^ Chapter 6 - To the Mountain ^

The sun's first light began to peek out over the horizon, the sky turning from its dark nighttime face to a colorful collage of oranges, reds and yellows that came before the sun itself. Normally not having to wake up on a usual regimen, relying on his internal clock to wake him up at the proper time, an incessant noise brought Urokodaki up out of his futon.

He yawned slightly and rubbed his eyes, before reaching to his left to grab his ogre mask to put it on over his face. Hearing the noise coming from outside, he recognized it as the pestering call of a crow and pushed the covers forward down to his shins.

Urokodaki stood up and popped his right shoulder with a little stretch before shuffling to the door of his home and opening it. Sitting outside cawwing was a crow, a Kasugai crow from what he could tell, with a folded letter in its talons.

"A letter at this time of day…?" he thought as the crow flapped its wings and rose up to Urokodaki's height.

"A message from Kamado Tanjirō! A message from Kamado Tanjirō! Caww!" spoke the bird in an obnoxious voice, the water breathing cultivator's eyes widening behind his mask.

"Tanjirō? Why would he send me a letter?"

Urokodaki held his hand out and the crow dropped the letter into the palm, before flying around and resting on his right shoulder as he held the folded up parchment and unwrapped it. Once it was fully open he began to read silently, going over each written kanji slowly so as to make sure he didn't miss anything written.

Once he finished, he looked closer at the paper and reread it again to confirm that what he had just read from his most recent student was true, and that he wasn't still dreaming. He then dropped the letter and had to lean a little against the door to his home, taking a few silent breaths in order to settle himself down before he wasn't able to.

"Tanjirō's a demon...just like his sister…" he thought, blinking several times. "Turned into one by another demon…? How is this even possible?"

Urokodaki folded the letter up and took it with him back into his home, the cultivator returning to his futon to sit and think carefully about the information he had just received. He recognized the writing in the letter, it certainly had come from his pupil, so he could rule it out as being fake or written by someone else other than Tanjirō.

Seeing the young man write so often in a journal he had started while training for those two years had allowed Urokodaki to memorize the way he wrote, so he would always be able to identify anything written by Tanjirō. To the letter itself, Tanjirō had been turned into a demon in order for his life to be saved. He had never heard of a demon named Tamayo, and he had also never heard of another person capable of creating demons other than the person who he was told about during his time among the demon slayers.

"Whoever this Tamayo is...she was able to create another method for demon transformation...different to the one that Kibutsuji uses? And what of this curse? And then even more than that...Tanjirō can walk in the sun now as a demon?"

Urokodaki crossed his arms and murmured something to himself, letting out a slow breath as he maintained his composure and thought clearly and rationally about what was given to him. From what Tanjirō said, he had managed to control himself as a demon, most likely due to his older age and his strong will and moral code, something that Nezuko wasn't quite able to utilize because she had been transformed on the verge of death and had to be taught in her sleep by Urokodaki to protect humans. He could feel how genuinely afraid his pupil was through his writing, how scared he was for his sister and what could happen to them if discovered.

"Not only by other demon slayers...if one of the Hashira were to discover him, Tanjirō and Nezuko wouldn't stand a chance…" Urokodaki thought, grumbling slightly to himself. "Being able to walk in the sun is an advantage, but with the eyes of a demon, all it would take would be one mere glance at him by someone who knows of demons, or someone from the Corps, and it would be over…"

He tapped his fingers against his arm, still thinking about the situation before he slowly glanced back over his shoulder to the cabinets in his home and got up. He walked over to them and opened one of the larger doors where he kept the hand-carved fox masks he would give his students.

There was an instant sense of nostalgia, as well as pain, from seeing these masks. For years he had given a mask to each of his students that he would send to Final Selection, only to never have them return back to him. It had hurt his soul, little by little, each and every time one wouldn't return. Tanjirō had been the first to return to him in such a long time, and he remembered just how overjoyed he was to have had him return to him. The hug they shared together was now one of his most favorite memories, and he would continue to remember it for as long as he had left to live.

"Just as I gave one to Tanjirō to protect him during Final Selection...so shall they protect him again."

He browsed through the masks he had carved, before selecting one from his collection that he felt would fit Tanjirō the most, not only functionally, but emotionally as well. The mask was in the shape of a fox's face, with a more pronounced snout compared to his others and tall ears that curved slightly in before the tips, which were angled forward slightly. The mask's face had long angled black lines that functioned as the eyes, with two red ovals over them as the eyebrows. The nose was colored black as well, and along the mask's cheek were two red wispy lines of pain that stretched from the snout to the sides of the mask, as well as two thicker lines above the oval eyebrows.

The ears were red that started as a darker red before fading to a lighter tone of red near the top of the ears, with the tips of the ears itself a red gradient compared to the base white color of the mask. Rather than a straight faced expression, the mask's mouth curled up slightly into a rather warm looking smile, something Urokodaki felt that Tanjirō would appreciate. To secure the mask to the face was a thick piece of red rope connecting to both sides, some of the finest that he had on hand. The rope he had used on only one other mask before, one that he modified for one of his prior students who had a scar on their face running from the right side of their mouth along their cheek.

Urokodaki ran his hand along the polished surface of the mask, it being one of his finer pieces, and he nodded his head as he closed the cabinet. The crow on his shoulder watched him as he went to his small writing desk and sat down in front of it, pulling out a fresh piece of paper and readying his paint brush.

"Tanjirō, it fills my heart with joy to know that you were able to survive your harrowing experience, and have kept Nezuko safe this far. Your transformation into a demon is an unseen consequence, however, I'm sure you remember what I taught you, and like your sister I have faith in your abilities to keep not only Nezuko, but yourself, humble and restrained."

Urokodaki finished the first part of his letter and thought to himself, dabbing his brush into his ink bottle to refresh it, before returning it to where he left off in order to continue his letter.

"I cannot offer you much advice about controlling yourself, other than to focus on your breathing and to ensure that you remain calm. You may also want to try hiding your presence, doing so could make it easier for you to hide your new demonic heritage, especially against other slayers. Above all else, however, to preserve your safety from being identified by knowledgeable humans, I'm providing you with one of my masks, like the one I gave you for Final Selection, to not only hide your face, but to protect you as well. Continue to stay safe, Tanjirō. Urokodaki."

He finished the letter and placed the brush back in the ink bottle for a moment as he waited for the ink to dry before he started to fold the letter skillfully into a compact shape. Once it was done, he set the letter to the side for a moment as he placed the mask he selected onto the small desk.

"To add a little touch…" Urokodaki thought as he retrieved his mask-making supplies, selecting the red paint he used most commonly, and returned to his seat.

Urokodaki opened the red paint jar and selected one of his many brushes, finding it suitable for the job, and dipped the tip in before he began to work on the mask in order to add a signifying mark to it that would be unique to it alone. Remembering Tanjirō's face and imagining how the mask would look on him, he carefully drew a perfect copy of the scar that Tanjirō had at the top left of his forehead, relying solely on his memory to allow him to do so.

The outline came first, before he filled it all in with the same color of red, before he was satisfied with the final result and set the paint brush aside to clean after he set the mask back down to dry. Several minutes later, once he had cleaned off both his paint and writing brushes, he returned to the mask and picked it up, testing the freshly painted flame-like scar on the mask to see if it was dry.

"There. All done." he remarked to himself, before he reached down for his letter and walked outside. "You're Tanjirō's crow, aren't you?"

"Caww!" replied the crow, nodding his head. "The best of the Kasugai crows!"

Urokodaki chuckled as the crow took off from his shoulder and flapped his wings to maintain his altitude right in front of the cultivator, using his beak to hold onto the letter while his talons grabbed onto one of the ropes of the mask.

"Return these items to Tanjirō. Stay safe."

The crow cawed and Urokodaki watched as the crow flew off with his message and the mask, the old master hoping and silently praying that they would reach his student in good time, and that he would be able to take care of himself and Nezuko. Urokodaki had already lost enough students as is, he wasn't sure if he would be able to take the news of the student who survived after so many before him perishing with his sister.

Tanjirō smiled to himself as he sat outside the Wisteria home, his legs dangling over the edge of the front patio with the sun shining overhead. It had been some time since they had arrived there, mostly for Inosuke and Zenitsu to recover from the injuries they had, which meant Tanjirō was still able to train and go out on small missions here and there.

He was glad, since it allowed him to practice more with his demon abilities and strength against other foes. And Tanjirō had found that he was getting more and more used to these newfound abilities, including a growing healing factor he had noticed by chance when he had actually cut himself on accident. Within a few minutes, the small cut that he had gotten on his thumb had healed and disappeared entirely with no trace.

"But most of all…" Tanjirō thought as he lowered his gaze to the fox mask he had received back from Urokodaki, along with a response letter.

The mask was incredible, as well made as all of the others he was sure that the man had made, including those that he had given to the students that had come before him and lost their lives to Final Selection. As he looked at the mask, once again admiring it, he couldn't help but feel that by wearing one of Urokodaki's masks, that he was being protected and watched over by Sabito, Makomo, and the other children of Urokodaki who perished during Final Selection. Especially Sabito, because he could clearly remember the ropes his mask used to remain fastened to his face. And on his mask, here they were, the same thick ropes that Sabito's mask had utilized. It not only felt fitting, but justified.

He ran his hand along the face of the mask before he held it up and tied it around his head again, letting the ends of the thick red rope hang down behind his ears, as he looked through the slits of the mask. The vision itself wasn't the best, but he had been working on his sense perception, and he learned how to fight with the limited vision the mask offered and rely more on his instincts and sense.

"Again, I can't thank you enough for this, Urokodaki-sensei...this mask is amazing!" he thought, smiling behind the mask.

Tanjirō removed the mask again and rested it in his lap as he looked up at the sky again, feeling the wind drift over the garden and blow through his hair slightly. The birds were chirping, and like the first night there where the stars and moon had looked then, it reminded him of how it could seem like there wasn't anything to worry about.

That there weren't innocent lives at stake because of dangerous, human-hunting demons prowling the countryside and stalking the villages that were outside of the main cities. He was sure that there were even demons in the big cities too, even Tokyo, which terrified him even more because that meant the very foundation of their country could be at risk. If only they didn't have to worry about threats from demons, if they didn't have to hunt and devour humans, he really did wonder if they could get along.

"To get along…" Tanjirō thought, before his mind drifted back to the first night and that woman who had been there. He knew that she had left the morning after, early enough that no one had even known she had left. But what she talked about, of her sister and the dream she had taken on from her, he remembered all of it. "I wonder if it really is possible...for humans and demons to coexist..."

Tanjirō set his mask down to his left and looked at his hands, rubbing them together as he recalled the face of the woman, how sweet she looked. Even in that brief exchange, lasting only a few minutes, his nose had told him quite a lot about the woman. He had been able to smell the sake on her lips and in her breath, that was apparent, as well as a rather sweet fragrance that he assumed was a perfume of sorts.

What interested him the most though was something he wasn't quite sure what to think of. It was something he hadn't ever smelled before from a person, but for whatever reason, it was almost as if he was able to smell the very emotions that the woman had. It was but a passing occurrence, a split second happening that went by so quick he wasn't sure if he had even smelled it. If his sense of smell hadn't played a trick on him, however, then in that split second occurrence, the only emotion that he was able to smell was anger.

"Why would someone as sweet-looking as her have such anger...I know her sister died, my family saw a similar fate...ah, I'll think about it later. I should check on Inosuke and Zenitsu." Tanjirō thought, picking up his mask and walking back inside to where their room was.

He happened to arrive at the door right as the doctor and the old woman were leaving, and telling by the smile the former had on his face, Tanjirō could only assume that it had been the good news they had been waiting for.

"So, how did it go?" Tanjirō asked after entering the room.

"We're all healed up." replied Zenitsu with a smile, Inosuke standing near their open room paper doors.

"That's awesome!"

"Hey, Tanjirō, I can't remember, but did you ever tell us why that mask is so special to you? I assumed it's just to cover your face, but there's something more to it, isn't there?"

Tanjirō glanced down at the fox mask in his hands and smiled, sitting down next to the open doors and resting the mask in his lap again. He shook his head and Zenitsu asked him to tell them, although Zenitsu was the one who was really interested. Inosuke just pretended to listen as he worked on some flexibility stretches in the corner he was in.

"You're right, this mask doesn't just cover up my face. It's actually a hand-crafted mask made by my master, Urokodaki-sensei. He's the one who trains Water Breathing to prospective Demon Slayer candidates." explained Tanjirō, putting a hand on his mask as if it were a precious gift. "Until me, Urokodaki-sensei had actually lost every single student he sent to Final Selection for a long time...I was the first to return in years."

"Whoa...really?" asked Zenitsu, his eyes widening. "What happened? Well, I guess it's because they, well...you know..."

"There was a demon on that mountain...one that Urokodaki-sensei himself caught...he purposefully preyed on and killed every single student sent there by him. He always knew who they were, because Urokodaki-sensei would always give his students a mask like this one to protect them."

Zenitsu's expression softened as he looked down at Tanjirō's mask, understanding now why he kept it so close to him even when they were together and at the wisteria home. It came from his master, one of the cultivators for the Corps, a hand-made one at that, who had lost so many of his students prior to some vengeful demon.

It was actually kind of sickening to think about how a demon would keep a grudge for that long against one person, making it their life's goal to make them suffer just for the sake of suffering alone.

"I was able to defeat it, and well, you can see where I ended up." finished Tanjirō, smiling at Zenitsu again after the story concluded. "I like to think that with this mask, I'm carrying on the legacies of those that perished to that demon with me, even more now than ever."

"Eh...sounds too confusing to me…" muttered Inosuke, grunting a little as he did the strange bending back to grip his ankles stretch again.

Zenitsu perked up a little bit and he turned towards their open room doors and out to the garden outside, Tanjirō turning soon after, to see his crow fly over the wall of the compound and come towards them. Tanjirō scoot over slightly as the crow flapped its wings and landed on the floor of their room, looking up at Tanjirō as if waiting for something.

Tanjirō moved his mask and held his hands out, the crow flapping his wings and flying the short distance from the floor to his hands to nestle himself down. Once he was comfortable, the bird opened his wings out to the side like it normal did before giving its message.

"North-northeast! North-northeast! Your next mission is north-northeast!" announced the crow, Inosuke walking over to them in order to participate in the impromptu briefing with a grunt. "The three of you are to go to Mt. Natagumo! Head to Mt. Natagumo!"

"Another one that unfortunately couldn't see reason…"

The black and purple haired woman smiled sadly as she stood up after sheathing her sword, the unmoving body of a demon that had been causing trouble in one of the larger cities lying down close by. She was resting atop one of the buildings in the city after pursuing the demon there, and had decided to take a break there before returning home.

The demon was hardly any trouble for someone of her caliber, she had only accepted the mission since she wanted to get out of her house for a little while. Plus it was another chance for her to see one of Japan's bustling urban cities, the areas that had been growing rapidly ever since Japan had begun to turn more modern. She didn't know as much as other people did, but she had seen enough of the city and the people to know that their time, her generation's, was nearing an end.

"To think that there are such things as giant ships of metal and iron that are being made...Japan's come a long way since the old days…" she thought, leaned back on her hands as she swung her legs back and forth off the edge. "Hopefully, modern Japan doesn't snuff out the old Japan...I'd hate to see so much of our heritage be forgotten…"

The woman closed her eyes and turned herself to the right, keeping one leg hanging off the edge as she laid down on her back and rested her hands on her stomach. She took a deep breath and allowed her body to fully relax, her senses on alert in case she needed them, and let her mind drift.

At first she didn't think much about anything, her mind just an empty slate that could be filled by anything if she willed it. What came to fill the empty space was the most common thought she had. Her sister and the dream that she had, where a world that demons and humans could exist among one another without the need for violence.

When she was younger, and her sister was still alive, she herself always thought that the idea of humans and demons living together was a silly idea. Demons could never learn to live among humans because all they wanted was their flesh. They saw humans as food, mere prey for them to hunt. It's why she and her sister had become Demon Slayers in order to help save the people that demons targeted. Yet somehow, she couldn't stop herself from slowly beginning to believe in that dream as well, enough that when her sister perished, she took it on as her own goal to try and find any kind of demon, any at all, that could have the slightest chance of becoming friends with a human.

"I wish you were still here, Onee-san…" the young woman thought, her smile fading a bit. "It's all because of that...thing…that bastard…"

Her hands tensed slightly and they were close to balling up into fists, before she regained her composure and relaxed again, taking another deep breath to ease her emotions. She quickly pushed those thoughts out of her head and thought of something else, something that was happier in comparison.

"I wonder how that one is doing...the slayer that I met that night at one of the wisteria rest stops…" she thought, smiling again now that she had her mind off her previous thoughts. She couldn't remember too much about him visually, aside from his hair, just that for whatever reason he had a different feeling about him. The way he spoke was something she remembered too, it was what she recalled the most about that night..

"Even when I was maybe one or two cups of sake over my limit...he understood what I said and...he even wanted to believe in your dream too, Onee-san..."
She would have continued that train of thought before she felt a presence begin to approach her and she quickly regained it, opening her eyes and turning her head to see a young girl a year or two younger then her walk up to her. Wearing a white cape and a standard Demon Slayer Corps uniform, as well as a similar butterfly pin to the one the woman had in her hair, the only difference between them was the white boots the younger girl wore, their swords, and how their hair was differently colored.

"Ah, ready to go already?" she asked, sitting up.

The girl nodded her head while keeping a soft smile of her own, even though she seemed to be rather distant and unfeeling compared to the older woman. The older woman stood up off the edge of the building and stepped down onto the roof, walking over to where the demon corpse was and stared at it, sighing after a few seconds.

"Maybe the next one will be different…" she said, then nodding to the other girl as they walked away towards the roof-access stairs. "Hopefully..."

"Okay, so we need to get enough food for ourselves for the journey." Tanjirō said as he rattled off a checklist in his mind of things they needed to prepare. "Zenitsu, can you get the food?"

"Ehehe, sure, Tanjirō…"

Zenitsu had a constant blush on his face as his body swayed side to side, since Nezuko had come out for a little bit to spend some time outside of her box in their shaded room, and now he could do nothing but stare and giggle helplessly at her. Tanjirō could ignore it thankfully, and Nezuko would just give Zenitsu a somewhat confused stare back at him.

At some point though he started to give the kissy face to Nezuko and Tanjirō had to swiftly punish him with a punch to the top of the head, even though he knew that it wouldn't do much to stop Zenitsu from doing it again.

"Mmn. Okay, Inosuke, you-"

"Nope." Inosuke replied gruffly, crossing his arms over his chest while snorting through his boar head. "I'm fine."

"I'm not saying you aren't, I was just-"

Inosuke walked out of the room and stepped out into the garden, Tanjirō's eyebrow twitching slightly as he watched him leave. Zenitsu meanwhile inched closer to Nezuko again, causing her to scoot away from him after remembering when he had chased her around the room when they first woke up, which led to Inosuke headbutting Tanjirō in the gut and then chasing all of them around the room in one big circle.

She didn't really want to have that happen again, so when Zenitsu took another step closer while poking his fingers together and laughing in a love-drunk manner again, she stepped behind Tanjirō and nudged on his sleeve.

"Ah! Zenitsu, will you focus?!" he exclaimed, smacking Zenitsu on the top of the head again. "We need you to get food supplies for us!"

"Whatever you say, Tanjirō...eheheh…"

Tanjirō eventually got Zenitsu to think clearly when he asked Nezuko to return to her box until Zenitsu had left, so she could come out after he left to get them food. She sat with him in the shade of their room while looking outside, watching Inosuke start banging his head against one of the only trees in the garden again.

Ever since Inosuke and Zenitsu joined them, they hadn't really been able to spend some time together as brother and sister, so Tanjirō was trying to enjoy this moment as much as possible until Nezuko would have to return to her box at some point. Nezuko eventually rested her head on his shoulder and made soft muffled noises while poking his hand a little bit.

"Hm? What is it Nezuko?" he asked, his sister poking his hand again. "Oh, you want me to do that again? Okay, just be careful, and make sure to not move your hand."
Nezuko nodded her head and she sat up straight before extending her arm out, her hand hanging out from her clothes, before Tanjirō extended his arm out as well and made sure to cover her arm with his, their hands overlapping one another.

Then slowly he and Nezuko leaned forward, their arms reaching for where the shade stopped, until Tanjirō's hand eventually left the shade and touched sunlight. Making doubly sure that Nezuko's hand was still under the shade created by his hand and arm, he stopped moving his arm and allowed Nezuko to keep her arm under his. Since she still couldn't walk in the sun, this was something he had come up with to allow her to at least get a feeling of being outside when it was day time. It wasn't much, since the most that Nezuko could feel was the residual warmth around her hand, rather than the direct kind of warmth from the sun itself, but that was more than enough for her.

It brought Tanjirō great joy to see his sister smile even the tiniest bit behind her bamboo mouthpiece, so much in fact that it would make his mood infinitely better for the rest of the day. He wanted her to be happy as much as possible, since they had both experienced such pain and suffering over two years ago prior.

Eventually after a little while they had all of their equipment and were ready to go, the three of them walked through the front entrance of the rest home, Tanjirō turning back and facing the old caretaker woman. Inosuke and Zenitsu did the same thing, and Tanjirō pulled his mask to the side a bit so that the woman could see his warm smile.

"We'll be on our way now. Thank you for everything." Tanjirō said, before he and Zenitsu bowed respectfully. Inosuke just glanced at the two of them, not accustomed to their formalities what so ever, and remained standing straight with his hands on his hips.

The old woman bowed in return and with a caring smile, she poured a piece of flint and a wooden sparker of sorts with a metal edge built into it from her sleeves.

"Now then, for good luck."

"Thank you!"

Tanjirō pulled his fox mask back down over his face into its normal position and turned around with Zenitsu, the latter glancing over his shoulder slightly while the woman walked up behind them. Intrigued, Inosuke looked closer as the woman then scraped the piece of flint against the steel, creating small sparks.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing you old hag?!" roared Inosuke loudly, his outburst quickly forcing Zenitsu and Tanjirō into action. Zenitsu had to shield the woman, while Tanjirō had to wrangle and hold onto the struggling Inosuke with both of his arms to keep him from doing whatever he wanted to do with the woman.

"What are you, a moron?!" yelled Zenitsu, the insult only further enraging Inosuke, enough to cause steam to shoot out of his boar's nostrils. "She's striking sparks for good luck! It's a purification ceremony! Because we're gonna go on a dangerous mission!"

After a minute was spent calming Inosuke down, the three returned to standing shoulder to shoulder while facing the woman after she had put away the flint and steel, smiling still at them.

"Always live your lives with great pride. I wish you luck in battle!" she said, bowing her head slightly once again.

Zenitsu and Tanjirō returned the gesture, with Inosuke being the odd one out again, before the three of them then turned away from the rest home and ran back down the path through the mix of trees and wisteria budding trees until they were once again back out into the regular forest.

Tanjirō was at the front of the trio as usual, with Zenitsu in the middle and Inosuke bringing up the rear. The mask was able to nullify the smell of wisteria to a certain extent, but even it wasn't enough to prevent it from reaching his nose and give him a sick feeling to his stomach.

As they jogged together, eventually leaving the wisteria trees behind, Inosuke was actually putting some thought to what the woman had said and coming up confused every time he tried to determine what she meant. Good luck in battle, living your life with pride, these concepts were foreign to him because of his isolated life in the mountains.

"'Great pride'? 'Luck in battle'? What does that mean?" he asked aloud to Zenitsu and Tanjirō.

"Jeez, this guy is totally clueless…" thought Zenitsu with a blank expression, glancing back at Inosuke momentarily before he and Tanjirō had to give yet another explanation to the boar-headed slayer.

Natagumo Mountain, a tall and heavily forested mound of rock that stretched up high into the sky, surrounded by rolling hills also densely covered in tall, thick trees that hid most, if not all of the ground beneath. When sunny, the leaves were so densely packed between and on top of one another that sunlight could barely reach past them.

From the outside, Natagumo would appear to be an ancient and mystical place, where spirits of the dead would be able to freely exist and roam through the trees while in the mortal realm. Perhaps even a temple could be built there, allowing those who seek a quiet and dutiful life for the purpose of spiritual enlightenment to live at peace. It was anything but that, instead being a place of fear and terror. Demons roamed through its dense forests, stalking anyone who dared to enter the domain of the mountain.

One such demon was sitting alone while perched up on a rock in the middle of a clearing, the light of the moon shining down into said clearing as the demon played with small white spiders. It was a female demon, with a short figure that was rather voluptuous despite her size, with long white hair and bushy eyebrows. Her hair framed her face, which was parted down the middle and tied with teal orbs into two thick strands.

This was her favorite spot on the mountain to retreat to in order to be alone, especially from those that she was forced to consider her "family". She wasn't happy with any of them, not her supposed daughter and sons, and not the creature that was meant to be her husband. All of it was just a farce, a forged lie created by one of the demons on that mountain, the strongest one that was keeping them together.

They all feared him, because of what he had done to the previous members of their so-called family who didn't live up to their expectations, or tried to escape. They were all burned up in the sun, reduced to ash. She didn't want to end up like that either, so she did her job as the mother, capturing and killing anybody who trespassed on their mountain. She did it to the best of her ability, but even that didn't stop every other demon in their group from abusing her at any chance they got.

Hair pulling, pushing, shoving, kicking, verbal abuse. Even actual physical harm that caused her to bleed and writhe in pain. Of course she always healed from it, because of her healing factor, but that only made it easier for them to belittle and torture her because of her weakness.

She was meant to be the mother, the one who should be the most protective of her children above the father. But the only blood relation any of them held was with the one who controlled them, she knew nothing about the other demons, and didn't care. Every day was just another attempt to survive until the end, only to begin the cycle all over again time and time and time again.

"Why can't it be like...then...it...I can't stop thinking of it...the feeling of...something…" the female demon thought, hugging herself as she stared down at her feet. "I don't know why they aren't gone yet, these...images in my head...it makes everything worse for me…"

"You're not going to cry again, are you?"

The woman froze up and she slowly raised her gaze up from her feet towards the sky, seeing the one thing that terrified her more than even demon slayers, or even death itself. Seemingly floating in the air, the only indication of this not being true was how the moonlight reflected on thin wires or strands stretching between a few trees that served as something to stand on.

It was the demon who every other demon on the mountain feared, the one that was controlling all of them through fear alone. The demon was smaller than her physically, looking like a young boy with white skin and red dots on his face just like the ones that she had. The sclera of his eyes were a blood red, and his irises were pale blue, with one one of his eyes visible because of his spider-leg-like haircut hiding his left eye from view.

The way he looked at her, she immediately felt a wave of terror wash over her body and she started shivering, then violently shaking her head side to side.

"No! I wouldn't think of doing that!" she cried out, her voice even cracking slightly.

"I'd hope not, Mother...a mother shouldn't be crying in front of her children…"

"Y-Yes! Yes you're right! I-"

As much as her terror gripped her heart, her body betrayed her and she squeaked slightly as a single tear emerged out of the corner of her eye. She cried as loud as she could inside of her head, trying to withdraw the tear back into her eye, to save her from any suffering.

But fate had never been kind to her, and it wasn't going to be kind to her right then either. The tear streaked down her cheek towards her jaw line, the moon's light causing it to sparkle just bright enough that it could be easily seen even against her white skin. She opened her mouth, her lower lip quivering as she tried to say something, but before she could several white strings filled her vision for a brief moment before everything went dark.

"Ihhyaaaaaaa!" she screamed, covering her bloody face with her hands after the small boy had used some kind of spider webbing or some kind of sharp cord to slash three deep gashes across her eyes and the bridge of her nose.

She continued to scream in agony as her blood dripped through her fingers and around her hands, the droplets hitting her thighs as well as the rock she sat on. The boy had blinded her in a split second, and it would take a minute or so to repair the damage, so until then as always she had to suffer for her slight transgression. The boy said nothing as he watched his apparent mother writhe and cry out from being blinded, his expression remaining utterly devoid of any emotion the entire time.

"Pull yourself together mother, there are people entering the forest...make sure to do your job."

The boy then left the woman to suffer alone, crying and gripping her face as the wounds finally began to slowly heal. After a few moments one of her eyes finally regained its sight and she parted her fingers to allow herself to see through them, her breathing ragged somewhat still.

"I wish...I could die...already...maybe then I can finally escape…"

"Hold up!"

Tanjirō and Inosuke stopped walking, the latter putting his hands on his hips as they turned to look down at the kneeling Zenitsu a few paces behind them.

"Would you mind waiting a second?"

"Zenitsu? What's wrong?"

Tanjirō's own question was answered before Zenitsu even had to tell him he was scared when the lightning-yellow haired slayer hugged his legs close to his chest in a sitting fetal position as tears started to come out of the corners of his eyes.

He had been perfectly fine throughout their journey to Natagumo Mountain, even cracking a few jokes here and there, but now that they were coming up to the start of the dense forest that covered the surrounding hills as well as Mount Natagumo itself, his cowardice began rearing its ugly head.

"Why the hell is he sitting? That's pretty creepy." muttered Inosuke snarkily.

"Who are you to talk, Pig Face?!" shouted back Zenitsu, before pointing to the mountain past Tanjirō and Inosuke. "Don't tell me you're not getting any vibes from that mountain!"

They turned back to face Natagumo mountain for a moment, looking up at the mountain itself and feeling the eerie and mysterious vibe that Natagumo gave off merely on its own. It was only amplified because it was night time, with a bright full moon in the sky behind and just above the mountain itself in the sky, causing it to appear even darker from where they stood.

Tanjirō hadn't mentioned it yet, but he did feel like something was off down in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't his hunger, he had made do with some rice balls earlier when the sun was setting, and he had gotten used to the other hunger that he had naturally as a demon. This was something else, an entirely different feeling. Like that of impending doom.

"Still…" Tanjirō started as he and Inosuke looked back at Zenitsu. "What good will it do to just sit there?"

"I told you, he's creepy."

"I told you, I am in no way creepy! I'm normal! I'm the normal one! You guys are abnormal!"

Before the conversation about whether Zenitsu was creepy or not continued, the wind blew over the path leading up to Natagumo and Tanjirō got a whiff of a scent through the small holes in the snout of his mask. His eyes widened and that chill of familiarity traveled up and down his spine, his head darting back towards the line of trees at the foot of the mountain hills.

"Eh? What? What is it?"

"This scent…"

Tanjirō then took off running without saying another word, Inosuke letting out some kind of grunt as he took off right behind him, leaving Zenitsu to cry after them and get up by himself to follow. The three slayers ran along the dirty path up and over a small hill, growing closer to the forest's start, until they stopped when up ahead of them lying on their stomach in the dirt was a fellow Demon Slayer, like them.

He had the standard-issue uniform, and in his right hand was a nichirin blade, the standard-issue tool of the Corps. He must have heard them approach because he slowly lifted his head up towards them and grunted a little. Tanjirō's heart skipped a beat at the blood dripping down the man's jaw from his lips and the other scuffs and red marks on his face and left hand, and judging by the way his breathing was labored, there were more injuries that they couldn't see.

Upon seeing them, the young man started to cry at the sheer amount of emotions that started to flow out from inside of him. Terror and relief, they intermingled and mixed into one as he tried to claw his way through the dirt towards them.

"H-Help...me…" he begged, grunting again as he moved one of his legs in a way it shouldn't have.

"He's one of us! We have to help!" said Tanjirō, before he started running towards their fallen comrade.

"Eh?! Wait! Don't start running again!" cried Zenitsu when Inosuke left him behind again, following Tanjirō up to the fallen boy.

"What's wrong? What happened?!"

Tanjirō was about to crouch down and lay a hand on him, to see what had caused the injuries, when something made a sound like a thin wire tensing up and twanging. He didn't know where or what it came from, before suddenly the slayer was wrenched back onto his feet and then up into the air several meters up.

"T-They were attached to me too! Help me, somebody help me!"

Inosuke, Tanjirō and Zenitsu could only watch flabbergasted as the slayer was yanked back into the dense trees of the forest, vanishing from sight with the rustle of the leaves. Not a sound was heard from him after that. Zenitsu covered his mouth and stared at where he had vanished, his eyes wide open and full of horror, while Tanjirō and Inosuke's expressions were hidden behind their masks.

Another breeze blew over and through the forest, the trees waving and rustling in the wind for a few moments before dying down. That wind served to bring another scent to Tanjirō's nose, one so pungent and strong that it was as if a solid red wisp of the stuff had drifted over his face and into his nostrils. Demons, and the overwhelming scent of blood.

His hands shook slightly for a moment before he steeled himself and balled them up into fists, his momentary terror turning into resolve and determination.

"I'm going."

Inosuke brushed past Tanjirō and stood in front of him, clenching his fists a little tighter to cause his forearms and his biceps somewhat before crossing his arms over to grip the opposite sword on his hips.

"I'll go on ahead. You can follow me, shivering." he said, lowering his head slightly while looking at the tree line. "This is making me hungry…"

Zenitsu remained sitting on the ground shivering behind them, murmuring something to himself before Inosuke threw his fists up and laughed out loud, before running straight towards the forest. Tanjirō followed right behind him, the pair leaving Zenitsu all by himself.

"E-Eh?"

A/N YUS Onto the best Arc of the Anime! Natagumo Mountain bois (and girls, idk ya'll's genders, we all love Demon Slayer regardless). Had fun with this one especially at the start, Tanjiro got a sweet cool mask that I WISH i could show so tried to describe it as best as I could from what I looked up online :D

Anyways, sorry about not uploading this last night, but thought it would be good to take a break and finished up most of this chapter yesterday, then finished it today. Dont worry, im hard at work on Chapter 7 now! Especially since I get to have the pleasure of crafting the fight against the Spider Clan with Demon Tanjiro heheh. This oughta be fun!

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