[ Quick warning before the chapter starts! There is a chance that I might not have wi-fi access in the next few days, so if I don't update for a longer time than usual, it's probably going to be because of that! ]

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"Y/N! You came here today too!" Yuki tackled her into a hug as soon as she saw her entering the temple.

"Yeah, we will be probably coming here every day..."

"Really? I'm so happy!"

Y/N was tired.

After what happened with Shinobu, the other two managed to escape with only a black eye, I mean, Giyuu did, Shinobu couldn't give one to Kyojuro since he only has one eye, and it would be bad if he were to turn temporally blind.

Besides this, after Shinobu finished checking the sick people in the temple, there was also the problem concerning the possible demon, so they all expend the rest of the night looking around the village and the forest, but no signal of it.

Was it really a demon that was causing this? Or it's just a normal disease? But it's rare for the corps to make mistakes like that, so they decided to stay around and observe for more time.

And since Y/N had to spend all the night looking for the possible demon, she didn't get to sleep.

"Y/N, are you sick? You can't play with us today?" Ichika approached her, Yuki also staring at her with a worried frown.

"No." She shook her head. "I'm fine."

"Be sure to tell me if you can't go on anymore." Kyojuro approached Y/N, patting her shoulder. "I will, don't worry."

"Hey! Stop being all mushy, you two! Today is playing swords day!" Kota exclaimed, throwing a wood sword at Y/N, which she exasperatedly grabbed before it could hit the ground.

"You two will play too!" Kota said, pointing at Giyuu and Kyojuro. "I will be the king of the mountain today!"

"Pfft-"

"What you are laughing at?!"

"Oh, it's nothing. It's just that you sounded like someone I know." Y/N responded, a small smile in her face.

"Huh? Who is he? Your boyfriend?" Ichika asked, tilting her head with a curious expression.

"...nah, kinda like my little brother?"

Back on the butterfly mansion, Inosuke suddenly felt like his heart was pierced.

"Who cares! Let's play!" Hiro exclaimed, grabbing Y/N's hand and starting to drag her to the garden.

"So, how does this playing sword's thing work?" Y/N asked, internally hoping that she wouldn't have to fight with one of the kids, she doesn't know if she will be able to control her strength against them.

"It's easy! We fight!"

"...oh."

"Since it's your first time, we will show you how it's done first!" Hiro said with a proud expression.

Y/N, a literal swordsman, just smiled brightly and nodded in response.

"Let's fight Kyojuro!" the kid exclaimed, suddenly pointing at Kyojuro.

"Me?!" Rengoku jolted, judging by his expression, seems like his concerns are the same as Y/N's.

'How do we play with them without accidentally send them flying?' The three present demon slayers seemed to be thinking the same thing.

They both stood in front of each other, Hiro smirking proudly and Kyojuro nervously trying to find a good position to start.

"TAKE THIS, ULTRA DEATH BOMB MEGA SLASH TWO THOUSAND BLASTER ATTACK!"

'Why is the attack name so long?'

The next events seemed to be happening in slow motion, when Hiro approached Kyojuro with the sword, he ended up defending his upper body by reflex, since normally the demons go right to attack on fatal parts like the neck, and what happened next was....

The kid hit the sword directly on his crotch.

It took some minutes for everyone to process what just happened, but the sight of the Rengoku trembling in pain on the ground proved that the flame hashira was just defeated by a ten-year-old kid.

"Ppfft-"

"Don't laugh Y/N, you have to hold it." Giyuu said, nudging her arm with his elbow, though his expression was still as cold as always, if you looked very closely you could see the corners of his mouth slightly twitching.

"I-I can't- pfft-" She slapped her hand against her mouth in a desperate attempt to stop laughing out loud.

"Hahaha! Y/N looks just like a puffer fish right now!" Ichika said, pointing at the girl while laughing.

"See! That's how it works!" Hiro said, approaching her while smiling proudly at his almost killing attempt, Y/N even noticed Giyuu slightly hiding behind her when the boy got close enough to them.

'Defeated the flame hashira and is feared by the water one, this kid has more achievements than Muichiro-'

"Since you know how it goes now, why don't you two fight?" The little boy said, giving his sword to Giyuu.

"....please don't do the same thing the kid did." He said to Y/N.

"Don't- pfft- don't worry, I won't." Y/N was still recovering from the urge to laugh.

'Now that I think about it, it's the first that I'm going to spar with a hashira in this life...'

Currently, Giyuu wins over Y/N in almost everything. Raw strength, mastery of the breath style, speed, and various other things.

However, if there IS something that Y/N is better than he at, it's sword technique.

She's someone who has been fighting with a sword for multiple lives, so she has more experience than any other human could ever achieve, not only that, there was also the fact that she had none other than Yoriichi as a teacher.

So, that's why, the fight that would probably have ended in one second if they were using their breathing forms, ended up being an equal fight.

The kids looked in awe as the two traded faster blows than what their little eyes could match.

'That's... that's so fun!' Y/N was quite enjoying this. 'When I use the seraphic breathing, I feel so much pain, but it's so fun to fight without it!'

You could see a small bead of sweat starting to form in Giyuu's forehead, it's not like he was feeling like he was going to lose, he was still able to defend from her attacks just fine, but the fact that she seemed to be having so much fun was starting to intimidate him a bit.

'It's not enough, faster! Even fas-'

CRACK

Y/N exasperatedly looked down at the wooden sword in her hands to see a small crack in it, she forgot that this isn't a training sword! She can't break Kota's toy!

And in this one second of distraction, her grip on the sword got too loose, making it fly from her hands and stab a tree some meters away from them.

".....ha...ha... I guess that I lost?" She awkwardly said.

"Wow! You learned all of that just from looking Hiro using that stupid technique!?" Yuki approached Y/N with her eyes sparkling.

"I now know my destiny... it's to be a sword instructor-" Hiro whispered to himself while looking down at his hands.

"We can hear you saying your thoughts out loud." Ichika said to him, slapping the back of his head.

"It was so fast! You guys were like floosh! Bloow! poow!" Kota exclaimed, making weird noises while trying to imitate Y/N's and Giyuu's movements.

"Aha-" Y/N couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed at their compliments. "I'm going to... take the sword back."

"How did you move like that?"

"Can you teach me?"

The kids started to swarm over Giyuu as Y/N left to take back the sword.

"Phew." As she grabbed the handle, she couldn't help but wonder...

If they were both using appropriate swords for sparring, who would win? Definitely Giyuu, but she wondered for how long she would last at least.

With a sigh, she tried to pull the sword, but it didn't budge. "Huh?" She frowned, stomping on the tree with one leg and trying to pull it out with both hands, but no effect.

"Wow! The sword got really deep in there! Y/N is really strong!" Yuki said, looking in awe at the sword that didn't move a single bit.

"M-my sword-" Kota approached them while tearing up.

"I'm so sorry! I will get another one for you!" Y/N exasperatedly tried to talk to him.

"You know, I read a legend about a sword in a rock one time! If you manage to take it out, you will be the king!" Ichika said.

'King arthur?!'

"But that's a tree-" Kota responded while wiping his tears with the back of his hands.

"Same thing! The point is that the sword was reeaally stuck on that rock, just like how your sword is now on the tree!"

"Wow! Then, if I manage to take it out, I will be the king?"

"Yeah!"

"Ah! I want to be the king too!" Yuki raised her hand.

"Wait for your turn then!"

"No! I want to be the king now!"

"I want to be the king too!" Now Hiro also entered the discussion.

"Hoho, I see you are all having fun in there..." The elder walked in their directions, a small smile in her face.

"Ah! It's grandma!" The kids exclaimed, running up to her.

"You guys are not causing too much trouble to your guests, right?" She said, patting their heads.

"Nope!" Kyojuro had his doubts about that.

"It's time for lunch, you should all go inside."

"Yay! Lunchtime!" And they all left like a hurricane.

"You three should eat too. You have all been working hard these days."

"It's no problem!" Kyojuro said.

"I see. Even so, I would feel bad about not repaying you all, so feel free to eat with the kids. I'm sure they would like to have your company."

"Well-"

"You guys can go first!" Y/N said. "I'm going to try to take the sword out a bit longer, I feel bad about letting Kota lose his toy and all."

"Be sure to call us if you need help." Kyojuro said while patting her head, she nodded with a smile in response.

As soon as they left, Y/N did what she said and once again tried to take the sword out, but it didn't budge. "Aaargh!"

"Y/N."

"GYAAAH!" The sudden call from the elder made her slip and fall into her butt.

"Oh, I apologize for scaring you."

"It's fine!" She quickly got up, dusting the (skirt/pants) from her uniform.

"Here. Let's eat together, shall we? Just don't tell the kids."

"...?" Y/N tilted her head, confused.

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"This is so good!"

"Is that so? I'm glad."

The elder had sneaked out some manju, and though she said 'eat together', she didn't touch the food at all.

"... You know, I'm really that grateful that you all came to this village."

"Huh?" Y/N stopped to eat to look at her.

"You might have noticed, but there aren't many men in this village, most of them left when the disease started to spread."

"I-I see-"

"The temple is doing its best to accommodate the sick... and the orphans."

"The... orphans?"

"Yes. All the kids that you see here, they are all orphans. Some lost their parents to the disease, while others had been abandoned for being regarded as too much trouble, they all have their stories."

Y/N did think about it when she saw all of these kids in the temple, but it was still a harsh reality to accept, after all, they looked so happy that it was hard to believe that they lost their parents or were simply abandoned.

"After you guys started to come here to spend time with them, they have been pretty happy. Not only them, but your doctor friend has been a great help too, everyone had already lost hope, but seeing her work so hard to find a treatment is making them have light again."

"... I'm glad but... Why are you telling me this?"

"... When I was younger, I used to have a daughter."

'Why did she change subject??'

"I lost her when she was only eight. But before she died, I saw it outside. A creature with red eyes."

'A creature with red eyes? A demon?'

"They said that it was probably a bear attack, or another wild animal..." She turned to Y/N. "But judging from your reaction, you know that it's not the case, right?"

Y/N's eyes widened in surprise, what a vigilant old lady!

"You and your group of friends are not simple travelers, am I right?"

"I... I-" Y/N couldn't find a proper excuse.

"What I am trying to say, is that for what I saw, you don't seem like bad people. So, whatever is your objective here, please help us."

"... You don't need to ask for help, that's what we came here for in the first place! Just don't tell anyone, okay?"

"I wasn't planning to."

"Eeeh?! Y/N was having lunch with grandma?! That's so unfair!" The faint scream of the kids in the distance could be heard.

"Oh my, seems like the kids caught us-"

"Yeah, guess I'm in trouble-" Y/N responded, giggling a bit.

"I will be leaving. And please remember what I said."

"Come on Y/N! Let's make onigiri!" Yuki said, pulling her arm.

"I can't cook-"

"It's fine! We will all do it together!"

For a second, Y/N thought : 'the power of friendship even helped me to bring an upper moon to the good side, surely it will be enough to make some rice triangles, right?', and with this in mind, she let Yuki drag her inside the temple and directly to the kitchen, the other children were already there, Kyojuro and Giyuu also there with exhausted expressions.

So let's go with a quick onigiri making tutorial!

Firstly, you need cooked rice, season it with furikake, and then mold it into a triangular shape, wrap it on nori seaweed, and the onigiri is re-

"Why there are square onigiri?" Ichika said, frowning as she looked at the tray with three lines of normal onigiris, and a fourth line with very peculiar square-shaped onigiri.

"Forget about the square part, what's up with this ominous purple aura they are emitting?" Kota said, also frowning.

By now, you can probably already tell who made these.

"I'm sorry- I told you guys that I couldn't do it-"

"It's okay- what scares me the most is that we all did it together, and we all observed you in the process, so how come yours ended up like that?" Yuki seemed utterly surprised.

'Power of friendship, I trusted in you!' Y/N held down the urge to cry.

"It's fine! The shape can be anything, what matters is the taste!" Kyojuro said brightly, unfortunately, the only ones that knew the dangers of Y/N's cooking were the kamaboko squad, who weren't present at the moment to save their lives.

"That's right! Though I don't know how you managed to make the triangles into squares, since everyone made the rice together, at least the taste will be the same!" Yuki cheerfully said.

"You guys are not seeing this dangerous aura?!" Kota once again said, but was ignored.

"Let's eat!" Hiro exclaimed, taking one of Y/N's onigiris and biting into it, a crack sound echoed through the whole kitchen.

"What- what was this sound?! It's like he bit into a rock-" Ichika whisper-yelled to Yuki, but what surprised everyone the most was when Hiro took the rock-onigiri out of his mouth and spited out a tooth.

Everyone stared in complete shock at the tooth on the floor, before Y/N exclaimed :

"AAAAAAAAAH- I'M SO SORRY, HIRO! I'M GOING TO PUT IT BACK, OPEN YOUR MOUTH-"

"Y/N LET HIM GO-"

"MILK- WE HAVE TO PUT IT ON MILK BEFORE HE-"

"My first baby tooth!" Hiro grabbed it from the floor with his eyes sparkling. "Now I can give it to the tooth fairy!"

"....t-the tooth fairy?" Y/N repeated his last statement, confusedly stopping her cries.

"You didn't hear about the tooth fairy before Y/N? Ha! You're so outdated sometimes!" Ichika said, before proceeding to explain with a proud expression : "The tooth fairy is a very nice lady that gives you money in trade of your teeth! All you have to do is leave your tooth under your pillow and when you wake in the next morning, the money is there!"

"Wow! I want money too!" Yuki said with her eyes sparkling. "Give me the rock-onigiri Hiro!"

"What?! No! This one is mine! It's my prized rock-onigiri! You can take one of the others!"

"C-can you guys stop calling it rock-onigiri? It's kinda hurting my feelings-" Y/N tiredly commented, but was ignored.

"Humph, guess I will have to take one of the others then-" Yuki said, turning to the tray on the table to see that there was only the normal onigiris left. "What?!"

"MUAHAHA! ALL THE ROCK-ONIGIRIS ARE MINE NOW!" Kota said, all of the five left Y/N's onigiris in his arms as he ran to leave the kitchen.

"NOOOO! THAT'S NOT FAIR!"

Kyojuro blocked the door before the kid could go through it. "Little guy, these things are dangerous, okay? So, slowly put it down-"

'Did he just say that my cooking dangerous?' Y/N thought as she stood in the other corner of the room, without knowing whether she should be offended or not.

"Get out of my way, old man!" Kota said, grabbing one of the onigiris and throwing it at him, the 'food' making a curve in the air that challenged all the laws of physics and hitting Giyuu's forehead spot-on.

"Old man?!" Kyojuro took a while to process the fact that he was called that.

"Giyuu! Don't dieeee!" Y/N quickly went to aid him, who was just laying on the floor with a big swelling on his forehead, staring blankly at the ceiling. "Don't fall sleep! Do you hear me?! DON'T FALL SLEEP! WAAAAA-"

"YOU MADE Y/N CRY!" Yuki angrily exclaimed, taking the rock-onigiri that hit Giyuu from the floor and throwing it at Kota, striking his arm.

"OUCH! YOU LITTLE-" Kota took another one of the onigiris and threw it in Yuki's direction, hitting the back of Ichika's head, who happened to walk on the way.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" She said, angrily taking the food (if I can even call that food) and starting to run after him. "AAAAAH! ICHIKA TURNED INTO A BANSHEE AGAIN-"

"Old man...." Kyojuro whispered to himself, he was still standing in the same place, in complete shock.

"How many fingers are you seeing Giyuu?!"

"Wow! I wonder how much money I will get from it!" Hiro was daydreaming about money in the middle of all this chaos.

"You are too young to die, Giyuu!!"

"Do I really look like an old man...?"

"KILL HIM ICHIKA!"

"I WILL!"

"NOOOOO- I'M SOOOORRY!"

The loud screams and panic immediately stopped when someone suddenly slammed the kitchen door open.

"I'm trying to work. Why is everyone screaming?" Shinobu stood there, her smile menacing.

"Shinobu!" Y/N tackled her into a hug while crying. "Giyuu is dying!"

"He is?!" Her menacing aura was immediately gone. "Oh- I mean-... He is?"

"Kyojuro said that my cooking is dangerous, but I didn't think he was being serious! How can I live knowing that I killed the water hashira with an onigiri?!" Y/N started to say a bunch of things that sounded very weird without context.

"I see, I see." She patted her head.

"ow..." Giyuu finally sat up, rubbing his forehead.

"Giyuu! You are alive!" Y/N excitedly said, letting go of Shinobu.

"barely."

"Well, since everyone is alive, can you guys tell me why are there square-shaped onigiris all over the floor?" Shinobu said.

Everyone just stared directly at Y/N in response.

"Oh my- You tried cooking again.?"

"I'm sorry-"

"It's okay! We all make mistakes!" Shinobu patted her head.

"wow- Y/N is friends with the witch!" Kota whispered to the other kids, who looked at the girl in complete admiration.

Shinobu didn't kill anyone this time, and only left with a 'friendly' warning for them to not make too much noise.

Giyuu would probably have to put a curative in his forehead, and it would take a while for Kyojuro to get over being called 'old man', but at least everyone is fine and healthy this time!

Yuki suddenly started coughing.

....maybe not everyone.

"...Yuki? There's blood-!"