The two of them would set out the next morning.

Sanemi hated the fact that they were sharing a building with two. Freaking. DEMONS. (One of which was a Waxing Moon!) But he also knew that the kid had somehow brainwashed Ubuyashiki-sama. Ubuyashiki-sama who had gone blind. Ubuyashiki-sama who was probably desperate to end the demon threat and the curse on his family. Ubuyashiki-sama who was willing to do anything to save his children – biological or those in the Corps.

Sanemi got it.

That didn't mean he agreed with it.

Thankfully, he wasn't the only one. Sanemi had wanted to approach someone somewhat trustworthy to make plans the other brainwashed Pillars wouldn't undermine. First and foremost, he had to make sure that Ubuyashiki-sama would be safe. The demons hadn't attacked yet, but he was positive they were waiting for the right moment. He wasn't sure what that right moment was as the demons had had plenty of opportunity to overpower the few pillars between them and Ubuyashiki-sama… but perhaps they were waiting to completely destroy all the Hashira and their Tsugukos in one fell swoop? Or were they waiting for a signal of some kind from their master?

Sanemi realized pretty quickly that such questions only led to madness and circular thinking and decided that instead of trying to suss out why, he'd simply prevent anything from happening. However, that led to the second problem: he knew he couldn't do that alone. Also, he'd be forced on a mission with one of the demons the next day, so he needed his sleep. Someone would have to watch over Ubuyashiki-sama and his family and Sanemi wouldn't be able to sleep unless someone had his back.

His first thought was the Stone Pillar. Himejima at least had a head on his shoulders when it came to this topic as he made no effort to hide his wariness. Unfortunately, Himejima had also gone against his wishes and begun to teach Genya, so at the most they could coordinate because he would not be sleeping anywhere near his brother for many reasons. He was still ticked that Genya had decided to join the Corps and wanted to make his upset known. The kid was supposed to lead a normal life and be protected! If not, then what was Sanemi's sacrifice for? Also, he knew he, as a Pillar, would be a target and didn't want to paint any more of a target on Genya than necessary. And lastly, he didn't want to worry Genya more than he probably already would be worried…

So he approached Himejima almost as soon as the meeting let out and the man agreed to stand watch in the halls outside of Ubuyashiki-sama's room.

Sanemi appreciated that more than he could say.

Now he just had to figure out who he could trust to watch his back. Kanroji was out as her brainwashing showed so obviously. He couldn't help but be disgusted by her weakness. Shinobu, while seeming to have a decent head on her shoulders, was also just too involved with the kid for him to really be able to trust her right now. He didn't know anything about the new kid, and besides, said kid had wanted to train against the demon. Just… no. Rengoku seemed hesitant but was also connected to Kanroji and was more open to the brat's lies so he was out.

That left Obanai, Uzui and Tomioka.

Yeah, Uzui was out. The guy was way too loud and he also wanted to leave and get back home to his wives (who would, apparently, be starting on their own mission soon).

After careful consideration, he decided that he didn't trust that the demon brat had defended the Water Pillar in his first Hashira meeting… even if he had been right that time. Tomioka thought so little of himself that it came off as him thinking too much of himself. Sanemi hated that it had taken a self-righteous demon to point that out to him… not that he really cared, but still.

Fortunately, Obanai seemed just as uneasy as Sanemi and accepted the offer to trade watches for the night. Sanemi couldn't help but be grateful that he wouldn't have to face the demon brat the next morning with no sleep. He also doubted he'd be getting much if any sleep on this trip, so he'd have to take what he could get now.

When he showed up at the gates the next morning with almost six whole hours under his belt, he couldn't help but be pleased. Now they just had to get through the rest of this assignment…

And if he exposed the kid for what he was on the way, so much the better.

He'd just have to figure out how.

xXx

This… was getting very old very quickly.

Tanjiro walked along under the sunlight, hands fisted and tucked in each sleeve so Shinazugawa wouldn't see how tightly they were clenched or the blood from Tanjiro's claws digging into the palms of his hands. All he should be able to see was Tanjiro's carefully blank face and maybe that he was swallowing every couple of seconds to keep his mouth from watering too obviously.

Because the man. Kept. Nicking. HIMSELF!

Every time the smell of his blood would begin to fade, he'd subtly stab his arm with a knife he obviously kept concealed somewhere on his person and Tanjiro would be forced to smell that utterly divine scent again.

This was pure torture, the likes of which only Muzan had ever subjected him to.

They'd already been on the road for almost two days and should reach the mountain by nightfall. Neither one had been willing to sleep in the other's presence, so they had been traveling straight through the night and tempers were running very short.

The man had come up with his stupid trick half-way through the morning and hadn't stopped since. Tanjiro was reaching his limit. If the man didn't stop soon… well, he wasn't sure what he'd do. He couldn't attack Shinazugawa without vindicating him and proving to the rest of the Corps that he was untrustworthy. But he also couldn't let things keep going like this.

He really wished he had Nezuko's strength.

Heck, he almost wished he had Akatsugi there just so he'd have something else to focus on, but the other demon had been left behind so he could begin to train the other Pillars. Apparently, Muichiro and Rengoku were both very much looking forward to said training after they finished their next respective missions. Until then, Kanroji and Shinobu would remain behind in the Ubuyashiki estate to make sure the former Waxing Moon wouldn't be attacking anyone any time soon. Not that he would. Tanjiro had extracted a promise. Not to mention the demon was looking forward to the training and fights as well.

Unfortunately, that still left Tanjiro in his current predicament.

The scent had just begun to fade again when a new cut or stab (he wasn't sure which) renewed it and he knew he'd had enough.

"Shinazugawa-san," he said as pleasantly as he could, finally breaking the silence they'd kept up for more or less their entire trek. Maybe if this had been one of his earlier resets he'd be able to dredge up real conviction and happiness, but Muzan had driven too much of that out of him at this point. This was the best he could do, so it would have to do. "You really should stop cutting yourself. Going into any fight injured is a determent and you already have to worry about your arm." Because said arm was now bandaged and healing. Honestly, how the guy had survived as long as he had, Tanjiro didn't know.

The Wind Pillar just snorted. "You'll break eventually, you know. And everyone will be able to see you for who you truly are."

Tanjiro felt his eyebrow twitch but refused to drop his smile. (Was this how Shinobu felt all the time? He hoped not...)

"And what, exactly, am I?" he asked, turning to continue walking. It wasn't so bad if he took the lead as the slight breeze softened the intensity of the smell.

"You're a two-faced, lying demon!" Shinazugawa practically hissed.

Even if it was Shinazugawa, it still hurt to hear that. Still, he took a breath through his mouth before he spoke again.

"I'm sorry you feel that way." The response wasn't nearly up to his usual standards of empathy and understanding, but he was kind of proud of himself for not snapping back at all. He was tired and hungry in that way only demons could be, and he may as well be walking along with a sword to the back of his neck with how much he trusted his current companion. He inwardly lamented the lost camaraderie with Mitsuri. Or… well, anyone else would have been a better choice at this point.

(Part of him couldn't help but wonder if Ubuyashiki-sama had stuck them together on purpose to try and force them to work out their differences… if so, Tanjiro couldn't help but think it was a monumentally bad idea.)

"Why don't you just drop the act?" the Wind Pillar almost shouted, voice harsh and accusing.

Tanjiro wanted to snort (he didn't, that would have made resisting attacking the merechi even harder). Instead he tipped his head to one side as if thinking.

"Let's say you're right," he finally responded, "just for argument's sake because it certainly isn't true. What would I gain by holding back? Why would I act as I am?"

Dang it, he must be really tired if he was presenting it like that. Or maybe just done. Normally he would rely on his emotion and determination to get through to other people. That had been his default for so long (not to mention, it tended to work), but it just seemed so daunting to pull up much energy at the moment. Besides, he doubted it would help with the Wind Pillar.

So Shinazugawa would have to deal with a Waxing Moon instead of the Demon Slayer, as much as Tanjiro hated to think of it like that.

He despised that at times like this he had to force his usual exuberance and geniality. He'd tried so hard to hang onto those despite his time as a demon and the many, many lives he'd lived.

It was times like this when he realized how much he'd lost, not just in people around him, but of himself. Of who he was. Or who he had been…

"To gain our trust," Shinazugawa shot back, breaking into his thoughts. "I just can't believe it's actually working on some people."

Was it bad that it felt like he was arguing with Gyokko… except not about disgusting 'art' and the pointlessness thereof. Or, he supposed, more like Gyokko if he had Daki's temper.

Was there really that much difference between some of the Hashira and the Waxing Moons?

Himself included.

He shook his head, both to distract himself from the smell and the spiraling thoughts. No matter what happened, Shinazugawa was still human, and Tanjiro fought for humans. He always had. Because every human had a family or friends who would mourn them. Every life was worth to someone what his family's lives were worth to him.

He had to keep believing that.

He had to.

Even if Shinazugawa seemed to be happy sawing his last nerve in half.

"I don't want to hurt anyone in the Corps," he said, once he could trust himself to speak again. "I just want to take Muzan out."

Another snort. "Save it for the others. All of this 'future knowledge' stuff? I don't buy it."

Tanjiro sighed. "You don't have to," he finally said. "That doesn't stop it from being true."

A growl from the Wind Pillar. "You may have everyone else fooled, but not me."

This… was getting them nowhere. He'd known logic wasn't Shinazugawa's strong point but he hadn't realized it would be this bad.

"I'm going to hurry ahead," he finally said. It felt like running away, but he wasn't sure he had much of a choice at this point. "I want to get there before the demons come out."

"Like I'll let you out of my sight!" Shinazugawa growled.

Tanjiro couldn't help a small smirk that came to his lips. Hook, line and sinker.

He didn't say anything, though, as he jumped into the trees. He heard Shinazugawa behind him, and his smirk widened. It would be worth the extra energy to get away from that smell.

(Well, with his nose, mostly away from it in any case.)

xXx

Nezuko panted as she sheathed her sword. Behind her, the demon whose head she'd just taken disintegrated. She sighed and clapped her hands together twice, saying a prayer over their body. Then she turned to find Zenitsu and Inosuke. Apparently demon groups weren't extremely common, but when they did crop up, they tended to do the most damage. Even if they weren't large groups.

This assignment had proven that with the multiple missing person cases.

This group had been rather small even for a demons, fortunately, and once they'd been found, they'd split up. Each of the demon slayers had gone after one of the demons.

Nezuko's demon hadn't been difficult to behead, although he'd had some tricks of his own up his sleeve. However, she wasn't satisfied. It had taken her too long and this wasn't even an upper-rank demon. She should be able to finish them off faster and more efficiently. She needed to if she was going to fight by Tanjiro's side.

Sighing, she began to pick her way through the woods towards where she'd last seen her companions. At least she had them to help out. Between their demon fighting and their spars, she'd cemented at least six new (well, modified) techniques of her 'Plant' style. Most of them were based off of the water forms, but she also had one solid one based off the Love form, and a couple more ideas to explore. So, even if she wasn't progressing as fast as she wanted to, she was still progressing, and was happy with the style she'd created.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! HELP MEEEEEEE!"

The scream cut through her musing and she sighed, then picked up her pace. Zenitsu would begin to believe in himself if it killed her.

She wondered how Tanjiro was doing right now. Or her family. Perhaps she could request some time off to go and see them?

Yes.

"NOOOOOOOOO!"

As soon as they got out of this mission alive.

xXx

Shinazugawa and Tanjiro sat in the tree tops on the Fukujikasane Mountain, watching a demon shuffle around a clearing below bemoaning a lack of food. Thankfully, Shinazugawa had covered up all of his wounds and thus the demon couldn't seem to sense them at all. (Tanjiro, of course, could still smell the merechi blood, but it was far easier to deal with now than it had been, thankfully.)

"Well," the Wind Pillar hissed lowly at Tanjiro, "what are you waiting for?"

Tanjiro shot the man a glare. "Muzan has a mental link to any demon who hasn't shaken off his curse. He's looking for me specifically. If that demon sees me, we will have to deal with Waxing Moons." If they were lucky.

"And why is he looking for you?" Shinazugawa asked, voice accusing.

Tanjiro held back a sigh. "Because he knows I have demon abilities but has never had contact with me before in this life. He's curious and my presence is threatening to him."

"Or he's just waiting to come and take you back into the fold," Shinazugawa muttered.

Tanjiro grit his teeth. "Never," he hissed. "I'll die before joining him." And he meant it. He couldn't go through Muzan's close scrutiny again.

He couldn't.

He wasn't sure if Shinazugawa could sense his determination or if he just didn't know what to say, but the demon slayer didn't respond. For once. The Sun Pillar decided he would take his wins when and where he could.

"In any case, this is going to take time," Tanjiro continued. "I need you to distract him while I sneak up on him from behind. Or find a way to bind him somehow."

"Like I'm gonna fall for that. You'll just run off."

"Do you aspire to be difficult or does it just come naturally to you?" Tanjiro hissed and almost immediately regretted it. Not because of Shinazugawa's unimpressed expression but because that wasn't like him and would ultimately get him nowhere. Snapping at people never did. He also knew an apology would get him nowhere so he just took a deep breath.

"Look, the sooner I can figure this out, the sooner we can leave. And if I can save these people – turn them back into humans – isn't that worth trying for?"

Shinazugawa's unimpressed expression didn't change.

"Besides, it's not like a demon like that will stand in your way if anything did happen." He tried very hard not to roll his eyes.

The Wind Pillar didn't move.

"This won't be a success unless we work together," Tanjiro tried. Pleading hadn't ever worked with Giyuu, or Shinobu for that matter, or even Urokodaki-sensei. But maybe it could work for Shinazugawa?

Somehow he doubted it.

Which was why the man standing up and pointing a finger in Tanjiro's face surprised him.

"Two minutes. If you're not there, I head straight back to Oyakata-sama."

Tanjiro blinked and nodded his head. The acquiescence was unexpected, not unwelcome.

The Wind Pillar vanished and not five seconds later, the demon cried out. Shinazugawa had him – a younger man, maybe in his early twenties? – held by his arms twisted behind his back, much like Giyuu had held Nezuko that first time he'd met the Pillar.

The demon was spitting out vitriol about how he was going to kill and eat them and how dare they puny humans… typical demon posing.

"He's restrained. Now what?" Shinazugawa glanced back at Tanjiro while holding the demon in such a way that he couldn't see who the demon slayer was yelling to.

Tanjiro appeared beside and just behind him.

"Now, hold still," he said quietly. "I won't burn you."

Shinazugawa's eyes went wide but Tanjiro's fire was already raging towards him. He let go of the demon and jumped away, but the Pillar hadn't gotten burned. Tanjiro could only hope Shinazugawa realized that.

He sighed as the demon began to scream and Tanjiro forced himself to concentrate. He needed to burn out the demon cells… but he winced as the demon continued to writhe in pain. He really hated putting anyone through this… perhaps they could knock the next one out? Would probably be safer too.

The demon kept screaming and yelling and writhing and Tanjiro kept pushing, closing his eyes and searching for the demonic sense and burning it away. He grit his teeth.

"Come on…" he whispered. "Please… let me help him…"

He kept pushing, further and further until he realized the demon had stopped screaming and now lay still…

He couldn't sense anything more demonic from him…

Could he have…?

Tanjiro cut the fire off and rushed forward, kneeling beside the very human-looking person. But he was breathing shallowly and his body twitched…

Swearing loudly, Shinazugawa approached, sword drawn and looking to be on a war path. "What was that?!" he hissed, pointing his sword at Tanjiro.

"He's not breathing well," the Sun Pillar said, ignoring the question altogether. "We have to—"

Before he could finish, the man shuddered and then went utterly limp. Tanjiro panicked and put a hand to his neck, looking for a pulse. He found none.

"No, no, no!" he muttered, flipping the man over and slapping at his face. "Come on… come back! Breathe! Breathe!"

He didn't.

Tanjiro kept shouting at him for several seconds, bordering on minutes. He even tried to push air into the guy's lungs like Tamayo had taught him, and start his heart… he wasn't sure he was doing it right, though. And the guy never responded.

"AAAARRRGH!" Tanjiro screamed after several minutes of trying to resuscitate the man, not caring how demonic he sounded. Then he slumped over onto the still chest and couldn't stop the tears. He'd failed. Not only that, but he'd just tortured this man to death! Was that worth it?! He may have been trying to save him but… that didn't stop the fact that he'd killed him in what sounded like one of the most painful ways possible.

"He's not disintegrating…"

Tanjiro looked over at Shinazugawa, realizing a second too late that he had tears running down his cheeks.

"What?" he snapped.

The Wind Pillar looked taken aback for a moment as he looked at Tanjiro, but then he shook his head. "The body… it's not disintegrating."

Tanjiro felt his patience snap as he turned on the man.

"Is that all you can think of?!" he yelled. "I just burned him to death. He's dead!

Shinazugawa just stared at Tanjiro, eyes narrowed. "But he's human."

The boy's mouth clopped closed and he looked back at the body. Shinazugawa was right…

But… did that matter? The man was still dead. Had still died in a horrific way…

At least cutting off his head would be painless for the most part.

"Let's go find another one," Shinazugawa said, rising to his full height.

Tanjiro glared and actually felt his eyes change that time. The Wind Pillar's eyes widened and he brought his sword to bare.

"Waxing Zero?!" he hissed.

That caused Tanjiro to pause.

"Yeah. From when I infiltrated the Waxing Moons. It marked my soul – yet another reason for me to absolutely despise Muzan."

"Or you're—"

"Stop it!" Tanjiro yelled, uncaring of who heard him. "Just because you cannot fathom anyone better than your mother who couldn't come back doesn't mean it can't happen!"

Shinazugawa froze and suddenly went utterly cold.

"What was that?" he asked. No swearing, no other harsh language, no emotional explosions.

And Tanjiro realized he may have overstepped. He had to find a way to salvage this.

"I hate Muzan," he finally settled on. "He's killed my family so many times I can't even count them all. He's turned my family into demons and he's turned me so many times I remember being demon more than being a human. I hate it! I would do anything, even work with a short-sighted, bigoted person like you to take him down!"

Shinazugawa still looked about ready to attack Tanjiro and slice him into a billion pieces, but he hadn't made a move to do so. The Sun Pillar decided to press his luck.

"You don't have to like me. Heck, you don't have to trust me! I don't care! What you need to do is realize that the enemy of the enemy is my friend, and right now, our enemy is Muzan and all of his demons!"

"You were pretty upset about that demon," Shinazugawa growled, pointing to the still body.

"I hope it's not surprising that I don't like torturing people."

"That wasn't a person!" Funny, hadn't he just been saying otherwise?

"He used to be! And at the very least deserves a decent burial! Not to be dismissed and left here to rot simply because he ran into Muzan!"

Shinazugawa opened his mouth to say something back when Tanjiro's senses screamed at him. He saw the other Pillar's eyes widen at the same moment and they both ducked, rolling away and coming to their feet. What looked like an arc of moon-like blades had sliced through the air where they'd just been.

"Oh, no…" Tanjiro whispered, feeling his blood run cold. Then those blades spun at him and he found himself dodging again. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Shinazugawa doing the same. Then the blades finally vanished leaving the Sun Pillar breathing a little more heavily than normal as his eyes sought the approaching figure he knew would be there.

A man with long, dark red-brown hair and six eyes stood in the clearing right over the former demon's dead body.

"Kokushibo," the Tanjiro breathed.

"I see I've finally caught up with you," the demon said as his gaze sought out his target. "Kamado Tanjiro."

xXx

AN: And there I leave you. Early chapter and a cliffhanger. *evil laugh* *ahem* What?

Question: Would anyone be interested in the last scene from Sanemi's pov? If so, should I post it as a chapter omake? Or should I post it as a separate story? Thoughts?

Thank you all for reading! I really appreciate it. :D

(And because it's late and I should have been in bed two hours ago, my discord link is in the previous chapter, apologies.)