Stone Cold | Tanjirou Kamado (old version)

1. Crow's Call

The wind on the rice fields was very different from the mountain's where Ayaka had spent her training to become a demon slayer. It didn't  resemble the one where the Final Selection took place either. It was soothing, somehow, and Ayaka gazed while walking in peace the workers from the fields, who were patiently collecting the harvest of that year.

She wondered if the harvest had been good, if families would be able to fill in their stomachs that winter with the money they'd get from selling the rice on the market, or if they would suffer from hunger and the cold.

Everything would be decided according to the efforts the farmers had put on their work throughout the year.

Thinking about it was nostalgic, and she nearly felt sadness remembering her childhood surrounded by rice fields, just like these ones. Nearly. 

She wouldn't miss having to suffer through nonstop hours of Sun to take care of the fields, collapsing because she couldn't take it longer, her body didn't stand it. She wouldn't miss the constant horror that plagued her heart on the harvest season either. Every year she feared they would deteriorate because of the weather or some plague, spoiling all the hard work her family had poured onto such a hard labor. 

Even if Ayaka Iwamoto was a demon slayer, she considered that work too much for her. 

She couldn't stand the children her age from her village, either way.

So there was no remorse when Himejima-shishou, her current master and Stone Pillar, offered her to become his disciple and successor, and she accepted. 

A few years had gone by since then, and Ayaka was now a newly proclaimed demon slayer. She had passed the trial and received her uniform and nichirin sword (which had acquired great gray, symbol of her abilities as a user of the Breath of Stone).

Having spent so much time on the mountain, training with Himejima-shishou, she had forgotten completely about how the rice fields where she had been borned and raised felt like. Even the face of her parents had started to be seen blurry. 

But she didn't need them, she was a demon slayer destined to become the next Stone Pillar. Although she promised herself to visit them when she finished her first mission (if she came out alive, which was very likely). After all, she had promised to visit them when her training finished, but her kasugai crow had proclaimed out loud her first mission too fast to do that. 

She exhaled a sigh filled in with frustration when her kasugai crow, for the sixteenth time that afternoon, yelled her mission to her ear.

"Ayaka Iwamoto!", he cried out in a shrill voice. "Head over to the city on the northwest and join Tanjirou Kamado! Quickly, quickly!" He let out a caw when his owner threw a stone at him, nearly not being able to escape. 

"I know that, stupid bird!", Ayaka yelled with a clear tinge of irritation. "Shut your beak already!"

The mission had put her in a bad mood, not only because she had been paired with another demon slayer she would have to put up with during the mission, her crow had been non stop yelling all the way. She wasn't the most patient individual.

Without wanting to, the loud fight against her crow attracted the attention of the nearby farmers. They looked up from their chores to stare in curiosity towards the demon slayer, who continued to yell at her crow.

Realizing the weight of their stares, she stopped fighting with her crow to fix her gaze onto them. 

"And what the hell are you looking at!?", she exclaimed in fury.

The farmers nervously went back to their tasks, silence engulfing the scene yet again.

Ayaka huffed, going back to her prior calmness and returning to her path towards the city.