Tanjiro wants to play

So, this is another idea from the Discord server I'm part of!

Thanks to EzRoar for the basis of it!

Also thanks to them for letting me use one of their works as the cover for the story.

In case you want to look them up:

Their twitter is called EzRoar | Commisions are Open!

Tumblr is: EzRoar Fanworks

And Instagram is "ezroar_creates".

Quick note: This happens during the functional recovery training arc and it's a role swap AU so Demon Tanjiro and Demon Slayer Nezuko.

Without further ado, on with the chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own KnY.

"Begin!" Aoi declared.

Splash

And a second later, a splash of water was heard.

"Ngg, one more time please!" Nezuko requested, focusing on the many cups on top of the table in front of her.

Her opponent, Kanao, simply waited for the signal with her small smile in place.

"Not even Nezuko-chan can match her, how is she so fast?" Zenitsu wondered.

Inosuke simply huffed, wanting it to be his turn again to prove that he can win; though, he can't.

Half an hour later and they had all lost to Kanao on the cups game so they moved to 'tag'.

Nezuko went first but just like the last few days, couldn't manage to get close to the other girl.

Then it was Zenitsu's turn but, despite being the fastest out of the three, he still didn't manage to tag Kanao.

While all of this was happening, a small figure inside a box observed from a corner of the training ground.

It was Kamado Tanjiro, a demon, and the older brother of Nezuko.

He had been resting on a room the people at the Butterfly State had lent him but after three days he woke up and, since then, has been coming to watch his sister and the others train every day.

Nezuko didn't bring him at first but after he grabbed all the blankets from his room, covered himself with them from head to toe and quickly ran from the room to the training grounds, she decided that it was better if she just brought him herself; she was not about to risk him being exposed to sunlight and dying!

The younger Kamado wasn't that surprised that he managed to make his way there, unlike the others, her brother always had an abnormal sense of smell and could find his way even when it was pitch black outside.

So, on top of the three Demon Slayers' trainers, Kanao, Aoi and the three little girls, Kiyo, Naho and Sumi, Tanjiro also watched them train.

"I'm going to catch you!" Inosuke yelled, not waiting for a signal and lunging towards Kanao.

The purple haired girl simply side-stepped out of the way, her smile never faltering, this caused the teen with the boar mask to let out a huff and begin to try more desperately; not caring that he lost his balance and fell when she dodged at the last minute.

This continued for a while until the time was about to end; Inosuke literally jumped towards Kanao, who dodged like before, but right behind her were the 'caterpillars' of the Butterfly State and Inosuke was in mid-air headed straight towards them.

The three girls closed their eyes, waiting for the impact, but it never came.

Suddenly, they felt someone lift them up and move them to the side.

When they opened their eyes, they saw that Tanjiro, who had grown to his teenager body, had them under his arms, two under the right one and one under the left one and had quickly dashed from his box to their position.

The demon gently placed them down and knelt to check on them; he couldn't say anything due to the bamboo muzzle in his mouth but even with it, it was easy to tell that he was smiling.

"Th-thank you." The caterpillars said in unison, to which the older Kamado nodded with a 'mhm'.

"Onii-chan." Nezuko called out, approaching them. "Please be careful, you almost hit sunlight there."

The demon's only answer was to pat his sister's head, making her giggle.

"Damn it!" Inosuke yelled, having crashed mask first against the wall.

"I think we should call it a day." Aoi declared.

And with that, everyone was dismissed.

A few days later.

Inosuke and Zenitsu had stopped coming to train, leaving Nezuko alone.

"Just… give… me a… minute to… catch my breath… please." The black haired girl requested as she sat down after the last round of 'tag'.

Aoi nodded while Kanao sat down on her side of the table with the cups full of medicinal water to wait.

'I still can't beat her but… I'm getting closer, ever since I started training to keep Total Concentration Breathing at all times.' Nezuko thought to herself while waiting to get her strength back.

"Hmm, is something wrong?" Aoi's voice brought her away from her thoughts.

She looked up to see Tanjiro standing over the table, one hand holding Kanao's cape to draw her attention.

"Onii-chan?"

The demon pointed to Kanao, then the table, then himself.

"I think… he wants to try the cup game." The younger Kamado said.

Her brother smiled and nodded several times in confirmation.

"Well… Kanao?" The blue eyed girl asked.

Kanao looked at Tanjiro for a moment before taking out a coin, throwing it in the air, and catching it on the back of her hand when it came down; it was 'heads'.

"I don't mind." She finally said, her ever present smile still on her face.

The two Kamados tilted their heads in unison at how she threw the coin before talking but didn't say anything.

So Tanjiro sat in front of her and waited.

"Ready… begin!" Aoi declared.

Two hands quickly shoot out looking for the cups but one suddenly stopped before getting near it, making the owner lose.

"Hmm?" Everyone present saw the strange movement and looked confused.

"What's wrong, Onii-chan?" Nezuko asked, approaching her now soaked brother.

"Mhm, mhm." Tanjiro showed her his hands, but the younger Kamado still didn't understand; he then pointed to the fingers on his right hand with his left index finger.

"What… oh!" This time, she did understand.

"Doesn't he want to try?"

"It looked like he did at the beginning."

"But then stopped..." Kiyo, Naho and Sumi said in turn.

"No, sorry, it' just that… well, see his hands?" All the other girls looked at the red haired demon's hands. "His fingers are like claws right now, so he's afraid that if he tries to stop Kanao from grabbing a cup he might hurt her."

"…I see." The blue eyed girl said, not about to mention how weird it was to hear that a demon was worried for a human being's health, she knows that Tanjiro isn't dangerous but she can't just suddenly accept the idea of a demon that doesn't eat people.

Tanjiro seemed to sigh, before giving a small smile with a disappointed look.

"Oh, please wait here!" The caterpillars said in unison before running somewhere.

"Where are they going?" Nezuko asked.

"I'm not sure." Aoi confessed, frowning in thought.

A few minutes later, the three girls came back and stood in front of the older of the Kamado siblings.

"Here, you can use this." Kiyo said as she extended her hands towards him.

Tanjiro looked at her hands and grabbed the object in them, a pair of thick gloves; the Kamado perked up and quickly put them on.

"Now it should be safe." Naho commented while Sumi nodded in agreement.

The red haired demon smiled under his muzzle before patting their heads in thanks.

After that, he once again pointed to the cups.

"I suppose there shouldn't be any problems this time, ready… begin!" Aoi gives the signal again.

Once again two hands shoot out looking for the cups but, this time, neither gets a cup up.

They go for their next cup and the result is the same.

Soon, the two are moving their hands at tremendous speed trying to beat the other.

"You can do it, Onii-chan!" Nezuko cheers.

The two continued for an entire minute until, finally, Kanao is hand was just slightly behind Tanjiro when he grabbed a cup.

She waited to be soaked any second now but instead, she felt something being placed on top of her head.

"You won, Onii-chan!" Nezuko yelled, hugging her brother before the two grabbed each other's hands and began to jump around in joy, making sure to avoid any places with sunlight.

Kanao simply blinked, not making any comments.

After the Kamado siblings calmed down, Tanjiro walked towards her, took the cup off her head, since she hadn't done that yet for some reason, and pat her head while smiling behind the muzzle.

"He is thanking you for playing with him." Nezuko explained.

"…you're welcome." The Tsuyuri said simply.

A week later, Nezuko was making even more progress with her training and was now able to keep up with Kanao during tag and the cup game, she hadn't managed to snatch a win yet but, at the rate she was going, it was only a matter of time.

Speaking of those games.

"Stop!" Aoi declared when Kanao managed to get a cup up; she didn't throw it at Tanjiro, though.

The older Kamado had been coming to 'play' with her almost every day since the first time; it was only the cup game since they couldn't run around and play tag without him risking exposure to sunlight but the red haired demon didn't seem to mind.

Today, they had gone a total of thirty rounds, coming out at an even fifteen victories each and the sun was about to set.

"I have to take care of some things, please clean here." Aoi said as she left the place.

Kanao was about to begin when Tanjiro grabbed the sleeve of her uniform and stared at her.

The purple haired girl simply stared back with her small smile.

Eventually, Tanjiro let go and began to run around the place before stopping a few steps from her.

Kanao didn't seem to get the message so Tanjiro quickly dashed towards her and pat her head, before taking distance once again.

"…you want to play tag?"

"Mhm, mhm." The older Kamado nodded three times.

The Tsuguko took out her coin and threw it; it landed tails.

"Alright." She said simply.

But Tanjiro seemed to have suddenly lost interest in playing and was now staring at her with his head tilted to the side in curiosity.

"Onii-chan, are you still here?" Nezuko asked as she walked inside the training grounds. "Oh, there you are."

But as soon as she sees them, she notices that something is weird.

"Did something happen?"

"He asked to play tag and I agreed, but he suddenly seemed to lost interest." Kanao explained, considering that explanation a part of her earlier coin toss.

"Did you toss that coin before you agreed?" The younger Kamado asked, remembering what happened when her brother first asked to 'play' the cup game.

"Yes."

"Then that's it." Nezuko declared. "I'm not sure what the story behind that coin is but you toss it to make decisions, right?" Kanao nodded. "That's probably it."

The aforementioned nodded to his sister's words.

"…why does it matter if I toss the coin or not?"

"Well, he was always someone that thought that people should be free to do what they want to do so, for him, seeing you toss that coin before accepting must be seen as you not truly wanting to play."

Once again, Tanjiro nodded.

He then walked towards Kanao, pat her head again, and walked back.

Kanao blinked once and prepared to toss-

"If you toss that, then he won't play regardless of what the result is." Nezuko said, interrupting her. "Kanao-san, do you want to play tag with Onii-chan?"

"I…" The purple eyed girl stared at her coin for a long moment before putting it in her pocket.

Then she dashed forward and touched Tanjiro's shoulder before taking distance.

The demon turned to look at her and smiled widely before beginning to chase her.

Alright, done!

I found out that I actually quite like the concept of Demon Tanjiro, I always found it interesting but now that I actually wrote for it I've taken quite a liking to it.

Once again, thanks to EzRoar from Discord for the basis of this idea and for letting me turn it into a fic.

I hope you enjoyed and don't forget to review!

Until next time.