𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 | 𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐨𝐤𝐚 𝐠𝐢𝐲𝐮𝐮 ‌

❄️ 56

"Welcome back--are you alright?" Aoi asked after seeing her being gloomy when she returned home. 

F/N perked up and gulped while sniffling a little. "Eh? Me?" She then giggled. "I'm fine!" She raised her left hand which is holding a folded letter. "I went to my old house and looked for this."

"Who gave that to you?" Aoi asked. "That looks really old."

"It is old," she says. "It's a letter from Onii-chan."

Aoi can hear the slight cracks in her voice. She pressed her lips in worry while looking at the hashira. She can definitely see the sadness in her eyes. "Why did you look for it?"

"It may contain some of his whereabouts and it does." F/N faked a smile. "I might try and start looking in the next days."

Aoi sighed. "Are you going to be okay?"

She chuckled. "Of course! I just got carried away when I started reading it...but I'm fine." F/N shifted her gaze towards the tray of medicine in Aoi's hands. "What's that for?"

"For the three idiots in the ward," she answered with a roll of her eyes. "It's the start of their rehabilitation training as per Shinobu-sama's orders."

"Already?" F/N asked. When Aoi started walking, she followed her steps. "What about Zenitsu-kun? Has his limbs reverted back to normal?" It's been weeks since the incident and F/N's still worried for the guy after learning that he almost got turned into a spider, causing his limbs to shorten.

"It's going to be Tanjiro and Inosuke first," Aoi replied. "Zenitsu's gonna join in after a week more of rest. Shinobu-sama said that he's doing fine already and his limbs are going back to normal."

F/N only nodded and continued following the girl inside the area where they are going to train; and there they are, bones and joints getting stretched by the little girls. The boys' expressions made the girl snort.

"How come I've never done this?" F/N asked with a slight chuckle.

"Shinobu-sama had enough of you," Aoi said. "You were always so stubborn that you train on your own even if you were ordered not to move after an injury. So why would you need a rehabilitation training?" F/N laughed awkwardly. 

"Aoi-san! They're done!" Naho yelled.

"Time for me to play tags," Aoi said in a bored tone and placed the tray on a table where Kanao sits before going to the two. "I've explained it to you earlier so I think you already know what to do."

"Just...tags?" Tanjiro asked.

"In other words, yes," she answered.

Tanjiro was up first, and so he distanced himself from Aoi and waited for someone to say begin. He's still exhausted from the stretching the three girls did, but he doesn't have a choice. He knows that it's for his own sake either ways.

"START!" Sumi exclaimed.

Aoi sprinted as fast as she could and Tanjiro tried catching up despite feeling dizzy. The two ran for like 10 minutes before Tanjiro got a hold of Aoi. She knows herself that she'll get caught so she doesn't care. After all, she's not the final person he'll face.