In the next day, Y/N was about to visit Yuki, but was stopped by Ichika and Kota before she could even grab the door handle.

“Y/N, is there someone that you like?!” She was immediately bombarded with the prized question.

“Who… I like?”

“Yeah!” Ichika nodded earnestly.

“I like everyone!” She didn't even think twice.

“No! We mean, like, who would you like to marry?!” Kota rephrased the question.

“…. Everyone?”

“No! Between Giyuu and Kyojuro, who do you like the most?!”

“I like both equally!”

Give up kids, you won't get a certain answer from her.

“Aaargh! We mean romantically!”

“Romantically…?”

That was a hard question for Y/N because sure, she did like everyone, but she didn't know if the affection she felt for them was the same as if she liked an idol or if she liked them for real.

“I DID IT!” Shinobu suddenly snapped the door open, making the three jump in fright, they forgot they were talking in front of the treatment center.

“Huh? Shinobu, you did whAA-” Y/N's question was cut short when Shinobu excitedly ran up to her and kissed her cheek, her face immediately exploding in red.

“SHE KISSED Y/N?!”

“SHINOBU WAS THE ONE Y/N LIKED ALL THIS TIME?!” A new misunderstanding started to arise between the kids.

“W-what happened?” Y/N asked the butterfly, her hand touching her cheek.

“A treatment! For the disease! I found it!” Shinobu rarely expressed her emotions like this, judging by this reaction and the bags under her eyes, she really was working hard in finding this treatment all this time.

“YOU FOUND IT?!”

“I DID!” They started to excitedly jump while holding hands.

“That means Yuki will be fine! Come on, Kota, I have to rub this in Hiro's face!” Ichika excitedly said, grabbing Kota's hand and dragging him with her.

“Why is everyone so excited here?” Kyojuro walked over to them, Shinobu freezing in the spot.

Though it was something she wouldn't admit aloud, she always found herself slipping out of character around Y/N, but when someone else appeared, she didn't feel comfortable enough to be without her acting.

So much that she (reluctantly) let go of Y/N's hands, silently backing away and cleaning her throat, looking up with her emotionless smile of always back in her face. “I was having a hard time figuring out on how to treat the disease because I didn't know what was causing it in the first place.” She said.

“I didn't know if it was a bacterium, or a virus, or anything that commonly are the causes for sickness, so I gave some infected people wisteria extract to see if there was any effect, and it worked! Then I remembered what Tanjiro said, about how his sister used her blood art to burn Gyutaro's poison! So, I thought that maybe I could use the wisteria poison to kill whatever was causing the disease! And then… ta-da!” She showed a small bottle with a purple liquid.

“It's similar to the poison I use to kill the demons, but it isn't harmful to humans! It was a bit tricky to-” She started to talk about a bunch of medical related stuff, Y/N and Kyojuro only nodding even though they weren't understanding shit about what she was saying.

“It's only a prototype, but I believe it will work!” She then finished her passionate speech.

“That's amazing, Shinobu! I didn't understand a big part of what you just said, but I'm really happy!” Y/N said, approaching her with her eyes sparkling. “You're brilliant, and since you're the one that made it, I'm sure it will work!”

“That's right! I'm amazing after all!” Shinobu said, not realizing that she once again dropped her act and smiling smugly with her hands on her hips.

“Uh-huh! Really amazing!” Y/N quickly nodded, what a suck-up!

“Now that just leave us with the concern about the demon…” Giyuu commented, interrupting the light mood, actually, when did he arrive?

“That's right…” Shinobu stiffened. “Since they won't be able to kill the people through the disease anymore, they might try to escape to another place, or even worse, try to attack the people here directly…”

“Both possibilities sound terrible…” Kyojuro said with a frown.

                          『••✎••』

After a week, Shinobu's medicine started to show its effects, the place that used to be filled to the brim with sick people began to slowly empty.

But that didn't erase the concern about the demon.

“Are you sure that you didn't find anything?” Y/N commented, she was currently going through the usual blindfold training with Akaza.

“I searched all around the forest that surrounds the village, no signal of it.” He nonchalantly commented, running up Y/N and once again hitting her stomach. “Oh? You didn't fall this time.”

“Ugh- It still hurts like a bitch, but it's more bearable now.” She commented with a strained voice.

“Still, this training isn't for pain enduring.” He said, since Y/N couldn't see his face, she couldn't tell whether he has mad or not.

“I know that! It's just hard to avoid your attacks, Mr.ihavesuperspeed!”

“Back to the demon, since it's definitely not outside the village, it's probably inside it.”

“Huh?”

“I think it's disguising themselves around the humans, and as you know, I can't search for it in there.”

“So it was around the people the whole timeWHOA-” He swept her off her feet, interrupting her surprise. “Hey! I wasn't prepared!”

“And do you think your opponent will wait for you to get prepared if it was a real fight?”

“Hey, stop using logic with me!” Y/N said, getting up from the ground and beating away the dust from her (skirt/pants).

“Do you even know what the fighting spirit is? How it's possible for you to have no progress after almost two weeks?”

“Jeez, you're such a bad teacher! No need to crush your student's confidence like this!”

Y/N could hear him sigh. “I guess it would probably be easier if you could visualize it first…”

'Visualize it? Well, if I try to think of something to compare it to, then… I guess it's kinda similar to spider-man tingle thingy? Spider-sense? Y/N tingle?'

“Wow, amazing, I can tell when you're thinking something stupid even when you're blindfolded-” Akaza said, sweat-dropping.

“Shut up! Can't you see I'm meditating?!”

'I don't have super hearing or super smell, so I have to make up for it, concentrate… concentrate, come on Y/N! you have been doing this for weeks, you should be able to at least guess Akaza's attacks patterns by now….'

Everything was still dark, she couldn't see anything with this blindfold! How does Gyomei do it!? Her level of respect for him raised even more.

But in the middle of all the darkness, she finally saw something glistening… is that a fist? And it's coming in her direction at a scary speed at that!

The girl perked up in surprise when she noticed she grabbed something, a strong wind slapping against her face at the same time.

“Eek! What's that?!” She exasperatedly raised the blindfold, looking at her hand to see that what she caught was Akaza's fist. “…huh?”

“You did it?” He looked more surprised than her.

“I… I did?”

“YOU DID IT?!”

“I DID?!”

“YOU DID IT?! REALLY?!”

“I DID!!” They started to loudly commemorate together, in the middle of their excitement, Akaza picked Y/N up and swirled her up in the air, while she loudly laughed in joy.

That was, until they noticed they weren't supposed to be friends, and froze in the spot.

Akaza robotically put her down, both of them weakly backing away from each other.

“Can we pretend that never happened?”

“Agreed.”

Akaza then cleaned his throat. “Even though you managed to use it, it still has a long way to go. I was nowhere near my real speed, and you took too long to defend yourself.”

“Uhm.” Y/N shrugged.

“You have to keep training! Even after you go back.”

“There was no need to tell me this, you know?”

“Anyway, I already did my part of the deal, didn't I? Now tell me.”

'Oh, I forgot about that-'

“… I will tell you, but not today. I feel like it will be a long conversation, and it's too late right now.”

“You better not be scamming me-”

“Excuse me?! The scammer here is you! And even if I wanted to scam you, it's not like I would be able to escape from upper moon three anyway.”

“I guess that makes sense…” He was still staring at her with a doubtful expression.

“You will see it by yourself tomorrow! So goodnight, Ghost!” Y/N said, hastily saying her goodbyes and leaving, it would be bad if she were to get caught sneaking out during the night by the others.

The demon is around the people, disguising themselves just like Daki was, maybe if Y/N tells this to the others, the search for it will be quicker?

The reason they were taking so long in the first place was because they assumed it was hiding in the forest or in a place with little sunlight, the fact that they probably crossed paths with it many times left a bad taste in her mouth.

The mission is near it end.