Kanao Can't Communicate

•~chapter fifty-five: athletics~•

School isn't all that quiet girls like Kanao focus on. Although her communication disorder does not run in her family (that is to say, her and her sisters), that won't stop Kanae from dragging them off to a road trip on Golden Week! Or, as she herself brands it, "Butterfly Sister Bonding Week"!

Kanao doesn't normally act sullen on normal days, but she doesn't want her oldest sister to see her getting excited. After all, Kanae is one of her teachers at school, and who knows what she might talk about when they get back?

Anyways, the three girls went on a trip to a fun little center (which, Kanao noticed, was practically in the middle of nowhere). It was... a go-kart course! And it had a whole plethora of activities that everyone could enjoy, so, according to Kanae, bonus points!

So there they were, standing at the entrance. Shinobu and Kanao stood, acting sullen behind Kanae, while the oldest Kocho sister squealed, "So, we have an hour before we need to check into our campsite~! What do you two wanna do, hm, hm? I wanna do the sliding thing! Ooh, and the sword fighting~"

Kanao quickly zoned out as Kanae raved about the activities, the campsite, and who knows what else. Her eyes wandered around, drinking in the forest scenery.

She had to admit, the place was quite nice. Wisteria trees, a cute set of cabins up ahead, Tanjiro and his family... wait, huh? Tanjiro and his family?

Both teenagers stopped in their tracks (although Kanao had already been standing in place for quite some time now). They stared at each other for a minute, then two, before Tanjiro said, "Kanao?!" in a rather loud and surprised tone.

Kanae stopped raving about the activities, and Tanjiro's parents and siblings stopped to see what the hold up was. When they noticed the coincidence, Kanae, as the friendly teacher of the traveling groups, was the first to say hello.

"Oh, it's the Kamado family! And I see Agatsuma and Hashibira have tagged along," Kanae said pleasantly, causing Kanao to jump (where did Zenitsu and Inosuke come from?). "Thank you for being good friends with Kanao-chan at school~!"

The Kamados were kind, but rather fidgety and nervous under Kanao's beautiful (yet still sullen) gaze. However, two certain stowaways on the family vacation broke the silence.

"Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's start the fun!" Inosuke shouted in his loud voice, causing the poor Zenitsu to wince, cover his ears, and shoot the latter a very dirty look.

Kanae nodded and smiled before Kanao could so much as pull out her notebook to respond. She shooed Kanao towards the three boys and smiled. "Call me when you start the swordfighting thing~!"

Kanao was embarassed by her older sister, her pale face now a brilliant cherry red. She watched Zenitsu and Inosuke, who were now accompanied by the rest of the Kamado siblings, run off towards the recreation center. After a moment of thought, she ran off to join them, too.

The mini journey through the obstacle was very fun. Inosuke scaled and jumped through the obstacles with ease. Tanjiro followed after them quickly, but still was careful to look after Zenitsu, Kanao, and the rest of his siblings.

Soon, they came to the rock climbing wall. After Inosuke bolted and his siblings were safely up, Tanjiro looked back at Kanao with a shy smile. When she didn't respond, he gave in and started scaling the wall himself.

It was at that moment that his jeans slipped a slight amount, and the waistband of his boxers showed. In embarassment, Kanao swiveled her head in the other direction, her face cherry red once more after she saw.

Halfway through the course, they ran into one of Kanao's friends: Himari Takahashi, from the field trip all those months ago. She was with a boy that Kanao didn't know.