By the time Shinobu had finished asking questions it had already become noon, thankfully Tanjiro had been able to ask a few things he had put on his 'most important' mental list for when he'd meet someone that works here, such as a change of clothes.
In response after the conversation with Shinobu he had been given a normal patient's outfit brought by a member of the Kakushi who logically ran off immediately after delivering the clothes, it wasn't exactly anything special but having new clothes is certainly a blessing right now, anything beats that half-ragged Spider Family Kimono.
Atleast they felt nice on his skin and fit him quite nicely, and by request the Wisteria had been removed from the door after Tanjiro told Shinobu about his overly sensitive and strong nose which allowed him to smell the Wisteria even from the back of room, now that they were gone he could finally breathe normally again and there wasn't any terrible stench to clog parts of his mind with the need to flee, he had been told that he wasn't allowed loose on the premise just yet as most of the staff members of the Estate still had to be informed about Tanjiro and his 'condition' which was understandable, he didn't want to end up scaring someone.
Although, it's safe to say that some of the questions that Shinobu asked were a little uncomfortable for Tanjiro, either they'd get too personal or a little gross, now that Shinobu had a Demon that was willing to cooperate she wanted to know everything the Demon could tell her.
The ones that specifically rubbed Tanjiro the wrong way were 'How does human flesh actually taste?' or 'What's Wisteria like?' or 'Is there a part of your subconscious that tells you to eat Humans?'
All of them were specifically awful questions and the answer was equally awful, so Tanjiro told Shinobu each time he'd rather not answer those questions, she seemed to understand atleast, if you were curious about the answers the best he could describe the taste of blood was sickly sweet, too sweet and yet so welcoming, what he had been eating with the Spider Family had a nice texture that soothed his mouth and while he couldn't describe the taste that well, he knew he hadn't tasted anything like it even when he was human, Wisteria had this sick odor to it that stung Tanjiro's lungs when inhaled and made him want to throw up badly, and yes, there is a part of his subconscious that wants him to give in.
Tanjiro also asked how Zenitsu was doing and if that Boar-masked Slayer was still alive, and he was glad to hear that Zenitsu was doing fine aside from a minor mental trauma and that the Slayer, who he'd learn was called Inosuke, was indeed alive but had sustained enough injuries that he'd best be bedridden.
Tanjiro initially wasn't sure if he caused those injuries, but Shinobu reassured him saying that he had fought a bigger Demon before which inflicted the majority of the injuries, must've been the Father Demon Tanjiro shooed off.
Sadly, he didn't find room in the conversation to ask about sending the letter he wrote, so for the time being that will remain on the edge of the table, until Tanjiro was allowed to walk freely around the premise he'd give sleeping another try.
Laying down in an actual bed felt surprisingly heavenly after his two years of not even trying to sleep, Tanjiro hummed contently as he made himself comfortable under the sheets.
Given the immense free time he likely has he might as well contemplate a few important things he's got on his mind, like his returned ability to speak normally.
There could be several attributing factors to this, like Tanjiro just getting more used to his Demon Body, or the more likely possibility that he didn't quite like that much which is him getting stronger through everything he's been eating the past month.
Of course, not that he wanted to eat the things he did, but he certainly felt guilty about it.
It was then that something else mentally struck Tanjiro.
"My things are still on the mountain!"
It wasn't very uncommon that Aoi had been taken aside by Shinobu to be told something important, after all she was sometimes the most loyal member of the Estate and Shinobu trusted her with a lot more things than most other people from the Estate.
But it came as an immense shock what she was told today specifically, so she only found one way to respond to Shinobu who kept her ever-present smile throughout, "A… A-A Demon…? You're telling me there's a Demon on the premise and I'm supposed to trust that? Kochou-san, I understand your dream to get along with Demons but isn't this a little excessive?"
Shinobu's smile only brightened before she continued with her request, "It'll be fine, I had a chat with them earlier and despite the fact he's a Demon, he's still so very human too. And I think it'll be a little easier to handle it when you know it's Nezuko's sibling."
Something clicked in Aoi, the fact Nezuko had been so adamant about her brother and the fact she avoided talking about him were already a little suspicious, but Demon Slayers usually had their own qualms to deal with which made certain topics a little difficult so she hadn't pushed her on the subject, but to think her brother had turned into a Demon and remained by her, it's unnatural, it goes against everything Aoi understood about Demons.
She had been told many times that Demons only see humans as food, as livestock, they don't care about our lives in the slightest, and now she's meant to believe one is just traveling with their human sister like they aren't even a Demon in the first place?
"If you don't believe me, pay a visit to that guest room I had you clear out" Shinobu suddenly said as if she had read Aoi's confusion and disbelief.
"...So that's why you had us clear it out in the first place." Aoi said with a mild scowl on her face, feeling a bit used now.
"Correct, and I knew that if I told you why beforehand, you might've not even done what I asked of you." Shinobu responded with a smile again, and she followed it up with a giggle, "Regardless he's going to be considered a patient too until his sister recovers from her injuries, I'll have a more in-depth chat with the two Kamados at the same time later this week, if you still feel uneasy just take some Wisteria with you."
There was still a part in Aoi that felt like this was a bad idea.
Nezuko almost looked forward to Rehabilitation Training, she'd have to go through that again considering she sustained enough injuries to bed-rid her for a few weeks aswell, or atleast not allow her to go on missions, but this time thanks to her majorly improved skills and the mastering of Total Concentration Breathing - Constant she might actually get a consistent win streak against Kanao.
Actually, she might aswell teach it to Tanjiro too once she has the chance considering he wasn't here at all when Nezuko learned about it and managed to master it, that would certainly make their upcoming missions much easier.
Afterall, Tanjiro recently developed his own Blood Demon Art and if he's able to use it in conjunction with Total Concentration Breathing - Constant his strength will only skyrocket further, Nezuko found herself in glee at the thought.
For the time being she had to rest and recover from the few injuries she sustained through her rematch with Rui, at least she got along well with the Estate's staff which made the stay much easier, but she couldn't help but worry a little about Tanjiro and whether or not he'd actually get accepted for what he is, after all most of the Hashira were firmly against his mere existence and wouldn't accept the fact he fought alongside Nezuko, simply continuing to see him as some feral monster that they'd better kill off before they'd cause problems, thinking back on it made Nezuko just more uneasy.
So, she looked around the room to get her mind off of things and then locked eyes with Inosuke, who was staring back at her silently, "Uhm, is something wrong, Inosuke?" Nezuko asked and Inosuke immediately bombarded her with his louder than necessary answer that was full of the boy's usual vigor, "Yeah! What the hell are you thinking about Memoko? I can tell you're thinking of something and I want to hear it!"
"Shut up, wait your turn, and where'd the name 'Memoko' come from?" Nezuko responded slightly dumbfounded, besides she didn't want to share any of this with Inosuke until she was sure Tanjiro was accepted by the rest of the staff, because she knew Inosuke would try to fight Tanjiro immediately and just cause a massive fuss.
"What do you mean, 'wait your turn'? Tell me, dammit!"
"No!"
"Agh! I'll find out either way!" and knowing his antics, he'd find some way to find out too, Nezuko didn't like the idea of Inosuke constantly bothering Tanjiro to fight him especially in the latter's position, but she got an idea, "Inosuke, if I tell you you have to promise me one thing." Nezuko said.
"Huh? Promise you something? What for?"
"Because I don't trust you with this information otherwise." Nezuko answered with a slight huff, crossing her arms at the boar-masked Slayer who just stared at her through the mask's eyes, "Alright, what do you want?" he responded in a less rough than usual tone.
"That you won't try to fight the person in question."
"Why would I promise that?"
"Because I won't tell you otherwise."
Nezuko knew that, just like her, Inosuke was an incredibly curious person that would sometimes go a little too far to stave off that curiosity, and this is exactly what she was preying on with her ultimatum, "Either promise me or I won't tell you." Nezuko said to re-iterate her demands.
Inosuke cracked, he grumbled a bit under his mask before he sputtered an "Alright…"
"My brother is a Demon, and he's in the Estate right now." Nezuko said as to keep her side of the promise, "We're traveling as Demon Slayers together."
As expected, Inosuke immediately jumped up onto his bed with a loud "Huuuuh!?" while pointing at Nezuko, "What the hell!?" He continued as he genuinely didn't know how to process this information.
Then something clicked in him, "Hey, by any chance, does he wear some green and black checkered Haori?", Nezuko nodded to the question and Inosuke finally realized he had been trying to kill the sibling of his new 'minion'.
What a terrible boss he is.
Nezuko decided it was a good time to change the subject, so she asked something that she had been meaning to for a while, "Say, where's Zenitsu?"
Inosuke scoffed a bit, "Monitsu is on a mission all on his own, he was too cowardly to fight on the mountain so he apparently didn't get any injuries, bah!"
"Ah." Nezuko responded with a smile, atleast Zenitsu was doing fine.
Tanjiro had been musing to himself after realizing that some of his usual accessories were still on the mountain, the straw hat and cowl Urokodaki gave him to shade his head from the sun and the mask he usually wore to hide his fangs, all three were directly out of his reach and now he'd have to find time to ask for those to get recollected aswell.
He'd felt so stupid now that these important items had been entirely left behind and forgotten, sure he had acted on the moment when he grabbed his Haori and went outside after realizing there were some Kasugai Crows flying around the sky causing him to completely oversee the need to grab those specific items but he thought he was doing such a good job of mentally keeping track of what he needed to get that actually forgetting something felt like he had somehow failed at something.
So he kept musing until he heard a faint knock on the door, the person that knocked was obviously wary and probably even terrified, Tanjiro sat upright on his bed and looked at the door in silence for a few seconds, before he told whoever had knocked that they could come in.
The door slowly opened, first halfway, then completely, a black-haired girl with twintails walked into the room eyeing Tanjiro from which he could tell she totally didn't trust him, not even in the slightest, her expression was rough and almost like she was angry, she smelled like a mixture of fear and anger too so Tanjiro just gave her a warm smile as the two made eye contact while she stood near the middle of the room, arms crossed and staring daggers at Tanjiro, the two stared at each other for a while before the girl sighed and began to speak, "So you're the Demon Kocho-san spoke about, right?" she asked in an accusatory tone to which Tanjiro just nodded in responde, his smile wavered a bit from the immediate awkwardness of the situation but his expression steeled soon after, considering it'd be best he had a good first impression.
Tanjiro wanted to respond with something more but he couldn't find the right words to answer with, she was right to be wary about a Demon afterall.
The girl sighed, "I should've expected that there was more to that girl's constant blabbering about her brother, but to actually think you'd be a Demon…" she said after, she was clearly referring to Nezuko which gave Tanjiro a small hint on how to continue, being a Demon wasn't going to stop him from getting along with people, it didn't stop him from getting along with Zenitsu and it certainly wasn't going to stop him from getting along with this girl, so he looked her dead in the eye and with a proud and louder than necessary voice he introduced himself, "I'm Tanjiro! Kamado Tanjiro!"
Tanjiro's little 'assault' seemed to have worked in his favor, while the girl initially got scared by his sudden loud and proud voice, she collected herself after seeing Tanjiro's continued warm smile and introduced herself shortly after, "R-Right… I'm Kanzaki Aoi."
It wasn't much but it was getting them somewhere, so he began asking questions to break the ice, "Do you work here?" Tanjiro asked, Aoi at first seemed like she really didn't want to answer but she caved in, confirming Tanjiro's question who smiled only brighter at the response, and so he continued to ask the girl questions.
