The Flame Pillar, Kyojuro Rengoku, was a peculiar guy.
His flamboyant hair colour had already stood out when Ayaka first saw him at the pillars meeting. But above all, Rengoku's figure yelled power. You didn't need any kind of extraordinary sight to see he was, by far, one of the strongest pillars.
Ayaka knew Rengoku was eye catching not only because he was strong. Even if he had been the weakest of the demon slayers, even if he hadn't been able to defeat a single demon, the Flame Pillar would have shined the same way.
There was a light around him, beaming, shining like a candle in the middle of winter, as if wanting to say "I'm here! Look at me!" That worried her, for some reason she didn't understand. No one shined so brightly without the need to.
So when Zenitsu asked above the amazed yells of Inosuke, about the pillar's appearance, Ayaka pointed with a finger.
"It's that one," she muttered with a certain shine on her eyes, fixed on the end of the wagon.
Zenitsu looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"Tasty, tasty!" Could be heard from the distance.
"Rengoku is a pillar," Zenitsu started. " I don't think that-"
"I remember his smell," Tanjirou said, looking at where Ayaka's finger was still pointing at. "I think she's right. The extravagant hair is hard to imitate."
"Tasty, tasty!" called Rengoku's figure.
"I can't believe this," Zenitsu muttered without breath.
Ayaka elbowed him on the ribs and that made him shut up.
"Hey, and why are we looking for him?" Tanjirou skipped a bit when the hand of an smiling Aya grabbed onto his wrist. "Does it have anything to do with the dance of the fire god?"
«It burns.»
Tanjirou slapped it away so fast Ayaka believed to see disgust. Both her and Zenitsu stared at him.
"My father's dance," Tanjirou said, with something harsh on his eyes. "Shinobu thought Rengoku would know something about it."
«If you had been with us beforehand maybe you'd know» He was smart enough not to say that.
Ayaka stared at him for a long while, but in the end she looked to the side.
"It could be a derivation of Flame Breathing," she suggested with a grimace that was hard to hide. Then she whispered. "I guess."
"Well! Let's go see Rengoku, Tanjirou!" Zenitsu exclaimed, patting his back and guiding him forward, far away from Aya and her startled expression. "A-chan, go get the boar! I'm sure he's causing trouble!"
"What the hell got into him?" Ayaka muttered to herself before turning around and walking away.
«What the hell got into you!?»
Zenitsu grabbed him by the arm and it was only when he dragged Tanjirou to the other side that he realized he had turned around, barely a few seconds from actually yelling at Aya.
"Okay, stay right there," Zenitsu started, squinting with both hands on his chest as if he was thinking about pushing him back in case Tanjirou attempted to go to Aya again. "What's wrong?"
Tanjirou blinked.
"There's… there's nothing wrong."
Zenitsu raised his eyebrows.
"Tell that to someone else, I have enhanced hearing, remember?" When Tanjirou opened his mouth to reply Zenitsu grabbed his hand and showed him his own open palm, with bloody half moons, carved by his nails and the strength with which he had clenched his fists. "Dude, you're angry."
"I'm not…" He had to take a breath of air. It was even painful to say it, more so than the bloody moons on his palms. "I'm not angry."
Because he wasn't. Aya could do whatever she wanted, couldn't she? She could say he was important and then leave without a word, and then she could unexpectedly come back as if nothing happened, because that didn't concern him.
Tanjirou looked at how Aya's back disappeared in the distance.
«Why did you come back?» he wondered, carved on his mind the wisteria flowers of her haori. «With what purpose? To do what you always do?»
«Maybe I want to play with you just a little bit more» the Aya on his head said, twirling one of Tanjirou's curls in between her fingers. «It's just so, so easy, big brother» She broke out into chuckles that hit his ears. «Oh, Tanjirou, I love you. You're important, I promise you are, now let me go on a mission without saying anything and not sending you any letters for ten days. Just like with my pathetic family.»
And she broke out into louder chuckles.
«I'm not angry» Tanjirou thought.
"I'm not angry," he repeated out loud.
Zenitsu sighed, rolling his eyes. "You were so happy when she came though, I really don't get it. But Tanjirou, seriously," he patted his chest, just over his heart. "You have the most beautiful sound I've ever heard, in my life, but it's become twisted... and ugly, and, you know? It's kind of unbearable"
"I'm not-"
"Yeah, yeah, okay," Zenitsu said, leaning his head to the side. "You're not angry, but I'll tell you one thing."
He got very close to his face,squinting. Why did Zenitsu feel like a mountain?
"If you make A-chan cry, I won't forgive you," he spoke as if Tanjirou infuriated him more than demons' existence, he hissed as if he wanted to kill him right there. "Only despicable people make others cry with their words."
He gave him a final pat and went back to his usual expression, one that didn't turn Tanjirou's blood into ice. "Come on, let's go see Rengoku-san."
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«This feeling» Ayaka thought, «is familiar.»
And that terrified her.
Never before had Tanjirou felt burning, Yuu had been like a nail on fire the more she clutched to it, but Tanjirou was a fireball, because Tanjirou was the Sun, and there was nothing more powerful than a burn from him. And she doubted if she'd be able to stand getting burnt a second time, especially by the Sun, who she had believed to always be calm and comforting.
Ayaka tried not to think about how the sight of her father had burned the same way. And when he got consumed and stopped, it hurt much more.
"Akira!" It was only when she turned around to find the boar that she managed not to.
"Inosuke," she sighed with a relieved smile. "I've been looking for you everywhere. The others are already waiting, we have to go to Rengoku."
Inosuke took a strong hold on her shoulders. Ayaka raised her eyebrows in confusion.
"That doesn't matter now, there's something more important we have to do!"
She blinked.
"Something… more important?"
"Akira Kawaiji! Will you help me end with the beast!?" Inosuke yelled.
"Beast?" She repeated, then bringing her hands up to her head. "Is that what a train is!? A beast!?"
"Yes, yes, a beast, Momotaro!" Inosuke assured, passing a hand over her shoulders. "And I need for you to help me defeat it! Gonpachiro believes it's a guardian spirit and Chuitsu is dumb! You're the only one I can trust here!"
Ayaka chewed her lip, deep in thought.
"If it's so dangerous... don't you think we should ask for mr Rengoku's help? Since he's a pillar?"
"Iwatan, you're a genius!" Inosuke exclaimed, holding her face with both his hands. "Let's go ask for the super strong guy's help!"
"Yes, yes, let's go!"
So they did, in between chuckles and pushes and attack strategies that would never get done. Carrying your partner on your shoulders didn't seem like a practical idea.
The moment Ayaka heard the words "breathing" and "branches" she grabbed Inosuke by the arm, who was just about to yell Rengoku's name.
"Don't interrupt them," Ayaka muttered against his shoulder, besides the fact that she really didn't wanna see Tanjirou's eyes if they weren't suns. "They are talking about important things, the dance of the fire g- EEK!"
The throbbing and googly red eyes of Rengoku suddenly appeared over Inosuke's shoulder,where she had hidden.
"Ah, your friend! I found it weird not to see her!" Once he recognized her, Rengoku sat down again, never ceasing to , there it was again, that worry about his fire without any proof. Why was she so worried about someone shining so brightly?
"Hello... mister Ren… mister Rengoku." Ayaka's head peeked from Inosuke's shoulder, suddenly with bright eyes and smiling too much. "Amazing..." she whispered under her breath when looking at the Flame Pillar, "what an amazing person..."
"I was explaining to your friends the difference between the Flame Breathing and the dance of the fire god." Rengoku's smile was radiant like how a forest fire was, strong, destructive and too intense. "Would you mind explaining how Breathing works?"
"Ah... the... the branches, right?" Ayaka's face turned bright red. "I believe you can explain them much better than me, mister Rengoku."
"I insist!" The Flame Pillar exclaimed. "Do the honours, please! I'm sure Himejima made you tsuguko for a reason! Your determination during the pillars meeting was admirable!"
Ayaka turned even redder behind Inosuke. At mentioning the pillars meeting, Tanjirou frowned.
"Okay, um," Ayaka staggered. "Flame, water, thunder, stone, wind, those are the five basic breaths, all the other ones derive from them."
Rengoku nodded enthusiastically.
"Right, right! Besides, there are swordsmen who use both water and flame!" He suddenly turned around to Tanjirou, who skipped a bit in surprise. "Tell me! What colour is your katana, young Mizugochi!?"
Tanjirou replied with black and that, in fact, he was called Kamado, not Mizugochi.
Ayaka took seat by Zenitsu's side along with Inosuke, red cheeks as she waited for Rengoku to finish talking with Rengoku to ask him to defeat the beast.
Distracted and playing with her fingers, Ayaka looked around her.
The beast's stomach was much more peculiar than she had imagined, everything was made out of wood and metal, and it surprised her that the insides of a living being weren't warm and sticky. When she told her worries to Zenitsu, to know what he thought, he muttered something, with a tired expression, about "having to take care of three bumpkins now".
The beast was very fast, much more than any horse. When it started moving her and Inosuke stuck to the window to see how fast it ran. It was Zenitsu who had to stop them from falling off the window, and it was both Ayaka and Zenitsu who had to convince Inosuke of not jumping off the train to check who could run faster than the two. Of course, because Ayaka knew Inosuke couldn't run faster than the beast, Zenitsu had different reasons that made more sense.
It was then, when finally managing to make Inosuke go back inside the wagon, that the emperor appeared.
The emperor, whose figure was the base of life and power. The samurais had kneeled before him in remote eras and they had been the ones to be trampled on by him in the Meiji Era, when the monarch and great lord of the Great Japan found no use for them in a world that was changing at a speed one couldn't even imagine.
Ayaka had decided to stop running after ghosts that disappeared hundreds of years ago, but the emperor was still alive and kicking.
Yuu's form rose in a corner, fingers clutching to a bag hanging from his shoulder. He looked from one side to the other, then to the ticket on his hand as sweat soaked his forehead. That he was lost didn't surprise her.
"Young Kobayashi!" Yuu lifted his gaze up to them, and it was only then that Ayaka realized it was mister Rengoku who had yelled the name of her childhood friend.
When seeing them, Yuu's face lit up, abandoning all anxiety. Ayaka's gaze, peeking slightly over Inosuke's shoulder, made it go back to his face.
"Is Akiko gonna eat someone's head or not?" Inosuke asked, pointing at Yuu in a not very discreet way.
Ayaka blinked. "If I'm gonna… what?"
The sound of Zenitsu's hand made when hitting his own forehead echoed in the background.
"I hope you're referring to a demon's head!" Rengoku exclaimed, at the same time as if he moved to the side to leave room for Yuu to sit down. "It can appear any moment now!"
"Demon?" Ayaka curiously asked. "So instead of going to where it is, the demon is here?"
Zenitsu strongly clutched to Ayaka's haori. She was still, after all, the strongest. Ayaka patted his blond locks.
"You gotta be kidding!" Zenitsu exclaimed with eyes wide open.
"I don't have to be kidding!" Rengoku said back.
Yuu started to sweat more than he already did.
"A… demon? There has to be a mistake." A nervous chuckle made its way out from his chest as he took out the ticket from his pocket with trembling hands.
"There's none!" Rengoku said, pointing at the ticket with a finger. Yuu breathlessly squeaked. "You're on the right train, it's clearly expressed here!"
"I wanna get down!" Zenitsu continued complaining on Ayaka's wisteria. She raised a single eyebrow.
"What are you even doing here, Kobayashi?" She asked. Inosuke cackled in amusement by her side as Zenitsu muttered a small prayer for both his and Yuu's soul.
"I literally have no clue what's going on!" Yuu raised his hands up in the air. "Shinobu-san told me to buy medicine in a lot of places, she herself was the one to buy the train ticket."
"So you're training under Shinobu's wing!?" Rengoku talked too loudly and his voice drilled on Yuu's ears, but that wasn't why he furrowed his eyebrows. "Your mother must be very proud!"
"Ah, yes!" Yuu swallowed. "My mother.. she was very happy when hearing the news uh, she even baked some cake."
"That's good! Sons must honour their mothers!" Rengoku strongly patted Yuu's back, nearly making him drop the train ticket in between his fingers. "Is her medicine as good as always!?"
Yuu remembered the blond kid of googly eyes that went to his house every month, even when he had been just a baby, to take the medicine to alleviate his mother's illness.
How could he forget? Yuu Kobayashi had never forgotten anything, ever.
Every month without fail, the eldest Rengoku son came to the Kobayashi's house out of pure desperation. Although his father didn't give him the money, although medicine couldn't do anything anymore. Kyojuro Rengoku came there until, instead of buying medicine, he had to buy incense.
"Yeah… yeah… as good as always," Yuu said, not daring to look into the vibrant eyes of the desperate child with a sick mother.
Ayaka frowned, never diverting her gaze from Yuu as she gave the ticket to the inspector. If she had known how to look at more than one thing at once, maybe she would have been able to avoid what was coming.
The inspector gave the ticket back to Ayaka. She finally looked at it, at the dust circling in the air and never touching it.
Once again, her sight marked the limits of something unnerving.
Tanjirou appeared to scrunch up his nose. That detail didn't escape her.
"Hey," she called out to him. "You smelled it, right? It's-"
And so, the dreams started.
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