Nine years later...
Living peacefully on the mountain of Kumotori, the Kamado family lived a carefree and simple life.
Taking a basket full of charcoal and carrying it on her back, Kiyomi grabbed another basket full of charcoal with ease and took it with her.
She was wearing a purple kitsune mask on the side of her forehead, a set of pure dark purple kimono with no patterns tied with the same pure dark purple colored sash, a galaxy haori that reached past her knees and down to her calves, white tabi socks, and a pair of zori with a light purple strap.
She also weilded a wooden katana on the side of her waist.
With every step she took, a deep footprint would be embedded on the snowy ground.
Based on the ease she carried the heavy basket of charcoal, she can be said to be stronger than the average adult male as a fourteen-year-old girl.
Standing in front of a small wooden house, Kiyomi shouted:
"Tanjiro! Come and help me carry this basket of charcoal! Let's try to finish selling the last batch today!"
A thirteen-year-old boy with a wooden sword hanging on his waist came running hurriedly out of the house while trying to put on his haori.
"Wait for me nee-san!"
Stretching out an arm holding the straps of the basket full of charcoal, Kiyomi handed it to Tanjiro.
"Here you go."
Tanjiro excitedly took the basket of charcoal onto his back and uttered a word of thanks.
"Thanks!"
Just as they were about to set off for the village at the foot of the mountain, Shigeru and Hanko ran out from the corner of the house.
"Big brother! Nee-san!"
Shigeru waved his hand as he ran towards Kiyomi and Tanjiro, following behind him were Hanako and Takeo.
Shigeru held his fists up to his chest as he said in excitement:
"Are you guys going to go to town again today?"
Hanako spontaneously added on:
"I'm going with you guys too!"
At this time, Takeo also came out from behind the corner of the house, holding an axe on his shoulder.
"Oh no, you're not!" Kie's voice sounded from inside the house as she walked through the door.
"You know can't walk as fast and Kiyomi and Tanjiro!"
Shigeru tried to complain:
"But mom~!"
Kie reaffirmed her decision while trying to convince the children:
"You may not."
"Since Kiyomi and Tanjiro can't use the cart today, they would not be able to give you guys a ride when you're tired."
Pouting, Shigeru and Hanako tried convincing Kiyomi and Tanjiro to take them together to go down the mountain:
"Big Bro~!"
"Big Sis~!"
Shigeru went to hug Tanjiro whilst Hanako went to Kiyomi.
"We want to go with you guys~!
"I promise I'll help you!"
Kiyomi just smiled helplessly and gave Hanako a head pat.
Tanjiro smile lightly and also patted Shigeru's head:
"Thank you, Shigeru."
Smiling happily, Shigeru and Hanako thought that they would be able to go with Kiyomi and Tanjiro down the mountain.
However, Tanjiro broke this idea of theirs:
"But you guys are going to stay home today."
Unhappy, Shigeru and Hanako mourned:
"Eh~~??"
Coaxing the two children, Tanjiro bent down, held Shigeru's shoulders, and looked at his eyes:
"But we'll get you guys tons of goodies, okay?"
Forgetting somewhat about not being able to go to town, Shigeru and Hanako said in a slight doubt:
"Really??"
Reassuring the two children, Tanjiro said in his most sincere voice:
"Yeah!"
"And Hanako, I'll try and get Kiyomi nee-san to read for you when we get back, okay?"
Hanako replied happily without any dissatisfaction:
"En~!"
Kie, also happy that Tanjiro solved the problem without any discontent within the family, thanked Tanjiro:
"Thank you so much, Tanjiro."
Tanjiro responded to Kie and requested Takeo to do something:
"Sure! Okay, we'll be heading out now."
"Oh, and Takeo... can you chop as much wood as you can?"
Takeo, raising one of his eyebrows at this request, answered:
"Sure, I'll do it but... "
He turned his head and said with slight unhappiness while pouting:
"I was hoping you and nee-san could do it together with me."
Amused, Kiyomi went up and rubbed Takeo's hair:
"There, there.."
Blushing slightly, Takeo jumped away from Kiyomi's hand:
"What's with that all of a sudden?"
Shigeru saw this as a chance to tease Takeo, who was the eldest of him, Hanako, and Rokuta:
"You're blushing, Take!"
Embarrassed, Takeo could only try to rebuke Shigeru as he pointed his finger at Shigeru and said:
"Hey, you shut up!"
Trying to calm Takeo down, Kiyomi went up to Takeo and ruffled his hair again:
"There, there~!"
Blushing even more, Takeo jumped out from Kiyomi's hands once again:
"I said cut it out~!"
Everyone laughed jokingly at the embarrassed Takeo.
Also laughing, Kiyomi took Tanjiro by the hand and dragged him towards the path they are to take to go down the mountain:
"Hahaha...! ...Well, bye everyone, we'll be going now."
Waving their hands at the leaving Kiyomi and Tanjiro, the four family members said their goodbyes:
"Hurry back, okay?" Exclaimed Shigeru
"Be Safe, okay?" Hanako yelled.
Smiling at the concerns of their family, Kiyomi and Tanjiro waved back and continued along.
After a short while, they met Nezuko, who was carrying a sleeping Rokuta on her back.
Nezuko greeted Tanjiro and Kiyomi:
"Big sis Kiyomi! Onii-chan!"
Tanjiro and Kiyomi greeted Nezuko back:
"Hey, Nezuko!"
Nezuko said:
"I was putting Rokuta down for a nap, or else he'd make a scene when you guys leave for town again."
"He misses dad a lot after he passed away.."
Kiyomi closed her eyes and said with slight sadness and reminiscence in her voice:
"Don't we all? I still remember asking him to teach me something because of... because..."
With cold sweat running down her back, Kiyomi suddenly opened her eyes and realized she had forgotten something important.
'I asked dad to teach me how to reach the transparent world, but for what?'
Her heart raced.
'What did I forget? It must be something important! I don't usually forget things!'
But seeing Tanjiro and Nezuko still waiting for her to finish her sentence, she quickly made up an excuse while acting as nothing had happened:
"It's been so long that I've forgotten what I had asked dad for. Haha! ...But, Tanjiro and I should get on our way, we still have a lot of charcoal to sell."
Believing what Kiyomi had said, Nezuko smiled and also said goodbye:
"Alright, then I'll see you later!"
Walking down the mountain, Tanjiro glanced at the smiling Kiyomi and opened his mouth:
"You don't need to hide it, nee-san. I know you're nervous, you can tell me about it!"
Startled, Kiyomi remembered one of Tanjiro's abilities.
Smiling helplessly, she knew she can't hide her emotions from Tanjiro:
"Alright, alright, you win, okay? It's just that... I feel like I've forgotten something very, very, important..."
Thinking thoughtfully for a moment, Tanjiro smiled brightly and quickly replied:
"Well... maybe you forgot to bring your fish snacks with you??"
Unable to refute Tanjiro, Kiyomi reached into her pocket:
"Hmm... probably."
But she knew that it wasn't the case.
Trekking down the mountain, Kiyomi reminded Tanjiro:
"Tanjiro, did you forget something?"
Tanjiro, who heard Kiyomi's reminding, had his eyes brightened:
"Oh~! Thank you onee-san! I unconsciously forgot to breathe the way you taught me to again!"
Kiyomi just speechlessly continued walking down the mountain.
'I wasn't asking about that, but... alright...'
After 30 minutes, the brother and sister reached the entrance of the village.
The old lady who was sweeping the snow away from her door saw Tanjiro and Kiyomi and immediately greeted them while showing concern:
"Oh~! Tanjiro and Kiyomi! I can't believe you came down the mountain on a day like this! You guys are such hard workers! You might catch a cold, you know?"
Tanjiro replied, still with a smile on his face:
"This is nothing, really. Do you have enough charcoal?"
The other residents who heard the old lady say Tanjiro and Kiyomi's name quickly greeted them as well, and soon, the arrival of the two completely spread in the town:
"Hey, Kiyomi! Thank you for fixing my sliding doors the other day! Can I have some charcoal?"
"I'll be needing some charcoal too!"
Happy that they would likely be able to sell out their charcoal, Tanjiro and Kiyomi were just about to go and sell the charcoal before a sliding door opened behind them and a middle-aged woman holding a man with a bloody nose by his shirt collar came staggering out.
Upon seeing Tanjiro, the man instantly cried out and broke free of the woman's restraints:
"Tanjiro! Oh man, perfect timing! I've been accused of breaking this plate!"
He took out a broken plate from out of a purple cloth:
"Help me out, would you? Here, sniff it!"
*Sniff* *Sniff*
Tanjiro sniffed the broken plate and said with a blank face:
"I smell a cat."
Hearing Tanjiro's conclusion the man turned to the woman:
"You see?!!"
The middle-aged woman scratched her head:
"Oh my... so it was a cat?"
*Tic-Tac*
The man cried for the injustice he suffered:
"I told you it wasn't me!"
Chuckling at the amusing villagers, Kiyomi separated from Tanjiro to sell the charcoal:
"Hey, Tanjiro? I'm going over to that section to sell the charcoal. I expect to see you back here when you finish!"
Tanjiro:
"Sure!"
9 hours later...
The sky has started to darken, and the sky was covered with ominous dark clouds.
"Jeez! It's already so late! What took you so long Tanjiro? My charcoal has sold out like 6 hours ago!"
Tranjiro scratched his head apologetically:
"Hehe... Auntie Murai needed help with something and uncle Hu-"
Stopping Tanjiro in the middle of his words, Kiyomi impatiently ran ahead of Tanjiro:
"Stop! I don't wanna hear it! You probably went around the entire town helping all the residents that needed help again!"
From Kiyomi's experiences in the past, it seems that she knew a long time ago that Tanjiro would do so.
Waking on the desolate snowy road, the siblings trekked slowly back towards their home.
Silence prevailed between them as they walked silently.
Soon, they reached Saburo's house, Kiyomi grabbed Tanjiro's sleeves unconsciously and sped up her pace.
Tanjiro only thought that Kiyomi wanted to get home faster and didn't think much.
Still, just as they were about to pass by Saburo's house, a head popped out of the open windows:
"Kiyomi! Tanjiro! Are you going to go back to the mountain? You'd better not. It's too dangerous. We've talked about this, Kiyomi."
Stiffening, Kiyomi hid the unconscious unwillingness to stay in Saburo's house and smiled:
"Okay, uncle Saburo!"
Walking into the house of Saburo, Kiyomi remembered the day where she returned home as a demon.
She got more and more nervous as her body almost broke free of her control and ran back home.
Pretending to be a little tired, Kiyomi took the bedding from a compartment and laid it down on the ground.
"Uncle Saburo, I'm a bit tired today, so I won't be eating. You can tell Tanjiro what you told me a nice years ago."
She got into the bedding and got ready for a night's rest.
But the anxiousness in her heart almost drove her insane.
'Just... what did I forget?'