^ Chapter 5 - A Declaration under the Stars ^
Tanjirō called out Kiyoshi and Teruko's names as he ran through the house towards where his nose was leading him to, their scents becoming stronger by the second. His footsteps echoed off the walls of the house while he ran, but he wasn't worried about attracting the attention of anyone or anything still inside.
After Kyogai had died, he couldn't smell anything malicious any more inside of the house's confines. Whatever was inside with Kyogai, he could only assume it was taken care of by either Zenitsu or the slayer with the boar head mask on.
"Kiyoshi! Teruko!" he called out again, before rounding a corner and finding the scent trail leading straight to a pair of doors leading to an illuminated room. "Kiyoshi! Teruko! I'm here!"
He grabbed onto the doors and flung them open to the side, only to have to quickly avoid getting pelted in the head by random objects by the two children after they screamed at his sudden appearance.
"Whoa, hey! It's me!" exclaimed Tanjirō, waving his arms at them and managing to stop Teruko before she had thrown a ceramic vase. "Didn't you hear-wait, why were you throwing stuff at me?"
"We're sorry!" Kiyoshi apologized as Teruko set the vase down. "The tsuzumi vanished, so we panicked!"
Tanjirō blinked a few times, noticing that the drum had indeed vanished, and he smiled at the two of them. His shoulders loosened up and he let out a sigh of relief.
"I see...I'm glad you're both safe."
"Is...is it-"
"It's safe now, yes. As you can see, I have returned." Tanjirō replied while still smiling.
As if the floodgates were opened up, all of the stress and emotions that had built up inside of little Teruko were finally released as she started to cry out loud. Kiyoshi held her sister's hand as she cried, while Tanjirō approached the siblings and knelt down in front of them to gently rub Teruko's head.
He was going to say something before Teruko let go of her brother and smothered herself in Tanjirō's chest while continuing to cry, her voice muffled by his demon slayer uniform. Tanjirō's eyes widened a tiny bit before he closed his arms and wrapped his arms around the little girl, holding her in them as he let her release all of her pent up fears and emotions under the eyes of her older brother. It took a few minutes for it to all come out, but once Teruko was done, and her muffled cries had turned to light whimpers and sniffles, Tanjirō carefully removed her from his chest and rubbed her head again.
"You did a good job hanging in there, both of you. Come on though, it's time for us to go."
Tanjirō put a hand on his knee and picked himself up, helping Teruko to her feet first as she cleaned her eyes of tears before he hoisted Kiyoshi up onto his back and let him wrap his arms around his shoulders. Once he had his legs firmly held by his arms, they left the room, Teruko walking behind them while Tanjirō carried her brother on his back.
In the time since he had left the two children alone his leg, thanks to his master's special ointment, had gotten a lot better and wasn't hurting him as much as it was before. All he needed to do was visit the doctor in his town and they should be able to address the wound better than he could.
After walking for a few more minutes, only having to turn down another hallway, Tanjirō's nose could pick up Zenitsu's scent, as well as the brother that was with him, getting closer. He figured they must be outside and smiled at the idea of seeing them all again safe and sound, before his nose picked up another scent. A familiar once that made his heart skip a beat.
"I smell blood!" thought Tanjirō, his shock appearing on his face, which caused Kiyoshi to lean down a little in worry.
"Is everything okay?"
"A-Ah, yeah. Let's hurry."
Tanjirō then started jogging, Teruko following behind them as they made their way for the exit. They turned a corner and arrived back at the initial hallway with the dirt ground and pots on either side against the wall that they had walked down after entering the home. The doors at the end were shut, yet from there he could hear some yelling and a noise similar to something being hit came through the closed doors to his ears.
Tanjirō picked up speed and ran right for the door, disregarding what could happen next because of the scent of blood and the sounds of a struggle coming from outside. He then flung open the door and ran outside, only to stop dead in his tracks when his whole body was struck by the shining rays of the sun outside.
"Oh no…" thought Tanjirō, his eyes wide with terror as he looked up at the morning sun in the sky. He hadn't thought about how long they had been inside of the house. It was morning outside now, and he had just run headfirst into its light while being a demon incapable of living within the sun's rays. He was going to start burning up soon. He was going to leave Nezuko behind, all alone, without any family left to care for her. He had failed.
"Ah! Tanjirō-san, look! Look!"
"What?"
Tanjirō came back to his senses, expecting his end, only to see that not only was he not burning up in the sun, but he was perfectly fine without any signs of burning whatsoever. The sun felt warm on his skin, a lost commodity that he had forgotten about since becoming a demon. But he couldn't think about that at the moment, his attention was drawn by KIyoshi to Zenitsu hugging Nezuko's box for dear life as the man with the boar head kicked him over and over again.
"Come on, move it!" growled the masked slayer, kicking Zenitsu's left side again, causing him to wheeze. The man had both of her serrated swords drawn, and was staring down at Zenitsu while he kept his arms wrapped around the box in a protective manner. "Draw your sword and fight me! You spineless punk!"
Tanjirō was utterly frozen in shock. Shoichi was off a little bit, cowering in fear of the boar-headed slayer, while Zenitsu slowly lifted up his head and noticed Tanjirō standing in the sun outside of the house. His body hurt, and his fingers were numb, with blood dripping from his mouth and pooling out of his left nostril, as well as his right eye black and blue and swollen almost completely shut. Despite that, he mustered up the strength to speak and caught Tanjirō's attention.
"Tanjirō...I...don't know how...you're here...but...I protected it…" he murmured, coughing slightly. "Because you said...this was more important to you...than your life...the thing is...it's a demon inside of this box...right?"
Tanjirō's heart leapt a little at Zenitsu, who even when he revealed he had known the contents of the box, the very act of selflessly protecting it with his life because of what he had said, it was enough to bring slight tears to the corners of his eyes.
Zenitsu had always had exceptional hearing, able to hear things that most people wouldn't be able to. He could even pick up and remember words or sentences that were said by others while he was asleep. From the very moment they met, Zenitsu knew that there was a demon inside of the box Tanjirō wore on his back as they traveled, because the sounds demons make aren't anything like human sounds.
Even Tanjirō made these noises, albeit on a lesser scale than whatever demon was inside of that box. But despite being a demon, Zenitsu could pick up a sound so gentle and kind from Tanjirō, that it made him want to cry. A sound so kind, that he thought he had ever heard anything like it before.
All living creatures constantly give off sounds, from the way they breathed, to when they ate, blinked, moved, and talked. The world is full of all these sounds spilling out from every living creature that inhabits it. Breathing, heartbeats, the sound of blood circulating. By listening closely, Zenitsu could even tell what someone was thinking. Many people he's met throughout his life have deceived him time and time again, however, leaving him to believe in whomever he wanted to believe in.
Tanjirō, despite being a demon, is a Demon Slayer, and is traveling with another demon. He was sure that there had to be a reason for that, and that it's a reason he could accept, and believe in.
So when the boar head wearing man had come out of the building, he protected Nezuko's box with his body the entire time, taking kick after kick from the slayer, even when his body told him to stop and to move, he kept going.
"After all that bluster, you won't even draw your sword, you dumbass?!" demanded the boar-headed slayer, continuing to kick Zenitsu while Tanjirō was rooted to the spot. "If you're a fellow Demon Slayer, then let's see you fight!"
"Gyahgh!"
Zenitsu was kicked onto his side, the box remaining in his clutches and being further hugged against his body in a protective manner. His eyes were closed and his body writhed in pain, but still he held on.
It was that moment, that scene that just played out, that brought flashes of the past rushing up into the forefront of Tanjirō's mind like a bolt of lightning. The sight of a blood Nezuko in her tattered and soiled pink kimono, face down in the snow outside of their family home, with their dead little sibling cradled under her arm.
He saw Nezuko from the past as Zenitsu of the present, and after another sharp kick was thrown into his side, Tanjirō's veins bulged out and rage appeared all over his face. His demon side kicked into high gear, his eyes narrowed and his fingernails sharpened into points as the will and urge to protect overrode any other body functions. But still he held back, his fingers balling up into fists and trembling as the last shred of reason prevented him from unleashing his fury.
"If you're not gonna fight, get the hell out of my way!" bellowed the slayer as he reared back and kicked Zenitsu straight in the jaw.
Tanjirō snapped. His eyesight turned blood red and his body grew rigid as two thoughts occupied his mind, singular and direct. Protect Nezuko and Zenitsu. Punch the absolute living shit out of the other person.
"Enough of this crap...if you won't move…" muttered the man while twirling one of his blades around, raising it up. "I'll just have to skewer you along with that box!"
"Knock it OFF!"
The boar head turned toward Tanjirō, only getting a brief glimpse of dark red eyes filled with fury before Tanjirō was a blur in a split second. He dashed straight at him with his arms held straight back, hands balled so tightly into fists that blood was dripping between his fingers and flying into the wind left behind him. The other slayer had barely any time to react before Tanjirō was right on top of him, arm cocked back, fangs bared and slit pupils locked onto his target.
Like a cannon firing he rammed his right fist straight into the man's abdomen, bending him over from the sheer impact of the blow and causing several loud pops and cracks to sound off in quick succession, before the blow sent him flying back and skidding across the ground end over end.
"He broke his bones!" exclaimed Zenitsu loudly in shock, before his gaze rose up to the furious Tanjirō once he stepped in front of Zenitsu to shield him.
"Aren't you a member of the Demon Slayer Corps?!" he roared, his fist shaking as he tried to keep himself from going after the fallen slayer any more. "Don't you get why Zenitsu refuses to draw his sword?! It's taboo for any of us to draw our swords against one another for no reason!"
Tanjirō's head lowered and his expression turned deadly from all of his rage, his veins bulging out the sides of his head even more while his hands trembled even further. It was taking every last ounce of his will and morality to stop himself from utterly tearing apart this guy, whoever he was, for hurting Zenitsu and putting his sister in danger.
"But here you are, giving him a one-sided beat down…! Is that fun for you?! You're the lowest of the low!"
Zenitsu and the three siblings were at a loss for words when they saw the usually kind and caring Tanjirō utterly shaking with rage. Zenitsu had heard some of it earlier, back when it was still night and Tanjirō had gone over to the deceased man who had fallen from the second floor, but seeing it up close and personal was utterly terrifying.
Tanjirō looked like a true demon, ready to rip the head off any human and devour them on the spot, yet even then his ears weren't deceiving him. He could still hear that one sound coming from Tanjirō, no matter how angry or demonic he got. Even when enraged, he was holding himself back not only for himself, but for everyone else he cared about as well.
Eventually the fallen slayer sputtered and coughed as a sign that he was still alive, that cough turning into a pain-induced laugh as he stared up at the sky.
"Oh...so that's why…?" he asked in a mocking tone. "My bad...in that case, let's fight barehanded."
Tanjirō became confused for a little as the slayer lifted his head up off the ground and stared right at him with the boar's azure blue eyes. His morals told him to try and defuse the situation, but the rage brought unto him by Zenitsu's beating and the threat to his sister overruled them as Tanjirō's eyes narrowed and he popped all of his fingers at once just by squeezing them into fits.
"I really don't want to fight you, I don't...but if this will teach you a lesson in endangering my friends…"
The boar-headed slayer rolled backward and entered a runner's pose before he launched himself at Tanjirō and made the first punch. Tanjirō easily dodged it and began barefist dueling the other slayer, the both of them making good use of their training to act out their aggression, much to the shock of the siblings and Zenitsu.
"Just look at them…! How can they even move like that? And Tanjirō even busted the ribs of the other guy..."
The other slayer managed to score a few blows on Tanjirō, but they hardly stopped him from coming right back with a devastating, demon-enhanced punch of his own that rocked the man's body from the sheer strength behind it. They continued to trade blows, the boar-headed slayer showcasing remarkable flexibility and agility with his muscular toned body, always remaining lower than Tanjirō with all of his attacks and sweeps.
So low that Tanjirō had to begin using more defensive and reflective blows to prevent the slayer from getting underneath his arms with his punches and kicks. Whoever this person was, the way they fought made them truly be like a rampaging, charging wild boar out for blood.
"The flexibility of his joints...it's super human!" Tanjirō thought as he shook off a blow to the cheek from the man's foot. He landed on his hands and punched right back with blinding speed and force, reaching the man's right shoulder and hearing another loud snap come from behind his skin as another bone was fractured or broken.
Despite that, the boar-headed man pushed Tanjirō away and leaped back, flipping several times on his hands before landing back on his feet in a wide stance, seemingly feeling no pain whatsoever from his broken bones.
"Khehaaah! Pretty amazing, aren't I? I'm fighting toe to toe with a demon!" he exclaimed, laughing again. "And just look at what else I can do!"
Tanjirō's eyes widened in mixed shock and disgust as the man bent over backwards with amazing flexibility, arching his back inward and his abdomen outward in order to lay his head and upper torso down on the ground and grab his own ankles, looking through his legs at Tanjirō.
By now, the fury that had taken over Tanjirō had worn off, and his human morals had taken most of his body back over, allowing him to think more rationally about the situation with the man.
"Knock it off! You shouldn't do that when you've got broken bones! It's gonna get worse!"
"Worse?" questioned the other slayer as he flipped back up onto his feet. "Fine by me!"
He took off running towards Tanjirō, arms held out back by his sides with his sights set right on his enemy.
"Nothing can top the pleasure of this moment!"
They started fighting again, only now that Tanjirō had calmed down mostly, he was doing more dodging than actual bare-fisted combat with the hot head of a slayer. Tanjirō tried to reason with him, but nothing could get past that thick boar head mask of his, which meant Tanjirō would have to resort to drastic measures.
With a firm grip capable of crushing stone he grabbed onto the man's shoulders and held on tightly, catching him off guard, before he then reared his head back with his fangs bared.
"You need to calm DOWN!"
He then slammed his skull right into the man of the other slayer, creating a loud and dense crack of bone against bone that was audible enough for Zenitsu to cringe and shake from head to toe with the jitters.
"Ighyyaa! That sound! Are your skulls fractured?!"
Tanjirō was left unscathed, due to his hard as rock forehead and skull, while the other slayer stumbled back completely disoriented and shaken by the headbutt. His arms hung limp at his side when he finally stopped moving, his body swaying side to side a little bit before eventually falling straight back.
His back hit the ground with a loud thump and a dazed groan came out from the boar's head. Tanjirō rubbed his head a little to make sure he wasn't bleeding before he walked over to the man, frowning a little because of what he had to do, and nudged the guy's foot to see if he was still conscious. When there wasn't any response, Tanjirō sighed and glanced back at Zenitsu and the rejoined siblings.
"I knocked him out cold…"
"When you hit somebody that hard of course you're gonna knock them out!"
Zenitsu let go of Nezuko's box and coughed a little as he walked over to Tanjirō, the two slayers glancing down at him as they saw his leg twitch slightly and another groan come from behind the mask. They glanced at one another before Tanjirō walked around to crouch down next to the fallen slayer's head and grabbed the nose of the boar head, pulling it up and off his head.
They were shocked to find the face of, or extremely similar to, a girl looking right back at them with white eyes from having been knocked out cold by Tanjirō's rock-hard skull. He was incredibly pretty and feminine looking, contrasting his muscular body, with large wide eyes framed by an array of long eyelashes, and thin eyebrows. His most striking feature aside from his face alone was the thick black hair that reached just past his shoulder, fading into blue at the tips and forming an uneven fringe that falls just above his eyes and puffing out before curving and thinning towards his forehead.
Tanjirō saw the blood dripping down from his forehead, where his hair was parted somewhat to reveal a rapidly developing bruise that was from the headbutt he had given him. The man was foaming slightly at the mouth as he twitched a little bit, and from those clues Tanjirō was able to figure out what happened.
"Mm...he must've gotten a concussion…" he murmured, scratching his nose slightly while laughing. "I've got one hell of a headbutt, huh…"
"Onii-san, are you okay…?" Teruko asked, she and her other siblings walking up to him with worried expressions.
Tanjirō smiled and turned towards them, rubbing the little girl's head affectionately while nodding his head. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Amazing! Can I touch your head?"
"Here!"
Tanjirō hunched over to bring his head to her height, allowing her to gently pat and rub his head and the unscathed skin that he had. While she looked in awe of his head, Zenitsu shivered a little at the sight and thought how scary it was that Tanjirō hadn't even shed a single drop of blood.
He wasn't sure if it was because he was a demon, which made him more resilient to damage, because his head was just that tough, or it was a combination of the two. It made him terrified nonetheless, causing him to make a mental note to never get on Tanjirō's bad side so that he wouldn't have to suffer a headbutt like that from the slayer. That boar man was fine even after getting punched in the abdomen, yet after one blow from Tanjirō's head had knocked him out cold.
"Onii-san, your head is so hard!"
"You think so?" replied Tanjirō with a laugh. "I guess I do have a pretty hard head."
The pretty-faced slayer had been laid to rest on the ground a few meters away from the drum demon's house, his pillow Tanjirō's folded up haori and his blanket Zenitsu's haori. His twin swords were resting on his left, untouched since they had been knocked out of his hands by Tanjirō's gut punch.
He was breathing softly, only wavering a little bit because of the damage to his ribcage, but other than that he looked fine and wasn't suffering too much from the other injuries he had gotten from his quarrel with Tanjirō. Eventually he opened his eyes and he stared up at the sky, his eyes just as pretty looking as the rest of his face, and laid their silently for a few seconds.
"Huwaaaaggghhhh!" he cried out, leaping to his feet and throwing off Zenitsu's haori.
"Eaagh! He's awake!" screeched Zenitsu, his heart leaping out of his chest at the man's sudden yelling.
"Fight me, fight me!"
"This is how he is when he wakes up?!"
Zenitsu started running away from the man when he gave chase after him, eventually reaching where the siblings and Tanjirō were. They were in the middle of finishing up the grave for one of the victims from inside of the large house, and they all stared at the woken up slayer with blank expressions while Zenitsu cowered behind Teruko.
He stopped his chase once Zenitsu had hidden himself, or at least attempted to, behind Teruko and quivered behind her, his eyes then dropping to the half-finished grave.
"What the hell are you guys doing?" he demanded, Tanjirō placing the large rock he was holding on top of the others around the base of the dirt mound.
"It's a burial."
"Eh?" The man looked confused for a moment before he pointed accusingly at Tanjirō. "I don't care what you're doing, fight me! I want to pay you back, you demon!"
"I'm not going to fight you, uh…" Tanjirō scratched his cheek, trying to remember if he or anyone else had learned the name of the man, but was unable to come up with anything. "What's your name?"
"My name's Inosuke Hashibira!"
"Inosuke...how do you spell that?"
"Spell-?! I don't know how to spell or write!" Inosuke replied angrily, before waving his finger at Tanjirō again. "Who cares about that, why the hell are you a demon?! And why won't you fight me!?"
"I can tell you later, Inosuke. But I haven't attacked one person, I can tell you later though, you can help us out with these burials, Inosuke. There are still people who were killed inside the house."
"What's the point of burying the corpses of creatures? I'm not doing that! I'm not helping out with anything! Fight me instead!"
"He really is a loon…" Zenitsu thought as he watched the exchange from behind Teruko, who still had a blank expression on her face from being used as a shield by the older demon slayer.
His expectations for Inosuke being the only clueless one of the group were immediately subverted when Tanjirō gave Inosuke a sympathetic look, assuming that he couldn't help them because his wounds were hurting him too much. Inosuke's reaction matched Zenitsu's, the both of them wondering how in the world could he have thought that's what Inosuke meant.
"What?!"
"No, no, it's okay. After all, we all have a different pain threshold." stated Tanjirō, smiling as he explained his reasoning to Inosuke. "Moving everyone who died outside that house, then burying them by covering them with dirt is a lot of work. Zenitsu and these kids and I will do our best, so don't worry!"
"He's so off…" thought Kiyoshi, staring at Tanjirō while slowly shaking his head, his brother sharing the same sentiment.
More veins bulged out of Inosuke's head as Tanjirō continued to tell him that it was okay and he could just get some rest, letting him and the others handle all the work for him. Who the hell did this guy think he was?
"Aaauugh! Don't you underestimate me, dammit! I'll bury a hundred, no, two hundred of your corpses!" shouted Inosuke at the top of his lungs as he started to jump up and down, waving his arms and fists around at the same time in a heavily animated manner. "Just watch! I'm going to bury more than any one of you!"
Inosuke then stormed off into the house with steam billowing out of his ears, Zenitsu just standing there in awe at how quickly the slayer's attitude had changed from not wanting to help at all to proclaiming what he did.
His gaze went to Tanjirō, and after a few moments his head turned and he gazed back at Zenitsu and the children, giving them a thumbs up and a cheeky smile while winking. The siblings snorted and started to giggle a little when they realized Tanjirō had played all of them with what he said, Zenitsu's expression turning into a smile as well.
"Maybe he's not as clueless as I thought...you're pretty smart, Tanjirō."
The day went by, the sun moving on its path through the sky, until it began to set and cast a more orange glow over the treetops and the house as they finished burying the last victim inside of the house. There had been eight people in total that they could find, and as a group Tanjirō, Zenitsu, and the siblings offered prayers of luck and happiness in the afterlife to each person until every victim had been attended to.
As they were finishing up their last prayer, Inosuke let out a war-cry as he sprinted towards a tree and launched himself straight at it, ramming his head into the trunk as hard as he could. Once back on his feet, he continued to bang his skull into the tree, as if to test himself further like some sort of strange training regimen.
"What's he doing?" asked Teruko, Kiyoshi glanced at him for a moment before closing his eyes and shaking his head.
"Better not look."
Teruko returned to her praying before the cawwing of Tanjirō's crow was heard in the sky above them, flying to them with another message to tell them.
"Descend the mountain! Descend the mountain!"
"That crow is talking!" stammered Shoichi in disbelief.
"Just don't think anymore."
"Okay…"
"Follow me, follow me! Follow yours truly!" the crow continued to speak, flying in a circle above them.
Tanjirō finished up his prayer with Zenitsu and the pair stood up, with Tanjirō retrieving Nezuko's box and putting the straps over his shoulder while the kids followed behind them. Inosuke noticed them walking towards the forest path away from the abandoned house and stopped banging his head against the tree, turning towards them with his hands balled into fists.
"Oi! Where are you going?"
"We're descending the mountain." replied Tanjirō matter-of-fact.
"We're not done with our battle yet! I don't care if you're a demon or not, I want to beat you!"
"You must be tired, right? Come on, we're going down the mountain."
"Eaugh! I'm not tired, you're tired!"
He then ran after the group on all fours, truly like a wild boar, with Tanjirō's crow flying over head on their way away from the house and on the path to return to the village where Tanjirō and Zenitsu had first met. The last few rays of light disappeared behind the horizon, and when they reached a fork splitting the road off into two different directions, Zenitsu had to be pried away from Shoichi by his siblings when he refused to leave the younger boy's side.
Eventually Tanjirō had to step in by yanking Zenitsu off Shoichi and chopping him on the side of the neck, momentarily knocking him out cold and sending him to the ground on his face. Once Shoichi was free, Teruko and Kiyoshi let out a sigh of relief, before Tanjirō's crow came down towards them and cawwed at them.
"Hold out your hands!" it said, Kiyoshi warily eyeing the bird before he held up his hands. The crow then coughed out a small pink colored bag tied close with a small string, as well as some of the bird's saliva.
"Ehhh!"
"That will ward off demons. You with mariachi, keep that on your person!"
As soon as the bag was exposed to the open air, Tanjirō's nose got a good whiff of the contents of the small bag and immediately coughed and covered his nose and mouth while taking several steps back.
"Uugh...smells like wisteria…" he said through his sleeve, Kiyoshi raising his eyes in confusion at what wisteria was, and even asking Tanjirō what it was.
"Wisteria is a flower that demon's can't abide. It's why I had to step away from you and cover my nose and mouth, actually...I can understand why demons hate it, it smells terrible and gives off a horrible vibe…"
"Demon repellent! Demon repellent!' Tanjirō's bird added, simplifying it for the children.
KIyoshi pocketed the bag of wisteria and gave them all a grateful smile along with his siblings, the three of them thanking them for everything they did before they departed down the right path that would take them back to their town.
"Be safe!" said Tanjirō, waving at them while holding onto the comatose Zenitsu, with Inosuke continuing to ram his head into trees in the background.
Once the children had left, Tanjirō's crow took the skies once again from his shoulder and rose up above the trees, staying visible directly above the forest path and cawwing at them again for the slayers to follow his lead. Tanjirō carried Zenitsu in his arms as they walked along the other path following his crow, watching Inosuke walk sideways on his left side while pointing at him.
"Fight me! I swear I'm gonna find a weak point and bring you down, loser!"
"My name's not 'loser'!" shouted Tanjirō, getting a bit annoyed with Inosuke. "It's Kamado Tanjirō!"
"Kamaboko Gonpachiro! I'm gonna bring you down!"
"Who the hell are you even talking about?!"
"That would be you!"
"No, it's someone else!"
"Aagghhhhh!" shouted Zenitsu, awaking with a start and causing both Tanjirō and Inosuke to jump out of their skins. "Can you talk any louder?!"
The glow of the Blue Spider Lily illuminated the dark figure's face as he watched it release small, tiny pollen-like particles from its petals. It was an alluring sight, one unlike anything in the world. So otherworldly, one could think that the flower didn't originate from this very planet.
He watched the flower for a few more moments before he took the rounded glass container for the display case off and set it aside, using his other hand to gently grab the stem of the flower and hold it closer to his face. He had always been fascinated by flowers, finding their beauty to be utterly stunning. It was why he always had a garden made especially for him, wherever he went, whether it was in Japan, or Europe, or North America. And this garden would be filled with specimens that many of the world's scientists and other researchers could only dream of discovering.
"But this one is special...more than any other flower…" thought the man, taking the flower with him as he turned and walked around his desk in the pitch black room.
The glow of the flower just barely illuminated his feet, revealing a ring of dark black ooze that covered the floor, the walls, and the outer edge of the ceiling in the circular room. It shifted and moved as if it were alive, and it responded to the figure's pitch black feet by reaching and even merging with it somewhat. He was part of this black ooze, after all. Or was it the opposite?
He reached up with his other hand, the slime making an opening over one of the office bookshelves so that the figure could select a book among many and pull it. His chair then moved to the side along with the floor as a dark, unlit chute was revealed by the opening of a trap door. The man then cradled the flower as his body turned into an amorphous black form that entered the chute and traveled down the passageway, going deep underground on his way towards some unseen location.
"Originally found ages ago in Japan...it was presumed to be a different species of spider lily, when compared to the commonly found Red Spider Lilies that were everywhere in Japan. But...that was not the case...to a certain degree…"
The chute ended at the very top of an underground cavern, the black ooze stretching all the way down to the floor before the puddle grey itself back into the figure of the man, the Blue Spider Lily still held firmly in his fingers.
"The Blue Spider Lily is in fact a simple mutation...a Red Spider Lily tainted by the genes of the original flower, twisted into a completely different plant all together…"
His footsteps echoed off the walls of the underground chamber as he walked towards a darkened cave shaft that he entered, the light of the flower the only source of illumination to light the way. It was quiet, save for the occasional drop of water hitting the floor from somewhere in the darkness.
"The original flower, of course...is gone...I made sure of that. However, this flower in particular continues to persist...growing in total seclusion…however, there always was a catch…"
The end of the chamber led him to another, larger underground cave that was utterly filled with bright, glowing Blue Spider Lilies, their collective glow filling the entire chamber with their distinct blue light. There was a crack in the ceiling, allowing for a few rays of sunshine to come down into the cavern and illuminate it somewhat along with the flowers.
The man held the spider lily he had in his hand and dropped it to let it be amongst the others inside of the chamber, staring down at them as he continued to think to himself about the flowers.
"No matter how hard I try...I simply cannot replicate it, even when I take it from Japan and bring it back here to grow it...the results are not the same. Something changes in the flower, in the seeds...the soil content is even a factor…and of course, sunlight is required as well..."
The man's eyes narrowed before he swept his hands from right to left, a wave of black ooze appearing from the dirt and swallowing up the garden of blue spider lilies, suffocating and causing them to shrivel and dry up before turning to ash. With the light gone, the black figure was consumed by the darkness of the cavern, with only the sunlight left to illuminate it.
"Their mutagenic properties do not carry over...these flowers were simply glorified night lights…"
The figure made the journey back out to the other chamber and back up the chute to the office above ground, the trapdoor closing by pushing the book he tugged on back into place. The figure took a seat back in his chair and rested his hands in his lap, the candle flickering on his desk blowing softly from his breath.
"I'll give that mutt a little more time...but if he fails to find more living samples of the Blue Spider Lilly...it would be time to step in myself..."
It was night time now, with the full moon shining in the starry night sky, and Tanjirō and company had followed his crow down the mountain and onto an entirely new path all three of them hadn't been on before. They eventually came to a stone path that walked through a garden of trees, some of which were wisteria trees, which caused Tanjirō to feel sick to his stomach and have to cover his nose and mouth.
He figured that the wisteria trees had been planted along this path to prevent demons from reaching whatever was at the end of the stone walkway. Their questions were answered when they arrived at a walled off housing compound, the front gate emblazoned with a black crest possessing the wisteria flower as part of its design.
"A wisteria family crest…" murmured Tanjirō, lowering his arm from his face once they were far enough away from the wisteria trees. "*Thank goodness they weren't any closer, because It was almost unbearable just walking along this path…"
"Cawwww! Rest time! Rest time!" exclaimed Tanjirō's crow, motioning with its wings towards the door. "Since you've sustained injuries, you're to rest until you're fully recovered!"
"Eh? You sure it's okay to rest?"
"Ke-ke-ke!" laughed the crow while Tanjirō held it in his hands.
"Let's eat this thing." suggested Inosuke, taking a step towards Tanjirō and his crow while raising his hands up, as if he were ready to pounce.
"What?!"
Before any possible crow eating could take place, one of the wooden front doors of the gate was pushed open, and a short elderly woman shuffled her way out through the doorway to look at the two of them with a friendly smile.
"Yes…?'
"Ah, sorry to bother you so late at night!" said Tanjirō, Inosuke staring at the moment silently while Zenitsu shivered at the old woman with a terrified expression.
"A monster!"
"Hey you!" Tanjirō barked at Zenitsu to reprimand her, only for Inosuke to demand of the old woman her identity in a less than respectful tone as well.
Maintaining her welcoming smile, she bowed her head at Inosuke when he approached, recognizing the three of them as demon slayers by their swords and uniforms. Tanjirō had to bark at Inosuke when the shirtless slayer poked the woman's hair while addressing her strength, but again the woman disregarded it and turned towards Tanjirō while motioning inside the walls.
"Come in, young slayers."
"Ah...ah, thank you, Miss."
Tanjirō glared at Zenitsu and Inosuke for their disrespectful comments and actions, before walking in first, the other two following behind him as they entered the garden past the front doors and towards the fairly large estate home located within the walls past the garden. It looked incredible, like that of a rich Japanese family's estate, which was perfectly logical considering who owned the land the complex was built on.
The woman, walking particularly fast for her old age ahead of them, entered the home through the front door and showed them their room in which they'd be staying, a change of clothes already waiting for them on the floor, neatly folded with each one different than the other.
"A change of clothes for the three of you." said the woman, before she walked out of the room with a bow to allow them to change.
Tanjirō thanked her on her way out before she set down Nezuko's box in a corner of the room, before he started to change close by to it. Zenitsu looked at the two, Inosuke already starting to strip somewhat begrudgingly, before he turned around and started to change as well with a slight blush.
Once they were done changing into the provided kimonos, they walked out of the room to see the woman standing there again so that she could take them to an adjoining room where meals had been prepped for them as well, resting on small tables set up in a row with matching floor pillows to serve as their seats.
"She has to be a monster, Tanjirō! That old lady's a monster!" exclaimed Zenitsu again, his hair standing on end. "She's so quick, it's eerie! She's a monster! A monster-gah!"
Tanjirō had clenched his right hand into a fist and smacked Zenitsu on the top of the head, knocking him down to his knees while glaring at him menacingly. The woman left them to their food and each slayer sat down at and admired the freshly cooked food there for them, with Inosuke immediately starting to eat it with his hands and making loud munches and chewing sounds.
He paused when he noticed Zenitsu and Tanjirō staring at him with half-disgusted expressions on their faces, with the former even telling him to use chopsticks like a civilized person. Of course Inosuke didn't bother to listen to him, only grinning and laughing at Tanjirō while eating to try and goad him into a competition of sorts with eating, but he only got frustrated again when it didn't work.
They were taken by the woman back to the room where they changed, seeing three futons already laid out for the three of them, with the women bowing after presenting the sleeping arrangements.
"I swear, Tanjirō! That woman, she's-gahgh!"
Zenitsu received another swift smack on the head by Tanjirō's fist, while Inosuke leaped onto one of the futons and patted it with one hand, grinning up at the other two with a laugh.
"First come, first served! I'm taking this one!"
"That's fine. Sleep wherever you want." Tanjirō replied with a smile, his kindness only irritating Inosuke again and giving him an ogre-like expression. "Where do you want to sleep, Zenitsu?"
Before Zenitsu could say which spot he wanted to sleep in, he was cut off by Inosuke screeching and throwing his pillow right into his face, probably intending to hit Tanjirō but ended up missing his target. Tanjirō had to break up the two before they started fighting one another when the door opened and in a split second they were sitting on their beds like nothing had occurred, the old lady having indeed with a friendly-looking doctor standing next to her.
"Here is the doctor."
"Hello." he said while smiling, before he set down his bag and squatted over it, reaching inside and fumbling around with his tools.
Since he wasn't hurt, Tanjirō got up from his futon and excused himself from the room in order to allow the doctor to conduct his check up on Zenitsu and Inosuke without any interruption. He walked down the hallway they had walked down upon first arriving at the estate and arrived outside to the front garden, his eyes drifting up to the night sky and the twinkling stars.
"Ah, this would be a good time to write a letter for Urokodaki-sensei…" he thought, quickly going back inside for some writing supplies.
Once he had some paper, ink, and a brush, he walked down some length of the front porch of the home and sat down, bringing over a table outside to his spot and setting the paper down. Making sure there were no wrinkles in it, and that the brush had enough ink on it, he thought for a few moments and held his right sleeve up before he began to write.
"Something's happened to us, Sensei. When we were in the city, Nezuko and I...we were attacked by a pair of demons. Strong demons, strong enough that I was pushed to my limit and...almost perished because of it."
Tanjirō restocked the ink on his brush and tapped the wooden end against his lip, before continuing with his letter.
"Through the help of, believe me or not, a friendly demon named Tamayo, she saved my life by using a serum she herself created to turn me into a demon, like my sister. She told me a lot of things about the demons, how there is a curse among them, related to their creator, and how thanks to her, an assistant of her's, as well as myself, are without this curse just like her. The only issue now is that I am a demon...I hunger for flesh...like Nezuko once did. I've accepted this new side of me, and I've done well to ensure I don't slip up, but...I'm afraid, Urokodaki-sensei. I'm afraid that my identity will bring danger to myself, as well as Nezuko. I don't want to endanger her, and thankfully, through some strange occurrence...I somehow am able to walk in the sun without worry of dying too."
Tanjirō was beginning to run out of room on the paper, so he dipped his brush into the ink bottle for one last time and finished up his letter by asking Urokodaki for any advice or tips that he could possibly give. He wanted to ensure Nezuko's safety most of all, first over his own, and wanted to know if there was anything that he could do with the cards he had been dealt.
With that, he ended the letter and signed it with his name, before he folded the letter up and summoned his crow to him so that the letter could be on its way to his master. Once the crow had the letter safely secured in its talons, it cawwed loudly at him like usually and flapped its wings, taking off and soaring over the wall and the trees into the night.
"Hopefully he'll be able to give me some answers...and he deserves to know what happened as well."
Now that the letter had been sent away, Tanjirō got up and moved to the edge of the patio before sitting down and letting his legs dangle off the edge as he looked up at the sky, hands resting on his knees. The night air felt cool on his face, a fact he had been able to enjoy quite a lot, more than he thought.
As he sat there thinking, his mind drifted back to earlier that morning, when he had run out of the drum house because of the scent of blood, and right into the sunlight. He didn't have any clue if it was morning out or not, he had just rushed outside without even thinking of the consequences that could have occurred.
"I was so careless, I could have died..." he thought, lowering his head and shaking it side to side. "I don't know how or why I'm able to walk in the sun now, but I need to be more careful from now on...you have to stay alive for Nezuko!"
"So there were other demon slayers that came here…"
Tanjirō yelped at the sudden feminine voice, his hair standing on end briefly, before he glanced back over his shoulder and noticed a young woman had appeared out of the house, wearing a similar kimono in style to his, only it was a female kimono rather than a male's. The woman was petite in stature, probably shorter than Tanjirō if he was to stand up, with somewhat large compound eyes colored purple. She had shoulder length wavy hair that faded from black to dark purple and framed her face with split ear-length bangs that rose up a little from her head.
Immediately reminding himself that he couldn't let other demon slayers or anyone else outside of Inosuke and Zenitsu, who he had managed to convince, know that he was a demon unless he knew they could trust them, he quickly turned his head away to hide his eyes. From that quick glance, however, the young woman appeared to be beautiful, and another thing he noticed was that her cheeks appeared to be a little red.
"Could she have had some sake? And is she a demon slayer too? I'd assume so...but please, please, please don't figure out I'm a demon!"
"Oh, did I scare you? Sorry about that, I tend to not think as clearly after having a drink or two...~" the young woman said, giggling a little.
"So she did drink some...maybe I'm safe? I better not show my face just in case."
"Did you just arrive here?" the woman asked, leaning against one of the support beams for the overhang, looking down at the sitting Tanjirō while smiling softly.
"U-Uh, yeah...and don't worry about scaring me. It's fine!" he replied, laughing a little. "But yeah, my friends I just arrived here to rest, and so they can heal up."
"Ooh, are they okay…?"
"Mhm, they should be...hopefully, we won't have to stay for too long of a time."
Tanjirō lifted his gaze up to the night sky, the woman followed his gaze and smiled softly again as she watched the stars and the glowing moon. A soft breeze blew across the complex, the wind making the leaves of the trees and the plants wave back and forth, while the bugs were buzzing and a few birds were chirping.
"This is my last night here...just a short little break before I leave again…" the woman said, twirling one of her bangs around her finger. "I wish I could just stay here a little while longer though, and watch the stars…"
"It's pretty, isn't it?"
"It is...it almost makes me forget that there are demons out there, endangering innocent people…almost..."
Tanjirō grew silent as he kept watching the stars, letting his mind wander back to the house and the demon he had defeated within its rooms, Kyogai. He thought again about what a demon really was, how he figured out later after the fact that the drum demon hadn't become a demon solely to kill people, or to inflict terror on humans.
The way he asked Tanjirō if he had actually meant what he said about his Blood Demon Art, that it was incredible, was the only clue he needed to see deep into the former human's soul. He wanted recognition, to be seen as someone that was capable of achieving something. And that at some point in his life, he had been pushed to become a demon as some kind of way to achieve the recognition he so desperately wanted.
"You know...I had a sister once…"
"Hm?" asked Tanjirō, risking a glance back to see the woman was still looking at the stars, her hands held in front of her waist. "You had a sister?"
"I did...she was one of the nicest people ever...nobody could withstand that infectious smile of hers...even when she had a stricter side too…" the woman said, closing her eyes as she laughed a little to herself. "She was wonderful…"
"May I ask...what happened to her…?"
"She...was killed by a demon…one of the Upper Moons…"
Tanjirō's shot wide open and his whole body stiffened up, his fingers digging into his knees a little bit. One of the Upper Moons, the strongest among the Twelve Kizuki, the ones who were the closest to Muzan in regards to power. He could hardly believe what he was hearing, but whoever this woman was, even if she did have a few cups of sake or so, the way she talked about her sister and spoke of her death, it was impossible to think it was fake.
Almost instantly he felt some kind of connection with the woman. His entire family had been killed by Muzan, and her sister had been killed by one of his Twelve Kizuki.
"And...yet...even though she was a Demon Slayer like me...she always had this...silly dream of her's…"
"What...was it?"
The woman laughed a little to herself before she closed her eyes and hugged her hands close to her chest, her memories of her sister coming back to her in the night and filling her with a gentle warmth. Like her sister was there with her, giving her a hug to help soothe her heart.
"She dreamed that...someday...the violence and suffering could end...and that demons and humans could...live alongside one another…"
Tanjirō felt his heart tighten up and he gripped his knees a little more, hearing such a thing from the woman. A demon slayer who believed that demons and humans could live together in peace. She was right, it did sound silly, but for whatever reason, even when she hadn't met this woman before in his life, nor did he know much about her sister other than what he was just told, it wasn't silly sounding at all.
In fact, it felt like quite the opposite. Considering Tanjirō's experience with Kyogai in the drum house, and even the small little exchange with the Temari demon after she had been ripped apart, told him that there was far more to demons than what met the eye, the idea didn't sound too far fetched at all. If there were a person, or a group of people, that was able to light the spark of change, then maybe there really could be change. No, not just create a spark of change, but get rid of the obstacles that stood in the way of that dream ever becoming a reality.
"Muzan...and the Twelve Kizuki…" Tanjirō thought, his hands balling up into fists. "If they're gone...then...maybe...just maybe…"
"Sometimes I still wonder how, after all of the suffering demons have caused...how she was still able to smile and dream that dream…it makes me wonder why I've even started believing in it too..." murmured the woman, opening her eyes again while looking to the stars once more.
Tanjirō bit his lip slightly as he lowered his head, the woman's words taking him back to he had proposed his promise to change Nezuko back to her former human self. This woman and him, somehow, they connected on an even deeper level than he could have imagined. That was when he decided to not fear the consequences any more
Wanting to take a risk, and hoping to the heavens that this female Demon Slayer was just tipsy enough to not recognize his eyes as those of a demon, Tanjirō turned his head fully and looked right at the woman while giving her a warm smile.
"I don't think it's a silly dream. Actually...I think it's a wonderful dream, one that I can understand." he said, the woman lowering her gaze to look him in the eyes. The moment of truth was there, and for a split second, Tanjirō's heart was beating rapidly outside of his chest. He wasn't sure how it would turn out, but there was no going back from here. "Maybe even more than you know."
"You…" she said, Tanjirō gulping nervously. Here it came. "You...really think so?"
A wave of relief passed over him, and believing that he was in the clear, he nodded his head and smiled more at the woman, even giving her a thumbs up as just another symbol of confirmation.
"I do. And your sister...she sounds like an absolutely wonderful person. If I had met her, no, even without meeting her...I think I can believe in that same dream too."
Unbeknownst to him, the woman's heart was instantly touched by Tanjirō's words, and her eyes widened slightly in surprise by his willingness. She held her hands closed to her heart, and she gave him a soft smile as well in return.
"Thank you…"
She then turned away from him, taking a few steps back towards the entrance into the home, before glancing over her shoulder at Tanjirō and giving him a tiny wave.
"Goodnight…"
"Goodnight." Tanjirō replied with his own wave, before the women retreated into the building to return to where her room was for the night.
In a few minutes he would do the same thing, walking back to the room he shared with Inosuke and Zenitsu, finding them already in their futons with blank expressions on their face that were illuminated by the lamp to Inosuke's left.
"How did it go?"
"We both have broken ribs...and you fractured Inosuke's collarbone as well."
Inosuke pulled aside some of his hair over his forehead, revealing a purple and red bulbous knot coming out from it that throbbed even with the slightest eyebrow motion that he made.
"This knot hurts more than my ribs, or my shoulder…"
"Oh...sorry."
Tanjirō laughed awkwardly as he climbed into his futon in between Zenitsu and Inosuke, staring up at the ceiling with them as they waited for sleep to come to them.
"Oi, you better apologize too. It really hurt you know." muttered Zenitsu, implying Inosuke was the one he was referring to. "Getting pounded to a pulp like that. Say you're sorry."
"I'll pass."
"Say you're sorry!"
"I'll pass!"
"Just say you're sorry!" barked Tanjirō, Inosuke frowning and refusing to say anything.
Zenitsu clicked his teeth and laid his head back down, glancing in Inosuke's direction while frowning as well.
"If you're gonna be like that, we're not eating with you anymore."
"Hah?" said Inosuke, turning his head and looking over Tanjirō at Zenitsu. "What's up with that?"
"Meals always taste better when you eat together, you know." Zenitsu replied back, with Tanjirō adding on with another confirmation while glancing at Inosuke.
"Did you guys hurt your heads or something?"
"Who are you to talk?!"
They heard footsteps outside of their room, soon followed by the voice of the old woman talking to them through the paper walls, her shadow visible through them. She asked them if they needed anything, and Tanjirō had to yell at Zenitsu again when he called the kind elder a monster for the third time that night.
Once she left, the three looked up at the ceiling again, with the question being proposed about the relationship between the wisteria flower emblem and the Demon Slayer Corps.
"If I recall, according to the crow...this house with the wisteria family crest belongs to a family that was once rescued by demon slayers in the past." said Tanjirō, tapping his chin. "That's why they take care of people for free if they're demon hunters. Though, I never expected they'd be this generous."
"Just how great is the Demon Slayer Corps?" asked Inosuke, moving his arms under his head so he could rest on them.
"Now that you mention it, Inosuke, why did you join the Corps?"
"Eh?"
"You had some kind of reason, didn't you?"
"A member of the Demon Slayer Corps barged in on me on my mountain, so we competed to see who was stronger, and I seized his sword."
Inosuke's matter-of-fact explanation made Tanjirō and Zenitsu stare at him in disbelief and regret for the poor person who had the bad luck of running into Inosuke in the wild. They were sure the poor guy must have been traumatized after that.
"And then, I heard there was something called "Final Selection," and the fact that demons do exist."
"So that's why you joined the Demon Slayer Corps? And hey, so you and I both grew up in the mountains, huh?" said Tanjirō with a smile.
"Oi, don't lump me in with you!" jabbed back Inosuke, before reaching up and pulling on his boar head mask. "I don't have any parents or siblings! Testing my strength against other living creatures is my only pleasure!"
"I see...I see…" Tanjirō replied, feeling a tiny bit hurt on the inside. "You and I are more similar than you think…"
A minute or so of silence persisted in the room before Zenitsu sighed and sat up, pushing the covers of the futon down to his lap while glancing over at Nezuko's box resting in the corner idle.
"Tanjirō, no one else is asking, so I'm gonna ask myself. Why are you traveling with a demon...and how did you become a demon yourself?" he asked, looking back at Tanjirō, whos surprised a little by his words.
Inosuke didn't say anything, but was undoubtedly listening as Tanjirō sat up and smiled at Zenitsu.
"You knew about that and still protected the box, huh? You really are a great guy, you know that? Thank you."
Zenitsu wasn't prepared for the praise and he hugged himself and his pillow, rolling over side to side while claiming that Tanjirō didn't have to give him any of that praise. Tanjirō pointed to his nose and explained to Zenitsu that he knew from the very start that Zenitsu was a good person, even if he was a coward at times. Of course he didn't mention that.
Nezuko then began to jiggle the door of her box from the inside, the sounds causing Zenitsu to jump to his feet out of fright and stare at the box.
"Ehh! It's trying to come out! It's trying to come out!"
"Hey, it's all right, it's alright." said Tanjirō to ease his terrified friend. "Trust me, it's okay."
"How can you be so sure."
Tanjirō's only reply was to smile at Zenitsu, before he turned his attention to the box as the door was jiggled with and scratched from the inside as well.
"You see, Zenitsu...the demon in that box isn't any regular demon...it's actually my little sister, Nezuko."
"Haaah?!" sputtered Zenitsu, staring in disbelief at him. "Why your little sister?!"
"Our entire family was killed by a demon over two years ago...only she and I survived, with Nezuko having been turned into a demon herself." Tanjirō said, his smile wavering slightly as the painful memories resurfaced. The blood. His family's bodies, and Nezuko's protective embrace around their smallest sibling in the snow.
Zenitsu's shock was replaced with genuine surprise as his expression normalized, his gaze going to Tanjirō and away from the box. His entire family killed, and only he and his sister survived? To live is one thing, but for your only remaining family left to become like which had killed them in the first place was completely the opposite, and arguably worse.
"When I trained to become a swordsman, Nezuko slept for the whole two years of that training...during which my master put a spell on her, that all humans are part of her family, and that she must protect them."
"And...you?" Zenitsu asked, sitting down silently and taking this far more seriously. "You weren't originally a demon, right…? How did you turn into one, and...well, you know…"
"We were attacked in the city, when I had found a...friend of sorts." Tanjirō leaned back on his hands and looked up at the ceiling, his smile now gone as the memories he still had of that time replaced the ones of the far past. "It was another demon and her assistant...she was a doctor that treated humans."
"Really…?"
"Mhm, really. She had modified her and her assistant's body to require only a blood sample every so often from her patients to survive...it's incredible to think about that, to say the least. She's also the one I'm collecting blood samples for, because she's going to work on a cure for my sister...a cure that can turn her back into a human."
Zenitsu was stunned, hearing all of this from Tanjirō. Inosuke, still silent, had turned his head towards them as he too listened to him and actually paid attention for once, as well as have some common sense to not interrupt.
"And...you?"
"When we were attacked, I was injured...really badly, according to what the demon said...she said I almost died." continued Tanjirō, who looked down at his rough-skinned hands. "I don't all remember what happened after the battle all that well, but...with what she said, I knew that she wouldn't lie to me."
"About what?"
"That I agreed to be turned into a demon, and be given a second chance to help Nezuko get cured. And so she gave me a serum that she had made, the same one that transformed her assistant into a demon, and saved my life."
Tanjirō glanced at Zenitsu as he rubbed his hand, giving him another warm smile that was full of happiness, as well as thankfulness for the demon he was talking about.
"Thanks to her...I was able to live, and continue my quest to cure Nezuko. It's been difficult adjusting, but...I've been able to cope well enough. And now, somehow I can withstand the sun too...I won't burn up."
"That's...awesome…."
"But that's enough of that. Nezuko, you can come out now. It's okay."
Zenitsu's gaze returned to the box as the scratching stopped, and slowly the door to the box was opened outward from within. Normally he would be terrified at the thought of seeing a demon face to face, but after spending time with Tanjirō, and hearing about his sister and part of his life, the terror he would normally feel was nonexistent.
The door fully opened with a light creak, and a tiny hand emerged from the box, followed by the shrunk Nezuko crawling out and looking over at them. Zenitsu's heart then stopped beating for a moment and his eyes shot wide open. Nezuko crawled fully out of the box, and after standing on her feet, they watched her grow and return to her normal size, her pink eyes gazing at them with a gentleness to them.
"Gaaaaahhhkkkkhkkkk!" gasped Zenitsu, his mouth wide open.
Inosuke even gazed in surprise at Tanjirō's cute little sister, before he turned his head back up and stretched his arms out to the side and laid them flat on the futon and flooring of the room.
"Too much thinking for me…" he murmured, before he fell asleep a split second later.
"Tanjirō…"
The room brightened a little bit around Zenitsu and Tanjirō glanced back at his friend, who's body began to emit tiny little bolts of electricity as his entire demeanor changed.
"Uh, Z-Zenitsu?"
"Since when were you gonna tell me...that your sister was this adorable?!" he demanded, his eyes filled with fire and his expression like that of death's. Electricity continued to crackle around him as he grabbed his sword and slid it out of the sheath, Tanjirō's heart skipping a beat as he scoot a little away from the yellow haired slayer.
"U-Uh, Zenitsu, calm down...calm down!"
"Give me back all the blood I shed! Feel my wraaaaath!"
A/N Wew! This one was a big one to write, that's why it wasn't out earlier! I enjoyed writing this one a lot, because of how big of a chapter it was, and plus the girl. Wonder who that is~ :D (behind Nezuko of course, she will always be No. 1)
I hope all of you enjoyed this chapter! And I think putting the A/N's at the bottom of the chapter will be the new standard from now on! :) Leave a fav, follow, and a review telling me what you all thought! Pretty please, or I'll steal your couch!