Tsuzumi Mansion
Guest review answer corner.
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Guest: If you want to post them, be my guest, I don't mind people mentioning their theories. Just keep in mind that I likely won't be able to give you an answer other than 'that would be spoilers' or 'you'll find out in this chapter'.
Yep, poor guy died without relaying the information sadly but I thought it was unrealistic for him to manage that. In canon, Susamaru died just for saying Muzan's name out loud, to a group of people that already know about him, I doubt he would have overlooked someone talking about his fortress.
Thanks as always for the review, until next time!
LegoMyEggo02: It seems you disabled the private message function so I will answer here. I don't think Kyogai would be able to affect Nakime's fortress.
The fortress and the house are Nakime and Kyogai's Blood Demon arts respectively so they shouldn't be able to affect the other. At least, I don't think they can.
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Welcome again everyone!
First of all, TANKANA WEEK IS A GO, I REPEAT TANKANA WEEK IS A GO!
There is a tumblr account called tankanaweek2020 and a twitter TankanaW.
You can also look for the #TanKanaWeek2020 to find it.
There is even a discord link for the server I'm part of!
I hope you'll be participating!
With all that said, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Kimetsu no Yaiba.
"South-southeast!" After leaving Asakusa those were the words Kamado Tanjiro has heard the most as he walked on the path between rice fields. "Your next location is south-southeast!" His crow continued to repeat.
"I heard you!" Tanjiro answered his crow as it hovered above him, his patience finally out after having to hear it say the same thing over and over for almost twenty minutes. "I heard, so give me a break and quiet down!" The crow, instead of listening to his request, flew down until he was almost next to his ear to keep cawing. "I got the message, so please!"
"PLEASE!" A shriek, for there was no other word for it, got both the swordsman and bird's attention. "Please! Please! Please! Please marry me!"
A boy around Tanjiro's age with yellow hair and a yellow and orange haori with white triangles said on his knees as he clung to a black haired girl wearing a blue kimono with a yellow obi who seemed… less than happy about it.
"I could die any day, you know! That's why I want you to marry me! So please! Please, I'm begging you!"
"Wh-what's up with that? What on earth?" Tanjiro wondered in shock as he observed the scene.
A sparrow flew towards him and, after recovering from the initial shock, he raised his hand to let him land on it.
"Chu, chu." The sparrow said, moving its wings frantically.
"Hm. Hm." Tanjiro nodded as he heard the explanation. "I see! Gotcha!" With a final nod, he raised his head to look at the scene. "I'll do something about it!"
The sparrow literally began to glow and tears formed in the corner of its eyes.
"Please help me! Please marry me!" The blond teen continued to beg while crying and the girl tried to push him away. "I'm begging-"
"What do you think you're doing in the middle of the road?" The Kamado yelled after pulling him away from the girl from the neck of his yellow haori. "Can't you see she wants no part of you? And don't go making trouble for your sparrow, either!"
"That uniform! You're the guy from the Final Selection!" The crying teen said, making Tanjiro notice he was also wearing a Demon Slayer uniform under his haori and a sword on his waist.
Even so.
"No one I know is anything like you! I don't know you!" Tanjiro declared; angry at him for, from his point of view, harassing that girl.
"Ehhhh?! But we met, remember? We met, remember?" He yelled back. "You're the one with the problem! Like your memory!"
Tanjiro, still glaring at him, thought back to the time he left the Wisteria prison and the people that passed it along with him, remembering the guy that kept muttering about how 'he was going to die'.
He then let go of the blonde's haori and addressed the girl with the blue kimono.
"All right, it's been taken care of." He said with a smile. "You can head home now without any worries."
"I will; thank you very much!" The girl said with a bow.
"Hey!" The other male yelled, still with tears in his eyes. "Stay out of my way! That girl is going to marry me! Because she's in love with me, all ri-" His sentence got cut short when the girl slapped him in the face, hard, sending him to sit on the ground and leaving a red hand mark on his cheek to then begin to hit him repeatedly on the head.
"Ouch! Ouch! It hurts! Stop it!" Zenitsu kept asking while covering his head as she continued to hit him.
"H-hey, calm down!" Tanjiro said, grabbing the girl from below her arms to hold her back.
"When did I ever tell you that I loved you?" She yelled, pointing a finger at him. "You were crumpled up on the side of the road looking ill, and all I did was speak to you!"
At the declaration, the blond paled as if the earth just shattered beneath his feet.
"You mean you didn't reach out to me out of love because you were worried?" He asked, still making it sound like he was shrieking.
"I already have a fiancé, so not on your life!" The girl yelled back with a scowl that quickly lessened to a frown. "With all that energy you must be fine now, right? Goodbye!" Having said her piece, Tanjiro let go of her and she turned and walked away.
"W-Wait, come back!" The blond begged with his left hand stretched in her direction. "Come…"
"Look, cut it out!" The red haired teen said.
"Wh-why'd you get in my way? This has nothing to do with you!"
'Is he serious?' The Kamado thought in disbelief.
"What's with that look on your face?!" The other demon hunter yelled since Tanjiro's expression reflected what he was thinking at the moment. "Stop that! Why are you staring at me like I'm a creature or something?" Taking a deep breath, he pointed at Tanjiro and yelled. "Hey you! You're responsible for it! Since it's your fault that I missed out on getting married!"
'He…' Tanjiro trailed off for a second. 'He IS serious!' The Kamado thought with an expression as if he just a saw something bizarre that he can't understand.
Coming from someone that literally fights demons for a living, that says a lot.
"Say something!" The blond complained but didn't say anything else about his expression. "Listen up! I'm going to die soon! During my next job! The thing is, I'm horribly weak, okay? I'm not kidding! You gotta protect me until I manage to get married, all right?"
"My name is Kamado Tanjiro!" The red haired swordsman introduced himself, blatantly ignoring him.
"Is that right? My apologies! I'm Agatsuma Zenitsu!" Zenitsu answered him before kneeling in front of him and grabbing his haori. "Please save me, Tanjiro!"
"What do you mean, save you?" The Kamado asked before placing both hands on his shoulders. "What was your reason for becoming a swordsman, Zenitsu? Why are you being so blatantly shameless?" He asked with a tone between curiosity at his behavior and reproaching that same behavior.
"That's a harsh way to put it!" Zentisu complained before starting to cry again. "I got swindled by a woman and racked up all this debt! The old geezer who took it over for me was a cultivator!" He yelled, grabbing his head as if remembering a horrible past. "Day after day, I had to go through hellish training! It was so bad that I thought I'd be better off dead! I was hoping I could die during the Final Selection! But since I was lucky enough to survive, I'm still going through hell every day!" The blond explained before, for some inexplicable reason, stand with his feet and hands on the ground with his stomach trying to reach for the sky. "I'm so scared! Scared! Scared! Scared! I just know that I'm gonna get devoured and killed soon by a demon!" He stood up again as he continued his wailing. "My brains are gonna get sucked through my ears while I'm still alive! No! No! Please save me!"
Finally having vented it all out, Zenitsu kneeled on the ground breathing heavily.
"Better? Are you alright now?"
"Yes… sort of…" The blond answered, still teary eyed.
"Look, I can understand that fighting demons is scary but if you passed the Final Selection then you have no choice but to go on missions." Tanjiro said calmly. "Besides, don't you have a higher ranked swordsman accompanying you to assess your skill? I'm sure they will help you if things got difficult."
As soon as he said those words, Zenitsu stopped his panting and looked down.
"Ah… yeah…" The blond answered in the quietest voice the Kamado has heard from him so far.
"Speaking of…" He looked around for a second. "Where is your partner?"
"He went to get some food, he should be back soon."
"I see."
"Who are you?" A new voice asked, in front of the two teens.
He is a male, a bit older than Tanjiro, wearing a Demon Slayer uniform with some yellow markings on it and a black kimono on top of it and his sword strapped to his back. He has short black hair, turquoise eyes and is wearing a necklace with half of a blue-colored yin and yang symbol.
"What the hell happened here?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at Zenitsu while munching on a rice ball.
"…nothing." The blond answered, not looking at him. "He is another Demon Slayer that happened to be walking here."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Kamado Tanjiro." The red haired teen said. "Are you Zenitsu's overseer?"
"Unfortunately." The black haired male said quietly so Tanjiro wouldn't hear. "Name's Kaigaku. What are you doing here?"
"I was just following my crow's indications when I found Zenitsu here."
"…your rank?"
"Mizunoto."
"Wait… so you just passed the Final Selection, where is your overseer?" The black haired swordsman asked.
"He died on my last mission, I told that to my crow but he only kept telling me to walk in this direction." The Kamado answered sadly.
"Caw, caw." Speaking of said crow. "The three of you, go south-southeast, south-southeast." It began to say.
"The three of us?" Zenitsu asked.
"Well, you heard it." Kaigaku said with a sigh before beginning to move in the indicated direction.
"Let's go." Tanjiro said as he helped Zenitsu up.
"…right." The blond said a bit reluctant.
.
.
"How are you?" The Kamado asked Zenitsu.
"Yeah." The blond sniffed. "Now that I'm calmer, I'm getting hungry."
"Don't you have any food on you?"
"Nope."
"Excuse me, Kaigaku-san, didn't you bring any food for Zenitsu?" Tanjiro asked the black haired swordsman who had been walking a few steps ahead of the two.
"Huh? Why would I do that?" Kaigaku asked, looking at the two over his shoulder. "He can get his own food."
Tanjiro frowned at the answer.
"It's fine, I can manage for a while." The other Mizunoto muttered.
"It's no good to fight with an empty stomach." Tanjiro argued.
He then reached inside a pocket in his uniform and took out a rice ball.
"Would you like to eat it?" He offered.
"Oh, thanks." Zenitsu said, accepting the food and taking a bite. "You're not eating, Tanjiro?"
"No, since that's all I've got."
The Agatsuma stared at him for a moment before using his hands to cut the rice ball in half.
"You eat half." He said, while giving a part to him.
"You sure? Thanks!"
"By the way." Zenitsu called out. "What's with the fox mask?"
"Oh, it's a gift from my master." Tanjiro said with a smile, taking the mask from his head to look at it. "He made it himself and said it is a warding mask to protect me."
"Eh?! Such a thing exists?! Can I get one?!" The other Mizunoto yelled.
"Sorry, I don't know how to make them and my master's home is far from here." Tanjiro answered him.
"Can you lend me yours then?!"
"Wha-? No." He said, placing the mask back on the side of his head. "To begin with, you can't depend on a warding mask when fighting demons."
"Eh?! But I'm scared of demons! Please, let me borrow your mask so it can protect me!"
"No." The Kamado replied firmly. "I know what you mean when you say you're scared of demons, but you can't make trouble for your sparrow and your overseer."
"Eh? Wait, I get what you mean about Kaigaku but what about the sparrow? How can you tell?"
"Well, he says you're always whining about not wanting to go to work, and you're always hitting on girls, and that you snore so loud, he's had it!" The Kamado answered. "So he says." He finished, pointing at the sparrow in his hand.
"He's saying that?" Zenitsu half-yelled. "You can understand bird-language?"
"Even the bird knows that you're worthless." Kaigaku chimed in.
The blond just looked down in shame.
"Chu, chu!" The sparrow said.
"Eh, really?" Tanjiro asked, earning a few nods from the sparrow.
"What is it?" The black haired swordsman asked, looking annoyed.
"He says Kaigaku-san thinks too highly of himself and should try to encourage Zenitsu instead of always bullying him." The Kamado said.
"What?!" The demon hunter with the black kimono stopped and snarled.
"If you demean someone you can't expect them to feel motivated to do anything." The red-eyed teen said, also stopping.
"Chu, chu."
"He agrees."
Kaigaku growled and got in Tanjiro's face.
"Now listen here, that coward there just survived the Final Selection by luck so don't go telling me what I can and can't say to him."
"How do you know that?" Tanjiro asked with a frown, confused at the attitude.
"Because I know him, he did nothing but cry during training, there is no way he actually managed to defeat the demons in that mountain."
"During training…? Wait, so you two trained together?"
"Y-yeah…" Zenitsu trailed off.
"That makes it worse!" Tanjiro yelled in anger. "You're insulting someone that went through training with you?! You should be ashamed!"
"Huh?!" A vein bulged on Kaigaku's forehead as he glared at the red haired swordsman. "Now listen here you brat, I have seniority here, I'm a Kanoe, that's three ranks above you so don't go telling me what to do."
"Rank has nothing to do with this! Apologize to Zenitsu!" The Kamado demanded, not flinching under the older male's glare.
"D-don't fight." Zenitsu said weakly as he raised his arms and approached the two. "It's okay Tanjiro, I know I'm weak so-"
"Apologize!" The red haired teen repeated towards Kaigaku.
"You little-" The Tsuchinoe raised a fist…
"Start running! Start running!" Tanjiro's crow suddenly yelled. "Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Kaigaku, run! The three of you head over to your next destination! Run, run!"
Kaigaku clicked his tongue.
"We're not done here." He said before turning around and following the crow.
"Let's go, Zenitsu." The red haired teen says, dragging him along.
.
.
"Hey, Tanjiro, on second thought, I'm not gonna make it." Zenitsu said tiredly. "Even if I go along, I'm gonna be totally useless."
The three have been following the crow that led them to a mountain and have been making their way up inside of the forest in it.
'The demon scent is getting stronger little by little.' Tanjiro thought with a small frown, not really paying attention to the blond who, despite his complaints, is still keeping pace with Tanjiro and Kaigaku. 'There's something up ahead.' Just as he thought that, they reached the exit of the forest. 'That's…'
The three stood in front of a large house that looked strangely clean for being in the middle of the forest on top of a mountain. It had its entrance to the right of the wall in front of them, with a balcony built as a second floor.
"I can smell blood." Tanjiro said. "But this particular scent…"
"Eh, you smell something?" Zenitsu asked, trying to see if he can catch any scents.
"Something I've never smelled before." The Kamado answered.
"I don't know about that, but do you hear a sound?"
"Who the hell cares about that?!" Kaigaku yelled. "I don't have the time to babysit you guys, so just stay here and out of my way so I can kill the demon." He declared before walking towards the house.
"Ah, wait-"
"Shut up, you waste of space!" The black haired swordsman interrupted his sibling disciple.
"How can you say that?! Apologize right now!" Tanjiro yelled but he was ignored by the older swordsman, who simply clicked his tongue and walked inside the house, slamming the door shut after entering. "That guy…" The red haired teen trailed off, before sighing and turning to Zenitsu. "We should also… hmm?" He trailed off once again when he saw two kids, a boy and a girl that looked like siblings, standing on the shade of a few trees.
The boy looked to be around ten with short black hair, brown eyes and a light green kimono with a blue haori on top and was hugging the girl close to him as if to protect her.
The girl is smaller and younger than the boy, wearing a pale pink kimono with a purple obi, she has the same colored eyes and hair, but hers is longer and parted back into two low pigtails tied with red bobble hair ties.
"K-Kids…" Zenitsu mentioned.
"I wonder what's wrong." Tanjiro muttered before walking towards the two. "Hey, guys, what are you doing here?"
Instead of answering, the two paled and leaned away from him.
'They're really scared.' The Mizunoto didn't need his sense of smell to tell that, the two kids looked terrified and were trembling non-stop.
"Okay, wanna see something cool?" Tanjiro asked with a smile as he knelt down so he was at their eye-level. "Ta-da." He raised his left hand. "It's a tame sparrow!" As if understanding what was happening and wanting to help, Zenitsu's sparrow jumped a few times and made some sounds. "See? Isn't he cute?" The sparrow 'chued' once again.
The gesture seemed to take them out of their fear-induced trance, as tears began to well up in both their eyes and they fell on their knees, still clutching to each other.
"Please tell me." Tanjiro spoke softly while wearing a worried expression. "Did something happen? Is this your house?"
"No." The boy said while shaking his head, a horrified expression in his face. "No, it's not… this… this is… a-a monster's… house!" He finally managed.
Tanjiro's features immediately changed to a serious expression, knowing what the 'monster' most likely is.
"Our big brother got taken away." The boy began explaining. "When we were walking down the road at night, this monster we'd never seen before showed up. It didn't give us a glance. Just our brother."
"And they went inside that house, right?"
"Y-yeah." The boy nodded.
"Did you two follow them here?" Tanjiro smiled. "You did good! Great job!" He sincerely praised them, knowing that it's not something kids their age, or even some adults, would do in the same situation.
"We followed the traces of his blood." The boy said, the tears that had been on the corner of his and his sister's eyes finally falling. "Because he got hurt!"
Tanjiro's expression turned to a frown for a moment before smiling once again.
"Don't worry!" He reassured them. "We're going to defeat the bad guy and rescue your brother!"
"Really?" The girl asked, talking for the first time. "You really will?"
"Yeah, for sure!" The Kamado confirmed, standing up to his full height again.
"Tanjiro…" Zenitsu called out, holding his right hand to his ear. "Hey, what is this sound? This creepy sound never stops." He said with trembling eyes. "Is it a tsuzumi?"
"Sound?" Tanjiro asked. "I don't hear any." But as if on cue, the sound of a drum began to be heard from the house, slowly becoming faster and louder until…
"Eh?"
"Gasp"
The four looked in horror as a man in a grey kimono and combed back black hair fell from the balcony, his body covered in blood from several wounds, and crashed against the ground, splattering blood all over the ground.
"Don't look!" Tanjiro yelled towards the two kids, who quickly did as told, and ran towards the man that seemed to be thrown from the house. "Are you all right? Stay with me!" He said to the man as he held him up and examined him. 'The wound is so deep.' The swordsman grimaced, realizing that it was too late.
"Even though… I got out…" The man spoke quietly. "Even though I made it out… made it outside..." His eyes dilated as his breath got more labored. "…am I gonna die? Am I still gonna die?"
Knowing that there is nothing to do, Tanjiro hugged the unknown male, hoping to at least give him some comfort in his final moments. Not a minute later, the unnamed stranger exhaled his final breath.
'He's gone.' The Kamado thought, moving back but still holding the body as he lamented his death.
"Tanjiro." Zenitsu called out softly. "By any chance, is that guy these kids'-"
"GRAAAAAAAAH"
The blond got interrupted when a roar came from the house, accompanied by the sound of a drum.
The two non-demon slayers were back to trembling in fear as they latched onto each other.
Zenitsu was in a similar state, trembling while looking at the house.
While Tanjiro had glanced at the structure when he heard the roar but looked back to the now dead man after it subsided.
'We couldn't save him. If only we'd gotten here a little sooner, we might've managed to save him.' The Kamado lamented before turning to the kids.
"Hey, is this man your…" While he didn't want to make them look at a dead body, Zenitsu was right in wondering if he was their brother.
"I-It's not Nii-chan." The boy answered, while her sister buried her face on his chest. "Nii-chan's wearing a persimmon-colored kimono."
'Then it's captured more than one person.' The Mizunoto thought, fearing how many there could be.
Gently and carefully, he laid the man's body down and closed his eyes.
'I promise to bury you when I return.' He said in his mind, standing up and giving a quick prayer for him. 'Forgive me.'
"All right." Finishing his prayer, he steeled himself. "Zenitsu, come on!" He told his fellow demon hunter who… denied with his head while shaking like a leaf. "But we have to go and help them, Kaigaku-san already went in and he doesn't know about the people captured."
Zenitsu just continued to tremble, tears even beginning to form in the corner of his eyes, not showing any intention of going.
"…really?" Tanjiro asked with a voice full of disappointment. "All right, then."
Zenitsu literally shrieked as the Kamado turned around and began walking towards the house.
"Hey, come on! Why are you making that ogre face at me?" Zenitsu cried out as he hung onto Tanjiro's box, but the red haired swordsman didn't seem affected at all, he didn't break his stride in any way. "Okay, I'll go!"
"I have no intention of forcing you to." He answered, still with the same tone and an expression that could scare a demon away.
"I said I'll go!" Zenitsu cried out.
Kaigaku walked along the hallways of the house.
The inside was poorly lit and the different paper walls looked a bit old but other than that, there didn't seem to be anything weird with it.
'That brat.' The black haired man cursed in his mind. 'Who the hell does he think he is?! A mere Mizunoto trying to order me around.' Just the thought of the red haired teen was making his blood boil. 'And they expect me to baby sit him and the trash, what is wrong with the higher-ups? I should just leave them and go alo- what the hell?!' His thoughts were interrupted when the hallway he was walking along suddenly spun ninety degrees to the right, almost making him lose his balance. "The place shifted…" He trailed off as he heard the beating of a drum and the hallway spun again, this time forward, making him fall down. 'Shit! This entire house must be the work of a Blood Demon Art!' Seeing a door approaching, he prepared to crash through and rolled in the ground twice to break his fall and avoid injuries.
He was now in what looked like a large bedroom, only with no furniture.
"Marechi."
His senses went into full alert at hearing that voice and he quickly turned towards it while unsheathing his Nichirin, a steel colored blade with a black, lighting-like pattern embedded along the flat of it.
'Well, aren't I lucky? I barely entered a few minutes ago and I already find a demon.'
The demon in question looked mostly humanoid with black hair reaching just pass his shoulders, the usual traits of a demon such as grayish skin, claw-like fingers and razor sharp teeth of course, his eyes were completely red without pupils but what really set him apart from humans were the tsuzumi protruding from his body, one in his stomach and one in each shoulder and his hips.
"You're one ugly mo-"
Dun
His sentence got interrupted when the demon hit the tsuzumi in his stomach.
Kaigaku immediately moved to the side, a three fingered claw-like mark left where he previously stood.
'Alright, so that's how he attacks.' The swordsman thought. 'Just have to avoid the claws and cut off his head.' He began to charge towards the demon, his sword poised to strike. 'Thunder Breathing, second form!'
Dun
The demon hit the tsuzumi in his left shoulder, making the room spin to the left, ruining Kaigaku's footing and sending him towards the wall that now acted as the floor.
'The hell?!' The black haired male thought before correcting his posture and landing on his feet. 'This guy… he is not affected by the rotations.' He realized, seeing the demon still standing in the same place despite the rotation of the room.
"I don't have time to deal with annoyances, why are they bothering me in my house? I need to find the marechi." The demon muttered, not bothering to look in Kaigaku's direction.
"You bastard…" He jumped forwards again, once again preparing his technique. "Don't ignore me!"
Dun
Another claw attack came, forcing Kaigaku to stop his charge and dodge to the side lest he be cut in pieces.
"Bastard." The demon hunter seethed as he prepared to lunge again.
"Such nuisances, bothering me in my home, why did they come?" The tsuzumi demon continued to mutter before hitting the drum in his right shoulder three times making the room spin in that direction and leaving the demon on what was now the ceiling while making his foe fall in the opposite direction.
"Shit." Kaigaku cursed, preparing to land but the demon hit another drum, making the room spin forward this time, making him fall in a new direction that sent him crashing through a door and out of the room. He managed to recover quickly and rolled once to soften his landing, immediately turning towards the room with the demon in it.
"You…!" The swordsman lunged forward.
Dun
A tsuzumi was heard and suddenly the room he was going towards disappeared, replaced with a wall.
"That bastard… don't run away!" He yelled before beginning to run to the right, hoping the demon was in that direction.
"I'm gonna die!" Zenitsu yelled. "Gonna die, gonna die, gonna die, I'm telling you!"
After agreeing to go inside the house with Tanjiro, the red haired teen had left behind the box in his back with the two kids, saying that it would protect them if anything happened.
The blond was a bit weirded out by such a statement but didn't say anything and simply followed him inside, asking Tanjiro to protect him as they walked through the entrance hallway only for him to reveal that he has a broken leg and rib and couldn't really protect him.
He had panicked a bit at hearing that, meaning he began screaming non-stop about how Tanjiro can't have broken bones or he can't protect him, until the two kids from outside came in, saying that they heard scratching noises from the box that the Kamado a moment later said that is more important than his life and that it pains him they just left it behind.
Before they could say anything else or get the kids outside, the entire house began to rumble, scaring Zenitsu into moving his head between his legs, accidentally hitting Tanjiro and the girl with his behind when he bended over, sending them pass a door, and the two suddenly disappeared at the sound of a tsuzumi.
"Tanjiro and I got split up!" Which lead to this moment of him almost crying as the person he thought would protect him vanished in front of his eyes.
"Teruko!" The kid called out making Zenitsu gasp. "Teruko!"
"No, no, no, no!" The blond said, hanging onto his haori, still teary eyed. "Don't yell like that! If you yell and the bad guy hears you, it won't be pretty! Come on, let's step outside!"
"What… why outside?" The boy asked. "Are you trying to escape all by yourself?"
"Eh?"
"All this constant yammering about dying… aren't you ashamed of yourself?" Zenitsu froze, the strength of his grip vanishing, as the younger boy continued. "Clinging onto a younger person… don't you feel pathetic?" The blond recoiled as if he had been hit. "What are you wearing that sword on your hip for anyway?"
At the cutthroat words, and with no way of refuting them, Zenitsu fell on his back as if he had been dealt a lethal blow.
"Those words cut so deep." He muttered but quickly got up and began to literally drag the boy towards the exit despite his protests. "That's not it! I'm not gonna be of any use anyway so I'm gonna summon a grownup here, okay?" The Agatsuma justified as he continued to move towards the exit. "Because this isn't something us kids can resolve on our own!" He opened the door, ready to go under the sun and where he'll be safe from demons. "Huh?" But instead of the outside, the door led to a room inside the house. "You're kidding me, kidding me, kidding me! I'm sure this was the front door!"
And it was true, the door he opened is definitely the one that they used to enter the house.
"Where'd the outside go? I mean this door was…" Looking around frantically, he began to open any doors he saw, hoping that one of them would lead outside. "Is it this one?" It wasn't. "How about this one?" It wasn't that one either. "What about this one?" The last door led to yet another room.
Just not an empty one.
Standing in the dark, the room is occupant turned towards Zenitsu, he looked like a man, wearing pants but no shirt and, for some reason, he had a boar hide covering his head.
The masked man looked him over his shoulder, letting out a loud exhale, as the blond demon hunter just stared in fear.
"It's a monster!" He yelled, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets.
The 'monster' lunged forward, ignored Zenitsu, who kneeled in the ground crying while covering his head, busted down the sliding door and ran away from the two without sparing a glance.
The brown eyed boy stared at the… 'creature', for lack of a better word, as it ran away before turning towards the still trembling Zenitsu.
'Teruko… there are no words to express how happy I am you ended up with the red haired mister.' He thought.
"What the heck? What's that look in your eyes? Stop looking at me like that!" The blond pointed at him while continuing to cry.
After Zenitsu pushed Tanjiro and the girl, the room they were in suddenly began to change repeatedly at the sound of a tsuzumi until it settled for one.
It was a simple room with tatami floors, six paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling illuminating it with an orange hue and several shelves and chests lined up the walls, with a simple sliding door as the exit that was currently open.
'The room changed… no, were we the ones that moved?' Tanjiro wondered as he looked around. 'We moved to the beat of the tsuzumi?'
His thoughts were momentarily interrupted when he felt the girl with the pink kimono tremble as he held her shoulders.
"Sorry you got separated from your brother." He said softly. "But I'm gonna protect you no matter what and Zenitsu is gonna protect you brother, don't worry!" The Kamado assured her with a smile as he wiped away some tears from her eyes. "What's your name?"
"Teruko." The girl answered, still trembling but looking somewhat calmer.
"Is that right, Teruko? That's a fine name-" He cut himself short and immediately looked towards the door.
Not a moment later, a large demon with drums protruding from his body appeared in front of the door, looking forward in the hallway instead of at the two humans.
"Ky-" Tanjiro quickly covered Teruko's mouth with his hand to stop her from screaming, his eyes focused on the demon that he will have to fight.
'Even among all these scents, this is the strongest one that this house is steeped in! This one's devoured a whole slew of humans! It's the master of this house!'
"If it hadn't been… if it hadn't been for their meddling…" The demon muttered as Tanjiro continued to stare at him.
'It's not that he hasn't noticed us, he's just focused on something else.' Tanjiro thought, knowing that the chances of that demon actually not knowing they're there are slim to none. 'I have to cut off his head, but first.'
"Teruko, you gotta try not to scream." He murmured to the poor girl that had begun to tremble again after catching sight of the demon. "The room could flip around, so don't go into the hall." Tanjiro instructed, taking away his hand from her mouth. "Step back and hide behind the shelves."
Teruko glanced towards him, then at the demon, before doing as told and run towards the shelves.
"Curses, curses!" The demon muttered, loud enough for the demon hunter to hear. "Thanks to them, he got away! When he was my prey! Why is it? Why do they all keep barging into someone else's home? It's infuriating." He snarled. "It was my prey! My own prey, discovered on my own turf!"
Ignoring his mumblings, Tanjiro unsheathed his sword and prepared his stance.
"Hey! Listen! I'm with the Demon Slayer Corp. Rank Mizunoto, Kamado Tanjiro! I'm going to slay you now!" He declared. 'Hopefully, this will keep him from trying to target Teruko.'
The black haired demon didn't seem to register the threat as he just mumbled something about a 'child with rare blood'.
Not wasting any time, Tanjiro lunged towards him, jumping off the ground to reach the neck due to the height difference.
'Got him!' The red haired swordsman thought, since the demon hadn't even attempted to begin to move and was about to be in range.
Dun
Without looking at him, the demon used his left hand to beat the tsuzumi in his right shoulder. Almost at the same time, the room turned violently, making Tanjiro fall towards the wall that now acted as the floor.
"Teruko!" He called out, since she was also moved towards the wall but didn't land with the ease that he had acquired from training. 'Now the tatami floors are on the side! This is the demon's Blood Art, this entire house is his territory!' Before he could think more on this, his nose caught a new smell. 'A new scent is coming this way, it's not a demon!'
"Comin' through! Comin' through! Comin' through!" The voice belonging to the person Tanjiro smelled was heard, as he crashed through the shoji and entered the room.
'Wh-who's that guy? He's wearing a boar's hide! And he's wielding Nichirin blades!'
The new intruder, aside from having a boar's hide covering his head, was wearing the baggy pants of a demon slayer's uniform with a belt made of what looked like animal fur, furry hide fastening the sandal-bases in his feet to the pants and nothing from the waist up save for his mask. His dual blades, that Tanjiro recognizes as Nichirin from their scent, have dents along almost the entire edge, no guard, and the grips were covered in bandages.
"All right, you monster…" The new swordsman began, making an X with his arms while keeping his swords pointed to the ground. "Die on the battlefield and serve as my springboard! So that I can become more powerful and soar even higher!" He declared.
The demon just said 'infuriating' at the declaration from the human.
"Here goes…" The masked male said, pointing at the demon with his left blade while moving the right to be parallel to the ground. "Comin' through!"
Here is another one!
Ok, I admit I ended this chapter in the same point as the anime but it's just such a good place to stop!
I'll say this now, Kaigaku is not done at the drum house, he will be participating some more, as to how... well, where is the fun in me telling you? Haha.
Once again, I remind everyone that TanKana Week is happening; you can find more info in the tumblr and twitter accounts by searching #TanKanaWeek2020.
With all that said, I hope you enjoyed, don't forget to comment!
Until next time.
