Kanao Can't Communicate

•~chapter fifty-one: new year, same me~•

It's been a year.

A year since Kanao Tsuyuri, 16 years old, came to the school called Kimetsu Gakuen and made friends for the very first time despite a communication disorder.

Now, she's got 31 friends out of the 50 she needs, and her communication disorder is taking a turn for the better...

Just kidding. She's just the same as ever.

And behind her, as she waits for the class doorway to clear out, is her first friend, Tanjiro Kamado.

He watched her peer at the doorway, which was crowded and congested with her new classmates, who were chattering away. She tried signaling to them that she needed to get through, but as always she was way too anxious and quiet.

After a long and silent struggle of trying to get into classroom 3-C, she just ended up going through the other door, trying not to look suspicious.

Upon casting a glance onto the seating chart on the board, she noticed her name on a seat towards the back of the room.

When she took a seat, she looked to her left and her right to check out her new seatmates.

To the left, there was a normal looking girl that was setting up her notebook and pencils. To the right, there was a girl with rather heavy makeup and her hair swirled up into an updo...

Kanao did a double take. Whatever was to her right... she was definitely not expecting that on the first day of school.

Recalling the seating chart, she remembered that the surname of the person next to her was 'Nishiyama Kiyoko'.

Nishiyama Kiyoko... now where have I heard that name before? Kanao silently wondered, trying to avoid staring at the girl to her right.

Then it hit her.

"Thank you, Kiyoko-san. That's very kind of you."

Kanao's eyes widened. The girl that gave Tanjiro chocolate last Friendship Day... boy, did she look much more different than before.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Kanao peered around at her giggling classmates. With a jolt, she realized that there was nobody that she was friends with in this class.

That is, until she heard a familiar voice say, "Hey there, I'm just a seat behind you now."

Kanao turned around in relief to see Tanjiro Kamado. Inwardly, she let out this big breath that she had been holding. She definitely wouldn't have survived her third year of highschool without Tanjiro's help.

Kanao raised her hand in a small wave, still remaining expressionless as she always was.

After a bout of awkward silence, Tanjiro cleared his throat, looked away, and said, "When I checked the board, almost no other girls from our previous class were here... so... I guess we're on our own now, heh heh."

Kanao remained silent. A minute passed, and Tanjiro went quiet too.

The pair immediately became anxious.

At least, until Genya Shinazugawa entered the room. He cleared the way to his desk (that was right behind Kanao) as everyone was terrified of him and didn't dare to get any closer.

When Genya sat down, Tanjiro greeted him with a cheerful hello as he did to everyone.

"So, Genya's right next to me. And right behind you. Isn't that, uh, great Kanao?" Tanjiro questioned. When Kanao didn't respond (not even with a notebook message) Tanjiro looked away, cleared his throat, and said, "Didn't you say that you were going to prepare an introduction for this year?"

When Kanao remembered, her posture got a little straighter, as she seemed suddenly proud of something. She pulled out her notebook with a flourish and showed Tanjiro what she wrote:

'Hello. My name is Tsuyuri Kanao. I hope we can get along this year.'

Now, Tanjiro was about to applaud her for doing something so simple. However, he stopped abruptly when Kanao dropped a stack of papers onto her desk with a rather loud thud.

"What are those for?" he asked curiously.

I thought I could give one to everyone! she wrote enthusiastically.

"O-oh... that's great." Tanjiro said weakly, trailing off. He was about to say something else when a certain loud boy interrupted him by storming up to the front of the class.

"All right!" Inosuke exclaimed, scribbling 'intro' in his best handwriting (which was not very good) onto the board. "New school year, new people! It's time to introduce ourselves, but with a catch!"

He lugged up a big box to the front of the room, and further explained, "You must introduce yourself after rolling this dice! There is no escaping this, so things are about to get crazy!"

The first girl to go was Hayashida Riko, receiving the introduction of rapping.

With a tremor in her voice, she slowly said, "Y-yo... I'm Hayashida Riko (yo)... the cherry blossoms outside are pretty (yo) and I hope we can all be friends (yo)..."

This was only an example of what happened in that awkward classroom. Among other introductions there was 'introducing yourself like a robot', 'introducing yourself while imitating Beat Takahashi', 'introducing yourself in a very hyper manner', and 'introducing yourself while talking about a very embarrassing story'.

Although all the "fates" were very different, everyone who introduced themselves all had the same thought:

'I want to die...!'

Presently the dice was rolled for Kanao. She fidgeted uncomfortably as the dice was tossed into the air to decide her fate.

The dice landed with a dull thud, and the visible side was... 'introduce yourself while doing a sexy pose'.

To say the class was shocked would be an understatement. Heads were turning, eyes were widening, and audible gasps filled the room.

Kanao was way more shocked, but she stood up shakily.

Kanao's pale cheeks slowly turned a bright hue of crimson as she slid her hand behind her head and gently placed her hand on her hip. She fluttered her eyelashes, pouted her lips, and whispered, "I'm Tsuyuri Kanao~"

As Kanao fled the room in embarrassment, her classmates were thrown into a silent uproar as, long story short, they renewed their will to live.