|•| 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚂𝚕𝚊𝚢𝚎𝚛 |•| 𝕂𝕟𝕪 𝔽𝕒𝕟𝕗𝕚𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

XXV

    "I wonder what this weapon Kanroji-san talked about is. Is it a sword? Is it buried? It's like a treasure hunt. I'm so excited!", Tanjiro exclaimed as he walked in the forest, carrying a box with Nezuko inside, and walking with Kiyomi and Wolfie.

   "I know what it is, or where it is, but I don't wanna spoil the fun!", Kiyomi smiled.

   "How.. Awwh, okay!", he pouted before he stopped walking along with Kiyomi.

    "Huh? A kid? And one more person...", Tanjiro muttered as he looked at the people infront of them.

   "That's the mist pillar, Tokitou Muichiro.", Kiyomi explained as Tanjiro nodded in understanding.

    "Go away! I'm not handing my key over, no matter what! And I definitely ain't teaching you how to do it!", The kid argued.

   Tanjiro got surprised when the kid screamed. When he turned to Kiyomi, she suddenly disappeared.

   Muichiro raised his arm, confusing the boy and Tanjiro, and swung it towards the boy's neck. Tanjiro's eyes widened, he was about to save the boy, but before he coud move and before Muichiro's arm could hit the boy, he suddenly disappeared and reappeared infront of Tanjiro. Kiyomi was holding him.

   "Are you okay?", Kiyomi looked at the startled boy.

   "G-get off me! Go away! I'm not handing this key to anyone! Not even under torture. It is gonna break very so- mph?!", The boy wailed. His cries was stopped by Kiyomi who gently smacked his mask to shush him.

   "Relax, I won't take it. So calm down.. Here, look at this wolf. She's cute, right?", she smiled. Wolfie suddenly appeared beside her and looked at the boy. The boy flinched, scared at the abnormal size of the wolf.

   "Don't worry, she's nice.", she assured. The kid hesitantly lifted his arm and put his hand on Wolfie's head, calming him down.

   "So what if it breaks? Just make another? You know, in all this time that you've been grumbling and mumbling, do you know how many people have died? This is what happens when you get in the way of a pillar.", the mist pillar glared at them. Kiyomi looked at him warily, she knew what trouble would happen next but she didn't know how to handle it.

   "Unlike you people, a pillar's time is extremely important. You'd understand if you thought a little. Swordsmiths can't fight. They can't save lives. Making weapons is all they're good for.", he spat rude words as he reached out his hand. "Come on. Key. Understand your place when you act. You're not a baby anymore, you know."

  The kid looked at him, scared. After a moment, the kid suddenly cried.

   Tanjiro stepped up and slapped the hashira's hand away, surprising the other two.

    'I didn't know it was that loud.', Kiyomi thought.

   "What's this about?", Muichiro asked, unfazed.

   "This.. This just... Doesn't sit right with me! I'm not exactly sure why! What about consideration?! You can't just forget to be considerate here! That's just cruel!", Tanjiro yelled, moving his hands around as he nagged.

   "Am I acting cruel?", Muichiro said.

   "Of course, you are!", Kiyomi joined.

   '..Not!!', she thought, crying internally.

   Kiyomi couldn't help but stare at a certain tree, she knew someone was hiding there. She was deep in her thoughts and couldn't hear what Muichiro was saying. She snapped back to them when Muichiro hit Tanjiro's neck.