A/N:

Main story topic, Muzan is still hunting after Tanjiro here because of how the earrings give him the scares *psst PTSD*

One thing I noticed in the story is that near the end, we learn that Muzan had been desperately searching for the blue spider lillies in every generation and as implied, had been creating demons in the hopes of one eventually conquering the sun or finding him the spider lily he needs to gain perfect immortality and resistance to the sun.

However throughout the whole series we never see a single demon even expressing the need to search for those flowers

Ofc you can say they don't care but Idt Muzan would allow them to not care if he wants them to care.

So thats what I am gonna do here and make Muzan actually specify incase they do end up encountering one

Without further redo, let's jump right in!

As always, please leave a review and like the story if you liked it!

I apologize incase there are typos/spelling errors/grammar mistakes!

No slash!

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The travel was more than just quiet. It has been a day since they had been running and are still pretty far from their destination.

Zenitsu had been whining about how he would die before he gets a chance at marrying someone (Nezuko) and Inosuke calling him a cry baby at the start and saying he can go on and on but as time went on, they stopped themselves as they noticed they were the only one who were talking. Giyuu wasn't expected to talk anyway since he had been known to be distant and non communicative but Tanjiro? He always had a smile upon his face and used to make funny jokes or try to stop them incase they started fighting on something. But today was different. He hadn't said a word and his presence and sound had been blank. It was as if his spirit wasn't there.

He just answered when he was expected to say something such as for when asked for a (bottle) gourd of water or how much distance they still have to cover.

The silence was….uncomfortable to say the least. There were a few minutes break taken when they simply couldn't move a muscle anymore. The energy saving factor wasn't helped at all by the fact that they encountered 3 demons in their time in the forest.

The only relief that they were not getting lost in the wilderness anytime soon was for the compass and map given by Shinobu for the mission.

*Flashback*

"Sorry for the delay, Tomioka-san, I got busy with a few papers in my office-" Shinobu arrives at the gate as Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke and Giyuu were departing

Giyuu nodded slightly.

The Kasugai crow, still flying repeated

"KAW KAW! KAMADO TANJIRO! TOMIOKA GIYUU! AGATSUMA ZENITSU! HASHIBIRA INOSUKE! HEAD TO MOUNT KUMOTORI! KAW KAW! FIVE DEMONS ON RAMPAGE!! DISTURBING VILLAGERS AND PUTTING THEM INTO CATATONIC STATE! KAW KAW!!"

He added "DONOT WASTE TIME!! KAW KAW!!!"

"Oh! You all are leaving for Mount Kumotori, hmm?" Shinobu said with her ever present smile.

She continued as she took two items from her pocket, "Here! Have my compass and map for this mission. Since it is going to be a long journey, these items will be very useful"

Tanjiro thanked her and took the items.

"Those are just for this mission. Please don't forget to return them after the mission" she said.

"Yes ofcourse"

"Oh and one more thing!"

Within the blink of an eye, she brought a bottle gourd in her hand and handed it over to Giyuu.

"This medicine might help the surviving villagers in their catatonic state. Just one drop per person will do"

And with that, they waved her a goodbye and left.

The other butterfly mansion joining her soon.

*End of Flashback*

"We are getting close to the mountain" Tanjiro announced.

He added, "It should take us just a little more while to reach the village"

He could never forget the nostalgic smell of the village and the mountains no matter what.

"Its near Dawn, we have to wait again till night to defeat all the demons and go back" Inosuke said, his voice showing clear signs that he is getting impatient.

"I just want to kill these stupid creatures and have a good dinner!!!" He screamed.

Zenitsu, Giyuu and Tanjiro gave him tired looks.

"Oi Tanjiro…come to think of it, we still don't know if any of these are Upper or lower Moon-"

This effectively caught Tanjiro's attention who looked back at him, stopping for a moment, causing the others to stop as well.

"You are right and we never recieved a mission where four of us were sent." He said as he looked at Giyuu who despite noticing, ignored it.

He continued, "and five demons…they could be like Rui. Maybe a pretend-family demon group who slaughter together or they were sent in by specific orders to do group attacks like the ones in the past"

That doesn't explain why a hashira was asked to accompany us…does Ubayashiki-sama no longer fully trust us?

Tanjiro shook his head at the thought. Since when did he grow so much…. negative?

There was an awkward silence again since no one dared said anything.

"Perhaps we should proceed to the destination and its best we stick together for now" Giyuu deadpanned.

As everyone started to run to the direction of the destination they are assigned at, Tanjiro stopped for a second and noticed a slight but faint smell of some other presence other than themselves in the air but he couldn't exactly pin point it.

"Maybe some animal? It doesn't smell like a demon or blood."

"Oi Monjiro! You are getting behind!" Inosuke yelled as Tanjiro got shocked at how much distance they covered already.

"SORRY! I AM COMING!" Tanjiro said as he hurried back.

In the back of the forest, one yellow eye with slits for pupils, blinked as it watched the group getting far and more far and it slowly disappeared into thin air.

The eye then appears in the eye socket of a grimly dark and black figure in absolute darkness.

The eye opens its eyelids as it gleams in a faint yellow light, making it the only source of light in the darkness.

"The boy wearing the Hanafuda Earrings with green-black checkered haori arrived… finally…."

Thanks to the faint yellow light, the dark place soon shows to have 4 more small figures, on one knee, bowing as deathly, wide inhuman grins appear on their faces.

*The place dissolves to absolute darkness.*

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A/N: This Chapter might have a bit short-

But I hope it was enjoyable! Once again, I apologize incase I made any mistakes in spellings, grammar and stuff-

Please leave a review! Those are always encouraging :D

Thanks for your lovely comments for chapter 1! They really warmed my heart

Please leave a like if you liked the story!

See you all in the next chapter!