Sumihiko acted strangely than usual. He was silent, his face was looking unhappy and he rarely talked with Tanjirou. And for some unknown, Sumihiko always tried to avoid eye contact with Kanao, making the hanafuda boy wondered why.
Tanjirou, Sumihiko and Kanao sat together on the same bench the boys meet for the first time. Tanjirou sat in the middle between Sumihiko and Kanao.
"Sumihiko?"
Sumihiko slowly turned his face towards Tanjirou.
"Yes?"
"Is there something wrong?" Tanjirou asked out of concern.
"No...no...I'm okay..." Sumihiko shooked his head with a fake smile.
However, when Kanao glanced at Sumihiko, he quickly turned his face away.
"Tanjirou, I want go to the restroom now!" Sumihiko said.
"Eh?" Tanjirou raised his eyebrows.
Sumihiko rose up from the bench before ran away. Tanjirou just stared silently towards Sumihiko's direction as the other boy slowly disappear inside the woods.
Deep inside his heart, Tanjirou was worried about Sumihiko. It seemed like Sumihiko was in a dilemma, did he?
...
"Kanao-chan!"
Kanao was about to go to the Kamado Residence when Douma just popped in front of her out of sudden. The girl just gave the scam artist a menacing glare.
"I never thought I'll meet you here" Douma smiled.
"I hate you" Kanao frowned.
Where are you going, Kanao-chan?" asked with a cheerful expression.
"None of your business" Kanao replied.
"Did Shinobu-chan has a free time today?" Douma asked again.
"No" Kanao shooked her head.
"Awww...I wish I could go out with her..." Douma sighed with a sad tone.
"Just forget it, Douma. You're always bothering her all the time" Kanao said as she walked away from him.
"See you later, Kanao-chan!" Douma happily waved his hand.
Soon, Douma noticed Enmu walked nearby him, carried a camera.
"Hey Enmu, where are you going?" Douma greeted Enmu.
A minute later, Kanao finally reached Tanjirou's house. She knocked the door three times, waiting for someone to open it from inside. Soon, Hanako, Tanjirou's younger sister then opened the door.
"Kanao-chan! Good morning!" Hanako greeted Kanao.
"Good morning, Hanako-chan" Kanao greeted back.
"Looking for Tanjirou-nii? He's inside!" Hanako then pulled Kanao's hand.
"Hanako-chan, wait!" Kanao's face was blushing deeply as Hanako pulled her into the house.
"Onii-chan! Kanao-chan is here!"
...
The time on the black-and-green checkered square alarm clock on the nightstand was 10:30AM. Tanjirou and Kanao sat next to each other on the bed in Tanjirou's bedroom.
"I can feel that Sumihiko's reactions changed when he saw me" Kanao said.
"Eh? Why?" Tanjirou was confused.
"It looks like he tries to avoid me, but I don't know why"
"Maybe he just feeling awkward when a girl is around" Tanjirou scratched his head. "Don't think about it negatively"
"I don't think so" Kanao said again. "Maybe my presence reminds him of..."
Tanjirou was waiting for Kanao to speak.
"His older brother"
"Are you sure?" Tanjirou raised his eyebrows in uncertainity.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Onii-chan, are you inside?"
Tanjirou and Kanao could heard Nezuko's voice from outside of his bedroom.
"I want to go to ice cream shop with Sabito and Makomo-chan! Do you want to join us?"
"Want to tag along, Kanao?" Tanjirou asked.
"Okay" Kanao smiled.
The lovebirds then walked away from the bed as they exited the bedroom.
...
"Achoooo!" Zenitsu sneezed.
Zenitsu was supposed to go to sleep right now. He tried to close his eyes but he couldn't. His eyes only kept staring at the ceiling instead.
The Agatsuma briefly glanced at the yellow round digital alarm clock on the nightstand. The current time was 12:45PM, about five hours and fifteen minutes left before 6AM.
"I can't sleep, but I need to go to school tomorrow..." Zenitsu muttered.
Tomioka-sensei never tolerates anyone who comes late to school. Especially if that person is a morals officer like him. Break the rules, and he'll give a very harsh punishment.
Beep!"
Zenitsu just received a notification via his smartphone. When he checked it, Rui just sent a video in the group chat.
And unfortunately, it's a ghost video. Zenitsu was frustrated when that spider boy loves to share every horror videos the latter watched into the group chat.
Better he didn't watch it or he'll get a nightmare. Zenitsu then placed his phone back on the nightstand.
...
In the previous dream, Tanjirou found a stone building with a rusted portcullis in the middle as the main door. And now, the portcullis was gone. Tanjirou finally can explore the building.
When Tanjirou entered the building, the hallway inside was very dark without lights. However, Tanjirou could see the light at the end of the hallway.
As usual, Tanjirou could heard faint inhuman screams inside the building. It would be very risky if Tanjirou encountered one of the monsters inside. Anyway, he need to be careful.
The screams became louder when Tanjirou reached the end of the hallway. The next part of the building looked like a typical mental asylum. The lights in there are always flickering.
No one was there, but Tanjirou's heart felt uneasy. He looked at his surroundings, checked if there were any hostile creatures or not.
However, when Tanjirou looked at the wall TV at the left side of him, his eyes widened in shock.
Tanjirou just saw the "other" himself, dressed in green-and-black checkered haori with pitch black background. The other himself was banging his fist on the screen as if he was trapped in there. Unfortunately, Tanjirou couldn't heard the voice of the other himself.
"What the..."
Tanjirou ran closer, but the wall TV suddenly turned off itself.
"The TV...it turn off itself..."
Tanjirou was confused, did the other himself tried to escape from the TV? Or it was just a mere hallucination?
Or maybe the other himself was trying to tell sonething to him.
To be continued...