Giyuu looked up at the gates of the butterfly estate warily. After his latest mission, he'd been called back to the estate and he had a sneaking suspicion as to why. He hoped he was wrong. He didn't want to come for an execution.

"Giyuu-san!" Someone calling out to him had him turning around only to see Kanroji Mitsuri. She came running up to him with a large smile on her face.

"Kanroji-san," he said formally, nodding politely.

She grinned as she stopped in front of him. "You can call me Mitsuri if you want!"

He blinked. So informal… and yet. "Mitsuri-san," he said slowly. She huffed a little but didn't push further (much to his relief).

"So, do you know why we're here?" she asked. "It can't be a coincidence that we came at the same time, after all."

Before he could say anything, the doors behind him opened and he turned to see Shinobu Kocho standing there, for once without that creepy smile on her face.

"Tomioka-san, Kanroji-san, I thank you for coming so quickly. Follow me, please." They both hurried inside and Shinobu closed the door. Then she turned and walked briskly back towards the estate.

"Shinobu-san, what's wrong?" Kan… Mitsuri-san asked worriedly.

"Kamado Tanjiro woke up."

Giyuu's breath caught in his throat, but he made sure his concern didn't show on his face at all.

"And?" he asked.

Several moments of silence. "He was hungry."

Behind him, Ka— Mitsuri-san whimpered and Giyuu once again wondered how the woman had led her troop of demon slayers so well on Mount Natagumo. She was certainly competent… but she rarely acted like he would expect competent people to act. Strange and eccentric he could understand. That applied to most of the Hashira in one way or another, but she just projected 'inexperience'. It boggled his mind.

But, again, he decided it was not his place to say anything. If one was competent, then he supposed they could act as she wanted. And he couldn't deny her talent and skill. He'd seen it himself a week ago. It didn't seem that long, honestly… and yet somehow seemed too long.

One week. Seven days. A very long time for someone to sleep.

"Did he attack anyone?" Giyuu asked.

Shinobu hmmed instead of answering. She turned down a hallway and Giyuu tried not to get annoyed at her lack of communication.

"Did you… did you have to…" Mitsuri-san started slowly. "Kill him?"

They stopped in front of a doorway and Shinobu turned back to them. There was something in her eye Giyuu didn't like…

"See for yourself," she said as she swept inside the room.

On the other side of the door, three beds sat against one wall well away from the only window in the room. Only one of them was occupied… with a teenager sitting up and eating from a bento like he hadn't had food for… well, a week. Around his bed lay several other boxes.

"We've had to resort to ordering bentos from the nearby town as he can't seem to be satiated," Shinobu said, her signature smile back in place. Mitsuri-san sighed in relief.

Giyuu glared at the Insect Pillar. She'd misled them on purpose. She just smiled back.

"My, my, Tomioka-san, that's a scary look!"

Right about then, the boy looked up from his bento and smiled (Giyuu did not like the look of those fangs in his mouth).

"Giyuu-san! Mitsuri-san! Good to see you both!"

"Tanjiro!" Mitsuri-san said with a huge grin as she ran past Giyuu and up to the bed. "I'm glad to see you're alive and not a demon!"

The boy paused with his chopsticks halfway to his mouth, blinked and then looked warily over at Mitsuri-san.

"Demon?"

"Well, you didn't have any scratches or wounds on you like you should have and you have those fangs now too!" she pointed to her own mouth, showing off her far flatter teeth.

"Oh, yeah… these," he said, poking at the large canines with his finger. He sighed. "Well, I eat human food – if a lot more of it than usual – and I can walk in the sun, so I'm pretty sure I'm not a demon right now."

Mitsuri-san's eyes actually misted and she leaned forward to grab the kid in a hug. He flailed as she cried. "We were so worried! You were asleep and didn't wake up for a whole week! And you looked so different and we didn't want you to… to…."

"I… don't think… I ever… really realized… how strong… you are… Mitsuri-san," the boy managed to gasp out, somehow not spilling any of his food.

Mitsuri-san sat back, immediately letting go and looking sheepish. "Oh, yeah. I was born super strong for some reason. I have to eat a lot to maintain it too! So maybe you're just like me!"

Was it Giyuu's imagination, or did he sense a sort of sadness in the kid's smile?"

"Yeah, maybe."

He didn't sound convinced. How suspicious… he knew something about what had happened. He just wasn't telling them...

"Well, now that we're all here, we can all travel together to the Hashira meeting!" Shinobu said happily.

Both Mitsuri and Kamado paused and looked over at Shinobu like they hadn't expected that. So they didn't know?

"Hashira meeting?" Mitsuri-san asked.

"Why?" Kamado added on.

"Well, we'll just have to see once we get there," Shinobu said, clapping her hands and tipping her head to one side. The smile was no longer fake, but it did have that teasing edge to it that annoyed Giyuu to no end. "Hurry up and finish eating so we won't have to be late!"

"H-hai!" the youngest demon slayer said as he began to eat at an even faster pace than before.

The rest of them looked on in a mix of awe, horror and disgust.

xXx

Kamado winced when he walked into the sunlight of the nearly cloudless day.

Giyuu noticed and watched carefully. The boy winced, but he didn't burn. Instead he took a deep breath, stretched and started up a conversation with Mitsuri-san as they walked. They spoke about their favorite kinds of food (apparently he claimed to love Fastia Sprouts), their favorite places to eat, their breath styles and how his Sun Breathing came from a dance passed down in their family for generations. Then he explained how it helped him rediscover the original style of breathing (both Shinobu and Giyuu were surprised to learn that and he made a mental note to look into that later).

Mitsuri-san spoke about how she'd always been so different and had tried to 'fit in' at one point (apparently the green in her hair was from some left-over dye she used to make her hair black that hadn't washed out completely, even years later*), about how she aspired to find a good husband and how sometimes she felt that the natural strength she was born with was a curse because it chased so many people off.

Kamado immediately shut that down, saying that any man who didn't see her worth as a person, as a fighter and as a woman wasn't worth her! She broke down crying, asking him how he got so wise at such a young age while hugging him as he awkwardly patted her back, albeit with that warm, kind smile of his.

The entire way to the Ubuyashiki estate, Kamado walked in Mitsuri-san's shadow, or as close to it as he could. And his face continued to redden… to an unusual level, even as he wiped away sweat. Giyuu also saw him relax immensely when they reached the shadow of the wall around said estate. It wasn't that hot, being fall…

The kakushi let them inside and showed them into the house and to the waiting room that Giyuu usually sat in until Oyakata-sama was ready to see them. The Water Pillar made sure to sit by Kamado, just to be on the safe side. As they did so, he noticed something on the boy's hand. Once the kakushi left, he grabbed the kid's wrist and held the appendage up.

Kamado cringed and looked away.

There were burns on his hand. Painful-looking, red blisters surrounded by red skin.

"Oh? What's this?" Shinobu asked, tilting her head in that false way of hers.

"Nothing," Kamado said, a little hurriedly, trying to snatch his hand back.

"Kamado," Giyuu said, his voice harsh and steel-like, "are you a demon?"

The room froze for several seconds, Kamado's eyes wide as he looked at Giyuu, his face paling significantly under the red – it looked like a sunburn, the Water Pillar realized.

"W-what? He can't be!" Mitsuri broke in. "He said he wasn't! He ate human food! A lot of it! And he walked in the sun!"

"And was burned by it," Giyuu said, thrusting out Kamado's hand for her to see dragging the hapless boy along with the motion.

"But he wasn't killed by it!" she insisted.

"I think Tomioka-san's question hasn't been answered," Shinobu said, her voice picking up a dangerous edge. "Back at the estate, I noticed how you deflected the question, so I will also ask you directly: Are you a demon, Kamado-san?"

The boy looked around nervously. "That… isn't an easy question to answer," he said just as he ripped his hand out of Giyuu's (with more force than he thought the boy could muster) and held it to his chest.

"I don't think it should be so difficult," Shinobu said. "It's a simple 'yes' or 'no'."

He didn't seem phased by her practically tangible threatening aura. Giyuu had to at least give him that… although it concerned the Water Pillar that he didn't seem worried. Did he really think he was that strong? Giyuu's hand inched towards his sword. His wasn't the only one.

Kamado sighed, rubbing his hand tenderly. "The simple answer is the same as back at the Butterfly Estate: 'no', not right now."

"Not right now?" Shinobu pressed. Giyuu was glad she did so he didn't have to. He did notice that Mitsuri looked like she was about to cry. Again…

The youngest of them opened his hand and looked down at it, as if he saw something there the rest of them didn't. "Ubuyashiki-sama knows my circumstances… but, due to a demon blood art, I slowly am becoming a demon."

Silence.

Then Shinobu spoke again. "Oh? And exactly how 'slowly' is this happening?"

He sighed again. "For context, I have constant concentration breathing down, know how to use that to control my body to a large degree and I know two breathing styles as well as basics of others. That isn't all, though. I also have another power obtained through… unique circumstances that would take too long to describe right now."

Giyuu's eyes widened. "The fire, that night. That was you."

Mitsuri gasped. "The fire that only burned the demons?"

Kamado shrank in on himself a little, but he nodded. "Yeah. That was me."

"You could have burned all the demons on that mountain at any time," Giyuu didn't mean to sound accusing, but refused to take his words back. "Why didn't you?"

Kamado looked over at him, gaze serious and hard (and yet, somehow still kind and sad – how?!). "Because using that power is what pushes my body further into a demonic state. It is a last-ditch power that I cannot use unless I have no other choice."

"So the demon you chased down, the one you thought was Waning Five," Mitsuri ventured slowly.

"Was actually Waning Four. She had some sort of mirror shape-shifting and cloning power. She led me into a trap. I didn't face one Waning Moon by myself, I faced four."

Giyuu's mouth didn't drop open, but it took him conscious effort not to allow that to happen. Mitsuri didn't bother and Shinobu just sort of blinked as if she couldn't wrap her head around Kamado's words.

"My fire can't kill demons. But it does burn them and makes for a very good distraction with little collateral damage."

"You faced four of the twelve Kizuki on your own… and won?" Mitsuri asked, obviously flabbergasted.

The boy seemed a little nervous as he looked around the room, and then nodded.

"My, my," Shinobu said, putting a hand to her mouth. "Aren't you strong Kamado-san!" She obviously didn't believe him.

The boy didn't notice her wry tone as he sighed and shook his head, looking down at his hand again. "Not strong enough. I had to rely on that power…"

And even though he didn't know why, Giyuu believed him. He looked so regretful at that moment…

"So, what happens when you start craving human flesh?" Shinobu asked, sounding almost nonchalantly curious. Giyuu frowned at her but didn't say anything.

Kamado looked over at her, fixing her with the same steely gaze he'd given Giyuu earlier. "I hope that day never comes. But if it does, I can promise you I will not give in. I will either find another way to gather the energy I need, or I will kill myself if I cannot."

The sheer conviction with which he said that did more to calm Giyuu's nerves than anything else the boy had said or done that day. He supposed Kamado could still be a spy from Muzan, but he didn't think so. (Didn't mean he'd let the boy around Oyakata-sama without someone being there – he wouldn't gamble their head's life on this.)

"So… you're like, half demon?" Mitsuri asked, one finger on her pursed lips as she studied Kamado thoughtfully.

Kamado opened his mouth, then closed it, looking thoughtful himself. "You're… not wrong, right now."

Half demon? The very thought was absurd! And yet…

On the other side of the room, the doors opened and one of the Ubuyashiki children walked in demurely.

"Thank you for waiting," she said with that fixed smile on her face that Giyuu found almost as creepy as Shinobu's fake smile. "Kamado-san, Ubuyashiki-sama would like to speak with you before the meeting. He will see you now."

Kamado rose to his feet and made to follow her. Giyuu did the same.

The white-haired girl looked up at him. "Kamado-san only, Tomioka-san."

Giyuu was about to protest when Kamado spoke up, waving his hand. "Nah, he can come. It'll probably make everyone else here feel better."

The girl seemed to think about that for a minute, because while her face never changed, she still didn't speak. Eventually, she bowed and said: "This way, Kamado-san." And with that, she led them into the hall and down towards the Demon Slayer Corps head.

xXx

*I am a hairdresser. I will argue this point. No, seriously, FIGHT ME. Hair dye – especially the kinds of hair dye they would have had at that time – can and will still have effects on hair years later. Aka, ALWAYS tell your hairdresser about previous color jobs unless it has ALL been cut off! It will save you pain, save your hairdresser pain… just save pain all around! (No, I'm not bitter.)

Plus, while I could give Mitsuri a natural strawberry blond color – for whatever reason, it isn't completely inconceivable, just highly, HIGHLY improbable – there is absolutely NO way for those green ends to be natural in this world! (Don't even get me started on Rengoku's, but at least his could be natural if he happened to have blond and red hair in his past and the anime just exaggerated that) I mean, were these demons, then sure. Why not? But if the rest of it is going to be more or less 'this' world than nope. No. Nuh-uh. No way. No.

So here's my way to try and make sense of it. Ever read 'Anne of Green Gables'? They had hair dye, but they tended to have green under tones and it could easily have taken Mitsuri two to three years (she's 18 here and 19 in canon) to grow it completely out if she didn't want to cut her hair particularly short. So why does she still have it in her bangs? Some hair grows faster than others. Usually it's the back that grows more slowly, but let's be real, this wouldn't be the first unusual thing about Kanroji.

Yes, within shows where people can use breathing to create water, fire, lightning, stone, mist, plasma and a whole PLETHORA of other things, or where blue flowers turn people into terrifying monsters, it's the human with pink hair and green tips that draws the line for me. *Ahem* What can I say? It's a part of my job.

On a side note... Shinobu is such a troll! Is it bad I like bringing out her trollish side? LOL

In any case, thank you to TimeLordTim, Quathis and Found for their help on this! Thank you so much!