Stone Cold | Tanjirou Kamado (old version)

12. Burning determination

"Stay here."

Those were the last words Ayaka told Zenitsu, and as the mountain's forest became darker as she, Inosuke and Tanjirou went deeper, a small worried frown couldn't help but appear on her face.

They had left behind him like it was nothing, like a crumpled paper on the floor one shouldn't look at twice.

She wasn't hoping Zenitsu would go in voluntarily, but he was under her care just as much as Tanjirou and Inosuke were, at least on the back of her mind like a constant reminder that all of them were weaker than her and as such it was her duty to protect them, and that was okay because she could do it and on her would that burden fall, so what had at first been a fleeting thought, Zenitsu going in, alone and helpless into the Natagumo Mountain, then being harmed because she wasn't there to protect him, was starting to slowly her mind.

«He'll be okay», she had thought at the start, avidly brushing away the many spiders that fell on her shoulders like orange leaves in plain autumn.

«Unless he goes into the mountain nothing will happen, and there's no way he will», she thought later, trying to push down the anxiety bubbling on her chest. «The demons won't go down the mountain.»

She unconsciously bit her lips, with the still present frown, dodging a branch she was close to crashing against for being so distracted.

"Wake up already, Yana Kamishiro! You're gonna end up dead!" Inosuke yelled, fed up, when Ayaka crashed against his back for the fourth time since they had gone into the forest.

She blinked, getting rid of her thoughts.

"Ah, sorry, Inosuke, I've just been thinking about what that guy said," Ayaka tried to excuse herself, vaguely waving his hand to dismiss the thought. "Before he was sent flying, you know, that weird, incident, haven't you thought about what he meant?"

"They have us tied up."

What the hell did that mean? That they were in danger because of the demon's strength? That it had hostages?

She would have wished him to say more, but it wasn't like she could ask him, he was probably dead by now. Ayaka had prayed for his soul, just in case he had no one to do so and for him to rest in peace in the afterlife.

However it was, she wouldn't let the effort he had put into trying to get out of that mountain to be in vain, she wouldn't allow it.

"I don't think!" Inosuke answered cunning, showing off his chest in a way similar to how chickens showed off their feathers.

"You're impossible," Ayaka muttered to herself.

Something she had noticed about him was how pride appeared to course through his veins, every gesture or movement Inosuke made was soaked on arrogance. It was just like seeing her grandmother, just... more exaggerated and energetic.

As her grandmother's ego was cold and elegant, that didn't need to say anything to make clear she considered herself better than anyone else, Inosuke's was the kind to be explosive and sizzling, that he threw at your face and made burst in flames with every word that came out of his mouth.

But who was she to judge them? She wasn't the most humble nor the most collected.

"What about you?" Ayaka asked, turning around to face Tanjirou. "I'm sure you must have noticed something with that sharp nose of yours. Just by looking at you I can tell there's something on your mind."

Tanjirou looked at her, slightly opened his mouth to say the thoughts imprisoned against that thick forehead of his, and then suddenly closed it, acquiring a frown and fixing his gaze somewhere else.