"Tanjiro?"

"Kaa-chan!" The child bounded over at her mother's call, crashing into her mom's legs and wrapping her short arms around them. She looked between her mother and the lady standing opposite her a few times before remembering her manners.

Instantly turning to face the lady, she bowed and recited, "Nice to meet you, I'm Kamado Tanjiro and I'm three years old!"

"Aww, aren't you so sweet! And so well-mannered too!" The lady praised, but she threw a hesitant glance at Tanjiro's mother. "But you're a girl…?"

"We were expecting a boy and already named him," Tanjiro's mother explained with an embarrassed smile. The girl in question had heard all this before. Every time she was introduced to someone in the past—and indubitably, for years to come—she would hear these very words from her mother. "So when we got a daughter, we just named her that anyway."

"Yes, the firstborn child being a son with red hair and eyes is good luck for a coal burner's family!" The lady exclaimed. "And Tanjiro-chan has red hair and eyes! If only she were a boy…"

Tanjiro's mother made to respond, but she was cut off by the baby in her arms waking up. "Oh, sorry Nezuko! Were we too loud?"

"Aww, is that the baby?" The two women became lost in their own banter, forgetting Tanjiro was there.

She smiled and dismissed herself, but she gripped her kimono tightly as she walked away.

If only she were a boy…

"Tanjiro!"

"Yes, kaa-chan!" the five-year-old responded, still absent-mindedly watching the bees buzz from flower to flower. Were they looking for a treasure? Or did they just like the smell of flowers as much as she did? She found herself lost in the possibilities of why the bees travelled between flowers when-

"Tanjiro!"

"Coming!" This time, the girl scrambled to her feet and rushed inside her house to find her mother trying to cook while bouncing Takeo as Nezuko scampered at her feet. "Nezuko! Don't bother kaa-chan right now, she's busy!"

Nezuko was perfectly content to switch from bothering her mother to bothering her big sister now that she was available. "Nee-chan! Play with meee!" She rushed at Tanjiro and barreled into her stomach.

Tanjiro, with Nezuko still clinging to her front, waddled toward her mother and held out her arms. With a grateful smile, her mother placed Takeo in her eldest daughter's arms and gave her red locks a quick ruffle before resuming her task. "Thank you for always being so mature and dependable, Tanjiro!"

With an armful of baby brother and a little sister clinging to her side, she sat them down in their living room and entertained them while they waited for their father to return from selling coal.

Thank you for always being so mature and dependable!

Tanjiro smiled.

This was something she could do, even if she was a girl.

"Tanjiro," the girl in question immediately went to her mother's side once her name was called. "I looked at your writing and arithmetics, and I'm so proud of you!" Her mother hugged her tightly, and while caught off guard, she hugged her back instantly. Breaking the hug, her mother exclaimed, "my daughter must be a genius! Her writing is perfect and her maths are all correct even though you just learned them!"

"It's all because you taught me well, kaa-chan," she responded smoothly. This rewarded her with another hug. "And she has good manners too! Oh, Tanjiro-chan, you'll be the most sought-after girl in the whole village!"

Tanjiro merely giggled as her mother continued to sing her praises before realizing what time it was. "Oh, I should go make dinner now! Your father will be home soon. Can you teach your siblings what you learned while I do that?"

"Of course, kaa-chan!" she smiled her most responsible big-sister smile and her mother ruffled her hair before leaving for the kitchen.

I'm the first born child, so I should get things right the first time.

"Tanjiro…" even at her father's baritone, her favorite voice in the world, she refused to go to him. She was determined to stay firmly planted on the grass from where she was pouting.

No, not pouting! She was angry. Not pouting! That's something Hanako, the youngest Kamado, would do. Not the eldest!

"Tanjiro," her father called again. She could hear the smile in his voice, and she would not cave to a man who was laughing at her.

"Sunshine. Come here," her father had erased his smile and was now trying to sound stern. Taking a quick whiff of the air, the red-haired girl confirmed that he was indeed still amused—well, he wouldn't use her special nickname if he was angry with her!—and not really trying to discipline her. Her heart's fire raged with warmth at the nickname, so she stomped her way to sit beside him on their engawa. She made a point to let out a loud "Hmph!" as she crossed her arms and turned her torso away from him.

"Will you really do this?" It seemed her father couldn't keep the smile off his face for long. Tanjiro accepted her victory, swinging her legs back and forth in the air, conveying her stubbornness to keep her stance.

"Fine, fine." She couldn't pretend to be angry any longer when her father swept her up and placed her on his lap facing him. "I'm sorry I laughed at your mistake during your dance, sunshine. Don't be mad at tou-chan anymore, okay?" He cradled her small head in his big, rough hands and leaned down so their foreheads touched. "I know how important this is to you. I don't want you to feel bad. There will always be more time for me to teach you."

The fuse that had just been extinguished quickly lit again. With a new fire burning in her eyes, she headbutted her father without mercy and tried to escape his grip, but he easily overpowered her and kept her in his lap. He was full-out laughing now. "Sunshine! What did we say about the headbutting? Your rock-hard head can really cause concussions!"

Ignoring her father's last phrase (which was both an obvious insult to a lady and he said a word she didn't know: what was a conkushun?) she found her efforts to squirm away a failure as he firmly but gently held her in place. "Okay. Not just the mistake then. What's really wrong?"

He was clearly trying to get his way. But she wouldn't let him! She wouldn't let this bad guy hear what she really thought.

"Talk to me, sunshine," he coaxed her. "Tou-chan tries really hard, but he can't read your mind all the time. What's wrong?" At her continued silence, he cupped her cheeks and lifted her head to meet her eyes—

—to find big tears rolling out of them.

"Tanjiro!" Her father was clearly in shock, but he moved to wipe the tears away as quickly as they fell. "Hey, sunshine, talk to me. Don't cry because of a dumb old man. I'm sorry!"

Sniffling, she said in a moment of vulnerability, "I should've learned it already."

Her father blinked once in confusion, then let out a relieved laugh. "Oh, that's it? Then-"

"That's not it!" She whisper-shouted, not wanting her family inside the house to hear. "Tou-chan is always busy, so I should learn the dance quickly and do it so you can rest more. And since I'm the eldest of all the kids, and…and I'm not a boy…" her tears, which had slowed, began flowing rapidly again. She bit her lip to refrain from saying anything more.

There was silence as the man simply held his daughter to his chest and allowed her to sob freely onto his shirt. Once her tears slowed again, he started stroking her hair and speaking.

"This is something tou-chan should've noticed long ago. I'm so sorry." Tanjiro nodded rapidly into his shirt, mentally agreeing. She needed this moment with her father way before it was happening.

"Tanjiro, you are my first born child, no matter your gender. If you were a boy, I would still love you, but as my daughter, I love you even more. You are my first born daughter with red hair and red eyes and if I could choose anyone to be my heir, I would pick you every time. Takeo and Shigeru are not your replacements. The baby on the way is not going to be your replacement. It is you I will teach the Sun Dance to, and you who will inherit my earrings."

"Even though you're the biggest of all your siblings, don't feel pressure to always be perfect. Your mother and I are so glad you can help us, but we know you are only nine. There's no need to get everything right the first time. We will not punish you for not being perfect. Now that I've said that…" he stopped stroking her hair, opting to just just hold her tightly. "...you need to stop punishing yourself for not being perfect."

Please rely on me too. Even without saying it, Tanjuro knew his daughter would understand. And Tanjiro knew her father knew she understood.

So she nodded, still clinging to her dad's shirt though she wasn't sad anymore. Actually, the fire in her heart was raging hotter than it ever had at her father's words. She simply didn't want this moment to end.

They held each other like that until her mother called them for dinner, at which Tanjiro startled her dad by ducking out of his arms and yelling, "Race you!"

Tanjuro wasn't stunned for so much as a second before taking one step and catching up to her and hoisting her onto his shoulders. With a loud squeal of excitement and giggles coming from both parties, they arrived at dinner, both of them with figurative weights lifted off their shoulders. But speaking of weights on their shoulder…

"Hey, Tanjiro, have you gained- ow! I mean have you lost weight?! Spare this old man, he doesn't know what he was thinking- ow!"