“I’ll check this area with Saya. Inosuke, you go—” Tanjiro began.
“Over there!” Saya shouted.
Tanjiro looked in the direction she was pointing and found that Zenitsu was indeed walking along the road there, crying. What a relief.
“Zen—” Tanjiro started to call out, but Saya yelled and interrupted him.
“Siiiiir!” She raced toward him.
Zenitsu shrieked and then collapsed on the ground. His legs had surely given out in terror. He closed his eyes as if resigned to his fate.
“The carriage horse’s run off!” A man’s roar cut through the area.
At once, there was a huge commotion.
“Ruuuuuun!”
“Aaaaaaah!”
“Nooooo!”
People ran in circles, and screams filled the air.
Tanjiro looked around. He could see the horse to the right of Saya as she ran toward Zenitsu. The horse reared, raising its front legs high into the air.
“Inosuke!”
“Yup!”
At Tanjiro’s word, the two Demon Slayers jumped into action at the same time.
Before they could reach the server, something like a bolt of lightning swept her out from under the horse’s hooves.
“Hmm?” Tanjiro’s eyes flew open in surprise.
That bolt of lightning was Zenitsu. He realized his fellow corps member had used Thunder Breathing to save Saya.
“Not half bad.” He heard Inosuke murmur. “Nice work for a coward.” Inosuke glared at the rampaging horse that had lost its target.
Instantly, the horse became as docile and submissive as a puppy.
That’s Inosuke for you …
A relieved Tanjiro turned back to Zenitsu, who was holding Saya in the middle of an excited crowd.
“Way to go, boy!”
“What just happened? You were super fast!”
“You’re so cool!”
“Amazing, young man!”
They heaped praise on Zenitsu one after the other, but the boy in question looked like compliments were the last thing he cared about. His face was pale, and while Saya may have been heavy in his arms, he was trembling too much for that to be the only reason.
“Zenitsu, are you okay?”
Tanjiro tried to run over, but the crowd was in the way, preventing him from getting close. He managed to push his way to the front just in time to see Saya look up at Zenitsu with a strangely bewitched expression.
“Sir, you did that for me?”
“N-no no no.” Zenitsu shook his head quickly back and forth. “I-i-i-i-i-it was nothing special. A-a-as a human being, I only did w-w-w-what was natural.”
“Such a humble and gallant man,” Saya murmured, enraptured. The mood felt very much like she would confess her newfound love for him at any second.
Zenitsu desperately looked anywhere but at the girl in his arms. His gaze roamed the crowd of onlookers, pleadingly, and then froze in place. His face grew even paler, like that of a corpse.
Tanjiro followed Zenitsu’s gaze and saw the fake fortune-teller who had started all of this.
“Inosuke!” he cried.
“I got her!” Inosuke leaped toward the old woman, parting the crowd as he went.
However …
“Huh? S-sir?” Saya cried. “Are you all right?! Sirrr?!”
Tanjiro hurriedly turned back toward Zenitsu. His friend had fainted, still holding Saya in his arms.
He later explained everything to Zenitsu and placated Inosuke, who wanted to pluck out all of the fake fortune-teller’s hair after catching her. They then left the town behind them with Saya waving goodbye. The trio reached the Butterfly Mansion just as the sun set completely.
“My goodness, you’ve had quite a rough time, hm?” Shinobu said sympathetically after hearing their story.
Kiyo, Sumi, and Naho also expressed their indignation—“Poor Zenitsu!” and “Are you all right?” and “Lying like that, how awful!” Zenitsu, who had truly felt down in the dumps, cheered right up.
It turned out that Saya was the cafe owner’s beloved niece, and as thanks for saving her, the owner had sent them on their way with their arms piled with chocolates, caramels, and other sweets. The girls at the mansion were delighted, of course.
And their happiness was Zenitsu’s happiness.
“Inosuke kept his cool right from the start, though,” Tanjiro remarked, as he sipped the tea Aoi and Kanao had made for them.
“Huh?” Inosuke lifted his face from the treat he was eating. Chocolate was smeared all over his cheeks.
“What a mess!” Aoi scolded him.
“It’s because he doesn’t think girls could like me,” Zenitsu sulked. “Or else he didn’t care what happened to me, so he was super calm. This jerk.”
Surprisingly, Inosuke said something to the contrary. “It’s ’cause that old hag gave me a bad feeling the second we met her. It was like she’d already decided what she was going to say and she was licking her chops, looking for who to say it to. A real fortune-teller wouldn’t do that, right? And like, what about those sounds you’re always hearing? You didn’t hear it?”
Zenitsu’s eyebrows jumped up, and his jaw dropped ever so slightly. It was a face that said he’d completely forgotten about this particular skill of his. He dropped his head and fell silent.
“You really are a dodo.” Inosuke struck the killing blow. “How about changing your name to Dodoitsu?”
“Shut up,” Zenitsu said. But there was none of the usual force in his voice.
Tanjiro was in the same place. Kanao poured fresh tea into his empty cup, and he reflected on how much the fake fortune-teller’s words had shaken him and how he hadn’t been able to smell the malice that spilled out from her.
“Thanks.”
Kanao wordlessly glanced at him.
“Did you have some chocolate, Kanao? It’s really good.” He offered her some, but Kanao turned red for some reason and ducked behind the nearby Aoi. She hadn’t tossed a coin, so she couldn’t accept it? No, it didn’t seem like that was it.
What’s wrong, I wonder? Tanjiro cocked his head slightly to one side.
“Hold on just a minute there,” Zenitsu said suddenly. “It’s getting awfully cozy over there. Huh, Tanjiro?”
“What?” Tanjiro frowned. “Why do you have that scary look on your face?”
“Walking around looking all innocent! If you find happiness before me, I’ll curse you, you know?” Jealousy at full throttle, Zenitsu pushed his way toward Tanjiro, gritting his teeth. He seemed ready to lay that curse on Tanjiro that very second, if not sooner.
“Huh?”
Tanjiro was flustered. He had absolutely no idea what Zenitsu was talking about.
“Now, now,” Shinobu said calmly. “Everything turned out all right, Zenitsu. Plus, you three caught a fake fortune-teller on your way home from a mission. You must really be good friends, hm?”
She pulled everyone in the room together with a smile.
Aoi heated some water for them, so the three Demon Slayers headed for the bath.
“I don’t want to take a bath,” Inosuke complained. “Cold shower’s fine.”
Tanjiro dragged him along anyway, and then from behind, he heard a small voice.
“Thanks for helping me, Tanjiro. Inosuke.” The voice really was very quiet, curiously earnest, almost embarrassed.
“Zenitsu?” When Tanjiro looked over his shoulder, Zenitsu was already his usual self again.
“Aaah, what a miserable day,” he muttered, looking entirely fed up. “I’m getting in first.” He trotted for the bath.
Tanjiro quietly smiled as his stubborn friend walked away.
“You must really be good friends, hm?”
Shinobu’s words came back to him. Were they good friends? He wasn’t too sure, maybe because they’d been by his side ever since he became a corps member. Yet, he was happy that it had been these two he met on the mission at the drum house. They’d been able to overcome certain things simply because they were together. He’d been able to keep going without unendurable sadness overwhelming him. It was a happy thing not to be alone.
“I’ll get in, but I’m not washing.”
“No way. Aoi told you, didn’t she? You have to wash properly before you get in the tub.”
“That noisy little runt!”
“You can’t go saying things like that. They do all this for us. Come on. Let’s go, Inosuke.” Yanking his boar-head friend behind him, Tanjiro smiled again.
Outside the veranda, the stars in the night sky glittered and twinkled, as if any one of them could turn into a shooting star at any moment.