章 20: Bright

*Sizzle*

The sunlight dancing on Kiyomi immediately started to burn through her skin like an ice cube meeting a fireball.

Her head was completely fine though, and the skin under the cover of her clothes also slowed the burning, which was good news.

If her face started burning, then her family would definitely see her as a demon from their folktales.

But still, even if it was just her arms, and feet that were burning rapidly, coupled with the slow-burning of the skin that was covered with clothes, it still hurt like being bitten by droves and droves of bullet ants.

'It. F*CKING. BURNS~!!!!' Kiyomi screamed internally while immediately controlling her strength to run back into the shadows created by the house.

Keeping her screams to herself has a lot of benefits in the concealment of her hybrid identity to her family.

She could pass it off as getting a hyper allergy to the sun for some reason, and her family would have no choice to believe her.

After all, it doesn't hurt. Yeah?

Slamming the door to the room where she kept her project materials, Kiyomi let out a painful groan.

After taking heavy objects like logs to block the door, she collapsed onto the wall opposite of the door and slowly slid to the ground, her limbs twitching.

"F*ck. ha...ha....ha.... That was damn close.." said Kiyomi as she wiped the sweat off of her forehead.

The burn scars were already healing as her demon regeneration started to kick in.

But the pain that was burned into her mind was still creating phantom pain, and it would take a while for that to heal.

"Kiyomi! Kiyomi!! Are you okay? Open the door!" Kie hurriedly banged on the wooden door while trying to get in.

"..." Not knowing how to reply, Kiyomi rummaged her brain for a response.

But her mind was so keen on causing her to think about the pain brought by standing in the sun that she couldn't think of a rational and timely answer.

*BANG*

The heavy object placed in front of the door fell inwards as the door came crashing down.

It was Tanjuro, who had been resting in the bedroom when he heard the commotion.

"Kiyomi! What's wrong?"

Still dazed by the pain caused by the sun, Kiyomi sat in the corner without replying to Tanjuro's concerns.

Kie gently pushed Tanjuro to one side before going up to Kiyomi and giving her a tight embrace.

"I don't like the sun.." said Kiyomi, who had thought of nothing except that she didn't like the sun anymore.

Perplexed, Kie asked, "Why don't you like the sun anymore sweetie?"

"...because my skin has recently become very sensitive under sunlight, probably because I worked in dark places during my time at Yo- Asakusa.."

Kiyomi, who had finally gotten a bit soberer with the pain disappearing, corrected herself from saying where she truly had been.

Sighing with relief, Kie and Tanjuro thought that their daughter was just not used to seeing the sun in the place where she worked.

She would get better as time goes on.

And Kiyomi would get better, but only after she finishes with her project.

"Well, get some rest sweetheart, I'll call you when it's time for dinner."

Kie tucked Kiyomi into her bedding as she kissed her forehead.

Slowly relaxing the tense muscles in her body, Kiyomi watched the door for half an hour before heaving a quiet, sigh of relief.

Falling into the embrace of her warm bedding, she quickly fell asleep.

Sometime later...

Feeling something stroking her head, Kiyomi reluctantly opened her tired eyes to see who was touching her hair.

"Kaa-san~"

When Kiyomi saw it was her mother, she rubbed her eyes and sat up.

"Oh! I'm sorry sweetie, did I wake you up?" Kie said apologetically.

"No, no, it's okay, I feel very refreshed! But mom, Is there any fish? I'm a little hungry.."

"Yeah, it's almost breakfast. You slept through the entire night! Go wash up first."

After saying that, Kie stood up and went into the kitchen to start preparing some food.

Kiyomi who heard her mother's command got up from her bed and went to take a quick wash.

'I miss the showers and Onsen back home... having to manually pour water on yourself just doesn't feel right!'

Grumbling about the lack of technology, Kiyomi scrubbed herself with the towel even harder.

Coming out of the bathroom with her hair loose behind her back, Kiyomi walked to the dining area.

"I'm sorry onee-san! I didn't know!" Nezuko deeply apologized the moment Kiyomi walked in.

Startled by her bowing sister, Kiyomi promptly forgave Nezuko.

"It's okay Nezuko, like you said, you didn't know. I forgive you. Let's eat now, I'm hungry!"

Takeo, Hanako, and Shigeru all were confused by the apologizing Nezuko because they didn't understand what Nezuko did wrong.

Only Tanjiro, who had seen exactly what had happened, didn't say a word.

'Onee-san smells a little different from when she first left... But that new smell should be because she went out to experience life? I wonder what it means?'

Tanjiro's thoughts only trailed to this point as he felt disturbed if he wanted to continue.

He has awakened his super emotion smelling nose when he protected Shigeru from a falling hot kettle, which resulted in the scar on his forehead.

And he currently is still exploring what the different smells symbolize and what it means by comparing and contrasting them to other smells.

Eating breakfast as if nothing has happened, the family talked and laughed with each other as they usually do.

'I'm so glad that my family is carefree and won't dwell much into what I don't want them to know.'

Seeing the happy atmosphere of the dining table, without any hint of depression that happened yesterday, Kiyomi also joined in the fun conversation between Tanjiro and Nezuko.

For the next few months, Kiyomi just sat in the house, sewing away.

The children didn't urge her to go outside anymore, and Tanjiro was still a little disappointed that Kiyomi couldn't come out in the sun to teach him swordsmanship.

"Kiyomi." the passing Tanjuro called out.

"Yes, father? What is it??" Still sewing, Kiyomi divided a small part of her attention to the conversation between her and Tanjuro.

"Tomorrow night, do you want to join me in the Kagura dance? I still remember the first time when you just barged in the middle of my ritual."

Chuckling, Tanjuro remembered the first time he saw her daughter standing on the edge of the ritual circle, just watching him dance.

Pausing all of her activities, Kiyomi remembered the bloodline purification that was mentioned in her blood demon art.

"Tomorrow, right? I'll be there!" she said, giving her dad Tanjiro's trademark smile, but only giving off light as bright as the moon, but not as fierce as the sun.

Even though the light she gave off was not as bright as Tanjiro's, she still almost illuminated the entire damn house.