The way you are

Y/N let out a relieved sigh as she gently moved Muichiro away from her lap, taking off her haori and putting it under his head to work as a temporary pillow.

'Okay! Now it's time to do my part!' She slight slapped her cheeks to motivate herself. 'In the manga, Muichiro was the one that brought the new sword to Tanjiro, but since he's asleep now, I will have to do it in his place!'

“Kanamori, I'm counting on you!” She exclaimed before running off, without even giving any explanation or context to the poor swordsmith.

“HUH?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN COUNTING ON ME??”

She approached Haganezuka, who was still sharpening the sword, and swiftly took it away from him, it was so quick that he didn't even realize that the sword was gone from his hands and kept sharpening the air.

“I'm borrowing this, bye! Have a good night!” And she ran off in the distance with the sword in hands.

“The…THE SWORD! GIVE IT BACK!!” He tried to run after her with a murderous intent, Kanamori exasperatedly held him back while crying loudly.

'Uhhh, let's see, in the manga, Muichiro arrived only at the end of the fight and threw the sword at Tanjiro for him to use at the perfect time, but considering that he was badly poisoned, tired, and with a psychotic Haganekuza holding him back, I will probably arrive way earlier…. Ugh, is there a way to not mess up the fight pace?! Maybe I could wait in the forest and appear just at the right time to give the sword-'

“Whoa-!!” Her plan to 'wait' in the forest and just appear at the right moment failed when she harshly bumped into someone while running, their foreheads had hit against each other and both squirmed in pain for a few seconds in response. “Ughh…”

“AAAAH! Y/N! I'M SO SORRY-” She immediately recognized Mitsuri's sweet voice, the hashira exasperatedly approached Y/N, rubbing the reddish spot on her forehead with a concerned expression.

'Oh, right, Mitsuri was supposed to be running to find the others, and she saved Tanjiro right in.....time….'

“Are you oka-”

“No time to talk, let's find Tanjiro-!”  Y/N grabbed her hand, dragging her along as she started to run again. 'Okay, change of plans! Since she saw me, I will have to participate in the fight, or I will be considered suspicious…'

'Since we bumped into each other, it means that at least I'm going in the right direction! Mitsuri needs to save Tanjiro, so it would be bad if we wasted time talking-'

Y/N thought as cold-sweat from anxiety started to form on her forehead, she took out her sword and put Tanjiro's new sword in the empty hilt on her waist, she would have to keep it safely until it was the right time…

'Y/N looks so serious… So cool!!' Mitsuri, of course, was having the time of her life.

It wasn't long before they could hear loud sounds, and when they finally reached the location where the fight was taking place, chaos was too much of a kind way of describing it.

The other clones were gone and now fused into a single one, Zogakuten, though the previous ones already looked way younger compared to the original Hantengu form, this one looked even more young, like a kid.

Big roots in format of dragons were all over the place, one of the vines had a firm grip around Genya's body, one of the dragons's head was biting Nezuko's hand while lifting her up in the air, and another dragon had his teeth craved in Tanjiro's arm, the pressure about to crush it.

Mitsuri didn't waste time and jumped in battle, cutting the dragon in half and now up in the air with a confused Tanjiro on her back. “Kyaaaaa! What a monster!”

She looked back at Tanjiro with a bright smile. “Are you all right? Sorry, we are late, I barely made it in time!”

“K…Kanroji!”

“You just rest, great! Good Job!” Mitsuri said, gently settling him down on the floor. 'I can't hear her...'

As the hashira started to go up to the demon, Tanjiro exclaimed : “Wait! koff- It's an upper rank! Upper rank 4!”

“Tanjiro are you okay-? You look, uh… You don't look well.” Y/N asked him while trying to avoid saying out-loud that he looked like a bus ran through him. Twice.

“Huh? What? I can't hear you…!” Tanjiro asked, frantically pointing at his ears.

'Oh right, he was hit by a sonic attack and his eardrums got messed up a bit-'

“Are. You. Okay.?” She exasperatedly made a bunch of hand signals, hopping it would convey what she was trying to say properly.

'Why...... why does she wants to kidnap a dolphin?!'  Tanjiro wasn't able to properly interpret her signals at all though.

“Hey, you! You've caused too much mischief! Now give back Nezuko and Genya!” Mitsuri exclaimed to Zogakuten.

He glared down at her response : “Shut your mouth, you tramp! Only one person in this world can give me orders!”

She froze from shock. 'Tramp?! W-what?! Me?! Does he mean ME?! How can he use such a word?! He's about the same age as my little brother! Oh…. but demons don't look their actual age…. Still, that's a nasty thing to say!!'

The root dragons started to move, opening their mouths and liberating another sound attack :

Crazed cry of thunder death.

“Kanroji!!” Tanjiro exclaimed in worry, while Y/N sneaked around to try to approach Genya and Nezuko, since the demon was distracted with Mitsuri, now it would be a good time to free them.

Love breathing, third form : Cat love shower!!” She cut the attacks down with ease. “I'm mad now! You may look like a kid, but I won't allow this!”

'Wow… I can totally tell she's the one who named the attacks…' Y/N sweat-dropped as she approached Genya.

“Y-You!!” He exclaimed, but went quiet when she put a finger in her mouth to ask for silence.

“Uuuh… let's see…” She gave some curious knocks to the root. 'As expected, very resilient… haaah, Mitsuri really makes it seem easy when she's the one cutting it…' Y/N looked back at the fight.

Love breathing, second form : love pangs!” With her flexible sword, she cut down another demon's attack. “Sixth form : Cat-legged winds of love!

Y/N gulped, Mitsuri is so cute that she often forgets that she's actually crazy strong.

But she needs to concentrate now!

Seraphic breathing, first form : absolute severance-!

The blade hit against the root, though it was the same as if she had hit metal, it bounced the sword back without even taking damage. “Ugh… it's too thick to cut…”

Y/N exasperatedly looked back at the fight to check if the demon hadn't noticed her sneaking behind him while trying to free his hostages, luckily, he was more concentrated in Mitsuri.

'She can keep going at that speed?!  In that case, I will smother her with my own technique-!'

Blood demon art : Countless Striking Trees!

Various wood-dragons came in Mitsuri's direction in great speed. 'Kyaaa! A wide-area effect! Can I handle this?!'

Love breathing, fifth form : Swaying love wild claw!

'He's concentrated in Mitsuri, good! Let's try again-!'

Seraphic breathing, first form-

Zogakuten finally noticed her presence, side-eyeing the girl about to cut down the root with a tight grip on Genya, he was about to attack her, but Mitsuri also suddenly appeared in front of him.

He started to open his mouth, Mitsuri's eyes widening in concern. 'Hmm? What he's trying to do? Whatever, I just need to cut off his head-'

“Kanroji!” Tanjiro exclaimed. “This isn't his main body! Even if you cut off his head, he won't die!”

'Huh?! No way! Seriously?! Did I make the wrong call…?'

Compressed Sound Waves!

Zogakuten liberated a sonic attack from his mouth, Mitsuri being directly hit, losing consciousness and falling to her knees.

“KANROJI!!”

The demon finally turned his attention to Y/N, one of the root dragons advancing in her direction.

“Behind you-!” Genya exclaimed, she exasperatedly looked back. 'I can avoid that but- but then it will hit Genya-!'

She knew that she would never be able to forgive herself if she let him get hurt in her place, so she prepared her sword, squeezing her eyes shut as she hopped she would at least be able to hold off enough of the attack to not die.

But the thing is… the attack never came. In fact, even though there were screams and heavy sounds all over before, everything was silent all of a sudden.

She carefully opened one of her eyes to check what was going on, but jolted from shock after seeing Akaza literally holding the dragon's head with one hand like it was nothing.

“Y/N- RUN! IT'S ANOTHER DEMON-!” Genya exclaimed while trying to squirm away, getting even more concerned when noticing that she wasn't moving at all.

Akaza silently tightened his grip on the dragon, it cracking and breaking scarily easily in response.

“Y/N! GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Tanjiro was the one to scream now, he was having very terrible flashbacks after recognizing who the demon was.

“You…” She silently approached Akaza. “WHY DID YOU COME OUT, YOU MORON?!” And like a mom screaming with her child, she harshly slapped his head.

“OW! What do you mean?! In case you didn't notice, I just saved you-!” He angrily exclaimed back, rubbing the back of his head.

“Y-You're right- but- BUT!!”

Genya, Tanjiro, Nezuko and even Zogakuten himself were staring at the two fighting by themselves in complete shock, what was going on?!

“You messed it up, I'm totally dead now!! Why did I even think that taking you as a hostage would be a good idea?!” She started to cry loudly, grabbing her hair while panicking.

“In case you don't remember, you were the one who said in loud and very clear words that you wanted me and would take responsibility for it.” He shrugged.

“I NEVER SAID THAT-” She did say that.

'Hostage?! Responsibility?!' Genya sweat-dropped.

“Go back to the woods, NOW!” She started to harshly slap him continuously.

“Haaah, fine, fine, let me just finish that guy first, it will be over in a second.” He started to approach the demon while cracking his knuckles.

'BUT THEN MITSURI WON'T AWAKE HER MARK-!' Y/N jumped on him, attaching herself to his back and holding him in place.“NO!!”

“LET ME GO-!”

“YOU CAN'T FIGHT THAT DEMON!”

“DO YOU THINK THAT I CAN'T HANDLE IT?!”

“IT'S THE CONTRARY, ACTUALLY-!”

“.....what's going on.....?” Tanjiro and everyone present were starting to lose brain cells, well, it's not everyday you see someone having a casual discussion with upper moon 3.

Y/N leaned closer on Akaza's shoulder, whispering in his ear : “Look, this fight NEEDS to happen, okay? Don't interfere on it!” And she finally let go of him.

Zogakuten finally snapped out from his confusion, though he doesn't really understand the situation, it's clear that Akaza has a relation with that human and is an enemy now, despite the fear forming in the pit of his stomach from having to face his superior, he knew that the consequences would be greater later if he didn't do anything now.

And with this in mind, various attacks came in their direction as Akaza sighed in annoyance, proceeding to grab the girl and throw her over his shoulder like a potato sack, starting to run away from the attacks, it was so boring to him that he even let out a yawn while running.

“Y/N!”

“I'M FINE! DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME! MITSURI! HELP MITSURIIII!!” She exclaimed, despite the awkward position she was in.

'…!! That makes me remember!' Zogakuten looked back at Mitsuri. 'That girl absorbed my full attack and is still whole! Did she tense her whole body right before it stuck? But still, it was a brutal attack! Inconceivable! No. Oh… this girl has a special constitution! Her physique belies her muscle density? Good!'

He approached Mitsuri, ready to punch off her head. 'Eating superior flesh leads directly to gaining strength! And now that my opponent is him, I need as much strength as I can have-!'

Genya and Nezuko ended being liberated thanks to the mess, and though the three were still confused with the entire Akaza-Y/N situation, since he seemed to be protecting her for some reason(?), they went through with what the girl said and immediately went to the hashira, tackling her to the ground to avoid the deadly punch she was about to receive.

Just then, as the demon's fist approached, Kanroji's life passed before her eyes.

“Only a bear or a boar or a steer would marry YOU. Your hair's a funny color, the idea of passing that on to children gives one shivers, I can't possibly arrange a marriage with you! Please forget about me, goodbye.”

Two years ago, Mitsuri was 17 when her marriage arrangement fell through.

She has a special body, her muscle density is eight times that of a normal person.

When she was about 13 months old, her mother pregnant, Mitsuri lifted a stone weighting 15 kg. (33lbs for Americans reading this lol)

Her mother had always been unflappable, but on this day, she was shocked for the first time in her life.

Mitsuri also had a big appetite, she could eat more than three sumo wrestlers combined.

When the marriage negotiations ended, she realized she needed to hide her true self.

She dyed her hair black, and ate so little that she always felt faint. She told many lies and pretended to be weak, everyone in her family was worried about her.

Then a man come along who said he wanted to marry her.

However, Mitsuri wasn't happy, ultimately, she couldn't help but think : 'is that all right? Is this okay? Can I live the rest of my life this way? My appetite, my strength and my hair color are who I truly am… Am I pretending to be someone else? Is there anything I can do to help people like me? Is there a place where I can be myself? Is there someone who will like me for who I am?

This is strange…

Strange…

Huh? But… but there was someone like that, wasn't it?

Some time ago, someone smiled sweetly to me… and they said…

“I- don't you think I am weird? My hair color…and how much I have eaten….didn't it weird you out?”

“Why it would? Your hair is gorgeous, and who am I to judge how much you eat? People who say these type of things to you should mind their own business! Eat how much you want, use whenever style of hair you want, say whatever you want, I like you the way you are!”

'The way I am…? Really…?'

In that time, when Y/N said to her, she felt a gentle pain in her heart.

It was the first time someone said her hair was beautiful. It was the first time someone was unbothered by how much she ate, and even said that she can eat how much she wants…

'She said that she likes me the way I am…

That's why… that's why...

If I can have a little more time, then, I would really like it if I could spend it with her…

With the first person who said “I like you” to the REAL me….

Y/N.'

Mitsuri's eyes snapped open. 'Huh?! I must have passed out! Oof!'

Comment