«That wasn't how it happened», Ayaka thought, once she got rid of her drowsiness and processed that had only been a dream.
Or was it? It had been so long since she thought about it, details escaped from her grasp, like birds flying away through a small gap in a window left half open, wind rising along the beating of their wings and scratching her with their beaks and claws as they escaped. There was no way to make them stay, to close the window, but she didn't want to close it either, because maybe this way they would leave her alone for good, but they always came back... One way or another, they always came back.
It didn't matter how accurate the details were, if sometimes she had the sword on the left or right hand, if sometimes Takeshi grabbed her chin or caressed her hair, those details held no importance. The end was always the same, with his head on the floor and the words that came out of his mouth echoing on her mind.
That both of them were drowning in the end brought a certain peace, because at least Ayaka knew that if she drowned she wasn't alone while doing so. But Takeshi was dead, she was the one to kill him, and there was no stone to grab onto to stay afloat in such a dark and immense sea, so she'd have to drown alone.
It had been a while since she felt like drowning, or maybe because she had gotten used to it, but she supposed it was Yuu's fault, for stirring up that way a past she didn't want to remember. Yuu was to blame for a lot of things.
«Kobayashi», she suddenly thought. «Kobayashi is to blame for a lot of things»
Maybe Takeshi had been crazy, maybe he had been rotten to the bone, but he hadn't deserved to die, wasn't he just like her? Hadn't they been raised in the same village? The same child songs, the same stories to listen to before bed the same games to play with friends, then what was it that made them different?
«He turned into a demon», the deepest part of her mind whispered into her ear.
«What does that matter?», she thought back. Nezuko's existence threw all of that out the window, maybe he could have been someone like her, but his head had been torn apart from his body before she discovered that.
«Being close to Tanjirou for so long is taking its toll on me», she supposed in a bitter tone, because she knew demons didn't deserve any sympathy, and even then she was still letting all those stupid thoughts wander through her mind.
Leaning on the doorframe with a sigh in between tired and exasperated, Ayaka opened the door to find herself face to face with who she had correctly supposed was behind it.
"You don't look so well, do you want me to call the doctor?" That was the first thing Tanjirou said when looking at her more thoroughly, eyes stopping on trembling fingers and the way her head appeared to rumble at the beating of her heart.
For once, Ayaka admitted on her head she must have looked quite bad or horribly terrible. Both of them worked.
She could imagine herself, close to fainting on the door and skin two tones paler than it usually was, gray eyebags and a thin shining sweat layer like a cherry on top.
It was surprising Tanjirou didn't take her for a demon, so she supposed she, at the very least,must have looked human.
She was in such a fantastic condition for him to break into her room in the middle of the night.
Completely great, totally perfect.
"Do you need something?" She asked instead of giving him an answer, deciding to skip that part of the conversation all together. She tried to appear casual and collected to keep away the reality that she was a blink away from collapsing.
She reminded herself that her and Kamado weren't friends or anything for that matter.
"Do you two know each other or something?" Zenitsu had said the first time they met. And that wasn't the impression she wanted to give away.
"It's just that Zenitsu has been running after Nezuko the whole night, something about her marrying him, and he's abandoned his efforts in "courting you"? He says you're too tough for him," Tanjrou explained. It was surprising how his voice never abandoned that pinch of happiness it always carried, even with a guy like Zenitsu harassing his sister.
She let him go into the room, gathering all her strength to turn around, still leaning on the doorframe. Nezuko's wooden box softly slid down his back, leaving it next to her futon.
"If I hadn't known he would abandon the idea of marrying me once he found another girl to annoy I wouldn't have put up with him for so long," she muttered with eyes half closed. She started to slid further and further down the door.
One didn't have to check twice about it to see Zenitsu was a mess covered in sweat, snot and with a high hormone level, making it prone for him to jump from girl to girl without any respect. Something despicable, if Ayaka was asked her opinion about it.
"Inosuke is being just as problematic, so..." Tanjirou continued, clearing his throat.
He didn't need to say anything else for Ayaka to understand what he meant. After all Inosuke was... Inosuke.
"I can imagine," she drily cut him off, eyes now closed.
Nezuko suddenly came out of her box, not being able to put down the urges of hugging Ayaka, as she threw herself at her in a way that appeared more like she was tackling her instead of hugging her. Ayaka struggled against her hold as they stumbled and crashed, luckily, against the fluffy futon.
With a small groan, Ayaka simply stayed still, the fever was too high for her to focus on anything else and she was okay with Nezuko being on top of her all night.
As long as Nezuko left her sleep she'd be able to handle it, it wasn't as bad as she had thought at first, Nezuko was small but she wasn't a bother since she was very light. Besides, Nezuko didn't, surprisingly, have the cold touch Ayaka had started to associate with demons. Overall, it was mildly bearable.
And she was, definitely, too tired to deal with it.
Leaving aside everything else, there was still a question eating up her mind, so Ayaka thought Tanjirou could answer it.
"Where the hell did Inosuke come from?" she asked, with no attempt at standing up. She didn't know if Tanjirou was still in the room, throwing the question at the air.
She wouldn't check, preferring to stare at the wooden ceiling that was, on itself, comforting.
"Didn't you see him at the Final Selection? He was the first one to finish," Tanjirou's voice made itself present confirming that yes, he was still in her room, as strange as it was that he hadn't left already.
«That pig was on the Final Selection?» wondered Ayaka. With eyebrows fixed together to form an estranged expression, she tried to go through her memories in case she remembered seeing him at some point.
She hadn't paid attention to the other candidates, as colourful as they were.
All of them seemed boring and average under her eyes, someone weaker than her didn't spark any light enough to remember a face. She had barely paid attention to Genya, reuniting with him once or twice, more for a sense of duty than any feeling of appreciation they could have for each other.
However, there had been someone on the Final Selection to catch her eye.
ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ
"Ayaka, get your ass moving or we'll be late! What the hell is taking you so long!?
Ayaka's hands flew up to her chest in a hurry, pressing a paper against her chest in an attempt to hide it from Genya's sharp eyes.
He had just come into her room (without knocking, which already served to annoy her), he also looked quite angry, leaning on the door frame as if he owned the place.
Ayaka turned around to face him, an eyebrow nervously twitching:
"That's none of your business! Get out of my room!"
"The hell do you mean it's none of my business!? We're gonna be late because of you, of course it's my busi- !" Genya suddenly interrupted himself, his eyes travelling to what Ayaka held on her hands. Curiosity, nearly excitement, flowing from his face. "Huh? What do you have there? Is that a letter?"
His partner's cheeks acquired a rosy tone, as she tried to wave off his questions waving her hand. Her cheeks were still the colour of peaches.
"Of course not. And I already told you, it's none of your business." Ayaka had enough as it was with what Genya already knew about her.
She was sure that, when Genya took care of her that one time (they weren't few, between), her tongue slipped too much for her taste and she ended up talking about something important, she felt it on her bones, but her head wasn't able to remember. There was no way to know for sure, but she didn't know if to be relieved or not because Genya didn't mention it.
She hoped he did the same with that conversation too, since she was starting to be embarrassed.
"Is it from your family?" Genya inquired, eagerness making its presence on his voice and getting closer to her.
«He looks like a kid that's asked for a puppy on his birthday», she thought, being that the first comparison that ame to Ayaka's head. Because with wide open eyes and a certain softness to his fearful face, that was the feeling he gave off.
The insistence on his attitude wasn't new. One way or another, Genya always got excited when letters from the Iwamotos arrived. Because although Ayaka never answered, sometimes not even reading them, Genya liked to read them, as weird as it was that he went over her mail.
Besides, her parents exchanged letters with Himejima-shishou, although not too much, but the mere thought made Ayaka uncomfortable, imagining just what her master talked with her parents about in their brief communication.
So, her parents knew about Genya's existence, and it didn't take much time for them to send him letters too.
"No, it's not from my family, you gorila" Ayaka answered as she avoided Genya's gaze. She had a strong urge to punch him right then and there, why couldn't he mind his own businesses?
She smiled at seeing how Genya's expression changed from one of curiosity to one of anger as soon as he processed the fact she had insulted him right at his face.
"What did you just call me!?" He asked in a burst of fury. That would end in a fight, as always.
Fights between them weren't uncommon, just everyday stuff. But that day they were particularly explosive, which was natural as it was the morning of the Final Selection.
If they were still alive when a week passed, both of Gyoumei Himejima's disciples would officially turn into demon slayers. If they didn't survive they wouldn't be able to fight this way anymore, and Ayaka wouldn't allow that. She would have to at least enjoy one last quarrel with her partner.
She knew Genya wouldn't die, no, he wouldn't die because of a demon, not for something like that. She was sure.
Their master appeared through the corridor, peaceful as only he was, maybe looking for the reason of such a fuss. He had thought they would be calm that day, but it was quite the contrary.
Even in a day such as that, they continued with their silly things. Sometimes Himejima wondered if he had done something wrong or if his students were just immature children.
They were fifteen year olds, he could understand to a certain point, but even then...
"Shut up stuuuuuupid! I bet you'll starve because you forgot to look for food!" Ayaka barked in amusement.
"Shut your mouth moron, if I starve to death then you'll survive because the demons got bored of catching up to you so easily! You slow pipsqueak!" Genya replied. Even if he didn't use his head he was sharp, sharp enough to notice Ayaka was slower than most.
Their aggressive provoking made the rivalry clash harder, being wrapped in childish fights they solved with more training.
"Take that back, you damn gorila, it's not my fault you're used to swinging over the trees on the jungle!" She yelled, raising a fist as a threat. Genya didn't back down, rolling up his sleeves and taking a step on her direction.
"Same goes for you, pipsqueak!"
"Idiot!"
"Imbecile!"
"Thug!"
"Geek!"
"Ugly!"
When their faces were close to crashing, the smell of conflict mixing in between the wisteria and gunpowder that were permanently impregnated on Genya, a harsh tug pulled them apart.
"We're gonna be late, stop with your childishness. Demon slayers stay collected at all times, what are you doing, losing your temper over something like this?" Himejima-shishou said, holding them both by the collar of their clothes.
Ayaka pointed an accusing finger at Genya:
"He came into my room without permission! He was trying to snoop, shishou!"
Genya growled in something close to an annoyed bark.
"I didn't go into her room, I just came to make her hurry up and I stayed on the doorframe, Himejima-shishou! I wasn't snooping, I only asked her about her letter!"
With a tired sigh, Himejima-shishou made both his students' heads crash against one another, which left them spinning, leaving them to fall to the ground.
"Since you have such thick heads I bet that didn't hurt at all, what obstinate children." That familiar hardness on his manners, intertwined with the softness that characterized him, never abandoned their master's nature. He had raised a lot of children, Ayaka and Genya weren't the first ones. Himejima-shishou smiled. "We should get going, right?"
Huffing, Genya and Ayaka exchanged a look and nodded.
ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ
The skirt of Fujikasane mountain was bursting with energy.
Ayaka was sure that there, all gathered, the demon slayers were more in number than what her village could have ever been. Never before had she been so many people in one place, and she couldn't do anything else that wasn't look everywhere with wide open eyes by Himejima-shishou's side. She made sure to stay nearby, but not close enough to be weird.
There were many, many people, and that made her fidget. For a moment Ayaka had the urge to ask Himejima-shishou to hold her hand, but she managed to keep it inside before being shamefully conscious of such silly wishes.
Nevertheless, her ears couldn't help but turn a light red.
Genya was at Himejima-shishou's other side, but he had adopted his thug manners so familiar to her. She couldn't discover if Genya was naturally fearsone or if he liked to be feared, she didn't ask, nor did she have the thought to do it later.
"From here on, you are alone," Himejima-shishou started, stopping by the red gates that lead to the mountain.
Masters couldn't attend their disciples' Selections, it wasn't even common to say goodbye at the entrance like he had. But they were his children, adoptive or whatever, Himejima-shishou didn't need to say it through words for them to know, Ayaka didn't need to see it to understand, either.
"Stay together," Himejima-shishou started. Ayaka crossed her arms over her chest as Genya leaned on the other leg. Another one of his lectures. "I won't be able to protect you and it's your duty as partners and siblings to look out for each other."
Ayaka and Genya exchanged a look and broke visual contact once again, gazes fixed forward.
His two disciples were made out of the same wood, Himejima knew and he had already been expecting that.
"Yes, whatever you say Himejima-shishou," Ayaka said in an uninterested shrug, voice sounding lazy as she dragged her words.
"Very well, Himejima-shishou," Genya replied in the same way.
Himejima frowned in small annoyance.
His disciples were impossible, he loved them either way.
"Do you want me to call Genya «aniki» too?" Ayaka asked, her intentions close to mocking as she glanced up at Himejima-shishou in amusement. "I can do it if you want me to, and Genya could call me «imoto». I'm younger than you so that's only fair, right, «aniki»?"
"We're not doing that," Genya said without sparing her a glance. He didn't seem to be in the mood for that kind of joke.
Ayaka's mocking reply was cut off as Himejima-shishou, setting his hands on both their heads, messed up their hair.
She would have laughed at how Genya's mohawk ended up, messy yellow tips covering his face everywhere, but she was just as bad, strands of hair escaping from her usual bun in complete disaster.
"Even if you don't share the same blood, know you'll always have each other." Giving them a last push, Gyoumei Himejima gave one last look at the children he had been taking care of for so long go over the red gate to Fujikasane mountain. "Survive this week and prove you're the Stone Pillar's disciples, prove you're worthy of being called demon slayers."
The Final Selection was no joke.
Ayaka wondered if her master was scared the two of them would die there, and she thought about what would happen if his fears became true.
"Ayaka," Himejima-shishou called out to her one last time, and she turned around to him, expecting. Seven days would go by before she saw him again, seven days she would have to spend on that mountain filled in with demons. The thought didn't disturb her. "Remember to look for a purpose or you'll never get to be a pillar."
Himejima-shishou smiled. Ayaka pressed her lips together. Unconsciously her hand went down the pocket on her haori where she kept that piece of paper, squeezing tightly without knowing why.
And just like that, Himejima-shishou was far away from her sight..
For someone so huge he sure was fast.
Genya and Ayaka shared a look, now they were in that place full of questions, the only familiar thing for both of them being one another.
At the last second Ayaka stayed looking at Genya, she made her decision.
She wasn't going to run around with someone like Genya slowing her down, so the only thing left was to walk off, so, without worrying about nothing else but herself, that was what she did.
She could hear Genya calling out her name behind her, "Wait! Himejima-shishou told us to stay together!" but she was good at sneaking off through corners and small gaps.
Soon, the Selection started, and there was no time to look for her.
«I don't need a purpose»
ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ
If Genya Shinazugawa could have said something that moment, he would have said "fuck".
Four days had passed since the Final Selection had started and he had ended over the course of those days covered in dust, cuts and, he couldn't deny it, traces of blood. Walking was starting to become tiring, however, he got rid of the demons easily, it was just too much of a hassle to do it, a hard work that demanded getting his hands dirty. If on itself slaying demons was a dirty job, he had to do it twice as hard.
He was used to barging into fights, never needing to think too much like the gremlin. With his great figure and his fearsome face, the kids in the neighbourhood didn't bother him, and if they did, he hadn't had any troubles making them regret it with his fists.
It only became worse with the scar travelling through his face from one side to the other, as a reminder carved on his skin about the day it all happened. To make sure he wouldn't forget, of the words he yelled at his own brother, holding the corpse slowly vanishing of his mother in between his arms.
"You are a murderer!"
He didn't need to look for them too much on his own head to remember them.
With a stomp (stronger than how he usually gave them), Genya finished with the last head of the demons that had cornered him not too long ago.
The blood, if it could be called such, shot out everywhere, staining his shoes and the edges of his pants.
He should look for a new pair after getting out of there, the bloodstains didn't go out so easily and it would be too much of a hassle having to spend too much time cleaning them.
Breathing heavily, he let himself lay against the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes. He took a moment to breathe and recompose "inhale, exhale", feeling the demonic traces on his veins fade away and going back to being human again.
"Fuck," he said it out loud that time, sliding his hands over his forehead to get the sweat off his greasy skin.
He was goddamn exhausted, the bastards appeared everywhere, his life was never endangered, but just as he said earlier, it was too much of a hassle to get rid of them all night long.
"Hey you, ugly", he heard a voice call him from someplace unknown.
Genya got up alarmed, looking everywhere with wide open eyes.
"I'm right here, gorilla." That time he located the voice right above his head, and in between the branches peeked, without any kind of warning, the gremlim's head.
Had she been there all the time? If she had, Genya damned her for it. She seemed the most relaxed he had ever seen someone, grains of rice on the corner of her mouth and looking at him with those terrifying eyes over her shoulder
He knew she judged him all the time, Ayaka Iwamoto wasn't a sympathiser of his kind, she preferred to look at everyone from the top of the world, talent never seen before, a sharp mind and a family (alive, and who loved her, which was more than what could Genya ever aspire to have).
Like that, she didn't have the time to put herself in the place of people like him. But Genya couldn't make himself hate her, just like he knew she didn't hate him either. Their relationship was, at the very least, complicated.
He wasn't a saint, he annoyed her sometimes without reason because he knew it would bother her, and that image he had of her, a prim and cynical genius wouldn't erase itself from his mind, just like the image she had of him, a fearsome brute, wouldn't go away easily.
Leaning her chin on the branch of the tree, Ayak took another bite of the rice ball on her hands.
"What are you doing up there?" Genya asked, squinted eyes and questions on his face.
Ayaka shrugged, taking another bite of the rice ball.
"Taking a break just like you," she answered without any apparent worries, jumping down from the tree and landing safely just before him. "If you are going to take a break, do it somewhere demons can't get you. You are vulnerable there, be more careful."
Genya nodded without taking her warnings to heart, staring to the other side of the mountain to watch over any demons on sight. Luckily, there wasn't any, but that didn't mean they couldn't suddenly appear.
A handkerchief crashed against his face.
It took him by surprise, of all things he expected to fight against, he never thought a handkerchief would be one of them.
On the other side, Ayaka looked at him with a frown.
"Clean yourself, stupid," she ordered, a single eyebrow arched as she eyed him up and down. Genya didn't know how to bite back, because she was right, somehow.
Compared to her, Ayaka was as clean as crystal, so he supposed that she had, somehow, the right to nag him about it. It didn't take out how irritating her attitude was, but he obeyed nevertheless, sliding the white cloth over his face and turning it to a murky colour.
That was the colour of the days he had spent there, it fit the atmosphere of the situation.
Dark brown, the colour of shit.
"Are you hungry? Please tell me you remembered to look for food, gorilla." In all honesty, Genya hadn't even bothered to think about it, and Ayaka didn't take much time to figure.
She threw a half lidded glance his way that yelled "seriously?" at his face. Very in character for her.
"No, I'm well with what I had yesterday, gremlin," Genya answered, (if demons counted as food). His stomach didn't take much time to contradict him, growling in protest because no, he wasn't well with what he ate yesterday.
He heard murmurs come from Ayaka close to "you are so stupid" or "you should use your head more", but she nevertheless took out from one of her many hidden pockets a rice ball, and left it on his hand, bruised and full of swollen blisters.
Without saying another word both sat on the inside of a hollow tree per Ayaka 's suggestion. "Because of the demons", she had said, "to be safe". And so, they ate in silence.
If there had been jasmine tea, they would look like two friends enjoying a picnic in the middle of the night.
He had to say he was enjoying that moment, there were few the times in which they were in silence, and Genya thought it was because they were alone and with no help from anyone, because if not they would never get together voluntarily, and less of all that way, too busy in normal conditions throwing insults to each other one worse than the last one.
By the corner of his eye, he saw Ayaka peek through the hole on the tree. For once since he had known her, her eyes were wide open, so wide open that it was strange just seeing her.
"What the hell are you looking at?" Genya asked, going near the hole too to see what it was that had left her so astonished.
What he saw surprised him too.
A girl, thin and delicate, moved skillfully in between a horde of demons, slashing as if killing was on her veins, just as natural as breathing.
"Breath of Flower, Fifth Form: Peonies of Futility," he heard the girl say, nearly missing it because of how soft and light her voice was.
Ayaka kept watching as she saw the girl fly through the blood and the cut off limbs she herself had slashed skilfully with her sword, alm expression on her face and an unbreakable smile.
When she finished, not even a speck of dust had fallen on her.
Genya recognised her; Kanao Tsuyuri, the "tsuguko" of the former Flower Pillar, Kanae Kochou.
It meant that, someday, that girl would be a pillar. The strongest from everyone there on the Final Selection, and the one closest to becoming a pillar over all the other members of the corps.
Being a "tsuguko" was the biggest title to have after pillar. Not even Ayaka had been able to be officially recognised as a "tsuguko" by Himejima-shishou.
Genya didn't know the details behind it, maybe it had something to do with her attitude, which was very likely. But only two people knew that, Ayaka and Himejima-shishou. Ayaka would never say it and Himejima-shishou would never disrespect his disciple telling him (he knew, he had tried just to be answered with an absolute negative).
During all the time Kanao spent on the limits of her sight, Ayaka didn't take her eyes off her, not even once.
ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ
"Will you let Nezuko stay with you?" Tanjirou was insistent the same way a bug fluttering around her was, she had learnt that with the time they had been together, that didn't mean she was used to it.
"Isn't it obvious?" Ayaka asked in a sarcastic tone, pointing at Nezuko with her eyes, who was still on top of her. Instinctively her hand flied up to Nezuko's head, patting her head as if she wasn't really doing it. Even if the grimace stayed on her face, her hand said otherwise.
"She wants you to braid her hair," Tanjirou offered. Ayaka looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "She likes it a lot, maybe she'll leave you alone like this, Nezuko can be quite persistent."
"Braid Nezuko's hair? No, thanks," Ayaka mocked as she eyed the demon, who eyed her back with her unnerving pale pink eyes.
Tanjirou noticed Ayaka's hand never left the top of Nezuko's head.
"Are you gonna go now or will you stay here all night?" She inquired, because she really wanted him to go. It wouldn't take much time for her to collapse because of the shivers that had been drilling on her back for a while now, and it would be unfortunate for him to see that..
Tanjirou realized that she was right and that he should have left the room for a while now, so he pushed down the urge to apologize, wished Ayaka a good night, and went back to his own room.
For the first time, Ayaka was all alone with Nezuko, and that made her fidget.
She nearly preferred Tanjirou to stay so this wouldn't be as uncomfortable, but she didn't have enough willpower to refuse anything he asked on her condition, weak and indisposed. As if she was a meadow at the start of apring, Ayaka was weak against him and his fire eyes, that with the Sun's warmth melted the last snowflakes of a harsh winter that already ended.
With a sigh she finally collapsed on her futon, praying to all gods she knew to be healed in the morning. Just like she had done all her life.
The gods seemed to listen, because Ayaka felt something cold against her forehead. She managed to open her eyes and find Nezuko, with gentle eyes, human eyes, laying her head on her forehead.
It had turned into a cutting cold, but that made Ayaka feel just the slightest better. Nezuko could do that? Never before had her skin felt cold, but when settling her hand on her forehead it felt refreshing, like fresh water.
The next thing Ayaka knew was that she had grabbed Nezuko's hand, clutching onto it and keeping it against her forehead. She sighed in pleasure.
It felt good, and with unintelligible mutterings coming out of her mouth, Ayaka got Nezuko's hand closer. She didn't seem reluctant to the affection, instead coming closer as well. Ayaka swore she looked happy, or maybe, she supposed, that was something that came from the Kamado family.
She smiled, without reason.
"You know," Ayaka said. Nezuko stared at her with curious wide open eyes. There was a mist to Ayaka's gaze that didn't look good, like she wasn't really there. "I don't even remember Tanjirou from the Final Selection, the only person I remember is Kanao Tsuyuri. She was the only remarkable person there, a tsuguko. She equals me in power, and her hair is pretty, no doubt about that, with pink tips."
Nezuko only blinked.
"That's right, you can't say anything." Ayaka chuckled. "I don't even know why I'm telling you this. Wel, I do, because I'm delirious." She chuckled more in between words. "I don't like being delirious, «aniki» has seen me like this a lot of times, that's why I hate him and I don't want you to see me like this too.".
Nezuko's hand, to which Ayaka held onto, pressed further against her forehead.
With understanding on her eyes, Nezuko raised the blanket up to Ayaka's chin and patted it lightly with her free hand. She thought about her brother Takeo, as she poked Ayaka's mole.
"Sleep." Nezuko didn't need to talk for Ayaka to understand what she meant.
So with a pained whine, feeling the urge to vomit grow weaker, she slept.
She had weird dreams for the second time, but she only dreamt about sunflowers and spring meadows.
Nezuko's hair appeared on two braids over her shoulders at breakfast, but no one said anything about it.
ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ✿ᵒᵒ
"You have no sense of humour, it's the only thing I'm saying," Zenitsu said running by Ayaka's side as the four demon slayers went to their next mission, someplace called Natagumo mountain.
It had been an emergency summon, as they had breakfast on the eve of their recovery during their stay on the wisteria house. Tanjirou's crow flew in through the window and yelled at them to hurry to the mission as fast as possible. Adding to Ayaka's torture, her foot was conveniently recovered by then, so she would have to, again, tag along on mission with Tanjirou.
Inosuke and Zenitsu, too, were there as the icing on top of the cake. The four of them made a... quite peculiar team. A boy trying to turn her sister back to a human, another one that didn't even want to be a demon slayer, a boar and... her. How should she call herself? Prodigy in a constant bad mood or calculating bastard?
"What do you mean I don't have a sense of humour?" Ayaka bit back, crossing her arms over her chest. "I like jokes, they are funny."
Zenitsu looked at her with a face that changed in between confusion and curiosity, more like confusion, a thick and blond eyebrow arched in questioning.
"No offense, but you don't look like the kind of person that likes jokes, A-chan. I like girls that are funny and pretty, like Nezuko-chan!" Zenitsu dragged Nezuko's name in sweetness, just thinking bout her made Zenitsu's cheeks turn into a pink that could rival his beloved's eyes.
"This isn't because of that!" Ayaka protested. "I'll prove I can be funny."
Zenitsu looked at her expectantly.
"What do you tell a three headed ghost?"
Ayaka fixed her gaze on him, as Zenitsu, even while confused, followed on her joke:
"What do you tell them?"
She waited for a moment and, as she strongly pushed back bubbling chuckles, continued:
"Hello, hello, hello."
Without being able to help it, she broke the silence with her laughs, that floated between them in jumps, energetic and brimmed in with childish humour. However, Zenitsu stayed looking at her in a deadpan expression.
Realizing he didn't laugh along with her Ayaka cleared her throat, not being able to help the blush that rose up to her cheeks, finally conscious of just how bad of a joke it was.
"Oh come on," she snorted in shame. "It's not that bad, right, Tanjirou?".
He answered a few meters away from them. "No, of course not, Aya."
His face was contorted in a weird expression Ayaka couldn't identify, and when she was going to question him about it, Inosuke appeared by her side, muffling Ayaka's voice with his own, loud and powerful voice.
"What's that thing you are wearing, Yosano Mimatoki!?" He impatiently pointed to the lower part of Ayaka's legs, covered by knee pads tied with thick leather strips to her calves.
Ayaka raised her eyebrows:
"You mean the «suneate»? They're just for stronger kicks, they also protect my legs." She shrugged without giving it much importance. "Besides, I like samurais."
Inosuke became infuriated for some reason.
"«Suneate»? Samurái? What the hell are you talking about!? Stop saying strange words to confuse me, you hellish woman!"
«It's the second time he calls me a hellish woman, and he doesn't seem to guess my name correctly either», Ayaka thought, whose eyebrow started to twitch in fury.
"The most you can expect from a pig, I guess," she muttered to herself.
Tanjirou suddenly came to a halt and Zenitsu, Inosuke and Ayaka followed their example, nearly crashing against each other.
"We arrived," Tanjirou announced, gaze fixed on the darkness of the forest."It's Natagumo mountain."
Ayaka's eyes fixed on the mountain and a wave of relief overcame her softly. She could finally see! She could finally see the demons! Five of them all throughout the mountain! And a lot of spiders, for some reason.
She happily accepted the familiarity of distinguishing demonic presences, welcoming the feeling of seeing how she used to. She felt a lot safer then, and that provoked two things, it put her in a good mood and it turned her optimistic. After what felt like years without fighting blindly against demons, only a mission, for that matter, it gave her strength to hold onto something familiar.
"Let's go!" Ayaka said, patting Inosuke's back stronger than needed.
She took out her sword from its sheath in a quick wrist flick, the weapon becoming part of her arm like an extension that fit perfectly with her and the image she wanted to give.
"Wait, A-chan! Can you please wait!?" Zenitsu pleaded, who had sat on the floor at some point. His face was soaked on his usual combination of tears and other body fluids, and that only made Ayaka roll her eyes. "It's so scary! I feel like it gets scarier the closer we get to it!"
She could see what Zenitsu meant too, but that didn't matter:
"And what about it? That only makes it more exciting! I'll defeat all those demons!"
Inosuke patted Ayaka's back, nearly throwing her to the floor as he imitated her gesture earlier. He was cheerful too, quickly getting infected by her energetic mood.
"I'll behead more demons than you! This is nothing for Inosuke-sama!" He cackled, a gesture Ayaka had learned to associate with him, as he took out his double swords.
Him and Ayaka cackled in complicity, yelling in a single voice "We'll kill the demons! We'll kill the demons!" like a chant before battle.
"Could you take this more seriously!? You can die in there you know! Have an inch of common sense!" Zenitsu continued yelling like the voice of reason in the quartet. In a desperate attempt he turned to the only sane partner left. "Tanjirou, tell them they're being knuckleheads!"
But it was useless, he was busy looking at them with a content smile, enjoying such unusual enthusiasm.
"Shut up already! Why are you sitting down!? You really piss me off!" Inosuke yelled at Zenitsu.
He didn't stay quiet for too long, exploding in more tears and yellings.
"You're the only one I don't want to get complaints from, you pig head!" He accused, waving his arms to the three. "Seems like you don't really pis me off after all! I'm normal! You are abnormal! "That time he pointed at both Inosuke and Ayaka. "Who wouldn't be scared of going in such a place!?" ?
He continued spluttering out things so quickly Ayaka couldn't understand what he said, she found that situation quite annoying.
"Zenitsu," Ayaka cut him off once she got fed up of his constant ramble no one could hear. Looking at him with eyes as empty as her voice, she continued. "You're pathetic."
How could she had faith in him? It was incredibly that she believed in him at some point. This must be because something happened to her eyes, because the sight she had now of Zenitsu Agatsuma didn't compare at all to the one she had back then.
In the end she had been right, he didn't have any kind of strength, she didn't understand why she had even bothered cheering him on.
"If you don't want to come, don't, but don't be a bother for other people because if not, in the end, you'll find yourself alone." Zenitsu looked at her, stopping on his crying. Ayaka continued. "You were right, you're a coward, but live that kind of life on your own. It's the most that can be asked out of you."
He was a total failure.
With the end of Zenitsu's moaning over them fell an static silence. Inosuke observed on one side without saying a word. It was Tanjirou's voice that finally broke the silence hovered over them ever since the last word came out from Ayaka's mouth.
"You have crossed the line, take that back Ayaka," Tanjirou said as he grabbed her arm. There was a frown on his face.
Ayaka was surprised it took this long.
Her own name sounded strange coming out of his mouth. He hadn't called her "Aya".
"Someone had to tell him, if not he'll go on like this forever." She ignored the silence that permanently fell over Zenitsu. Seeing him be quiet for the first time felt like a bad omen.
She could feel Tanjirou's eyes on her. They weren't suns this time.
"You're wrong," Tanjirou said." Zenitsu isn't pathetic, I've known that from the first moment. He's someone strong and very kind."
"I'm never wrong," Ayaka replied, bitterness to her voice and a threatening glance, fixed on Tanjirou for the first time. "It's not my fault you can't accept the truth."
"Don't fight because of me, Tanjirou, Ayaka," Zenitsu pleaded in a weak voice, strange compared to his usual vibrant high pitched tone. "She's right Tanjirou, it really doesn't matter."
Tanjirou pressed his lips together. Ayaka blinked emotionlessly.
"She isn't, Zenitsu!" Tanjirou retorted effusively. "You're not pathetic!"
"Hey, there's a guy half dead in the road!" Inosuke yelled, pointing with his sword to a part of the way what could be twenty metters away from them.
Tanjirou let go of Ayaka's arm and they both turned around to look at a boy, demon slayer's uniform on, crawling on the ground with a sword in hand as if breathing was the most difficult thing to do.
He managed to identify their uniforms, stretching a hand out to them in hopes of getting somewhere safe.
"Save..." He pleaded in between painful huffs. "Save me..."
The three of them, Inosuke Ayaka and Tanjirou, runned off to him in the blink of an eye as Zenitsu yelled "wait!" behind them.
"Are you alright!? What happened!?" Tanjirou asked in alarm. But the boy was sent flying beforre Ayaka could grab him. An agonizing yell piercing the air as he was dragged back to the mountain, engulfed by the darkness of the night and the forest.
"They have us tied up!" He screamed, as he travelled through the starry sky, face soaked in trembling tears and stretching a weak hand on their direction."Save me!"
And just like that, he disappeared.
Ayaka stayed looking at the place where he had vanished more than she should have.
Behind them, Zenitsu made a high pitched sound he quickly covered with his hands in pure horror.
"Let's go," Tanjirou said. Ayaka could see him trembling. "And save him."
Even as fat beads of sweat ran down her nape, eyebrows fixed together, Ayaka smiled. There it was, the adrenaline of moments before battle on her veins.
"Those bastards won't have time to run when I get my hands on their necks." She offered Tanjirou a cocky smile, quickly removing it off her face to be replaced by a confused frown when he didn't give it back.
Inosuke took no time to jump into the conversation.
"I shall be the vanguard! You can just bring your trembling buttlocks and follow me!"
His double swords shone in the night as enthusiastically as their owner, the air waiting to be filled with blood.
"Hey, hey, hey, big boy," Ayaka stopped him as she put her hand on his chest. "If there's someone that's going to be followed is me, who knows what will happen if you go in alone. Do I have to remind you who won the arm wrestling competition?"
At mentioning his defeat, Inosuke huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and refusing to look at her like a little kid.
«What a sore loser», she thought, as they went into the spider's nest.
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