but it was obvious obvious by the way he acted around you (that even an ice block like you noticed) that he was worried for you. You frowned at the idea, because you weren't that weak that you needed him to constantly worry but it made you feel happy nonetheless.
"Just promise me you'll stay beside me." he asked again, lowering his hand as he regained his senses, his mint eyes staring at you.
"...... I can't promise that." you told him, looking away. You didn't have the guts to say it to his face. "A lot of things can go wrong while looking for the demon."
"Yeah, b–"
"I'll try my best so don't worry so much about me." you added, stopping as your bright (E/c) eyes staring at him, light reflecting off your eyes as you stared at him, a smile gracing your features.
"......" he couldn't say anything, he paused as his mint green ones could only stare back you. If only you knew how he became (as of recent) when you looked at him like that. "Let's continue walking." he spoke out abruptly, looking away from you as he picked up the pace once more.
"Alright." you agreed, happy that he didn't ask you for anything more.
The only sound coming from that night walk was the sound of crunching leaves as you walked, it was odd that there weren't any crickets tonight.
It was quiet.
Too quiet.
The sound of you falling to the ground was heard as Muichirou pushed you out of the way.
Breath of Mist: Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash.
Muichirou was just in time to block a rain of ice. He frowned, looking at the direction of where the attack came from, before turning to you. Still on guard, he held out a hand for you. "Sorry."
"It's fine." you nodded, taking hold of his outstretched hand, pulling yourself up as you unsheathed your sword.
You were just glad that this was most likely not a caster demon who would burrow into the ground, you looking forward to not play whack a mole again.
Breath of Dreams: First Form: A Simple yet Complicated Dream.
You slashed at where the attack originated from, a loud rustle was heard as the demon fell down, the ground around the said was covered with ice, giving you a mental note to not get close to him.
"Be thankful to be graced with m—"
"So, is this the demon?" you asked, looking to Muichirou as you pointed to the said demon, totally ignoring him as you initiated your classic “ignore the hell out of the demon” plan. "He doesn't look that strong."
"He—"
"I don't know, I must have been blind." Muichirou responded, knowing full well what you were doing. "I think he looked more intimidating back then."
"Shut up!" the demon fumed, throwing ice at you two, which you easily blocked. You didn't even have to bat an eye, his attacks were so predictable.
"So do you want to take care of him? Cause I'm not not gonna lie, I wanna take this kill." you continued to ignore the demon, even discussing with Muichirou on who should kill him as to belittle him.
"I wanna deal with him." he answered, the demon getting more end more aggravated. "So how should we deal with this problem?"
"Hmm," you placed a finger on your chin, as if to think about it. "How about rock paper scissors?"
"WH–"
"That sounds fair." he answered, only to have already sliced off his arm as he gave the demon a murderously cold gaze. "Could you shut up? We're trying to decide here."
"These two are psychos." it whispered to itself, taking a step back. It looked around the place, he desperately wanted to be rid of these two psychos before him. If he only knew demon hunters (and Pillars at that one) were this strong then he would've just hid in the mountains, preying on the travellers.
"I really don't appreciate being called a psycho you know." the moment he heard that voice, his head did a 180, watching his vision go upwards, seeing his body without his head.
"Psychos." it whispered out before crumbling into nothing, the night air was quite enjoyable now that the demon was gone.
"(Y/n)-san?" you both turned your heads to the voice, seeing the familiar male you ran into before on a night quite like this.
"Ah, Mohawk man." you said, Genya gave you a confused look as did Muichirou. "What brings you here?"
"Mohawk man?" Muichirou, who stood beside you, asked curiously as he stared at you, your expression completely serious when you called Genya like that. "Why Mohawk man?" Muichirou didn't know his name but he certain “Mohawk man” wasn't his actual name.
"Because he was a Mohawk?" your answer came out more like a question than a sentence.
Muichirou saud nothing more, turning his head to stare at Genya before a gear turned. "Oh, you're pretty close with Himejima-san aren't you?"
"Gyoumei-san?" you turned your head to Genya, your eyes staring at him with curiosity. "You two are close?"
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say we're close," he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I just ask him for advice time to time."
"I see," you nodded. "Anyway, what are you doing here?" I mean, any normal demon hunter who don't have the same responsibilities as a Pillar or on a mission would do their best to get a good nights rest.
"Well, I couldn't sleep so I took a walk and ended up here after seeing the light from the lantern."
"Well you should probably go back now." Muichirou spoke before you could say anything, giving Genya a cold look that sent shivers down his spine.
"A-alright." with that, Genya awkwardly walked away.
You sighed, knowing how cold Muichirou gets around other demon hunters who he aren't familiar with or hate (though you'd probably do the same).
"That in mind, should we head back now?" you asked, taking hold of his hand, the lantern illuminating the path before you. "The demon is dead now."
"Yeah," he nodded, gripping your hand lightly as he started to walk. "I'll walk you home."
You two didn't say anything, rather you didn't need to say anything. You two just walked in the comfortable silence, each thinking about things.
"I wonder how Kyojurou's mission is going. Did Tanjiro get the answers he wanted?" you looked up at the sky, wondering when the sun was gonna rise considering you two spent some time looking for that demon (who died way too easily).
You looked around the place, suddenly remembering something. "Oh, this place...." you thought seeing he familiar scenery, your lips curving upwards to form a smile. "This is rather convenient." smiling to yourself, you stared at Muichirou before your lips formed into a thin line. "What should I do about him? His grip on my hand is quite firm."
"Hey Muichirou." you called out, your heart beating a mile a minute at the thought of what you were about to do.
You took a deep breath, forcing yourself to calm down. You had to do this.
He hummed, pausing as he turned to you. "Ye–" he stopped mid-sentence, his eyes widening, he let go of your hand as his cheeks went redder at your sudden action.
You tiptoed a bit as you pressed your lips against his cheek, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
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Fun Facts:
-Not mentioning Zenitsu in this chapter was totally intentional.
-Muichirou and (Y/n) combined is the best bullying team. They could outrank Shinobu's bullying if they tried.
-(Y/n) decided that even if she knew Genya's name, she would continue to refer to him as Mohawk man.
-(Y/n) made the first move 🙊🙊.
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Look I don't wanna ruin the mood but around this time of the story, Kyojuro should be battling Akaza soon.
(｡’▽’｡)♡