'I ask you to allow Tanjiro and his sister to travel together. Thanks to her mental fortitude, Nezuko has not lost her human reason. Even if she was starving, she has never eaten a human and that has been the case for more than two years after. Although the situation may seem outlandish, it is, in fact, the reality. In case Nezuko attacks another human, I myself, as well as, Tanjiro Kamado and Giyu Tomioka, will take responsibility by going to seppuku.'
Tanjiro could only hold his breath as the girl next to the master finished speaking, her smile unperturbed, wrapping the letter in her hands again.
Almost reflexively, even though his face was glued to the stones on the floor that almost pierced the skin on his cheek thanks to Sanemi's pushing, his gaze immediately traveled to Giyu at the end of the row of all the other pillars.
To his profile. To his unwavering expression and the dull blue eyes, he remembered, this time fixed on some spot on the ground in front of him.
Tanjiro could hear his own heart bouncing in his ears very loudly and a warm feeling settling in his chest. He no longer cared about the pain in his ribs or the endless fatigue in his muscles, for his attention was on him.
The man who had given them another chance years ago. The man who had finished off the demon Rui on the mountain immediately and without batting an eye. The man who had saved them. The man who had promised to give his life for his sister's sake.
For a second he was overwhelmed, one might even say moved, to the point where tears came out and slid down the curvature of his nose. In the silence that formed until Sanemi spoke again, Tanjiro could only think of how amazing Tomioka-san was, and how much he admired that man.
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Tanjiro lets out a grunt, dulling for a second the sound of the alarm ringing somewhere behind him, and letting go of those last remnants of whatever dream he was having.
He shifts, sinking his face into the pillow, inhaling the pleasant scent it gives off. His arm lazily stretches out a couple of inches looking for his phone to turn off the annoying alarm clock, but there is only emptiness on one side.
His eyelids tighten finding it odd for a moment, but only for a moment until his brain eventually wakes up, and he finally notices that the alarm on the phone is not the usual familiar sound and he doesn't recognize the scent of the pillow.
Tanjiro rolls forward trusting that the futon will be there to greet him, but an exasperated sound comes out of his mouth as he falls to the floor with a thud taking with him the sheet that ends up falling on top of him.
He lies still for a couple of breaths, letting out a few pained groans from the hit until he is able to sit up straight. The sheet slides down to his lap and he can finally see where he is.
It's a small room. Gray walls with a pair of windows, one in front of him and one to his left that lets in the morning light. In the corner is an almost empty bookcase, with only a few notebooks and a stereo on the lower shelves.
On another wall are pencil sketches of buildings and a couple of still lifes made of what looks like charcoal taped up. To his right is a cluttered desk full of papers with a silver lamp and a mug that he assumes is empty.
Yeah, this is definitely not his room.
"Where...?", but he pauses before continuing to speak and his hand goes to his own neck as he notices that....his voice is much deeper than normal.
Something tingles against the bare skin there and his hand. It is hair, long jet hair that falls a little below his shoulders, with the typical morning tangle at the ends. He touches it gently, it's soft and gives off a rather pleasant smell that, for some strange reason, reminds him of water.
Tanjiro gets up somewhat hurriedly, stumbling halfway through with the sheet in his lap and heads for the door behind him that he hopes will lead him out of the room.
He steps out into the hallway; it's not as narrow, but not as wide as the ones in his house either. Wooden floor and gray walls just like the room, they are empty, there are no portrait frames or pictures in them and, from the boxes stacked on the floor a few feet away from him, Tanjiro assumes that whoever lives here has just moved in.
He shakes his head and heads for the nearest door, which, to his luck, ends up being the bathroom, which smells like lemon and has a few more things in it compared to the rest he's seen.
There is a mirror over the sink and in it, where Tanjiro is supposed to be reflected, with his vermilion hair, birthmark on his forehead and round face, is another person.
It's a young man maybe a couple of years older than he is; pale, almost porcelain skin; elongated deep blue eyes under thin eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
Tanjiro had not realized until that moment that he was wearing his torso naked, revealing the few marked muscles and his slender figure.
But, without a doubt, what is most striking is his long jet-black hair, whose shorter locks frame his face attractively.
His hands go up to his forehead searching uselessly for his very characteristic mark, then down to his cheeks, touching them cautiously, running his fingers over the most marked features such as the nose and cheekbones.
This guy...
He looks strangely... familiar.
As if he's seen this person before, but at the moment his brain doesn't have the capacity to decipher where, or when as he's too busy figuring out why the hell he has this face.
As he blinks, the image in the mirror seems to change to one where he is wearing a strange dual haori. It is perhaps for a couple of seconds until he feels a sudden stab of pain shoot through his head. He lets out a low moan touching his forehead. A few more breaths until the pain goes away and when he looks at his reflection again, it is back to normal.
But Tanjiro doesn't have time to wonder what that was as his shoulders twitch as a new voice speaks from outside the bathroom making him turn around. "Giyu!" it seems to be another boy, with an animated tone and a certain friendly touch "Are you awake already?"
Tanjiro doubts for a second wondering if that's this person's name before answering "Y-yes!"
His feet hesitantly direct him out of the bathroom and all the way down the hallway where the murmur of music on a radio can be heard along with the aroma of breakfast.
The whole place is very different compared to his home in Itomori.
As in the rest of the house, there are open cardboard boxes on the kitchen counter from which protrude crystal glasses wrapped in newspaper; plus a few suitcases stacked in a corner of the dining room he enters.
On the opposite wall there are sliding glass doors, the blinds that cover them are open and let in the sun's rays, giving a view of a seemingly urban landscape.
There are bags of unpacked groceries on another dark wooden table, and there, with his back to the dining room entrance, is another boy who turns his back to look at him when he senses his presence.
His skin is fair; on the right cheek of his face, from the right corner of his mouth to his ear is a large, pronounced scar; kind, feline eyes of a grayish lavender color; thick, spiky, peach-colored hair, reaching to his shoulders and a messy, sideways micro fringe over the left side of his forehead.
"Did you fall asleep again?" he asks in a mocking voice with a raised eyebrow. "You promised to make breakfast."
Tanjiro feels a slight panic and can't help but shrink much more in his timid posture behind the door frame at the thought that this person, who he assumes is called Giyu, had responsibilities to fulfill, but because of him he couldn't do them.
Well, it's not like Tanjiro was doing this on purpose because even he doesn't understand what's going on, but he can't help but feel bad about it anyway.
"I-I" his voice comes out in a nervous stutter not knowing what to reply. Startled still by the lower tone heard in it.
The mocking expression of the boy in front of him disappears then. He watches him carefully for a few seconds. He looks curious and surprised for some reason as he analyzes him from head to toe.
"Don't worry," he says simply at last, shrugging his shoulders and turning around again. The chair is pushed back as he gestures to get up and pick up the dishes he was using. "Go get dressed we're going to be late."
Tanjiro watches him walk towards the small kitchen without another word, so he opts to retrace his steps and escape into the room he got up from in a bit of a hurry.
The door closes a little harder than he would have liked as he pushes the weight of his body against it. He lies still, concentrating only on the slow, mechanical descent of his bare chest with each breath, and with a single thought that seems to make sense of it all.
What a strange dream.
Tanjiro startles again when he hears an ephemeral notification ring. It comes from the phone lying face down on the floor, its illuminated screen reflecting off the wood.
He approaches cautiously. Hesitating whether to check and invade Giyu's privacy or if he should just ignore it.
Tanjiro swallows thickly before grabbing the phone by the edges strangely, holding it as if it has a mouth and is going to bite him or something.
The screen hasn't turned off, it's locked, and it does indeed have a message notification. The little green box from the Line app with a name and text underneath with an exaggerated amount of star emojis.
From Tengen:
I'll see you after class!
You still owe me that lunch lmao
Tanjiro watches the notification until the screen goes black again. Now, with a new sense of bewilderment, his gaze sweeps around the room again wondering who the hell Tengen is and why he owes him lunch.
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When Tanjiro leaves the room fully dressed, the other boy is waiting for him in front of the door. He already has his shoes on and looks up from his phone when he hears him approach, giving a warm smile before putting it away and turning around.
Tanjiro has no choice but to follow him, tightening the strap of the bag in his hand, pursing his lips in a nervous gesture that he manages to conceal as he approaches the low wooden shelf where only one pair of shoes remains.
Outside, the daylight dazzles his eyes for an initial couple of seconds until he can get used to it, receiving a fleeting gust of wind that stirs the lumpy jet hair he has.
Now he can stop and really contemplate the site outside the windows that he had only glimpsed a few minutes ago.
There is a small grove of trees separating the apartment complex from the buildings in the distance. Small. Mid-sized. Big. They vary in size and design, with antennae on their roofs and their window panes flashing.
A red and white tower whose tip rises into a clear sky of beautiful azure blue. Tanjiro recognizes that tower.
The other boy has begun to walk away down the corridor, and although his own feet have also begun to move, his eyes remain glued to the landscape that as the seconds pass makes the idea that he is.... in Tokyo more and more real.
I am in Tokyo...
He ends up taking a strong breath of air, swallowing the urge to scream from the excitement before turning the corner towards the stairs.
The noise of the city becomes more and more present as they approach the second floor; the hum of cars driving by; the continuous Tap, Tap, Tap of people's footsteps and the unintelligible murmur of their conversations.
Everything increases the further they go down the sidewalk now and Tanjiro soon reaffirms to himself how different this place is from Itomori.
A few birds fly between the billboards and buildings. From one of them protrudes a large screen displaying the current music rankings and the weather temperature of the day, not to mention all the gigantic advertisements for products of which Kamado has no idea what half of them are for.
There are too many people, hundreds and hundreds of people walking in all directions and Tanjiro has to pick up his pace so as not to stray from the other guy or he knows he'll end up lost when he stops to look at some macarons and cakes displayed in the window of a pastry shop.
But honestly, he can't help it. His curiosity seems like that of a small child admiring everything for the first time. Discovering a world that only the night before seemed too far away and unreachable.
But now... he is here.
He really is here, in Tokyo, though the circumstances and the why are still too strange. It may all be an all too vivid dream of his heart's greatest desires or ideas implanted by his sister. Whatever it is, Tanjiro is willing to enjoy this new air, this change of environment that lightens his back and comforts him somehow.
Anyway, it's not like he's complaining about his current appearance. This Giyu guy is handsome, very handsome, he must admit that.
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Up to this point Tanjiro had been walking blindly, just following the guy with a friendly smile whose name he doesn't know without really knowing where they were going, but he didn't expect to arrive at a university!
Although it makes sense considering Giyu's appearance, but he felt panic the moment he passed between the pillars of the main entrance of the place anyway.
It's all too strange. It's even intimidating.
Tanjiro is only a few months away from graduating from high school, but because of his commitment to the Kamado temple he didn't really think about going to college, so now standing on a huge campus full of people and teachers and not knowing where the hell to go or how to operate from this point causes him a sense of dread that only increases as the seconds pass that he stands next to the other boy on the campus sidewalk.
This is more complicated than I thought....
What is Giyu studying anyway? Has he picked up the right bag before leaving the apartment? Will he have enough money to buy that lunch? Where should he go now? Where is his classroom?
He's sure he doesn't know anything about whatever it is Giyu is studying, what if it affects his grades?
Oh god, what if he fails something because of him?
Tanjiro doesn't consider himself a nervous person at all; much less someone who overthinks things, but the uninvited scenarios running through his head for fear of somehow damaging Giyu's college life are upsetting him more than he'd like.
Maybe Zenitsu's nervous energy is contagious and followed him here.
"Hey" Tanjiro blinks coming back to reality when he hears the other's voice addressing him. He looks straight at him "I'm going back to my place after class, do you still need help unpacking?"
Tanjiro assumes he's referring to all the boxes he saw piled up throughout the apartment. Honestly the idea of digging through someone else's belongings, a complete stranger, and then trying to fit them along the length of the place, makes him feel a little, very uncomfortable. Tanjiro quickly denies; the loose hair tickles his neck and chin.
"Okay," the other accepts without further ado "but please eat something before going to bed" more than a request, what he tells him seems like an order accompanied by a sincere smile that stretches the scar on his cheek.
Tanjiro nods a couple of times wondering if perhaps Giyu has been skipping meals.
The boy in front of him watches him, with the same curious expression as in the morning. Attentive, as if he's looking for something in him. Tanjiro isn't sure what.
"Are you okay?" he then asks turning his whole body until he is fully facing him. "You're not acting like your usual Giyu self."
Tanjiro startles a little, cursing internally for making the nice guy worry by not knowing enough about Giyu.
He just shakes his head and the only thing that comes out of his mouth is a very unsure "I'm fine."
The other boy says nothing for a few very long seconds. He just looks on, doubtful, searching for the lie in his words. Tanjiro hopes he doesn't notice how he stirs somewhat uncomfortably under his gaze.
Finally, he lets out a heavy sigh, laden with obvious resignation, before settling the weight of his backpack on his shoulders. "I'm off then," he waves goodbye with a wave of his hand and a final smile before turning and facing away from him.
"H-have a nice day!" the words leave his mouth before he can stop them, perhaps out of habit of always saying goodbye to his sister that way.
But, to his surprise, the boy stops dead in his tracks and begins to turn around with torturous slowness once again. He doesn't face him completely, but he looks at him and the expression he has shows clear disbelief and surprise; as if he has grown a third eye on his face or as if that is the first time he is hearing those words coming out of Giyu's mouth.
The silence he gives him in response is crushing and lasts longer than he would like. He is thankful for the bustle of people around him because otherwise the situation would be much more awkward. Has he said something wrong?
He sees him blink a couple of times coming out of the apparent state of shock he was in. A smile begins to stretch his lips and a new sparkle settles in his lavender eyes. Tanjiro can't tell if they reflect surprise or joy. Maybe a little of both.
Is that a blush on his cheeks?
"Y-yes," he finally replies, stuttering for a first second, but clearing his throat right away to speak again "You.... too?".
He doesn't give him time to worry about the doubt left in his voice, as he has already turned for the last time and has begun to walk away at a hurried pace.
Tanjiro tilts his head to the side, confused. Was it the first time he heard those words come out of Giyu's mouth or did he really grow a third eye?
He hopes it was the first.
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Somehow, Tanjiro managed to survive until the afternoon, but he's convinced it was a goddamn stroke of luck.
For starters, he discovered that his class schedule - Giyu's schedule, whatever - was organized and filed in the documents on his phone, along with the classrooms in which each class was held, so all he had to do was follow it to the letter.
He had a little trouble finding where everything was in the vast expanse of the campus and was a little late for some of the classes, but the professors didn't seem to notice.
Apparently Giyu was studying landscape architecture, or so he guessed. Tanjiro didn't understand anything he saw throughout those classes, but fortunately he didn't have to participate or anything, because he's sure he would have blown it if that was the case and wants to avoid it at all costs.
Now, standing again on one of the campus sidewalks, with the sun warming the skin on his face and the wind tousling his hair, Tanjiro can finally let out a sigh, releasing the pressure from his shoulders and letting his guard down for the first time all morning.
Far too real.
"Gi-Yu!" a scream a few octaves higher comes out of his throat spontaneously as another voice, completely unfamiliar, low and beckoning, speaks out of nowhere next to his ear, emphasizing every syllable of his name. The weight of a body much larger than he is rests against his side and an arm wraps around his shoulders hunching his posture forward slightly.
Tanjiro has lost count of how many times he has been startled like that since he woke up.
His face turns by inertia in the direction of the voice, finding himself at an eerily close distance from the one hugging him.
It's another boy, maybe the same age as Giyu; he looks tall, very tall, by the way he crouches down to be at head height. He wears a large sweatshirt and the hood over his head. His face is handsome; his skin is lightly tanned with a strange makeup over one of his fuchsia eyes.
His hair is white, with longer locks that reach his shoulders sticking out of his clothes and shorter ones that fall like a fringe and has a sort of band with many decorative stones on his forehead.
When their gazes meet, the smile on his lips seems to widen, pearling with joy as he greets.
"Were you waiting for me? How sweet of you," he speaks again in a falsely fawning, rather mocking tone. The squeeze he gives to his shoulders makes Tanjiro's cheeks heat up involuntarily.
He says nothing. He can't say anything. This guy seems close enough to Giyu to call him by name - not that he knows his last name anyway - but to Tanjiro he's a complete stranger.
A stranger who has started dragging him along, forcing him to walk to who knows where. A fleeting panic crosses his chest, enough to hinder his steps until he hears him say. "Let's go, you still owe me that lunch."
Tanjiro blinks and his gait becomes steadier. His gaze hasn't moved from the man's profile and now glows in understanding as he remembers the message from that morning and the name of the contact on his phone.
"Ten..Tengen-san?"
Tengen then turns to look at him with derision and a raised eyebrow. "And since when do you use honorifics?"
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"My girls love this place. It has very good craftsmanship and the wooden structure is great." says Tengen.
The restaurant they entered is quite large. The decor is modern and intricate; you can tell they've paid attention to every detail. One of the walls is completely glazed and lets in natural light, illuminating everyone in the place.
Almost every table is occupied, varnished in a beautiful brown color with a bouquet of fresh flowers in the center and menus laid out next to it.
On the chairs at the next table are a pair of puppies tenderly dressed with colorful ribbons in their fluffy fur. They stare at him, wagging their tails and drawing a smile on Tanjiro's face that disappears when Tengen speaks again.
"Have you decided yet, Giyu?" Right, he is Giyu.
His gaze falls on the open menu in his hands and he immediately feels his heart sink into his stomach.
"I could live for a month on what these dishes cost!" his voice sounds a little more altered than he would have liked.
"Maybe ten years ago, what era are you from?". Tengen doesn't seem to notice by the lightness and playfulness with which he answers him.
The prices are too high. Tanjiro would even say they're being scandalously scammed, but maybe that's just his small-town side talking and that's how it works in the festival that is Tokyo.
He decides to swallow his discomfort at the expensive dishes when he sees the smile on Tengen's lips in front of him again. He would be a bit of an asshole to insist on leaving when he is talking so cheerfully about the place.
Anyway, he owes him lunch.
"Well, it's just a dream." he repeats out loud, lifting his shoulders trying to downplay it and overlooking the strangely surprised look Tengen gives him.
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Glints of sunlight stream through the windows and change their angles as time goes by. People come and go as they are greeted by the September wind in the streets or the sweet aroma of apricot desserts inside the restaurant.
Tanjiro ended up choosing a Udon dish just like Tengen, and he could say with all certainty that it was one of the best he has tasted so far, so much so that he couldn't resist taking a picture of it with Giyu's phone.
Uzui Tengen turned out to be a person with whom it was quite easy to strike up a conversation. His voice was noticeably raised in small talk, but never to the point of being annoying.
Tanjiro enjoyed lunch, ignoring the continuous passing of the minutes as he engrossed himself in the pleasant, unreal sense of vertigo that the extravagant city of Tokyo, as Tengen called it at one point, gave him.
The Kamado was smiling, perhaps too much forgetting the fact that he's not inside his body, and Uzui teased by saying that seeing Giyu's lips curving like that could be considered a historical event thanks to the alignment of the planets or something.
That threw Tanjiro off a bit, but it's something unavoidable in him when thoughts like 'What a great dream' or 'Dreams are great' roamed inside him with every mouthful of food he put in his mouth. He tried to keep it to a minimum so as not to attract more attention than necessary from Uzui for the rest of the time.
Dusk greets them as they leave the restaurant. Tengen lifts his arms, pushing his weight back to stretch and let out a yawn. The smile lingers on his face, the good mood after lunch evident.
"Well, I guess it'll be time to head back, Suma and the others must be waiting for me at home" Uzui says after straightening up, his eyes fixed on the colorful clouds behind the buildings across the street.
Tanjiro doesn't know exactly how Giyu usually says goodbye to people, so he opts to nod a couple of times without saying anything else hoping it doesn't look awkward or mechanical.
"It was nice talking to you today Giyu, you're so much more than that frown, who would have thought" Tengen comments in a bubbly and animated voice.
Tanjiro doesn't get to reply anything because the man has already started to walk away after a final See ya! He can only watch as he walks away through the crowd in the opposite direction to him.
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The train car is moving forward. The continuous rattling of its wheels fills the silence that accompanies the people inside. Tanjiro turns off the phone in his hands. The page with the train route that warns him that there are 7 minutes left to reach the next station disappears and he can see his reflection on the now black screen. Giyu's foreign face, his features unfamiliar, but at the same time so familiar and his eyes looking back at him.
His face turns without thinking to the glass next door as he puts the device away in his pants pocket. The darkening sky with some grayish clouds and unlit buildings is all that can be seen in that landscape so different from Itomori.
Itomori. He feels a little guilty as at no time during the day has he thought about his small hometown, his friends or his family; too distracted by the allure of Tokyo perhaps.
He hopes they're okay; Tanjiro still doesn't understand what's going on or why, but he also hopes his absence hasn't been too noticeable, otherwise his sister would worry, and he doesn't like her to worry.
If he had to excuse himself, he would say that he was all the time focused on enjoying this unusual experience. On recording in his memory every detail and experience that he could never have in his minimalist and boring life.
What has no place in his future dictated by tradition. Handcuffed to tradition. As much as he wants to push for a place in he honestly feels he cant. All that's left for him is to let go of resignation in a heartbeat, if only for a tiny moment, and appreciate and enjoy all he can because at any moment this dream could be over.
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Giyu's apartment is much quieter than it was in the morning. Glimpses of summer heat still cling to the atmosphere outside, but for some reason, when Tanjiro sets foot inside the place about thirty minutes after leaving the station, everything feels colder. Lonely.
He didn't get a chance to see the place in detail after waking up, as he was more concerned with understanding his situation, but now, with the light on he can see how empty everything is. It's almost depressing and the realization brings a sinking feeling to the pit of his stomach.
Giyu has evidently just moved in not too long ago, but it's different than he could have imagined.
There are fewer boxes than he remembers seeing in the morning, and that confuses him.
The walls are still empty.
In the dishwasher are only the remnants of breakfast. The box on the countertop that he thought was full of glasses turns out to have only two, plus a couple of china plates.
The wooden table is still there, as are the shopping bags, but when he checks them he realizes there are only packages of instant noodles and cans of coffee.
Only then does he notice the only armchair in front of the TV on a table full of papers and a marker, with a worn and stained gray cushion. Next to it, it turns out, was only a suitcase.
Perhaps he didn't notice it at first, or perhaps the presence of Sabito, whose name he now knows thanks to a message he sent him on the train reminding him again to have dinner and which did not at all make him feel guilty for finding out about it at that point in the day, soothed the hermit-like atmosphere of the place.
Tanjiro now feels an enormous intrigue for Giyu. He doesn't know him at all, but by being in his body and inside his skin; by the small details of his life and how the people around him reacted, the Kamado was able to put together a somewhat loose hypothesis of the kind of person he is.
Tanjiro lies on his back on the couch, with one of his legs stretched out on the furniture and the other folded, letting his foot still touch the floor. The light is now off and the only thing illuminating the apartment are the streetlights from outside through the glass door with the curtain open.
"I must say, this dream does seem real." He says to the nothingness, his gaze fixed on the ceiling above him, on the part where the light doesn't reach.
His hand rummages in one of his pants pockets until he finds Giyu's phone and pulls it out. Now he holds it up to his face, illuminating the jet black hair on his forehead.
Tanjiro had already checked the device when he found his schedule on file, but nothing beyond that. His fingers move through the apps, driven simply by curiosity and a desire to know more about this boy.
He decides to put aside the bittersweet feeling that tells him he shouldn't invade Giyu's privacy that he had since morning, with the excuse that he has lived one day in his body and that should be enough to scan his phone some more.
"Oh, it looks like you're keeping a diary!", he can't help but exclaim as if speaking directly to him when he finds the small notebook-shaped icon. Inside are several notes with the respective date of when they were written. There are too many and they range from weeks to months ago. "How organized."
An endearing smile comes across his face as he finds more. He doesn't find it strange to discover that in his gallery there are only a couple of albums with no more than fifty photos after a glance.
There is the most recent one of Udon's plate from lunch, several pictures of a blackboard that are most likely notes written in class by the teacher, a picture of the sunset among the city buildings and there is one where Giyu is seen next to Tengen.
Uzui is hugging him by the shoulders looking at the camera again and sticking out his tongue, but Giyu for his part has an expression that anyone would label as annoyed or bothered if it weren't for the small and almost non-existent curvature that Tanjiro manages to see in the corner of his lips. It makes him let out a brief chuckle and wish to himself that he lived in Tokyo.
"One of him!" On the screen is a photograph of Sabito in profile in what appears to be a park in springtime. His head is up slightly looking at the open buds of cherry blossoms falling on his tousled hair and the scar on his cheek is stretched by the smile he has, as it happened that very morning.
In the next one, he is looking directly into the camera, smiling even wider with his eyes almost squeezed shut and forming a peace sign with one of his hands.
"Could it be that you like him?" he asks again into the air, his voice has a playful edge to it at the innocent idea that, because of the very specific and detailed way the photograph was taken, perhaps Giyu has a platonic love for his friend.
Tanjiro straightens up until he is sitting on his knees on the couch and goes back into the notes app. A new section is created, with the day's date and a green theme to differentiate it from the others.
I wished Sabito-kun a good day today. That made him very happy, he even blushed! You should do that more often.
Oh! I also talked a lot with Tengen-san at lunch, he's a nice guy. He told me that I'm much more than a frown. I don't know what he means by that.
Anyway, I had fun today, it was a very nice dream Giyu-san!
'Who are you?'
The flash of a memory suddenly pierces through his memory. Of that strange question meticulously written in his notebook just the day before.
Tanjiro feels the desire to answer that question and, for some reason that he dare not find out more about, it feels right to do so now. The vague, impossible thought that perhaps Giyu may have written it.
In the dim light of the phone screen, Tanjiro reaches for the black marker he remembers seeing next to the TV and gets up from the couch to take it.
In the same manner, only illuminated by it from his lap back on the couch, he uncovers it with his mouth and writes on the skin of his left hand, with the tingle and smell of the ink as the last thing he manages to perceive before he lets out a yawn and falls back onto the worn gray furniture to end up asleep.
'Tanjiro'