My third Japanese novel this year comes to a close in much shorter order than my other two. Upon finishing Night Market, it suddenly occurred to me: “I’ve been reading each week’s quota of ten-or-so pages in one sitting — why not keep up that pace for the whole week instead of just for a single day?”

And so, I cracked open Flower of Happiness, which is a light-novel spinoff of the manga series 鬼滅の刃 (aka Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba). My original goal was to read 8 pages per day and finish it by the end of the month, but I ended up getting swept along and ended up reading about 14 pages per day, which allowed me to finish it in just two weeks. This is obviously the fastest I’ve read a Japanese novel and I’m excited by the prospect of keeping on this track.

To be honest, I didn’t know anything about this book at all when I bought it — I essentially bought it on a whim after I caught up to the KNY manga and was itching for more content in the same universe (though it would be some time until I actually got around to it). As it turns out, it’s not one full story at all, but rather five short vignettes depicting various characters from the main series.

The first chapter, which shares its name with the book, is set during the time that Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu are recovering from their battle in the tsuzumi manor. Upon being invited to attend a wedding in the local town, Tanjiro finds himself wondering whether Nezuko will ever be able to become a bride herself — just in time to hear two girls talking about a rare flower that is said to bring happiness to any woman who carries it…

The second chapter, For Whom, follows Zenitsu on one of his ill-fated attempts to escape from his slayer training. Unfortunately, on his way down the mountain he runs into his greatest weakness — a lady in distress; promised to a demon in order to save her cowardly stepfather’s skin. Zenitsu can be pretty insufferable when it comes to women (and this is definitely the case later in the book), but this story shows him at his best. He seems genuinely concerned about this girl, and considering how terrified he is of demons (not to mention how eager he is to continue with his escape), you can tell it takes a lot of courage for him to help her out.

Next up, The Trouble with Fortunetelling was definitely the most entertaining story of them all, but unfortunately also the most annoying. Set after the events of the Infinity Train arc, Zenitsu is accosted by a fortune teller at a crossroads and told “stay away from women for the rest of the day, if you value your life”. He then spends the rest of the chapter in hysterics, which is somewhat disappointing considering how well he had been written immediately prior. There are some great moments here though — Inosuke picking up a menu at a cafe and immediately exclaiming “I can’t read!” (followed by Tanjiro’s futile attempts at teaching him some letters) had me laughing out loud.

Aoi and Kanao is a great little expansion on the two titular characters, and it’s too bad that more people won’t read it. While Kanao sees significant character growth throughout the manga due to Tanjiro’s positive influence, Aoi feels somewhat neglected despite being set up as an interesting character at the end of the rehabilitation arc. This story gives her a little extra time in the spotlight and serves to flesh her out between manga chapters.

Finally, Kimetsu Academy Stories is a goofy re-imagining of the setting as a typical middle/high school. If you’ve seen the anime, you may recognize this concept from the shorts at the end of some episodes. As might be expected, nothing of importance happens here at all, it’s just a chance to have some fun with the characters. It got a few laughs (my favorite bit was Yujiro pretending to be sick every day so he could see Nurse Tamayo), but this was definitely the weakest one for me.

Overall, despite the fact that it doesn’t add a lot to the story of KNY at large, I liked this book quite a bit. The writer’s style is enjoyable and she did a great job of capturing the characters. I rarely read afterwords but I decided to read this one and it seems like she really likes KNY and was super excited to write a novelization, which was cute and heartwarming. I already have one of the other books (片羽の蝶, One Winged Butterfly) and I’ll be looking forward to reading that as well.