CHAPTER 93: CHAPTER 93: OLD AND YOUNG

The night passed without incident. When Sosuke woke up the next morning, he felt completely rested.

He stretched his arms contentedly, loosening his muscles, and turned to find Kanae staring at him.

"What’s wrong?"

Sosuke felt uneasy under her gaze, instinctively touching his face to check if he had drooled in his sleep.

"You’re a bad person!" Kanae huffed, flipping over and getting out of bed.

Sosuke: "...?"

This bewildered morning was just the beginning. Throughout the entire morning’s journey, Kanae’s expression remained strange.

Her face would flush red intermittently, and she occasionally stole glances at Sosuke before muttering under her breath.

Sosuke asked her repeatedly what was wrong, but she refused to answer.

By noon, however, she had gradually calmed down.

When Sosuke asked her why she had acted that way earlier, she still refused to answer.

In the end, Sosuke could only attribute it to the complexities of a woman’s mind and remind himself... Never try to guess what a woman is thinking. You’ll never figure it out anyway.

With nothing to say, the long journey finally came to a peaceful end a week later.

The Kakushi, who had set out slightly later, had yet to arrive.

Thus, Sosuke and Kanae found themselves staring awkwardly at the former Thunder Pillar in the room.

The old man was short and stocky, his face scarred, giving him a fierce appearance. His bright eyes had been fixed on the pair for at least ten minutes, yet he remained utterly silent.

Sosuke was at a loss for words. He didn’t know why he was being subjected to this intense scrutiny. Perhaps the main reason was that everything that needed to be said had already been said.

Now, he had no idea what else to say.

Finally!

The former Thunder Pillar, Jigoro Kuwajima, spoke: "Have you... gotten married yet?"

After waiting so long, this was the question they received. Both Sosuke and Kanae were stunned.

They exchanged glances and simultaneously shook their heads.

Jigoro frowned deeply. "This is outrageous! How can unmarried young men and women live together?"

Sosuke and Kanae immediately felt ashamed and embarrassed.

The old man was right, after all. What kind of situation was it for unmarried couples to share a room every day?

The others hadn’t been unaware of this before, but they hadn’t cared much. Now that someone serious about it had appeared—and an elder at that—the two felt awkward.

"Get married already!" Jigoro urged. "It’s been years since the Demon Slayer Corps had a celebration. Marry soon, live together openly, and have a child. Wouldn’t that be much better than this?"

Sosuke: "..."

Kanae: "..."

Had they encountered a senior who cared about their marital affairs?

For a moment, neither knew how to express their feelings. In the end, they could only maintain their original stunned expressions.

"Grandpa! Grandpa!"

A desperate cry suddenly came from outside the door.

To be honest, if the cry hadn’t been so anguished, Sosuke might have thought the Calabash Brothers had returned. The repeated calls of "Grandpa" were just too evocative.

Hearing the voice, Jigoro sighed, but as he stood up, his resignation transformed into a firm resolve, tinged with a hint of ferocity.

He walked to the door and opened it.

Outside stood a disheveled young man, weeping miserably. "Grandpa, I can’t take it anymore! I really can’t! If this continues, I’ll surely die! Please save me! Spare me!!!"

The youth scrambled on his hands and knees to Jigoro, clutching the old man’s leg and wailing loudly.

Kanae was dumbfounded. Even ordinary people who had encountered demons hadn’t cried this desperately!

’What’s going on here?’

She turned to look at Sosuke, who merely blinked in response.

The young man outside the door appeared to be around the same age as Tanjiro and Kanao. He had short, black hair and thick, short eyebrows, and his features were quite handsome. But his tear-streaked face gave him a vulnerable, easily bullied air.

Agatsuma Zenitsu!

Sosuke noted the young man’s hair color, his thoughts turning somber.

The fact that his hair was still black meant he hadn’t been struck by lightning yet.

’I wonder if I’ll ever get to witness that iconic scene of him getting struck by lightning.’

Just then, Jigoro kicked him flying. "Go train, you idiot!!!"

"Ahhh!!!"

Zenitsu screamed in agony, rolling several times on the ground before wailing even more miserably. "It’s completely impossible, Grandpa! I can’t do it at all!!"

"Call me Master!!!"

"I can’t, Grandpa!"

Kanae, who had intended to intervene, paused in her tracks as she listened to the old man and young boy’s comical exchange, which sounded like a stand-up routine.

She whispered to Sosuke, "What’s going on?"

"His voice is so loud... maybe it’s some kind of... hmm, perhaps a hallmark of Thunder Breathing?" Sosuke muttered, equally puzzled by the situation.

Their conversation caught Zenitsu’s attention.

In the next instant, the brat’s eyes lit up as he spotted Kanae.

After glancing at Jigoro to ensure the old man wasn’t watching, he suddenly charged forward with a heroic, death-defying aura.

Sobbing as he ran, he bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Hello! My name is Agatsuma Zenitsu, I’m 14 years old, and I’m training under my grandfather. But I don’t think I have any talent for this, and I might even die young from the brutal training. So, please marry me—"

Before he could finish, a massive foot slammed into his face.

Zenitsu was too distracted to notice the incoming kick. Before he knew it, a foot slammed into his face, sending him sprawling backward with a thud. His eyes swirled like mosquito coils as he lost consciousness.

"Zenitsu!!!"

Jigoro, who had been pummeling Zenitsu with fists and kicks just moments before, rushed to his side and cradled him in his arms. "Zenitsu, are you alright, Zenitsu?"

At the old man’s urgent calls, Zenitsu struggled to open his eyes.

He gazed weakly at Jigoro and whispered, "Grandpa... I... want... to get married."

Without a word, Jigoro tossed him back onto the ground.

After enduring repeated beatings, Zenitsu truly lacked the strength to get up this time. He lay on the ground, gasping for breath.

Kanae, unsure whether to laugh or cry, murmured to Sosuke, who had retracted his leg, "In a way, he’s quite strong."

"...His stubbornness about certain things is indeed remarkable," Sosuke replied, his lips twitching. "But he clearly doesn’t understand one fundamental rule... you don’t touch food that already belongs to someone else!"

...

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