Blossoming Fissure | Tanjirou Kamado

29. Tale of the Master

"Girls are crazy!" is what Zenitsu screamed while arriving at the first reunion on the roofs of Tanjirou's team. "Bugs, bugs everywhere! And just when I thought they had disappeared, only more came! There was no way to get rid of them, no way! I could hear the cicadas' cries at night! Even their eggs sing, their goddamn eggs underground sing! What kind of cicadas are those!? I haven't been able to sleep for weeks! Weeks, I'm telling you!"

He incessantly scratched himself while talking, as if the sequels of the last wave of insects, the fleas, were still with him. Certainly they were still with Nezuko, who had attracted the most fleas and was covered in bites, and Tanjirou, too, as he had been by her side.

"The worst is the smell," Tanjirou butted in then, inadvertently touching his own nose. "Spiders already smell like vinegar, but this time there were so many I couldn't stand it."

He shivered at the thought as Inosuke stepped up and exclaimed:

"None of that compares to how much the fleas' bites hurt! Do you know how it feels to be bitten in my marvelous skin!? Despite the fact that they are small, those damn bugs didn't leave me alone no matter what I did!"

Instantly, a chorus of chuckles came from above them.

Aya, Kanao, Aoi and Kaede were all perched on the upper part of the ceiling, and their playful smiles said it all.

"How is your search for the demon going!?" Aoi started, brushing away her pigtails with a gesture that showed too much amusement for a single hand.

"We've already reduced the candidates to a handful of girls! I'm sure you are on par, aren't you, Pillar!?" Kaede continued, and her sharp gaze fixed on the huge form that had just appeared behind their backs.

"Uzui-san, weren't you a god!? Say something!" Zenitsu, who had never recognized that self imposed title until he had needed it, pointed with a finger at the girls.

The Pillar remained silent, not even the long stare he shared with Kaede, whose eyes only showed victory, made him utter a single word.

"This is incredible, then I'll do it myself!" Zenitsu, Pillar lacking, exclaimed at the top of his lungs. "You're not even that pretty, you hellish women!"

They only replied by breaking out into chuckles once more.

"Come on, Kanao, just like we practiced," Aya urged, elbowing the girl's stomach.

She turned completely red and played with her kimono, sweating as she yelled with a muffled voice, "F... fuck you! We're gonna kick your asses!"

"Say that to my face you shitty butterfly!" Smoke came out of Inosuke's ears when Tanjirou had to stop him by force from jumping to Kanao and starting a battle against someone he could not win against.

He didn't even want to think about it, Kanao would knock him out with a kick so fast that Inosuke wouldn't even have time to move his jaw to avoid getting it broken.

"Don't worry, in a week or so we will have defeated the demon so we can all go home! Rest now and leave everything to us!" It was significantly harder not to blush when Aya winked, but Tanjirou tried (and wanted to think that he did succeed) until Aya turned around and exclaimed on his direction. "See you later!"

To anyone else, it would only be an attempt to get a rise out of him (it was for Zenitsu, who started screaming like crazy and this time it was Inosuke who had to hold him so he didn't jump at the girls) but it has the opposite effect on Tanjirou, who was becoming increasingly familiar with feeling warm and fuzzy because he would, truly, see Aya later.

The moment the girls disappeared from their sight, only leaving mocking chuckles behind, Uzui's expression changed completely:

"And what did you guys find out, huh!? Useless, they made us bite the dust with those stupid bugs and we haven't even been able to defend our pride! What kind of team did I make with you guys!?" Tanjirou told him about Suma and the girls that 'lost her footing', but Uzui hit all three of them on the head and kept screaming. "That's not enough! I want you to go back to your houses and find out who the demon is, for fuck's sake, they're gonna win!"