Why would Kanao be looking for the Love Hashira? Maybe she has a message for her from Shinobu? In that case, wouldn’t she have come straight over here after they left the chemist’s? And if Kanao had a message to give, Aoi would have also been informed of the errand.
She suddenly put a hand to her mouth. Oh …
She could think of only one reason for them to be there.
“You weren’t actually going to borrow money from the Love Hashira, were you?” she asked Kanao.
After a moment’s hesitation, Kanao nodded. “Because you were in trouble, Aoi.”
Aoi didn’t know how to respond.
“I thought maybe. But I couldn’t help at all.”
Warm droplets of water ran down Aoi’s cheeks as she stood there. The tears she’d worked so hard to hold back spilled out of her eyes.
Kanao seemed surprised as she watched this, and finally she reached out to place a tentative hand on Aoi’s shoulder.
“Thanks,” Aoi murmured in a hoarse voice. Suddenly, her heart felt lighter. “You’ve helped me out in so many ways today. And when the Sound Hashira was about to carry me away, you held my hand … and you didn’t let go. Thank you.”
Kanao looked troubled, turning her face downward as if embarrassed.
I finally told her, Aoi thought.
“If I was alone,” Kanao said quietly, “I wouldn’t have known what to do when that sumo wrestler collapsed or when that couple was fighting.”
“Kanao …” Aoi’s eyes grew damp once more. “When did you start making decisions without flipping your coin?”
Kanao was silent for a moment.
“Tanjiro.” She voiced an unexpected name. “He told me. ‘You have to live by your heart,’ he said. ‘You can do it’ … So …”
Ohh. Is that it? Aoi understood everything when she saw Kanao’s pale cheeks flush red. Just as Tanjiro’s words had freed Aoi from guilt and a deep-rooted inferiority complex, they had also changed Kanao.
The boy like the sun had turned the girl like a doll into a person. That was why Kanao had such a gentle and peaceful look on her face now.
Aoi looked at her, and her heart swirled with emotion. A warmth that made her want to cry. A hint of sadness that the boy hadn’t only offered his words to her. And a childlike joy, like she and Kanao were sharing something that was for the two of them and no one else.
All this time she’d lived with this girl but felt that she was somehow far away. Now she felt so very close. Kanao was there, right beside her. Aoi stared silently at the girl’s flushed cheeks.
“Come now. Eat up,” the elderly proprietor said, carrying out a tray laden with tea and sanshoku dango. He set it down on the edge of the bench next to them and started to walk away.
“Huh? No, we …”
When Aoi confessed that they didn’t have any money, the elderly man gave them a bittersweet smile and said, “I wouldn’t take any from you. You’re Mitsuri’s friends, aren’t you? Demon Slayers?”
“Oh.” Aoi nodded. “Yes. We are.”
“My daughter, you know, when she was attacked by a demon, Mitsuri saved her. If I had to say, well, I could never repay that debt.”
Aoi listened in silence as the man continued.
“It’s a tough job, but you keep at it. Just don’t go pushing yourselves, all right?” he offered and went back inside the teahouse.
Aoi contemplatively looked back and forth between the owner’s bent back and the steam rising up from the teacups. The unadorned words of gratitude, the kind gaze, the faint warmth in her heart …
The old her would have said something servile like, “In that case, I cannot accept such a kindness. I’m a coward who can’t even set foot onto the battlefield.”
But she didn’t feel like that anymore. As a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, finding someone who understood and appreciated the corps overwhelmed her with delight. Aoi made a tiny sniff.
“Should we gratefully accept this, Kanao?” she asked with a smile, and Kanao nodded firmly, a smile on her own face.
The sanshoku dango recommended by the Love Hashira were indeed delicious and just the slightest bit salty.
As they left the teahouse, the western sky glowed red. Aoi walked with Kanao through the twilight town. Long shadows stretched out at their feet.
When they got back to the Butterfly Mansion, she would apologize for not being able to buy the medicine and come back to get it first thing the next morning. With this thought in her mind, they started out on the road home.
Once they had reached the outskirts of town, she got the sense that someone was chasing them.
“Hey! You there! You girls! Wait!”
“Hm?”
Aoi looked back to find the shriveled eggplant face of the chemist.
“Haah haah! Aah, thank goodness,” he said, panting.
After waiting for him to get his breathing back under control, Aoi asked, “What is it?”
The chemist smiled awkwardly. “I’m really sorry about this afternoon.”
He handed them a neatly wrapped package with the medicines Aoi had tried to buy.
“You pay up whenever you can.”
“What? But …”
Aoi furrowed her brow at the chemist’s sudden change of heart. Kanao also stared at him curiously. The chemist shrugged awkwardly, probably because the girls were looking at him dubiously, instead of happily, as they wondered what wind had changed.
“The truth is, you see …” He lowered his voice, as if concerned about being overheard.
“So the older woman you met at the eating contest was the chemist’s own mother?” Shinobu asked Aoi delightedly when Aoi had finished giving her a rundown of the day’s events.
“Yes,” Aoi confirmed.
“My goodness,” she said admiringly. “What a surprising coincidence.”
The chemist’s mother, now retired, had apparently seen Shinobu, Kanao, and Aoi at the shop countless times. Although Western clothes were no longer particularly unusual, the uniforms of the Demon Slayer Corps were distinctive and had made an impression on her, it seemed. She’d just remembered where she’d seen Aoi and Kanao before when she returned to the shop and heard about the events of that afternoon. She was furious.
“Do you have holes where your eyes should be?! Turning such lovely girls away emptyhanded? Business, you know, it isn’t just about chasing profits, now is it? Didn’t I beat that into your head?! Come on now, go find them! Damned fool of a son!”
The chemist apparently flew out of the shop with his mother’s roars following closely after him.
“Not only that, but she spoke to the fabric store owner, who’s a friend of hers, and we were able to buy what we needed there too and pay later,” Aoi said.
“Well, well!” Shinobu laughed. “This mother of his is quite frightening, hm? Nicely done, Aoi.”
Aoi shook her head so hard, it threatened to fly off. A cold sweat sprang up on her brow. “N-not at all! To begin with, it was my fault for forgetting my wallet. It just happened to work out because Kanao was there.”
“Kanao said the same thing,” Shinobu told her.
“What?”
“Did you manage to say to her what you wanted to tell her?”
“Wh—?!” Aoi lifted her face in surprise.
Shinobu’s gaze softened. “From the look of you, I’d say you did manage it, then.”
“Lady Shinobu …”
“Struggling with things is definitely not a waste of time. It’s necessary to train the mind and become stronger,” Shinobu said. “But I want you to at least remember this. You, Kanao, Kiyo, Sumi, Naho—you’re all my valuable helpers, my precious family.”
Without uttering another word at her superior’s beautiful smile, Aoi set her hands down on the floor and deeply bowed her head. Perhaps Shinobu had noticed Aoi’s complicated feelings toward Kanao and sent the two of them shopping together in the hope that something like this would result.
A complex mix of feelings welled up in her and filled her heart. For a time, Aoi was unable to raise her head.
When she left Shinobu’s room, it was completely dark outside. The pale light of the moon poured in through the latticed window.
Aoi had to put away the medicines they’d bought, cut the cotton, make bandages … Right, while she was at it, she should also set out some sleepwear and futons for the corps members so that they’d be ready when Zenitsu, Inosuke, Nezuko, and Tanjiro—the Demon Slayers who risked their lives to fight the demons—came back injured.
After all, I’m a member of the Demon Slayer Corps too. She tightened her hands into fists. She was surprised at herself. This was possibly the first time since she’d survived the Final Selection that she’d felt so happy and purposeful.
Would she someday be able to live with her head held high and not have the fact that she’d survived weigh on her con-science? Would she come to like herself just the way she was?
You’re going to be all right, a voice said. Whose voice was it? It might have been Tanjiro’s, or maybe Shinobu’s, or perhaps Kanao’s. Aoi’s lips spread into a slight smile at how naturally Kanao’s name had come out.
“Aoiiiii!” Naho called, sounding troubled. “One of the corps members on bed rest is asking about their bandages. What do you want us to do?”
“I’ll be right there!” Aoi composed herself and headed for the sickroom at a trot.