Tanjiro and Kanao have settled down in their new family home just a few metres away from Tanjiro's ancestral home, and have given birth to four healthy children- one of who is Azami, a ten-year-old girl and the oldest child of the Kamado family. Yet...
Nine years later, 1928, in a small house by the hills
"Azami! Time to fetch the water!"
Azami heard the gentle voice of her father behind her. She really didn't want to get up just for water.
"Father, can't you send someone else to go instead?"
Her father emerged from behind the curtains that separated the common hall from the kitchen. His right hand was on his hips and his eyebrows were scrunched in slight annoyance as he was greeted with the sight of his eldest daughter sprawled face down on the futon. "But if you don't do it, then who will? You are the strongest child in the family who is capable of lifting two entire buckets of water."
"Why can't you do it instead, Father?"
"Remember, I only have one working hand," he lifted his right hand only to prove his point, "so I can only carry a single bucket. But you have two, strong hands! Besides, I have to help your mother with the cooking, so it's best if you do your father a favour for him, right?"
Azami considered this thought.
"But it's really cold outside, and I don't want to get up now, not when it is warm in here."
"You'll be fine! You won't die of a small cold!"
"Father!" Azami pouted at him, hoping her father would relent and send someone else instead. But he simply walked over to her and sat down next to her.
"Azami, you are the oldest child in this family. You are a role model to the rest of your siblings. They will look up to you as the ideal sister and the ideal friend. If you are not around to teach them how to behave, who will?" Her father gently stroked her crimson-striped hair as he patiently explained this to her. Though Azami loved it when her father did this, she wouldn't relent so easily.
Father then came up close to her ear and whispered, "If you get this done quickly, I'll give you extra helpings of onigiri. Today, we have your favourite tuna-belly onigiri!"
Azami's head perked up, and her eyes widened. "Really?"
Her father nodded his head. He was never known to lie to her. Ever.
"Well, fine. But only because you're asking so nicely." Azami pretended to be reluctant about the entire idea of grabbing water just for food, but deep down, she was preening at the treatment. She liked it when her parents showered extra love on her, especially her father. Azami ran inside the kitchen to get the buckets, then informed her parents of her departure before setting out to get the water.
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"Azami, you're getting rice all over your face!"
Her mother grabbed a cloth to wipe Azami's face with. She was stuffing herself with as much food as she could. All six members of the family had finished bathing and were now sitting down for breakfast.
"Azami, you greedy pig! Stop hogging up all the food!" Fumihiro, younger to Azami by only a year, whined. "You ate three onigiri already!"
"Too bad for you! I fetched the water first, so Father promised me more onigiri!"
"Ehh?" Fumihiro looked at his father as though he betrayed him. "Well then, I'll just have to be the first to fetch the water then!"
"Too bad! I wake up before you, so I get to fetch the water first!"
"Then I'll wake up before you!"
The two siblings began to fight in this manner. The mother glanced at the father, who glanced back at her. They both shared a wide smile. This was the perfect life they had envisioned together. A life filled with peace, happiness, laughter, a tad bit annoyance, but fun nevertheless. It had been nearly eleven years since the great battle with the king of demons, Kibutsuji Muzan. But he is long dead, and he always will be...
