Chapter Text
His mother had switched with him when the blue sky started to fade into light in the distance. Tanjiro took over the handles with the faint touch of his mother’s muzzle against his forehead fresh in his mind.
Tanjiro followed after his crow until the rice fields and grass changed into the paved dirt road of a town. Multiple stalls along the walkway were stacked with easily made street food even though the line of stalls looked like they were missing. His gaze landed on a pitiful boy around his age that looked depressed while many people passed him by without a care in the world.
Tanjiro pulled up the handles of his cart and rolled over to the boy. It looks like he had been crying with the irritated skin around his eyes. The young man did not look up at him when he stopped only a few inches away from him with his cart.
“Excuse me, sir, I’ve come because of the rumors regarding vanishing girls.” Suddenly, the other looked at him, his eyes trailing over him and his demon slayer uniform. “Do you know anything about it?”
“I...” The teen’s voice cracked which it hurriedly covered with a cough. “It’s good that someone got sent to investigate this.”
“What’s wrong?” Tanjiro asked, tilting his head at the boy’s behavior. He could only assume that he was personally affected by this case.
“You can call me Kazumi for any report you have to do. My fiancé, Satoko, was the latest victim in this case. She...” Ah, Kazumi was involved in the case. No wonder why he looked so off. “I was with her the night she disappeared.”
Tanjiro stepped forward, ignoring a whispered conversation of two passing old women with their eyes glued on the pair. “Can you show me the area where she was last seen?”
Kazumi nodded slowly. “I can show you the route we took.”
Tanjiro nodded, dragging his cart behind him while he tried to subtly listen to the muffled breaths coming from inside the boxes. He hoped all of them would get their rest.
Kazumi led him to an alleyway, his gait slowed down as he stood at the entrance of the alley with a lost expression. The alleyway did not look abnormal or like any altercation had occurred.
“I know it sounds unbelievable but I didn’t do it. I don’t have anything to do with it. I love Satoko,” Kazumi bit down on his lip as he looked over the alleyway. His eyes traveled to the side before his head turned to face him. “But her parents hate me now and the town doesn’t believe me when I say she disappeared in less than a second.”
“I believe you.” Tanjiro said simply which made Kazumi’s gaze grow more hopeful. He nodded with a reassuring grin. “Please watch over my cart for me as I investigate the area. I’ll find a lead in this disappearance case.”
With that, Tanjiro flopped down onto the ground with precision. He dug his nose into the ground then lifted his head up to try and find the strain he needed. A demon scent was faint and all over the area with no real center to it at all. It was like the demon was everywhere all at once.
“Um,” Kazumi mumbled, stepping away from his form as he sniffed the air. Tanjiro crawled past him, following the several strains he could latch onto. Each time it led to an end, he sucked in a breath and tried again with a different area. Every time he passed by a stall with his nose in the air or against the ground he could hear the townsfolk whisper amongst themselves about what he was doing.
He thought it was quite obvious he was tracking down the culprit by smell. But apparently the townsfolk just thought he was acting out by being weird.
Eh. It didn’t bother him. He was on a mission to bring down a demon in the town. It didn’t say anything about behaving ‘normally’ during it.
Tanjiro jumped up and called on Kazumi to follow him, pulling the cart behind him as the townsfolk glanced their way. Kazumi's face twisted up when he heard the metal chains that Urokodaki put inside the cart.
“Why are there chains in there?” Kazumi asked, trying to peek his head into the canopy.
Tanjiro lightly pushed his head away from the opening before he could peek in too far. If any of his siblings peeked out, he was not sure how things would go.
“It’s in case the cart gets destroyed and I need to drag the boxes with me.” The chains are made to connect all three together like a wooden box snake chain. He was hoping it didn’t have to come to that. But he might lose the cart along the way, and the chains would really help with transport. “They mean a lot to me.”
“Hmm,” Kazumi gave him another strange look. He awkwardly shuffled on his feet with Tanjiro buried his face into a dried bamboo fence. “Are you getting any leads?”
“No. The scent I’m picking up is everywhere.” Tanjiro frowned. It was like the demon had a traveling cart and just kept driving around without staying in one place at one time. “I can’t pin it to a specific place.”
Kazumi remained silent after that, following after him a few steps behind as he scoured the area. Avoiding people’s stares and ignoring their attempts to shoo him away or distract him from his hunt.
Before he knew it, the sky was getting dimmer. Tanjiro looked up to see the sun beginning to fall from the sky into the horizon. Turning the bright yellow into a bright orange as it tipped towards the skyline.
“You might not want to continue this late into the night.” Kazumi alerted him, gesturing his hand out to the setting sun. “You can pick it up tomorrow. I could help you find lodging.
“No,” Tanjiro shook his head. He replied, “The things responsible for the disappearances are only available to catch during the night.”
“What?” Kazumi asked.
“They don’t strike during the day.” He knows because they are suspected demons, so they can’t go out into the sunlight. “So to get to the boom of this, I need to push on.”
Just then, one of the boxes in the cart thumped. It sounded ridiculously small like Hanako or Shigeru was attempting to stretch. He smiled as Kazumi whipped his head back to the cart in fear and shock. “What was that?”
Tanjiro kept smiling as he responded, “Oh, my family is waking up.”
Kazumi turned his head back so fast it looked like it would fall off. His eyebrows were raising towards his hairline in surprise. “They were in there this entire time?!”
“Yes. They became heavy sleepers during the day because of the current work schedule.” Tanjiro explained, thankful that it was just enough of the truth to say without his face twisting up. He was terrible at lying. “So I end up working most of the day while they come out at night.”
Kazumi furrowed his eyebrows, looking back to the cart and seeing the sight of the wooden boxes inside. “How do they fit into the boxes?”
“That’s a family secret.” The secret being that his entire family is demons that can manipulate their physical appearance like their height.
Then, his nose caught into something new and fresh in the air. A demon’s presence! “Wait. I think I smell something. And whatever it is it is growing stronger. Whatever it is should be close.”
Tanjiro ignored Kazumi’s shriek as he jumped onto a roof, scrambling up quickly to survey the area. He looked down to the boy with the family cart. “I’ll look around!”
“How did—?!”
Tanjiro took off running on the rooftop before Kazumi could finish what he was trying to say. Hopefully Kazumi would follow him with his cart, so his family wouldn’t be waking up at a random corner without him. He peeked behind him after jumping into another rooftop to see the older teen following with the cart behind him.
Tanjiro smiled before a strong scent invaded his senses. A demon’s presence along with a woman’s delicate perfumed scent. He took a deep breath in and whipped his head in the direction of a nearby alleyway.
Jumping down, Tanjiro ignored the sound of Kazumi’s yelling for him to slow down as he tried to determine where the scent was the strongest. He stabbed into the ground right as he heard the cart’s wheels rolling towards him. A spray of swampy water erupting from the ground he stabbed into.
As the swampy water sprayed around his sword, he saw a glimpse of muted colored robes. Tanjiro grabbed onto the clothing and pulled out a young girl out of a demonic clawed hand inside the water.
He remembers Urokodaki said something about demons having an ability called blood demon art. This swampy water must be part of the ability!
“Waterfall Basin!” Tanjiro struck, his demon slayer sword slashing through the air to hit the demon through the water. Tanjiro jumped away from a demon spearing from the muddy water with the girl in his arms.
“You’re the one responsible, aren’t you?” Tanjiro yelled out. “Where are the other missing girls?”
The swamp demon gnashed their teeth at him, grinding against their fangs in horrific screech that made him clamp his hands down on his ears. The demon returned to the swamp water through a circle as big as a puddle that appeared and disappeared without a trace.
Kazumi appeared with his cart right as the demon disappeared. His breath was heavy as he walked up behind him. “What—?”
“Kazumi, watch over this girl. I’ll do my best to protect both of you from the demons responsible.”
“What? Demons? What do you mean demons?”
He heard his family inside the cart start to wake up from the bumps and chuffs coming from behind the boxes. Kazumi clutched at the unconscious girl as Tanjiro smelled the demon’s presence coming up from the ground. Their secret isn’t masked!
Tanjiro readied his sword right as three demons resurfaced from the swampy water. He stumbled back at the sight of the number of demons. Now he needs to protect two people while fighting off three demons with his family waking up behind him.
Ah, what a way to start his first day of being an official demon slayer.