“Then he says “I will always come back”, and he actually does because his soul kind of got stuck to the suit just like the other animatronics, so they are all like, ghost-robot killing machines, he actually comes back uglier each time-” Seeing Y/N babbling non-stop on top of the boulders while Gyomei pushed them around was starting to turn into a normal occurrence, he never really responded, so it was hard to tell if he actually acknowledged her presence, though it's not like a Taisho era person would have much to respond to the whole fnaf lore anyway.

One day, Tanjiro was attempting to push a boulder, just like Gyomei. “Hggn-!” The boulder, unfortunately, wouldn't move. 'My feet keep sliding back-! Argh! It's like it's pushing me back!'

It didn't help much that every time he looked up, he would see Y/N laying lazily atop of the boulder with a gloomy stare, since he couldn't push it around easily like Gyomei did and she couldn't use it as a ride, she was unable to control her disappointment.

“Can you please not look at me like that? I-it's kinda discouraging me…” Tanjiro meekly asks after his failed attempt of moving the boulder.

“Ah, sorry!” She fixes her expression to a cheery smile. “C'mon, you can do it!”

Tanjiro stares at her, and then asks: “Hey, if you tried, could you move the boulder? I don't really see you training so…”

Y/N smiles smugly and sits up. “Of course I can! Easy-peasy! Without breaking a single sweat!”

'Now that I think about it, I never saw her actively participating in any of the trainings we have done before??' Tanjiro notices. 'It's like she only does the bare minimum to pass to the next hashira... but if that's the case, doesn't that mean Y/N is actually really strong??'

He looks up at her to question it, but sees her about to take a nap on the boulder, and all of his theories of Y/N being a secret super swordsman fell off. 'No, of course not… look at her… there's no way…'

You really should start working more on your image, Y/N.

'Hm? Why you say that, Ether?'

…forget it.

Suddenly, Y/N feels something crawling up her leg, she snaps her head to check and sees…. “AAAAAH, A COCKROACH!!” she jumps off the boulder and accidentally tackles Tanjiro in the process. “KILL IT, KILL IT!!”

“C-calm down! Where is it?” Tanjiro exasperatedly attempts to calm her down while looking for the insect, and when she sees it on the ground running over to them, she immediately sprints off in the direction Zenitsu was training.

“ZENITSU! A COCKROACH!!” She exclaims while approaching the blonde.

“WHERE?!” He also started running off.

“YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GO KILL IT, WHY ARE YOU RUNNING TOO?! COWARD! THIS IS WHY YOU WILL NEVER GET MARRIED!” Y/N yells while they both ran.

“I CAN'T DEAL WITH YOU HURTING MY FEELINGS AND A COCKROACH AT THE SAME TIME, YOU KNOW?!” Zenitsu snaps back.

While Y/N looks down at the ground to keep track of the insect, she ends up bumping onto Gyomei and instinctively climbs on him while frantically pointing at the approaching menace. “A cockroach! Kill it! Kill it!” She cries while hanging over his shoulder.

Of course, the corps members around immediately freak out. “H-hey! Get down from the hashira! Are you crazy?!”

With a straight-face, Gyomei simply stomped on the insect when it got close enough, ending the whole drama easily. Then, he picks up Y/N and gently puts her down on the ground, patting her head twice and leaving like nothing happened.

Y/N stood there, processing the events with a flustered expression.

“WHAT THE-” You would think the corps members would already be used to Y/N and the hashiras relation, but apparently this reaction of “she's going to be killed!” whenever she oversteps boundaries to “Hey, this treatment is so biased!” Will be forever a constant.

Zenitsu approaches her while sniffling. “Y/N, are you okay? Sorry for running away, I can't deal with cockroaches either-” A lightning suddenly strikes the already dead cockroach on the ground. “GYAA- THE HELL?! IT'S NOT EVEN RAINING??” Zenitsu exclaims while covering his ears.

'You are very late, Ether.' Y/N blankly thinks while poking the ashes of the poor insect on the ground with a stick. 'Also, lightning was a bit too much.'

Sorry, you were running around so quickly, it was kind of hard to not hit you.

Himejima's training was hard, but it wasn't actually forced on the people, they could quit any time they wanted and go back down the mountain.

Tanjiro, Y/N, Inosuke and Murata discussed together with several more people while eating onigiris Tanjiro was making.

“This training made me realize why most of the hashira don't have tsukugo disciples…” Murata says while munching on an onigiri.

“Why?” Tanjiro asks while molding the rice on his hands. Y/N and Inosuke chewed on several onigiris in the background.

“I think I know too…” a corps member called Yoshioka comments.

“It's too hard, so everyone runs away.” Another one called Nagakura says.

“Yeah…” One called Shimamoto agrees with him.

“Or they see the difference between themselves and the hashira and lose all hope, just like that blonde guy.” The last one, called Noguchi, completes while talking about Zenitsu, who was laying on the floor facing the wall.

“The hashira do stuff like it's nothing, they're awesome...” Murata comments.

“Yeah…” Tanjiro blankly agrees, concentrating on shaping the rice to make more onigiris.

“Hey, you are good at making rice! And at grilling fish too.” Murata compliments him with a smile.

“Yeah, it's delicious!” Nagakura says.

“It's because my family sold charcoal, and cooking is about using the right amount of heat!” Tanjiro responds with a proud expression.

Inosuke looks over at them and says: “Maybe you should teach that to underling! She's good at making poison, but sometimes she will need to eat normal food too-” Y/N grabs his hair, interrupting his comment.

“Haha! Very funny Lord Inosuke! But let's not compare your beloved underling's food to poison again, okay?” She smiles even though she's clearly irked, shoving rice balls in Inosuke's mouth to stop him from talking more.

Tanjiro scoots closer to her, and gently takes her hands with a bright smile. “Don't worry, Y/N, I will always cook for you.”

The brightness from his smile partially blinds Y/N for a second. “Mom?” She blankly blurts out in response to his declaration.

His face immediately turns red, he then frantically shakes his head. “Wha- no, don't call me mom!” Tanjiro snaps back with a flustered expression, as everyone in the room burst out laughing.

Tanjiro was now affectionately nicknamed “mom” by everyone.

After everyone was done with the onigiris, Y/N carried back the wood basket they were using to wash off the rice remains on the nearby river, together Inosuke who walked by her side. He sometimes follows her around like some kind of bodyguard, a “privilege” of being considered his underling, apparently.

Y/N washed the basket on the riverbank, it was a bit hard with an Inosuke constantly pestering her though. “Quick! Come on, underling! Why are you taking so long?!”

'Is this how people feel when I annoy them?' She thinks, internally apologizing to everyone.

“Lord Inosuke, underling is currently busy, why don't you… um… go collect as many acorns as you can or something? I heard they are good against upper moons!” She starts bullshitting.

“What?! They are?!”

She stares at him as his eyes sparkle with genuine trust, and she can't help but start to get too engrossed in her own made-up stories. “Of course! They are mythical weapons made from the tears of ancestral gods, the legends say that if you collect a thousand acorns, you can beat anything!”

“NO WAY-” He immediately runs off to collect said acorns.

'I will have to tell him the truth later, but for now, let's just finish what I was supposed to…' She looks back at the basket and was about to start washing it again, until…

“I'M KILLING YOU GUYS-!” Inosuke's voice, followed by screams, could be heard in the distance.

'Really?! For how long did I leave him alone? 0.5 seconds?!' She thinks and immediately gets up to run in the direction of the loud sounds, she enters deeper in the forest and pushes some bushes aside, and here it is, Inosuke fighting with 3 guys and beating them up quite badly.

'What the-' She blankly watches, not sure if she should stop him or not without full context.

She ends up just standing there until they all eventually tired themselves out.

“You know, Inosuke, violence is never the correct way to deal with things! Even if they said something that angered you, the job of a lord is to show maturity!” Y/N softly lectures him while bandaging the wounds he got from the fight, the three guys were laying in a pile close to them. (Y/N was still considering whether she should treat them too or not)

Inosuke looks away with a small pout, it was surprising that he was taking this scolding so meekly, Y/N kind of expected him to explode on her too, but instead, he just quietly sat there on the grass and let her treat him.

“Are you hearing me? I know you get angry, but it's wrong to beat people up for nothing-” She completes, starting to think that instead of taking the scolding, he was actually just ignoring her.

“It wasn't for nothing...” He looks up at her.“…they were talking badly about you, underling…” He mumbles, still pouting slightly.

Y/N's eyes widen. “… Huh? They were?”

“They said they don't see why someone like you is liked, that you're obnoxious, and the way you're so optimistic all the time is creepy.” He completes, his cheeks turning slightly rosy. “But it's not true at all! Nobody can talk this way about my underling!”

She looked at him in silence as she processed his words. 'Ah… I judged him too soon, didn't I?' She cleans her throat. “Is that so? I'm sorry for scolding you like that before, Inosuke.”

She smiles gently and takes his hand. “You got mad because they were talking badly about me, right? A person who gets mad for their friends is wonderful! You are such a good person, Inosuke!”

His face instantly gets red. “W-wha- I-I'm n-” Inosuke, who grew up in the mountains and probably didn't even know how love works, didn't know how to deal with the sudden new feeling that bubbled up inside him, so, with all of his maturity, he dealt with his feelings in the best way he could.

“AAAAAH-” He screamed and sprinted off, disappearing in the distance.

“Wha- Inosuke?!” Y/N tried to reach out to him, but he was gone quickly. 'What was that?!'

“No wonder the girl is annoying, she's friends with that crazy guy.” One of the beaten up guys in the pile comments.

“Doesn't she also walks with that one who's screaming all the time? Really, what's up with them, are they having a competition about who's the most annoying one?”

“I feel bad for the one with the ugly scar in his forehead, having to deal with those people every day…”

Y/N snaps her head back at them, her smiling twitching in annoyance. 'Wow, no wonder Inosuke beat them up, they are so-' she starts walking over to them while cracking her knuckles.

“W-wait, what happened to the “violence is never the correct way to deal with things”??” They tried to argue.

“Ah, did I say that? I don't remember!” She continues menacingly approaching them.

“IT WAS A SECOND AGO!”

“I don't remember, so it never happened!”

Soon, only screams of pure agony could be heard from the forest.