More fanart! This was made by Shadow'sBreak on Quotev and it's so pretty and I absolutely love the colors that they used.

Congratulations to hahadontfuckwithme on Wattpad for being the first to guess the military wife reference in chapter 22 correctly. The callout is somewhere in the chapter and hopefully, you're not too disappointed *awkward laugh*

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Tokito Muichiro had never had a pen pal. Ever since he'd woken up with no memories in Ubuyashiki's house, he'd been recovering, training, and killing demons. He'd never had the time nor desire to engage in things beyond those.

His reputation as a Pillar had grown large and slayers beneath him would always look up to him in reverence. After becoming a Pillar, he'd never thought of casually communicating with them. Many of them didn't deserve his attention, their incompetency almost making him puke.

It was all coincidence that he decided to keep the letter that junior slayer sent him. Coincidence and curiosity. The day before, he'd been on a mission with a group of other slayers. They weren't newbies so he expected them to at least be able to save their own skin, but they fell well below his expectations and died. When Ginko's teacher approached him with that letter, perhaps it was the slight guilt he felt for not killing the demon before those slayers died that made him accept the letter and send a reply.

After learning that they had communicated with a Pillar, Muichiro thought they would've been too intimidated to reply. Contrary to his thoughts, he received a reply within the next day. It took him two days to reply, by which he'd received another letter asking about his wellbeing. He almost scoffed while reading it (of all people to be worried about, this slayer chose to worry about a Pillar. How strange) and sent an immediate reply. Since then, he couldn't count how many letters he'd received over the past few months. Likewise, he couldn't count how many responses he'd sent.

"Oh! Teacher's coming again!" Ginko remarked and Muichiro looked up from his dinner. The now familiar crow landed on the railing outside the window of the Wisteria House he was staying at. Ruffling her feathers, she silently held out her leg for Muichiro to untie the letter from it. Unfolding it and pressing it flat against the tabletop, the crow hopping over to read it.

"Hello again, Tokito! How are you doing? I've been spending the last day at a fancy house with purple flowers because I got a little injured during one of my missions, but the doctor told me that I'll be fully recovered by tomorrow, so I'll be going on missions again. Sora also told me that the Big Boss up there (she called him something I couldn't understand. Oyataka? Oyaka? Idek) wanted me to go on a much harder mission with a strong demon slayer who was in the area. She didn't specify who it was, so I'm going to hope that they're stronger than me. I want to be carried, lmao.

"What else is there? Just wondering how you're doing and if anything interesting happened to you. Oh! Just had a sudden question, but how often do you meet the other Pillars? I heard it wasn't that often but I'm not sure why. Do you meet, like, once a year or every weekend over grandma's brunch spread? Wait, do brunches even exist? You know, breakfast and lunch combined? Did I come up with a genius addition to mealtime?" The crow stopped, glaring at the paper with a fire burning in her eyes.

"Continue," Muichiro demanded and the bird nodded.

"Putting my genius aside, it's been nice talking to you. Have a safe life. Sincerely, (L/N) (Y/N)."

Muichiro used to find these letters immensely strange. Disregarding the fact that she spoke so casually with him, the contents had always swayed from one topic to the other. It was obvious that this girl had no knowledge about Japanese etiquette and customs (based on her continued insistence that chopsticks were too much of a pain to learn) but he found that he didn't mind that. It made their exchanges rather entertaining.

He quickly wrote his response, knowing that if he didn't send one by today, his pen pal would start sending him mass amounts of letters (one time — after they'd started to routinely exchange letters — he'd gotten injured and slept through the day at an inn. When he woke up, Ginko's teacher was waiting by the foot of the bed with a pile of letters beside him. They all contained one or two words, generally being 'hey', 'reply', or 'hey, reply quickly'. He'd learned from his mistakes).

The crow flew away with his letter and he got ready for the day.

He spent the daylight hours traveling to the Wisteria House he'd be staying for the next mission. Since it was closer than any other inn in the area, he'd be able to meet the slayer he'd be partnered with there. Once he reached it, he ignored the other people trying to help him with his things. He needed to get ready and patrol the area a little before sunset.

He left his spare clothes in a room before swiftly departing.

The buildings around the Wisteria House were ordinary, so he decided to watch the civilians' movements to find any irregularities. He watched the people walking down the road and noticed they seemed to avoid the building near the end of the main road. Avoid it like the plague. He moved to that end of the road and saw a very run-down building, it almost looked like it would collapse in the next thunderstorm. Judging by the signs on the building that he could just barely read, it used to be a hospital.

Hospitals are always needed by the public. What could have happened here to degrade it to such a state?

The sun started to fall while Muichiro continued to investigate the area around the old hospital. As per Ginko's insistence, he went back to the Wisteria house to get some food before departing for the night hunt. He moved quickly over the roofs of the houses lining the road, the clattering of ceramic tiles practically nonexistent. Ginko was saying something he didn't pay much attention to. It probably wasn't important. Every footstep led to anticipation growing in his abdomen. What for, he didn't know. But the closer he got, the more unnerved he felt.

When the house was within his sight, he felt a tremor through the ground, a loud crash ahead of him as dust plumed up from the building. What was that? The house didn't collapse, which was good, but he had no idea what else could have made that sound.

"Caw!" Ginko looked at Muichiro in alarm. "What was that?"

"We'll see," He replied. It couldn't have been a demon. The wisteria flowers hanging on every ledge outside the house were still there and no sane demon would have ever approached them.

The sounds grew stranger the closer he got, to the point where he thought he heard the roars of a bear. Nonetheless, he burst through the door and unsheathed his sword. Hearing a shriek beside him, he instinctually pointed his sword in the direction it came from. The woman at the end of the blade gulped. Muichiro examined her purple kimono before deducing that she was one of those who lived in the house.

"Name."

"M — my name?" She stuttered, the fear clearly impeding her speech. Muichiro impatiently stared at her. "Ah! My name is Hoshi."

"What's going on here?" Hoshi's body trembled as she moved her mouth uselessly.

"I — There was — um — you see — " Muichiro clicked his tongue and lowered his sword.

She's wasting my time.

His eyes roved the destroyed courtyard. Clumps of grass were missing from the previously cared for ground, trees missing multiple branches, parts of the wooden house completely shattered, a bear in the corner — Wait a second . . . one of these is not like the others.

Muichiro stepped forward to the bear. It was sitting obediently by the wall of the house, its head halfway through the broken door. It turned its head just as he was within striking reach. It didn't attack, staring at him with big, black eyes that were deeper than the night sky. It was like he could see knowledge shining deep within them, wisdom that he'd only seen in a select few humans. It was a shine filled with a warmth that made his insides melt, the warmth of a sun, the warmth of someone precious. Those warm, starry, wisdom-filled eyes glimmered as the bear stared at him. He stared into them, almost getting completely lost in their depths. He'd never seen an animal that seemed so intelligent that wasn't a kasugai crow. Compared to other wild animals he'd encountered who'd see his figure and immediately be alarmed, the bear wasn't scared of him in the slightest, unafraid of his unsheathed white blade, almost like it was used to seeing blades like his own. This bear was far more fascinating than he'd ever imagined.

Muichiro, for better or for worse, found that he did not have any desire to harm this bear. He wanted to keep this intelligent animal who seemed to know everything close to him where he could protect it. The bear rose to its feet (its height on all four paws was more than his own. Surprisingly, he didn't find it intimating in the slightest) and walked closer to him. It pressed its nose to his arm and he raised it, carefully patting its head. A rumble rose within it, its whole body vibrating.

He was a lot more curious than he thought he'd be. It was like this bear reminded him of something soft and kind that he couldn't recall. Was it a memory from his past? Did this bear remind him of a feeling he'd received from a person before? Did he have someone precious to him?

"Master, why are you hanging around with that bear?" Ginko's voice dripped with jealousy and he sighed before dropping his hand. As he did, the bear turned its head away and pointed its nose to the house. He could still hear the crashes inside and it seemed like it was asking him to go inside and check things out.

"Ginko, go scout."

"But Master — " Annoyance rolled within him, almost like an aura projecting out to his surroundings. Ginko understood that he was not in the mood to entertain her and let out a saddened caw. The bear nudged his arm again and Muichiro nodded.

"Fine." He started to walk to the broken wall leading to the inside of the house. As he put one foot onto the engawa, there was a loud crash behind him. Dust clouded his vision as wooden splinters flew around him. He heard a sneeze from the bear beside him and patted its head distractedly.

I wonder if it has a name.

He heard coughing from the area the crash happened as two shadowy figures stumbled around. One of them, a female judging by the voice, started to yell.

"Get back here you — " The loud voice violently hacked into her sleeve and waved their arm around. She inhaled deeply and continued, " — you fucking degenerate!"

Whatever she yelled was filled with rage and malice so he figured she didn't call the other something very nice.

"No!" The other one was male and very, very scared. "You'll kill me!"

"I won't deny it! And it will hurt too!" The dust cleared and Muichiro was standing in front of two demon slayers. One very angry girl was rapidly approaching the other as he turned around, ready to run away. Dust was swirling around the girl as she moved, forming patterns he'd seen when the wind was threatening to blow him away. Muichiro stared at the two.

The dust around the girl makes her look like a cloud.

The girl was within reaching distance of the man (who had tripped over some debris and slowed down) with her fist raised. Muichiro decided it was enough. He needed to know what was going on. Between one second and the next, he went behind the girl, grabbed onto the collar of her haori, and pulled her away from the man. She thrashed in his arms and Muichiro discovered that she was as strong as a demon slayer who'd been working for over a year.

"What are you doing?" He asked her, staring at her face. It was contorted in anger, tinted red with a blazing fury directed at the man. She didn't even look at Muichiro.

"I'm beating him up."

"Why?"

"This asshole was touching that lady in bad places." She vaguely pointed to the entrance of the Wisteria House and he caught sight of the woman in the purple kimono form before. He eyed the woman, the angry slayer, and the pale slayer.

"So?" The female slayer's face fell and she looked at him in disbelief.

"Bro?" She quietly asked, "What do you mean 'so'?"

"He was just touching her. It has nothing to do with me." She grew angry again.

"He was touching her when she didn't want it! She kept pushing him away!"

Was it a bad thing to be touched?

"S-s-see?" The man stuttered, getting to his feet and plastering a confident look on his face. "What I did wasn't so wrong!" The girl let out a growl while glaring at the man who yelped, backing away five steps even though she was still in Muichiro's clutches. She whirled her head around to face him again.

"If someone you didn't know came up to you and started touching you, wouldn't you feel strange?" Muichiro nodded. "What would you do then?"

"I'd stop them."

"What if they didn't stop? What if they kept touching you even after you told them to stop and pushed them away?" He frowned, considering her words. "What if this person was stronger than you and stopped you from stopping them?" Muichiro doubted that he'd meet someone stronger than him and would do these things, but to humor her, he considered the situation. Should it ever occur, he knew he'd be beyond angry.

"I'd get very angry."

"But you wouldn't be able to do anything because they're stronger than you, right?" He nodded. "Wouldn't you want someone to help you?" He slowly nodded again. "You'd want someone to step in and stop them, right?"

"Right," His voice was faint as he slowly understood what she was trying to say.

Her eyes glimmered as she said, "So you understand why I was chasing that guy and helping that woman?"

"Yes."

It's like killing demons. She was helping someone weaker than her who was in trouble and couldn't get out.

"Good. Now let me beat him up." He let go of the girl and watched her pounce on the man.

"Go ahead."

It was a simple affair. The girl threw what Muichiro counted to be 26 punches and 43 kicks. By the end of it, the man was groaning on the floor, only half aware of his surroundings. He was so out of it that he didn't notice Muichiro himself coming up and kicking his stomach, sending him rolling across the dirt.

"Trash."

When he turned around, the girl was grinning with her hand held up. He stared at her.

"A high-five!" She said, gesturing to his hand. She smacked her palm with her other hand.

What is she talking about?

Seeing his confusion, she reached out, held his wrist, and placed his palm against hers.

"Like this!" Her hand was warm, rough, and calloused. She must have trained a lot to get that type of hand.

"Why are you doing this?" She hummed.

"It's like a festival? No, like we're both happy and we did something good together, so we give each other a high-five!"

"That's a waste of time." He took his hand away. "Just say 'good job' and move on."

She laughed. "We can do that too!"

Weird.

"Master, master! I found Teacher!" Ginko flew in with that crow in tow. She landed on his shoulder and happily rubbed her head against his cheek. "Do you think she has another letter for you?"

"I do not," Sora interjected. Her eyes went to the girl in front of him and she, seeing the crow's gaze, made strange signs with her hands. Her index and thumb were sticking out perpendicular to each other, and the rest of her fingers curled. At her gesture, the crow made a face she only ever made when reading out letters to Muichiro.

Would that make —

"I bet you didn't even introduce yourself."

"I was going to when I got the chance!" The girl huffed before smiling at Muichiro. "Hi! I'm (L/N) (Y/N)! Nice to meet you!"

Oh. It's her.

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Bonus Scene:

When Ginko ran into Sora after being dismissed — Ginko felt tears build up in her eyes as she flew through the sky.

Why was master petting that bear? He only pets me! What did that bear do?

"Young Ginko, what are you thinking about so seriously that you couldn't even hear me call for you?" She rotated her head to see her teacher hovering at her side.

"Teacher Sora!" Ginko sobbed, "My master left me for a bear!" A strange look fell upon her teacher's face.

"A bear?"

Ginko nodded. "A big bear that can't move fast or talk!" She covered her face with her wing. "How could he replace me with that?"

Teacher sighed. "He is not replacing you. He just met the bear. How could he replace you already?"

She looked at her teacher, blinking away her tears. "Are you sure? Are you really sure? I only trust you, teacher, so you have to tell me the truth."

"Yes, I am very sure." Teacher looked down to the wreckage where her master was confronting two other slayers (they were probably shaking in their boots in the presence of a magnificent Pillar like her master). "Besides, that bear is far too loyal to her current companion. She won't ever leave her."

Taisho Secrets:

— You didn't know your letters were initially annoying Tokito and that he'd sent replies out of spite. You were just happy you could communicate with him

— Don't worry, despite how little the author writes about it, you've been sending Tanjiro and Urokodaki letters at a minimum rate of one trip per week, a maximum of three because of the complaining Sora would've done had you written more than that. However, even though it's only around one trip a week, you've been writing letters for them almost every day, so Sora ends up flying with a stack of letters (back and forth because Tanjiro has been writing letters to you a lot as well)

— Sora cringes inside every time she has to read your letter to anyone because it's just so cringe-worthy to her. No, there will be no elaboration

— You treat writing letters to Tokito like texting

— Muichiro's sudden and strong attachment to Bearnice is unrealistic (and honestly a little OOC) but the author doesn't care because he deserves it

— Initially, the author had planned out the whole chapter around Tokito Muichiro having short-term memory loss, basing it on that one Adam Sandler movie where he falls in love with an amnesiac. However, after doing a little fact-checking, they found out that he doesn't actually have short-term memory loss, he just forgot his past. He can remember things after that just fine if he bothers paying attention to things. So they had to scrap the entire chapter plan and create a new one. They lament it cause they were going to write it really angsty and it was going to be magnificent but it is what it is

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Lmao, I made him a little arrogant in the beginning. It was fun. I'm not really sure how I feel about the ending and how you actually met face-to-face

'Soul' has officially reached 1,000 likes on Quotev and I couldn't be more excited. I never thought we would get this many hearts (given how saturated this fandom is with the isekai genre, lol) and I never expected that we would reach it so soon. I'm so glad that so many of you enjoy and wish to see more of my crack-headed attempt at humor. I genuinely mean this from the bottom of my heart. Thank you to the old readers who continue to read and enjoy the fic. Thank you to the new readers who are experiencing this fic for the first time and decided you wanted to see more. Thank you to everyone who's supported me, through comments or through private messages. I am eternally grateful for all of you readers and I hope you continue to support (Y/N)'s journey in 'Soul.'

Question of the day: If you've been in a relationship, what is the pettiest thing you've done after a breakup?

Credits to my best friend for giving me the question.