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———

You and Tanjiro stared at each other, a steely glint in both your eyes. The setting sun shined its rays over the two of you, your elongated shadows fighting their own battles on the ground. You held out your fist as Tanjiro held out his.

"Are you ready, Tanjiro?" You asked, "I will not be nice."

"I am ready, (Y/N)."

Our fate will depend on this match. I can't mess it up.

You inhaled, then exhaled, steeling your nerves, not willing to show your unsteady emotions to your opponent.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

"YESS!"

"NOOOOOOO!! HOW DID YOU DEFEAT ME??! THIS IS THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL, HONEY BOY!!!!"

When Urokodaki came outside to check your progress, he would have definitely seen a weird sight. You were laying face down on the ground with Bearnice mimicking you while Tanjiro triumphantly stood on a tree stump holding the last of the deserts Urokodaki had bought for the two of you.

He sighed, shaking his head in disappointment, before walking back inside.

~~~

Urokodaki had pulled the two of you in front of the godforsaken waterfall. Even just looking at the thing made you shudder, so you turned your back on it, looking down over the ledge of the rock you were standing on, seeing the water frothing and mist spraying upwards, forming a small rainbow.

Hehe, a gay waterfall for a non-straight gal.

"The two of you must become one with the water if you hope to master the forms of Water Breathing," He stated as Tanjiro nervously looked over the edge at the height you were at. With all the time you spent with Urokodaki around various bodies of water, you knew not to waste too much time, plugging your nose and jumping in without hesitation, your feet pointed and (as Percy Jackson once emphasized) butt clenched.

You paddled to the surface just in time to see Urokodaki kick Tanjiro off of the ledge.

"NEEEEZUUUUKOOOOOO—"

Splash!

You winced as you watched him perform the most violent bellyflop you had ever seen. You hoped he was okay. Once, your cousin decided to do a bellyflop from the highest diving board in the community pool and they ended up with bruises all over their stomach and had to go to the hospital because their internals were all fucked up.

"ARE YOU OKAY?!" You yelled over the roar of the waterfall. After getting no response, you swam a bit closer to where he had jumped him, only to see him floating down the river, unresponsive.

Is he dead?

You had to drag him out. The poor boy was heaving water on the riverbed while you sympathetically patted his back.

"Feeling better?" You asked once he rolled onto his back, panting.

"Y-yeah," He stammered and you helped him to his feet. "Thanks." You gave him a smile and a thumbs up.

"No problem!"

The two of you were now standing under a waterfall. You resisted hunching over as much as you could, but it felt like tons and tons of bricks were constantly smashing onto your back, spraying your eyes with needles that made them sting. While Tanjiro was yelling to keep his strength up, you were doing your best to do Total Concentration Breathing.

It hurt like a bitch. A few times you even had to stop because you were so sure that you were going to pass out and that wouldn't be ideal, seeing as you were standing under a waterfall and would probably be crushed.

Like a grape.

You couldn't do it full-time yet, but you did your best to at least try and use it while training to help your muscles not collapse under the amount of weight you were forcing them to carry. Hopefully, you were putting all that food that Urokodaki gave the two of you to good use, burning it off and using it as energy.

Anyway, you still had like a year and a half to learn how to do it full-time, so you'd be fine. Probably.

Probably.

~~~

"Bearnice, Bearnice, friendly . . . mountainhood Bearnice~" You hummed as you and Bearnice walked through the forest. As she lumbered over the terrain, you followed behind her.

The two of you were on your way back from your weight and endurance training around the mountain, swinging two wooden practice swords around (since Urokodaki was convinced that you'd accidentally stab yourself with real swords if he wasn't there. He's probably right) while singing your rendition to the old Spiderman song.

The night air was warm and sticky, signaling the approaching summer, and not helping you cool down at all. You sighed, hoping that Urokodaki would let you just go home and sleep. It was a futile dream, but a dream.

"Bearnice, how far do we have to go?" You asked the bear who was lumbering on in front of you. She let out a single mild grunt. You put your hand to your chin and nodded as if you understood her. "Nice."

A few moments of silence passed.

"Hey, Bearnice, do you think I'd be able to cut a rock?" She looked at you with one eye as you used your hands to gesture a large boulder. "It'd be cool, right?"

She grunted again.

" . . . this is a very productive conversation—GAAH!" At that moment, you had tripped over a tree root and face-planted on the ground, the tip of the practice sword digging into your abdomen and knocking the air out of you.

You swore Bearnice let out a tired sigh as she turned around and sat down, waiting for you to stand back up again.

Damn girl. You got some attitude. I'M SO PROUD!!

"Wait, can bears even sigh?" You wondered out loud once you sat up.

You heard another, longer, more annoyed sigh.

"And this is the girl that Urokodaki believes could be my equal. An absolute idiot is what she is. She won't even amount to a quarter of what I am capable of."

The sudden appearance of a voice startled you and you yelped, crab-walking backward until your head hit Bearnice's front legs as she stood as well. When you looked up at her, her head was swiveling around to find the location of the voice, her nose twitching, and her eyes alert. Then she looked down at you and tilted her head in confusion. The action made you wonder if it was just a hallucination bred from your irregular sleeping patterns or something.

"Can you not hear it?" You asked her. She huffed, sitting back down.

You felt your eye twitch.

Does she just think I'm being my normal, dumbass self? I wouldn't lie about hallucination!

"Wait, she can hear me?" The voice sounded just as surprised as you were. You got to your feet, looking at your surroundings. All that you could see were trees and rocks. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Bitchass hallucination, come the fuck out!" You demanded. There was no response, only the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves. You scowled.

Is it a hallucination? Bearnice would've been able to hear it if it was a human or a demon. Has my intense training driven me to insanity? Am I going crazy?

"I hear you!" You spun around, slowly walking away from Bearnice. "Why is my hallucination hallucinating in Japanese?"

After a few more moments of silence (of which you were genuinely considering the possibility of you going crazy), you saw a figure walk out from behind a tree. They moved slowly, but deliberately, their clothes moving in the wind as the moonlight reflected off of something that seemed to cover their face. Your heart spasmed in your chest, a cold chill developing along your spine as you recognized the fox-masked figure.

"What—what are you doing here?" You muttered as Sabito (who hadn't introduced himself but you knew who it was anyway) stood in front of you.

A small gust of wind blew through the area, blowing your hair in your face and mouth while Sabito's gently rustled.

Your eye twitched again.

Are you shitting me?

"Why are you aware of my presence?" He asked although he used a lot of big words so all you got was 'why'.

"Um . . . " You started, still trying to comprehend that you had run into Sabito a year before his official debut. "Speak simplier."

He sighed again, a sound that was starting to get on your nerves. "Urokodaki's senses must have dulled over time. I cannot see any inkling of my former strength in this—" The eyes of his mask bore into you as he said, "—foolish, immature, naive child."

" . . . oof."

I knew he was harsh but I haven't even done anything.

"Urokodaki is the best!" You defended, "He is a good old man!"

"You have no respect for the man who took you in," He ground out. "How dare you call him so informally?!"

"I am not Japanese," You deadpanned, "I don't know the proper—uh—words for it."

Sabito, who had been giving off very violent vibes, stopped.

"You are foreign." He said it in a way that was more of a statement rather than a question like he was going over the words. "Then I suppose your conversational habits can be forgiven. But your fighting style cannot!" The sudden increase in volume made you jump. Sabito turned around, pacing in front of you, the jerking motion of his head causing his mask to slide down but he didn't seem to notice it. "Your attacks are sloppy! Even when using dual-swords, which relies on your balance, you stumble around like a newborn deer! When executing the modified forms, you waste so much energy just correcting your stance and fixing your balance before attacking! How can you proudly say that you are a dual-sword wielder without having the skills to back up your claim?"

You furrowed your eyebrows in concentration as you tried to rapidly translate what he was saying, but he was speaking really fast so what you got was 'You are not fighting well. Be better!'.

"I am still training."

"Then get better, quickly! How can you reach your goal if you're fighting like this?"

"What do you want me to do?" You asked, annoyed at the guy.

Who are you to tell me that I'm not fighting well? Out of the two of us, who's actually alive?

"I train every day to be stronger, and you are saying that I am not. How did you get stronger then?"

"I trained until I destroyed myself, then rebuilt myself even stronger from the pieces that were left."

You blinked.

'Dunno what he said, but it sounded metal as fuck.

"Will you train me?" You found yourself asking. Sabito violently rounded his head to you with a confused and mildly offended look on his face (you know, like the one meme of that girl with a high ponytail).

"Eh?"

You blinked again.

This bitch really thinks he's smarter than me when he literally just recreated a meme.

"Train me to become strong."

Sabito opened his mouth, most likely to reject me, when he stopped, putting his hand to his chin. Then he started to grumble something under his breath, sighed again, and met your eyes.

"This situation is not something I have heard of, however, if Urokodaki thinks that you have the potential to become just as strong as I was, then I suppose we'll have to work for it." You slowly nodded, eyebrows furrowed. "However, you must first pass my test for me to accept you as my new pupil."

"'Test'? What's 'test'? And also 'potential' and 'pupil'?"

Sabito stared at you.

"It seems we must also work on your language skills," He noted.

"YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?!"

Sabito told you that your training would start tomorrow night, so you should just go back to the house. He conveniently ignored your remark about him knowing English which made you make a face to Bearnice.

"Men, huh?"

She grunted in response, bobbing her head as if she was nodding. You patted her head.

"You get me, Bearnice."

~~~

The next day after your morning training, you and Tanjiro were laying on the ground outside Urokodaki's house on a break, neither of you having much energy to do much of anything. Your breath was coming out in large puffs as you struggled to regain your strength.

"(Y/N), can I ask you something?" Tanjiro asked. You opened your eyes and turned to him.

"Okay."

"The other night, when I had that nightmare," His face grew a little pink as he spoke while you nodded solemnly, recalling the breakdown you had seen Tanjiro go through. "I told you about my family. I was just curious to know about yours." His bright eyes looked into yours as he asked, "Will you tell me about your family?"

"Family?" You clarified, pointing to yourself and he nodded. You did suppose you knew a lot of stuff about Tanjiro's family, stuff even he didn't know at this point. It was only fair to tell him about yourself in return. Especially since you just appeared out of nowhere in front of him.

"My mom is nice," You started slowly, trying to find the correct words you wanted to say. "She makes good foods. My dad is funny. My aunts are nice."

You stopped there, sighing in disappointment. You knew you couldn't get the points across this way. It was hopeless. Your Japanese was hopeless. Everything was hopeless.

Uggghhh. Existential crisis, go away. I don't need you right now.

You felt a pat on your head. Surprised, you looked to see Tanjiro giving you an encouraging smile.

"You're doing well, (Y/N)!" He said, sitting up beside you. "You're working hard! You learn and understand new words every day, so don't feel too bad about not being able to communicate them well. Sometimes there are blocks in your mind, but one day, I know you'll get through it!" He held his other hand in a fist. "And besides, I already understand you well enough, so you don't need to worry about that!"

You felt your eyes sting with tears. You did understand a majority of what he was saying and you were touched. No one had ever told you that you were working hard. They all said that you were on the right track, that you could get there, but they never acknowledged the work you put into getting to where you were. Tanjiro was the first person ever to tell you this.

You sniffed, rubbing your eyes with your sleeve.

"Thank you, Tanjiro," You mumbled, trying to stop yourself from leaning into the hand that was on your head but ultimately failing. Tanjiro let out a small laugh at your actions, pulling you a little closer and patting your head some more.

"There, there," He comforted as you stopped sniffling. "It's okay." After a few minutes, Tanjiro asked, "You mentioned your aunts. Do both your parents have sisters?"

"Hmm? No . . . " You said slowly, unsure how the boy would take the truth.

He's Tanjiro, so it shouldn't be too bad, right?

Then again, this is early 1900s Japan, a rather conservative place where having multiple wives like Uzui is pretty strange.

Well, I won't know until I tell him.

"You know husband and wife?" You asked. He nodded. "They are husband and wife but both are girls."

For a moment, Tanjiro was silent. That moment made you wonder if it was a good idea to tell him in the first place.

"So they're two women who are married?"

You nodded. He was silent again

A bead of sweat ran down your neck, and not from your workout.

"Tanjiro? Are you okay?"

You looked at his face to see him looking at the ground, a rather contemplative look on his face. You waved a hand in front of his face. "Tanjiro?"

He jumped before sheepishly smiling, a hand going to the back of his neck. "Ah, sorry, did I worry you? My bad."

"Are you okay?" You asked again, leaning closer to him, wondering if he was really okay. You did just drop a bombshell on your poor friend. Who knows what's going on in that mind of his?

Tanjiro's face suddenly flushed pink as he leaned away from you. "Y-yeah!" He stammered, avoiding your gaze. "I'm fine!"

You tilted your head in confusion.

Is it because I leaned closer to him? Is that too close for his comfort?

"Oh, sorry." You sat in your original position.

"A-anyway, about your aunts," He continued, sounding rather awkward, "I don't think it matters much. If they love each other and are happy with each other, it doesn't matter if they're both girls."

You let out a sigh of relief, relaxing in your seat. If he didn't accept lesbianism, you weren't sure how he'd think of your sexuality.

"Is everyone in your country like that?" He asked.

"Like what?"

"Like—uh—they love people of the same gender?"

You shook your head. "No. How will babies be born without boys loving girls? Some girls love girls, some boys love boys, and some love both." You sighed and put your hands on the grounds, leaning against them. "There is more but I don't know how to say."

Tanjiro hummed before his face brightened. "I know how you could explain it so I can understand! Please wait here!" With that, he quickly got to his feet and ran to the house.

You turned to Bearnice, who had just lumbered back into view with a basket of fish swinging around her neck (yeah, Urokodaki had utilized her to be a fisherman). She, who had also seen Tanjiro run into the house, looked at you like she was raising an eyebrow suspiciously at you.

"Hey, I didn't make him run away!" You protested, "At least, I don't think so. And you have bigger things to worry about! Urokodaki should be paying you to do work! It's illegal for you to do work without being paid for it."

She huffed and shook her head which made you angrily pout.

"What do you mean 'no'? You need payment! Who are you doing this for if you don't get paid?"

She shook her head again, pawing the ground with her foot before walking to you and pressing her nose to your clothes. You gasped.

"Are you doing this for me??" You mentally sobbed at the thought of your basically foster mother doing this for you. "I still don't understand why, but thank you!"

When Tanjiro came back out holding some paper and ink, he saw you clutching Bearnice's fur with tears running down your cheeks, praising continuously praising her.

The bear looked at him with a deadpan on her face as if asking him if this was truly the person he had found himself caring for.

Tanjiro nodded solemnly in return.

You spend a few minutes drawing out whatever you could remember, using symbols for different genders and arrows and everything. When you finished, you slowly started explaining the concept of sexualities, gender identity, and lack of both to him.

"Okay, okay," Tanjiro waved his hands for you to stop. "So homosexual is when you love the same gender, bisexual is when one person loves both genders, heterosexual is when a man loves a woman, aromantic is when they don't love anybody, demisexual is when they only love a person they've known for a long time." He counted down the terms you'd gone over on his fingers one by one. You didn't know the Japanese names for sexualities so you just told him about the English terms and he ended up pronouncing it like a Japanese word.

As you watched him struggle through learning the terms, you admired him for wanting to learn so much of a topic that didn't affect him much. When you asked him why he was so interested in learning more, he had simply stated that it was part of your culture and he wanted to know more about it.

"Is there anything I'm missing?" When he looked at you with his curious eyes, he looked cute and it made your heart stutter in your chest.

You shook your head. "No, that's everything so far."

"How many are there in total?"

"Um," You rubbed your chin. "Maybe two-six amount?"

He made a choked gasp. "Twenty-six! Wow! How do you even remember that many?"

You shrugged. "I read it somewhere."

"(Y/N), do you have a sexuality?"

You nodded proudly, pointing your thumb to your chest. "I'm pansexual!"

"Which one is that?" Tanjiro excitedly asked.

"It's when I will love a boy, a girl, a boy/girl, a girl/boy, or anyone. I don't care about sexuality or gender or anything like that."

His eyes seemed to start sparkling. "So it's like you fall in love with the person's soul rather than their body!"

"I think? Though I don't really know what 'soul' is." You stretched your arms, letting out a little groan.

"(Y/N)," He looked at you with his gentle eyes and you felt yourself relax just looking at him. "Thank you for telling me more about your culture. I had fun learning more about where you came from."

You gave him an awkward grin, rubbing your arm and looking at the ground as you felt your face heat up.

Why am I blushing the fuck??

"Uh, no problem? Telling you is fun too."

Tanjiro let out a small laugh at your reaction, his hand coming to your head and patting your softly. You smiled, leaning closer to him again.

"Get up you lazy children!"

Behind Tanjiro, standing in the doorway of his house, you saw Urokodaki holding up a rock, his hand poised to throw it at the back of Tanjiro's head.

"NOOO, HONEY BOY!" You yelled, pushing him out of the way just as the pebble hit your square on your forehead. You rolled around on the floor, clutching your head with the area flaring up in pain. "OUCH, YOU SON OF A BITCH, THAT HURTED!"

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Taisho Secrets:

— The author was thinking of doing a very bad thing in the chapter but someone suggested postponing to make it even worse, so here's to them

— Sabito is currently questioning what Urokodaki thought he was like to think that you were like him

— You started a Bearnice Worker's Union For More Equal Fees To Be Paid To Bearnice (BWUFMEFTBPTB), but the idea tanked when none of the others knew what a union was

— Tanjiro thinks that you are a kind and good person to love someone for what their personality is, regardless of their physical appearance and gender identity

— Tanjiro wasn't very worried about the physical space between you two. He was flushed because he was thinking about your thoughts on marriage between people of the same gender and you just caught him off guard

———

Question of the day: A follow-up from the last chapter's question because now I'm confused, is simping for a character the same as having them as your favorite?