Candles || Kokushibo

🖤37: ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛs🖤

      The sound of water enters Kokushibo's ears as he and his family make their way up the mountain. Douma's hand tightens its grasp on his unused sleeve, his other arm carrying his youngest kid, Mabel. Zenitsu starts to grumble as he swings his arms back and forth, yelling with a hint of rage. Tanjiro hums as he abruptly notices something in the distance. "Oh, there! A waterfall! And there are people!" Both teenagers turn their attention to the people beneath the waterfall and see that they seem to be in agony as the forceful water pours over the top of their bodies. They look in dread and horror, making Kokushibo sigh. Akaza moves slowly and with his brow furrowed toward the people in the water. "Okay, this has to be one of the toughest training sessions we have here". He leans forward with his hands on his hips, staring at the screaming slayers. Some nearly appear to be holding back their shouts as they start to tremble under the strain.

      "If you wipe your thoughts, even fires will become cold." The group spins to discover the stone pillar carrying three large logs on his shoulder, each with a rock attached to each side. The teenage boys scream in shock, unable to understand what he had to do to become that powerful. "Hey guys!" Sumiyoshi shouts from the top of one side of the log, beaming down at the family. Yoriichi is seated on the opposite side clearing the dust particles from the edge of his sword. Senjuro inhales deeply and gasps in surprise as he looks at his brother and uncle who are sitting on the logs that are still perched on the pillars' shoulders. "Were you both here the whole time?" Sumiyoshi leaps off his side, Gyomei hardly moving due to the weight difference, as the adult Kamado approaches the group. His hands are placed on his hips as he grinned broadly. "Mhm! Uncle Yoriichi and I were here waiting for you!" Yoriichi hops from the log and is now standing next to Sumiyoshi, his face painted with a little grin. "But we weren't expecting everyone else." Senjuro chills at his remark and starts to chuckle a little. He rushes up to the older Kamado and envelops him in his arms. Sumiyoshi looks down at the little Rengoku and immediately gives him a hug in return. "It was Brother who said I could go!"

      Yoriichi's maroon eyes flickered between the Kamado and the Rengoku before turning to his right and gazing over farther to see Tanjiro attempting to pick up a Zenitsu who had passed out. "I'm sorry. Zenistu has passed out!" Gyomei pauses for a few seconds, staring in the direction of the two boys, before speaking up. "Dump him in the river." So he did. After a while, it became irritating to hear the yellow-haired man shout, but no one could really order him to 'shut up' since they cared about him too much. However, no one could blame him. Mabel claimed that she could still feel the water's icy temperature even though she wasn't in it. This was remarkable; demons aren't supposed to be able to sense temperature at all, but Mabel could. In addition, she continues to be capable of consuming human food, which is not possible for a demon. Normally, when a demon attempts to consume human food, their systems won't allow them to actually digest it, as tested with both Akaza and Douma, thus they end up vomiting everything back up. How is it that she can? They're hoping to find out soon, thanks to Tanjiro's message to a specific female demon.

      Tanjiro labored with the training itself. The waterfall's pressure was extraordinarily high, which worried several members of the family immensely. He confessed that there had been brief moments when he wasn't sure he could go on, but after taking one look at his big family, he realized he couldn't give up. He adores them so much that he is willing to go to any length for them. Even though lugging logs was challenging, he was relieved to have made progress on his goal. He froze just as he was going to force himself to push the massive boulder. "Tanjiro, come take a break!" The kid smiled when he recognized Douma as he spoke shakily and with a slight anxious smile.

      While the Kamado was alright with resting for a while, he despised the sounds of screaming that came out of nowhere. He suddenly ran to a clearing where everyone was as panic overtook him. Tanjiro observes Kyojuro and Sumiyoshi laughing as the other slayers—that is, everyone except Murata—back away from the three demons. Mabel attempts to make Koinatsu feel better by hugging her arm while she sits with an uncomfortable expression on her lovely face. Senjuro sighs in the direction of his brother as he stands close by with his arms crossed and a single droplet of sweat running down his face. Tanjiro sees Murata waving him over, and despite his uneasy feeling, he approaches. "What's happening?" The young Kamado sits next Yoriichi on the dirt, causing the adult to rest his hand on the teen's shoulder. Murata places a cup of tea in front of him. "Everyone is terrified of your dad and brothers." He informs, turning his gaze to the three demons sitting beside them, one of them is on the brink of crying due to the unwelcome attention he has been receiving. "I thought they already knew of them. A lot of them were training with me with the previous pillars." He scratches the back of his neck, suddenly recognizing Yoriichi, and grins at him.

      Kokushibo's six eyes well up with tears at the sight of his wild family. He was seen as being very serious and mature. He may still be mature, but how can he not be delighted while he is around his loved ones? Therefore, when he begins to cry quietly at the image of his sons and daughters smiling, everyone becomes alarmed. They were calmed by the grin that adorned his face, but he was unable to quiet his racing heart. He may find the idea a little over the top, but one day he and his two sons and two daughters will all be humans once more. They will all be able to stroll together as a family in the warm sun, which is just what Kokushibo has always desired. He wishes he could feel the warm air, since not feeling anything right now hurts a lot more than he would want. He hopes the demon to whom Tanjiro addressed the letter is aware of the curse mark; however, dying with his family at twenty-five may not seem so horrible, but his family is still young. Maybe if they were older or if he had known them for a longer period of time, but not right now.

He isn't prepared to let them go yet.

🖤Secrets/Extras🖤

~When Yoriichi and Koinatsu first met, he lit her candle without actually bringing her to her subconscious house. When he suddenly appeared in front of her (since he's so fast), she screamed and spilled her tea all over her kimono.

~Murata met Kokushibo and Akaza before the training started, but that was his first time meeting Douma.

~Sumiyoshi wanted to join the training, so he did. He already was having training before the pillar training happened, but he wanted to improve even though not many people can actually see him. He's now almost as fast as Shinobu.

~~Yoriichi joined him too, but he passed with flying colors because he's basically OP.

~~~Yoriichi always waited for Sumiyoshi, though, so it's okay!

~Kyojuro did, in fact, allow Senjuro to come with him, but it was because Shinjuro was insulting Senjuro. Kyojuro didn't want his mental health to decrease, so he brought him without actually telling their father.

~~Senjuro's mental health used to be terrible before he met the big Tsugikuni family.

~~~Shinjuro panicked when he couldn't find Senjuro anywhere in the house. He asked Kagaya where his kids were. Shinjuro was not happy when he was told that they were with Kokushibo and the others.

~Inosuke has calmed down slightly since he met Kokushibo and Akaza. He can hold his anger back a little better and he can now read and write. 

~Because Mabel is able to do these things that are considered impossible for demons, Tanjiro told everyone about Lady Tamayo, and Yoriichi perked up. Yoriichi didn't know what to say when Kokushibo had that look in his eyes

~~"No, brother, you can't adopt Tamayo."

~~"I don't see a problem with doing so."

~~"She's older than you."

~~"That won't stop me."

~~~Tanjiro not only wrote in a letter about Mabel, but he wrote about his family as well. Everyone's wondering what her reaction will be when she figures out that she got surprise adopted.

~Muzan got three more demons to replace Kokushibo, Akaza, and Douma.

~~Two of them are related to Mabel

~One of Author-chan's readers asked about a ship for Mabel and she just might have one later on!

~~Can you guess who he is?