Stone Cold | Tanjirou Kamado (old version)

23. Of preys and predators

Laundry days on the Butterfly Estate had two major differences from any other day; the first one was trying not to crash against any of the residents that carried from one place to another carrying wicker baskets to the brim with clean sheets. The second one was that Tanjirou couldn't smell anything, the soap was too strong in hundreds of cloths and the huge laundry necessary for taking in all those demon slayers that came there in need of healing, and who Shinobu was generous enough to let stay in her home.

That was why at the absence of the smell of wisteria and not seeing Aya on her bed, Tanjirou didn't worry.

During breakfast he didn't take into account he still hadn't seen her because it was common for Aya to spend that time with Kanao on the training dojo. He had tried for her not to many times, but she simply retorted with the fact that he did the same too (which was true), so Tanjirou had nothing but to put up with it through gritted teeth.

Inosuke was the first one to yell about her absence.

"Hey, where's Yosano?" he asked in between rushed bites to his rice.

Tanjirou gave him the answer he thought was true, that she must have been training with Kanao.

Inosuke gave him a questioning look and Zenitsu appeared to divert his gaze. Tanjirou managed to distinguish the slight smell of nervousness.

"No way, neither Akira nor Kanoka are on the Butterfly Estate," he said, stopping for the first time on taking bits off his food. "I can't feel them anywhere near, they aren't even in the forest outside."

Tanjirou leaned his head to the side:

"If she had gone on a mission she would have told us, right?"

The slight smell of nervousness coming off Zenitsu lashed out at his nose, and Tanjirou had to bring a hand up his nose to try and block it off.

He looked at him on the other side of the table and Zenitsu didn't manage to look back, deciding his boiled eggs were more important than the suns Tanjirou had for eyes.

"A-chan was suddenly assigned a mi-mission," he squealed, going back to stuffing himself with boiled eggs.

The soap from laundry was still deeply ingrained in his sense of smell, but it felt like Zenitsu's nervousness was wrestling against it for dominance.

"Yosano couldn't beat Kokori either, right? Why is she going on missions already?" Inosuke asked out loud, and both Tanjirou and Zenitsu wondered if the effort of coming up with new names everytime he mentioned someone would be bigger than simply remembering them.

"Aya is a tsuguko now, I guess her input to the corps is nearly as essential as a pillar's," Tanjirou uselessly suggested, and the three of them shrugged without strength enough to continue wondering.

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In between the smell of soap and cleanliness, long, long before Tanjirou started missing Aya's scent, he suddenly distinguished something greatly reeking off wisteria.

Just like it was normal, he ran off to the origin of the smell.

"Aya, you came back so quickly from-!" He came to a halt when turning the corner and finding someone that was, by far, not Aya.

At the other side of the corridor rose in his huge glory the figure of a boy, fearsome face decorated with a scar and hair styled into a mohawk.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I mistook you for another person," Tanjirou started in a somehow guilty tone. The boy continued walking, gaze fixed somewhere in the distance above Tanjirou's head. He did the same, looking somewhere else on the corridor, and even when he stepped aside, the fearsome boy crashed against his shoulder.