Chapter 3: The dysfunctional Todoroki family

N/A: I've rewritten the previous chapters, so I recommend reading everything again before continuing. They don't change the plot much, but there are a few details that I was able to write properly and correct some mistakes. If this is your first time reading the story, then ignore this.

If Enji Todoroki had to describe in one word the trip from the hospital to his house and the different hypotheses about the abilities and life of his young companion, he would undoubtedly use the word "revealing".

Since they started their way out of the hospital, he could see Tanjirou's curious gaze scanning the entire hallway, paying attention to all the medical equipment and staff in the area. "It seems like this is the first time I've seen the inside of a hospital and people with quirks" he thought as he remembered how the young man would stop and pay much more attention to people when they activated their abilities or when they were around, especially if they encountered someone who had a mutant-type quirk.

At times, the man tensed up as he saw the boy's gaze turn somewhat cold and with a couple of sparks of anger in the presence of that type of people, as if by instinct, he had to tear them apart. Fortunately, the young man never did anything other than watch them with distrust until they moved away from his sight or when the boy's killer instinct overwhelmed the people who saw him and scared them completely away in terror. Endeavour couldn't laugh a little at the funny expressions, in his opinion, of the people. He wondered more than once if the reason for Tanjirou's repulsion against heteromorphs could be related to the death of his family or the attack he recently suffered, if so he would have to overcome that resentment if in the end he decided to finance his studies to turn him into a possible hero.

Once at the exit, Enji reflected on the course of his actions, seeing that the younger redhead continued to silently observe his surroundings with great curiosity and distrust "Ah, constant vigilance, that attitude will prevent you from being caught off guard".He thought about calling his private transport to take them home, but the lack of a vehicle gave him the perfect opportunity to test some of the young man's skills, after all, if he was going to invest time, effort and money in him, he would have to prove that he was worthy of it and he was quite excited to see some of what he could offer.

"It seems we'll have to leave on our own, I hope you can fly with your flames or keep up with me boy while you're running"without waiting for an answer, the hero took a great leap while activating his flames on his legs to fly at full speed in the direction of his home, without turning around to see if his companion was even following him.

Tanjirou just watched the hero take off to leave, his mind once again reflecting on what had happened since he woke up and the course of action he should take. The temptation to run away and hide was still there, but again, the image of Nezuko being hunted down because of him quenched any desire to break the deal.

"Thank God I was able to control myself," he thought as he remembered the several moments when he had to suppress his reflex action of cutting the neck of one of those... people??"No!! They are people, with some strange appearance but they smell like humans" he mentally remembered, somewhat embarrassed for not having been able to hide his unjustified hatred against it, for reminding him too much of a demon.

He hoped that appearance was only a product of that... Quart? He didn't quite remember what it was called "First Obanai's paranoia, then Sanemi's anger issues, and now Muichiro's forgetful mind." He thought something funny until he realized what he had thought and mentally scolded himself for the derogatory comment towards his friend and his companions.

The redhead focused his attention on the landscape outside to see if he could recognize any place to orient himself, finding a confusing panorama for the Hashira, again. The streets were full of strange machines that reminded him of miniature versions of the Mugen Train, in addition to the numerous presence of the largest buildings he had ever seen in his life, similar to the structures of the infinite castle. But he was not in that kind of place, or was he?? Tanjirou shook his head at the hypothesis or the possibility of being trapped in a Blood Demon Art similar to Enmu's, the mark and his smell would have warned him of them.

He focused his sight on the increasingly distant image of Endeavour, who seemed several kilometers away, so without wasting time, he disappeared in the blink of an eye, to the enormous surprise of the people who were nearby, and ran at full speed across the roofs of the smaller buildings and the street lamps to avoid being seen by anyone.

The trip to Todoroki's residence was quite short, not because of the distance,it was actually quite a long way,but because Endeavor used all of his available energy to fly as fast as his flames could offer, both as flight training and to test the Kamado's flight speed or movement. The latter only limited himself to following him without a problem while occasionally diverting his attention to the places and people he saw as he ran. Despite his distrust, Tanjirou had to admit that he found the place quite interesting, and that he could think about the new things he saw instead of lamenting the bad memories, or at least, he hoped to keep his mind busy that way to avoid collapsing until he returned to his own home with his own.

Once the hero reached the entrance of his home, he turned around to see if Tanjirou had been able to get to him, and to his frustrations and disappointment, there was no trace of the young man anywhere or even any sign that he had followed him recently. For a moment he thought that the swordsman had run away, but he quickly discarded the idea, if that had been the reason, Tanjirou would have escaped before both of them had even spoken, so he deduced that he simply got lost along the way, the bad thing was that he would have to search for him all over the city if he didn't want to get into trouble and who knows how long it would take until he found his whereabouts.

As he was preparing to start another flight, a slight cough changed his attention and when he turned around he found the younger redhead in front of the entrance of his house, breathing calmly and without any trace of exhaustion or physical effort, which surprised and pleased the hero quite a bit for the great resistance and speed of his possible apprentice.

"Endeavour-san, is this your residence??" the young man finally spoke, who remained silent since he left the room.

Enji just nodded with a big pleased smile, seeing the boy without a sign of tiredness"Good job following me, it certainly seems that your physical condition is more than exceptional, as for your question, yes, this place is the home of my family and it will be yours for a long time." The hero prepared to cross the door of the enclosure, while the teenager just limited himself to following him.

While following the man, Tanjirou decided to inspect the place, being a large traditional Japanese style mansion, similar to the Hashiras' mansion, if he took into account the size of the building. This relieved him a little, if he was going to stay here, he preferred the place to be something he was more familiar with and not feel as out of place as he had felt since he woke up.

When they entered the mansion, Endeavor ordered him to follow him to show him his personal room so he could take a bath and change his clothes. Upon arriving, he could see a good-sized room, with only a bed, a closet, and a desk, simple but the Kamado liked it quite a bit. Above the bed he could see a set of clothes, so Tanjirou assumed that those were the clothes he should wear.

"Maybe it's also some kind of uniform."he thought curiously.

After a quick look around the room, Tanjirou grabbed the set of clothes, which consisted of blue pants, a white t-shirt, and black underwear, and headed to where the man told him was the bathroom.

Once inside, he looked around the strange place, trying to figure out what each thing was and what it was for. There were familiar things like mirrors, cabinets, and water taps, but the strange machine that he assumed was the shower was something that added to the long list of things he had never seen in his life; it didn't even look like the common showers in the Butterfly Mansion. After a while and several minor burns from the boiling water, he was finally able to understand how it worked and enjoy a relaxing bath to help relieve stress and his headache. Unfortunately, too much relaxation caused the voices in his head to come back to torment his relaxation.

"THE DAWN HAS COME!! THE DAWN HAS COME!!STOP KIBUTSUJI AT ALL COSTS!!"

"QUICKLY!! GO AND TEND THE WOUNDED!!"

After another mental struggle to silence them, the redhead finally finished showering and put on the new clothes, along with his white belt from his previous uniform to keep his Nichirin on his waist. Besides,he took the opportunity to clean his Demon Slayer uniform as well, along with the handkerchief that was formed with the remains of his yukata. With everything ready, he returned to his room to leave his old clothes in the closet, finding another set of clothes, which he assumed would be a replacement for the ones he had in case the other one ended up damaged.

"So now what do I do?" The redhead muttered, unable to remember any other instructions that Endeavor had given him.

He thought about exploring the mansion further and, incidentally, properly introducing himself to the hero's family, but a sound coming from the door interrupted his thoughts. When he opened the door, he could see Endeavor in front of him, dressed in pants similar to Tanjiro's, a gray t-shirt and a black jacket.

"I see you're ready"

"Yes, I'm done"

"Well, I see that the clothes Fuyumi brought fit you perfectly, then follow me so I can introduce you to the others"

They walked in silence for a few seconds until they reached the entrance of what seemed to be the living room of the house. Tanjirou mentally prepared himself for the meeting while Enji finally opened the door to enter. Inside the elegantly decorated room were a man and a woman, both clearly older than Tanjirou, but much younger than Endeavor, indicating that they were probably his children. The 2 had white hair and grayish eyes, but the woman had small red strands in her long hair, as well as glasses. The man was much taller than Tanjirou but the woman was shorter, both wore more casual clothes compared to the hero's strange costume. It seemed that they were preparing the table for dinner, if the Kamado took into account the clean cutlery and plates they had in their hands, until they were interrupted by the arrival of the 2 redheads.

They were several seconds with their eyes wide open, alternating their gazes between him and his father,waiting expectantly for Endeavour to explain the situation,while the man just stayed in silence.After some seconds of silence, Tanjirou's sense of smell perceived suddenly an enormous amount of anger and sadness. The redhead first looked at the woman, noticing the small tears that were beginning to form in her beautiful eyes as she tried her best to keep her expression calm, failing greatly. He then turned his attention to the white-haired man, noticing that the man's surprised expression had transformed into one of pure anger, throwing everything he had in his hands at the older redhead as he lunged at him with his hands loaded with what seemed to be ice, much to the Kamado's surprise.

Enji simply grabbed the cutlery and plates that were launched with ease while dodging the blows that the white-haired man desperately tried to land. Tanjirou opted instead to place himself at the end of the room to intervene as little as possible in what seemed to be a family argument caused by his presence.

"SON OF A BITCH!!" the white-haired man shouted with absolute fury as he tried to attack his father. "IT WASN'T ENOUGH FOR YOU TO MAKE US AND MOM SUFFER, ON TOP OF THAT YOU HAD TO CHEAT HER TO HAVE A SON WHO WOULD FULFILL YOUR FUCKING OBSESSION OF SURPASSING ALL-MIGHT."

"Son??"asked with eyes wide open at the accusation"Wait!! I'm no-" Tanjirou's words were interrupted by several man-made ice pinnacles, going dangerously against his chest.

Without wasting any time, the Hashira quickly pulled out his Nichirin and activated the flames of the Sun Breathing to block the attack with an upward slash, which formed a thin layer of crimson fire in front of him, melting and evaporating the ice shards with ease.

"I've already caused enough trouble with my presence, better avoid the place being destroyed by the crossfire, or should I say crossice??" Tanjirou thought as he changed his stance to a combat stance, with the flames of his Katana still burning on constant alert.

The other men in the room stopped their fight and stared in surprise at the skill and reaction speed of the swordsman with hanafuda earrings, along with the power that seemed to emanate from his quirk, while the woman seemed to have forgotten her previous sadness and stared captivated at the beautiful crimson flames that the teenager had created, wishing for an instant to touch them to feel the gentle warmth that seemed to emanate from them.

Even though he had seen them before, Enji was still impressed by the sight of Tanjirou's flames. Seeing them in action, even for something as simple as blocking an attack, was more incredible than he could have expected. It was certainly something special, he could feel it and wanted to finish dinner as soon as possible and put the two young men to training.

Seeing that the situation seemed to have calmed down and that all the attention was now focused on him, Tanjirou chose to put out the fire on his Katana and put away his Nichirin, breaking the trance that everyone seemed to be in at that moment. The white-haired man, noticing what he did, looked down at him in embarrassment, while bowing in apology and quickly leaving the room, but not before glaring at his father,receiving only a serious look from him.

The woman seemed to have calmed down and approached Tanjirou a little bit embarrassed."I-I'm very sorry about my brother's attitude, Natsuo tends to have a somewhat impulsive behavior."

Tanjirou just shook his head while also bowing. "No,no!!it is I who apologize, my presence was what ultimately caused this whole fight."

The woman quickly denied it while bowing further. "It is not true, we misjudged you and jumped to conclusions, I am very sorry about all this."

The redhead imitated the white-haired woman's action. "I insist that it is not your fault, I should have shown up the moment I walked in here."

"No, we acted very violently and gave a very bad image."

"It is not true, as I said before, it was my presence that caused all this."

"But-"

"Shut up you two!!" The hero exclaimed, interrupting the small dispute between the 2 young people.

The Kamado only nodded in apology while the white-haired only looked away. He could perceive a scent of sadness coming from her but he decided to let it go to respect her privacy and avoid another fight.

"I guess this was a unique way to make a first impression, anyway, she is my daughter Fuyumi and the one who left was my son Natsuo, Fuyumi this is Tanjirou Kamado, he will be staying with us for a while due to some problems with his quirk, and being a fire person like me and Shouto, I decided that we are the most suitable to help them."

Tanjirou could only frown slightly at the explanation, he may not have Yoriichi's mastery and skill yet, but he could use Sun Breathing perfectly. Fuyumi just remained thoughtful for a while, seeming to be trying to remember something, but she quickly recomposed herself and smiled warmly at the younger redhead "It's a pleasure to meet you Kamado-san."

"Likewise Todoroki-san, and please call me Tanjirou, by the way, you should have been the one who should have gotten these clothes, right? I greatly appreciate your kindness"he replied with a smile and a bow.

"Then you can call me Fuyumi too, as for the clothes, don't worry, I'm glad to see that I chose the right sizes"

"Well, now that you two have properly introduced yourselves, do you know where Shouto is??"Endeavor asked when he noticed the absence of his youngest son.

Fuyumi just shrugged at the question" I don't know, he just got back from UA a while ago, so he's probably in his room"

"I understand, in that case…" Endeavor began to take a considerable breath of air and accumulate it in his lungs"

"Oh no,not again…" Fuyumi said somewhat embarrassed as she shook her head.

"What is he doing??" The swordsman asked somewhat confused.

"You'll see" the white-haired girl replied, as she He stood in front of the red-haired boy and covered his ears with her hands.

"SSSHHHHHOOOOUUUUTTTTTOOOOOO!!!!" the hero shouted at the top of his lungs, causing a huge gust of wind that almost disrupted the entire room.

Tanjirou's sharp reflexes allowed him to detect the scream in time to put his own hands on Fuyumi's ears, causing her to blush enormously as she felt the boy's rough hands on her face,although she was very grateful for the gesture and for not having to suffer again from temporary deafness.

"Come here right now!! There's someone I want you to meet!!" the older redhead finally added, after catching his breath.

After Fuyumi separated from Tanjirou and thanked him for his help, still somewhat blushing, the room remained silent for a few seconds, waiting for the last member of the Todoroki family. Finally, slow footsteps could be heard and the door opened, giving way to Shouto Todoroki, the youngest son of the family.

The first thing the bicolor focused his attention on was the presence of the Kamado, who observed and analyzed him with a curious look while the bicolor did the same with a cold look. The first thing Tanjirou could notice were his eyes of a different shade, reminding him of Serpent Hashira, only that these alternated between turquoise blue and gray, in addition to the burn that covered his right eye, where his bluish eye was. His hair was half whitish and half reddish, although not as intense as the Kamado's color, in addition to the small difference in height between them, the swordsman being slightly shorter.

For Shouto's side, he first observed the thin but at the same time muscular figure of the redhead, very different from the physical build of his UA classmates, or even many professional heroes, the boy's eyes also found them interesting, due to their crimson color and the fiery glow that seemed to emanate, making him assume that he had a powerful fire quirk. His crimson red hair and the wavy shape it had gave him the sensation that it was made of fire, similar to the game-greenish locks of Burnin, his father's assistant. Finally, he could notice the strange flame-shaped mark that adorned his forehead, although by the texture, he could guess that it was partially caused by a burn.

"At least, we have one thing in common now"

Endeavor could only watch in satisfaction as the two teenagers interacted. Finally the two pieces he needed to surpass All-Might were in his possession, he had to train them both hard so he could become stronger. If Shouto finally decides to think for once and use his fire power, he could be the best in UA before the school year is over, and if he manages to perfect and combine the two halves of his quirk, he could reach levels of power that even the hero himself could not imagine. But for that he also needed a rival and partner who could push him beyond his limits as well as train his combat style, and for that he needed Tanjirou, a teenager with impressive combat skills, great handling of the katana and the most powerful fire quirk he had ever seen. If both formed a rivalry, neither would rest until they became better than the other and then, Shouto would reach a level enough to be stronger than All-might and become the symbol of peace. And if Tanjiro was the one who managed to be the strongest, at least he could say that his apprentice achieved what no one else could have achieved.

Enji Todoroki could only smile triumphantly as he saw that his plan seemed to have taken a favorable turn for his goals.

Fuyumi could only watch intently the interaction between her brothers and her father's guest, hoping for someone to say something, but the words never came, in fact, it seemed that a tension was forming between them, although much of it was a product of her brother.He never liked his father's guests, especially if they had to do with the plan to defeat All-might, as the white-haired girl deduced when witnessing the beautiful and powerful crimson flames that the redhead had created when her brother unconsciously attacked him. After what seemed like an hour, but in reality was little more than a minute, Fuyumi decided that it was enough and decided to intervene

"Shouto, he is Tanjirou Kamado, he will be here for a while to help him with his quirk, so I hope you get along with him, Tanjirou, he is my younger brother Shouto, I hope you can form a great friendship despite his usual serious attitude."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Todoroki-san" the Hashira finally said while bowing, to which Shouto only responded with a nod.

Since neither of them seemed to want to start a conversation, and her father was not going to do anything either,Fuyumi opted to send everyone to the table as she approached the kitchen to bring the food, although to her surprise, Tanjirou followed her and began to carry the plates full of food as well"Tanjirou, you don't have to help me, I can do this alone."

The redhead just quickly shook his head. "No, I have caused trouble and I will be living, eating and sleeping without paying anything, plus you brought me some clothes, please allow me to make up for it by helping in the kitchen."

Fuyumi just nodded with a smile as she returned to the living room with the food, seeing only her father and Shouto at the table, producing the typical tension that there was between them, but not to the point of starting to yell at each other.

"Maybe seeing Tanjirou's presence could help them put aside their differences a little." she thought somewhat hopefully.

Unfortunately that didn't seem to be something that would change any time soon, much to the white-haired girl's frustration as she saw that no one was doing anything to start a conversation"So, Tanjirou, could you explain how you met my father?"

"Well, I was fighting a villain and I ended up pretty injured. I think it was Endeavour-san who found me in that state and took me to the hospital. When I woke up, he offered to help me control my fire power, since it seemed I had caused some damage while I was unconscious" Tanjirou answered, hoping that the simplified version of recent events would be enough to calm the girl's curiosity, and omitting details such as the supposed murder he committed or the battle against Kibutsuji "by the way Endeavour-san, how long was I out??"

"5 days" the hero answered, surprising the redhead quite a bit due to the very short period of time he was resting compared to the months he spent in a coma after his mission in the red light district, added to the instant ability he had to, he wondered if the mark also provided healing abilities. It might be possible, but he doubted it would give him regeneration even slightly comparable to that of a demon, so he attributed his quick recovery to advanced technology.

"I suppose that at least the others must be in a coma, so anyway, I wouldn't have gotten any information in the short and medium term," he thought slightly dejectedly, although he quickly put those thoughts aside to pay attention to the conversation.

"Wow, that was pretty fast, there are people who end up in the hospital for up to a week due to a minor burn"Fuyumi said a little thoughtfully"Speaking of fire, could you explain to us what your quirk consists of?? I've never seen anything like the flames you produced a moment ago. They seemed so bright and warm, it was like feeling the rays of the dawn sun on a cold winter day, but I could also feel the enormous power that emanated from it, as if it could melt any metal that existed.

Tanjirou could feel that now all the attention was focused on him, especially from Shouto. "My quirk? Oh sure, it's called Hinokami Kagura, it allows me to create a special fire through a dance, but it was modified to become an ideal combat style to use with my Katana."

"Dance?? Wow I've never heard of anything like that, so it must be a very special quirk, although when you did that slash, it didn't seem much like the movements of a dance to me."

"Oh, well, over time I was able to improve the control of my quirk, so I really don't need to follow the exact movements to activate my solar fire anymore, I can use them in a simple cut, in a block or even combine it with other combat techniques."

"Solar??" Shouto finally said after listening to Tanjirou's explanation." So, are your flames the same as those of the sun??"

Tanjirou mentally cursed the slip he made by indirectly mentioning Sun Breathing, he had to fix this quickly "No, my family only gave him that nickname because he reminded them of the sun, I doubt that the Hinokami Kagura could even reach such power."

"Even so, it's so cool to have a more exact comparison, you could say that you have Amaterasu's quirk!!" Fuyumi added excitedly.

"Amaterasu??" Enji asked with a frown,which Fuyumi nodded.

"Yes, Amaterasu, the Kami of the sun and one of the main deities of Japanese mythology. She is in charge of illuminating the world, not only with the powerful flames of the sun, which could destroy even the ashes of any part of the earth, but also with her wisdom and compassion for people, especially those who made bad decisions and genuinely regret their actions."She reported while looking at the Kamado."Who knows if Tanjirou came here for some similar reason" she added, to which the redhead smiled while shaking his head.

"No, I don't think it's more than a coincidence, besides, I have no relationship with the Kami of the sun." the Kamado replied."Maybe Yoriichi could have been a representative or descendant of the goddess, because everyone considered him a guardian spirit, perhaps that's why he was so powerful and could create the Breathings" he added mentally, remembering the memories of the father of the breathing forms that he saw when he was unconscious during the battle against Muzan.

"I might doubt that a little if I see your eyes and hair, similar to the sun, in addition to those Hanafuda earrings with the Amaterasu symbol." Fuyumi argued while pointing at the ornaments on her ears, to which the swordsman continued to deny.

"I don't have any supernatural abilities related to any deity, the Hinokami Kagura was only a family dance that I could use as a combat style and my quirk."

"oh, bu-"

"That's enough" Endeavor interrupted, seeing that they were once again going to start an endless discussion that was not going to provide him with more information than he obtained.

Hinokami Kagura,the solar Quirk,was definitely the perfect way to describe the ability and highlighted the great superiority between him and any fire quirk, be they conventional, extraordinary or even his Hellfire or the half-hot of his son.

A part of him cursed his past self for not having discovered the Kamado family. He was sure that Toya would have made the most of that power.He had the will and dedication that he would have so wished the rest of his children to have, he had the talent to reach limits that he seriously doubted Shouto could reach, it was not that he did not consider Shouto an exceptional aspiring hero, but Toya was always several steps ahead of the youngest son. He had perfected and improved in months everything that Shouto had taken him partially to learn in years, at least until he stopped using his fire part.His strategy and combat style with and without quirk were prodigious.

Toya had everything to be the ultimate fire hero, except a healthy body to use his quirk.

The memory of his deceased firstborn still caused him deep pain and a feeling of failure in himself as a father. In a desire to fulfill the promise that the hero in his childhood had made to his beloved father before tragically dying in an accident, he strove with blood, sweat and tears to become the best hero of his generation, but despite everything, he always found himself in the shadow of the fucking All-Might, and no matter how much he exploited his body and quirk to the maximum, he could never become more the shadow of the symbol of peace.

Then in a desperate act to fulfill his dream, he looked for a woman with a water or ice quirk to combine them, finally finding Rei Himura,a woman a little younger than him but with a powerful ice quirk. After marriage and the birth of his children, he thought that his plan could come true, but in the end there were complications. Toya had the power of fire in a body of ice and ended up dying from overexploiting his body,despite Enji doing everything possible to prevent him from doing so,Fuyumi only inherited the same power as her mother, Natsuo had no intention of becoming a hero despite having an improved version of his sister's quirk and Shouto was the only one who could keep the flame of hope still burning.

If only he had looked for a woman who would enhance his fire power instead of an opposite, he could have found the Kamado family during his youth, married a woman from the family, and Toya would be alive, with a healthy body and a quirk powerful enough to fulfill the goal of being the new symbol of peace. But what's done is done and there is nothing left but to settle with the remains of the broken pieces and build something that fulfills that goal. He wished it first for his father's promise and now he wanted to fulfill it for his deceased son.

While the hero was deep in thought, the others chose to leave once the meal was over. Shouto retreated to his room while Tanjirou helped Fuyumi pick up the dirty dishes and take them back to the kitchen. Endeavour, seeing everyone leave, decided to follow suit and retreat to his private room to pray in front of Toya's butsudan. Training could wait until tomorrow after seeing a bit of the young red-haired boy's skills; now he just wanted to reunite with his lost son.

After helping her clean both the table and the dishes, despite Fuyumi's insistence that it was not necessary for him to do so,Tanjirou retired to his room to reflect on what had happened since he woke up and what prospects there were for the near future.

His recovery had been incredibly fast, to the point of not even needing the typical rehabilitation training he usually did when he suffered high severity injuries, but that indicated that Zenitsu, Inosuke and the rest would be recovering more slowly, probably in a coma, or he hoped since there was no way to get either good or bad news, he could not know anything about Nezuko either but without the demons, he was much calmer while she was with the Ubuyasiki.

Then there was the deal... He did not know what had happened that made him be classified as a criminal, but he had to solve it himself as soon as possible if he wanted to be free, although unfortunately that was in the hands of Endeavor.

And finally there was the Todoroki family. Tanjirou could not really give an opinion on Natsuo, because he was able to introduce himself properly, but Fuyumi was a person he considered very nice and helpful, with enormous optimism, as well as having great skill in cooking.

She was definitely a good person and he couldn't help but think of Mitsuri when they started talking.

Shouto on the other hand,he didn't know what to think of him. For a moment he thought of Giyuu, when he saw his dull gaze, but Tomioka often carried a soft scent of sadness and melancholy, which could sometimes be replaced with joy and fun when he was with the Kamado brothers, or even worry and anger when they fought demons,but Shouto literally did not emit any emotion, except for brief flashes of anger and fury against his father and others of determination directed at him. He doesn't know who to compare him to,Sanemi's image was floating for a few moments, but his anger seemed much deeper than the usual anger of the Wind Hashira, in addition to lacking his rather explosive and impulsive humor, he also remembered to Obanai when he noticed that the bicolor analyzed him and reacted stoically with strangers.

"Maybe it could be a combination of the 3?"Tanjirou thought,although in the end he came to the conclusion that he had to get to know him better to have a verdict.

Maybe he was just really good at hiding emotions or he just didn't know how to express them. After all, for the emotion to be recognized by Tanjirou's sense of smell, it had to be produced and for that, it had to be recognized by the person, even if it was unconsciously. Or at least that was one of the theories Shinobu had when they spent time chatting and exchanging ideas about her special sense.

But something he also easily noticed was the constant conflict between the family members, especially directed at his father. The image of the rengoku family was present in his mind again, especially when he remembered the degrading and violent treatment that Shinjuro had against Kyoyuro and Shenjuro for wanting to become Demon slayer.

"Maybe it could be something similar here." In any case, it will be something that he will surely find out about over time and he will probably have to do something to help them. It may not have arrived on the best terms but that did not mean that he would try to offer all the support he could.

With everything in order, Tanjirou wanted to go to bed after a long day, full of intense emotions that will surely return during the next days and weeks, dark memories that will torment his mind for years and an expectation of a new tomorrow where he will have to wield his Nichirin once again.

But before going to sleep,he took out the envelope he kept with him and took out the engagement ring.He looked at it for several minutes with a great feeling of sadness and melancholy

"Please give me strength to continue, my butterfly, the first few days may be easy, but I don't know if I'll be able to continue if I have to stay weeks or months..." he gave a small kiss to the butterfly emblem and put it back inside the envelope to finally rest.

It seems that his long-awaited retirement is not going to arrive soon.

N/A:One chapter less, after reviewing the previous chapters and correcting both poorly expressed ideas and some spelling mistakes, I feel much better about the story. So tell me what you thought of the improvement of the chapters or if you find any mistake that should be corrected, I will read any message and review with pleasure. As for Tanjirou's future, for now he will have to wait for what happens during the confrontations with Endeavor and Shouto, who knows if solar breathing forces Todoroki to use his fire power (not that he can do much against Tanjirou anyway), or maybe he can receive some news from the demon slayers, who knows. By the way, I have seen that often in BNH the names of the background characters appear along with their quirk, the letters of the names are usually yellow, but sometimes they appear purple with the villains right? (I'm not sure because on other occasions it appears yellow like the rest or once I saw it in red, in the case of Stain when they talked about his quirk in chapter 16 of season 2), then Tanjirou would be yellow right? Not really, I think it would be red, why? Because he is an assassin, yes he kills demons, but according to the laws of the heroes, he would be classified as a hitman or a mercenary, but his ideals cannot put him as a villain so that third color that is not associated with heroes and villains, but with someone who alternates between both, I would see it ideal. As for the name of his "quirk" (because in reality he does'tt have one), it would be called Hinokami Kagura, because no one would know the real name, Sun Breathing. That would be all, I hope you liked this chapter.

-Discarded idea:

There is not much to add in that section, only that more things about the Todoroki family and the Kamado family would be mentioned during dinner, but seeing that the chapter was very long I decided to leave it at that point, although that does not mean that those topics would not be discussed, especially because Fuyumi is the one who tries the most to get to know Tanjirou and make everyone get along.

Thanks for reading :)