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(*)
After a long night of hunting and defeating a nasty demon terrorising the farmers in the area, Yua couldn't help but yawn and stretch.
Although her Moon Breathing technique was superior, locating the cunning demon had proven to be quite a challenge.
It was high time to rest, ideally at home or in a Wisteria House, but sadly, Yua couldn't allow it herself.
She needed to keep moving forward till she rose in rank.
Appearing at home still as a Hinoto was out of the question.
Currently, she was walking on a little dusty road between farmlands, while her trusty crow Kaguya flew over her.
This prefecture was quite lovely and was now back to being peaceful.
For a moment Yua closend her eyes, breathing in the fresh air and just feeling the warm rays of the sun.
She may be a daughter of the moon, but she enjoyed such sunny days like everyone else.
Just then, she heard a loud commotion.
Confused, she opened her eyes, only to deadpan.
Before her on the road were two boys.
One in a black-green checkered haori and the other in a yellow with white little triangles.
The young man in the yellow haori was on his knees, clinging to his friend in the checker-patterned haori, screaming that he would die soon and other nonsensical things.
Normally, Yua would have ignored him, but she noticed that they wore the Demon Slayer Corps uniform.
These were her fellow swordsmen. Her father had taught her that she needed to help her brothers and sisters in arms.
The Demon Slayer Corps was meant to be one big family, always there for one another.
Additionally, she couldn't simply walk past them.
If word got out that she had ignored her comrades in need, it could jeopardise her chances of becoming a Hashira.
She couldn't afford to make any mistakes.
With a forced smile on her pink lips, she called out to them, "Is everything all right with you guys?"
Yua regretted it the exact moment as yellow haori zeroed in on her, pointing.
"Aah! A beautiful Demon Slayer girl! I must be dreaming?! You look like the famous Moonlight Beauty of the Corps!"
Oh no!
Great, another person who had heard this silly, annoying nickname a slayer gave her as a joke to upset her.
"Moonlight Beauty?", green haori reapted confused, which only angered yellow haori: "Do you live under a rock, Tanjiro?! There is said to be a beautiful girl with long midnight blue hair like the night sky, eyes as grey as moonlight, and a figure to die for in the Demon Slayer Corps! Also, she is pretty strong."
Of course, that she was strong was an afterthought.
If she ever again stumbled over this worm Katsumi Tomita, she would kick his arse.
Rules be damned!
"I have a name, you know!", she called over, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm Mochizuki Yua, a proud Demon Slayer for four years, Rank Hinoto. I won't let you reduce me to only my looks, crybaby Mizunoto!"
Yellow Haori screamed ugly crying, crybaby Mizunoto, till he seemed to register the rest of her sentences.
"Mochizuki Yua?! You really are the Moonlight Beauty-"
"-And your senpai!", she added growling.
Yua couldn't look so fast, as green haori, gripped yellow haori by his neck, making him and himself bow to her.
"I'm sorry for my friend, senpai.", apologised green haori. "We didn't mean any disrespect."
At least someone had manners.
"What's your name, Mizunoto?" she asked.
Green haori looked up, which made Yua blink for a second.
Oh, he was a handsome boy.
He had lovely dark red eyes, just like his hair, and was smaller than her. Well, she was 177 cm and surely also older than he was, so no wonder.
"I'm Kamado Tanjiro, and he is Agatsuma Zenitsu. We really meant no disrespect."
Again, Tanjiro made them bow, while Zenitsu sniffled.
"If Agatsuma-San stops calling me Moonlight Beauty and acting that shameless, I will.", Yua declared calmly, even if she felt a strange fluttering feeling in her stomach the longer she studied Tanjiro.
Tanjiro promised, as Zenitsu wailed, that he wasn't shameless if he was dying soon.
Who in the name of Tsukuyomi did Yua just meet?
(*)
A while later, Yua and her new acquaintances, Tanjiro and Zenitsu, were walking together.
Apparently, they all headed in the same direction.
The good thing was Zenitsu had finally calmed down because Yua was this close away to gag the blond boy with a cloth, so he would stop crying and bitching about how he would die soon.
Nuisance!
Tanjiro didn't share her sentiment, since he asked in a calming and reassuring voice if Zenitsu was okay.
"Yeah.", sniffled Zenitsu, his last tears away. "Now that I'm calmer, I'm getting hungry."
Yua couldn't help but roll her eyes. Naturally, there was something new with the nuisance.
She didn't get how Tanjiro could give him his Onigiri if he only had one. At least Zenitsu had enough manners to share the Onigiri with Tanjiro.
"Aren't you hungry, Yua-Senpai?", Tanjiro asked worried.
The midnight blue-haired young woman just deadpanned.
"No, don't worry. I eat before."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, Kamado-San, I am."
"Oh, all right."
This boy was way too sweet and caring.
He would get eaten alive in this world.
Yua wonder what had pushed him to become a Demon Slayer.
Her grey eyes wander over the red box he carried on his back.
"I know what you mean when you say you're scared of demons, but you can't make trouble for your sparrow.", Tnajiro told Zenitsu.
"Huh? Was it distressed?", wonders the blonde. "The sparrow? How can you tell?"
"Well, he says that you're always whining about not wanting to go to work, and you're always hitting on girls and that you snore so loud, he's had it! So he says."
"You are a pathetic skirt chaser also? Tzz.", Yua grumblend, crossing her arms.
"He's saying that?! You can understand bird language?", Zentitsu asked in disbelief, the red-haired boy.
Yua answered for Tanjiro: "Any kasugai crow or, in your case, sparrow can talk. You didn't notice?"
"You're lying, senpai, right?! You're just trying to trick me!"
At this moment, Kaguya and another crow, Tanjiro's Matsuemon, called down to them: "Start running! Start running! Yua, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, run! The three of you head over to your next destination! Run! Run, Yua, Tanjiro, Zenitsu!"
This shocked Zenitsu so much that he screamed in fright and started to roll around on the ground.
Tanjiro looked worried at him, while Yua just deadpanned.
A nuisance, trough, and trough.
Having had enough, Yua gripped Zenitsu by the collar of his yellow haori, dragging him in the direction their crows led them, ignoring his screams to please let him go, and how he didn't want to go.
Tanjiro caught up to her.
"Senpai?"
"Kamado-San, we don't have time for Agatsuma-San's little crisis. We need to go. Anytime we waste, another human life could be taken."
"If you say so, Yua-Senpai."
So Yua dragged Zenitsu behind her, while Tanjiro followed.
The young woman wondered what would await them on this joint mission.
(*)
After walking through a forest and ignoring Zenitsu's cries that he wouldn't be much help to them, the three Demon Slayers found themselves before a mansion.
Yua let go of Zenitsu, so he could stand up.
Together, they study the mansion with caution.
"I can smell blood.", Tanjiro told them. "But this particular scent…"
"Huh? You smell something?", Zenitsu wonders.
The red-haired boy nodded.
"Something I've never smelled before."
"I don't know about that, but do you hear that sound? Also, are we three gonna work together, after all?"
The only female crossed her arms, fixing the mansion with sharp eyes, concentrating on it.
Demonic and human presence, so much was clear.
That's when the demon slayers noticed two hugging children between bushes and trees.
A young boy and a little girl.
"K-Kids…", Zenitsu stuttered.
"They are scared.", Yua noted.
"I wonder what's wrong.", Tanjiro wondered, before he walked up to them. "Hey, guys, what are you doing here?"
But the children are so terrified they can't manage to talk, only after Tanjiro shows them Zenitsu's cute little sparrow, the boy tells them what's going on.
The boy was Shoichi with his younger sister Teruko. Both had followed after a monster, who had kidnapped their older brother Kiyoshi.
All the alarm bells ring in Yua's head as she hears their story.
"The monster only took you, brother?", she repeats as Shoichi nods shyly. "This is not good. There is only one explanation if a demon takes only one specific human and doesn't care for others."
"Which is, senpai?", Tanjiro ask curiously.
Yua explains: "Their older brother must be a marechi. This is the rarest blood type that exists and is particularly appetising for demons. They forget anything and just want that person's blood, so tasteful it is to them."
The freaked-out look on Zenitsu's face was funny, while seeing the siblings scared made Yua's heart hurt.
They reminded her of Kaito and Hikari. So she kneels down to them and pats their heads.
"Don't worry. He is still alive, I can feel it."
The siblings just stare at her with big, hopeful eyes.
In his mind, Tanjiro wonders what Yua-Senpai meant by her feelings that Kiyoshi was still alive, but this was not important right now.
He turns back to the kids.
"We're going to defeat the bad guy and rescue your brother!", promises Tanjiro to them.
"Really? You really will?", Teruko asked to be sure.
"Yeah. For sure!"
Yua nods in agreement.
"Just wait, soon you will have your brother back."
"Tanjiro…Yua-Senpai…", Zenitsu calls them, holding his hands over his ears. "Hey, what is this sound? This creepy sound never stops. Is it a tsuzumi?"
Tanjiro and Yua don't hear anything, which they tell the blonde.
Suddenly, a tsuzumi drum can be heard in the area.
All look around to find the source, till on the final drum beat, a boy's body flies out from the door on the second floor.
Shocked shouts turn to screams as the body hits the ground.
On instinct, Yua hugs the children to herself, shushing them: "Don't look, don't look, okay, little ones?"
Meanwhile, Tanjiro holds the poor dying boy in his arms, hugging him to himself in his last moments.
"Hey, is this man your…" he calls over, hoping it isn't Kiyoshi.
Shoichi, shaking in Yua's arms, tells him that this is not their older brother since he wears a persimmon-colored kimono.
Careful, Tanjiro lays the dead boy on the ground, promising him in his thoughts to give him a proper burial after he saved the older brother of the kids.
"All right. Zenitsu, Yua-Senpai come on!"
"Right!", agrees Yua, slowly letting go of the still scared kids.
Under no circumstances does Zenitsu want to enter the mansion and come with them, till the others just turn away from him, showing Zenitsu they will leave him behind.
Of course, the blond boy doesn't want that, agreeing to come with them.
Then Tanjiro kneels again before the kids, while Yua gives them some last pats on the head to calm them down.
He puts his box down on the ground before them.
"In case of an emergency, I'm leaving this box behind. Even if something happens, you two will be protected.", Tanjiro promises the siblings.
Calmy Yua stares at the box, it seems like her eyes twinkle with light, saying nothing.
"Kamado-San, Agatsuma-San, let's enter the mansion.", orders Yua, walking up to it. "Since I have the higher rank, I will lead this mission. You are both under my command now."
"Of course, Yua-Senpai.", acknowledged Tanjiro.
Zenitsu reluctantly follows them while sobbing.
The trio enters the eerie and quiet mansion.
Yua's nose starts to tickle, thanks to all the dust which is flying around.
The demon seems to not care for housekeeping.
Tanjiro and Yua walked further into the mansion, as Zenitsu cried out behind them: "Tanjiro! Hey, Tanjiro! Senpai! Hey! Yua-Senpai! You'll protect me, right? You'll protect me, right?"
They stop.
"Zenitsu, I hate to put you on the spot, but… I've got a broken rib and leg from my previous battle," Tnajiro admits. "And neither is fully healed yet. So –"
Yua's you could have told me sooner, was drowned by Zenitsu, totally losing his nerves.
The blond-haired boy again rolls around the ground crying about how he is going to die.
Annoyed, Yua picks him up by his collar and gives him a hard slap in the face.
She ignores Tanjiro's shocked gasp since Zenitsu stopped freacking out and hangs like a wet cloth from her hand.
"Listen to me, Agatsuma! No one die's on my watch!", she growls pissed off. "I'm not a Hinoto for nothing. I won't let any of my men die, but for that, get yourself at least together and stop being a crybaby, or I will personally give you something to really cry over!"
Zenitsu squeaks quietly in fright, while Tanjiro finds: "Senpai…please don't be so hard on him. Demons can be scary; his fear isn't without reason."
"He will never woman-up if he shit his pants because of anything slightly scary.", Yua barks back.
"Woman-up?"
"The future is female, Kamado-San."
Before Tanjiro can say something, both he and Yua see how Shiuchi and Teruko enter the mansion.
"Goddammit, kids!", Yua groans, letting Zenitsu fall on the floor, which makes him let out a tiny shriek.
"You shouldn't be here!", Tanjiro scolds the young ones.
"M-Mister, we heard scratching sounds from inside that box!", Shouchi explains.
"Even still, it pains me that you left it behind! I mean, it's more precious to me than my own life!"
Out of nowhere, a wild and chaotic tremor occurs throughout the mansion. The group looks cautious and/or fearful around.
In fright, Zenitsu covers his ears and falls to his knees, accidentally bumping Tanjirou and Teruko into a room.
"Ah, sorry! My butt…"
A drum is played, and Tanjiro and Teruko vanish before their eyes!
Determined Yua draws her Katana while Zenitsu screams in fear and shock, and Shouichi was frozen.
"Stay calm!", she orders.
"HOW CAN I BE CALM?! TANJIRO VANISHED!", Zenitsu shrieks.
Many things happen at the same time. Zenitsu wanted to throw himself at Yua, but she backed away into the room behind her. The drums played again, and suddenly she found herself in another room, with no sign of Zenitsu, Shouichi, Tanjiro, or Teruko.
The drums sounded a few more times as Yua held her katana before her, ready for anything, until the noise finally stopped. She now stood in what appeared to be a normal bedroom.
As she analyses her surroundings, her eyes scan from corner to corner. Nothing she sees or feels seems out of place.
"The room changed as the drums played," she thought. "This must be the Blood Demon Art of the demon who took the older brother of the kids. Now the question is… should I stay in the room and wait for it to change again, or should I follow my instincts in hopes they lead me in the right direction?"
(*)
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