Chapter 35: Nezuko Kamado
Before long, Tanjiro brought over steaming bowls of Ochazuke.
Kanae assisted by setting out the bowls and chopsticks.
Tatsu ate heartily, letting out occasional sounds of admiration.
Watching this scene, a faint smile appeared on Tanjuro's weather-beaten face.
A soft smile touched his lips.
Late at night, Tanjiro arranged for Tatsu and Kanae to rest in the side house.
Lying on the Tatami, Tatsu felt no sleepiness at all.
He looked at the moonlight outside through a crack in the window.
"Tatsu, can't you sleep?"
Kanae's gentle voice came from behind a curtain.
"Yeah."
Tatsu responded.
"I'm thinking about how to bring it up tomorrow."
"Mr. Tanjuro is a very gentle person."
Kanae's voice held a hint of laziness.
"I believe that as long as we treat him with sincerity, he will feel it."
"Gentle, huh..."
Tatsu muttered to himself.
He rolled over, and the scene from the original story of Tanjuro dancing on a snowy night surfaced in his mind.
That kind of brilliance, burning life to its absolute limit,
and that power erupting to protect his family, was exactly what he was pursuing.
"Kanae."
"Hmm?"
"Thank you."
"Ara, why so polite all of a sudden?"
"It's nothing, I just feel... it's good to have you by my side."
There was a moment of silence from the other side of the curtain, followed by a light chuckle.
"Go to sleep, Tatsu."
"Goodnight, Kanae."
"Goodnight, Tatsu."
...
The next morning.
Wisps of cooking smoke rose from the roof of the Kamado household, a signal that Kie Kamado was starting the fire to cook.
The white smoke rose straight into the sky, quickly dissolving into the morning light.
The side house, which was originally used for storing miscellaneous items and temporarily housing passing travelers, was exceptionally quiet at this moment.
The room's window was tightly covered with a thick black cloth, and even the cracks in the door were carefully stuffed with strips of fabric,
as if some creature that desperately feared the light was hidden inside.
In truth, that was exactly the case.
The interior was as dark as night.
Tatsu huddled in the deepest shadow of the room's corner,
wrapping himself in a thick cotton quilt, leaving only a pair of vigilant eyes staring fixedly at the tightly closed wooden door.
Even in such absolute darkness, his vision remained startlingly good.
He could clearly see the grain on the old wooden table beside him,
and he could also see Kanae Kocho sitting not far away, unhurriedly combing her hair.
"Tatsu, the way you look right now is really like a shy hamster."
Kanae Kocho sat properly on the Tatami, holding a wooden comb, gently brushing her smooth long hair.
"This isn't being shy; it's called strategic defense."
Tatsu replied in a muffled voice from under the quilt,
"If a single ray of sunlight leaks through because these old wooden boards are in disrepair,
I'll turn directly into ash. You won't even have a place to go to cry then."
"Hehe, you're joking, Tatsu."
Kanae stopped her movements, the corners of her mouth curving into a beautiful arc.
"If you were really that easy to kill, I wouldn't have stayed by your side all this time.
Besides... I believe your luck won't be that bad."
"Luck is something that can never be relied upon."
Tatsu rolled his eyes.
"Only absolute caution allows one to survive in this world."
Just as the two were chatting idly, light footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.
The footsteps were very light, as if stepping on cotton, making very little noise.
But to Tatsu's sensitive hearing, the sound was as clear as a drumbeat.
"Someone's coming."
Tatsu's voice instantly dropped to a whisper, and he huddled further into the shadows.
Kanae also pulled back her smile and quickly straightened her clothes,
returning to her usual dignified and gentle appearance.
She turned her head toward the closed wooden door and asked softly,
"Who is it?"
There was a moment of silence outside, followed by a young girl's clear and pleasant voice:
"Um... excuse me, are the guests awake?
Mother sent me to see if there's anything you need help with."
It was Nezuko Kamado.
Hearing this voice, Tatsu's body stiffened slightly.
Although he had known he would encounter Nezuko,
when this girl—who was extremely popular and had a wonderful personality in the original work,
but later suffered a tragic fate—actually appeared outside the door,
his emotions were still somewhat complicated.
Right now, Nezuko was still human.
She hadn't yet become that cute demon sister who bit a bamboo muzzle and could only make 'mu-mu' sounds.
She was still a living, breathing, ordinary young girl who could talk, laugh, and care for her family.
"Please come in, the door isn't locked."
Kanae responded gently.
"Squeak—"
Accompanied by a slight friction sound, the wooden door was slowly pushed open a crack.
In that instant, the morning sunlight was like a flood finding an outlet, surging in through the gap.
Even though it was only the weak light of early morning,
in the eyes of Tatsu, who had adapted to the darkness, it was as blinding as a nuclear blast site.
"Hiss—"
Tatsu sucked in a breath of cold air, instinctively raising his hand to cover his eyes.
His body shrank back desperately, as if he wanted to crawl directly into a crack in the wall.
"Ah! I'm sorry!"
Nezuko outside was clearly startled by the darkness inside the room,
and even more shocked by Tatsu's reaction.
She subconsciously thought she had done something wrong and hurriedly tried to close the door,
but her movements were clumsy due to her panic.
"It's alright, come in. Just... please close the door first, leaving only a small crack."
Kanae spoke up in time to smooth things over.
Nezuko cautiously squeezed into the room sideways,
then quickly turned to close the door, leaving only an extremely thin crack,
allowing that faint ray of light to barely illuminate a small area by the entrance.
As her eyes gradually adjusted to the gloom of the room, Nezuko finally saw the scene inside.
The beautiful older sister wearing the Butterfly Haori was smiling at her,
while in the deepest, darkest corner of the room,
the man her mother called "Mr. Tatsu"
was huddled in the quilt in an extremely strange posture,
with only his eyes exposed, vigilantly staring at the crack of light at the door.
Nezuko blinked her pink eyes, a hint of curiosity flashing through them.
She was wearing a pink hemp-leaf patterned Kimono,
with a dark brown Haori over it, and a red-and-white checkered obi tied around her waist.
"Um... Big Brother, why are you hiding there?"
Nezuko tilted her head and asked in a soft, sweet voice,
"The weather is very nice outside. Although it's a bit cold,
the sun feels warm and comfortable on your body.
Aren't you going out to get some sun?"
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