A/N: Hello there! Firstly I just wanted to say I appreciate all the reviews and kind words people have been posting. It really helps motivate me to write! I also wanted to take this opportunity to address some "frequently asked questions".
Firstly some people have asked if other demons will join the demon slayer team and unfortunately the answer is most likely "no". This is first and foremost Susamaru's story and I don't want to lose focus on that and I feel increasing the cast anymore would cause things to get messy. Additionally, I feel as though Susamaru was the best candidate for a redemption story; we as an audience never see her do anything particularly heinous which is why I think a lot of us remember her death as especially tragic. In the show we get to see most of the atrocities other demons commit and that's why we may feel sorry for them but we all know they need to die. This was not the case with Susamaru. It's implied she had done terrible things but we are never shown them which causes us to think of her as an "innocent" victim of Kibutsuji and that is why I find her to be a more compelling character to explore.
Secondly, others have asked for more romance between Tanjiro and Susamaru. I want to start this point off by saying I actually do like that pairing myself; however, I already have this story pretty much planned out to where the manga ends and I always intended this to be a story about friendship. Plus... I don't think I can write romance very well =w=;
Anyway! That's all from me for now! I hope you all enjoy this next installment!
When morning came after a night of games and revelry, the three slayers and their demon companions waited eagerly for word from the doctor on their condition. When he arrived the strange man declared them all to be fully healed and cleared them to return to their slayer duties. Not even an hour afterwards, Tanjiro's crow arrived to inform them of their next mission on Mt. Natagumo. The three prepared to head out quickly, with Tanjiro slinging Nezuko and Susamaru on his back. Zenitsu offered to carry Nezuko to help ease Tanjiro's burden but Tanjiro politely declined much to the demon's relief. With their sun sensitive friends and belongings packed away, Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke began to head out. Before they left; however, the kind elderly woman that looked after them wished them luck and gave words of encouragement. Her words were lost on Inosuke, who even tried to lash out at her when she lit some sparks to cleanse them. Susamaru still couldn't believe how little knowledge Inosuke had about the outside world. She sometimes wondered what it would be like to throw him into a big city like Tokyo to see how he would react.
As Susamaru thought about what it would be like to throw the strange boar man into the middle of a bustling city, Inosuke had begun asking questions about all the things the elder woman had said to them as he found them baffling. Susamaru couldn't believe what she was hearing. She knew he was a dense country kid but had no idea that he apparently knew nothing about any social interactions!
"Would explain why he's so weird tho…" Susamaru thought.
Tanjiro on the other hand was quite annoyed with Inosuke and began to increase his pace so that he could put distance between himself and the clueless boy. Of course this only had the effect of forcing the entire group to move faster as Inosuke saw it as a challenge while Zenitsu didn't want to get left behind. Even with their greater speed, it still took the group an entire day to get close to Mt. Natagumo. The sun had set already which allowed Susamaru to exit her container and travel alongside her human compatriots. Nezuko had decided to stay in her box for reasons unknown to anyone.
"Wait guys! Hold on a second!" Zenitsu shouted to the rest of the group.
"Why?! What's wrong?" Tanjiro asked.
"I'm really scared!"
"Are you serious?" Susamaru asked. She was still trying to figure out how this kid became a demon slayer. He always became a cry baby at the first sign of… well anything really.
"Don't you all sense the horrible presence coming from the mountain?!"
The rest of the group turned towards said mountain as Zenitsu continued to cry and fearfully point at it. The truth was that all of them could tell something scary lurked atop it; however… they were all much better at dealing with it than poor Zenitsu.
"Yeah there are demons up there… which is why we are here, right? What the fuck were you expecting?" Susamaru asked.
"He's creepy, right?" Inosuke pointed out as he observed Zenitsu sitting on the ground hugging his legs.
"Creepy?! I'm normal! All of you guys are the strange ones!"
"In some ways I'd say that's true," Susamaru admitted. "But still… what kind of 'normal' person signs up to slay demons?" she said as she scrunched her fingers as she said "normal".
Tanjiro was slightly amused by their bickering; unfortunately, his amusement would turn to concern as he caught whiff of something foul. He then proceeded to run towards the mountain with little warning to his comrades. Inosuke and Susamaru immediately turned towards him when they hear his footsteps and quickly scrambled to catch up to him while Zenitsu trailed behind once more. As the group ran over the hill they came across a bloodied young man laying in the road. He softly asked them for help as they approached but they were too late as he was quickly yanked back towards the forest by means unknown to the group. Zenitsu was now even more terrified than before and even the other three grew wary. Taniro managed to channel his fear towards anger and declared he was going to head inside; however, Inosuke, not wanting to be outdone, shoved Tanjiro out of the way and charged ahead with Tanjiro and Susamaru not far behind. Zenitsu was frozen in fear and before anyone really realized it, they had left him behind. The very thing he feared from the beginning.
As the now quartet forged ahead through the forest they came into contact with a variety of spider webs. They did not realize these were a prelude for what was to come and simply brushed it off as a strange occurrence. It was then that Tanjiro took a moment to thank Inosuke for going inside the forest with him. His genuine kindness left the other boy speechless just as he had been when he encountered the elderly woman at the wisteria mansion. Before he could ponder on Tanjiro's words; however, Tanjiro took notice of a fellow slayer ahead of them and went up to ask him about the situation status.
The slightly older boy in front of them was clearly scared beyond belief as he took no notice of the group even though two of them were demons. Tanjiro had to place his hand near the other boy's face to get his attention. He then introduced himself and declared his rank.
"My name is Tanjiro Kamado, rank Mizunoto. We're here to help."
"Mizunoto? Why would they send Mizunoto?! We need a Hashira up here! All the Mizunoto in the whole corps wouldn't stand a chan-" the boy said until he was punched in the face by Inosuke, much to Tanjiro and Susamaru's surprise. As the two of them tried to hold their friend back, Inosuke interrogated the other slayer and criticized him for his weakness. Under pressure from the strange boar-masked man, the slayer began to tell them that his comrades had turned against each and that he had no idea as to why.
"I… I… I…" the boy eventually froze up as he couldn't bring himself to finish his story. Susamaru decided she couldn't stand to have a second Zenitsu around and approached the boy to give him a good slap in the face. Both Tanjiro and Inosuke flinched from the smacking sound and even Inosuke thought the kid didn't deserve that and he had punched him in the face!
"You done peeing your pants?" Susamaru asked as the boy rubbed his now red cheek.
"Y-yeah…," the boy said. As he slowly regained his senses he suddenly realized something very disturbing… the young woman in front of him was a demon! "Wait! Shit! Stay back!" he said as he drew his sword.
"It's okay! She's with us! She's friendly!" Tanjiro said before the boy could strike at Susamaru. He was less worried about her and more for how badly she'd pummel the kid to defend herself.
"Yeah, you can relax. I don't eat people… anymore," Susamaru said. She wasn't sure why she added that last part to her sentence… she could have simply said she didn't eat people period; however, some part of her wanted to be completely honest and so she had blabbed that last part out.
"Anymore? Oh yeah that's real comforting! How the Hell am I supposed to believe that! I bet you have these other two under some kind of spell! Maybe you're the demon controlling the others!" the boy yelled before Inosuke headbutted him in the back. "Ouch! Damn it! I was right!"
"You really are a moron aren't you? If she was the one doing that then why wouldn't she just be eating you right now? You said the others were already killing each other, so why would she waste her time talking to you?" Inosuke shouted at the boy. Susamaru was surprised both that Inosuke would defend her and also that he had an intelligent deduction for once.
"So he is capable of being smart! He's just… not well educated…" Susamaru concluded in her head.
"Ow… I guess you're right… You two still didn't have to hit me so much," The boy said as he rubbed his back.
"Sorry about them. They can get very physical when trying to get a point across," Tanjiro said as he apologized on his friends' behalf.
"Yeah… still struggling with the whole, 'not being violent to humans' thing," Susamaru admitted as she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.
"I'm not sorry at all," Inosuke said plainly. "You're weak and need a good kick in the butt."
"Inosuke! Behave yourself! That's what the woman at the mansion was talking to you about!" Tanjiro said.
"What? Really? Hmm…" Inosuke said as he pondered on Tanjiro's words.
"These guys are really strange," the boy thought. "Anyway, I guess I can accept help from a demon… at this point I'm desperate enough for any assistance."
"It sure sounds like the situation is bad up here. Is there anything else you can tell us?" Tanjiro asked.
"Yeah… Every time someone would start attacking there was this horrible sound. I-I can't even begin to describe it but… you'll know when you hear it."
"Very helpful…" Susamaru said sarcastically. She would unfortunately have to eat her words though, as a creepy sound penetrated the fog of the mountain and surrounded the group. It was as if wires were being pulled to move a marionette and it only grew louder as time passed. Suddenly figures began to emerge from the darkness, all of whom had demon slayer uniforms on. They began attacking the group with no form or technique. Instead they mindlessly swung their swords as if they were undead. In actuality many were deceased and only a few were clinging to life and for the sake of respect, Tanjiro informed Susamaru and Inosuke to not harm any of them. Inosuke did not take this order well and headbutted Tanjiro for limiting his fighting capabilities. Susamaru was equally annoyed with the restriction.
"Why can't we fight back? They are attacking us and they are pretty much dead anyway!" she yelled as she dodged the various sword swings.
"Because we can't destroy the corpses of our comrades! They need a proper burial. If we can't save their lives then we at least owe them that for their sacrifice!" Tanjiro yelled as he too was forced to evade many slashes.
"Ugh… fine!" Susamaru relented and did her best to shove the slayers attacking her away instead of ripping them to pieces with her claws or temari. Eventually, Tanjiro discovered that threads were what allowed the demon nearby to control the humans and he instructed Inosuke to cut them. It seemed as if they had been victorious for the moment… until Tanjiro noticed spiders crawling on his arm. They had threads attached to them and soon Tanjiro felt his arm being yanked towards the trees.
"Tanjiro look out!" Susamaru yelled as she threw a temari at the threads. With her regained strength, she was able to put enough speed into the ball so that it shredded through the threads.
"Ah, thanks Susamaru! Watch out for the spiders! They are connecting these people to the demon!"
"So we just have to kill all of these spiders then?!" Inosuke said as he began stabbing spiders that crawled towards him.
"No! There's too many! We have to find the demon controlling them! But… I can't smell anything except that awful odor right now so if any of you have a way to locate the demon than please do so!"
Susamaru had also noticed the odor and as a result couldn't smell anything else at the moment either. She also thought the demon was out of range of her hearing as she didn't detect anything with her ears either.
"Sorry! I got nothing at the moment!" Susamaru said regrettably.
"What about you, uh?" Tanjiro asked the other slayer with them.
"Murata!" the boy said as he continued to fend off his former comrades. "I must also apologize, I don't have a way of locating it either!"
"Right," Tanjiro said. He was about to ask Inosuke; however, he was interrupted by the presence of a demon above them. The corpse puppets also ceased their assault so that the group could observe the demon. He was a pale boy standing atop the spider threads as if he were floating. His expression was uncaring as he looked down upon the three slayers and demon bellow him.
"Leave my family alone. We live a peaceful life here. Mother will kill you shortly if you don't leave," The boy demon said.
"Huh?" Susamaru said. She was surprised a demon would give them the option to leave peacefully. From personal experience she would have thought all demons would have gone straight for the kill so they could have a meal. She supposed she shouldn't use herself as an example for all other demons…
While Susamaru was thinking about the implications of the other demon's words, Inosuke decided to charge him; however, the boar man was unable to reach the demon so high up in the air and ended up plummeting onto his back. Susamaru couldn't help but chuckle as he landed.
"Shut up! Why did that guy even show up if he wasn't going to fight?" Inosuke said as he tried to regain some of his damaged pride.
"It doesn't matter! He's not the one controlling these people! Inosu-" Tanjiro yelled.
"Yeah, yeah I know! 'Find the demon.' I'll find it!" Inosuke said as he drove his swords into the ground and used his Seventh Boar Breathing technique to locate the demon attached to the fallen slayers. "Gotcha," he thought.
"Found it?" Tanjiro asked.
"Yeah! It's over there!" Inosuke said as he gestured with his sword towards where the demon was hiding.
"Really? Way to go Inosuke!"
"Yeah! Nice job!" Susamaru chimed in.
Inosuke was speechless yet again. He had never had so many people be nice to him in such a short span of time and he really didn't know how to handle it. Sadly, he didn't have time to really figure out how to handle it either as the controlled slayers kept up their assault.
"Crap! We still can't get through with these guys around though!" Inosuke said.
Suddenly Murata charged forward with a burst of speed that surprised the rest of the group. He blocked an attack for Tanjiro and declared he would hold them off while the others looked for the demon.
"What are you talking about, bed-wetter?" Inosuke asked.
"Shut up, you stupid boar! I have never pissed my pants and I was not talking to you!"
Susamaru was pretty sure Murata actually had earlier; however, she decided to keep that to herself. She was trying to use Tanjiro as an example of how to be a better person and she was pretty sure he wouldn't comment on someone else pissing their pants from fear. Still it was very difficult for her not to comment and she nearly had to actually bite her tongue to stop herself.
"I'm still a demon slayer! I know I wasn't being very brave earlier but… I can handle this!" Murata declared with determination. Tanjiro respected Murata pushing past his fear and even Susamaru was reminded of the time Zenitsu protected Nezuko even though he was terrified of demons and Inosuke. She was continuously surprised by how brave even the most cowardly of humans could be in situations like these and it made her feel even more guilty that she had accepted becoming a demon instead of facing death bravely like these people did on a constant basis. She had to stop her train of thought there though as Tanjiro grabbed Inosuke and began charging towards the demon all the while Inosuke resisted so he could get revenge on Murata for calling him a "stupid boar." Susamaru laughed as she ran alongside them. Inosuke told her to shut up as he continued ranting about how he was going to punch Murata in the face the next time they saw each other. This just made Susamaru laugh more while Tanjiro tried to get Inosuke to drop such detrimental ideas.
"Don't worry Inosuke, I'll hold him when we see him again so you can get a clean shot in," Susamaru said to cheer Inosuke up. Her plan worked as he perked up and even throug the boar's head, she could tell he was beaming at the thought.
"Susamaru! Don't encourage him!" Tanjiro pleaded with her.
"Why not? It's much more fun this way!" She declared. Tanjiro merely sighed and wondered how he could have gotten stuck with people like them. Still he wouldn't trade them for anyone else he supposed which was when he stopped dead in his tracks as a realization struck him.
"Huh? Tanjiro what's wrong?" Susamaru asked.
"Yeah what's the hold up? Did that bed-wetter Burata rub off on you, Manjiro?"
"My name is Tanjiro! And his is Murata! And no… I just realized we left Zenitsu behind!"
"…" Inosuke and Susamaru both paused as they reflected on Tanjiro's words.
"Oh well," Inosuke finally said as he turned to start charging at the demon once more.
"'Oh well?' What kind of answer is that?! He's our friend! We shouldn't have just left him!"
"Well… yeah… but there's not much we can do about it now right? Besides, he probably didn't even follow us in. He's probably just sitting outside the forest crying from how scared he is," Susamaru said.
"That's… probably true," Tanjiro admitted.
"See? So there's no problem! Let's go!" Inosuke declared as he began running again. The others kept pace with him but Tanjiro wasn't finished speaking.
"It was still wrong of us to leave him. Let's promise we will never do that again okay?!"
"Why would I bother doing something like that for someone?!" Inosuke said.
"So that they'll do the same for you!"
Susamaru looked at Tanjiro as he yelled that to Inosuke. She remembered him going back for her so she wouldn't be burned up in the sun and knew just how much he meant what he was saying.
"Inosuke, listen to Tanjiro. He's right, we should never leave our friends behind again," as she said that she looked dead into Inosuke's boar eyes so he would know how serious she was.
"Alright fine… we won't leave him next time," Inosuke said.
"I'm glad we can agree on that! Now let's find this demon!" Tanjiro said now in better spirits since he was finally getting through to his friends about how they should behave. Little did he know that in a few moments his raised spirits would be totally dashed...