Keeping Up with the Demon Kamado Family

a family waiting on a mountain of training (part 5)

Goodbye for Now

After so many days of trying to ask for remedies on how to fix his family's situation, Tanjiro was tired.

He was also tired from all the fighting and killing of the demons inside the wisteria tree area. But he was so glad that he bested the demon who had killed Urokodaki's past students including Sabito and Makomo.

Their help training him to slice that huge stone was otherworldly. Yet he didn't know until the demon started bragging about their deaths that they were ghosts. Maybe that's why Urokodaki gave him that strange choked noise when he brought up their names before he left.

Either way, now their souls are at rest along with the past disciples that suffered the same fate.

Now he was finally done with the exams. He had his crow assigned to him and picked out a stone that would be made into his future sword. And Tanjiro was focused on his journey home, carrying his broken mask back with him. Maybe he can sew it back by sticking some holes in it and tying it with thread.

Urokodaki-Sensei will know what to do with his mask when he gets back.

Tanjiro followed his way back to the safety of the house where all of his family was waiting under his teacher/pseudo strict grandfather's care.

No matter what Urokodaki said he had already been adopted into the family despite his protests. As soon as Rokuta started importing hope to him, he was already absorbed into the family circle wherever he noticed or not.

When Rokuta showed that he trusted him, his younger siblings started to follow him more. And then his mother made the final decision by treating him as a pseudo elderly parent by the small step of placing more protein on his plate. He had only seen that when his mother ventured down to the town and help the elderly when she could. The same kind of kindness radiated through her new snake-like pupils.

He can remember how many times he held back on his laughter when his family's pupils would widen then sharpen in focus whenever Urokodaki begrudgingly accepted the new food on his plate or offered more small gifts to them.

He allowed himself to laugh out loud when he thought back to Takeo's expression when Urokodaki had chopped up wood and started to show him how to carve it into a wind chime.

The journey was long. Many times he had to dig into his rations to fend off his growling stomach craving his mother's meals.

The amount of relief he felt when he approached the familiar mountain was enough to fill his legs with energy again to start running towards his destination.

As he got closer, he saw that blue and white, cloud pattern belonging to the old man sweeping the path. His grin widened as he spotted that angry red mask look up at him.

"Urokodaki-Sensei! I made it!" Tanjiro yelled out, continuing to run towards the older man that paused in his sweeping. "I'm a demon slayer!"

Urokodaki dropped the broom to grab Tanjiro in a hurried embrace. "Well done. I am very proud of you."

Something in his teacher's response and the way his grip tightened around his shoulders made him choked up. Tanjiro pulled back to look at his teacher's face.

"I defeated the demon who took the lives of Sabito, Makomo and the others." Urokodaki's grip loosened at his words. "Their souls can rest now."