There were already people on the clearing.
A young man with golden hair was crouching in a corner, clutching his head and radiating an aura of palpable despair. "I survived... but I'm definitely gonna die later! I'm absolutely going to die! AAaahhh!"
Zenitsu.
In another direction, Genya stood with his arms crossed, wearing his best tough-guy face, even though by that point there was barely anyone left around him to intimidate. A detail that didn't seem to bother him in the slightest.
And also…
"SENPAI!!!"
A roar loaded with resentment, anger, and grievance cut across the clearing like a shockwave.
Tanjiro was marching toward them with his hair looking like a crow's nest and his eyes so bloodshot—sclera included—that he looked like he'd caught something.
Seven days without proper rest and in continuous combat had left him looking like someone the mountain had chewed up and spit out.
With those burning eyes, he locked his gaze on Marcus.
And when he saw him walking right next to Kanao, shoulder to shoulder, his resentment only grew.
Even so, Marcus, of course, didn't bat an eye. He even had the audacity to greet him. "Tanjiro! Looking good… really good, actually. Clearly you didn't put the old man to shame."
"Oh, so you DO remember I exist?!" Tanjiro stomped his feet in fury. "You said we'd go through this together, but you left me on my own! You went off to... to…!"
His gaze drifted to the calm Kanao standing beside Marcus, and the rest of the words got stuck in his throat—but his eyes were screaming BETRAYAL in all caps.
Kanao, for her part, seemed genuinely confused by the scene. She looked at Tanjiro, then at Marcus, and then...
She moved behind Marcus.
That subtle movement hit Tanjiro like a bolt of lightning, and the finger he was pointing at Marcus started trembling.
"You... you two..."
Marcus gave him his most innocent smile. Tanjiro looked on the verge of a meltdown.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—the little twins reappeared at that exact moment, congratulated the survivors with their perfectly expressionless faces, and cut the tension.
What came next was what had to happen.
Genya, true to his temperament, lunged at the white-haired girl and grabbed her by the hair.
She appeared calm, but in reality... she was on the verge of bursting into tears.
And Tanjiro, whose sense of justice outweighed any personal grudge, instantly abandoned his existential crisis with Marcus and rushed over to mediate amicably.
(He broke Genya's forearm… amicably.)
What followed was routine: assignment of the Kasugai Crows, choosing the ore for the nichirin blade, the engraving of the registration seal on the hand—completely useless—and the delivery of the uniform.
Final Selection had concluded. The time to part ways had come.
At the fork where the path began its descent down the mountain, Kanao stopped and turned toward Marcus.
This time, she didn't take out her coin.
Her eyes watched him in silence for a long moment, and then, of her own free will, she spoke.
"Goodbye… Marcus-kun." There was a noticeable reluctance in her voice.
Marcus smiled. A Kanao who spoke on her own initiative was a gift he had no intention of wasting.
"Where I come from, when we say goodbye, just saying it isn't enough."
Kanao tilted her head, confused.
"You have to give a hug." Marcus opened his arms with a shameless grin.
Off to the side, Tanjiro rolled his eyes.
Kanao's pale cheeks flushed pink, and instinctively, she reached to flip her coin again.
Marcus didn't stop her—he simply watched her toss the coin into the air.
But right at the instant the metal reached its highest point, suspended between rising and falling, between one answer and another…
Marcus narrowed his eyes. He calculated. And with a lightning-fast move, he snatched the coin out of the air.
Before Kanao's stunned gaze, he extended his closed fist in front of her.
He opened it.
Heads.
"That's not fair—" Kanao instinctively tried to argue against this injustice.
But she couldn't finish.
Marcus had already stepped forward and gently pulled her toward him.
Completely enveloped by that familiar, comforting warmth, Kanao's body went rigid all at once.
She could feel his warmth… she could hear the steady beating of his heart…
Breathing in her fragrance deeply, Marcus lowered his head and whispered in her ear, in a voice so low it existed only for her.
"The truth is, when a person flips a coin into the air, their heart... already has the answer."
He held her for a moment, then pulled away, and looking at her flushed little face, a mischievous smile spread across his.
"While the coin was spinning... what result were you hoping for?"
But without waiting for her answer, he turned around and waved goodbye.
He walked over to Tanjiro, who was still standing there slack-jawed, paralyzed by the sheer audacity of what he'd just witnessed.
"Tanjiro, close your mouth before you catch flies! Let's go—Nezuko-chan is waiting for us."
And he took off running, but Kanao stayed motionless, clutching the coin still warm from the heat of his hand.
His words lingered, spinning inside her head just like the coin.
You'd already decided before you flipped it.
Just now... the moment the coin went flying… the thought that flashed through her mind was...
A wave of heat surged from her chest all the way to the roots of her hair.
And then, before her eyes, Kanae's smiling face appeared, along with the words she'd spoken when she placed the coin in her palm.
"As long as there's a chance, it can open a person's heart... so it's okay."
"If someday you find a boy you like, you'll change too, Kanao~"
Li... like...?
Do I... like Marcus-kun?
Her cheeks, already flushed, caught fire. If anyone had touched her in that moment, they would've burned. She could practically feel steam rising from her own head.
She didn't know what this "liking" between a boy and a girl was supposed to be.
All she knew was that, a moment ago, while the coin was spinning in the air, the only thing she wished for with everything she had was for it to land on…
…HEADS!
.....
The journey back to Mount Sagiri was lively, filled with Tanjiro's nonstop complaints and Marcus's masterful deflections.
Thanks to Marcus's existence, Tanjiro hadn't been injured by The Hand Demon.
Although the seven days had been tough, he was coming back in considerably better shape than the script would have called for.
The two of them picked up the pace and finally reached their destination just as the sun was setting.
In the distance, a column of smoke rose lazily between the mountains, marking the cabin like a beacon.
They both sped up.
When they were less than twenty meters away—BAM!
The cabin door crashed to the ground with a thunderous bang that startled the birds out of three separate trees.
Pink kimono, black haori. Big, bright eyes.
"NEZUKO, YOU'RE AWAKE!"
—————
TANJIRO IS TRAUMATIZED, KANAO IS BLUSHING LIKE A TOMATO, AND NEZUKO IS FINALLY AWAKE! PAY FOR THIS MASTERPIECE BY DROPPING YOUR POWER STONES RIGHT HERE! 🫥
________
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