Birds had never been so stupid. Maybe that was an overstatement. One particular bird, that just happened to be her guide, was the most idiotic thing in the world. Not only had the thing been completely unhelpful in giving her directions, it had decided that the perfect time to take a dump was when it had been flying directly over Hayashi's head.

The world was a cruel place, so Hayashi had been forced to ask someone for directions to the train station, and runto catch the train she was supposed to be on, only to find out that she was an hour early and she didn't even have to be there. Her crow had given her the wrong instructions, perhaps it had copied another crow or something, but regardless Hayashi was crashing someone else's mission, covered in bird shit.

'Oh well,'

Hayashi thought to herself,

'It's better than staying home and having to train. I'll just join this person on their mission and then I can get a new one. Someone will probably take care of my other one, Oyakata-sama knows how stupid my crow is.'

She sighed and sat herself down on a bench at the platform. It was the first time Hayashi had been out in the 'modern world' for a while, but she took no joy in marveling at the shiny technology, only staring into the sky. People bustled around her and she mostly went unnoticed, daydreaming about food and trying not to fall asleep. That was, until someone tapped her on the shoulder. The temporary peace was broken, and Hayashi turned to see a small woman with wide eyes.

"Yes?" The words came out sounding a tad bit ruder than was regularly expected when addressing elders, but Hayashi wasn't the slightest bit worried. Traditions and honorifics when it came to people she didn't know were useless, and she didn't care about social status or others opinions on her 'behavior'.

"Ai...?" The woman spoke with uncertainty, more so like she was asking a question.

"Love? What about love?" Hayashi was more confused than the woman standing before her. Why would the lady suddenly approach her and ask about love? Did she wanna set up her grandson with her or something? The very idea of getting married was revolting, so the sour expression Hayashi took on was to be expected.

"Oh... I'm sorry. I must have mistaken you for someone, a young girl the same age as you. Her name is Hara Ai, you look so much like her. " The woman looked disappointed, while Hayashi was relieved that she wasn't being set up by some weirdo on the street.

"Yeah no, my name is Hayashi and I'm not interested in finding a family." she said, putting emphasis on the latter part. The last thing she wanted was a a family right now, it would be too much work and the effort to please others would take a toll on the young girl. More importantly, she would get yelled at by Sanemi if she slacked off on a mission and found a family to play pretend with. Hayashi turned away with a sense of finality, thinking that was the end of the strange exchange when the lady started to speak again.

"Do you have a family? Did you happen to lose your memory? What's your last name?" The lady was getting pushy now, and she was moving closer. Hayashi looked at her in a mixture of confusion and judgement, pulling the best disgusted face she could and backed up.

"Look lady, I don't know you, and you're asking too many questions. I'm not interested in being some long lost granddaughter of yours or something, it sounds like too much work."

"But did you get lost somewhere? Do you know your parents?"

The irk on Hayashi's head grew, and she was about three seconds from pushing the old lady's frail figure to the ground when she saw a familiar hue of red and yellow among the crowd.

'Tempura!'

She thought to herself as she watched to figure pass by, his head raised high and sword at his hip. So this was the demon slayer who's mission she was crashing, this was gonna be a piece of cake! A free, worry-less, victory! Without uttering another word to the desperate lady, Hayashi stood up and rushed after the man in a hurry.

"Wait, come back Ai!" The woman called, but Hayashi didn't hear.

"Regoku-san!" She called out and ran up behind him. The flame Hashira was someone she respected enough, he was sometimes pushy with his sense of honor but it wasn't something she couldn't deal with.

"Ah! Hayashi, was it? What are you doing here, youngling?" The older male turned and faced the girl, taking in the sight of her strange appearance, "What is that on your head and your shoulders?"

"Oh..." Hayashi looked down at the ever so present bird poop on her shoulders, which she had completely forgotten about. She would have to wash that out as soon as she could, walking around covered in shit was definitely something Sanemi would yell at her for. "It's not important, are you getting on that train for your mission?"

"Why yes! Are you a part of the young demon slayers Oyakata-sama sent to accompany me on this mission?" Kyojuro looked around for a moment, before continuing, "Where are the rest of them?" The confusion on his face wasn't evident, but it was clear that he was expecting more people to show up.

Hayashi looked around for herself and saw no other slayers. She internally sighed, she didn't want to have to explain the entire situation and get scolded by Kyojiro, so she decided the best course of action was to tell a version of the truth, and maybe leave some details out.

"They're coming later."

At least she hoped so, or she would have to explain more. Although her answer was short, it seemed to satisfy the flame Hashira.

"Well then, no point in waiting on the platform, lets get on the train!" His energetic voice carried through Hayashi's ears and quaked her insides. Man, that guy sure could say the simplest things in the loudest voice possible. Kyojiro confidently strode forwards and into the train as Hayashi meekly followed. They walked to their seats and sat down in silence, receiving odd stares from other passengers.

Hayashi had never been on the train, so she was surprised to find that the seats were incredibly comfortable and softer than the beds at the butterfly mansion. The urge to lie down and fall asleep had never been greater, but she fought to keep her eyes open and position upright. In the presence of a Hashira that would surely tattle on Sanemi, it was crucial to at least demonstrate some sort of maturity. So the girl stayed sitting, and Kyojiro stayed sitting. With nothing to talk about, the two sat in awkward silence. Perhaps it wasn't at all uncomfortable to Kyojiro, but to Hayashi she wanted nothing but this present situation.

The silence continued for a long while, until a lady came over and offered them some bento boxes. At that exact moment, as if on will, Hayashi's stomach grumbled so loudly the lady startled in surprise.

"We'll take every last box!" Kyojiro had said, and so there they were. Two strange looking people with swords, one shouting "UMAI" at the top of his lungs with every bite and the other shovelling food into her mouth like there was no tomorrow. It was a peculiar sight, but neither one of the demon slayers cared about drawing attention in the slightest, only about the food in front of them.

Eventually the train lurched forwards and began to move along the tracks, Hayashi hardly noticed as she polished off her third bento box. Her eyes were far too focused on the next one and she had already tuned out all the noise, including Kyojiro's constant shouts. When she next looked up after finishing her fourth box, she was met with a monstrous boar face only inches from her eyes.

"Gah!" Hayashi exclaimed in surprise, she jerked back, away from the horrifying boar face.

"Hey you!" It started to speak, confusing the girl even more. Since when did boar head monsters talk,

"I remember you!" Hayashi certainly didn't remember meeting something so monstrous,

"Fight me!" Oh. Now she remembered. If the loud boar head was there, then the whiny yellow kid and the one with a demon backpack was going to be there as well. Sure enough, when her eyes travelled around the boar head guy, the other two were there.

'This was going to be a long train ride.'