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 lilies 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!
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.
At the beginning, Zenitsu had been whining about how he would die before he gets a chance at experiencing love and Inosuke calling him a cry baby and boasting he can go on and on in response 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 gourd vessel filled with 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 would not get lost in the wilderness anytime soon was because of the compass and map given by the Butterfly Mansion girls and Aoi respectively for the mission.
"Sorry for the delay, Tomioka-san, I got a little busy with a few papers in my office-" Shinobu arrives with a smile only to immediately notice him and the other three starting to pack up as if getting for a next mission.
Giyuu noticing her presence, nodded slightly at her.
Before she could ask what was going on, the Kasugai crow flying above them 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 "DON'T WASTE TIME!! KAW KAW!!!"
Though no one truly noticed it, the smile on Shinobu's face wavered for a second.
"Oh! You all are leaving for Mount Kumotori, hmm?" Shinobu asked politely with her ever present smile.
"Would you all please wait for me here? I'll be back within a few moments" Before anyone else could answer, she quickly trotted back into the mansion.
The others, although surprised by her actions, did as told and waited for her to come back.
As promised, Shinobu came back after a few minutes, carrying a gourd vessel in her hands. Aoi and the Butterfly Mansion girls; Kiyo, Sumi and Naho following her closely behind.
"Apologies for the short delay" said Shinobu as she handed a gourd vessel to Tomioka's hands.
She added, "This contains a medicine which should help the surviving villagers suffering from such a catatonic state and immediately cure them. Just a drop per person would do"
"Got it. Thank you Kocho" Giyuu responded.
"Tanjiro-san! Tanjiro-san!" Naho pulled at the said boy's haori to earn his attention. Kiyo and Sumi joining her in her endeavor.
"What is it?" Tanjiro asked as he bent down to their with a small smile.
"Please keep this compass with you" said Kiyo as she put a compass in palm.
"It will be useful for your journey since the Mountains are very far!" Sumi chimed in.
"Thank you all three of you!" Tanjiro patted their heads affectionately.
Aoi came forward and then handed him what seemed like a piece of paper.
"This is a map to the mountains. Heard it's quite far away and filled with twisty pathways from here. Don't want you getting lost with these two idiots, do we?" as she looked at Zenitsu and Inosuke directly to which the former immediately got startled and froze in shock while steam came out of the boar head's mask in anger, Tanjiro sweat dropped and laughed nervously witnessing the vastly contracting reactions of his two friends.
"Also" She got up and stared at the boar head, eye to eye and then suddenly turned her face away, raising the hand holding a small box of sort wrapped in clothing, right in front of Inosuke's face "You have a huge appetite and may get hungry on the way so have this as an extra."
The boar head quietly accepted the wrapped bento box, not saying a word as he quietly looked at the packed meal.
"Ehhhh?! Nothing for me?" Zenitsu whined in jealousy.
After a while, the four waved all of them a goodbye and started the journey.
"We are getting close to the mountain" Tanjiro announced. "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.
"It's 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 DAMMIT!!" He screamed.
Zenitsu, Giyuu and Tanjiro gave him tired looks.
"Oi Tanjiro…come to think of it, are any of the demons a former part of the Twelve Kizuki or maybe near the same power...?"
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...we never received a mission where four of us were sent." He said as the others looked at Giyuu who, despite noticing, ignored it.
The unsaid yet implied part about a Hashira being sent along with them to a mission could mean something dangerous awaited them being clear to all of them including Tomioka, who chose to not verbalize it like others.
Tanjirou 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 think we may fall in trouble and may not come back alive on our own?
He shook his head at the thought. Since when did he grow so much…. negative?
There was an awkward silence again since no one dared to say anything.
"Perhaps we should proceed to the destination and it's 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 pinpoint 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 have 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 as soon as it closed it's eyelid, it slowly disappeared into thin air.
The same eye then appears in the eye socket of a grimly dark and black figure in absolute darkness.
The eye opens it's 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 four more small figures, on one knee, bowing as deathly, wide inhuman grins appear on their faces.
The place dissolves to absolute darkness.
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 do leave a review! Those are always encouraging
Thanks for your lovely comments for chapter 1! They really warmed my heart :D
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See you all in the next chapter!
