☆.｡.:* Maybe Nezuko isn't the only demon out there that didn't eat humans, Tanjiro thought, There are more!
"Sorry for... you know, swinging my sword at you," Tanjiro apologized.
She merely huffed, not fully understanding what he said, but understanding the tone of his voice, and dragged Nezuko beside her, sat in her lap, and played with her hands. She was still upset about sharing her bread.
"Um..." Tanjiro continued, wondering if she was listening, "I-I'm Kamado Tanjiro, what about you?"
She traced Nezuko's small hand with her even smaller finger. It amused her that she was smaller than Nezuko, who was already pretty small, as she was currently the size of the average child. That meant she, the smaller one, was cuter, and therefore better!
Then, she paused, thinking about Tanjiro's question. Again, she didn't fully understand what he said but still understood what he meant. Who was she? What was her name?
"Arata," She replied, surprisingly fluently.
"'Arata?' Doesn't that mean 'fresh'? And... isn't that a male's name?"
She nodded, continuing to play with Nezuko's hand. She only briefly overheard it in a conversation while she was sneaking up to the street vendor to steal some bread.
"So... Arata," Tanjiro started to say.
But, Arata never got to know what he wanted to say because, at that moment, the sun started to come up. Its light spilled all over the town in shades of orange, decorated and laced with red, pink, purple, and blue.
Tanjiro's face went pale. He had completely forgotten, over the discovery of someone else like Nezuko.
Arata had only been alive, creating memories and feelings, for a few hours, and she still felt the greatest fear when the sun was rising. Undescribable fear as the light spread towards them - towards her. There wasn't a fight or flight response, it was just flight, everything was screaming to run. To survive.
"N-Nezuko!" Tanjiro yelled, hoarsely, mentally beating himself up painfully over the fact that he could have possibly forgotten something this important.
He swiftly took off the box on his back, and stuffed Nezuko into it, though she was already moving quickly herself.
Tanjiro looked up, and called, "Arata! Do you think you can fit-"
But she was gone. There was no hide nor hair of her. It was like as if she had never existed.
"Wh-What?"
Was that all my imagination? Was I really hallucinating?
Tanjiro's heart was pounding. He hadn't slept for days, after all. It wasn't too far-fetched.
