A/N Wow! It seems like that change I made with the story's starting point went off well enough! I personally like it as well, and now I feel like I have a clear idea of where to go from here!
I can't thank you enough for considering my story worthy enough for your attention, so I'll try to not let you down!

Leave a fav, follow, and review pretty please! I'd like to hear what all of you think please! :))

^ Chapter 2 - New Life, New Dangers, New Friend? ^

Tanjirō finished eating a piece of bread that he had managed to get from the vendor in the town he was staying in for his next assignment. He was thankfully able to play off his eyes being a unique mutation of some sort to anyone who looked at them too closely, and make his way through the settlement on his first go through without any problems.

"Even after eating this bread through, and some of the fruits from earlier...I still feel hungry…" Tanjirō thought to himself as his stomach growled lightly.

That had been the most difficult part of walking among the denizens of the village. With his even finer tuned senses, especially his smell, his head was spinning by the time he walked from one end to the other. He could hear every single person's heart beating when they brushed by him, he could hear their lungs expand and contract with each breath they took. Most disturbingly of all, he felt, was that he could even hear and feel their blood getting pumped through their veins to all corners of their body.

Tanjirō wondered if this was what Nezuko dealt with on a daily basis while inside of her carrying box, and she praised her even more now because of her dexterity. For him though, who had only just become a demon a few days ago through Tamayo's serum, it was an entirely new struggle.

By sleeping, his injuries had managed to fully heal themselves and bring him back up to peak condition, yet he could not stop feeling hungry. Even when he ate food, he never was satisfied. His stomach, his teeth and his tongue, they all wanted to have a taste of something finer. Something far more rare, far more fresh, far more filling then any item of meat or fruit that he could ever imagine eating. As much as Tanjirō didn't want to believe it, he was hungering for human flesh.

"I had to constantly wipe spit away from my lips while in the village center…" Tanjirō thought, slumping slightly as he rested his hands in his lap. The room he was in was modest, nothing too much. It was in an inn on the edge of town, and mostly empty, save for the caretaker. "If only I had more time...I could have let Tamayo-san modify my body to be like her's and Yushiro-san's…"

"Mmmn."

Nezuko gently nudged him while uttering something muffled and unintelligible, Tanjirō looking at his sister afterwards and soon smiling at the gentle air she gave off. He then put an arm around her and hugged Nezuko, allowing his sister's presence to do away with all of his doubts and worries, even if it was but a temporary fix.

Tanjirō closed his eyes, and while embracing his sister, he remembered why he had been ordered to come here to this village on orders from the Demon Slayers. There had been reports of a demon showing up here ever once in a while, and with every appearance, there seemed to be one person that would go missing each and every time, never to be seen again. It was almost exactly the same situation as the swamp demons he and Nezuko dealt with before he had arrived in the city and met Tamayo.

So he thought the best course of action was to wait for the demon to appear, and if it makes an escape, he would follow it back to wherever it came from and eliminate the threat it posed to the people of the town. He opened his eyes after going through the plan in his mind and looked out the window, watching the last bit of light fade to darkness.

"It's night out Nezuko…" Tanjirō murmured, pulling away from Nezuko. She nod her head, and the siblings stood up off the floor of their room. "Let's go outside and try to find this demon."

"Mmn." Nezuko replied with the nod of her head.

Tanjirō retrieved his sword from next to his futon and slid it into his belt, putting on his haori before he and Nezuko left their room and went for the inn's exit. Once outside, the light of the moon hit there faces and Tanjirō took a deep breath. Already going to work, his nose began sniffing out any and all kinds of scents within the town. He could smell the scents of every single human being who lived within its borders, from the men and the women to the children as well.

"Come on, focus...focus...find the scent of blood...of demon blood…" Tanjirō told himself, closing his eyes and focusing solely on the one scent. He smelled and waited, until finally, he got a clue. In his mind, a barely visible wisp of red smoke drifted by his nostrils. The scent of blood, not like that of the humans. "There! I got it!"

He gripped his sword and he leaped up from the ground, landing silently on the roof of the nearest building like a feline. Nezuko followed behind him as they made their way deeper into the town on the hunt for the trace of blood that had alerted his senses. There were still some people out in the town, closing up their businesses for the night or simply taking a stroll.

Tanjirō wished he could warn them of the demon, but if he did, there would be panic, and that could lead to the demon he was hunting to escape without so much of a trace, off to terrorize another town.

"I won't let another innocent person get taken by this demon! Not even one!"

Tanjirō leaped across a gap between the buildings and stopped, closing his eyes and taking another whiff of the air while Nezuko looked around across the tops of the building, trying to find any trace of their prey.

"This way Nezuko, the scent is getting stronger."

"Mm."

Nezuko ran with Tanjirō across the roof of the building they were on and leaped to the next, the scent of demon's blood growing stronger and stronger with each step he took. The invisible cloud of red smoke was getting thicker and more pronounced. The demon was near, and was stalking the town for his prey.

"PLEASE!"

Tanjirō's eyes shot wide open at the cry and he nearly tripped over a slightly loose roof tile because of it. Nezuko scared softly to a halt behind him, her expression slightly surprised as well from the voice too.

"What the…" uttered Tanjirō as he looked around, pinpointing the source from somewhere nearby. "What was-"

"Please! Please! Pleaaaase! Please marry meeee!"

"Get away from me!

"I could die any day, you know!"

Tanjirō and Nezuko shared a look with one another before they were drawn away from their hunt to investigate what was happening. The voice grew louder the closer they got to it, until they arrived at the edge of a house overlooking one of the roads in the town, where there was a young woman with blonde hair struggling to remove another person from her kimono.

A young man with short yellow hair, and a white-triangle patterned, yellow and orange gradient haori over what Tanjirō could see was a lighter brown version of the standard Demon Slayer uniform.

"Another Demon Slayer? What is he-"

"That's why I want you to marry me! So please! Please, please, please marry me! I'm begging you!"

Nezuko blinked a few times out of awe and utter confusion at the situation, with Tanjirō feeling quite the same, before he heard the light flapping of wings and a soft chirping sound come from his left. He turned his head and noticed a small sparrow frantically flapping its wings in distress and chirping at him.

Tanjirō blinked at the bird, wondering what relationship it could have with the yellow-haired young man, before his eyes caused the bird to stop chirping and practically freeze in place. It saw Nezuko as well and was about to fly away before Tanjirō's eyes widened and he started waving his hands in a non-threatening way.
"Wait, wait! I'm not bad! I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Chu! Chu!" chirped the sparrow frightfully, taking off into the air.

"Wait!"

Nezuko then stepped around her brother and reached out, catching the sparrow in her hands. The sparrow struggled to try and break free for a few moments, before it started to jitter and shake out of sheer terror as it looked at Nezuko and the watchful Tanjirō.

"Chu! Chu...c-chu…?" chirped the sparrow when, bizarrely to it, Nezuko gently held it in one hand and began gently petting the bird's head and back feathers carefully.

Tanjirō smiled at his sister and walked up next to her, squatting down slightly so the sparrow could see his face and smile closer up.

"You're scared of us because you can see we're demons, right…?"

"C...Chu…" The sparrow, smarter then it looked, slowly nodded its head.

"We're not going to hurt you, I promise." said Tanjirō in a soft, non-threatening tone, maintaining his warm smile. "My name's Kamado Tanjirō, and this is my sister. I'm a demon slayer, see?"

Tanjirō showed the sparrow his nichirin blade, the sparrow also seeing the uniform he was wearing, becoming even more visibly confused. The sparrow looked back up into Tanjirō's eyes and chirped in an inquisitive tone, Tanjirō laughing awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"It's a...long story...but you can trust us. We aren't bad guys. I can assure you of that."

The sparrow, not totally convinced yet, was rubbed on the back of its head with Nezuko's index finger one last time before she stopped, pulling her other hand back and letting it rest on her hand without any intent to restrain it whatsoever. There was a moment of silence from the sparrow before it decided to place its trust with the two, and started to chirp again while waving and pointing its small wings at the yellow haired man down below.

Tanjirō began nodding his head, understanding what the sparrow was chirping to him without any difficulties. He knew from the moment the bird started chirping that it was a male sparrow named Ukogi, and that he was one of the Kasugai Crows that served as messengers for the Demon Slayers. The slayer he was assigned to was the yellow-haired man currently crying into the young woman's kimono that he was stuck to like glue.

"Mhm...mhm. Alright. Got it! I'll do something about it!"

Ukogi's eyes widened and he opened his beak in awe of this demon slayer that was a demon. Tanjirō then held his hand out and allowed him to hop over from Nezuko's hand to his, before placing him atop his shoulder to rest on before looking down at the man and woman.

"Please help me! Please marry me!" cried the young man, tears streaming down his cheeks as he held on tighter to the girl when she was trying everything she could to remove him.

She then gasped when Tanjirō landed on the dirt behind the man and walked towards them, her hands letting go of the man's shoulders. Tanjirō gave the girl a reassuring smile before reaching out with a hand and grabbing onto the cuff of the man's haori.

"I'm begging-gyaakh!" He was cut off when Tanjirō yanked him back and held him up off the ground by his haori, veins bulging from his forehead as he glared at him. "Ehhhh?!"

"What do you think you're doing right in the middle of the road?! Can't you see she wants no part of you!?" demanded Tanjirō, before pointing with his other hand to Ukogi. "And don't go making trouble for your sparrow, either!"

The man blinked, sniffing up some snot, before he saw Tanjirō's uniform first through his tears and not his face or his eyes and fangs.

"T-That uniform! You're that guy from Final Selection!"

"No one I know is anything like you!" barked back Tanjirō. "I don't know you!"

"Ehhhh?! But we met, remember?! We met, remember?! You're the one with the problem! Like your memory!"

Tanjirō's eyes widened slightly and he finally recalled the man's voice, as well as his face. That's right, he was there at Final Selection. It was the same person who had been terrified then of dying, after having succeeded in the test to become a Demon Slayer. Then there was the sparrow that was currently on his shoulder, and that memory clicked into place as well. It was the same sparrow that was given to him, instead of an actual crow like he and the other surviving new slayers received.

Tanjirō still glared at him, the young man's tears obstructing his vision of him still, before he dropped him to the ground and approached the woman, closing his eyes and giving her a warm smile.

"All right, it's been taken care of. You better head home now, it can be dangerous out at night!"

"Mm, I will. Thank you very much!" replied the girl, bowing to Tanjirō.

"Heeey! Stay outta my way! That girl is going to marry me! Because she's in love with me all ri-guweh!"

The man was silenced by a fierce slap to the cheek, the force enough to actually spin him around twice before he fell to the ground flat on his face. Tanjirō closed his mouth and held back a slight snicker at the scene, the girl crossing her arms and sticking her tongue out at him.

"I never said I loved you! You looked ill on the side of the street and decided to talk to you! That's all!"

"Ehhhhh?!" exclaimed the man as he sat back up, right cheek imprinted with a red hand. "You mean you didn't reach out to me out of love because you were worried?!"

"I already have a fiance, so not on your life! Baka!"

She reared back and delivered another slap across his other cheek, the man spinning around on his knees before falling flat on his face yet again. Tanjirō muffled another snort with one of his hands, while Ukogi chirped with one of his wings over his beak as if he were laughing.

"Goodbye!" exclaimed the woman. She turned, bowed to Tanjirō out of thanks once more, before she stormed off.

"Waaait! W-Wait!" cried the man, sitting up again now with two red hand marks on his face, one for each cheek. "Come..."

"Oi, cut it out!"

"W-Why'd you get in my way? This has nothing to do with you!"

Tanjirō's expression turned to one of pity for the young man, the two locking gazes as the man's tears lessened to a point he could see him clearly.

"What's with that...look on your…" he started to say before he finally saw Tanjirō's eyes and realized who he was. "Ehhhhh?! You're a-!"

Tanjirō, acting as fast as lightning, was kneeling on the ground with his hand clamped shut over the man's mouth before he could finish his sentence. The boy started to scream and squirm around loudly, fresh tears bursting forth from his eyes like two broken dams, the sparrow chirping loudly at the same time as Tanjirō tried to keep a hold on him.

"Quiet!" Tanjirō hissed. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

The young man continued to squirm against Tanjirō's grip, his aversion and cowardice actually surprising Tanjirō even when he had quite a bit of strength now thanks to being a demon, his words falling on deaf, terrified ears. Tanjirō grit his teeth, showing off his fangs, which only made the man scream and cry even more.

Tanjirō grunted and tried to maintain his hold on him so that he didn't escape or worse, tell anyone in the village that he was a demon, because it would not only jeopardize him and the mission, but his sister as well. The man's emotions were so vibrant and his body was moving so much that his beating heart was sounding off in Tanjirō's ears like the largest of drums, causing the sound of his flowing blood to make it seem even more irresistible.

"Nghhk...stop...struggling…! Please!" pleaded Tanjirō as he bit his teeth together even more, trying to internally push back his rising hunger. The demon side of his personality was telling him to bite into the person just to quiet him, and the idea was sounding better and better by the second.

Yet Tanjirō persisted, sweating from holding onto the young man as well as from his own struggle to fight off his urges. Thankfully, after a few more minutes of struggling, the boy finally seemed to stop squirming all together and hang limp in Tanjirō's arms with tears streaming down his cheeks. He uttered something beneath Tanjirō's hands, something he couldn't understand, so he took a chance and let go of him so that he could speak clearly.

"What did you say?"

"Just do it, eat me...I didn't even wanna become a Demon Slayer...I'm too terrified to do anything right…" he cried, his tears pooling below his cheek as he laid there in the fetal position on the dirt. "Im gonna die...I'm gonna diiiiie…"

"Uh…" Tanjirō murmured, glancing at Ukogi with a worried expression. "I'm...not going to kill you, you know…"

"Yes you areeee! I'm terribly weak! I'm not kidding!"

Tanjirō closed his mouth and tried to think of something else to say to him, before he sighed and bent over, easing himself down onto the dirt before sitting cross-legged next to him. Yellow hair continued to cry to himself, expecting the inevitable, before he realized that Tanjirō was watching him in silence and not doing anything.

He slowly pulled his face up off the dirt and turned around, sitting up while staring at Tanjirō with tears still rolling down his cheeks. Tanjirō gave him a warm smile when yellow hair stopped sobbing momentarily to see him clearly now, to see that he wasn't going to attack him.

"W...Why are you...not killing me? You're-"

Tanjirō then clapped a hand to his chest while still smiling at him. "My name is Kamado Tanjirō!"

"Is that right?! Sorry!" exclaimed yellow hair quickly. "I'm Agatsuma Zenitsu!"

"Zenitsu-san? Nice to meet you."

Zenitsu was put off again by how nice Tanjirō was being to him, even though this person in front of him, who was wearing the same kind of uniform that he was, with the same kind of sword in his belt, was a demon. Demons were supposed to be scary monsters that ruthlessly attacked and killed people with little disregard, just like the demons he had encountered during Final Selection.

Yet, for some reason, this person sitting in front of him, wearing the very uniform that he had on, wasn't doing anything threatening at all. He smiled, introduced himself, and sat down next to him as if they were already friends without any prior knowledge of one another. It was baffling, so much so that he actually forgot how scared he was because of how confusing it was.

"Why are you...not doing anything?"

"What do you mean, Zenitsu-san?"

"Y...You're...a demon. Yet you're not-"

"Attacking you? Why would I do that?" questioned Tanjirō. "I may be a demon, but I don't attack humans."

Zenitsu blinked again by how sincere and ready Tanjirō was to give him that answer, and his demeanor confirmed this even more.

"H...How?"

"Mm...well…" Tanjirō tapped his chin and looked up for a few moments, before smiling warmly again. He didn't have to think long in order to come up with his answer. "I choose not to. I don't want to attack anyone, even though my body tells me I should...it's tough, but I won't let it beat me."

Zenitsu's eyes widened further and he was left in awe at Tanjirō. He'd never met someone like this before, and for the first time in his short life as a Demon Slayer, he had met a demon that didn't make him feel terrified. In fact, somehow, Tanjirō was giving him a feeling of security, something that satisfied his cowardice quite a lot.

"...Tanjirō-san…?"

"Yes? What is it, Zenitsu-san?"

"Please, save me Tanjirō!"

Zenitsu's cowardly, terrified self came rushing back to the surface as he crawled forward and grabbed onto Tanjirō's haori, tugging the fabric as traces of tears appeared out of the corners of his eyes. Tanjirō's smile wavered and the awkwardness towards Zenitsu returned, Ukogi giving his demon slayer a strange look as well despite only being a sparrow.

"What do you mean, save you?" Tanjirō removed Zenitsu's hands from his clothes. "What was your reason for becoming a swordsman in the first place, Zenitsu?" Why are you being so blatantly shameless?"

"That's a harsh way to put it!"

Zenitsu then stood up straight, hands on his knees, closed his eyes with more teardrops rolling down his cheeks and falling off his jaw line as he sucked in a deep breath.

"Oh no...why did I ask?"

"I got swindled by a woman and racked up all this debt! The old geezer who took it over for me was one of the instructors for future Demon Slayers!" Zenitsu then clutched his head, shaking it side to side. "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 Final Selection, but since I was lucky enough to survive, I'm still going through hell every day!"

Tanjirō was left speechless, along with Zenitsu's sparrow, with an eyebrow practically permanently raised in confusion as Zenitsu bent over backwards and shrieked a little out of sheer terror, repeating how he was scared several times over to no one in particular.

Tanjirō wasn't sure what to do at that moment, and didn't know what he could say to Zenitsu to get him out of that cowardice-induced state of living. He glanced at Ukogi, the bird chirping slightly again while shrugging his wings like a human would. Zenitsu started screeching and clawing at his face while spitting out nonsense about how he was going to be killed by a demon soon, and that his brains were gonna get sucked out through his ears, before Tanjirō's eyebrow twitched and he huffed.

"Zenitsu! Calm down!"

"E-Eh?"

Zenitsu stopped what he was doing, his tears ceasing to fall momentarily, as he looked at Tanjirō after his name had been called out. Tanjirō then gave him a reassuring smile and leaned forward, placing a hand on his shoulder and patting it.

"You don't have to be afraid, you know? I'm sure it will be fine! Plus, if we're together, then we could be even stronger!"

"You're one to talk! I'm not strong at aaall!"

As Zenitsu resumed crying again, Tanjirō sighed and stood back up, rubbing the back of his neck while trying to think of what he could do. He was at loss, before he heard footsteps approach him from behind, finding Nezuko had approached him from behind with her carrying box in her grasp.

"Want to sleep some more, Nezuko?" he asked with a smile, his sister nodding. "Alright, let's get you inside."

Zenitsu continued to cry and sob about his impending death, before he heard what was going on in front of him, just barely catching something go inside of the box that Tanjirō magically had with him all of a sudden. His ears didn't lie to him, he had heard Tanjirō talk to someone else, and that whoever it was, they had disappeared inside of the box before Tanjirō had closed the door.

Tanjirō didn't notice Zenitsu had stopped crying as he secured the door, making sure it was properly closed in case their search led to early morning and he had to quickly take her and get themselves to their room where the sun wouldn't reach them. Finally he noticed Zenitsu looking at him and he gave the other slayer a warm smile as he put on the box straps over his shoulders.

"Something the matter?"

"A-Ah...no…" Zenitsu replied, shaking his head slowly. "So...um...why did you come here, Tanjirō…?"

"I came here because I-" Tanjirō paused when he remembered why he was even outside at this hour in the first place, and he gasped while smacking his forehead. "I'm hunting a demon that's been reported here!"

"Ehhh?! You too?!"

"Wait, you came here for that too?"

"Y-Yeah! But I was too scared to try and find it!"

"Chu, chu!"

Zenitsu was suddenly attacked by his sparrow, who pecked him on the head over and over again, much to his displeasure.

"Ahh! Stop it! Stop doing that!"

"Uh, Zenitsu-" Tanjirō stopped when he caught a whiff of the scent he was searching for before getting sidetracked by Zenitsu's less then admirable courting of the girl that already had a fiance. It was the smell of the demon! It was going to get away!

"Zenitsu, I'm sorry, but we have to go now if we're going to catch that demon!"

"E-Eh?! We?!" stammered Zenitsu before Tanjirō gripped his sword hilt and leaped up to the roof of the building next to the road, looking towards the direction of the scent before leaping off yet again. "Ahh, wait! Tanjirō, you have to protect meee!"

"The scent leads this way…" Tanjirō murmured, Zenitsu walking along next to him down the road they had taken out of the village, heading east.

Zenitsu had managed to catch up to Tanjirō after his quick departure back at the village, and together they followed Tanjirō's nose towards where he had smelled the demon from. Instead of finding it though, they had ended up inside travelling throughout the village until they reached one of the exits, where the scent continued on away from them and out into the countryside.

They assumed that the demon must live somewhere nearby, since it would be easy to travel back and forth between its living space and the village for a steady supply of food. So here they were, following the demon's trail along the road away from the village.

"Are you feeling better now, Zenitsu?" asked Tanjirō with a smile.

"Mhm...now that I've calmed down, I'm getting hungry."

"Don't you have food on you?"

"Nope."

Tanjirō frowned a little before he reached into his haori and pulled out a wrapped up object, opening it up to reveal an untouched rice ball that he was going to save for later to stave off his ever-present hunger. He still felt it, deep down. That hunger deep in the pit of his stomach he had to constantly keep at bay. But since the rice ball wouldn't do much to sate it, he held it out to Zenitsu.

"Here. Would you like to have this?"

"Oh...thanks." Zenitsu replied, taking the rice ball and taking a small bite out of the white rice. As he chewed, he looked at Tanjirō, who had resumed looking out ahead of them while following the scent of the demon still on the run from the two demon slayers.

"Tanjirō...are you hungry?"

"Ah, well...yes, I am. But you need it more then me anyways, I'll be fine." Tanjirō replied, laughing a little. "It wouldn't do much for me either."

Zenitsu held his gaze on Tanjirō, his expression not changing much, but his mind was again in baffled awe. A demon that not only refused to eat or attack humans, despite it being in their nature, as well as a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, who hunted demons as their life's goal. He couldn't wrap his head around it.

"How was he able to hide his identity? If he was trained, wouldn't his instructor have been able to sense that he wasn't human?"

"Zenitsu?"

"H-Huh?" Zenitsu blinked, finding Tanjirō was looking at him with a concerned expression. "What?"

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Zenitsu didn't say anything at first, looking into Tanjirō's slit pupils in silence for a few moments, before he looked down at the rice ball and gently ripped it in half. Then he handed the half that he didn't bite into back to Tanjirō, offering it to him so that he could eat as well.

"Here...you take back half. You deserve to eat too."

"Are you sure? I don't need to eat anything right now."

"It's okay, Tanjirō. I'd...feel bad if you didn't eat…"

Tanjirō smiled at Zenitsu and he took back half of his rice ball, opening his mouth to show his fangs as he took a bite out of the white rice and started chewing. Zenitsu watched as Tanjirō happily ate the rice, even though he knew in the back of his mind that it probably did little to nothing for him.

After walking and eating their halves of the rice ball, they walked in silence for another few minutes before Tanjirō looked at Zenitsu out of the corner of his eye and sighed.

"You know, Zenitsu...I know what you mean when you say you're scared of demons. Even more so now then before, considering I'm one now," he said, his expression softening. "But you can't make trouble for your sparrow."

"You can tell what it's feeling? How can you tell" Zenitsu replied, looking genuinely surprised.

"Well, he said that you're always whining about not wanting to go to work, and you're always hitting on girls, and that you snore loud, he's had it!" explained Tanjirō, before he lifted up his hand and pointed at Ukogi, who was resting careful in it. "So he says."

"H-He says that? You can understand bird language?"

"Mhm."

"You're lying, right? You're just trying to trick me!"

Tanjirō shook his head and Ukogi chirped again, fuming a tiny bit before nodding. Zenitsu's air escaped his lungs and his knees wavered a little bit before hanging his head in defeat. Tanjirō and Zenitsu eventually continued on the path, until entering a dense forest near the base of several mountains a little bit aways from the village, but close enough to be within walking distance by a travel time of fifteen or so minutes.

They stuck to the path, Tanjirō looking up through the leaves to see that the moon had reached his zenith in the night sky, meaning he only had half the night left to find and kill the demon they were searching for. He needed to make sure that he had enough time to make it to shade before the sun rose, so that he didn't burn away.

"Tanjirō...I don't think I can make iiit…" muttered Zenitsu as he shambled along behind Tanjirō through the forest. "Even if I go along, I'm gonna be totally useless."
Tanjirō didn't hear a word that Zenitsu said though, his gaze returning to the path ahead while his nose kept them hot on the trails of their target. The scent of the demon is getting stronger with each step they took, meaning they were catching up. Either the demon had slowed down, was resting somewhere, or the worst case scenario that Tanjirō didn't want to think about just yet.

He hoped that the demon hadn't managed to take anyone from the village, and that when they found it, whatever it was, that he and Zenitsu would be able to dispatch the threat it posed and ensure the safety of the village and its people.. And selfishly, he hoped that occurred, so that he could manage to get away from the village and not have to deal with holding back from so many humans all in one place.

Tanjirō then noticed a clearing up ahead, and soon, he and Zenitsu found themselves standing in front of an isolated house in the middle of the woods. It was quite a sizable home, possibly enough for a whole family plus a few other people to live in without any difficulties. As they approached, however, they could see that the house looked fairly old, and that it was most likely abandoned.

"The smell, it's stronger here...and it doesn't go anywhere else. It's here." Tanjirō thought, his expression turning serious. The search was over, the demon they were searching for was somewhere inside.

"I can smell blood. But this particular scent…"

"You smell something?" questioned Zenitsu.

"Something I've never smelled before."

"I don't know about that, but do you hear that sound?"

Zenitsu cupped a hand to his right ear when he thought he heard a slight sound, barely audible, but still loud enough for him to hear it. He didn't quite know what it was at first, but after listening for another brief moment, he knew exactly what it was. He didn't bring it up though, instead keeping his gaze on the top balcony at the front of the abandoned home.

"Also, are you and I gonna work together, after all? A...human and a demon?"

"Wait, a sound?" asked Tanjirō, turning his head to look at Zenitsu before he caught something in the brush around the edge of the clearing. Looking past a few bushes, he noticed two children hiding in the darkness next to a tree, his eyesight allowing him to see them perfectly despite it being night.

When the children noticed that he had seen them, they gasped and started to shiver, too scared to even move or try to run away for that matter. They looked terrified, their eyes wide in fear. Though, from what he could see, they weren't terrified necessarily of them, but of something else. Zenitsu eventually noticed Tanjirō and turned to follow his line of sight, squinting his eyes somewhat in order to make out what he was looking at, before he too saw the kids and was surprised as well.

"K-Kids…I wonder what's wrong..."

"Hey, you two." said Tanjirō as he approached the children. "What are you doing here?"

He could only take a couple of steps towards them before the children gasped and hugged one another even tighter, shaking profusely in sheer terror. Tanjirō stopped, wondering why they'd get even more scared at his presence, before he answered his own question and relaxed his body. It was pitch black dark out, so he was sure that without any light, the children could clearly see his eyes glowing slightly in the dark, the eyes that separated him from a human without a doubt.

Instead of risking the children running away, or worse, he didn't go any closer to them and he kneeled down, holding his hands up in the air to show them primarily that he didn't intend on getting closer, and wasn't going to hurt them.

"They're already spooked, and if Tamayo's words about how the young could distinguish between a demon and human easier then most, they would have already realized even if they didn't see my eyes that I'm not human...I have to be careful."

Tanjirō sat in seiza, presenting himself to the children in a non-threatening manner, continuing to hold his hands up in the air while Zenitsu watched them quietly.

"You've figured out that I'm...not like you, right?" Tanjirō asked in a soft voice. "That I'm different?"

The small boy and girl, hugging one another, didn't physically speak or respond to his question for a moment or two, before the older boy slowly nod his head. Tanjirō felt he had scored a small victory, getting a response out of the children, which meant that if he kept going slowly, he would be able to get farther.

"You'd be right...I'm not a human. But you can trust me...I'm a Demon Slayer. I know it's weird, being a demon as a demon slayer, but...it's the truth."

Tanjirō changed his position into a more normal kneeling position and rest his right arm on his right knee, giving them a warm smile to try and help them trust him more. It seemed the result was relatively instant, the children seemed to relax slightly, but still they didn't say anything and continued to shake lightly.
Tanjirō tried to think of something else, and then had another idea pop into his mind. He held his smile and offered them an idea, their silence his response as he brought up his other hand and gave them an even wider smile as he presented Zenitsu's sparrow to them.

"Look! It's a trained sparrow!" he said happily, Ukogi chirping as he hopped up and down a few times in the palm of his hand. "Isn't he so cool?"

After Ukogi finished his little performance, the children stared at him for another few moments before they finally managed to stop shaking. Tears emerged in the corners of their eyes, and their legs ended up giving out, the two children collapsing onto their knees while embracing one another.

Sensing their heartbeats slow down to a more normal rate, Tanjirō smiled softly as he lowered Ukogi before looking back at the children. He then dropped his smile for a friendly, but still serious expression because he still had to question the children as to why they were out here all alone, and about what had spooked them so badly.

Tanjirō had a suspicion he knew what it was that had terrified them so much, but he wanted to hear it from the children. It could be something entirely different. He had to make sure before he could make any assumptions.

"Alright...did something happen? Is this your home?"

"N-No. No, it's not. This...t-this is...a…" stuttered the young boy, his sister starting to cry even more into her older brother's shoulder. "A-A monster's...house!"

His suspicions confirmed, Tanjirō's expression turned into a serious frown, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Our big brother got taken away. When we were walking...back to our home...this monster we'd never seen before showed up. He...c-came from the town...it didn't give us...a glance…just our brother."

"And they went inside this house, right?"

"Yeah."

"Did you two follow them here? You both did well!" Tanjirō said with his warm smile. "You must have arrived here before us…"

"We followed the traces of his blood...because he got hurt!" continued the young boy.

"Hurt…"

Tanjirō kept his reassuring smile for the children, and he told them not to worry. He and Zenitsu had come as members of the Demon Slayers to kill the demon that had taken their brother, the one who was stealing people from their village. Of course he worded it in a more child-friendly way, but the message got through all the same.
The young girl's eyes widened and they were filled with hope, as did her older brother's. Tanjirō could tell these two cared a great deal about their missing sibling, and it reminded him of his own love for Nezuko. It soothed his heart somewhat, but also filled it with determination to save their brother and return him safe and sound. He stood up, his sword hitting his thigh slightly as he moved, before he nodded his head at the two children.

"I'm definitely going to save your brother." he said, giving them a confident smile.

"Y-You will? You really will?"

"For sure! I promise!"

"Hey...Tanjirō…" said Zenitsu, having stopped watching them to look back at the seemingly abandoned house when he had heard something else again, something different from what he had heard a little earlier. "What is this sound…? This creepy sound never stops...is it a tsuzumi?"

"Sound?" questioned Tanjirō, who even with his better hearing, couldn't hear what Zenitsu was hearing. "I don't hear anything."

All of a sudden, there came the sound of a tsuzumi drum getting tapped once. Then again, and again, and again. The sound was clearly coming from the house, from somewhere deep inside the building, and it was being done by someone that they had no idea who, or what it was. Tanjirō stiffened up at the sound, Zenitsu began to shiver at it, and the children began to cry more as the sound repeated itself over and over and over again. It was as if the tsuzumi drumming was calling out to them, urging them to come and discover its source inside.

It got louder and louder, echoing out from the pitch black doorway that led from the front-facing balcony into the home with its untold secrets. Several more beats of the tsuzumi drum came from within the house, until on the last one, a man was thrown out over the edge of the balcony, his clothes tattered and bloody.
Both Tanjirō and Zenitsu gasped as they watched the unknown man waved his arms slightly in air, seemingly floating for a brief moment, before flipping over once and falling flat on his face and shoulders into the ground from the second floor, splattering blood in all directions in the immediate impact zone.

The boy's little sister squealed and buried her head into his chest, the boy hugging her tightly while turning away as well, Tanjirō darting in front of them to shield them from the sight.

"Don't look!"

Tanjirō then ran over from them to the man, Zenitsu quivering in his boots with his eyes glued on all of the blood that was painted all over the dirt around where the man's body had fallen. Tanjirō had cried out to the man, asking if he was okay, but no response came.

He went to the man's left side and kneeled next to him, only to recoil slightly from the strong smell of his blood entering his nostrils. It was like a punch in the gut from how fresh the blood was, and it immediately kick started the need to feed on human flesh deep within his stomach. He grit his teeth and forced himself to push back his hunger again in order to put a hand under the man's head and lifted him up to ensure there was air flowing into his lungs. It wasn't much though, he could hear the man's heart beat was drastically slowing down. There were bite and claw marks drenched with blood that he could see through his tattered clothes.

No doubt, this man had been kidnapped by their target and had been its most recent meal. It disgusted him, yet at the same time, it excited him. This man was easy pickings, a quick meal. On the verge of death, barely alive, all it would take is one swift bite to the neck and his suffering would be over. It would finally satisfy the hunger that he had, even if it was just one bite.

He couldn't stop himself from salivating, but flashes of the feral Nezuko after she had first revealed herself as a demon two years prior quickly forced him back to reality. He shook his head vigorously, trying to get those thoughts out of his head. This man didn't have long, so he had to work quick to try and get as much information out of him as possible.

"Are you all right?! You're outside now!" asked Tanjirō, looking into the man's wide open eyes. "Stay with me!"

"E-Even though...I got out…" spoke the young man, coughing up some blood slightly. "Even though I made it out... made it outside...still...a-am I...gonna die…? Am I still gonna die?"

Tanjirō's lips quivered slightly as he was given more flashbacks of his dead family, of his mother and all of his siblings thrown about inside of his family home, covered in their own blood. Slaughtered with so much of their life still ahead of them, by the father of all known demons. It made him angry and sad at the same time, and against his demon instincts, he pulled the dying man into an embrace to at least give him some kind of comfort before he met his end. With his head so close to the man's chest, he heard exactly when his heart stopped. His lungs ceased to suck in air, and his eyes glazed over with the appearance of death.

Tanjirō pulled away from the man, continuing to hold him in his arms with an expression of sorrow as he grit his teeth and closed his eyes, attempting to keep himself composed.

"It must've hurt a lot...you must have suffered a lot…"

"Tanjirō, by any chance, i-is that guy these kids'..."

Zenitsu was interrupted by the demonic roar of some sort of beast deep within the home, shaking it down to its very foundation and causing the nearby birds in the trees surrounding the clearing to squawk and fly away out of terror. Zenitsu's entire body shook from head to toe, and Tanjirō's heart skipped a beat only once before he looked to the house with a deep frown as the tsuzumi drum beats were heard once more in conjunction with the roar.

Their target was without a doubt inside of this house. And there was little to no doubt that what happened was going to prevent him from accomplishing his duty. The brother of the young boy and girl was trapped inside of that house with whatever demon was in there that let out that roar.

If he didn't act now...their brother was going to become that demon's next meal.