Opening: Paper Moon by Tommy Heavenly6 (ROMIX Cover)

It was early in the morning at the Butterfly Mansion where Tanjiro was already awake and sitting up in his bed. His sister, Nezuko, slept quietly in her box next to his bed. Inosuke and Zenitsu had left to go hunt for some demons together during the night and had yet to come back. Tanjiro wasn't worried about them but he did feel rather lonely without anyone around. The doors to the room quietly slid open as Kanao poked her head inside before looking around and saw Tanjiro already awake. As a result, her face lit up with joy as she entered the room and began walking towards his bed. The two teenagers greeted each other before the girl informed, "Aoi's left to get breakfast, she'll be back in a little bit." Tanjiro was definitely getting hungry so the sound of food was appealing to him. Kanao looked the boy up and down, trying her best to maintain her smile as she looked at the boy's damaged body. A teenager with most of his limbs gone besides his right arm, she couldn't even process how difficult it was for him right now.

Tanjiro offered the girl, "You can take a seat if you like, I don't mind." That didn't bother the girl but she did appreciate the offer as she sat down on the other side of the bed and turned towards the boy. She was having a difficult time starting a conversation and Tanjiro could see that. He felt the same way, he wasn't entirely sure how to talk to her but he enjoyed her presence nonetheless. Kanao opened her mouth when she found the words she wanted to say:

"Are you okay with what you did?" Tanjiro was baffled by the question and wasn't sure what the girl was referring to. "Your body, are you okay with sacrificing your limbs like that?" Tanjiro looked down at his only arm before answering:

"Yeah. I was initially distraught over it, but hearing Mister Flint's story really showed me how insignificant my injuries are. Everything he has gone through, all that he's lost, losing my limbs is nothing compared to what he's gone through and for that, I'm ready to sacrifice much more on his behalf. I don't regret my actions." Kanao didn't seem surprised, oddly enough, as she admitted:

"I heard his story yesterday. I didn't understand a lot of it but I think I understand the general idea. You must have a lot of respect for him."

"That would be an understatement. He's probably the person I respect the most to the point I wanted to be just like him. However, I slowly realized that's not a path I want to go down but there are still aspects of him that I wish I could be. I might sound childish for saying this but I would love to be as strong and as cool as him but that's not much of an option now, is it?"

"I think you're cool and strong. I didn't get a chance to say anything when that big demon arrived but I saw you jump towards the action without a second thought. I didn't want to interrupt you because I felt like I would get in the way but I was shocked when I saw you push the Hellwalker out of the way. Even despite the injuries you've taken, I can't help but admire your optimism."

Both of the teenagers blushed before Tanjiro barely said, "O-oh, thank you, Kanao. I kind of forgot that everyone else was there, I was just so fixated on getting Mister Flint out of the way that I ignored everything else. I'm sorry if I made you worry."

"It's fine, you're still alive, aren't you?" Tanjiro smiled and assured her that he was still there. Kanao began to think back on her previous conversation with her sister where she finally understood her feelings for Tanjiro. "Love", that's what it was called. It's still an emotion she's unfamiliar with and still trying to understand but she didn't feel as though it was wrong. She wanted to ask him something, a very difficult question for her but her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of someone entering the Mansion. Kanao and Tanjiro looked towards the sliding door as they heard Aoi announce her return and the other girls of the mansion got to work helping her unload the groceries.

"You should probably go help them." Kanao hesitantly left the room, not before taking one more look at the boy before leaving. She made her way towards the moderately large kitchen of the mansion to see most of the other residents preparing breakfast. Aoi took notice of Kanao's entrance and greeted:

"Oh, good, you're here, Kanao. Now, if you're done talking with your boyfriend, I could use some help." Kanao seemed baffled by the terminology used and tilted her head in confusion by asking:

"Boyfriend? You mean Tanjiro? What do you mean? Is that what you call boys who are your friends?" Aoi stopped cutting the food and remembered how unfamiliar Kanao was to the concept and explained:

"Kind of, they're more like boys you have strong feelings for or in lame man's terms: love." Kanao's cheeks started turning red once she finally understood what was going on and before she had a chance to deny Aoi's claims, Shinobu stepped into the room and said to Aoi:

"No need to get on her case, Aoi, she's still trying to figure things out. How was your shopping?"

Aoi put her knife down in frustration as she turned towards the owner of the mansion and started complaining, "It was going fine for the most part until these weirdos started bothering me about joining their cult or whatever and wouldn't leave me alone until I got out of the village." Kanao and Shinobu looked towards one another before the woman asked Aoi to elaborate. "I think they were a part of some religious cult. They kept telling me that I was a beautiful young girl and that their master would love to meet me. I ignored them though but it was getting really annoying."

Shinobu furrowed her brows as she muttered to herself, "I see…" the Hashira was disturbed by this news and thought back on her investigation on the demon that killed her older sister. It might not be connected but it was worth checking out. "Aoi, do you know if they're still there?"

"Probably, they set up a little booth trying to pass out these stupid flyers to everyone." Shinobu made a careful note of that and quietly decided that she was going to investigate this matter. For the time being, she would focus on the here and now as she turned towards her younger sister, Kanao, and asked:

"How's Tanjiro doing? I hope he's doing well."

Kanao couldn't stop herself from stuttering upon hearing his name and explained to her sister, "H-he's doing fine. Umm, sister, I was just wondering… how do you know when someone loves you back? Or… is that not how it's supposed to work?" Shinobu couldn't help but giggle at how naive her little sister was and explained:

"Well, I can't speak much for boys but you've got us for example. We're all family so of course we love you. However, I don't have much experience with how boys express their love."

Aoi chimed in as she interrupted Shinobu, "You've never been one for love. You're drop-dead gorgeous so you've had to have at least several boys like you but you ignored them." She looks towards Kanao before explaining to her, "Well, I've had a little bit of experience being on the receiving end. Boys are very weird when it comes to expressing their emotions, they're either really blunt about it or they're really good about hiding it, there is no in-between with them. That's just something you won't find out until you ask them or they ask you so if you want my advice, just ask him. I don't think he would mind answering and among the boys I've met, he's actually great compared to the two idiots he calls 'friends'."

Kanao wasn't sure it would be as simple as that but Aoi assured her that was her best choice and Shinobu didn't have enough experience in the matter to object. The girls finished preparing breakfast and Kanao brought a plate back to Tanjiro who was laying on his stomach trying to cover nezuko's box with his blanket so she could stay warm. He was clearly struggling using one arm to move himself into position so he could move and adjust an entire blanket with his right arm.

Kanao's eyes widened as she immediately put the plate down and adjusted the blanket over Nezuko's box for the boy before helping him sit back up. Tanjiro thanked her and watched as she grabbed the plate of food and sat next to him. Tanjiro told her, "Thanks for the food, Kanao, you can leave it in front of me, I'll manage." Kanao instinctively interjected, she didn't know where the annoyance came from but the reaction came from her so naturally she was surprised as she scolded him:

"No! You're having trouble using one arm. Let me help you." Tanjiro couldn't deny how difficult it was for him as Kanao got closer and began spoon-feeding him his meal. The boy was indefinitely embarrassed, he hadn't been treated like this since his mother was still around but he couldn't say no if it was Kanao. They sat in silence as Kanao continued feeding the boy's food to him. As the girl fed Tanjiro, she was slowly working up the courage to ask Tanjiro about his feelings. What was supposed to happen when he answered? What if he said no? What happens if he says yes? If he said that, then what? What becomes of the two of them? She couldn't spend any more time thinking about it as she asked out of nowhere with no buildup, "Uh, Tanjiro… do… Do you love anyone?"

Tanjiro forcefully swallowed his food as he nearly choked on it from hearing the statement and raised his brows in shock before answering, "Yeah? I love my sister, Nezuko. Why do you ask?" Kanao's expression changed drastically to pure shock and looked away as if she didn't know how to process that answer.

"Oh… uh, silly me, I suppose that was obvious…" Her face turned tomato red as she tried her best to hide it. Tanjiro was also turning red, he wasn't sure how to respond to any of this. It was surreal having the girl he liked ask if he loved anyone. He was too afraid to admit it so he went to his obvious answer. Hopefully he didn't upset her, that would be the last thing he wanted to do.

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Sagetsu sat inside of his shed, angrily tapping his fingers as he patiently waited for his partner to return. The doors slid open and the Doom Slayer stepped in without greeting the swordsmith. That didn't matter as the young man burst with life and jumped towards the warrior while explaining a new idea he had been excited to explain, "You're back! Excellent! I wanted to talk to you about the weapons we made! I've been thinking about going ahead and selling them, imagine how much MONEY we can make if we do that! Then we could probably get contracted by people to make more weapons and make MORE MONEY to make even bigger weapons and the cycle continues! It's GENIUS I say! Especially with all of the new parts we got!"

The Slayer picked up several rifles that were hanging up on Sagetsu's wall and dropped them in front of his workbench. With no warning, the Doom Slayer began taking apart the rifles, much to Sagetsu's dismay as the man screamed at the top of his lungs, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! WE WORKED SO HARD ON THOSE! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"

The Slayer answered coldly, "You can go ahead and sell the other ones. I'm making something." Sagetsu was getting ready to argue but gave up and continued ranting:

"FINE! I'll just sell these weapons by myself. I'll be back later!" The swordsmith began unloading the weapons into their cart and stormed off. The Doom Slayer was by himself in the shed as he had finished deconstructing all of the rifles and began assembling something new. He quickly formulated schematics in his head and got to work putting the different parts together and preparing new ones he would need to complete the process.