~BRAVE~ (Tanjiro X Reader)

Season 2- Butterfly rings

"Shut up Tanjiro! This isn't your conversation!" Zenitsu yelled to the peachy boy. "At least I'm not Inosuke. I'm smart! Probably smarter than you." He began walking in between Tanjiro and I.

Tanjiro lowered his head. I could smell it. A storm was coming from Tanjiro. It wasn't like he was upset or anything. He was getting annoyed.

Further behind I could hear a distant "WHAT?" from Inosuke.

"At least I don't -" Zenitsu started, but before he could finish, Tanjiro had grabbed Zenitsu by the collar and dragged him ahead of me. I sighed in disdain. Zenitsu should've figured it out by now that I was not a morning person.

"We're gonna have a little chat." He said with a smile. If it wasn't the tone of his voice, it was the smile that sent chills down my spine. He turned back to me a few seconds after and mouthed the words 'I will talk to you later.'

Oh, my gods. I was gonna die.

🌸

After a few scoldings and a couple of 'How are we supposed to work together if you can't be nice to each other?''s, we finally got to the butterfly estate during the lunch hour.

Aoi was yet again, putting up wet sheets to dry. I flinched a bit when we made eye contact. Remembering our last visit. But I stood up tall with my hands confidently putting my hair up.

"Ah good. You're here. Shinobu is in her study. Go there right away for your mission debriefing." She spoke coldly. Besides that one look at me, she turned away and talked while not even bothering to glance any further.

Tanjiro nodded in acceptance and took hold of my hand, leading the group to Shinobu's study. His free hand reached to open the door, but the door opened before he could even touch it. Whacking him in the face.

I patted his head softly in worry while Shinobu apologized with a smile. "My my. Seems that I've already got you in trouble before the mission even started! Here, let me take a look at that for you." He held onto the spot on his head in surprise. I doubt his head had even felt it. But I was sure his nose did.

Zenitsu covered his mouth to prevent laughter from coming out while Inosuke laughed aloud. "I thought you could smell her coming! What happened to your keen sense of smell Tanjiro?" Zenitsu teased.

"It was through the door. Plus, her scent is everywhere here! She lives here after all." He barked back. I smiled lightly at the boy's bickering but noticed something shiny.

The jewelry reflected the sun's rays from the window into my eye but it wasn't blinding. "Shinobu...Is that..?" I couldn't finish my sentence. It was a diamond ring. "Who gave that to you?" I asked smugly. My arms crossed as my body leaned onto the door frame.

Her hands flew from observing Tanjiro's pained face to her cheeks in delight. "Giyuu of course. I didn't know he had it in him!" She gushed.

"He proposed in the most boring way though." A new voice entered the conversation and I jumped in excitement towards the girl. She tumbled backward in surprise by my sudden hug and couldn't help but smile.

"Kanao! Back from your mission already?" I yelled excitedly, grabbing the girl by both hands eagerly with a smile.

After our last encounter, she had gained some points. But with Aoi here as well, she might tell me how better Kanao was compared to me. I was not looking forward to it. I grimaced slightly but put up my facade.

Kanao gave me a sweet smile and a small nod.

"Well that's not all that we are here about." Shinobu interrupted our exchange and coughed to grab our attention. "All of us have been assigned the same mission. Care to come inside for a briefing?" Her hand swung to the side like she was showcasing the door at an auction.

We all subtly walked into her study. I noticed Inosuke's eyes skimming over the place. He suddenly nodded in approval. I could see why. This place was a pigsty.

"You've all been busy and so have I. So I had only heard of this yesterday." She handed us each a paper. It was a newspaper in the south.

October 12th, XXXX 'Ocean dried up!'

My eyes widened at this title. "You don't think it's true...Do you? A whole ocean dried up? No normal demon has the ability....to...." No normal demon... Isn't that the type of demon we had been fighting to find for the past few weeks?

"I see you're catching on. Yes, we suspect that it might be the entities you've talked about. You mentioned that they had the capability to teleport. So they might as well suck up a whole ocean right?" She smiled. She paced around the room, continuing her talk. "It was originally assigned to just me so I got to thinking." her hand turned into a fist as she placed it in her other hand. As if she had an epiphany. "I know a squad who had an audience with these demons. Surely they have experience dealing with them, right?"

I looked between the boys and lowered my head. "Yes...But whenever we get them, they slip out of our grasp. They killed themselves to get away!" My hands started to tighten into fists on my lap. Out of all of the deaths I had seen, those were the most gruesome.

"But you've seen them. You know how they act. How they do things. You watch for those kinds of things don't you?" Shinobu had played this game with me before. Using my skills against me like this in a quarrel of words.

"Yes, but because of all of the transferrings they do between bodies, it's hard to know what kind of person I'm looking for. They act like regular humans even though it's clear they're not." I sighed in frustration and disappointment in myself. If I had Zenitsu's eyes or maybe Tanjiros smell, I could tell. But instead, I just study demon behavior.

"Then you need to expand your vision." Inosuke jumped out into the conversation out of nowhere. This time he sounded like a normal person.

Tanjiro looked at Inosuke only to smile and nod. He knew what he was talking about, but I didn't.

"Huh?"

"It's a good thing you're training under him anyway." Tanjiro clapped his hands together and smiled brightly. "He's a master in awareness. I'm sure if you learn to be more aware from him, you might find our culprits!"

"Precisely!" Shinobi squealed. "I suppose this concludes our meeting. We will head out first thing tomorrow morning. You better rest up now while you still can." She smiled the same smile she's had ever since I had met her.

We all stood up to walk out of the room but as we all began to walk, Shinobu spoke up once more. "Oh! One more thing!" Her hands clapped together in cheerfulness. "We have other visitors than just you guys. Be mindful okay?"

"Well yeah, this is like a hospital, isn't it?" Zenitsu asked. Shinobu shook her head and sighed.

"Yes, you're not wrong. But it's not the patients I'm talking about. It's a Hashira."
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Original release date: Dec. 13th 2020