𝐘𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐒 ❖ KIMETSU NO YAIBA

6. FISH BONES

Inosuke happily gobbled up the fish that Mieko had caught.

With the crows nowhere to be seen, it looked like Inosuke had forgotten about Mieko's crow. Infact, he had just downed his 5th fish, but Mieko hadn't fully cooked that one nor did she take the bones out.

"I-!" Mieko reached out, trying to stop him, but with one large gulp, Inosuke swallowed the fish and  tried to reach out for another one, expect that one wasn't even near the fireplace, and it was so raw, it was still wriggling. "Stop! They aren't cooked yet!"

"So?" Inosuke tried to reach for it again, but Mieko slapped his hand away. Is this what childcare was like?

"So, you'll get sick if you eat them like this. And you'll get a stitch if you eat too fast." Mieko explained as she skewered the fish and place it over the fire with the other three fish. "By the way, my name is Mieko Tomoe."

"Mai Toenail."

Mieko froze, and stared at this guy with wide eyes. No way, literally no way. Now, Mieko knew she was never the smartest of the bunch, con of being taught how to read and write at such a late age, and she was never the brightest either, but...seriously now, come one.

"Mieko....Tomoe."

"Rika Tokkiemonpo."

Mieko felt like she just had a stroke. Maybe she was having a stroke for this idiot in front of her. "Is that mask a little stuffy in there? Are you getting enough oxygen."

"What's oxygen?" Inosuke scratched his back.

Mieko went through 5 years of deadass intense training, all for it to amount up to this very moment right in front of her. Her life had lead up to this very moment, and what was it for? Crying on the inside slightly, and maybe screaming too, Mieko nodded her head.

"It might to easier to eat if you take the mask off." And maybe he'll grow a few braincells aswell.

"Do I get these fish then?" Inosuke pointed right above the fish, his hand a little too close to the fire.

Mieko nodded her head, feeling like a mother trying to get her child to survive the zero survival instincts phase. "Yes, you can have these fish."
Mieko grabbed his wrist and pushed it back towards him to avoid his hand being burnt.

Giggling, or chuckling, or maybe doing a mix of the two, Inosuke twinkled his fingers and pulled off his boar head and...

"Oh wow..."
Mieko was staring at an angel, maybe. Was this death?

Inosuke had a face sculptured by...by something otherworldly. He had long eyelashes, probably longer than Mieko's and his hair was blue on the ends of his black hair. He had green eyes that were big and rather feminine. 

"Inosuke..." Mieko actually felt a little jealous, if she was being honest. "You're so pretty."
Pretty people deserved to know they were pretty, a rule of life.

Inosuke had just stuffed his face with one of the fishes, fresh off the fire, and still burning hot. He froze for a moment, but Mieko could see the pain slowly rise up in him as his tongue was set on fire.
For the next 3 minutes, Mieko had to try and calm him down and get him to drink some of the cool water.

With Inosuke happily eating away at the food -and the last of the rice Mieko had, there was a rather pungent smell coming from somewhere. At first, Mieko passed it as something from the fishes, but it got worse and worse. And even when she brought the fish to her nose, they were an entirely different smell all together.

So then, Mieko glanced at Inosuke.

From the smell alone, Mieko could only place blame on him. Honestly though, he said he was 'raised' in the mountains, so Mieko wasn't going to think he was some clean and well-mannered boy. Well-mannered was laughed.
But as she got a closer look, her eyes actually started to decay away.

Despite Inosuke having such a pretty face -the asshole had the audacity- there was the undeniable fact that there was flies flying around his head. Small little flies, big old flies. He was dirty, and there was this strange green-ish brown cloud around him.
And don't even get Mieko started on that boar mask, it would be a miracle if you could wash whatever smell was in it out of it

"Um..." How does one exactly tell another that they stink. "Inosuke, do you wanna do something fun?"

His eyes glimmered, and a toothy grin fell over his face. "We should fight!"

"Heh, no." Mieko smiled, but shook her head. "Why don't we...wash our hair?"

"Huh? That doesn't sound very fun." Inosuke looked all bored all of a sudden.
"Okay, well unless you find a way to not smell like feces, hair washing is on." Mieko mutters, leaning on her side slight as she pointed at Inosuke. "I don't think I'm going to be able to breath soon if I keep on using my nose."

Inosuke lifted up his armpit and sniffed. "I don't stink, you stin-"

Mieko was flat out on the ground, dead.

The sheer smell from the moment Inosuke lifted his armpit, and it hit Mieko like nothing before. She was gone. Dead, deceased, no longer living and no longer thriving. Put that on a pen and paper, give me some bass, and I'll write you a song-

Anyway, after Mieko recovered from her death, she managed to convince Inosuke to wash himself after throwing a fish into the water and watching him dive after him. Boy were such simple creatures, honestly.
While the water colour around Inosuke started to change and kill any fish within his vicinity, Mieko stayed true on her part, and found a good ledge to wash her own hair in. She wasn't about to get into the water with this guy, she'd probably stain herself with his stink.

"What's wrong with your hair." Inosuke asked as he chewed off the last of the fish -this time, it was cooked fully and didn't have any bones.

While getting used to Inosuke's lack of manners and considering she had been asked this question a lot in her life, Mieko had thousands of stories or lies or fibs to say to him. There was one where she said she was touched by starlight, another where she grew old and then young but her hair stayed the same, a particular favourite saying she misbehaved a lot when she was young and then was slapped so hard that all the colour had been stricken from her.

"I don't know." But Mieko was too tired to tell Inosuke some kind of wild story like that. "It used to be black when I was younger...I guess it just grew out white."

"My hair isn't gonna go white." Inosuke said proudly, crossing his arms. 

Mieko raised as eyebrow at him and smiled slightly. "Not even when your old?"

"Nuh uh!"

Tashio Era Secret! Yikes Edition;

    +when inosuke took off his boar mask, mieko actually liked him a little less because he was so pretty.