The Crow's Master (Kimetsu no Yaiba Fanfic)

Chapter 6

The mountains been awfully quiet as usual but it felt much more off. I don't know why I sometimes find myself glancing at the entrance, expecting to see a young boy carrying a box walk up its stairs. It actually feels more lonely than usual. I haven't felt this isolated since the day I lost both my wife and best friend. I find myself in the same position, looking out to see them come back. I guess I miss those kids. A crow called and came down with a letter. I didn't recognize the handwriting until I saw the name at the bottom. I couldn't help but smile, no one has written me a letter in ages, save for Oyakata-sama. What a good kid.

" You can smile?" He asked me, ruining the mood. " What? As long as I've worked with you I've never seen you smile. A letter from the kids?"

" Well, that's none of your god damn business." I replied in my usual tone. He shrugged and went back to feeding the crows the way I showed him. Looking back at the letter, Tanjiro said that he'd been sent off to fight another demon and met up with a boy with a sparrow instead of a crow, his name was Zenitsu. They had travelled to an old house to look for missing children and bumped into about three to four demons. One such demon with the ability to rotate and manipulate the entire house. Along the way found some kid with a boar hat called Inosuke. Zenitsu managed to kill one demon, surprisingly, and the boar kid took care of one while Tanjiro himself killed the last demon. That's nice, he's killed a few demons already. Nezuko will be introduced to them soon, but as of now they're resting and healing at a nearby inn. Must be the old lady's place.

" You should write back." The old Kakushi said suddenly." This kid writes to you. You don't really do much here anyway."

" ...."

"...."

" Sure." At first he nodded and was about to turn and leave when he suddenly froze. He looked back at me with wide eyes as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. " What?"

" You...agreed with me." I shrugged. " Is this for real? The cold hearted Master of Crows is becoming more social?" What the hell is up with that nickname.

Just two days later I received a summons to come down the mountain, to Lord Oyakata's estate. I was more than happy to be invited but it seems that they're inviting me over two matters. The first being a pillar meeting to which I'd prefer to humbly decline, mainly because I don't really recognize the pillars these days. I've only ever heard rumors regarding them, save for the stone pillar. Himejime had been my pen pal for a short while before he became too busy as a pillar. The man is roughly two years younger than me, blind with a scar across his forehead.

From what I've heard of the rest, there's the water, flame, wind, sound,  mist, love, snake and insect. The water pillar is a student of Urokodaki-san, as rare as that is, I've never heard of any other student from him other than the pillar and Tanjiro. The flame pillar is the son of the previous flame pillar, an old friend of mine whose turned to drinking. The wind pillar is just passed his twenties, said to have a terrible temper. Sound pillar is said to be formerly a shinobi, how interesting. Mist pillar is only fourteen this year but is already very skilled, I don't know much about this one. The love pillar is said to be extremely strong, flexible and has a very unique sword. The snake pillar is silent and prefers to keep to himself, I could get along with this one. The insect pillar is unable to behead demons but has created poison that can kill the demons, as expected of the younger sister of the late flower pillar. This is partly the information I've received on the pillars, figures whom are the strongest among demon slayers and strike fear in both demons and humans alike. But then again, that doesn't matter to me. I'm the Crow Master, my job is to ensure the communication in the Demon Slaying Corp stays protected and stable. That's what Itsumi would have reminded me.

Now, the second matter I am to attend to is regarding the Kamado siblings themselves and require my opinion. They're going to kill them. I quickly don my haori and picked up my blade for the first time in years. Inspecting it, not a single rust had befallen on its smooth surface. The silver grey colour stared back at me expectantly, the colour of the breathing technique my wife and I inherited from our master. Passed down to every Crow Master to have ever existed.

Breath of Feathers. Consisting of eight forms in total, including me and Itsumi's new forms.