allendalepharm Chapter 69 Perhaps, this is what growing up is all about.
Chapter 69 Perhaps, this is what growing up is all about.
Chapter 69 Perhaps, this is what growing up is all about (1/4)
No matter how unwilling or how unwilling you are to believe it.
If you die, you're really dead.
Feeling the coldness on his back, Tanjiro gradually understood everything.
Tanjiro, carrying his father on his back, stumbled along, crying all the way.
However, as they approached home, the crying gradually subsided. Unconsciously, they raised their heads to look at the starry sky under the dim night and the constantly falling snowflakes. Perhaps, as long as they tilted their heads back, the tears would not fall.
Tanjiro wiped his face with his hand and forced a smile. He was the eldest son in the family, and now he was the one who bore the burden of the family. How could he allow himself to continue to be sad?
I gently pushed open the door, and the wind and snow outside blew in.
The gentle-looking woman put down the wood she was about to put into the stove, looked up at her husband who was being carried back by his son, and pursed her lips.
"Your father—"
Kamado Aoi woke up very early. When she discovered that her husband was missing, she searched the whole house and found Tanjiro missing as well. She vaguely understood what was going on.
"Father—he's just asleep."
Tanjiro tried to smile, but the smile looked worse than a grimace.
Seeing her son's appearance made Kamado Aoi unconsciously place her hand on the table next to her to support her somewhat weak body.
I was prepared for the possibility that my husband might not live much longer, but no matter how prepared I was, when the day came, sadness, confusion, and pain still overwhelmed me all at once.
As the only adult in the family, he could only grit his teeth and persevere.
"Yes, she's just asleep."
The kitchen door radiant sunflower bowed its head, its shoulders trembling slightly.
Tanjiro couldn't bear to look at his mother's grief, so he carried his father's body into the inner room. In the next room, Nezuko, wearing thick clothes, came out and happened to see this scene.
The girl's lips tightened instantly, her eyes reddened, and she felt so sad that she wanted to cry, but she was afraid of waking her sleeping younger siblings, so she could only let her tears flow silently.
Tanjiro saw his sister's silent tears and felt a heavy weight in his heart. He had told his sister countless times that their father would get better and had repeatedly given her confidence.
But in the end, my father fell asleep.
And I will never wake up again.
The winter wind was still bleak. Early in the morning, as soon as the first rays of sunlight touched the ground, Makomo got up early.
Donning a fine fox mask and grabbing his Nichirin Blade, Hiroshi Furukawa and the other swordsmen soon emerged from the room, exchanging greetings with each other.
"Please wait a moment, I'll make breakfast for you."
Saburo also came out of the room and started talking as he walked towards the kitchen.
"Grandpa Sanlang, let me help you too."
Makomo followed with a smile.
"How could we trouble you? Fighting demons is dangerous enough; these are things we should be doing."
"It's nothing. I often help my master and junior brothers cook in the Misty Mountains."
-
The girl behind the mask spoke softly, her voice gentle and melodious, like the song of a lark suddenly appearing in winter.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I, a hermit, should have arranged all this for you. It's my fault, I slept too late last night."
"It's because we disturbed Grandpa Sanlang; we should be the ones feeling embarrassed."
Makomo smiled and skillfully busied herself in the kitchen. Soon, the aroma of food began to waft out, and even the swordsmen outside the door couldn't help but sniff.
"Our lives have improved considerably since Miss Makomo came to live with us."
A swordsman patted his stomach.
"Yes! Miss Makomo is such a good girl."
Another swordsman sighed.
Then, everyone looked at Hiroshi Furukawa, who was standing on tiptoe and peering into the kitchen.
"Boss, what are you doing?"
A swordsman chuckled.
Hiroshi Furukawa turned his head and saw that everyone was looking at him. His face immediately turned red: "Hey, I just wanted to see when the food would be ready."
"I think the boss wants to see when Ms. Makomo comes out, right?"
One of the swordsmen spoke with a hint of sarcasm.
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Hiroshi Furukawa was somewhat annoyed and stepped forward to cover his companion's mouth. He didn't care about himself, but it would be bad if Makomo heard him.
"The food is here!"
A light, pleasant voice came from beneath the smiling fox mask.
Hiroshi Furukawa immediately stood up straight, trying to become serious, and then had everyone start serving the food.
The meal wasn't lavish; it was actually quite simple. But everyone was happy to have hot food in the winter.
Hiroshi Furukawa was also eating heartily, the steam from the food hitting his cheeks. Perhaps because he was eating too roughly, some food water splashed into the corner of his eye. He was about to raise his sleeve to wipe it off when a small towel was handed to him.
Hiroshi Furukawa looked up in surprise and saw a smiling fox mask that was slightly bent over, and a pair of beautiful eyes under the mask.
"Thanks."
He said something in a low voice.
"It's nothing."
The girl's voice was light and airy, causing the man's hand holding the rice bowl to tremble slightly.
The girl behind the smiling mask tilted her head and glanced at him curiously. "Hiroshi Furukawa" immediately buried his face in his rice bowl, as if to hide his flushed face.
Makomo, hidden behind the mask, didn't notice any of this. She just watched as everyone enjoyed the food she had made. Her beautiful eyes, hidden behind the mask, curved into crescents. She lowered her head and happily took a small bite of food. For a chef, seeing everyone enjoying their meal made her feel a great sense of accomplishment.
Just as everyone was enjoying their meal, suddenly, a boy with dark red hair and red eyes, wearing a green and black checkered Ichimatsu-inspired robe, barged in.
Seeing the large family in the house, the boy paused for a moment, then unconsciously stopped in his tracks, clearly not expecting guests to come to Grandpa Sanlang's house.
"Tanjiro! What brings you here?"
Saburo put down his work, stood up, and walked over with a kind smile.
Tanjiro knew it wasn't good to disturb Saburo's grandpa's house when there were guests, but nowadays, there were some things that neither he nor his mother could handle well, and some of them required the help of older people, which neither he nor his mother knew much about.
"Grandpa Sanlang, Father—"
He wanted to say that she was dead, but he couldn't utter those three words no matter what he said, and his voice became choked with sobs.
"Okay, I understand. I'll come to your house right away to help you."
Saburo glanced at the child and probably understood what was going on. He stepped forward and patted Tanjiro on the shoulder as a form of comfort, but he didn't know what to say as encouragement.
"I'll go inside and tidy up a bit, then I'll go back with you."
"Grandpa Sanlang, is that your guest?"
"These guests are also planning to visit your home today."
Tanjiro looked at the people carrying swords, and each of them exuded a strong aura of menace. Except for the woman wearing a smiling mask, the others all seemed like people he was not to be trifled with, which made Tanjiro's heart tighten slightly.
"They are all good people, not bad people, Tanjiro, don't be shy."
Saburo added with a smile.
Hearing Saburo say that, Tanjiro felt a little more at ease.
As Saburo went inside to prepare his tools, Shin walked over with light, graceful steps.
Tanjiro looked up, puzzled, at the girl wearing a smiling fox mask with her eyes closed and sporting bangs.
Here's a piece of candy for you.
Makomo reached out and offered a piece of candy that looked like a twinkling star.
Tanjiro naturally recognized it as konpeito, which was Nezuko's favorite treat. When her father was still healthy, he would bring some back for his sister every time he went to town to sell charcoal. But since her father fell ill, he hadn't bought konpeito for Nezuko for a very, very long time.
Tanjiro hesitated for a moment before reaching out to take it.
"Sugar is very sweet. Eating sugar makes the bitterness in your heart feel much better."
Makomo looked at the boy, her voice very soft.
Tanjiro looked up at the girl's bright and gentle eyes behind the mask, then lowered his head, his gaze slightly downcast: "Thank you."
"I've experienced similar sadness before, but you always have to get through it, and I hope you can too."
As Makomo gazed at the rising sun in the sky, she seemed to see Seito's enthusiastic smiling face, and her beautiful eyes lowered slightly.
At this moment, Saburo had already brought out his tools from inside the house. Hiroshi Furukawa and the other swordsmen had also finished eating, put down their bowls and chopsticks, and followed him out.
Tanjiro looked at the people dressed in the same clothes with some confusion. These people all looked menacing. He wondered what they did and why they wanted to come to his house.
"Your name is Tanjiro, right?"
While traveling through the snow-covered mountains, Hiroshi Furukawa approached and patted Tanjiro on the shoulder.
Tanjiro looked at Hiroshi Furukawa with some confusion.
"I want to ask some questions."
"you say."
"So, has anyone been coming to your house at night recently, or has anyone gone missing in the neighborhood?"
"no."
Tanjiro shook his head.
"Besides that, has anything unusual happened in the neighborhood? Like, anything particularly unusual?"
Something special?
-
Tanjiro immediately thought of Su Mu and Kanao, whom he had seen the previous night. They had appeared in the cave near his home sometime during the night, seemingly having lived there for some time, looking somewhat like refugees. And these people were carrying swords, appearing quite menacing—
What are you people doing?
Tanjiro instinctively became wary. Although he was a child, he wasn't stupid. What if the two people in the cave were really fleeing?
Although he had a bad impression of the other person last night, he was worried that casually exposing someone else's information might put them in danger.
"What do you do?"
Hiroshi Furukawa paused for a moment, then said as if joking, "Do you know what demons are? We're the ones who slay demons."
Tanjiro's eyes widened in disbelief: "Do demons really exist in this world?"
Hiroshi Furukawa stared into Tanjiro's eyes and, seeing that his expression didn't seem fake, felt a little disappointed. It seemed that the other party really had never seen a demon before.
"Haha—I was just kidding. How could there be ghosts in this world?"
Hiroshi Furukawa patted Tanjiro on the shoulder with a smile, then shook his head at the swordsman beside him.
Everyone was feeling a bit disheartened.
Tanjiro scratched his head, looking at the strange behavior of these swordsmen, and dared not easily tell them about the two people in the cave.
Although Grandpa Sanlang said these people were all good people, he smelled a strong stench of blood, the stench of death, and a strong aura of danger emanating from them, which made him uneasy.
However, the smell of that person inside the cave was just as unsettling.
Neither side seemed easy to provoke.
The boy continued walking forward, the heavy burden of his family weighing on him; he could no longer act like a child who didn't have to think about anything.
Perhaps this is what my father meant by "growing up".