Chapter Text
Tanjiro’s perspective
Location: Mount Fujikasane
“Water Breathing Sixth Form: Whirlpool!” Tanjiro yelled as he twirled around in his spot and spun around, cutting off the heads of 3 Demons that leapt at him from the dark while he was trying to rest. Landing on the ground, the injured boy could help but wince in pain as he landed on his injured leg. Thankfully, the limb wasn’t broken and he could safely travel and fight with it in its current state, but he couldn’t afford much more damage to the limb.
“Alright… there should be some fruit nearby.” The young teen took a moment to breath and clear his head a little before continuing onward and following the scent of fruit his nose picked up a bit away. While he had come prepared with a bit of on hand food, he would prefer to not use them as long as he could so that he could get back to Urokodaki and Nezuko, especially after using up so much of his strength to kill the Hand Demon so early into this exam on his own.
Entering a clearing, Tanjiro couldn’t stop the sigh of relief that escaped from him when he saw that it was filled with sunlight, which meant that a Demon couldn’t get to him from here until it turned night once more and will give him the couple of hours his leg would need to get through the last 2 nights he still needed to survive.
However, as the young teen did so, the potential Demon Slayer momentarily widened his eyes in a bit of surprise as he saw the girl with a coin before everyone that came to the Selection went up the mountain. If he was remembering right despite the blood flowing from his head that he needed to bandage up, Tanjiro also believed that he saw her help another potential Slayer about to be killed by a Demon moments before he showed up and a couple of minutes before his fight with the Hand Demon.
“Hello! Are you looking for some food to scavenge as well?” Tanjiro called out to the girl as he walked over to her, wincing only slightly as his leg flared up in pain but powered through, with the sound of his voice gaining the attention of the girl and allowed Tanjiro to get a proper look of her compared to the passing glance before the climb up the mountain.
Starting off with her actual appearance, she was a girl that stood a few inches smaller than Tanjiro himself. She had large, gentle eyes of a dark lilac colour that were framed by thick eyelashes. She also had thin black hair, worn, and tied into a ponytail on the right side of her head and fastened by a pink and green butterfly ornament. Her hair also has a straight fringe and two loose, chin-length strands that curve downwards from above each of her ears. As for her clothes, the girl was wearing a pink kimono that was similar to Nezuko’s, but lacked any pattern beneath it. There appeared to be a white shirt beneath the kimono and a red sash wrapped around her waist that was being used to hold her currently sheathed katana.
However, while Tanjiro took that time to look over the girl, he had a feeling that her once-over look of him allowed her to note down the details of his appearance a bit faster and in greater detail than his own eyes, this kind of feeling having been something when Sabi and Makomo helped train him and from the past 5 nights on this mountain.
Once she was done looking him over, the girl reached into a pocket on her kimono and pulled out a coin and proceeded to flip it. After looking at the result, she once more returned her gaze to him and spoke.
“Yes. There is plenty of left-over fruits if you do not have food with you.” She told him before walking over to a bush and grabbing a few berries from a decent range of types that Tanjiro was unable to recognise for the most part, though he could easily tell that strawberries seemed to be the most naturally accruing in this clearing.
“Oh, thank you! Can I ask for your name? I’m Tanjiro Kamado by the way.” The eldest child of the Kamado family thanked her before than inquiring and introducing himself, all while having a large smile on his face as he did so. Oddly though, the scent of this girl seemed to shift in a way that he couldn’t understand, but it seemed oddly… familiar? He couldn’t quite place where this type of shift in a person’s scent came from though.
Once more though, the girl ended up flipping her coin and waited to until it landed in the palm of her right hand and quickly covered it with her left. After an odd second where Tanjiro thought he smelled something akin to either nervousness or fear, the silent girl moved her left hand away and seemed to get her result.
“I am Kanao Tsuyuri.” The now named Kanao introduced herself before focusing on getting a few berries once more, with Tanjiro nodding at her with a smile before focusing on getting a few for himself and after a moment, looked up at one of the smaller trees on the mountain that he has seen so far and saw a couple of apples.
Taking in a deep breath to maximise the power of his worn-down body, Tanjiro crouched down for a moment and ran towards the tree nearly reaching the top before the brief burst in physical strength began to wear down. However, before the Kamado would begin to fall to the ground, he pushed his uninjured leg off of the tree he was running up, getting him even closer to the fruit he was trying to reach.
“Water Breathing Second Form: Water Wheel!” Tanjiro yelled out as he spun in the air to perform the technique, shifting his body slightly to cut off the branch with the fruit as they fell to the ground without being destroyed, with the Kamado safely landing, though the sudden pressure on his slightly injured leg once more made him hiss in pain and nearly fall onto his knees. Despite that though, he ignored the pain and picked up the apples that fell down with him and placed them in the pockets of his blue kimono.
“Do you need help for your leg?” He heard Kanao ask him, causing Tanjiro to turn and look at her as she approached him.
“Right now it isn’t too bad, but if you have something to help, I would greatly appreciate.” Tanjiro told her with a smile on his face once more, causing the girl to nod her head.
“Very well. Just lie down by the base of that tree and I can create a makeshift support for your leg from the twigs around here and the bandages that I have access to.” She informed him, causing Tanjiro to nod his head in understanding as he walked over to the base of the tree she pointed to, leaning against it, and stretching out his injured leg so that Kanao knew which one was hurt.
Once he did so, he looked up and saw that said girl was walking around and picking up a few sticks that were lying across that ground and was trying to break them for brief moments, snapping them all in half so far. After a few more were snapped with ease, she looked over at the branch that Tanjiro cut to get the apples that he now had and appeared to get an idea. With that, Kanao walked over to it and after testing the strength of the smaller branches connected to it and seeing that they didn’t snap like the previous ones did, she quickly drew her katana and used it to cut up the branch to gain sturdy and durable sticks. Now having them, she walked over to Tanjiro and after a minute of carefully applying the sticks in the right places, she used some bandages that she had in her pockets to wrap them up carefully to take some pressure off of the leg.
“Thank you Kanao-San!” Tanjiro told her with a smile and bow, briefly walking around for a small bit and found that the new support for his injured leg made moving around less painful. However, the girl gives no verbal response and simply nods at him in acknowledgement before beginning to walk away, causing a little worry to rise in Tanjiro’s chest as he saw this.
“Wait, hold on!” He called out, causing the silent girl to stop walking and look over her shoulder to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
“We only have 2 more days to get through before the Final Selection is over. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to not only stay in this clearing where Demons hiding in shade can’t get to us for now, but work together to better our odds?” Tanjiro asked, wanting to help the girl make it to the end of the test for the help she gave him. Because of this offer, Kanao once more took out the coin she had in her pocket and flipped it, catching it in her palm and looked at the result.
“Very well.” She simply said after taking a moment to look at the coin in her hand and then placing it back into a pocket. With that, a couple of hours passed as Tanjiro asked Kanao a variety of questions, ranging from simple ones about the girl herself such as if she had any likes and dislikes and even inquiring if she had any family members, though she seemed to use her coin to decide if she would answer each question or not, causing the Kamado to decide to ask about it.
“Hey, Kanao, I want to ask something but you can refuse to answer if it is personal. But why is it that you flip that coin before making a decision or answering my questions?” Tanjiro asks her, causing the girl to widen her eyes a little before looking at the coin once more.
“I toss this to decide things for which I haven’t been told what to do by my sisters. For example, Heads would be if I stayed after you presented your idea to work together and Tails meant I wouldn’t. It landed on Heads in that instance, so I chose to stay.” Kanao explained to him, making the Kamado look at her curiously.
“Why can’t you decide for yourself? I mean, I can’t imagine your sisters would be comfortable with you participating in this test from what little you have told me about them.” Tanjiro asked her, with Kanao remaining quiet this time.
“You know, I believe that everything in this world matters. Because of that, I’m willing to bet that the voice in your heart is soft, so while you may follow it from time to time, you mostly listen to instructions, which is important.” The Kamado continued on, taking a moment to think to himself when an idea came to him.
“Oh, I know! Can I borrow your coin for a moment Kanao-San?” He asked her, causing the girl to widen her eyes in surprise, clearly taken by surprise and simply nodding her head as she passed him the coin, with Tanjiro thanking her as he held it in his hand and showed the Heads side to his new friend.
“Okay, I’m going to flip the coin myself to help you. Should it land on heads, from now on, you will try your best to listen to the voice of your heart and live life as you want to!” Tanjiro told her before flipping the coin high into the air, with Kanao gasping in surprise as she looked up at the spinning coin, with Tanjiro standing up and grabbed the coin at it fell down and landed in his palm.
“Yes! Kanao, look! It came up heads!” He told her, showing the startled girl the result as he gave it to her back.
“Now you can try to follow the direction of your heart. I know that yours can blossom into something amazing and I want to be there when you open yourself up!” Tanjiro said happily standing up and reaching into one of his Kimono’s pockets when Kanao suddenly jumped onto her feet, stuttering for a moment before speaking properly.
“H-How did it come up heads!?” The silent girl almost yelled as she questioned him, causing Tanjiro to gently smile at her.
“It was honestly just by chance. And if it came up as Tails, then I was simply going to flip the coin again until I eventually got heads!” He told her, continuing to reach into his pocket and pulling out one of the apples he had in his pocket and passed it over to her, making the Tsuyuri look at both it and the coin in wonder. Eventually, and almost hesitantly, Kanao took a small bite from the apple given to her and looking at Tanjiro once more and when she saw his encouraging smile, she continued to take more small bites until eventually finishing it.
“Looks like the sun is about to set. Do you think we should get moving?” Tanjiro asks Kanao as he looked up at the sky, the environment becoming darker though enough sunrays were still around to keep Demons away for a bit longer still. Hearing the question, Kanao looked around the clearing for a moment and after thinking it over, she would hesitantly nod her head and speaks.
“Probably…. It would make sense that the Demons on this mountain would know about this clearing and may attempt to ambush any humans that try staying here for too long.” She gave her thoughts, making Tanjiro smile at her for talking so much more already without the coin before they both leave the clearing, all while the Kamado never noticed the interested look Kanao continued to stare at him with as he lead them both.
