[Tanjiro X Zenitsu] Silent Voice

Chapter 6 - Weird Day

"Kaigaku..." Zenitsu whispers timidly to the boy in front of him while playing with his fingers behind his back nervously.

"..." The boy doesn't bother to look at Zenitsu and ignores him.

"...Kaiga-" Before Zenitsu could continue, he felt a hand slap him across the face without any warning.

It hurt.

The pain was nothing new, in fact, Zenitsu was slowly growing accustomed to the physical abuse that the boy was giving to him. The boy was none other than Kaigaku, his step-brother. Both Kaigaku and Zenitsu were orphans that were taken in by Jigoro Kuwajima, otherwise known as Gramps.

Gramps owned a dojo, in which he was the owner as well as the only fencing instructor in it. When they were taken in by Jigoro, he had only one request of the two and that was for them to learn fencing, in hopes that one day they could be his successor. However, Kaigaku, upon hearing that he had to share the successor title with Zenitsu, threw a massive fit.

He was furious. He argued for days, saying that he was one of the more 'senior' students and was more worthy of the title than someone like Zenitsu, but Gramps refused to listen.

"Tch... What the hell do you want, fake successor?" Kaigaku clicks his tongue in annoyance, glaring daggers at Zenitsu.

"G-Gramps is asking for you in the dojo..." Zenitsu whimpers in pain, his hand reaching for his reddened cheek.

"Stop crying and being useless. Why don't you get lost and quit wasting my time?" He growls, his words dripping with venom.

"B-but Gramps said-" Zenitsu's words were cut off again, but this time, instead of a slap, a punch swung towards his face. All Zenitsu could remember was getting knocked out cold and the look on Kaigaku's face. He can never erase the look from his mind.

Kaigaku... He looked like he enjoyed hurting me.

-

"Ur..gh..." Zenitsu groans as his eyes flicker open slowly.

Zenitsu found himself in bed with a fresh pair of pajamas and a wet towel covering his forehead. His skin feels flushed and slightly moist, mostly from the sweat he was producing. Suddenly, he felt his legs turning into jelly as fear start to seep into his mind.

Who brought him here?

Zenitsu could have sworn he was in front of his bedroom door before he passed out from hitting his head with the floor.

Was it a burglar that broke in, shifted my body and changed my clothes to make it look like my concussion was all just a bad dream?

Was I sleepwalking?

Thankfully, Zenitsu's questions were answered when he hears the door open, revealing an extremely concerned Tanjiro carrying a bowl of porridge and a cup of water. Tanjiro rushes over and sets the bowl and cup on the bedside table before kneeling by the bed the moment he notices Zenitsu's awake.

"Zenitsu, oh thank god. I thought- I thought something terrible happened. You have no idea how scared I was when your scent disappeared for a while!" Tanjiro fretted as tears poured out of his eyes like a broken faucet. "I'm so sorry... I should have come over earlier... If i had... I would have... I would have..."

Tanjiro choked on his words when he felt Zenitsu's hands touching the side of his face weakly.

"Do...n...'t c...cr..y..." Zenitsu struggled to say.

Tanjiro does the opposite and only cries louder, however, he wasn't crying because of guilt. He was crying because of the words that came out of Zenitsu.