The Sun slowly went up as we followed the crow's direction, illuminating the otherwise dark forest area near the mountains.

The symphony of the birds chirping relaxed the demon slayers quite a bit too, letting some idle chat take place as we moved towards our destination.

"Are you feeling alright, Miyasha-san?" Zenitsu kindly asked me as he hesitantly peeked at my face.

To be honest, I wasn't.
My head was aching due to my lack of sleep for last two days, the pain in my joints had somehow increased as well, not to mention that I was feeling very sleepy as the warm sunlight touched my skin.

But then again, they were no excuse for me to be rude to anyone, so I tried to give him my best smile and replied, "I'm just feeling a bit tired, Zenitsu-san. Nothing more, I assure you."

Tanjiro's eyes widened in realization, "Oh, I'm so sorry to make you travel with me without letting you rest, Miyasha-san..." he said apologetically as I waved him off.

"Don't be— I agreed to travel with you, so it was decision in the end. And my home is quite far away from the city, so I couldn't have rested either way." I softly replied, opening my bamboo bottle to take a sip of water, "And please do stop apologizing, dear. In the end, it was me who said yes, so, it wasn't your fault or anything."

"Ah, yes, Miyasha-san—" Tanjiro suddenly halted, making us turn to him in confusion. Upon seeing him discreetly sniffing, I understood what he was trying to do.

"What happened, Tanjiro?" Zenitsu eyed him unsurely, still not used to our company despite it already been a few hours after our meeting.

"We need to go this way." Tanjiro declared, moving towards an unused road among the forest trees. I followed him without hesitation, while Zenitsu reluctantly moved after us as he saw us leaving.

"A-Are you sure it is the right way...?"

"It is." I smiled back at him, slowing down slightly to let him walk beside me, "Trust me when I say that Tanjiro will never lead anyone astray."

Zenitsu hesitantly nodded, almost stumbling on a tree root before he caught himself.

"You okay? Did you hurt yourself somewhere? Is your—"

"I'm fine!" Zenitsu sheepishly answered, walking cautiously this time as we followed behind Tanjiro, "Thank you for worrying for me, Miyasha-san."

"Well," I started playfully, "You don't need to thank me for something I do almost every minute. It's almost like my job at this point." I smiled mischievously as I heard Zenitsu chuckle.

It was good hearing him chuckle— I really wanted him to be comfortable around us, especially around Tanjiro to be honest.


"Are we..." Zenitsu started after a few hours, looking unsurely around the thick forest we were in, "...there yet? Or are we lost—"

"We are not lost." I replied, focused on the concentrated demon aura I could feel at some distance away, "We are almost there, you can say."

"R-Really...?" Zenitsu asked unsurely, looking at both of us as none of us replied to him, "Hey, Tanjiro... On second thought, I'm not gonna make it. Even if I go along, I'm gonna be totally useless."

"That's not true, Zenitsu-san." I commented off-handedly as we walked nearer and nearer to the source of the demon auras.

'There must be more than one demon there...' I mused, trying my best to distinguish between the several demon auras, but to no avail. 'I'm still not experienced enough with all this to actually differentiate between the auras of unknown demons...'

Not to mention that there were so many of them. That spot held at least four demons, and that was three too many, if I was to speak from my experience.

'After all, Muzan didn't ever let any demon form any group together in fear that they may overthrow him.'

For such a strong creature, he oddly hated letting go of the power he had.

'Maybe it's more because of his fear of losing his life, than the actual power itself.' I frowned as I reflected on whatever I remembered about Muzan from my previous life, 'After all, he didn't even want to form more demons like him initially, but did so only to make them find that notorious blue spider lily—'

"There's a house there!" Tanjiro's voice cut off my thought process, making me blink at the old Japanese style mansion we were walking towards.

"This mansion is in such a remote area..." I mumbled to myself, looking around as we made our way out of the forest.

'Perfect place for a demon to house its territory, though.' I thought wryly as I inspected the mansion in front of me. This 'mansion' had old sliding doors— which was slightly opened ajar, closed and barricaded windows along with dirty blue tiles at its roof.

"I can smell blood," Tanjiro started, staring at the mansion just as I was, "But this particular scent..."

"Eh? You smell something?" Zenitsu asked in confusion, his eyes trailing back to Tanjiro for his answer.

"Something I've never smelled before."

'Is he talking about Marechi blood? Does he even know about it, yet?' I frowned at the thought, turning towards Tanjiro to ask about it when I suddenly noticed the siblings hiding behind the bushes to our right.

"I don't know about that, but do you hear that sound?" Zenitsu replied offhandedly as he cupped his right ear, "Also, are you and I gonna work together, after all?"

I silently moved back from my position, attracting both the boy's attention towards me as I slowly made my way to the scared siblings.

Unlike the anime though, they were hiding far behind the bushes near the trees— only their heads and parts of their kimonos were visible from where we stood.

"K-Kids..." Zenitsu mumbled as I passed him by.

The kids retreated more into the bushes as they noticed me approach, making me halt in my step. 'They are too scared for me to approach them... what can I do to calm them without scaring them further...?'

"Hello there..." I softly spoke, waving my hands gently in greeting as I bent down to their height, "I am Sarota Miyasha. I and my friends are here to help..."

I smiled gently at them, slowly stretching my hands out to show them that I meant no harm. Without a moment's notice, Zenitsu's sparrow flew down from somewhere, landing right on my outstretched hands as it enthusiastically chirped towards the kids.

"Cool, isn't it?" Tanjiro commented, directing a smile towards the siblings as he crouched beside me, "It's a tame sparrow!"

The sparrow jumped on my hand as it flapped its wings, chirping loudly as if proving Tanjiro's earlier statement.

"See?" Tanjiro asked as he gave them a closed-eyes smile, "Isn't he cute?"

"Chu!"

After a few seconds of silence, the children moved out of the bush slightly, looking at us with their brown teary eyes.

"It's okay, dear..." I smiled softly at them, "We are here to help. Please tell us what happened...?"

"Is this your house?" Tanjiro asked as well, making the older brother instantly deny it.

"No. No, it's not." He shook his head vigorously, "This... This is... A-A monster's... house." He sniffed loudly, hugging his little sister tightly as she whimpered, "Our big brother got taken away. When we were walking down the road at night, this monster we'd never seen before showed up. It didn't give us a glance. Just our brother."

"And they went inside that house, right?" Tanjiro asked gently, getting an affirmative nod from the elder sibling.

"Did you two follow them here?" I asked softly, "You two did great."

"We followed the traces of his blood... because he got hurt!" The elder sibling answered as tears streamed down his face.

"It's alright, dear, don't worry." I tried soothing them, slowly inching closer once I realized they didn't retreat away from me this time, "Your brother must be there inside the house. We'll soon retrieve him and then you all can go home together, okay?"

"Yes!" Tanjiro enthusiastically agreed, "We're going to defeat the bad guy and rescue your brother!"

"Really? You really will?" The hopefulness in the young girl's voice almost broke my heart— this pair of siblings were literal children... the elder brother was hardly over eight while the young girl still looked like she wasn't even seven.

"Yes. For sure!" Tanjiro promised, making the siblings cry harder as they hugged each other even tighter.

I gently patted their head, making them look at me with their watery gaze— their eyes were red around the edges as if they were crying for hours and their bodies still quivered as they continued to cry.

"Everything will be alright..." I smiled wistfully at them, "Tanjiro-san here will save your onii-chan, okay? You both were very brave to follow all the way through here. Now let us handle from here, yeah?"

They both looked at me intently, finally nodding after a few seconds as their shivers died down. I gently rubbed off the tears from their faces as they sniffled at my gentle touch.

Suddenly Tanjiro gasped, making me look back at him before a sickening sound of the injured man's body falling echoed through the yard.

I instantly blocked the horrifying view from the children, placing my back towards the body as I focused on the living.

'I-I... had forgotten about this...' I closed my eyes as I tried to stabilize my breathing, 'They are children... they-they didn't need to see all this... how cruel is this world to make such innocent souls suffer?'

"Don't look!" Tanjiro yelled from behind me, instantly moving towards the fallen man as I focused back on the children in front of me.

'Stop panicking, Miyasha. They need you right now.'

"Hey, it's okay, we are here... We'll handle all this, alright?" I soothed them as best as I could, slowly moving to hug them as they sniffled back into my warm embrace, "No one will hurt you while we are here, got it? You don't need to be scared."

The young girl whimpered in my arms; her body shivering vigorously as I tightened my arms around them.

'That man...' I tightly closed my eyes, '...would I have been able to save him if we arrived earlier?' I took in a deep breath, desperately trying to hold back my feeling of guilt, 'Would I have been able to save his life if I just had a little more time?'

No.
I couldn't. And I knew it.
But that didn't sooth the guilt encasing my mind.

'If only... I had little more time.'
Without a moment's notice, the ground started trembling, making the children hug me tighter. I ran my hands on top of their heads', soothing them as I tried to calm my own thoughts as well.

"Hey... little ones..." I softly whispered, "Was that your..."

"No," the elder brother replied, looking up at me with teary eyes, "I-It's not... Nii-chan's wearing a persimmon-coloured kimono."

"It's okay dear... I bet your bother is inside the mansion somewhere, bravely fighting off the monsters." I patted the young boy, "You siblings are the bravest ones I've ever met. I bet your parents must be so proud of you three."

"Hey," Tanjiro started, before I cut him off and replied, "No. It's not him. Their brother is wearing a persimmon-coloured kimono." I declared as I angled myself to look back at him without hurting my neck, "Go inside as soon as possible. Also take some bandages and medicine from me to treat any injured person you find there."

"Hai, Miyasha-san." Tanjiro replied gingerly, as he got up and jogged towards us. I slowly detached myself from the kids as I removed the satchel from my shoulder and opened it.

"Here," I handed him a roll of fresh bandages, "Take these and here's the medicine—"

"It's alright," Tanjiro interrupted me, pulling out a box of medicine of his own, "I have this medicine from my teacher. It soothes the pain and heals the wounds faster." He handed me the medicine to look at it once as I extended my hand towards him.

'Turmeric and herbs, huh?' I deduced as I rubbed a little of it in between my fingers. "Very well. Off you go then." I nodded to him, returning his medicinal box back to him. "Though, do you want me to... come with you?"

Tanjiro shook his head, removing the wooden box from his back, "No, Miyasha-san. You are hurt and haven't rested in a while. You can get more injured if you went with us. Zenitsu will come with me." He proclaimed confidently as he looked back at the blond demon slayer.

Zenitsu looked scared out of his wits— shivering uncontrollably as he shook his head vigorously in disagreement.

"But no one else can help them now, but you and me." Tanjiro frowned as he turned towards Zenitsu disapprovingly.

"Really? Alright, then." Tanjiro's voice dropped when he replied, his demeanour becoming darker than before. Zenitsu jumped at Tanjiro's disappointed face, instantly clinging to his waist as he yelled, "Hey, come on! Why are you making that ogre face at me? Okay, I'll go!"

'That face... wow.' I shook my head at their antics, wondering how powerful Tanjiro's influence is to make Zenitsu agree to go on a mission with him.

"I have no intention of forcing you to." Tanjiro muttered darkly, turning towards me as Zenitsu kept yelling that he will go with him.

"Miyasha-san," he looked towards me, softly pushing the wooden box in my direction, "In case of an emergency, I'm leaving this box behind."

"Tanjiro, you don't need to—"

"No, Miyasha-san," he shook his head, looking intently at me and the kids behind me, "You are injured. I don't want you to fight and injure yourself more, or worse. If something happens, you three will be protected with his box."

He smiled at me kindly, patting the box once as he got up. "Please take care of the box too... It's more precious to me than my own life."

"I will."

"Okay, we're going now." Tanjiro answered back soberly, moving towards the mansion with a determined face as Zenitsu followed unsurely.

"Be safe, you two." I yelled out to them, "And Zenitsu, I know you are stronger than you seem! Believe in yourself!"

I watched quietly as they entered the mansion. 'I really hope this all ends well...'

"O-Onee-chan!" I instantly focused back on the kids, noticing them inching towards me as they pointed at the wooden box Nezuko was in. I gently wrapped my arms around them, looking down at them confused as I asked what happened.

"We heard s-scratching sounds from inside that box!" The elder sibling replied, making me sheepishly look at them.

"Don't worry... It's nothing dangerous, I assure you." I calmly answered them, gently moving them a bit away from the box.

'Am I... forgetting something?' I asked myself internally as I took the bento out of my satchel.

"Are you two hungry...?" I asked absentmindedly as I gingerly searched for my bamboo bottle, "Or thirsty? You did say that you followed your nii-chan in the night here..."

'Where is the bloody bottle— OH, here it is!' I instantly grabbed my half-filled bottle, turning towards the siblings who looked surprised at me. "Is everything... alright?" I asked quizzically as both of them turned to stare at the bento in my hands, "I only have a few onigiri left with." I answered apologetically as I opened the box and handed it to them, "But I really want you both to have something in your stomach. It must have been hours since you two have eaten something, right?"

The siblings didn't answer me— they instantly started eating as soon as they saw the onigiri.

"Eat slowly, okay? I also have some water with me, so don't hesitate to ask for some if you need." I smiled wistfully at them as I noticed them nodding merrily at me as they happily ate.

'If only I could do something more for them...'


Ookay, here's the next chapter!

I'm so, so, so bloody sorry for its lateness! I had a research paper submission due this Friday and I had done jackshit on it— so I had to give up working on this chapter for a while and focus on the paper or else I would have gotten a big 0 on internship course.

Anyway! This chapter has mostly been like other filler chapters— Miyasha 'missed' on the action because, frankly, her place is somewhere else.

As I've made it clear before (or will do it more in future chapters), that she is mostly about 'protecting' rather than 'killing', and that is why she mostly is staying behind (that and her still healing injuries).

Don't worry, she'll be badass too, but that will be a little bit more into future chapters. Also, who said that doctors can't be badass too? ;)

Now, it's time to answer some reviews!

Einklley: True! She can be a bit awkward with Zenitsu at some points— the only reason she can handle him most of the times is because she had a younger sister in her previous life and she has experience in dealing with children. Though, there will be a lot of times where you'll see her just leave Tanjiro to handle with him :P Well, well, well, red district arc will be one of her turning points, not to mention that her overall character will be so much different by the time that arc comes. So, yeah, she'll be 'joining' them :) And I agree with you the 'calm before the storm part' xD Next arc is gonna be a bit shit storm that Miyasha is sure not gonna be ready for... and neither will be the hashiras :P And about the last part of your review— you all are too generous and kind to me TwT Currently, I don't have any ideas for Rengoku love interest plot, but I'll love to make one. Though, I'll need a complete new OC for that because Miyasha, in no way or form, is romantically compatible to Rengoku. Friendship wise? absolutely. Romantic? nope. And don't worry, I'm keeping my health tip-top! Your reviews make me healthy as well ;)

DemonicCountess: Aww, thank you so much! thank you so much for giving this fanfic a chance and I'm glad you liked it!

theGuy696: Arigato, 696-san UwU

Guest: I'm glad you liked it! And yes, there's gonna be many moments like that xD Tanjiro, after all, has the 'big-brother' syndrome and he definitely ain't gonna try not to protect her!

And that's all for this chapter! Thanks for reviewing and I hope you like this chapter as well!

Please review if you want to— I love reading from you guys, and honestly, it motivates me like no other :D

Stay safe and stay healthy!