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Her voice was a high pitched whine- most would've been annoyed with her by now but Tanjiro grew up with siblings and her complaints about being lonely didn't bother him at all!
“It's so boring without you around! Hell I even miss the stupid boar! She's actually pretty fun to talk to when she's not yelling..” She pouted and tried to pull his arm to go somewhere, but his feet stayed planted
“Ah..sorry Zenko-san! Maybe if you hurry up and get well soon we can all train together!” Tanjuro smiled at her
“Wahh! I don't wanna train! I wanna get married and live the rest of my days being taken care of!” Zenko cried
Gekka walked over to them and Tanjiro seemed to sense her before she said anything
“Tomioka-san!” He smiled at her as he turned to the older girl “I'm surprised you came to visit!
“Just coming to get something from Kocho.” She said softly
Zenko gawked at her “How cruel! Are all the female demon slayers attractive and cute?! How cruel! How cruel!” She whined
Tanjiro chuckled and tried to calm her down “You're pretty too Zenko-san!” he wasn't lying, Tanjiro thought that she's very pretty!
“Liar! Repent Lair!” She pulled his hair, despite that, he just smiled and laughed
Gekka let out a small huff of air, almost a laugh as she watched the two. It was almost..endearing how he seemed to be able to smile and laugh so freely at everything.
Zenko eventually calmed down and Tanjiro sent her on her way with a pat on the head. Tanjiro followed Gekka to see Shinobu then insisted that they sit and talk while he still had some free time.
“...do you like her?” Gekka asked, “The yellow haired one.” She looked over at Tanjiro, her eyes curious
“Huh?”
“She seems very attached to you, perhaps she likes you.”
“T-tomioka-san! Please let's change the subject” His face was all red, how cute.
“Hnm.” She hummed
He seemed to calm himself down a bit before looking back at Gekka “You know..even back when I first met you.. you've always smelt a bit motherly to me.” He said
“Smelt motherly? What does that even mean?” She sighed
“I have a very sensitive sense of smell! You smell like sweet ocean water and Gardenia flowers!”
Gardenia? She did bathe with scented oils- an old habit from the Red Light District.
“Interesting.” She said simply
“Do you have kids Tomioka-san?”
Her eyes widened a bit- okay- how could he possibly smell that-?
“I can smell a lingering scent on you- Freesia flowers as well as honeysuckle! No-one here at the Butterfly Estate smells like that!”
“...she's eight.” She mumbled “she likes to run around in the garden.”
He beamed at her “May I meet her!”
“She's sick right now. Maybe later.” She stood up “I should go, she needs her medicine. Goodbye Kamado” she began walking away
“Oh..I hope she feels better soon! Goodbye Tomioka-san!” He waved goodbye
Tanjiro watched Gekka leave before standing to walk back to training. He got to thinking- did Zenko like him..? No- that couldn't be possible. Zenko was like that with everyone.
During the storm, they had gotten their new uniforms. Tanjiro’s had stayed the same- the same standard male uniform.
Inoko’s had a dark blue version of the demon slayer uniform- her skirt reached her ankles and had two slits on either side that showed off her well defined thighs it made better for agility, the bottom had a dark brown fur of some kind- he was pretty sure the fur lined the inside of the skirt as well. Zenko had convinced her to actually wear a top- but that stupid perverted kakushi had made the top like Kanroji-san’s. Inoko didn't seem to care but Tanjiro would have to give that man a piece of his mind later.
Zenko turned around and let out a cry.
“That perverted man! He took my white bodysuit!” She covered her chest and threw herself onto the bed, kicking her feet
“Oh shut up! Yer’ a woman! You need to show off yer’ womanly charm!” Inoko puffed out her chest with a smirk
“Shut up!” Zenko raised her head to yell at her before hiding her face again. Tanjiro stood and walked over rubbing Zenko's back
“Don't worry Zenko-san, I'll go get it for you!” He smiled but Zenko could hear the underlying anger..was he mad at her..?
Tanjiro left the room and found the Kakushi shortly after he left..
He smiled at Zenko as she spun around in the mirror. He totally hadn't done anything irrational to the Kakushi. He had found the bodysuit in the laundry room- it was white cotton. It was a short sleeve turtleneck with shorts. It had lace trimming around the collar. It smelled like the laundry soap that they used in the butterfly mansion, but it still smelled like Zenko- peaches and lightning residue.
Her uniform had the same open top and short skirt as Kanroji, it was a dark brownish-yellow color and she wore her haori over it. She turned to face him with a smile
“Thank you Tanjiro!” She clasped her hands together
“It was nothing!” Tanjiro perked up “I was happy to get if for you”
Zenko's scent got sweeter and she threw herself onto him, hugging him tightly. Tanjiro hugged her back, his face got hot and for some reason his pants got tight.
He was the oldest son! He shouldn't be acting like this!
Zenko ran off saying something about going to see Inoko and Aoi in the kitchen. Tanjiro waved goodbye to her before looking down at himself in embarrassed shame.
‘how shameful…I shouldn't think this way about Zenko-san..’ he blushed and waddled his way to the bathroom to take care of the problem despite not..exactly knowing what to do with it. He's sure he could figure it out.
Kaida-san was so amazing..she took on that upper moon all by herself and survived. Zenko thought it was a shame that her beautiful face was defiled by the vile thing's attacks.
She wasn't trying to be nosey, she was just trying to bring Kaida something to snack on when she'd overheard the conversation.
“My father decided to marry me off to some man he found for me.” Kaida spoke softly
“Oh.” Gekka managed to say after a while “Have you met him yet?”
“No,” Kaida shook her head. “I've.. actually been avoiding going home, insisting to Kocho that I'm still too injured to leave.” Her voice cracked slightly. “I feel horrible for lying but I can't bring myself to face father after losing the way I did.”
“Kaida..”
“Going to him looking like this would mean everything that he said about me is true. That I'm nothing more than a weak woman.”
“You're not weak.” Gekka's voice was suddenly sharp “Surviving upper moon 3 is more than enough proof that you're anything but weak. If anyone was deserving of the title Flame Hashira, it was you.” Her tone was uncharacteristically intense, but Zenko could hear the truth in her words
“You're words…they make me happy.” Kaida’s voice was full of sadness. "But my heart belongs to another and I fear what my father would say..”
“..if I may ask? Who?”
“You'd find it repulsive..but I've found myself in love with Uzui-san.”
“Ah.. you're right. I do find it repulsive.” Gekka laughed- light and airy. Zenko blushed, her laughter was so feminine and cute. How unfair.
Kaida laughed as well- not her usual bellowing laugh, but a soft laugh. “I'm not sure he feels the same. I'm not very feminine looking—” What a lie. Zenko thought that Kaida was very beautiful, her eyebrows were thin and forked, unlike Zenko's own bushy and forked eyebrows, her lips were plump and usually tinted with a light red color, her hair was a curly texture, so unlikely for a Japanese woman! It made her even more beautiful! Zenko wondered why such a woman even became a demon slayer in the first place! She must've had tons of men falling at her feet! “—I’m not the ideal woman.”
“I believe that you're beautiful, Uzui-san would be a fool to think otherwise.”
“You're too kind.”
“Hmm, not everyone believes so.”
Zenko had run off before Gekka left so that she wouldn't be caught eavesdropping, she walked back into the room after a short while and sat by Kaida while she ate, even complementing her looks- it annoyed Zenko when women thought so lowly of themselves, especially if they were beautiful. It seemed to brighten the sad sound coming from Kaida's heart and made Zenko happy as well.