Blossoming Fissure | Tanjirou Kamado

22. Let the competition get started

It came to Uzui's mind, quickly and unexpectedly as he got his nose fixed on the Wisteria House, that one time he asked Himejima to pray to his deity.

A few years back, Himejima had been slightly less muscular and his hair was shorter, neck thinner. Uzui's hair had been messier, too, and he moved in an uneasier manner, there was more youth to his flesh, less experience. Of course, having just been claimed a Pillar.

Naturally, Himejima had refused because he prayed to Buddha, not the god of festivities. And as much as Uzui asked (in fact, he had asked every time there was a Pillars' meeting, and the number was surprisingly big for people of their trade) Himejima had never given in. But he hoped his tsuguko did.

It was something childish, he knew, but when he announced his divinity to the four mortals in front of him the only thing the girl did was squint, look Uzui up and down and claim that "she had her gods and he wasn't one of them".

It was a pity, he thought, he'd like at least for one of the Stone Breathing users to pray to him. They were all religious in their neat and tidy way, weren't they? They all had something on their blood that was correct and just, and it wasn't weird (although users of the Stone Breathing were scarce) that in between them swarmed the monks and the religious that hadn't lost their faith for some reason, having witnessed a world full of the evil that were demons.

'Fine,' he thought, because he didn't need the girl's prayers. He wasn't a god that fed on prayers, Uzui didn't need another god, he himself was his own god, he himself hallowed and worshipped his own divinity. He didn't need gods he knew wouldn't help him because he had himself and his instincts, and he trusted that more than any other thing he could pray to.

The mortals he chose for the mission were short, young and inexperienced; their swords were barely worn out and their bodies lacked scars or injuries. If he had to guess, Uzui would say they had barely defeated more than twenty demons.

He looked at them, cheerfully chatting, having lunch like school girls without showing any signs of being on their way to a mission. Suddenly he was unsure of whether he had made the right choice.

Uzui could not ask Shinobu or Mitsuri to come with him because of a mere hunch, it would be stupid to take time from a pillar because of something like that, even he knew that. But lately the upper ranks were more scarce and the corps was mainly made out of newbies that were killed shortly after going into the battlefield. And the more time passed, the bigger the difference between the Pillars and the other members of the corps became. Rengoku died, and Uzui didn't want to think about what would happen when one after another, his comrades died and the corps was left adrift.

He munched on the fugu-sashi and sipped on his drink without much interest. He was a considerate man and over everything a man who loved his wives and life, he had thought the contrary because it was his favourite food, but it all just tasted like ash to him.

"Hey, you," he called. They all sat tense around him, except for the boar boy who carelessly devoured the food. At his sudden words, they trembled. "Not you, Himejima's girl."

From in between the four of them she was the only one to look up slowly, with a tranquility he had only seen worn by Oyakata-sama. A look to her shoulders and he recognized the patterns on the cloth of the haori, he had to confess he felt jealous because of the special attention, and for a moment he was seven again, looking for the attention of his father. stolen by another brother or sister that was just better than him at standing poisons.

"Is your mum single?"

In the long minute that followed that question the boar boy moved to her lap and started taking the girl's food in messy fistfuls. Regarding her, the only thing she did was look at him with wide open eyes.