“Don't talk to me all friendly-like!” Sanemi exclaimed at Genya. “And from what I've seen, you have no talent! Just quit the demon slayer corps!”

Genya looked down. “…”

“Someone who can't even use breathing shouldn't call himself a swordsman.”

“…but…” Sanemi started to simply walk off, Y/N and Tanjiro staring in total shock.

“W-wait! Sanemi! I've wanted to apologize for a long time!”

'You can do it, Genya!' Tanjiro cheered for him in his mind. 'Don't let him win!'

Y/N sighed. 'It's no use, at this point of the plot Sanemi is still…'

Sanemi halted at Genya's words. “Seriously, I don't care.” He shook his hand like he was trying to shake him off. “So get lost.”

'Yeah, he's still like this.' She finished her thoughts as she and Tanjiro stared at the whole ordeal.

“But… I…” Genya frowned sadly. “I fought so hard. I even ate a demon!”

“?!” Sanemi finally turned back to him after hearing these words. “What? What did you just say…? A demon? You ate one?”

The mood suddenly got tense, as Sanemi suddenly vanished in thin air.

'He disappeared!' Genya thought in shock, as Tanjiro ran in his direction.

“Genya!!” He tackled him out of the way, avoiding Sanemi's attack by centimeters, he seemed about to poke his eyes out.

They both tackled the wall, breaking through it and falling outside.

“WAAAH!” Zenitsu and the other demon slayers exclaimed. “He's back! He's back! So cold-blooded! Get down! Pretend you're passed out!”

Zenitsu then noticed Tanjiro protectively standing in front of Genya. “Huh? Tanjiro?!”

'Huh? He'll kill you, Tanjiro! Why are you breaking the wall like that?!'

“Stop!” Tanjiro exclaimed, looking in the direction where he just broke through.

'?! What is that tortured and ominous sound?!' Zenitsu stared at the situation, totally creeped out.

The sound was Sanemi, who stepped outside the house while looking like a madman.

'AAAAGH! That guy is on a rampage! And I'm gonna get pounded even though I'm not training with him today?!'

“What are you doing?! Do you want to kill Genya?!” Tanjiro screams at him.

“I won't kill him. That'd be easy, but it's against the corps rules.” Sanemi menacingly stepped outside. “I'll damage him beyond repair instead! However, if he quits the demon slayer corps right now. I'll forgive him.” He completed while smiling like a psycho.

“Knock it off!! You don't have the right to do that! You can't force him to quit!” Tanjiro exclaims back. “Didn't you say earlier that you don't have a little brother?! Then keep your mouth shut about what Genya chooses! Whether he has talent or not, he decided to risk his life to fight demons!”

Genya stared at Tanjiro in awe, as he kept going with his speech. “If you say you're not his older brother, then I won't let you interfere with Genya! If not for him, we wouldn't have defeated that upper-rank demon! And I won't let you hurt him beyond recovery!”

Sanemi seemed to have got even more mad at this, his smile turning even more creepy. “Ohhh? Then first I'll hurt YOU beyond recovered!”

'Here he comes… here he comes…' He appeared in front of Tanjiro instantly, and immediately went to punch his stomach, lifting the boy up in the air.

“Whoa! Tanjiro!”

Sanemi's eyes widened. 'This guy..' Tanjiro held his fist with all of his strength, stopping it before it reached his stomach. 'Stopped me!'

Tanjiro spun. “Rrgh!!” And kicked the side of Sanemi's head, both falling back down on the ground.

'Whoa! He got in a blow!' Zenitsu jumped, everybody around stared at him in shock.

Y/N silently stepped outside the house, though she was looking down and was moving like some kind of zombie. 'Whoa! Y/N is here too! And she's acting weird!!'

“Zenitsu! Get Genya out of here! Please!” Tanjiro exclaims.

'ARE YOU SOME KIND OF IDIOT?! DON'T SAY MY NAME, MORON!' Zenitsu panicked as Tanjiro winked cutely at him. 'SIGNAL SOME BETTER WAY!'

“Tanjiro!” Genya exclaimed as Sanemi suddenly also spun on the ground and tried to kick him, he managed to dodge, but his ear got cut and started bleeding.

'He just grazed my ear, but he cut it! With a kick!'

“You've got some nerve!” Sanemi was madder than ever. “It seems you want to die, so I'll just kill you like you want.”

“Wait! Tanjiro has nothing to do-”

Whatever Genya was trying to say, it was cut short when Y/N suddenly tackled Sanemi, they both rolled around the ground.

'NOO! Y/N! WHY DID YOU GET INTO FIGHT?! YOUR PRETTY FACE'S GONNA GET HURT!' Zenitsu panicked even more.

'Why I am doing this? This wasn't something I needed to intervene in.' Y/N blankly thought as she quickly sat up and took some steps back from Sanemi. 'Oh… I got it. I think I am frustrated. I am frustrated because I've dedicated so much to save the lives of these people, but they always treat it so flippantly. Why would you hurt your brother? Why would you say these things to him? You love him, don't you? Why would you hurt Tanjiro, who has nothing to do with this?'

“Oh wow! That's new! So, you decided to drop the angel act?!” Sanemi exclaimed back at her, he seemed ready to attack at any second.

'I got it. He acts like this because he doesn't know how dying feels like.' She took a deep breath. 'That's fine, I will show him. It's okay, this is just another one of many timelines anyway. I will just do it all over once more, maybe in the next one I will just kill Akaza from the start, it will spare me from all the trouble.' She took a step-closer to him with cold, dead-looking eyes.

“Hey, what's the deal with you?” Sanemi frowned, in a mix of rage and confusion.

“I thought you wanted me to stop smiling.” She coldly responds.

'It will be over soon-'

CAW.

She jolted a bit, and then turned to stare at the sound. A white crow was on the roof of the house, staring directly at her.

'Shiro..? Why ar-' She felt a harsh pain, oh, Sanemi punched her while she got distracted.

She fell down on the ground and started breathing heavily, all while her eyes were still locked on the crow. 'Why are you staring at me like this…? Like you're disappointed in me…?'

“Y/N! Hey! Are you okay?!” Tanjiro approached the girl, kneeling beside her and starting to shook her lightly.

“Y/NNNN! YOUR NOSE! YOUR NOSE IS BLEEDING!” Zenitsu also screeched in a panic, sitting beside her and crying.

Sanemi wouldn't admit this out-loud, but he did punch her a bit more harshly than it was actually necessary.

However, as surprising as this may sound, he didn't actually mean to do that, it's just that… the way she looked… scared him for a second. It was purely a reflex because somehow, he actually felt like he was in a danger for a split moment.

“Hey! Are you hearing?! Y/N! Hey!” Tanjiro panicked even more, she just sat there with a dazed-look while her nose kept bleeding.

'What… what was I thinking…?' She looked down at her hands, her body shaking a bit. 'Was I… Was I always capable of thinking such terrible things…?'

It was a fact that everything that has been happening was taking a toll on her. Douma. Akaza. Akaza's words from their last encounter. The constant reminder of how little her efforts actually mean.

Y/N felt like something inside her was slowly crumbling.

… And the worst part is that she didn't know how to stop it.

She was suddenly pulled out from her panicked thoughts when her cheeks were suddenly grabbed by someone.

“YYY/NNN! WHAT SHOULD WE DO?!” Zenitsu cried while cupping her cheeks in his hands. “Your pretty nose!! He hit right on your pretty nose! This can't beee! WAAAH! My little angel! WAAAH!”

She stared at him, wide-eyed, as he kept whining about how her cute face was hurt. As she kept looking at him, she couldn't help but start to tear-up. “You're such an idiot…”

“Wha-" He stopped crying, taken aback by the sudden insult.

“Why are you… sniff… such an idiot… sniff… who cares about my nose…” She sobbed a bit. “Look at the situation, you… idiot… sniff…” Y/N didn't want to admit it, but seeing him acting like such a dork made her feel a bit better, he accidentally distracted her with his antics.

Tanjiro looked down at her crying with a frown, Oh. How he hated seeing her cry. It was probably one of the things he hated the most in the world.

“H-Hey, Tanjiro..” Genya approached him while sweating nervously, his expression was scaring him a bit, and he wanted to guarantee that he wasn't planning on actually killing his older brother.

He started walking in Sanemi's directions with a murderous aura as Genya panicked behind him. “Are you even still doing this to help me at this point?!”

Seeing Tanjiro made Sanemi snap out of his surprise, his psycho smile appeared back on his face and he exclaimed : “Hah! So, you're ready for the second round?!”

After this, Sanemi and Tanjiro's brawl continued until early evening, it was a big mess, numerous other swordsmen had to get in between to separate them.