“Don’t call me brother-in-law!” Tanjiro ground out one word at a time.
“I am not tired enough to need you carrying my sister.”
“That’s not really the point,” Shinsuke said, his smile unchanged, if anything a little brighter.
“I’m happy to carry Nezuko of my own free will, I want to do it, so it doesn’t count as ‘helping,’ which means you don’t need to feel any burden about it either.”
“I!
Don’t!
Feel!
Any!
Burden!”
Tanjiro forced those words out through clenched teeth.
“I simply don’t want you touching my sister!”
“Aw, don’t be so standoffish, Tanjiro, we might end up family one of these days…” Shinsuke began talking nonsense.
“We are not going to be family!” Tanjiro bristled.
Watching the two of them on the verge of another argument, even starting to covertly tug at the basket from either side, though both kept their movements careful so as not to startle Nezuko inside, Urokodaki leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed and couldn’t even summon the energy to sigh anymore.
He could see it clearly now: with this kid Shinsuke around, there would be no peace in his life going forward.
Peeking out over the rim of the basket at the whole spectacle, Nezuko tilted her head, her pink eyes full of puzzlement.
“Mm?”
“You two,” Urokodaki said coolly, “if you want to argue, take it outside, don’t frighten Nezuko.”
Shinsuke’s eyes shifted, and he suddenly let go of the basket and raised both hands in surrender.
“Alright, alright, I won’t fight you for it.
How about this, Tanjiro, we let Nezuko choose herself, what do you say?
Let her decide who she wants to go with.”
Tanjiro blinked.
“Choose herself?”
“Exactly!” Shinsuke nodded with the expression of someone being thoroughly reasonable.
“Nezuko is a demon now, but she still has awareness, right?
Letting her decide for herself, that should be fine, shouldn’t it?”
(;￢＿￢) Tanjiro had an instinctive feeling this guy was up to something.
But…
let Nezuko choose herself?
Tanjiro had full confidence in his sister.
Nezuko would obviously choose him, her own brother!
“Fine!” Tanjiro nodded firmly.
“Let Nezuko choose!”
The corner of Shinsuke’s mouth curved into a satisfied arc.
“Then it’s settled!”
The two of them stepped back five meters each, and Tanjiro crouched down first, bringing himself level with little Nezuko inside the basket.
His expression was as warm and gentle as spring sunshine, and his voice was soft enough to drip.
“Nezuko, it’s your brother.” He extended one hand, palm up, in an inviting gesture.
Brother will take you home, okay?”
The tenderness and sense of safety in his voice were practically spilling over.
Nezuko’s pink eyes lit up noticeably, and a look of longing and attachment spread across her small face.
The little hands gripping the basket rim shifted, as though she was about to climb out.
Tanjiro felt a swell of satisfaction deep in his chest, see, of course his sister loved her brother most!
But just as Nezuko was about to make her move, another voice rang out.
“Little sister Nezuko.”
Shinsuke had crouched down as well, on the other side of the basket.
He didn’t extend his hand the way Tanjiro had, just smiled at her pleasantly.
But from his mouth and nose, that pale pink aura carrying its strangely warm and sweet fragrance began drifting out again, soundless and unhurried.
He didn’t blow it directly at Nezuko but guided the current so it dispersed slowly around her.
Harem Breathing’s baseline trait activating, heightened attraction toward the opposite sex, along with the release of a calming, reassuring signal.
Nezuko’s cute little nose twitched immediately, twice.
“Mm?”
The motion that had been turning her toward Tanjiro stopped, and her big pink eyes swung toward Shinsuke’s side, blinking with curiosity.
It smelled good…
it smelled so, so good…
Not just that enticing rare-blood scent that had driven her appetite wild before, but now there was something else woven through the pink aura, a feeling of comfort, of safety, an instinctive pull to draw closer.
Like…
like sinking into a bath at exactly the right temperature, or being wrapped in something soft and cloudlike.
It was different from the warmth of a brother’s love, this was a scent that made her feel a more primal, instinctive kind of pleasure, a pull to get closer.
Nezuko’s small hands released their grip on the rim.
Both palms pressed against the inside of the basket, and with a little heave she tipped it over and crawled out.
In her shrunken child-sized form, standing up she barely reached an adult’s shin.
The little pink kimono hung loose on her small body and trailed on the floor, and she wobbled slightly with every step.
Each tiny footfall on the ground seemed to come with its own soft, squishy little sound effect.
Watching this miniature Nezuko toddling toward him, Shinsuke felt something in his chest take a direct hit, and the sheer adorableness nearly knocked the breath out of him.
(≧ω≦)
Seeing Nezuko walking toward Shinsuke’s side, Tanjiro’s smile slowly stiffened, and he called out urgently.
“Nezuko!
Don’t go that way, come to your brother!”
At the sound of her brother’s voice, Nezuko stopped instinctively.
She looked back at Tanjiro, then sniffed at the air with her little nose, seeming a little conflicted.
She reached out a small hand as though to chew on her finger, only to find the bamboo tube in the way, and she could only rest her finger against it blankly, looking left, then right.
On one side was Tanjiro’s gentle, expectant face, on the other was the pleasant pink aura drifting from Shinsuke’s direction.
A clear hesitation showed in Nezuko’s big pink eyes.
“N, Nezuko?” Tanjiro’s voice wavered slightly.
“It’s your brother!
Come on, come to your brother!” He poured even more energy into radiating his “big brother aura,” his voice gentle enough to melt snow.
Her brother’s voice…
That’s right, it was her brother, her most important, most gentle brother…
Her small feet shuffled one tiny step toward Tanjiro.
Tanjiro’s heart lifted.
But just as Nezuko was about to take the second step, Shinsuke intensified the output of his Harem Breathing.
The pink, almost tangible in the air, made Nezuko turn her head back and draw in a long, deep breath…
ah, that felt so good…
everything felt a little hazy and warm…
Naturally, her feet stopped again.
Tanjiro: “!!”
He snapped his head around and glared at Shinsuke, who was exhaling with great purpose.
“You’re cheating!
You used that strange Breathing Style, didn’t you!”
Even he, as dense as he could be about these things, could see that Nezuko was being affected by that pink aura.
Shinsuke put on his most innocent expression.
“Not at all, I’m just breathing normally.
Tanjiro, you can’t accuse me of cheating just because Nezuko happens to enjoy my natural ‘presence,’ can you?”
“What kind of presence is that supposed to be!” Tanjiro wanted to stamp his foot in frustration.
Watching Nezuko standing there with her tiny face scrunched in conflict, looking like her head was about to produce steam, Tanjiro felt both sorry for her and desperate.
He took a deep breath and brought out his ultimate weapon, an emotional flashback attack, combined with a devastating gentleness strike.
“Nezuko, do you remember?
In winter, we’d all huddle around the hearth together, and Mom would roast sweet potatoes for us…”
“In summer, you always used to drag me to the stream to play in the water…”
“The first flower crown you ever made, you put it on your brother’s head…”
Tanjiro’s voice was low and full of feeling, moving through the small, warm memories that belonged only to the two of them.
Nezuko’s pink eyes slowly grew wet, brimming with tenderness and longing.
Those fragments of memory, even now that she had become a demon and they were no longer clear, were still burned deep into the bottom of her soul.
Her brother…
yes, her brother was the most important person.
To fight off the pull of that enticing aura, Nezuko pinched her little nose shut with both hands.
Holding her breath, she churned her small legs into motion and ran toward Tanjiro with determined, wobbling steps.
One step, two steps…
Closer and closer to Tanjiro’s outstretched arms!
Tanjiro’s face broke into a radiant smile of impending victory, and he even spared a moment to shoot a triumphant look at Shinsuke.
Shinsuke watched Nezuko trotting along with her nose pinched shut, wearing that adorable expression of “I’m doing this for my brother,” then caught Tanjiro’s smug grin, and felt a vein snap to life on his own forehead.
Fine then, you obsessive little sister-lover, so you’re going with the sentimental flashback, are you?
You brought this on yourself.
Shinsuke moved his right hand behind his back, and with a small mental nudge, a thin thread of pink energy covered the tip of his thumb.
With a light prick against the pad of his index finger, a single drop of rare blood, no larger than a soybean and carrying a lethal allure for any demon, seeped out in an instant.