Tanjiro was frantically running through the maze that was Kyogai's mansion. At first he had thought he would find Kiyoshi and Teruko quickly; however, his search was taking longer and it worried him. He also hadn't found Zenitsu or Shoichi yet either. He began calling out to Kiyoshi and Teruko in hopes that they would call back to him so he could follow their voices. Unfortunately neither were responding to his shouts. Susamaru thought that Tanjiro was overreacting; the demons had been defeated and there was no fresh blood to be smelled in the house so she wasn't particularly worried.

"Hey Tanjiro, you know they are probably fine right? You were calm and collected when we started looking for them. Why all the fuss now?" Susamaru asked.

"Yeah, they probably are… or at least I thought that until I remembered that weird guy is still here. He's not a demon but he sure had no problem hurting anyone in his way. I can't risk the kids being stepped on by him."

"Oh shit! I forgot about him!" Susamaru responded with understanding in her voice.

"Yeah, I did too at first. I don't smell him in the building at present but that doesn't mean he won't come back."

"Then you better hurry!"

"I'm trying… but this house is a maze! Why would anyone build it this way!"

"… to trap humans?"

"Oh… right… demon's house… makes sense now."

With that their conversation drifted into silence until Tanjiro began calling out to the children once more. Eventually he began opening all the doors he came across and his luck finally panned out when he stumbled upon the two children… who proceeded to throw books and other miscellaneous objects at him until one stuck him square in the forehead. Susamaru couldn't help but let out a tiny giggle as she heard the smack. After getting over his shock from the blow, Tanjiro began speaking to the children and verified that they were alright. He then picked up the injured Kiyoshi and had Teruko follow behind him. Susamaru was relieved that Kiyoshi's bleeding had stopped. She was now much less tempted to take a bit out of him and found she could relax in her basket… that is until both she and Tanjiro smelled blood emanating from outside the house.

Tanjiro froze for a brief moment. He couldn't believe someone else was hurt or worse; however, he composed himself and put on a brave face so that the children with him wouldn't be scared. He then decided to pick up his pace so he could find out what was wrong. As he and the children exited the mansion he was absolutely stunned by what he saw.

In the middle of the front yard was Zenitsu clutching Nezuko's box. Above him was the strange boar-headed man who was currently kicking the poor boy and demanding that he get out of the way. For his part, Zenitsu was stuck fast to the box and was bleeding significantly from his nose, mouth and the back of his head. His face was also badly bruised. When he and the boar man noticed Tanjiro, Zenitsu was allowed a brief reprieve to tell Tanjiro that he protected the box because it was precious to Tanjiro.

Tanjiro was still stunned at the scene. He couldn't believe how brave Zenitsu was being and how audacious the boar man was to continue trying to pulverize him. Susamaru was also shocked. She thought Zenitsu was a nearly irredeemable coward and yet here he was allowing himself to be beaten just to save something important to his friend. It made her want to leap out of her basket and save him in turn. Sadly she was not able to for they were now in the sun and as soon as she left the basket she would have been disintegrated… which would be rather unhelpful to all involved. Instead she elbowed Tanjiro in the back to snap him out of his trance so he could stop the boar man.

And snap out of his trance Tanjiro did. He set Kiyoshi down quickly and then flung himself at the man with all the fury that had welled within him. He positioned himself between the guy's two swords and delivered a punch that cracked the man's ribs. Zenitsu and Susamaru could both hear it and while the latter simply winced, Zenitsu reacted with his typical scared raving. Once the man was on the ground from the impact, Tanjiro began scolding him in a way that made even Susamaru a little fearful. Unfortunately, it seemed that Tanjiro's words had no weight on the man's conscious as he simply began giggling and declared that he would fight Tanjiro bare handed to not break the rules of the Demon Slayer Corps… even though that was still breaking the rules. The man then flung himself at Tanjiro, displaying acrobatic feats that should not have been possible for someone with broken ribs. Tanjiro was even having a difficult time keeping pace with the guy so he had to slid Susamaru's basket off of his shoulders to properly dodge the man's vicious onslaught. From inside said basket, Susamaru really wished she could watch their fight. It sounded intense and she wanted to watch Tanjiro kick this guy's ass.

Eventually the boar man managed to deliver a solid blow to Tanjiro causing the latter's nose to start bleeding. After that the boar man backed off so he could brag about his flexibility before springing into a flurry of attacks once more. Tanjiro decided he had enough of this crazy person's antics and grabbed him so that he could deliver a headbutt that sounded like a small car crash. Susamaru; having actually seen and heard such things was absolutely baffled by what had just transpired. Surely that was enough to kill them? They wouldn't have survived that! Her new friend had just killed himself! Zenitsu was likewise afraid for the duo as he thought their skulls had definitely fractured from the impact; however, Tanjiro was totally fine much to both of their relief.

The boar man stumbled backwards and his mask fell off from the impact. He was bleeding from his forehead but otherwise seemed alright… what was strange to Tanjiro and Zenitsu was the fact that he possessed a face that would have been more suited to woman and not the clearly young man before them. As the group shifted from fighting to conversing, Tanjiro even declared the man to have an attractive face. Susamaru was dying to see what the Hell they were talking about and also decided to not let Tanjiro live that comment down. Still the man wanted to keep fighting Tanjiro, who refused. As they spoke, the man introduced himself as Inosuke… and revealed he couldn't read or write… which Susamaru felt fit with the rest of the traits she had heard from this weirdo. Shortly after that, Inosuke collapsed from suffering a concussion from Tanjiro's headbutt.

With some peace now restored, Tanjiro and Zenitsu made sure Inosuke was comfortable as he rested and then began to work on giving those that died in Kyogai's house a proper burial. Susamaru could only listen as she sat in her basket growing bored. She eventually decided to take a nap since it was daytime anyway and she was still recovering from the injuries she sustained from Kibutsuji. Sometime after she fell asleep she was awoken by Inosuke's shouting as he demanded that Zenitsu and Tanjiro fight him once more. Luckily, Inosuke became confused by what the group was doing and stopped his advance to ask.

"Oh! We are burying all of those that died in the mansion. You help too!" Tanjiro said.

"Why?! What is the point of burying these creatures?!" Inosuke said.

Zenitsu just stood there confused that someone as crazy as this man could even exist. Susamaru unknowingly was thinking along the same lines. Tanjiro, the ever kind soul that he was, interpreted the situation very differently. He thought Inosuke was just too wounded to help and told the man it was okay for him to rest. This greatly agitated Inosuke and caused Zenitsu and Susamaru to now question Tanjiro's sanity.

"How the Hell? Tanjiro what are you thinking? The dude is just crazy!" Susamaru thought.

Still, Tanjiro's words motivated Inosuke to help bury all of Kyogai's victims and they all finished before sunset. As Tanjiro, Zenitsu and the children prayed, Inosuke instead chose to batter his head against the tree for reasons unknown. Susamaru also wanted to say a prayer for the dead but refrained for fear that it was inappropriate given she was a demon. Eventually the group wrapped up the burial as Tanjiro's crow announced that the group of slayers was to descent the mountain and head to a place to rest and heal. They parted ways with the children after the crow gave Kiyoshi some wisteria to keep demons away. Said flowers made Susamaru nauseous as they smelled terrible to her. Additionally, Zenitsu had to be knocked unconsious so that he wouldn't try to force one of the children to come with them to protect him. With the slayers now on their own, they began to follow Tanjiro's crow to their next destination… all the while Inosuke continuously tried to get Tanjiro to fight him once more. Susamaru groaned as she just wanted him to shut up but there was still some sunlight left so she couldn't reveal herself to yell at him.

After much arguing between the two slayers, and Zenitsu once he woke up, the trio of slayers and their demon companions arrived at the wisteria family mansion. Once there, they were allowed inside by a kind elderly woman and the slayers were given fresh clothes and meals to help them relax. Zenitsu, of course, was frightened by her as she was inhumanly fast at preparing everything for them. In contrast, Tanjiro and Inosuke just accepted this reality and the former began scolding Zenitsu for being rude. As they ate their meal, Inosuke began stealing some of Tanjiro's food to instigate a fight again; however, Tanjiro was happy to allow Inosuke to take his food much to the boar man's irritation. As the night progressed the three of them discovered they all had broken ribs and began to rest in their new beds. As they did so, they took the time to get to know each other which inevitably led to Zenitsu asking a question that had been bothering him ever since he met Tanjiro.

"Since no one else is asking… I'll go ahead and do so. Tanjiro, why are you traveling with demons?"

Inosuke sat in silence as he too awaited the other boy's answer. Zentisu's question brought a smile to Tanjiro's face as he sat up to address the blond boy. Instead of answering, Tanjiro took the moment to compliment Zenitsu for his kindness in regards to protecting Nezuko even though she was a demon. Their conversation ended when Nezuko's box began to shake. Susamaru was surprised Nezuko would want to reveal herself to a couple of slayers that weren't her brother. Zenitsu naturally began to panic as Nezuko's box vibrated and eventually opened. Zenitsu tried to run to Inosuke for protection only to be kicked right in front of the box and Susamaru's basket. Susamaru took that opportunity to remove the lid of her container so that she could introduce herself at the same time as Nezuko. Once both demons had a single hand out of their containers, Zenitsu bolted to the other side of the room terrified until the duo fully revealed themselves.

"Hello," Susamaru said as she stood up from her basket and Nezuko crawled out of her box.

"Nezuko! Susamaru!" Tanjiro greeted them. He then attempted to introduce them to Zenitsu… who gave off a murderous aura all of a sudden. "Z-Zenitsu?" Tanjiro asked before Zenitsu began ranting about how he didn't take all of his injuries just so Tanjiro could get cozy with two pretty girls. Tanjiro attempted to explain that wasn't the case but Zenitsu didn't give him the chance as he kept ranting. He even drew his sword to try to exact revenge against Tanjiro right then and there. Susamaru had enough of the yelling at this point and approached Zenitsu. She quickly yanked his sword out of his hand with one hand and picked him up by his collar with the other. Zenitsu's bravado quickly faltered as he now realized he was literally in the hands of demon and had been disarmed like it was nothing.

"Are you done now?" Susamaru asked.

"Uh… huh," Zenitsu said as he began crying a little from fear.

"… you really need to get a grip… are you sure you can hunt demons?" she asked as she let go of his collar and he dropped to the floor.

"I can smell that he's strong Susa," Tanjiro said as he got between the two of them. "Anyway, as I was trying to say. Nezuko is my sister and Susamaru is my friend. They help me on my missions and they don't eat people."

"S-sister? F-friend?" Zenitsu asked.

"Yes, Nezuko's my baby sister!" Tanjiro said as he beamed with pride over Nezuko. "And Susamaru is a new friend of mine. We met about a day before I met you."

"Is that so?" Zenitsu's tune quickly changed as he became giddy at the thought that Nezuko and Susamaru were both on the market so to speak. He fluttered over to them and got right in their faces. "Nezuko-chan! Susamaru-chan!" Both demons began to feel very uncomfortable all of a sudden and Nezuko even began to start hopping away. Susamaru held her hands up to put distance between them and then was struck with an idea. She barred her fangs and extended her extra arms. This sufficiently creeped Zenitsu out enough to get him to back off. This was great for Susamaru but unfortunately, this forced Zenitsu's attention to be entirely diverted towards Nezuko.

"Whoops… sorry Nezuko," Susamaru said as she watched Zenitsu chase Nezuko around the room. This continued until the humans of the group were too tired and fell asleep. In the morning, Inosuke went outside for some fresh air while Zenitsu began chasing Nezuko once more. Tanjiro finally had had enough and tried to stop Zenitsu only to be chased in addition. Zenitsu thought if he could get close to Tanjiro then he could get close to Nezuko and so the chasing continued while Susamaru watched from a corner of the room. "Humans are so weird…" Susamaru thought as she remained baffled at the display before her.

After a few minutes of being chased, Inosuke entered the room without warning and smashed his head into Tanjiro's back, shocking Susamaru, Nezuko and Zenitsu. Inosuke then began chasing Tanjiro with Zenitsu following close behind as Nezuko walked over to Susamaru and stood behind her to put distance between herself and the insanity. Eventually, Susamaru decided to help Tanjiro by grabbing Inosuke and Zenitsu by the heads and clacking them together. The two immediately fell unconscious.

"S-Susamaru!" Tanjiro said as he watched both of them slump to the floor.

"Oops…" Susamaru said as she put a hand to her mouth. She hadn't realized how much of her strength had returned and instead of just giving them both a knot on the head… she knocked them out cold.

"I appreciate the assistance but you can't go around giving people concussions!"

"I know! I didn't mean to!" Susamaru pleaded with two little tears in her eyes. She was purposefully overreacting a little so Tanjiro wouldn't stay mad at her. Her plan worked as Tanjiro eased off and patted her on the head.

Eventually, Zenitsu and Inosuke recovered and woke up. The doctor that diagnosed their health conditions returned and urged them to continue resting. For several days the demon slayers and their demon companions were forced to stay inside and wait for the humans among them to heal. In that time, Tanjiro gave Susamaru some of his blood for the first time. To her it was much sweeter than other blood she had tasted and she determined it was because of his kind personality. Zenitsu watched with horror as Tanjiro donated to her and Inosuke was just confused as usual by Tanjiro's behavior. At some point the group became very bored. As relaxing as the place was… there wasn't much to do that was exciting.

One day, Inosuke began snarling from his laying position, "dammit! I want to fight something not just sit here and do nothing!"

"I sorta know what you mean… after fighting demons for days it's hard to just sit still," Tanjiro said.

"I am okay with laying here. It means I am safe and won't get eaten by demons," Zenitsu responded.

"You mean as long as the two with us keep deciding not to eat you," Inosuke joked.

"Hey! I am not gonna eat any of you… but I would eat Zenitsu first if I was going to," Susamaru said as she played into Inosuke's teasing while she was searching the various closets within the room they were staying in. Zenitsu gulped in fear as Inosuke began chuckling.

"Susa! That's not nice!" Tanjiro scolded.

"I'm only kidding! Mostly…" she said with a snicker. "Oh! I found something we can do!" she said as she pulled out a shogi board and some karuta cards. Tanjiro and Zenitsu both perked up when they saw the games while Inosuke just looked at them baffled.

"What the Hell do you do with those?" the boar slayer asked.

"You've never played board games before?" Susamaru replied.

"Nope! Been living on a mountain with nobody around my whole life!"

"Well then I'll teach you how to play!" Susamaru said with a smile.

"Why would I wanna learn something like that?"

"So that you won't be bored just sitting there?" Susamaru offered.

Inosuke contemplated her offer for a few minutes before deciding to try the games out… although teaching him how to play would be a much more daunting task than Susamaru thought. It took two hours to teach him how to play shogi and another three to get him to understand karuta. Eventually, the group managed to actually start playing. Inosuke lost every single game against Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Susamaru that he played which frustrated him greatly, while Tanjiro would win against him and Zenitsu but typically lost to Susamaru. Zenitsu also became frustrated that he was losing against a country bumpkin like Tanjiro; however, he was absolutely humiliated when Nezuko joined in and beat him at karuta. Tanjiro and Susamaru were both very proud of the small demon and patted her on the head while praising her. Inosuke also lost at shogi and karuta to Nezuko, while Zenitsu redeemed himself at shogi against her. The group managed to share many laughs together as the day progressed into night.

Susamaru was extremely satisfied with the days events. She was the undisputed karuta champion and nearly undefeated in shogi (Tanjiro managed to pull off a couple wins against her towards the end of the day). More importantly, she made some new human friends and that meant the world to her. It seemed like she was finally getting the hang of this whole, "good demon" thing; however, what she did not know was that the next night would be her first real test.