As usual, a very big thank you to euphoricimage who has helped me beta the chapter, as well as LittleDoot and Nobody(Super_NovaGrey) who have helped me proofread.

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"As long as it's given a chance, a person's heart will open up sooner or later. So don't worry. When you fall in love someday, you'll change too, Kanao-chan."

But what was love, anyway?

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"Tsuyuri-san," Tanjirou called before swinging his axe down. The wood split in half with a loud thump. "What if you lose your coin?"

As he waited for her reply, he took another log and placed it on top of the tree stump. When she didn't respond, Tanjirou glanced at her. She was blinking at him in surprise.

"What do you mean?" Kanao, who was sitting on another tree stump, finally asked in return.

Tanjirou scratched his eyebrow. He felt like he had just asked an insensitive question, as the coin seemed to hold great sentimental value for her. Yet he couldn't help but be curious; judging by the number of times she tossed the coin everytime he interacted with her, Tanjirou wondered if Kanao felt indecisive all the time. She even needed the coin to ask for more rice!

"I mean, what would you do if you had to decide on something but you didn't have the coin with you?" he asked once more.

Ah, there it was. Another flip of the coin.

"I've never lost the coin," she said.

"Yeah, but what if you do?"

"I've never lost it."

"Just humour me."

"I won't lose it."

"... Okay," Tanjirou finally relented. He chopped some more wood as he tried to come up with a rephrased question. "But why don't you decide for yourself instead of relying on the coin? Isn't it easier to just choose what you want to do?"

"That doesn't matter," Kanao answered. "Nothing matters to me, so I don't decide for myself."

Tanjirou paused at that, turning to look at Kanao. She was smiling, as if what she had just said was nothing serious.

"... I don't think there's anything in the world that does not matter, Tsuyuri-san," Tanjirou decided to say, because it was simply disheartening to have nothing that mattered in one's life. What was the point of living, then, if not to treasure what matters to you the most?

Yet, all she did was believe that and smile.

No, that wasn't right. Tanjirou glanced at the coin in her hand. She said nothing mattered to her, but it was clear as day that at the very least the coin was precious to her.

"Perhaps… The voice of your heart is really tiny?"

"Excuse me?"

"Like it isn't used to speaking up. Or maybe it's used to being ignored," Tanjirou propped his axe on the tree stump and leaned on it. "Y'know, sometimes your heart tells you to do this and that, right? Maybe you're so used to following what the coin has decided that your heart has become quieter and quieter."

Kanao tilted her head in confusion. "Is that so?"

"Yeah." Judging by her reaction, Tanjirou had a feeling she just automatically accepted whatever the coin decided for her as if it was an order. Tapping the handle of his axe, he racked his brain for a simpler explanation. "Have you ever felt dissatisfied when the coin gave you an answer?"

Kanao looked up as she pondered. "No."

"That's…" Absurd. "Amazing. That means you have great luck for the coin to give you the answer you want all the time."

Kanao blinked owlishly at him. "The answer I want?"

"Yeah, because you accept the answer without feeling dissatisfied by it. Otherwise, you'd feel disappointed by the result and wish for the coin to show the other side."

"... I see."

Kanao looked down and stared at her coin, effectively ending their conversation. Tanjirou wanted to ask what had made her rely on the coin in the first place, but it might be too sensitive of a topic to be shared with someone she'd barely known. So he shrugged and continued chopping more wood in silence.

Ping.

Tanjirou perked up when he heard the coin toss. He stopped chopping wood and waited for Kanao to say whatever the coin had decided for her. But Kanao only smiled at him and remained silent.

Ask, or don't ask. Ask, or don't ask. For a moment, Tanjirou understood why Kanao relied on the coin so much, because he was very curious about what had she just decided from the coin toss, but at the same time he didn't want to pry.

In the end, curiosity won out. "What did you just flip the coin for?"

Kanao blinked. "I just decided not to ask you."

"Ask me what?"

"..."

"Ask away," Tanjirou laughed at her troubled face. She was very rigid and followed the coin's decision to a tee, but he found that funny at times. "You just said you've never been dissatisfied by the coin's answer, but you clearly are now. It's alright, I'll help you decide. What did you want to ask me about?"

"How do you fall in love, Tanjirou-san?"

Tanjirou spluttered. "W-What?"

"How do you fall in love?" Kanao innocently repeated her question.

That was random. Very, very random. And it totally caught Tanjirou off guard, because he thought she was going to ask him about his decision making process or something. Not—not that.

"W-Why do you ask?" he stuttered. Heck, she didn't even look flustered when she asked such an embarrassing question. Tanjirou, on the other hand, couldn't stop blushing.

"Someone once said that as long as it's given a chance, a person's heart will open up. Especially when one falls in love," Kanao explained calmly before looking down at her coin. "That person wanted me to change so she gave me this coin, but I don't know how I am supposed to do that. Or what am I supposed to become."

Tanjirou paused at that. Her seemingly trivial question apparently held a greater significance behind it. Tanjirou was aware that her condition was not normal; her obsession with flipping the coin made it seem like she would not be able to live without it. It felt as if her freewill was chained, rusty and painful, like a doll controlled by a puppeteer.

However, Kanao was human, and humans were emotional creatures. Tanjirou did not know what kind of change 'that person' wished for Kanao to have, but he knew that 'that person' wanted the best for her. Perhaps she had given Kanao the coin to temporarily help her condition, even though it seemed to have become a crutch by now. And 'that person' must have believed that Kanao would improve by falling in love, thus opening her heart.

But… "I think, you don't really have to fall in love to be able to change for the better, Tsuyuri-san," Tanjirou said frankly. "Sure, love can change you, but that's not the only way. To open your heart means to be honest with your feelings, so maybe the first step is not to fall in love, but to find out what you really feel."

Kanao tilted her head and blinked. "Is that so?"

Tanjirou nodded, even though he honestly had no clue himself. He had never met someone as emotionless and indecisive as her. How did she manage to ignore her heart's voice to this degree?

Still, Tanjirou wanted to help her. So he set down his axe and sat on the nearest stump to where she was seated, facing her.

"The heart is what drives people," Tanjirou began, pointing at his own chest. "It's what makes humans, humans. Everyone has their own heart, and most of the time we follow what our heart says to make a decision."

"What do you mean by following what your heart says?"

"It's basically doing what you like, or what you think is right," Tanjirou hummed in thought. "Say, just now, didn't you feel a bit regretful when the coin told you not to ask me the question? That's essentially your heart telling you that you wished to ask me the question. If it were me, I'd flip the coin as many times as I need until I get the answer I want."

Kanao blinked at him in bewilderment. "You can do that?"

"Why not?" Tanjirou shrugged and grinned at her. "It's not like the coin can force you to do what it wants. The coin is just a tool to help you reach a decision. To be fair, when you're thinking about what should be the heads and what should be the tails, you're already subconsciously deciding what your choices are. Disappointed when you get tails? Then maybe what you really wished for is the heads or even something else."

Tanjirou pointed at the coin in her hands. "Perhaps the first step is to find out what you really want. It's normal if you feel indecisive at times, but try to listen to your heart first before flipping your coin. We can start with the little things, such as whether you should ask for more rice, or whether you should ask me a certain question."

Kanao frowned, her smile long gone from her face. She looked so visibly troubled that Tanjirou felt bad for her. So Tanjirou lifted his hand and, without thinking, patted her head as if she was one of his younger siblings.

"Don't worry too much about it," Tanjirou said before suddenly realising what he had done. He awkwardly pretended to remove some nonexistent snow off her hair before quickly returning back to his seat. Then, he pumped his fist. "While you're here, you can practice with us first. You can do this, Tsuyuri-san!"

Kanao blinked, before nodding.

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