Unforgiving World (Tanjiro x OC)

Chapter 3

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About half a day had passed since Amaya and Tanjiro had faced the two demons in Tokyo, the sun now straight above their heads and shining brightly. Birds were flying around them, chirping happily as they soared through the sky. Unfortunately, that meant Tanjiro's crow was one of those birds, and he wouldn't keep that beak of his closed for even a second. Amaya was just about ready to snap, she had only had her peace and quiet of that day for no less than half an hour, since Tanjiro was clearly very interested in Amaya. As soon as they left Lady Tamayo's house, there was a silence for a few minutes until Tanjiro decided it was a good time to speak up.

"Katsumi-san... Can I ask you a few questions?" asked Tanjiro sweetly, his smile still plastered on his face as he jogged up besides Amaya and bent down to get a look of her face. Amaya only spared him a side-glance, letting out a breath before letting her eyes travel back to in front of her. "Only if you stop being so formal. The '-san' annoys me", muttered the girl, to which Tanjiro nodded his head and smiled. "I'll call you Amaya then!" cheered the boy. Amaya inwardly groaned at the use of her first name already, but she didn't correct him since she was way too exhausted for that.

That's when the questions began. Tanjiro seemed to be a bit too excited to get to know the girl beside him, the questions seemingly never coming to an end. She responded to them shortly and curtly, she never even asked a question in return. She just stared ahead as she listened to Tanjiro's babbling. Don't get her wrong, she knew he meant no harm and was trying to be friendly, she could feel that much, but it annoyed her to no end. She liked silence, and because Tanjiro was disturbing it so incredibly, she couldn't help but feel frustration bubble up inside of her.

"How old are you?"

"15."

"Hey, we're the same age! Where are you from?"

"I live with the hashira's."

"Ooh, so were you born there?"

"No."

"Do you have any siblings too?"

Amaya stiffened up and sharply glared at Tanjiro at that question, stopping in her tracks and forcing Tanjiro to stop alongside her. She pointed a finger in his face, her eyebrows furrowed closely together and a snarl appeared on her pink lips. "Stop it with the questions. I like things quiet, got it? So stop talking and don't ask anymore questions", growled the girl before stomping off in front of Tanjiro. The boy stood still for a little while longer, immediately understanding that he overstepped one of Amaya's boundaries. He couldn't help but frown as he started following after her again, but obeyed to her orders nonetheless.

He felt kinda bad now. Amaya obviously didn't want to associate with him, yet they were forced to travel together and to top it all off, he hadn't kept quiet like she preferred. He didn't mean to overwhelm her, so he just kept quiet and let Amaya take the lead while he was left alone with his thoughts. Siblings, huh? She seemed to not want to talk about family whatsoever, so Tanjiro assumed that they either didn't have a good relationship or she didn't have anything to do with them at all. He couldn't help but get curious, but did find the sudden silence quite comforting if he was honest with himself. He understood why Amaya preferred it that way.

That was all until about half an hour later, his crow flew past their heads and began shouting at them to go faster. The bird hadn't stopped screeching, and Tanjiro quickly got worried at the way Amaya's shoulders started to shake in what seemed to be anger. Suddenly, the girl bent down and picked up a stray rock, chucking it straight at the bird who only narrowly dodged it. "Can you shut your trap for two seconds?! We get it okay! We got the damn message!" shouted the girl, her fists balled up on each of her sides. Tanjiro slowly stepped towards Amaya, reaching to place a hand on her shoulder as he started sweating profusely. "A-Amaya.. Let's calm dow-"