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Akaza is minding his own business, sitting on the couch and wishing the sun would go down (even though it’s only late morning) so he can go visit Sanemi, when the door is slammed open and his peace ruined.
“ROADTRIP!” Rengoku cheers loudly as the door bangs into the wall. “Are you ready to go, Akaza?”
“What?”
“Yep, he’s all packed!” A bag hits Akaza in the side of the head. He catches it before it can fall to the floor and glares at Douma, who looks far too pleased with himself.
“What’d you do?” he asks, suspicious.
“Oh, did I forget to mention that Kyojuro and Tengen were in contact and want to go camping with you? Silly me!”
Akaza wants to growl and smack the idiot, but… “Camping? Outdoors?”
“Indeed! We have prepared the van and are ready to go! Come, Akaza, let us commence the bro-cation!”
“The what?” Akaza’s very valid question is ignored as Rengoku grabs him off the couch and slings him over a shoulder. The other arm takes the bag Douma packed. Akaza knows better by now and doesn’t bother trying to escape Rengoku’s grasp.
“Bye-bye! Have a fun trip, little brother!” Douma grins and waves. Akaza just scowls and glares harshly enough he hopes it reminds Douma that he is still older, no matter how many times the nuisance says that.
Then he’s out of the apartment and swiftly carried down the stairs.
“I can walk, you know.”
“I am aware!”
Okay, so he is not going to be put down. Great. How fun.
“Where are we going?” Akaza tries.
“Vacation!” A very informative answer. “We had our last exams yesterday, so Tengen and I are officially on holidays! Douma said he would help Kanae at the flower shop during my absence, and Mitsuri is taking over training.”
“Of course he did,” Akaza grumbles. Douma must’ve known about this for a while and chosen to conveniently not say anything. Truly, how annoying.
Once outside, Akaza nearly dies.
They step outside and Rengoku walks directly into the parking lot behind the apartment building, thus allowing the sun to nearly murder him. The only reason Akaza manages to live is that he’s fast enough to shriek and scramble out of Rengoku’s hold the moment he feels the sun’s heat creeping dangerously close.
Akaza flips around midair and lands on his feet. He scowls at Rengoku, who offers an apologetic wince.
“I’m not sunproof yet,” Akaza mutters, taking a couple steps closer to the building and the shade said building provides.
“Sorry! It is a very good thing your reflexes are so quick!” Rengoku laughs. Akaza does not find almost dying that funny. “Wait here, please. I shall fetch Tengen and tell him to bring the van around.” The flame hashira dashes off, the bag Douma packed still in hand, and vanishes amongst the vehicles in the parking lot.
For a moment, Akaza imagines sneaking back to the apartment. It would not be difficult; he could simply climb the side of the building and come in through someone’s window.
But if he goes back now, Douma will know. And will mock him.
…And he was told this vacation would be outdoors. There is a severe lack of outdoor activity around here. It doesn’t help that it’s mid-December now; humans hide indoors during winter, so Douma said Akaza is not allowed to stay out long in case someone gets suspicious. A stupid rule, really, when the people who could hunt them down for being non-human are now their friends.
Besides, Rengoku and Uzui are not too bad. Fun, even. A little silly and wild, but they took him wall climbing, and Akaza’s been spending a lot of time with Rengoku during training nights with the teenagers. Maybe this vacation thing won’t be too bad.
Plus, as it nears Christmas, Akaza is realizing that there are certain expectations involved in the season. For couples. And for families. Holidays are not so simple anymore. One can’t just spend time with people and call that good enough. There’s so much more involved in this whole ‘holiday season’ thing. It’s not that he doesn’t trust Douma to know these things, but it might be nice to have some other people — some humans — to ask advice from. It would certainly be more reliable advice too.
A car pauses near him. Akaza spares it a glance and scoffs at its ridiculousness — what vehicle needs to be so large and wide, yet on such tiny wheels, and so horrendously coloured? It looks like bright shades of orange, pink, green, and blue threw themselves onto the vehicle and died in vibrant splatters.
Then he sees Uzui grinning at him from the open driver’s side window.
“Hey there, buddy! You ready to go?”
“In that?” Akaza asks, just to be sure this is not a joke.
“Yep! My wives helped me put a fresh coat of paint on my baby just yesterday! Isn’t she gorgeous?”
“This is Tengen’s fourth wife,” Rengoku pipes in from the passenger seat. He has to lean onto Uzui to talk, but neither seem to mind. “He named the car ‘Bessie’.”
“Why would you marry a car?” Akaza brow furrows.
Uzui scowls at them both. “I’m not married to Bessie! She’s just the best camper van any man could ask for! Look at her, she’s so flashy no one can keep their eyes off!”
“So, we’re really driving in that?” Akaza eyes the vehicle skeptically. Uzui seems perfectly happy behind the wheel and Rengoku is siting in the passenger seat comfortably enough to have done so before. At least the windows in the front are the only ones in the vehicle, which should mean the back half of the van is safe.
“Yep! I’ll pull around so you can climb in through the back, alright?”
Without giving him time to reply, Uzui starts moving the van around. He teeters back and forth, slowly pivoting the vehicle to that the back of it faces Akaza and is in the shade of the apartment building.
A door clicks, then Rengoku is at his side.
“It is tricky to open,” the flame hashira declares. “Tengen says Bessie is stubborn, but this van is almost fifteen years old so he should just buy a new one.”
“I’m not replacing Bessie!” Uzui calls back. Rengoku chuckles.
With a bit of finesse (tugging hard but not so hard the door flies right off, a skill Akaza doubts he could pull off), Rengoku wrangles the door open. Inside is… a mess. There’s a huge bundle of fabric shoved against one side, a whole barbecue strapped down against the other side, three large coolers scattered around, a bunch of ropes thrown onto the floor in a limp pile, five bags — one of which is Akaza’s — and an open pack of marshmallows.
“Oh, this is where they ran off too!” Rengoku grabs the bag and grins, popping one into his mouth and chewing loudly. “Senjuro insisted we bring marshmallows.”
“Not so you could eat them all during the drive!” Uzui snaps. His voice is much louder now; actually, Akaza can see him. If he looks over all the stuff, he can see the driver and passenger seats.
“Akaza,” Uzui says in a much calmer voice, “shove the tent out of the way. There are a couple extra seats there.” He points to the large fabric pile.
Akaza eyes the van warily. He might prefer Sanemi’s motorcycle, and that thing is a nightmare on the best of days.
Outdoors, he reminds himself. Fun, outdoor adventure. Without Douma there to say annoying things.
Taking a deep breath, Akaza climbs into the back of the van. He yanks and tugs at the tent until it gives and flops to the floor, revealing a two-person seat that faces the front, but should be far enough back that the sun does not hit him. Akaza tentatively sits. As soon as he does, Rengoku wrenches the back door shut and heads back to his own seat.
No more chances to escape.
“Here we go!” Rengoku cheers as he hops into the passenger seat. He holds his hand out to Uzui, who slaps it enthusiastically. “The bro-cation has officially commenced!”
With all the fuss, Akaza assumed this would be an interesting trip.
So far, it’s been six hours of driving while Rengoku sings very loudly to music Akaza has never heard before and Uzui screams at the other drivers on the road. Not the most engaging trip ever.
After dropping his human disguise since no one can see him besides the hashira he’s travelling with, Akaza tried napping, but it was much too loud for that, so he has occupied himself by playing with the rope. All he does is tie a knot, undo it, and tie a new one, but at least that’s better than sitting around with nothing to do.
“Smile!” Rengoku says suddenly.
Akaza has a mere second to blink and be confused before Rengoku’s phone is in sight.
“What was that for?” he asks.
“Road trip selfie! I only got Tengen’s shoulder—”
“My wives’ third favourite part.”
“—but I will take another photo later. I plan to document our adventures! Also, Shinazugawa wanted to know if you came on the trip or not and requested photo proof.”
“Oh.” Akaza clears his throat and looks intensely at the half-made knot in his hands. Sanemi knew about this too and also didn’t say anything. Douma goes behind his back to do stuff all the time, but it feels different when it’s Sanemi who didn’t tell him.
“Do not look so down!” Rengoku says with a smile. “He only promised to keep it a secret if I let him work a couple shifts at the flower shop. So he could buy tickets for you two—”
“Shut up!” Uzui smacks Rengoku’s arm, promptly shutting him up. “We’re not supposed to say any of that!”
“Oops! Please forget I said anything, Akaza!”
“I don’t really understand what you were saying anyway,” Akaza grumbles.
Still, even if he doesn’t know what exactly Rengoku was saying, the message is clear: Sanemi is planning something. The mere thought has Akaza’s muscles twitching with anticipation. Rengoku mentioned tickets, and Akaza is pretty sure that Douma said something about tickets being needed for that theatre thing. He asked about it back after Sanemi mentioned going sometime, and Douma talked about Akaza taking the money card for tickets. So maybe Sanemi is planning for them to go to the theatre?
Akaza shakes his head. In any case, guessing won’t do him good. It’ll be better to wait and see than try to guess. Over the last two weeks, Sanemi has already surprised him with several things to do together. So far, Akaza’s favourite activity was the paintball. He enjoyed that, especially since he and Sanemi played on the same team and got to kill their opponents many times over. Their opponents were not so good at the game, and while it was strange to use the gun, it was so very amusing to watch the humans get splattered in red paint, fall down, and pretend to be dead.
So far, the paintball was the most eventful thing they’ve done. For the most part, Akaza goes over to visit. Now that he knows where Sanemi and Genya live, it’s easy to drop by. Sometimes he doesn’t stay long since Sanemi has homework — an increasing occurrence now that it is the dreaded exam season — so Akaza will either hangout with Genya for a bit, nap on the couch while Sanemi studies, or leave and come back another time. When Sanemi doesn’t have homework, they’ll go for walks on cloudy days, watch movies on sunny ones, and generally end up spending time together. Akaza might be going over too often, having gone over five out of seven days this past week, but Sanemi always seems happy to see him, so Akaza figures it’s okay. Sometimes they see each other more if Sanemi drops by nightly training at the Rengoku residence. Despite the frequency of their visits, he still finds himself looking forward to spending time with his hashira.
As expected, Douma always gets all worked up about it whenever Akaza goes over, blabbing nonsense Akaza ignores. He does not know what ‘whipped’ is and he does not care to learn. In any case, Douma spends just as much if not more time with Kanae. Between the two demons, Douma is the one still pretending to be a university student and attending classes, so he sees her during the day and whenever they go on their dates at night or on weekends.
But thinking of dates… He’s pretty sure that he and Sanemi are partners like Douma and Kanae are. Romantically, that is. But he hasn’t asked to confirm. He doesn’t want to be wrong and have Sanemi stop wanting to see him. Yet if he never asks, then he isn’t sure how to move from what they do now to other things. Like kissing. Douma talks about that a lot and Akaza would like to try it. That’s something he never tried with Koyuki and regrets not doing. He doesn’t want to end up with more regrets.
Akaza blinks, drawing himself back to the present. He can worry about all that later. For now, he realized he has an important question: “Do either of you know if Kokushibo still attends the university classes?” Since he’s been spending more time away from the apartment and the other two demons, Akaza has lost track of Kokushibo’s habits. A dangerous thing when Douma can’t be trusted to keep a close eye on Kokushibo.
Rengoku and Uzui exchange a glance, then shrug.
“I have not seen him recently!”
“Yeah, same here. For a guy so big, he sure is easy to miss.”
“Huh.” Akaza frowns. If Kokushibo is not attending the university classes, then where does he go? When Akaza is around the apartment, Kokushibo is usually out. How strange—
The van screeches to a halt so quickly Akaza is thrown forward, against the back of Uzui’s seat.
“We’ve arrived!” Uzui declares, turning off the van.
Rengoku cheers and hops out, vanishing from sight only to reappear as he yanks the back door open.
“Come on, Akaza,” Rengoku says. “The sun has fallen, and we must pick out our camping spot!”
Tentatively, Akaza scoots closer to the open back door and peers up at the sky. The one good thing about winter is that the sun goes down early. For this reason, winter is usually a demon favourite season: long nights mean more time for them to prowl about without fear.
As Rengoku said, the sun has dropped and the sky, while still light, bears no more danger. Akaza climbs out of the vehicle, immensely glad to be back on stable ground. He doesn’t know if Uzui is considered a good driver or not but traveling in a car is not something he wants to make a habit of. At least with Sanemi’s motorcycle he gets to hold onto Sanemi for the ride; cars have no such advantages.
“Any ideas?” Rengoku asks, looking around.
Akaza follows his lead and takes in their surroundings. In short, it looks like Uzui picked a forest-y spot off the side of the road and drove into it. Then ten minutes after driving away from the road he decided to stop in the middle of the forest. So, there are trees, bushes, and growth all around them, a thin layer of frost dusting the shrubbery. Snow has yet to fall in earnest. Akaza can hear animals and a stream nearby, but not any humans other than the two hashira. There is a small clearing where the van is parked, but other than that, they are deep into nature.
“It’s perfect,” Akaza says in a soft voice. He stretches out his arm and his blue-tipped fingers brush against a tree trunk. The bark is tough beneath his fingers, preparing for the cold winter ahead. His lips quirk up. Human cities may have some extraordinary things, but nothing humans create can compare to nature.
“Excellent! Shall we explore a bit or sent up the tent first?” Rengoku looks around some more. “We should have space if Tengen moves the van back.”
“What do we need a tent for?” Akaza asks. Then he remembers he is currently with humans, who will freeze overnight without warm, rainproof shelter. Well, they are hashira, so they may not freeze, but they certainly wouldn’t be too comfortable without shelter. “Right. Never mind.” While Rengoku and Uzui likely won’t care if Akaza chooses to nap in a tree overnight instead, he can still help set up the tent.
By the time they get the surprisingly large tent set up (it only fell on Rengoku once, so apparently that counts as successful), it’s already late. As such, Akaza expects his companions to go to sleep.
However, Rengoku and Uzui turn to him, grin nearly in sync, and Uzui asks, “Well, what do you want to do first?”
Akaza blinks. “Aren’t you going to sleep?”
“We shall later!” Rengoku declares. “Once the sun comes up.”
“Oh.” Akaza stands there a moment, reeling, before he remembers that Uzui asked something. “Are there any mountains nearby?”
“No mountains,” Akaza’s shoulders slump, “but there is a cave. Lemme grab the climbing gear and we’ll get going,” Uzui declares.
Curious, Akaza trails after Uzui to the van. “What gear do you need to climb?”
“Well, I’m pretty certain Kyojuro and I are going to free climb—”
“Indeed!”
“—so I just want to bring some rope and headlamps in case something happens. Plus, I’ve got some chalk to mark the cave walls in case we go deep or there are forks. While I suspect we could find our way back out easily enough, leaving marks to help on the way back doesn’t hurt.” As he speaks, Uzui gathers up all the supplies he mentioned and squishes them into a bag that he slings over his broad shoulders.
As the moon settles into place in the sky, Akaza, Uzui, and Rengoku make their way through the trees. Like Uzui said, there is indeed a cave nearby, and it isn’t one Akaza recognizes. A spike of thrill runs down his spine, straightening his shoulders and sharpening his senses.
“I should probably go first,” Akaza says as they halt at the cave entrance and all peer into the darkness. The cave does not have a large opening, but even from here Akaza can tell it’s deep. There is plenty to explore.
“I think Tengen should go first!” Rengoku declares. “He weighs the most.”
“Hey! What’s that got to do with anything?”
“If a space is small and you get stuck, then we know not to follow.”
“Why you—” Uzui growls, Rengoku cackles gleefully, and just like that they are off chasing each other through the trees.
Akaza rolls his eyes and examines the cave. The entrance is made of bumpy, rough rocks, but nothing sharp or brittle, which is a good sign. There’s a clear path into the cave that quickly dips down in a steep descent. The rocks lying on the floor there are a mixture of large and small ones, which could be an issue. If a large rock is balanced on a smaller one, then when weight is applied, the rock will tip. A great way for breaking ankles early on, especially since they are entering the cave at night and the two humans in the group may have a hard time seeing where to step. Granted, they are still hashira. Perhaps Akaza is worrying for nothing.
He glances over his shoulder and finds Rengoku pinned to the grassy ground, shrieking as Uzui tickles his sides.
Maybe he is right to worry.
In any case, Akaza is still going first. It just makes sense. As the demon of the group, if anything here is dangerous, he should encounter it first. He has regeneration, the hashira do not. If this were a cave Akaza was familiar with, he would not be as adamant about going first, but it’s best to be carefully cautious when exploring new places.
Since the hashira as busy fooling around, Akaza steps into the cave.
He loves it immediately. The darkness that swallows him up is a welcome presence, like returning home after far too long. The noise of the forest, the distant sounds from the highway, it all fades away. Peaceful, natural silence — something he never gets when Douma is around — is so overwhelmingly wonderful that Akaza pauses, closes his eyes, and takes it in.
A moment passes, then he opens his eyes anew and begins the slow, steep descent. As he anticipated, some of the larger rocks are quite wobbly. A few of the smaller ones slide beneath his bare feet, loosened at the slightest touch. He had better warn the other two before they come down—
“Wait for us, Akaza!”
That’s the only warning he gets before there are suddenly two hashira racing into the cave and promptly loosing their footing. Thankfully, neither one falls: Rengoku does a funky flip-looking thing that seems like the kind of move someone can only pull off accidentally, yet he grins confidently enough Akaza suspects it may have been on purpose. Uzui does some sort of handspring that propels him to the cave wall which he seems to land on for a moment, despite the wall being vertical, then he hops back to the ground, grinning.
Akaza sighs and shakes his head. “I was going to warn you that the rocks are unstable.”
“Thank you for the thought, but there is no need! We can handle ourselves!”
“Yeah, what he said.” Uzui takes out one of the headlamps he brought and fixes the headband the light is attached to onto his head. The band keeps his hair back, which Akaza suspects may be the true purpose of this device. Nevertheless, there is now a thin stream of light brightening the cave waiting before them.
“Alright bros, what are we waiting for? Adventure awaits!” Uzui charges forward with seemingly no plan and almost immediately slips.
Rengoku grins fiercely and races after him, slapping Uzui hard on the back as he passes. “Tag, buddy! Catch me if you can!”
“Oi! You think you can outrun me?!”
And they’re off.
Akaza rolls his eyes. He is tempted to take a different path than they did to avoid the drama… but he still ends up following them. If they get hurt goofing around, then he should be there to help.
And maybe he doesn’t want to be totally left out of whatever game they’re playing. But no one ever needs to know that part.
When they exit the cave hours later, Akaza and Rengoku are both dragging their feet.
“You cheated,” Akaza grumbles, glaring at a smug Uzui. He has no idea how Uzui could have cheated when no rules were set in place, but still. He’s Upper Moon Three. No hashira, no matter how skilled, should be able to beat him at cave tag. Even if he didn’t go all-out for fear of accidentally hurting one of his friends.
“Just the perks of being me,” Uzui boasts. “I’m that good.”
“I agree with Akaza! Shinobi training counts as cheating.”
“That was never in the rules!”
“Yes it was!”
“No it wasn’t!”
Akaza stays quiet and doesn’t remind them that no rules were made.
It’s only once they’ve settled at their campsite, Uzui standing confidently before the barbecue he brought, a couple steaks sizzling, that Akaza decides to just ask the question recent cave-related events sparked.
“Uzui, when did you train to be a shinobi?”
He isn’t sure why, but that must not be a good question; the mood sours immediately. Uzui’s lips purse, Rengoku looks at the ground, and Akaza wishes he had kept his mouth shut.
“Sorry,” he says quickly. “You don’t have to answer.”
Uzui shakes his head. He smiles sadly. “It’s okay. It’s just not a pleasant topic. I’m proud of my skills, glad that they help me save lives and brought me to my wives. But for me to live, I had to kill my own brothers.” Uzui sighs. Rengoku places a hand on his shoulder. Uzui takes a long breath, glances Akaza’s way, then continues.
“Our father was a fanatic: he trained his whole life to learn the skills of a shinobi. He didn’t settle for the modern approach, but wanted to go back to the roots, practicing ancient techniques and following outdated ideologies. But he never achieved his twisted goal of being the best, so he adopted twelve of us, raised us together in isolation, and trained us. It was fun at first. We were just kids. We did what our dad wanted, cause even if we bruised or bled or cried, it was better than having no home or family. My brothers and I, we took care of each other. Patched one another up after rough days, covered when someone was too sick to make it to training. But as we got older, we realized it wasn’t a game. Our father was too serious about it, too intense. When our eldest brother decided he’d had enough and wanted to move out, he was killed on the spot. His body was left there for days.
“It’s no excuse, but we were scared. I was scared. A couple days after I turned eighteen, our father told us we’d done well and would be rewarded. He locked us in the basement and said only one of us could come out. We just stood there for a while, trying to think of a way to disobey and leave together. Then someone drew a blade, and that was it. I walked out. My father congratulated me. I killed him too. Then I walked away.
“A couple months later, I was living on the streets. Some guy tried to mug me. Before I could do anything, a woman appeared out of nowhere, took him down with brutal efficiency, and apologized to me. Looking back, I should’ve been stunned by her beauty alone, but I was mostly shocked because I knew the moves she used; they were the same as what I was taught but altered to disarm rather than kill. Suma introduced me to her girlfriends, Makio and Hinatsuru, and things worked out from there. They took me in, helped me learn how to cope with my past — a trauma the four of us shared — and in return for staying with them, I warded off guys that wouldn’t leave them alone. Time went on, our relationship grew, then the Demon Slayer Corps found us, and I got myself a best buddy who made an excellent maid of honour at our wedding.”
“Haha yes! I was fantastic!” Rengoku laughs. “My speech was the stuff of legends!”
“Sure, but we all know Senjuro wrote the good parts. Anyway, yeah. Congrats on reaching tragic-backstory friendship level. Hopefully that didn’t scare you off.”
Akaza blinks. “Uzui, I would never judge you for surviving.” He pauses for a moment, then adds, “Over three hundred years ago, back when I was human, I killed an entire martial arts sect because they poisoned my fiancé and her father. I had blood on my hands long before becoming a demon. Thanks for trusting me enough to share your past, but a bit of murder isn’t really a big deal, not to someone like me.”
Uzui stares at him for a long moment, then snorts. “Holy shit, I forgot you’re old. Should we start calling you gramps?”
“No. Do not call me that.” He scowls.
“But Akaza, you do qualify for the seniors’ discount in stores!”
He scowls harder. They were having a very serious heart-to-heart talk about murder, how come he’s now being mocked?
Thankfully, there’s a good change in topic available: “Uzui, the meat’s on fire.”
“Shit! Uh. It’s okay, I totally planned this. It’s a flambéed recipe.”
Rengoku cackles and takes a picture of Uzui trying to smother the concerningly large flames taking over the barbecue’s surface.
Once Uzui salvages the hashiras’ questionably cooked dinner, they settle down to eat — all of them. Akaza is oddly touched that they thought to pack some blood bags in a cooler for him.
Post dinner, Uzui takes out a pack of cards, and Akaza nearly leaves. He isn’t over losing horribly to Douma… yet this could be his chance.
“Uzui,” he says in a serious tone, “I need to learn how to cheat at cards.”
“Well you’re talking to the right man!” Uzui claps him heartily on the shoulder. “I’ll have you cheating like a pro in no time.”
“Excellent.”
Except cheating at cards is harder than playing normally. Uzui tries to show him tricks for remembering which cards have been played, how to remember which are left in the deck, how to hide certain cards up a sleeve when shuffling, but all that does is make the game harder. Suddenly there’s more steps to remember, more things to mess up on.
Akaza loses every game for two hours straight, never succeeds at cheating once, and gives up.
“I’m going swimming,” he declares.
“Oh, me too!” Rengoku leaps up, having spent the time watching the stars and holding conversation with Uzui while Akaza struggled to cheat his way to another card game loss.
“Have fun, bros. I’m sitting this one out. It’s December, my wives would scold me for hours if they found out I lost digits to frostbite.”
“Good point, buddy! See you in a bit!” Rengoku grabs some towels — because they somehow expected this — and waits for Akaza to lead the way to the river he can distantly hear.
Upon reaching the river, Rengoku stripes his clothes off and leaps in with a cheer. Akaza goes a bit slower and is shocked at how cold the water is. With the way Rengoku is paddling around, a big grin on his face, Akaza figured it couldn’t be that cold. Even if he’s a hashira, Rengoku is still human — but apparently he’s a human immune to the cold.
Feeling both annoyed and playful, Akaza shoves Rengoku’s head under the water.
The hashira splutters on the way up, laughing as he tries to push his wet hair out of his face. It doesn’t work that well; he has a lot of hair.
From there, Akaza’s plans for a peaceful swim derail into a strange game of tag-wrestling where they take turns trying to shove the other underwater. He’s grinning the whole time.
When the sun comes up, Akaza takes shelter in the cave they explored earlier. Rengoku and Uzui are both asleep and snoring very loudly in their tent.
He wants to wander about the cave some more but settles in the shadows to nap for a bit. Something tells him that Rengoku and Uzui would come cave wandering with him again, and it was fun to go with other people. While he likes the isolation and quiet that comes from exploring caves by himself, the playful teasing and never-ending banter that comes from exploring with friends is nice too.
“Have you been invited to the Christmas or New Year’s parties yet?” Rengoku asks that evening while Uzui is trying to cook them breakfast.
“I don’t know,” Akaza answers honestly. “Douma does all the planning of stuff.”
“I suppose I thought Shinazugawa may have invited you. Of course, your whole family is invited, but—”
“Am I supposed to get him a gift?” Akaza blurts, cutting Rengoku off. His cheeks flush under the intense, shocked eyes of his two companions.
He looks away, biting at the inside of his cheek. “Sorry. I guess that’s supposed to be an obvious thing.”
“No need for apologies, buddy! We don’t mind answering questions.”
“I also happen to be an excellent gift-giver! It’s hard to top myself every year, but my wives deserve only the best!”
“Okay. Well, what do you get for someone you… like?” Akaza winces. The words feel so awkward, but if he doesn’t ask now, he’ll have to ask Douma later, and that would be so much worse.
Uzui grins boldly. “Anything you think they’d like. It’s shockingly easy. As long as the gift is from you and you put thought into it, he’ll like it. Promise.”
“But—” Akaza sighs. He doesn’t have much practice in giving gifts of any kind, let alone to someone he cares about. What if his gift is inadequate and Sanemi is disappointed? He swallows heavily.
“Well, would it be appropriate for me to buy Genya a gift? For either Christmas or his birthday?”
“Great idea!” Rengoku exclaims. “If you need gift ides, let me know later. I saw Senjuro writing down a great many ideas of things Genya would like, so I’m sure we could pilfer a few thoughts from there.”
“Thanks, but I think I’ll be okay.” He already knows what to get Genya — some of those books with the pictures. Manga. That’s what Sanemi said he wanted when they were shopping together.
…Maybe he should ask Genya what Sanemi would like as a gift. If anyone would know, it’s his brother. And if that fails and he still has no good ideas, Akaza will reconsider asking Douma for help.
Uzui claps his shoulder. “Chin up, Akaza. It’ll all work out.”
“Thanks.”
When it’s time to leave, Akaza doesn’t want to go.
They’ve only been here three days but already need to go back. Three days is hardly any time at all.
But Rengoku needs to go back to work the next day and Uzui has started complaining about missing his wives, so they drive back. Driving sucks as bad as it did on the way there, only it’s also worse because Akaza is scowling and wishes they could’ve just left him there. He doesn’t have a job or wives to go back to; that cave still hasn’t been thoroughly explored!
The hours go by the same as before: Rengoku sings very badly, Uzui screams at other drivers. If the sun wasn’t bright, warning him against leaping out of the car, Akaza would be tempted to try.
But when they stop, the van backed into a spot at a parking lot so Akaza’s exit is in shade, they aren’t at the demons’ apartment building. And he does know this lot — the evil motorcycle they’re parked next to is his nemesis, after all. Suddenly he doesn’t miss the campsite as much.
“We’ll drop your bag off with Douma,” Uzui says, wagging his phone in the air to signal plans being made without Akaza’s knowledge. “Thanks for hanging out with us this weekend.”
“We shall have to plan another camping trip in the Spring!” Rengoku declares. “Camping shall be our new post-exam reward.”
“That’d be nice,” Akaza admits. “I had fun.” He fidgets. “Okay, bye. I’m going now.”
Uzui and Rengoku laugh at him as Akaza shoves the van’s back doors open and rushes away, shifting into his human disguise. He moves quick, not wanting to test the sun’s patience today, and runs up the apartment’s stairwell, taking the steps two at a time.
The door’s already open. Sanemi is leaning in the doorway, listening to his neighbour. The elderly lady — who’s name Akaza was told but keeps forgetting — spots him first. Her eyes sparkle as she nudges Sanemi’s shoulder, spinning him just in time for Akaza to slam into his chest.
The hashira wheezes. Akaza really hopes he hasn’t broken any ribs. But Sanemi hugs him back and his spirit doesn’t feel injured, so it should be fine.
“Hi,” Sanemi says, sounding far too amused.
“Hi.” Akaza presses his ear against his hashira’s chest and sighs, relaxing as he listens to Sanemi’s heartbeat. He’s okay. He’s safe.
“So,” Sanemi says after a moment. “One incredibly annoying brat keeps harping on me to invite you to the annual Christmas party. Wanna go?”
“Yes. Is it alright if we bring Kokushibo too? Kanae will probably invite Douma.”
“Yeah, sure. I don’t think it’ll be a problem if your family comes. I mean, it’s only the three of you.”
“Great. I’ll let them know.” Akaza realizes they’ve been hugging for a while, so he lets go and takes a step back. His gaze flicks to Sanemi’s lips, then away, hopefully before he was spotting staring. “Are you free?”
“For a bit. I’ve got a couple more exams to get through, but I can study later.”
“Good.” Akaza grabs Sanemi’s hand and drags him into the apartment. “Uzui was teaching me to cheat at cards and I need to practice more before I can challenge Douma to a rematch and defeat him so thoroughly he never dares touch cards again.”
Sanemi laughs. “That seems like a reasonable goal.”
Needless to say, Akaza proceeds to lose cards for the next couple hours. He eventually throws the deck out the window (then vows to retrieve them once the sun’s gone down). When Sanemi is supposed to kick him out so he can study, Akaza instead gets roped into reading questions off little scraps of paper. It takes him a moment to read some of the words, but Sanemi insists that this is helpful for studying, and he’s rather comfortable leaning into Sanemi’s side, so Akaza stays.