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themainreactor · 11 months ago

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“The Embodiment Of Luck Is Quite Stiff To Be Lucky, Don’t You Think?”

In which, the group's knight in shining armor has arrived… In the form of a rather uptight and quiet samurai. Though you have potential and you're strong, you're not really used to being around such chaotic people in your everyday life. Maybe this little mission would help you find out more about yourself, you needed a life and some friends anyway.

Tanjiro couldn't stop smiling, even with the chaos at the moment. Whether from his injuries or the two and a half year quest of finding the demon responsible for his family's death, he felt that there would finally be progress.

It was great news that a samurai would be joining this sudden group of people that kinda just grouped up for no reason, after all, samurai were very strong and disciplined people. The older woman was seeing a lot of pain and bad luck in the future, so she sent word for a lucky acquaintance she knew, aka, the samurai.

At the moment, Tanjiro was just standing in the doorway, Inosuke was trying to shove his boar mask onto Zenitsu to get some sort of scared reaction, all the while, Nezuko just ran around the two of them. Inosuke's laugh was a borderline sneeze, Zenitsu didn't have to scream so loud and Nezuko didn't have to run around and cause more trouble. Tanjiro swears they were all asleep when the older woman called him to talk about the samurai.

"Hey guys, that's enough." Tanjiro states as he grabs Zenitsu by the collar of his shirt to drag him back into his bed.

"Whatever! He needs to learn to stop screaming!" Inosuke responds with another laugh as he shoves his boar mask back onto his head. Tanjiro only sighs as Zenitsu starts yelling in protest to Inosuke.

"Oh by the way you two, someone will be joining us." He continues as he stares at the two fighting companions. Both Inosuke and Zenitsu just continue on bickering and Tanjiro looks at his sister who has already retreated back into her box with a quiet sigh.

"Someone will be joining us... On our missions?" He continues, staring at the two with an almost sarcastic smile... He was gonna lose his shit.

"You two! Let me say something!"

"Why are you yelling?!" Zenitsu almost screams out, startled by the sudden change of Tanjiro's voice.

"Because I'm trying to talk to you guys."

"... Oh... Well, what is it?"

"We're getting someone new in our group." Tanjiro smiles again at the thought of a new companion and possible friend, though you can't blame him, he had never met a samurai before.

The reactions that he earned from Zenitsu and Inosuke scared him. Zenitsu gains an almost rictus smile and Inosuke starts cackling and rolling around.

"Are we stealing them!?" Inosuke yells, pulling off his boar mask and somehow jumping off of the ground bed and onto the wooden floor.

"New or used?" Zenitsu asks, his smile getting a bit bigger as he also stands up.

Clearly they were both excited, which was a good thing but Tanjiro was baffled. What type of questions were those? And why were they being asked? New or used? Stealing them? What did it even mean?! He couldn't even respond as he pushed the palm of his hand into his forehead, then began looking up with a confused face as if he was asking the ceiling for help.

"Great... Wonderful responses, both of you." Tanjiro sighed out, clearly being sarcastic as he finally decided to lay down and go to bed.

So that's how you showed up the next week, being called from an important mission to do a 'favor' for that old lady in your old neighborhood... How... Interesting.

"Uh... I'm... "

You started, looking upon the elder woman with concern in your face. Why was this being asked of you? You didn't even know what a demon slayer was until just right now when the woman told you.

"Come again?" Y/N asks the woman, gaining a pleasant smile from her.

"I want you to join these three demon slayers, as a way to ward off bad luck. Plus, it will do you some good." The woman responded with a smile, her eyes closed as she lightly took your hand in hers.

"Lucky things happen to me, yes, however I don't think that means I will ward off demons or somehow bring good luck to the others-"

"Well how do you know that? It will be a favor for me if you join them."

"I'm sure but I may just slow them down, I don't know how to kill demons."

"I'm sure, but fear not the obstacles in your path, I believe that joining them will bring them peace and bring you some clarity."

You sighed, slightly annoyed with the request of this lady. She seemed so persistent but you knew that you would listen to her anyway since you had always learned to respect your elders and her being such a kind lady was also a bonus.

"Just meet them before you say no... Okay? As a favor for me." The woman interrupts, letting go of your hand before walking off, expecting you to follow.

"Alright then."

You followed her as she stood in front of the three that were arguing about something. One had some sort of scar on his face and he was carrying a box on his back, that one was probably Tanjiro like the woman told you. Another one had yellow hair, that was probably Zenitsu and one was shirtless with a boar mask which was probably Inosuke.

Once the woman got their attention, they all looked at you as if they were analyzing. They thought you looked like you would kill them if they did something you deemed outta pocket. Something you weren't expecting was for the one with the boar mask to suddenly try to attack you, which made you refrain snapping his throat as a first instinct.

"FIGHT ME!" He yelled, swinging at you as you dodged, Tanjiro and Zenitsu tried to catch him before he actually harmed you but it wasn't really working.

"Stop it! That's not okay! They're here to help!" Zenitsu screams out, getting scared when Inosuke lands a punch directly to your stomach. You had a strong core though so it was all good.

"Inosuke you're making us look bad! I'm so sorry!" Tanjiro apologizes as he finally grabs onto Inosuke, only for him do a flip out of Tanjiro's grasp.

You just decide to restrain Inosuke, catching his other punch as he runs back up to you and grabbing both of his arms to pull them behind his back. Of course, Inosuke thrashed around and protested, but he couldn't get out of your grasp which made Zenitsu a bit nervous to even introduce himself to you.

You knew that joining this group of people would probably make the old lady happy but you still felt like this was a very bad idea.

"Well... Will you be joining them?" The woman asked with the purest smile in the world, still putting you on the spot. You didn't answer for a bit as you finally let go of Inosuke.

Guess you were doing a side mission.

"... Yes, I will go with them."

"Good."

Tanjiro smiled, not able to contain his excitement while Zenitsu sighed in relief. Inosuke just sulked like a child since you were a lot stronger than he anticipated.

"Well, were heading out then... Thank you for everything." Tanjiro commented, bowing his head in a polite manner to the elder woman along with Zenitsu. Inosuke however didn't do so, until you forced his head down with your hand and bowed your own head.

"Hey! Let me go!" He yelled, trying to grab onto your hand and push it away but to no avail.

"I'll bestow good luck upon you." The woman commented, ignoring the thrashing from the demon slayer next to you.

"We appreciate it." Tanjiro states, making you raise an eyebrow. He seemed to be very thankful for everything, his parents must have raised him well. As the three of you turn around, the woman does her thing and freaks out Inosuke in the process.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

You were gonna knock him out if he didn't stop.

"AHH! STOP THAT YOU IDIOT!" Zenitsu yells, getting in front of the woman while Tanjiro and you grab a hold of Inoskue.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?" Inosuke yells, making you sigh as he thrashes around some more.

"It's ceremonial! Were going on a journey! And making sparks is for luck!"

Tanjiro was surprised when you threw Inosuke over your shoulder so that the four of you could leave. Though he appreciated it to some extent.

"Let Go Of Me!"

"Oh quiet." Zenitsu mutters out.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!? AND IT DOESN"T EVEN MATTER! PUT ME DOWN!"

"Inosuke, you deserve it!" Tanjiro yells as he walks alongside you and Zenitsu. The three of you walk out of the courtyard and you decide to place Inosuke down, ignoring the growling that his covered face was emitting. The woman follows behind and you wonder if this is really a good idea or not.

"Always live your lives in a fashion where you are able to hold your heads up high. I wish you luck in battle."

Huh, you remember the first time she said that to you when you left this place to be an apprentice a few years back. Maybe it was a sign that you were going to be gone for a while. You watch as the three start running off, you give the old lady another bow of your head before running off with them.

...

"So... Name's Zenitsu Agatsuma."

"Inosuke Hashibira! And don't you forget it!"

"My name is Tanjiro Kamado, what's your name?"

"Y/N L/N."

As the four of you run, engaging in small talk, the only thing you can think of is how slow they were running. If this was the next generation of the so called demon slayers, everyone was screwed.

"Heads up high? Luck in battle? What does that mean?" Inosuke asks to no one in particular.

"To be honest it is a bit difficult to explain. To hold your head high... I guess it means whatever hand you're given in this life, you're able to conduct yourself in a way that's honorable so that you're never ashamed."

Well, too late for that, you were always ashamed, even for other people.

"And wishing us luck in battle just means that she's praying for our safety." Tanjiro adds on, smiling as he looks back at Inosuke.

"Well, what about the hand you're given? We have two already, why should we be ashamed?"

That... Was actually a really good point.

""Well I guess-"

"What does it mean to conduct yourself honorably anyway? Why is that old hag praying for our safety in the first place?"

Old hag... This dude was wild. Literally. All you did was stare at Inosuke with a critical expression before looking at Tanjiro as if to silently ask him whether or not the boar was always like this.

"She has nothing to do with us! So what's her game huh!? Maybe she should worry about her own hand!"

You were goons give Inosuke a beat down sooner or later. Suddenly Tanjiro sped up, going past you in an effort to do... Something. You didn't really know.

"Is this a race!? I won't let you win!" Inosuke yells as he runs past Zenitzu.

"Wait for us you guys!" Zenitzu yells as he tries to catch up with them, you running just as fast as him so he didn't feel alone. Man this was chaos at it's finest wasn't it? You were actually kind of enjoying it.

"Does everyone act like this?" You ask with a small smile, gaining Zenitsu's attention briefly before he focuses on catching up.

"Yeah! Reckless too!"

...

"Do you like being a Samurai?" Tanjiro asks, wanting to make sure you didn't feel left out. You were so calm and quiet that he could almost forget you were there.

"Um... I don't know." You reply, furrowing your eyebrows in thought since you had never had someone ask you a question like that.

"What do you mean by that?" Zenitsu asks, confused by the strange response. How would you not know whether you liked being a Samurai or not?

"I mean just that, I don't know. I haven't thought about it... I don't like it nor do I dislike it... So I guess It's just something I am."

A dull response, Tanjiro could smell a scent of confusion, as if being asked that question was something foreign to you. Tanjiro didn't like it, it made him feel almost sad but it also made him feel like it was a good decision that you came. That way he could be a companion that you could talk to if you needed it.

"Well I don't care! I just want to know how strong you are! Cause I'm the king of the mountain so called samurai! And whatever you do, I can do too! Fight me!" Inosuke yells.

"I will not fight you Inosuke."

"Yes you will! Manjiro! Tell the samurai to fight me!"

"That's not my name Inosuke! And you need to stop!"

"Everyone, we need to pause here!" Zenitsu suddenly yells, gaining your attention. He looked so serious for some reason, but he must have had some sort of skill in doing so. Because how serious can you really look when you're sitting in a fetal position on the ground?

"Zenitsu, what's wrong?" Tanjiro asks.

"I'm nervous okay?! Now that we're nearing our destination, I'm getting scared!"

"Why the hell is he sitting like that?" Inosuke asks you, placing his hands on his hips.

"I have no clue." You reply, scratching the back of your head in thought.

"It's pretty weird if you ask me." Inosuke states in a surprisingly calm manner.

"Well... Nobody asked you did they?" You comment, turning to face the boar masked guy with a small smile and gaining a growl from him.

"WHO ARE YOU TO TALK TO ME ABOUT WEIRD!? You can't tell me you're not getting any spooky vibes from that mountain?!" Zenitsu yells out in a distraught manner, confusing you as to why he was a demon slayer when he wasn't mentally prepared for going up a slightly spooky mountain.

"Well... If it is spooky... I guess we'll just have be careful." You start, turning back to Zenitsu with an unbothered expression.

"Even so, we can't exactly just wait here."

"I told you this guy was an odd duck."

"I AM NOT AN ODD DUCK! I"M COMPLETELY NORMAL! IT'S YOU GUYS THAT ARE THE STRANGE ONES!"

"I'm hungry."

You said that out loud didn't you? And now Tanjiro and Zenitsu were staring at you like you were the weird one. Tanjiro turned his attention back to the mountain with an unreadable expression. It made you a bit concerned that he seemed so stressed out about the said mountain that was making Zenitsu cry.

"Tanjiro, Is there something wrong?" Zenitsu asks, not moving from his spot in any way.

"What is this smell?" Tanjiro asks to himself before booking it, running off to get closer to the mountain. Smell? What smell? This had to be the most dysfunctional group of people you had ever been with.

"Tanjiro! Hey! Wait up! Don't leave me here by myself! Who knows what'll happen!" Zenitsu cries out, still not making any move whatsoever to get up. Until of course you grab his hand and drag him along with you and the rest. When everyone does stop, it's because there is what appears to be another injured demon slayer in front.

"Are you okay?" You ask the person, slowly walking up to him to make sure you didn't scare him.

"Help me... Please help me."

"Are you alright!? What happened?" Tanjiro questions as he runs behind you to the boy. For some reason, you had this feeling, like Zenitsu was right about the mountain.

"Don't worry, we'll help you." You reply, lightly grabbing his shoulder before something seemed to pull him and throw him back towards the mountain.

"AH! THEY WERE ATTACHED TO ME TOO! PLEASE DON'T LET ME DIE HERE!!"

You were startled to say the least, you had never seen anything like this in anything you've ever done.

"I'm going in."

"Um... Come again?" You quietly asked Tanjiro as if he was crazy, looking at him with a confused expression.

"I'll hit it first."

"You'll hit what first?" You question Inosuke as you stand up, still not getting an answer from anyone.

"You stay behind me, trembling like a scared little animal. This is making me hungry."

Ah, so there was more than just you here that was hungry, good, you felt less strange.

"Why's he such a showoff?" Zenitsu asked, turning his attention towards you.

"I have no clue."

"HAHAHAHAHA! LET'S GO!"

As Tanjiro and Inosuke started running off, you started off to follow them only to realize that you had left Zenitsu behind. You run back to grab him just noticing how scared he was. It would be a miracle if he could even stand with how much he was shaking. So you just take a seat next to him and wait for him to stop. Tanjiro and Inosuke could wait.

"Don't worry, I'll stay with you until you're ready to go. We'll catch up with them."

"... O-okay."

And for quite some tims, the two of you just stayed there, gazing upon the mountain. Although, you were a bit annoyed since it was taking too long and you wanted to help the others.

"I know I said I'd stay, but you're wallowing in self pity and it won't help you y'know."

"W-what!? Why are you even saying that?! I didn't say anything!"

"You didn't have to say anything."

You turn your head away from Zenitsu and look at the mountain again. There was an urge in you, telling you to run away but you wanted to help however you possibly could. Suddenly there was some chirping and you turned around to see a small little brown bird, chirping right next to Zenistu.

"Cute, maybe it's a sign that we'll be safe." You start, smiling at Zenitsu only to earn a shake of his head as he picked up the bird.

"You don't have a care in the world do you? All our human problems, you have no idea." He talks to the bird, as if it can understand him in some way. Apparently the bird took that personal as it made the decision to snap at Zenitsu's hand which caused Zenitsu to yell out in pain.

"You think you're being cute right now!? Well you're really not! I don't like this side of you one tiny bit!" Zenitsu yells, crying at the same time. You guess Zenitsu and this bird knew each other personally. Slowly you grab the flying bird, lightly petting it's head so that it would be less irritated before giving it to Zenitsu.

"Why can't you take some notes from Nezuko huh!? She's adorable and she's a demon!"

You listened to the conversation, faintly remembering that there was in fact a demon sister in Tanjiro's box, hopefully that wouldn't be a problem. But you and Zenitsu would have to leave soon so that you could help them. You would be angry with yourself if they died because you stayed behind.

"AHHH!"

"Ahh what?" You asked him, slightly surprised at the scream he let out.

"I just realized that he took Nezuko with him!"

"... I'm... Sorry?"

"Oh no! My Nezuko!"

And with that, Zenitsu almost immediately takes off running towards the mountain, yelling about the demon while freaking you out even more. Wasn't he just crying because he didn't want to go up the mountain?

"What is wrong with you? You're running into a godforsaken forest on a mountain for a girl?!" You yell out to him, running right after him with a frustrated expression clearly etched on your face. At least this was one way to get him with everyone else. So with that, you and Zenitsu ran up the mountain for a while, taking way too long as Zenitsu had to stop and catch his breath from time to time.

"N-n-nezu-ko, W-where are you?"

"Are you serious?" You ask him, gaining a weirded out expression with how he was acting. He was acting like the demon wouldn't be able to protect herself and somehow this scared demon slayer was going to save her? Like, how? That's when Zenitsu just falls to the ground and starts crying, whining about Nezuko and the rest of his friends. Honestly, it made you and your so called good luck kinda useless.

You felt something prick the back of your neck and immediately you smacked at it, moving your hand to see that it was a small spider. That was annoying and it didn't look like any normal species. The small sparrow lands on top of Zenitsu, you barely paying attention to the conversation he was having with the bird since the two of you might die. Finally Zenitsu stands up once you lightly grab his hand, only to shriek when a group of birds all fly away at once.

"What... Was that?"

"I don't know Zenitsu... But we'll be okay."

"Y'know this is starting to make me really mad. We're gonna find Nezuko and say goodbye to this creepy forest."

"... Okay." You yawn out, slowly following him while still keeping an eye out for whatever might happen.

"Ouch!"

"What is it?"

"Something pricked me!"

"Oh... Me too actually, What was it? Was it a spide-"

"We can't find Tanjiro or Inosuke anywhere! Where did they go!? Great! Now what?! Something really stinks around here too! Gross!"

"You didn't answer my question, was-"

"I think I'm gonna cry and the sound of these spiders running around is creepy! I'm sure their just doing their best to survive the same as me but still!"

"Why are you complaining so much? This-"

"BE QUIET! STOP MOVING AROUND!" Zenitsu yells, turning around when he hears some shuffling. As soon as you turn around also and lay eyes on a spider with a bald human head, you decided that you may be done with life itself.

"WHAT AM I EVEN LOOKING AT?!" Zenitsu yells, grabbing onto the back of your collar and trying to run away from it. Who knows, maybe it was a new species?

"WHY DID THAT SPIDER HAVE A HUMAN FACE ON IT?! WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!? WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

"I don't know Zenitsu, don't worry, we'll be fin-"

"PLEASE BE A DREAM! PLEASE BE A DREAM! PLEASE BE A DREAM! IF I WAKE UP RIGHT NOW I PROMISE TO WORK HARDER!! IF I WAKE-"

Zenitsu was clearly having and existential crisis at the moment and all you could do was run, grabbing his hand so he would follow you. You finally stop running, realizing that you and Zenitsu chose the wrong place to run into. Right in front of you, it was literally a spiderweb, with strange looking people stuck to it and a house hung up in the air.

"AHHH!"

You wanted to yell at Zenitsu to stop screaming but you can't, especially when you see a much bigger spider who no doubt made the spiderweb with the floating house and all the people. In fact, it was huge, almost six times the size of the one that you saw on the floor that Zenitsu was screaming at. This was some scandalous mischief that was taking place, and you wanted no part of it whatsoever.

"You better not start talking to us! I don't want to hear it from you!" Zenitsu yells at the spider demon, his little bird hiding in his yellow haori. Almost immediately after that he runs away, deciding that he wasn't going to try and bring you with him. You were the samurai after all.

"Where are you going Zenitsu?"

"There's no point in running away! You've already lost the bat-"

"Shut up, no one was talking to you" You blatantly remark, quickly running towards it to behead the spider before catching up to Zenitsu. However, you didn't have a nirichin sword which would definitely be a problem, you had to remember, you weren't a demon slayer so you had to be careful, it was uncharted territory.

"I told you I don't want you talking to us! I don't want to hear it so stop talking! You give me the creeps alright?!"

"Don't run off like that Zenitsu, we're a team."

"I know! I'm just scared Y/N!"

You turn around to see that the head of the spider demon had already grown most of his body back, laughing as he starts monologuing about the bite that Zenitsu and you had gotten on his hand and your neck and how dangerous it was. That must have been the prick you and him had gotten from before but that also meant that all those small human spiders were actually people and not demons, which meant that you couldn't kill them.

"Damnit." You mumble to yourself, glaring at the big ass spider. You notice Zenitsu start running and you follow him, Zenitsu climbing up one of the trees while you jump off of another. You grab onto one of the spider mutants legsand stab it in the back in hopes to immobile it. You knew Zenitsu wasn't going to be any help, however, you were sure you and him could still survive.

"Oww!! Damnit! You're a problem! Too bad you can't kill me with that sword! You can only try to hurt me! How laughable!" The demon taunts, quickly tossing the sword away and getting the web stuck around you... Well... Attacking him was definitely a bad idea.

"I'm doing everything I possibly can right now! I wish I could be braver but I'm not! I still have to be turned into one of those horrid creatures!?"

"Zenitsu!" You yell to him, smiling and briefly getting his attention.

"You'll be okay! Just hold on!"

Huh, that smile, it reminds Zenitsu of someone. He can't remember who it was but... It was a nice smile.

You try your best to get out of the webs and when you see that Zenitsu actually passed out from fear, you grab onto the big spider so that it can't get him. Even thought others might, you wouldn't want the big one near him.

"Agh! Let me go! You're so annoying! You can't even kill me so give up!"

He tightens the web around you to the point where you know it's gonna bruise but that didn't seem to be enough for the spider, like he was expecting a different result.

"What the hell?! Why aren't you dead?! That's so stupid! It's supposed to cut you! You're an annoying threat and brother won't be happy with that!!"

Quickly he moves the web in some way, but not after hitting you in the head with one of his legs. Next thing you know, the spider doesn't want you anywhere near him, in fact, he wants you as far away from the area as possible and you're flying through the air like you're some sort of missile.

"Crap, crap, crap! Zenitsu hold on!" You call out, still tied together by the web before finally hitting your back against one of the trees and landing on the ground with a thud. Damn that hurt, you may have actually broken a rib, or your back. You actually shouldn't have survived that throw since it was from such a far distance, your luck was really not logical.

You rustle with the threads, for some reason, not really being able to do anything. And you didn't have your sword, the big spider had it so that was even more of a headache. You growl for a moment in frustration before finally letting out a yell and putting all your strength into breaking the web. When you snap it, you quickly stand up and try to wipe it off before you realize that you're lightheaded and that you might pass out.

"Oh my, you must be a fighter huh? Although you don't look too good."

You feel a hand wrap around your waist before you fall and slowly help you up, it makes you a bit uncomfortable that whoever it was, was so gentle. When you look behind you, it's a woman who looks like she is also a demon slayer... Nice.

"You don't look like one of us... Hm." She starts, and just leaves it at that before smiling.

"It seems that you've been poisoned, I think this will be able to help you."

She takes a brown box out of her haori and then comes closer, she takes what looks to be some sort of strange syringe out of the box and you're not too sure if you should trust her, which she seems to be fully aware of so she's very slow.

"What's your name?" You warily ask her, carefully watching her movement as she takes your shoulder and pushes the small and thin needle into your arm.

"Shinobu Kocho, I am the insect Hashira, some call me the pharmacist Hashira."

You didn't really know what that meant, nor did you really care, however pharmacist stuck out to you and you needed her to get to Zenitsu too along with the other humans that had been turned into spiders.

"You have to help Zenitsu, he's the same way. He has yellow hair and a triangle-patterned haori, He's in that direction." You quickly state, watching as the woman looks at you with a strange expression before nodding her head.

"Alright then, just stay here and rest so that you'll be okay."

You nodded your head as she quickly jumps off like some sort of rabbit. You never really did stuff like that, it was kinda strange that you had never really thought about jumping places. You start to sit down, only to feel guilty and stand up again. You felt like you still needed to find everyone and hopefully that pharmacist woman would be able to help Zenitsu and possible those other spider people.

You started running around the forest area, noting your surroundings along with the many other dead demon slayers while trying to figure out where to go. You could have just waited like the woman said, but you should be fine since you didn't hear anything that would mean that someone was in trouble.

Scratch that, you did hear trouble.

You hear a shriek, but it isn't human, it sounds like some sort of monster, or demon or whatever. But that was nothing compared to what you were about to see. You look up towards the sky to see something fly past, which seemed pretty high. Was it a bird? What would by flying at that speed through the air at night? You strain your eyes harder and all you can see is green... And a brown box... It was Tanjiro... Tanjiro?! What the hell was he doing in the sky!? How was he flying!? He ain't even got wings!

"Tanjiro!" You yell out to him, your voice becoming hoarse before you hear that shriek again from a nearby demon, except it sounded closer.

"Oh Crap!" Someone yelled out, gaining your attention even though you were now frazzled from what you just saw. It sounded like a human and... It sounded like... Inosuke!

"Inosuke!?" You scream, trying to gain some sort of response before coughing. It seems your throat was definitely not happy with you yelling so much, or maybe it was from the poison. There was silence, then a louder shriek from the same demon. Then a louder shriek... Oh no.

"I'm here!" Inosuke yells back, gaining your attention as you run to try and find where he is.

"Where?!"

"Over here!"

When you bump into him, you're surprised and had to stop yourself from almost running into the demon that was chasing after Inosuke. Oh crap, it might as well have been bigfoot with how big it was.

"... What is that?" You question Inosuke, quickly running alongside him whilst dodging a punch from the guy. This was pretty scary and you didn't want to be here at all, it was tiring that you couldn't do anything but run.

"A demon you idiot!"

The both of you run for a while, getting far enough before you grab ahold of Inosuke's arm and pull him behind a tree next to you. Clearly this was a big problem, you had just been recently poisoned and then cured by some random lady and you had no sword now. Inosuke looked really injured and if he kept on bleeding like that, he could probably die. What did him and Tanjiro go through while you were waiting for Zenitsu to calm down?

"How are we going to kill it?"

"I don't kn-" You cover Inosuke's mouth through his boar mask before slowly removing it and placing your finger on your mouth, silently telling him to be quiet.

"This isn't good!" Inosuke whisper yells, freaking out when he sees the demon track the two of them.

"Inosuke." You start, gaining his attention and giving him a small smile.

"It is going to be okay, we won't die alright?"

He doesn't respond, instead he just looks at you before turning his head away, almost like he was being bashful or giddy, you weren't sure.

"Damnit, hiding away like a woodland creature, how pathetic is that? I gotta find a way to turn things around. How do you cut someone who's sword proofed anyway?"

"He's sword proofed? How-"

"What should we do? What can we do?" Inosuke whispers out, having an existential crisis just like Zenitsu was before.

"What's the way for me to get in there and hurt it? Think, think, think!"

"Inosuke! Look out!" You yell, pushing him out of the way and running before the demon could grab either one of you.

"This is bad! This is really bad! We have to survive until Tanpiro gets back! Somehow!"

"Calm down Inosuke! We can figure this out! You shouldn't be thinking things like that! We'll-"

That's when Inosuke abruptly stopped running, freaking you out when he grabbed your shoulders.

"Inosuke?!"

"You're right! Why the hell am I thinking things like that?!"

What is even going on? This had to be some sort of fever dream right? Especially since Inosuke started running towards the danger, Like, why?

"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!"

You yawn a bit, quickly following him just in case he needed help. Once you see him jump and slam one of his swords into the demons arm, you slide under the demon and grab ahold of the other arm so that the demon wouldn't be able to attack Inosuke.

"I must have gotten infected by Tantiro's germs!"

"... Who?" You ask, struggling but succeeding in holding onto the arm as Inosuke hits his sword into the demons skin.

"I can't let my guard down again! Using my head?! That kinda thing isn't like me at all! Agh!!!" Inosuke declares with a yell, finally cutting through the arm. He jumps next to your side and surprisingly hands you one of his jigsaw like swords in a very kind manner.

"You see? It was as simple as that, if you can't cut something with a sword, all you gotta do is pound on it with another sword, so don't look down on me cause I'm not weak samurai! Plus, It's just our luck that we've got the tools for the job! HAHAH! I am untouchable!"

All you do is nod your head in response to what he was saying, all the while, trying your best not to laugh. You tighten your hold on the sword, preparing yourself to be attacked by the demon... Only for it to do a one eighty and run the opposite direction.

"WHAT?!" You yell in bafflement, not comprehending that the demon would even try to run away. After all, the other spider demon you encountered didn't run, it just threw you. So you decide to run after it, harshly throwing the sword at it so that the sword stuck itself into the demons back.

"Are you running away on me samurai!? You and that demon better come back here damnit! I will win!" Inosuke yells, following the demon when you start running after it.

"Win what?! And my name is Y/N!"

"I'm stronger than you, and I'll prove just that!"

"Were not competing Inos-" You stop once you realize that you don't actually know where the demon went.

"Whatever! Where the hell did that abomination go off to anyway!?"

"I don't know..." You reply, stopping when you feel Inosuke bump into you and fall on his knees. You looked at him, worried since you got to see just how severe his wounds were.

"Inosuke... Are you okay?"

"It's just a scratch, it doesn't hurt at all! It doesn't hurt and it's not a problem!"

You stay quiet as he stands up, but you note that even though he gave you that answer, it seemed like he was convincing himself of that. You would have to try and bandage up his wounds after the both of you killed the demon.

"I've had enough of this, it's time for us to sniff him out for good."

"Agreed." Was all you said, watching as Inosuke does his weird sniff growl thing, that was until you heard a clank and saw the sword that you had thrown into the demon. Wait, he wasn't in the tree was he? Was that demon for real?

"So there you are! You dumb playing bafoon! How high did you climb?! Bastard! You're gonna force me to try and use my head again huh?! I don't think so! I-"

"Shut up." Was all you said as you watched the demon, slowly picking up the dropped sword while you were at it. You were hearing some sort of sound emit from the demon, you didn't like it.

"Huh!? What did you say to me?! He's trembling with fear and dread at the mere sight of us so what's the big deal huh!"

"Shut up! Listen." You repeat, louder this time as you continue to watch the demon, not happy that it looks like it isn't trembling with fear, more like it's convolsing or even shedding. It sounded like sandpaper grating against a rock.

"What on Gods green earth?" You mumble to yourself, slowly backing away and still keeping an eye on the demon. It screeches and the skin falls off, letting out a much shinier and bigger version of him. It really did shed, how inconvenient.

"What the hell?! Did it just shed it's skin?!"

"Yep... That's what it looks like."

And now, the new and improved demon jumps down from the tree, landing directly in front of the two of you and you have no clue what to do. You can feel Inosuke shaking next to you and you were probably shaking as well. But when you notice that Inosuke dropped his hand that was holding his sword up, you felt like you had to do everything in your power to make sure he would be okay.

"I'm gonna die... This is the end."

"No."

Inosuke looks at you, not understanding why you suddenly said that.

"Inosuke... You are not gonna die!"

He just stares at you, not liking that you seem to be someone who cares about him. Why? He's barely known you, yet you almost acted like you cared about him.

"Well then... No way am I gonna lose to you samurai! My name is Inosuke Hashibira, of the demon slayer corp!"

"Hell yeah!" You yell, hyping him up. You stood your ground, pointing the sword that he lended you towards the demon alongside him.

"Give me the worst you've got you dirt bag!"

As excited as you were for him, you weren't sure he should have said that, especially since now he was flying through the air and hitting trees from one swing from the demon.

"Inosuke!" You yell, dodging a punch but still being affected by the wind and flying back with him.

When you do land, you run to dodge another attack. Inosuke on the other hand, uses his sword to cut it's neck, only for the sword to snap.

You try to catch Inosuke before he falls but the demon punches your stomach, making you hit a tree and cracking the base of it. You groan in pain, watching the demon grab Inosuke by the head. It's so strange, you don't remember the last time you had been so mad at something that didn't even care about you.

"I'll make sure you can never hurt my family again!" The demon growls out to Inosuke when he thrusts his sword in the demons chest as a last attempt. The demon immediately screeches when you suddenly appear, using the sword in your hand to get the demons throat. You only get it halfway through before it stopped, but you could care less, as long as you hurt him, it was okay.

"I'll make sure you never live again." You reply in a dark voice, actually scaring the demon as you put your feet on his shoulders and apply more pressure to it's neck. The demon drops Inosuke, grabbing your body instead in hopes to stop you. Unfortunately your hands were slipping and the demon was slowly but surely pulling you off, you almost sliced his entire neck off before the demon finally threw you, hitting a tree once again.

"Inosuke." You groan as the demon gets too close to him, and you can't move because of the hit you just took to your back. This wasn't fair... You didn't want him to die and you couldn't help him. You already knew you were internally bleeding and you probably had bruises everywhere.

"God... Please don't let him die." Was all you could pray out, trying to crawl your way over to him even though you knew you couldn't help. You would need someone to actually help you stand up to be of any use.

Oh... The demon suddenly doesn't have an arm. Good thing someone was faster than you, it seemed like. You look at the man who had suddenly showed up out of nowhere and silently analyze him, he seemed to be just some calm dude with a mismatched haori. He also seemed to be a demon slayer, and clearly, much stronger than the demon.

You saw the demon run to the man one moment and the next, the demon was cut from the neck, forearms, legs, and waist. How did that happen so quickly? You were fast but not that fast, at least you don't think so.

"Are you okay?" You ask, gaining Inosuke's attention as you try to stand up next to him, all tired and annoyed with life at the moment.

"Yeah..."

"Do you know that man?"

"No... Not at all."

So the two of you just stare at him, admiration apparent as he puts his sword in it's holster before looking back at the two of you with a rather blank stare. Finally you can stand up, a grunt escaping your voice since your back sucked right now.

"Thank you Sir, for helping us." You start, bowing your head in respect and unfortunately being far too weak to do so as you actually fall face first onto the ground... That was embarrassing.

"Ow." You mumble as you weakly push yourself back up with your hands and sit on your knees before using Inosuke's body to stand up again, which, probably wasn't a good thing.

The man nods his head in your direction, seemingly acknowledging your bow before just turning around and walking off.

"Hold on a second! Fight me Mr. Mismatched outfit! You beat a member of the twelve Kizuki! And now, right here, I'm gonna beat you! If I can manage that, that'll make me the most powerful of all!"

Wow... So he just wants to fight everyone new that he meets huh?

"... Twelve Kizuki? And stop that, he saved us. You can't fight him because you want to." You hoarsely state, lightly smacking his hand in an attempt to scold the wild boar but still keeping in account that he was severely injured.

"I have a better idea, go train more."

That's... kinda harsh and his voice sounded soft and stern at the same time. It almost scared you. But also, when are they supposed to train? Their all in the middle of some strange demon mountain attack.

"What'd you say to me!?"

"That wasn't one of the twelve Kizuki, could you not even tell that?" The man blatantly ask, slowly pulling out a bunch of rope from his haori... Why... Why did this dude have so much rope?

"Of course I could tell! For your information, it was Tanjiro who was saying it was one of them! I was just repeating what he said to me earlier! I know that amateur couldn't have been one of those guys."

"So you're blaming Tanjiro now?" You asks with a judgemental stare as you grab the sword that Inosuke lended to you. Your body hurt so much, but you weren't yet willing to give up. You wanted to make sure both Zenitsu and Tanjiro were okay, along with anyone else that needed help.

Wait... When did that dude tie up Inosuke to the tree?

"Hey, don't do that to me! Get back here!" He yells at the mismatched guy, trying to break free from the rope.

"If you are not aware of the state that you're body is in, then you shouldn't be fighting at all."

"What type of bull crap is that!?"

"He's right though, are you good?" You ask Inosuke, looking up at him as you start to see him thrash around.

"Stop asking me stuff like that! You're not any better! You got purple lines all over your body and you got thrown around a lot!"

"What are you talking about? I'm not hurt... Oh." You look down on your arms and hands to see the blue and slightly purple bruised lines you had on your arms with small scratches here and there. That was probably from when the demon spider got you stuck in the web and tightened them too tight. That meant you probably had them everywhere, and you had definitely destroyed the inside of your body.

Suddenly you feel two arms grabbing your midsection and you couldn't tell whether you liked it or not.

"Um sir, what are you doing?"

"I'm tying you up as well."

"Hold on, I can still help." You comment, trying to get out of his grasp even though you knew the man was right.

"No you can't, you are too injured to do anything."

"Yes I can, wait, let me go! What'll happen anyway? Why don't I have a say in what happens to me?"

You were kind of a hypocrite weren't you?

"I will not let you go or do anything of the sort, you will wait here until the Kakashi come by to assis-"

"No, no, no, nope, I don't want to be tied up! I can still help!" You keep protesting as you feel some rope replace where his hands were. That was until you slipped under it, falling and catching yourself before hitting the floor and pushing off with your hands under him.

"What the?" Was all he could say as he looked at the extra rope he had and then you running off with the sword. Absolute parkour master, a bit too calm for that title but oh well.

"Hey you idiot samurai! Come back! Don't leave me here!" Inosuke yells, growling and trying his best to get out of the wraps

"Sorry! I'll come back!" You breathlessly yell, running away since you knew you still needed to make sure that Zenitsu was okay, and Tanjiro. You haven't seen him all night. You would be so frustrated if they had died and you weren't there to at least try to help them. You guess you took this favor a bit too seriously from the old lady, at least you had a sword to use.

"A samurai?" The man asks the boar covered demon slayer as he looks to where you ran off.

"Yeah, they're a really cool samurai too! A luck samurai! Definitely stronger than you!"

Giyu already knew that wasn't the case, even so, he was slightly intrigued. Why were you here and what was with the boar dude calling you lucky? He let his guard down and you somehow escaped, however tracking you wouldn't be all that hard since you were slow, probably from the injuries.

"Luck samurai huh?" Giyu comments as he picks up the rope and walks off, following the direction that you ran into, not in any hurry though.

"WHAT'D YOU SAY?!"

"I said whatever."

"HUH!? I CAN'T HERE YOU! YOUR VOICE IS TOO SOFT AND YOU'RE WALKING TOO FAST!! I SAID HOLD YOUR HORSES! UNTIE THESE ROPES RIGHT NOW!! GET! ME!! DOWN!!!"

...

"Agh!" You yell out, grabbing your shoulder in pain as you run into someone who was running in the opposite direction. You didn't realize that your shoulder was bleeding.

Nor did you realize that you bumped into a demon who was carrying her own head, crying and trying to run away from someone, or something.

"Hey, wait just a moment." You call the demon, grabbing onto her head and pulling it out of the hands of the decapitated body.

"Wait! Please spare me! I beg you! I have to make my brother proud!"

You almost gave in from the sudden begging since it was something you weren't expecting, however if she was really dangerous, you have a feeling she would have killed you.

"It's okay, I won't kill you... Just tell me something and I'll let you go."

"... Okay."

"Have you seen a boy with a checkered haori and a scar on his forehead?"

She hesitated, already knowing that this kind person might die if they stumbled upon her brother, but she might aloo die if she didn't answer... It's too bad, she feared her brother more.

"Where I was running from, that's where you'll find him."

"Got it." Was all you said as you grabbed the head and set it on its body the right way.

"Thank you."

You just nodded your head towards the woman, however there was something so strange about the fact that she was just running away, as if she was scared in some way.

As quickly as you can be while also being quiet is how fast you were going, following the voices of two people, one of them you recognized was Tanjiro but you didn't know who the other one was. Guess you were about to find out.

"It's alright."

Well clearly it's not, though you don't know what the two are talking about just yet. And why does the demon sound so calm and almost kind, it was unnerving.

"You don't need to worry, I'm stronger than you. I will create a bond with her, one made out of terror. She'll know what happens when I'm defied."

Makes sense, people make bonds like that all the time, but it never a happy bond as far as you know. Slowly, you walk out into the clearing, quiet enough that both Tanjiro and the demon hadn't noticed you just yet. If you could get close enough behind the demon, you could behead him without being seen.

"I've had enough of you spouting this nonsense! Using fear to keep someone shackled to you isn't the bond of a family! And until you are able to figure that out, you'll never get what it is that you desire!" Tanjiro yells, pointing his broken sword at the demon before he notices you and has to restrain from reacting.

"So irritating, would you mind not shouting?"

'Wow, what a snobby demon' you thought.

"It's clear we don't agree."

"I'll never hand Nezuko to you."

"Very well, I'll just kill you."

"Not if I manage to cut your head off first."

"Now that's the spirit, I would love to see you try it. Let's see if you can take down a being like me, one of the twelve Kizuki."

Tanjiro tightens the grip on his sword, scared but still trying to stay as strong as possible. He watched you, nervous about your injuries and trying his best not to let any hints to the demon that you were behind him, hopefully you were strong enough to defeat a demon like that.

You on the other hand weren't really ready to fight one of the twelve Kizuki, you had just heard about them like ten minutes agoand not any time before. Just how strong were they?

"That stealy look in your eyes, I don't like it-"

"Well he's only got one pair of eyes doesn't he?" You ask out loud, immediately realizing your mistake and slamming the sword you had into the demons neck before he could let out some strange thread from his fingers. The face he made when he turned around was gross, as if he was disgusted with the fact that you thought you could kill him.

The sword went about halfway through his neck and it was quite annoying, it was like the neck had cheat codes to physics. Damn... You really thought you were about to get a stealth kill. You talk out loud way too much when you shouldn't. You cleared your throat, looking at Tanjiro and clearly feeling embarrassed before you look at the demon before you. Tanjiro was ready at any moment to run up and help, but he wasn't afraid to admit that he was kinda scared.

"Just... Who do you think you are? This has nothing to do with you so answer me, who are you?"

"Sorry to offend you... I'm not any one of consequence though." You state, still in a rather strange position. You had dodged the threads that he had thrown on you so you were in a weird sort of leaning back lunge, still holding onto the sword.

"I asked you a question, who are you?!"

"... Y/N... I am a samurai."

"... Samurai? I've never heard of such a thing. The audacity you have to lie to me, you're a demon slayer are you not?"

"Nope, just a samurai."

"What are you and this demon slayer plotting?"

"Well, good sir... To kill you I believe." You comment again with a small smile, almost immediately regretting it when he looks at you as if you were a threat to his democracy... Well communism would be a better was to describe it.

"Yeah? Don't tell me that you think you'll be able to defeat me?!"

The demon hits you in the stomach, hard enough that you fly back into a tree for like the third time, your poor back. However you took the sword with you so that was good for later. Next thing you know, strings are moving and Nezuko is flying. Is that Nezuko? It would make sense since you could tell that she was also a demon and Tanjiro's box was gone.

"That's annoying." You groan out, dodging the strings before landing onto the ground next to Tanjiro.

"Nezuko!" Tanjiro yells, watching as his sister lands in the other demons hands.

"Then it's settled, I'll be taking her. You understand your role now. You give her to me and disappear, the so called samurai has no role but to die, what a waste."

"Nothing is settled, she's staying with her brother." You remark, holding onto your sword and tensing up. This would definitely be difficult and you were already really tired from the previous fights and injuries. It would be a miracle if you could actually do anything.

"Damn it." Tanjiro whispers, his arms shaking as if he was scared, but it wasn't fear, it was anger, you would even go as far as to say rage.

"Calm down, you've been fighting a lot and you're injured."

"Calm down... Why do I need to calm down?"

"Because, I'm your good luck samurai so you don't have to worry as much. I'll make sure you and Nezuko don't die." You respond, pointing to yourself with a small smile. Tanjiro just looks at you for a moment, still frustrated at what was going on. He felt almost touched by your words but there was no way he wasn't going to worry as much.

"Okay."

"Good, le-"

"Let her go!" Tanjiro interrupts you, trying to get close to the demon. Since his sword was broken, it was going to be harder, however you're pretty sure that you can withstand the threads if you needed to since the big spider demon couldn't cut you with them before.

"Okay then.. Let her go!" You yell as loud as Tanjiro had before joining him.

"Did I not tell you that I'd spare your life in return for your obedience? In fact, I'll spare both you and the samurai if that's better."

"I'll spare my own life thank you very much! Nezuko, fight back with us!" You yell towards her, having a suspicious feeling that you and Tanjiro weren't going to get anywhere close to the demon at this rate. Nezuko almost immediately scratches the other's face and you found a way to get closer since it shocked him for a moment.

You get close enough to land another hit on his throat, this time only cutting the skin before you have to jump over an attack and go back. Wait, where the hell did Nezuko go? She was literally just there. You look up when you see some blood fall from higher up and when you do, you see Nezuko tied up by the threads, almost in the same situation that you were in with the man spider demon from before. You growled when you looked back at the demon, the threads didn't cut you before but it was cutting through her, it was probably really painful for her.

"Quiet down, this won't be enough to kill her, she's a demon. But it does appear that I'll have to teach her a lesson, I'm going to let her bleed for a while, if she can't learn to be obedient, I'll just leave her till daybreak, and then let her-" You stop the monologuing by throwing the sword, somehow, by some sort of luck, impaling it directly in his arm. Sooner or later he was just gonna kill you from how pissed off you were making him.

"How dare you?" The demon growled at you, pulling the sword out and throwing it on the ground beneath him. Damn, you shouldn't have thrown it, cause now you didn't have a weapon.

"I won't allow it! Let her go!!"

"Please, what idiotic people you are, so-"

"You like to hear yourself talk huh? As far as I'm concerned I could care less what you feel or what you're family problems are." You respond, frustrated at this demon already as you try to grab your sword so you could cut him but having to dodge more attacks. Tanjiro keeps running, slipping when the threads hit the ground around him. You on the other hand grab onto a cut down tree trunk, which was annoyingly heavy. You kinda feel bad for using Tanjiro as a sudden decoy but oh well.

"Now-" The demon starts, only to be stopped by a literal tree trunk hitting the back of his head. He groaned and quickly turned around to get a sword to his neck, going through until half way once again. Why couldn't you cut through this guys neck?! You were so persistent it was making him angry. You couldn't even let him talk.

"Stop it! You're so annoying! I can kill you y'know that?" He yells, throwing his threads around you only for you to dodge.

"Yeah, I suspected." You reply, trying to keep a straight face since you knew damn well that you were ruffling his feathers.

"Hm... I may be mistaken here, but the two of you think that if you actually get close enough, you can chop my head off completely don't you?

You watch as the demon approaches Tanjiro, you stepping right next to him so that you could protect him just in case, after all, he was bleeding a lot.

"Well... Then here, give it a shot."

And with that permission from the demon, both you and Tanjiro swing at the same time, having to fight two on one and still get your asses beat somehow. You get kicked to the floor and for a moment you can't actually get up.

Tanjiro finally gets a hit on the demon's neck, somehow not being able to cut through. That scared him, why didn't it cut through? Yours was able to cut through the skin at least. His attack didn't even do any damage. That's when the demon knees Tanjiro in the stomach and quite frankly, you wanted this demon to just croak and die already.

"Didn't I tell you, you have no chance against me, the both of-" Once again you interrupted him, actually grabbing his midsection before pulling him off the ground and slamming his head down in the dirt. It was so quick that he couldn't react and it was oh so inconvenient.

"QUIT IT! I'LL KILL YOU!" He screams out, flipping over and sending a bunch of spider web like threads your way.

"Y/N!" Tanjiro yells, suddenly scared that you might die from the hands of that demon, then he would really be angry. You couldn't dodge the attack so for a split second, you were actually just going to accept your fate. However, as luck would have it, apparently your skin is rough enough from training that it actually broke the web as soon as it touched you, shattered it into a bunch of different pieces.

"... Ow, that hurt."

The demon, Tanjiro and Nezuko were all surprised to see this. It was probably because it wasn't the same as the actual webs that were holding Nezuko but it looked like you had just taken it unaffected. How strong were you that an attack like that didn't kill you?

"... What type of witchcraft is this?" The demon mumbled, looking frazzled before vigorously shaking his head and making another web to hit you again. You didn't stay for that one though, you immediately moved out of the way whether you would break it or not.

"Ah... You're stronger than most, I'll give you credit for that... However, it won't help you defeat me."

"Um... What do you mean by that?" You ask the demon, gaining a small but evil smile from him.

"Well, just imagine how much stronger you could be, if you became a demon?"

Tanjiro couldn't believe his ears, He recruiting you. Oh no. You were definitely strong but there was no way that you would accept that right?

"Wait, you can become a demon? So you guys aren't naturally reoccurring, you're all just human hybrids?"

"... Sure... But that's not the point. Join me, become a demon with the twelve Kizuki and Lord Muzan. He'll be happy to have someone as strong as you become a demon."

Lord Muzan, the hell was that? Not someone you knew that's for sure.

"Absolutely not."

"Are you really sure? If you-"

"Shut up, I said no."

"Pardon?"

"No. N, O, bro. Be quiet, I don't want to hear your pale face trying to offer my humanity away. I'm fine right here."

"The audacity! You're vulgar insulting will get you killed!!" And with that you dodge just a few more attacks, grabbing a rock after you flip away and just throw it at him, hitting his chest. You don't know why you do the things you do to annoy others, after all, it's exhausting sometimes.

"Are you okay?" You quietly ask Tanjiro as you help him stand, completely ignoring the monologue that the demon was having about how strong his neck and threads were, however he was still looking at you, almost concerned that you were even near. You were a threat.

"Yeah..."

You watch as Nezuko starts straining from the webs and you quickly shake your head, quietly trying to tell her that that's a bad idea, cause there's a demon there that plans on kidnapping her.

"You're noisy, if you don't quiet down," He starts, tightening the threads around Nezuko before you throw another rock at him, doing literally nothing. He glares at you, clearly done with your bullshit, not like that's gonna stop him from punishing Nezuko.

Nezuko screams and all you want to do is find some way to help her, but your feet won't allow you to move at the moment.

"No! Stop that!" Tanjiro yells as he stands up.

"As of today, I'm her elder brother and I command that she cease that noise."

You lightly placed your hand on Tanjiro's shoulder in hopes to calm him down since he was seething with anger, however, you still had to be an ass and poke the bear did you not?

"You mean as of tonight? Y'know... Cause it's not morning and... You're a demon?"

He looks at you with a disgusted expression and you just have to laugh inside so that you don't die because for some reason, you really like screwing around with this demon.

"Come on." You mumble to Tanjiro, standing up with your sword after patting his shoulder. You were just as ready to fight and end this because clearly, you were already done, especially after he harmed Nezuko.

You and Tanjiro start fighting again, tired but angry enough that you both could still fight. You were kinda tired of this demon and you were sure that Tanjiro just wanted his sister back. Tanjiro actually cut the threads at one point and it made you think that there was actually a chance. Did he have some sort of water decoration with is attack too? Nice!

"Cool! Can I try!" You yell out, wanting to do the same.

"Yeah?!"

Quickly you run up to a couple of them, spinning around and trying to copy Tanjiro's breathing style before succeeding in cutting the threads. You may have still fallen on your face almost immediately after but you smiled in triumph nonetheless

"Aw, you two don't think these threads are at maximum strength do you?"

Oh no, what did he mean by that, and why were his hands getting red?!

Before you can even make a snarky remark or some sort of response, he makes some sort of enclosed red web around you and Tanjiro, it felt stronger than the rest and you weren't sure if either of you could survive this one.

"You two can die now, I have no use for you anymore, farewell."

There was nowhere for you to go. As soon as the threads started to touch you, they immediately broke skin, shredding your hands and arms that you had put in front of you to try and slow it down. Thank goodness Tanjiro found a way out somehow, cause it now looked like he had some sort of fire decoration. You'd have to figure out where he bought it from.

"Hahaha!" You laugh as you start jumping through the threads, being extra careful since these red ones could actually cut you. You could definitely feel the adrenaline of the fight going through you and you hoped that it stayed, at least until the fight is over. You focus on your breathing as much as possible, not being able to do anything that looked like cool fire or water but keeping up which was good. You were even able to cut a few of those threads with the sword, making you feel almost accomplished.

"Tanjiro, there's an opening!" You yell, being able to slide behind the demon, evading the threads and the sudden fire explosion that Nezuko make even though she was still stuck.

You flip around, pushing your sword on the opposite side of where Tanjiro's was. This was good, this meant that he couldn't escape.

"THE BOND BETWEEN NEZUKO AND I CANNOT BE SEVERED! NOT BY ANYONE!!"

You push as hard as you can, helping Tanjiro to finally cut off the demons head. The head drops back, going directly behind you and it's only when Tanjiro falls to the ground that you actually move, slowly looking around in post, I'm 'bout to die energy.

"Tanjiro... Are you okay?" You ask him, not daring to take a step yet since you would probably fall face first to the ground like before.

"Y-yeah." He mumbles, trying to stand back up.

When you do finally take a step, it's because Nezuko was starting to fall and running to go grab her was probably not the best idea. Especially since when you caught her, you immediately fell on your knees and heard a loud crack. Ow. What bone was that?

"Nezuko, we won, we did it!" He yells, trying to crawl his way over. You look down at Nezuko to see her breathing which meant that she was still alive, so you put her down and scooted yourself closer to Tanjiro to try and grab his hand.

Oh. Shit. Lord have mercy on your soul cause there was no damn way. You watched as the demons body slowly stood up and you didn't know what to do. You cut his head off with Tanjiro, so how was he even alive? You grab onto Tanjiro's hand, trying to drag him but even with your sitting position, you were too weak to move him fast enough. Not only that, Tanjiro could smell immediately when the demon stood up, the scent of blood getting stronger and not smelling like ash in any way.

"You two thought you defeated me, how sad for you. Did your delusion bring your a brief moment of joy? I cut my head off myself using my own threads before you two were able to do the job yourselves."

You were suddenly so heartbroken, right after being so happy that you survived with them. Now this was round two wasn't it? There was no way any of you would survive.

"Enough struggling, I'll kill both you, the samurai and your sister. I haven't been this incensed in a long time."

No, you weren't going to let that happen, even if you died in the process. You weren't going to let Tanjiro or Nezuko die. Though you couldn't deny that you felt terrible dragging Tanjiro farther away from the demon like some frightened prey. Tanjiro could barely get himself to crawl because of how tired he was.

"I wonder why you weren't burned to cinders in that explosion earlier? Me and my threads were the only thing set ablaze and I don't know if it relates to your sisters power. It has enraged me all the same."

"You're just sulking like a child, it's not like we killed you." You growl at the demon with a bit of sarcasm added. You don't know if this is a second wind that you felt like you could still move or if it's just luck, but you were as mad as him. You wanted that demon dead.

"I will carve you up without regret! Blood demon art, murderous eye basket!"

Eye basket? What type of blood demon art would be called that? And why was it even called blood demon art? Gross.

A whole bunch of the red threads pop up from under the ground, surrounding both you and Tanjiro and already you were committed to make sure Tanjiro wouldn't die. Maybe other demon slayers would come and help if you could stall this, you were able to do it before even though it put tiny cuts all over your hands.

"You'll get tired." You seeth, glaring at the demon with an intensity you didn't even know you had. You had to mentally prepare yourself for the pain you would feel, if no one came while you were holding off the threads, it would be able to actually cut through your body over time.

Right as you got hit by some of the strings, you almost yelled in pain. Though you were actually stopping it and the demon had to add even more pressure to push you down, you were bleeding from all the tiny cuts you gained from them. You cried out, frustrated that you weren't willing because at this rate, your hands were going to be ruined. All you could really do is put your body over Tanjiro's and pray that he and his sister would survive this.

Speaking of the devil, this is the second time you've prayed and the same guy showed up.

That guy just cut up all those webs at once. Now you owed him twice for saving your life, and you were jealous.

"Tanjiro... Somebody's here."

"Is it Zenitsu?"

"No... I don't know who he is." You reply with a saddened voice. You knew you should be happy but you didn't understand why you felt like crying. Maybe from relief, you don't know.

"You two did a good job holding out until I got back. Leave the rest to me."

You don't care to watch how he defeats this demon, you don't want to know, you never want to see the face of that demon again. Nor did you care about all the insults that he was throwing out about everyone being insects.

"Blood demon art, spiraling rotation!"

"Total concentration, eleventh form, dead calm."

"Eleventh form!?" Tanjiro yells out, apparently surprised by that even though it didn't mean anything to you. And just like that, an attack is evaded by the quiet man with no hesitation. Cutting off the head of the demon like it was nothing.

Slowly you stand up, holding out your hand so that Tanjiro could as well. You walk over to where Nezuko was, only to collapse and just lay there. Tanjiro does the exact same thing, holding his sister and then placing his hand on your back in a show of thankfulness.

"You're bleeding a lot." Tanjiro comments, looking at you with some worry. He wasn't sure what to do, especially now that you looked at least ten times worse from when the fight first started.

"Don't worry." Was all you said, watching the demons body walk towards the two of you before finally falling. You would be fine, you were sure, plus, you felt so numb that the pain wasn't getting to you. You probably damaged your senses when it comes to feeling things because you're pretty sure you can't even feel anything at all.

For some reason, when the body hits the ground, you feel a sudden feeling of dread in your heart. You don't know how to explain it because you should be happy that the demon was dead, and you were, but maybe because you felt pity for him. It was almost like you could see a small part of yourself in him and the way he acted. Maybe he thought that fear was the best way to keep people around him because no one else would stay with him. Who knows.

"I hope... That he had a good family when he was still a human." You mumble, getting Tanjiro's attention with what you said. The way you said it, was small and simple but meant so much, especially for a demon like that. You wished him well, even though he was your enemy and had no hesitation in trying to kill you. Tanjiro felt admiration for you, that and the fact that he could smell a scent of sadness coming from the demon, so Tanjiro understood.

He gently placed his hand on the bodies back and you watched, it was a kind gesture and you felt that maybe it would comfort the demon through death, even if he logically didn't deserve. You looked at his head, watching most of it already disintegrate and you sighed, at least it was over now.

Then Mr stoic and quiet guy had to come and ruin it, stepping on the clothes that the former demon was wearing when he was alive. You just sit up on your knees grabbing your sword and being careful to move since your entire body was damaged in some way.

"Don't waste your sympathy, it was a demon. The fact that it looked like a child makes no difference. It lived for decades, terrorizing our people." The man explains, still making you feel uneasy that he had to step on the clothes.

"If it's for the sake of avenging those who were killed, to make sure there are no more victims, I won't hesitate to bring down my blade on any demon's neck. But when it comes to those who felt despair and regret from their actions they took as a demon, I will never disrespect them!"

You lightly pat Tanjiro's back, hoping to calm him down since he started yelling. This must have been very important to him, as it was also kind of important to you. You would have cared more about it if you didn't feel so lightheaded and almost drunk.

"Because at one time or another, they were human, no different from me. So please don't step on his remains!"

You watch in-between Tanjiro and the man, barely paying attention to the staring contest they were having when you heard something move in the bushes. You turned to look and you saw nothing and you can't tell if the sound is in your head or real.

"There not hideous monsters at all, instead demons are hopeless creatures. Tragic creatures."

It's quiet for a moment and then you here it again, not liking it one bit as you wait some more. You wanted whatever you were hearing to leave or to come out already. As long as you weren't going crazy, you think you'll be fine. Nothing is said between anyone for quite some time, then you spoke because you felt uncomfortable with everything at the moment.

"Listen." You mumble, breaking the tension as the two stay quiet and keep their guard up. You wait and mere seconds later, a woman jumps out of the bushes to attack. You don't know who the target it but you hit your sword against hers, standing up way too fast for your own good when you suddenly feel like you might throw up. It seems that you were right about the noise and the man seemed to know that too, or maybe he knew who the woman was.

"Oh my." The woman comments, quickly flipping around and landing on her feet. You didn't know if she was expecting this or not but hopefully she wasn't mad. Oh wait, that was the woman who helped you with the poisoning earlier.

She went to attack again and you couldn't move fast enough, however it was good that the man was willing to help.

"Why would you get in my way Tomioka? And after you told me we could never be friends with demons."

Ah, that was the man's name, well now you knew.

"I have to say, this kind of thing, is exactly why no one likes you."

You look at the woman for a bit before looking at the man. He didn't look like no one liked him, he probably had a friend or maybe a lover, or at least some sort of parental figure in his life, if not now, at some point in his life right?

"Now then Tomioka, would you please move?" The woman starts, aiming her sword in the general area of where you were, your sword also aiming her way even though it was clear she didn't see you as a threat.

"I don't... I don't think I'm disliked."

You almost laughed a bit which turned into a cough, completely surprised that he was actually worried about that. That and the fact that someone should have told him he was disliked if no one liked him.

"Oh dear, I do apologize. You're only just hearing about this now then? I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to find out this way."

There was another amount of silence that was laughable. Maybe it was because you were delirious that this conversation seemed funny to you, however it was definitely odd that's for sure.

"Boy?"

"Yes ma'am?!" Tanjiro replies, feeling on edge with the conversation that was taking place.

"What you're protecting there is actually a demon, so please move away before you get hurt."

You glare at the woman and back up, ready to protect the two still, even if your body disagreed with you. Now you completely understand why Zenitsu ran into the mountain for Nezuko, she's precious and helps as much as she can and you also want to make sure Tanjiro is okay because they've both worked so hard to survive.

"No, you're mistaken! Well, you're not mistaken, but she's my little sister, and that's why-"

"Oh my, is that really true?" The woman starts, covering her mouth and probably feeling bad for the predicament that he and his sister were in. Though you still weren't sure that you entirely trusted her... She would make a nice acquaintance.

"You poor thing. In that case, so she won't suffer, I'll use a gentle toxin in order to kill her."

She'll what?! Kinda crazy much?! And she didn't even stutter at all! What the hell?!

"Wait a moment." The woman adds on, looking at you with a strange glare before snapping your fingers.

"I helped you earlier tonight when you got poisoned, didn't I tell you to stay put so that you could rest? So how come you're here and far more injured than before? It's not good for your health and you aren't a demon slayer either right? So what's your connection with this?"

"I'm sure I also insisted on the same thing, you are too injured." Tomioka adds on just because he can, him and his annoyingly stoic self. You don't answer for a while, trying to clear the fog that was clogging your thought process. What was even worse though was that as soon as you tried to speak, a sudden gush of blood came out from your mouth and the next thing you know, you're choking and coughing on blood, probably from the internal bleeding. How embarrassing.

"... Y/N." Was all that Tanjiro could speak out, suddenly feeling guilty as he watches you throw up blood before you finally cough it all up and just try your best to breathe. He feels bad that you're this injured just by helping protect him and his sister, you really are good luck for them but he also wanted you to be okay.

"Oh no, that's not good at all. At this rate, you're recovery time will increase dramatically if you don't rest and you could actually die. I've never seen someone so beat up and somehow still standing, it's really okay to rest y'know? It's not good to lie to yourself and your body."

"Can you move at all? Even if it's difficult you need to go, take your sister and run." Tomioka states, not moving in the slightest since it seemed that Tomioka was preventing the other lady from attacking.

"Tomioka, thank you. I appreciate this!"

You look at Tanjiro for a moment, giving him a small nod since you decided that you would catch up with them soon. Hopefully you weren't going to croak and die because you felt like you could barely stand, let alone hold your sword up.

"Did you... Just break the rules of the corp?" She asks Tomioka, smiling even though it was clearly fake with the question. You don't move but instead hold your ground, you know that if she were to attack Tomioka, you were too weak to do anything and if she attacked you, you were probably dead.

"That's not good Tomioka and... Y/N? That's what the boy called you right? Really, I insist that you rest. My name is Kocho Shinobu, the insect Hashira... Do you know what a Hashira is?"

You just stare at the woman for quite some time, thinking that it's strange that she introduced herself again to you when she did it before. You just shake your head in response since you didn't want to speak all that much.

"I see, well in the demon slayer corp there are rankings, a Hashira is the highest rank for a demon slayer. The reason why we get higher in ranks is because we kill more demons, which in turn saves more lives. That's how you know someone has worked hard to protect others. So I'm sure you understand why I said that I would kill the boys sister. Because sooner or later, she will eat someone, so even though you're not a demon slayer, you should also not protect her."

You look at the woman with the same dull stare, not moving because of how dizzy you feel. Even Tomioka is a little worried about you being all broken and bloodied right next to him. If you had just let him tie you, you would have been a whole lot better off. You were just lucky that you had survived this long.

"I appreciate... That you helped me... But... I don't trust you."

"That's... Understandable actually." She smiles, moving her sword down to her side so that you weren't scared.

"I won't hold that against you. However, even if you protect her, we will still kill her. If not me, someone else. That's just the way we are in the demon slayer corp. Or the way we're supposed to be at least." She states, adding the last part specifically for Tomioka. But she smiles at you, seemingly amused by you and your choice of words. It seemed gentle, even though you couldn't tell if it was real or not.

You slowly nodded your head before deciding that it was time to move, turning around and running in the direction that Tanjiro and Nezuko went. You were good at running long periods of time and really fast when you weren't bleeding out of every orphisis of your body. But you were so you were definitely struggling right now.

Suddenly you trip and by some miracle, you land in a neatly placed pile of leaves, so thick that it didn't even feel like you hit the ground. So when you stand up, you feel a bit better, especially when you spot Tanjiro running with Nezuko still in his arms. You never really believed that you were such a a lucky person like everyone else believed you to be, but somehow things are going better than they should. You should have died at least five times over now, and the fact that you're more hyper aware of that is helping you be more cautious.

You immediately stop running when you see a shadow pass over you and when you look up, you see, well, basically a mini version of Shinobu, it was almost infuriating. She was really telling the truth when she said sooner or later they would kill Nezuko. How annoying. Well, not as long as you were alive.

"Tanjiro! Look out!" You yell, jumping down from a ledge that you were nearing that let you drop down to the same level that he was in, only to land wrong on your feet and fall to the ground with a thud. Tanjiro looked at you, only having a few seconds to react which didn't do him any good anyway. The girl jumped onto his back, getting him to drop his sister and fall into the ground.

The girl was quick, jumping off of Tanjiro's back to get to his sister, before he grabbed her haori and pulled her back away.

"Get out of here Nezuko! Run away as fast as you can! Don't get caught no matter what, hurry!"

You barely stood up from your fall, probably crying from how much pain your were feeling before. That was when you saw the girl kick Tanjiro on the top of his head to knock him out. As she jumped off of him, you immediately ran in the direction that Nezuko went, after all, she wasn't going to kill Tanjiro since they were both demon slayers.

You catch up to Nezuko, possibly scaring her since Tanjiro did tell her not to get caught. So you just follow her, watching Nezuko's back until the girl shows up. You and the girl's swords clash, surprising the girl since when she saw you yell to the boy and since you looked like you were in bad shape, she probably didn't think that you would help at all.

"I'm going to have to ask you to move." The girl states in a strangely monotone voice, like she didn't care whether you would listen or not.

"... Move? Nah... I will knock you out." You reply, glaring at the girl as you basically begin sword fighting with her, giving Nezuko enough time to get pretty far.

She tries to overpower you with the sword but it seems that you have better arm strength, so for her, kicking you is a much quicker option. Now you were behind and you weren't sure if you could even catch up, you felt like you might die on the spot.

When the girl raises her sword to kill Nezuko, she just shrinks all of a sudden, giving you just enough time to catch up and help defend. You and the girl keep fighting, you block her swings while she finds a way to kick or push you out of the way. If you weren't so injured, you would be able to keep up with her and fight easily, however you were in such pain, and you were so slow that you were just barely stopping her when she got close to Nezuko.

"CAW! CAW! ORDERS FROM THE MASTER!"

You see the girl suddenly jump back a few feet, noticing the crow that was flying around the three of them. Thank goodness because she had just backed you and Nezuko into a corner.

"TANJIRO, DRESSED IN A CHECKERED HAORI WITH A SCAR ON HIS FOREHEAD, NEZUKO, A DEMON GIRL WITH A BAMBOO MUZZLE, ARE TO BE TAKEN BACK TO HEADQUARTERS!"

You hear the crow but are too tired to raise your head to try to look at it, so instead you just look down at Nezuko since she's so much smaller than before. You weren't sure if you should talk to her in some way, or make sure she's okay, she looked okay.

"Are you Nezuko?" The girl asked, leaning down to be at the same eye level with her. Nezuko just nodded, not making any noise or movement other than that.

"Alright then, follow me." Was all she said as she started to walk off gaining a weird sound and a shake from Nezuko's head. Suddenly she walked closer to you and grabbed onto your leg since she was so small, and you wondered what she was trying to say. Maybe she wanted you to come with her, so you started to walk with her on your leg, following the other girl who was unbothered by it.

Soon, the three of you walk right back to where Tanjiro's body is, the box only a few steps away. The girl just stood while you slowly walked over to open the box.

"I assume you're with them?"

"... Yes, I am." You reply to the girl, waiting for something else to happen since you still haven't felt fully safe yet.

"Alright, you can come." Was all the girl said, walking off and not waiting for you to choose to follow or not. You looked between the box and then Nezuko who still hadn't gotten into it. You didn't want to just leave Tanjiro behind, however, you wouldn't be able to carry him even if you tried. You were too injured so you wouldn't be able to handle his weight, but you could handle Nezuko's in her box on your back.

"Nezuko... Do you mind... If I carry you?" You ask, pointing inside of the box since you would be the one carrying her on your back instead of her brother. She looked at you for a second before nodding and started fitting into the box, but not before lightly placing one of her hands on top of your head. You guess she wanted to give you a little head pat, or maybe she was saying thank you, you don't know.

Once she fully fits, you close the door of the box, struggling but succeeding to stand once you get the straps onto your back. You're pretty sure that after this, you'll probably retire from being a samurai ever again. However, you were definitely calming down from before, so you were feeling more pain but at least you could feel all of your limbs now. You follow the girl, walking down different paths before getting to an even bigger clearing with a bunch of people in fully covered black clothes with only their eyes showing. It was interesting and they seemed to be helping everyone that was injured.

"Stay here, they'll help you down the mountain." The girl comments with a small smile, politely bowing her head before walking away to go help with something else. Now it was just you and Nezuko in a box on your back. You stood for a moment, just watching all of the people move around before you actually decided to sit.

It was only then that you had noticed that you were basically back where you started, back in the place where the big spider was before. That meant the Zenitsu was probably around here somewhere but you couldn't bear to even stand up after you sat back down, you probably should have stayed standing. After a bit, a few of them come to you, immediately grabbing disinfectants and wraps for your cuts and some ice for your bruises from a box that kept it cool.

You even doze off a bit, every once in a while thanking the people that were helping you since you knew that they were pretty busy. When they take the box with Nezuko off of your back, you decide not to worry about it since they all seemed like nice people. One of them was even insisting on carrying you on some sort of bed that four people hold but you decide that you'll walk wherever they're going and rest when they get there. Since you could still stand, you didn't want them to carry you.

So off you all go into the early morning, the sun just now shining on an entire line of Kakashi and injured people that you're following. Unfortunately you were getting just a bit too far behind and it was rather annoying to keep up with them since your feet hurt so much. Apparently that's not too much of a problem when you got two Hashira that suddenly appear behind you. Guess they were taking their sweet time too.

"Oh, there you are. I would think that the others would have wrapped you up and kept you in one of the moving beds, why are you walking?"

You turn around to see both Shinobu and Tomioka behind you and once again, you find yourself not being able to speak for some time which made you feel embarrassed again.

"I wanted to walk... Because I still can."

"Oh dear, you only think that because of the adrenaline that's still going through your body. I can just tell by looking at you that you've broken your left kneecap, your right wrist and four ribs, there's also internal bleeding and much outward bruising. Not to mention all the cuts all over your body, your hands are severely cut up too."

You look at the woman, surprised even though it doesn't really show it in your face. Maybe you should have taken one of those beds, you just didn't like the idea of being carried when you could still walk.

"... Ah."

"... "Ah", That's all you can say? You're a strange one aren't you? Not that I mind since you seem to be pretty strong. What are you?"

"... I am a samurai."

"Really? How interesting. That makes a lot more sense as to why you're still walking, samurai are trained quite differently, trained to the death almost. So you have a lot of endurance with pain huh?"

You just nod your head, not really paying attention as you just walked along the path the Kakashi were using.

"Tomioka, would you do me a favor and carry Y/N? I genuinely think that this is a really close instance to death Y/N is experiencing with all of the blood loss."

"Alright." Tomioka responds, walking just a tad bit faster before gently grabbing your hand.

"Hm?" You feel him pick you up from under your shoulders and start to carry you. You were too weak to even try to move so it's not like you could do anything about it.

"Don't worry Y/N, I think that if you sleep at least a little on the way back, you'll feel better. Not only that, maybe you can help us with some questions we have. Is that alright with you?"

You look at Shinobu, nodding your head before closing your eyes from how exhausted you were. Guess that old lady was right about you gaining some clarity from this.

You weren't going to continue being a samurai, you weren't cut out for it if fighting demons was how the rest of you life was gonna be.

Based on @yu-huuuu incorrect demon slayer quote that they made. Thank you for allowing me to write this and sorry it took so long. I lied making this a lot, even though it's oh so so very long! Like thirty minutes long! I had so much fun though so I hope you enjoy.

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