“Okay, firstly, what do you know about the fighting spirit?”

Y/N raised her hand, proceeding to explain like she was answering a teacher : “It's a thingy that lets you feel your opponent killing intent, right?”

“Yeah, that's very surface-level knowledge-”

“Humph.”

“Explaining it further, it's a very useful ability to have.  With it, it's basically impossible for you to suffer a surprise attack, and depending on how advanced it is, you might even be able to predict your opponent attacks.”

“Predict?! That's so broken! What an unfair ability!”

“Of course, I'm the one who created it, after all!” Akaza said with a prideful expression.

“Yeah, but even with this 'amazing' ability, you still can't win against upper moon two and one, right? So, you aren't THAT amazingGYAAH-”

“What did you say?” He grabbed Y/N's collar while emitting a scary aura, the girl immediately proceeding to exclaim in panic : “NO-WOMEN RULE, NO-WOMEN RULE-”

He let go of her with a sigh. “Anyway, as I said before, I'm not sure if a human can replicate it, but I guess it wouldn't hurt for someone so pathetic like you try.” After saying this extremely offensive thing with a nonchalant expression, he started to search for something in his pocket.

“But how are you going to teach me anyway?”

“With this.” He took out a blindfold.

“.....” With a blank expression, Y/N pointed to the blindfold in his hand and said : “Look, we aren't at that level of relationship yetAACK-”

“SHUT UP!” He slapped the blindfold against her eyes before she could even finish her sarcastic comment.

“Can you see something? How many fingers am I showing to you?” He asked, showing three fingers in front of her blindfolded face.

“Sixth-nine.”

“Okay, now that you can't see, we can proceed to the next step.”

“And that is…?”

“We fight.”

“Ahaha! Good joke! What happened to the 'I don't hit women'?”

“Look, I'm not doing this because I want to, okay?! But it's the only way, and also, I just don't KILL women.”

“I just can't see how this is going to work. Literally.”

“Easy, you need to be able to avoid my attacks by only sensing my intent in hurting you, in other words, without seeing them with your eyes.”

“… Hah? Did the acorn hit you too hard?”

“I'm starting!” He quickly approached her. “WAIT-” And she immediately received a punch to the gut.

“Damn you… hypocrite!” She exclaimed with a strained voice, hugging her hurting stomach.

“Hmm, judging by your hands position before, seems like you tried to assume a defense stance, right? Quite impressive for someone like you.”

“Someone like me?! I'm still a demon slayer, you princess-bubblegum hair!”

He only responded to her insults by doing a flick in her forehead. “There's no point in knowing how to hold a defensive stance if you can't do it before the opponent attack. Your reflexes are as bad as the rest of your abilities.”

“That's so mean! And why do you sound so happy?! Didn't you say before that you weren't doing this because you wanted to or something?!”

“Okay, round two!”

“AAAGGGH-” She once again received a hit in the stomach, falling in her butt. “you bitch-”

“.....seems like this will take a while.” Akaza commented, staring at the girl trembling in pain on the floor.

'It's not like it's impossible, right? I mean, Gyomei is blind, but he is the strongest hashira…but even so, that's so hard! I can tell that Akaza is holding back by a lot, but his speed is still scary!' Y/N panicked in her head.

“See? That's the problem with you humans. You guys depend on your humans senses too much, if you are like this now, what would you do if you were to go blind for real? If you can't overcome this, then you can't overcome anything else.” He crouched to her eye-level.

Y/N bit her lip, she has been through way more worse things than this, there's no way she will back down! Akaza is saying these things because he wants her to feel discouraged, and she's definitely not going to let things progress in the way he wants!

With a bit of difficulty thanks to the blindfold, she managed to get up on her feet again. “Again. Let's try again.” She said, forcing a strained smile.

After this, there wasn't much progress besides Y/N strengthening her resolve, so she basically just got beat up all night.

                           『••✎••』

“Y/N, are you okay? You look more tired than usual.” Ichika asked with a frown as she handed her a plastic tea cup.

During the morning, Y/N visit Yuki, during the noon, she, (and sometimes) Rengoku and Giyuu expends time with the kids, and during the night, she trains with Akaza.

So, when does she sleep? The answer is : She doesn't.

Well, she does doze off sometimes, mostly when Akaza tries to explain something to her (And he pulls her ear when he caught her doing this) so all in all, she's been sleeping for like… two hours a day? It's the same time an average modern person sleeps, so it's not a big deal…. right?

“This is only because she's bored! Playing tea party is so boring!” Hiro said, holding his own pink teacup.

“Really? I think it's neat. Invisible biscuits are my favorite.” Kota said with a straight face.

“Ugh- Yuki always played tea party with me! You guys are the boring ones! And what's wrong with the invisible biscuits?! You all don't have any imagination!”

“…. I can't see them…” Giyuu said, he really didn't match with the pink tea cup filled with a flowery pattern he was holding.

“That's why they are called invisible!” Y/N responded, patting his shoulder like she hasn't said the most obvious thing possible.

“What did you say?! I have a lot of imagination, it's just that tea parties are awful!” Hiro exclaimed back to Ichika, offended.

“They are not awful! They are our favorite!”

“For whom? You and Yuki?!”

“Uh- Guys, I think this is escalating too fast-” Y/N tried to interrupt the fight, but they ignored her and started to scream even more loudly.

“For your information, YES! It is mine and Yuki's favorite play! What's wrong with that?!”

“Yeah? Then you should know that you can't use us to replace her!”

“I would never replace Yuki!"

“Oh yeah?! We all know you are doing this because you know she's going to die!”

“Hiro!” Y/N exclaimed, but it was already too late, tears started to seep out of Ichika's eyes.

“That's… THAT'S NOT TRUE! YUKI IS NOT GOING TO DIE!” Ichika exclaimed, angrily throwing her tea cup at him. “I HATE YOU GUYS!” She ran away, crying loudly.

“Someone- sniff- someone had to say it-” Hiro said while trying to sound tough, but the visible tears falling like a waterfall from his eyes messed up his act attempt.

“…. Even if that's what you think, sometimes there are things that are better if not said out loud.” Y/N carefully commented, she wanted to avoid blaming Hiro, he was still just a kid after all.

“But Yuki is not getting better! That's why it will be better if Ichika gets prepared for it sooner!WAAAAAH-”

'So he's just worried about her.'

“I'm going to search for her, okay? I'm sure she will forgive you if you do a sincere apology!” Y/N said with a reassuring smile, getting up from her spot.

“I will help!” Kyojuro exclaimed, also getting up from his spot.

“We will leave Hiro and Kota in your care, Giyuu! I know you can do it!” Y/N exclaimed, doing a thumbs up to him as she left with Kyojuro.

As the two left him alone with the kids, Giyuu couldn't help but immediately break down in cold-sweat.

“She ran in this direction, so she's probably around.....” Y/N stop rambling as soon as she noticed a foot that definitely belonged to a kid sticking out from a bush.

“Pfft- I- I wonder where Ichika could have gone~” Y/N commented loudly with her very amazing acting skills.

“I think she's not here, let's search another place!” Kyojuro helped in the act, the two proceeding to patiently wait for the kid to move.

After some minutes, Ichika slowly popped her head out of the bushes and peeked outside….

“BOO!” Only to be greeted by Y/N's face. “GYAAAAH!!-”

“Gotcha!” Kyojuro grabbed the kid before she could run away, swirling her up in the air and then finally putting her down.

“I- I can't believe it- my best hiding spot-” Ichika mumbled to herself, her face in complete shock.

“Everyone is worried about you Ichika, so why don't we-” Y/N offered her hand, but the girl immediately slapped it away.

“NO! I'm not going back! Hiro is an idiot! He- He doesn't know what he's talking about! He only says stupid things! That's why he's a boy!”

“He… didn't mean to hurt you, and you're right, since he's only a stupid boy, and you're a smart girl, you may have to explain to him why what he said was dumb.”

“I do?”

“There's no point in running away if he won't ever know why the thing he said was terrible, right? I think this is a nice opportunity for him to learn, he just needs for you to take the first step.” Kyojuro said, proceeding to pat her head with a gentle smile.

Different from the expected reaction, the girl only looked down with a sad expression. “…. Is Yuki really going to die?”

Ichika grabbed her clothes, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “Sniff… when… when my mommy died, Yuki said she would be my mom instead… If Yuki is gone too, then what will I do?”

“You don't need to think about this possibility because we won't let that happen. So, let's focus on what we were doing before, okay? It would be sad if Yuki were to come back only to see everyone fighting each other.” It was Y/N's turn to reassure her, patting her head.

“Okay….okay…” She wiped her face with her arm, and looked up with a determinate expression. “Fine! Let's go back! I will give Hiro a good punch like always and everything will be fine again!”

“I'm sure he is eagerly awaiting that.” Y/N responded with a small smile.

“Can you hold my hand? I'm a bit nervous….” Ichika shyly asked.

“Sure!” Y/N immediately said, offering her hand to the kid, which she took with a big smile, before turning to Kyojuro and offering her free hand to him.

The three were now going back while holding hands, Ichika in the middle.

“Hehe… When we walk like this, it's kinda like you guys are my parents, right?” Ichika looked up at them with a happy smile.

“It seems like so!” Kyojuro responded to the kid, smiling brightly at her.

Y/N's smile suddenly dropped as soon as she realized something. 'Wait… if we are her parents, then that would make me and Kyojuro….'

She silently looked over at Rengoku, who noticed her gaze on him almost immediately. “Is there something wrong?” He asked.

“Ah! No! It's…. nothing…” She turned away from him, her face flushing in red.

He stared at her confused for some seconds, but he seemed to have realized the same thing Y/N thought of, since his face also suddenly flushed in red.

All I can say is that floor suddenly seemed very interesting to both of them.

Ichika stared at the two, and as soon as the kid noticed their red ears, a devilish grin appeared in her face. 'Now I see what's going on…

Don't worry, Y/N, I will help you in your romance!' And that was the start of a cycle that would soon cause our protagonist a lot of headaches.

       •────────✦❅✦────────•

[ Hi! Author here!

I'm sorry for taking so long to update!

To be honest, there are a lot of awful things happening to me right now, things that are too personal for me to tell here, but I'm currently going through a very difficult phase.

I apologize for venting here, all I wanted to say is that if you're also going through a difficult day or phase, I really hope that this chapter was able to give you happiness, even if it was for just a moment!

Until the next chapter! ]