Beep! Beep! Beep!
"Uwaaaaa..." Tanjirou yawned.
Every night, Tanjirou will wake up early in 3AM since he need to go to his family's bakery. He need to make a lot of breads since their customers loves to buy their breads. No wonder why the Kamado Bakery is very popular in the town.
As he stepped towards the kitchen to take his apron first, there are two things that lingered in his mind.
The first one, that "dream". That dream isn't like any normal dream since Tanjirou always appeared in the same place in that dream, especially the "never-ending street". Sometimes Tanjirou wondered, if that "dream" is actually some kind of alternate dimension.
And the second one, Sumihiko.
Tanjirou was curious about that boy actually. Who's he? And where does he lives? Did he goes to a different school?
Perhaps Tanjirou should think about it later. He need to focus on making the breads first.
...
"Have you ever heard about the Curse Of Hypnos?"
"Curse Of Hoponos? Is that some kind of food?" Inosuke was dumbfounded.
"It's Curse Of Hypnos, you idiot!" Zenitsu yelled.
Tanjirou, Zenitsu, Inosuke and Kanao were seen gathered together around a table in the classroom. Everyone was intrigued when Zenitsu was mentioning about the "Curse Of Hypnos".
"Curse Of Hypnos?" Tanjirou raised his eyebrows. "I think I never heard about that before"
"It's an almost untold legend when Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep spotted any person who's unhappy with their lives or in depressed condition, He will offer them to follow him to his realm. But if you accept his offer, he'll put you under eternal slumber" Zenitsu explained.
"But why everyone refers the legend as a curse?" Tanjirou was curious.
"I think perhaps since Hypnos took them away to his realm, there are no chances for them to return from there, so that's why everyone called it as a curse" Kanao guessed.
"If there are a lot tempuras in there, then I'm more than willing to go there!" Inosuke boasted.
"I don't think tempuras are exist in there" Zenitsu frowned.
Tanjirou started to think for a while. Could that dream is actually the "Realm Of Hypnos"?
...
It was raining heavily at the outside of the art room. As everyone was busy with their drawings, Inosuke just staring silently at the blank drawing canvas. He doesn't have any idea of what to draw.
Inosuke then turned his face towards the person at the right side of him, Tanjirou. He wondered about, what kind of thing was Tanjirou drawing.
"Monjirou, what are you drawing?" Inosuke asked friend.
As he peeked at Tanjirou's drawing canvas, he noticed Tanjirou painted a male teenager with similar face to Tanjirou, with burgundy hair and irises, but without earrings and flame-like birthmark, wearing a dark blue pajamas with yellow chick patterns. The boy sat alone on the wooden bench with a white drink machine next to it as he was eating a sandwich.
"Monjirou, who's that? Is he your twin?" Inosuke was curious about Tanjirou's half-finished painting.
"What? No, no! It just...my imagination" Tanjirou shooked his head with an awkward smile. "By the way, what are you drawing, Inosuke?"
Inosuke glanced back at the blank drawing canvas.
"I don't know what should I draw, Monjirou" Inosuke answered.
"What!? You still not drawing yet!? Inosuke, everyone is almost finished up with their painting!" Tanjirou was shocked.
Soon, Tengen Uzui, the art teacher approached Inosuke from behind.
"Inosuke Hashibira, why did your drawing canvas is still blank?" Tengen asked with narrowed eyes.
"I don't know what should I draw, sensei" Inosuke answered. Tanjirou just slowly facepalmed.
"What the..." Zenitsu just gave Inosuke a weird stare. Everyone just laughed at the boar boy.
...
As the Kamado siblings just returned from the school, Nezuko decided to visit a a bookstore in the town. There's a promotion today, and Nezuko was excited to buy some newly released novels.
"Wow, look at these new books!" Nezuko was amazed as they wandered around the novel section.
"Nii-chan, can I go to the comic section?" Takeo asked for his elder brother's permission.
"Sure you can, but don't take it too long, okay?" Tanjirou said.
"Okay" Takeo nodded as he walked towards the comic section.
As Tanjirou turned turned his face towards the shelf, a certain novel just caught the attention of his eyes. It seemed that the title of the novel is after the old legend Zenitsu told him earlier.
"Curse Of Hypnos", written by the infamous Greek novelist, Andreas Heresios. Tanjirou slowly took the novel from the shelf.
When Tanjirou glanced at the novel's front cover, it shows a two male teenagers wearing togas with similar faces sat together under a tree, the only difference is the standing boy on the left is black-haired while the boy on the right is white-haired.
"Onii-chan!"
Tanjirou quickly noticed Nezuko who was approaching him. She was carrying three novel books with her.
"You want to buy a novel too?" Nezuko's eyes focused on the novel Tanjirou was holding.
"Yeah..." Tanjirou said. "I guess so..."
The front cover of the novel somehow reminded Tanjirou of Sumihiko, since the their faces are looking similar to each other, the only difference is Sumihiko doesn't have a birthmark and he doesn't wear earrings like Tanjirou.
Perhaps it's a good idea if Tanjirou buy that novel.
"Kamado-kun!"
Tanjirou could heard a familiar female voice from behind. When he turned behind, it was Kanae the biology teacher. Shinobu and Kanao were also seen with her.
"What are you doing here, Kamado-kun?" Kanae asked with a cheerful expression.
"Well, I just accompanying my sister, she wants to buy some novels" Tanjirou answered, scratched his head. "Perhaps I could say the same too, right?"
"Yes" Kanae nodded happily.
Tanjirou soon noticed that Kanao was staring quietly at him. When his eyes focused at her, her lips formed a smile as her face blushed a bit, she slowly waved her hand at him. The hanafuda boy smiled back and waved his hands too.
Tanjirou loves Kanao, and Kanao loves Tanjirou. Everyone already knew about their relationship although they had tried their best to hid it.
To be continued...