A short rest.
They walked into a forest with dense grass.
A strong demon scent entered Takeshi and Tanjiro's noses, and their expressions began to become serious, different.
Although Zenitsu's sense of smell wasn't as sharp as theirs, he could tell from their expressions that something must have happened.
"Senior Aoyama! Tanjiro... is... something happening?"
He wasn't sure if something had happened, but his voice had already begun to tremble.
Takeshi stopped, placing a hand on Zenitsu's shoulder, saying, "Zenitsu, don't be afraid! I know you're afraid, afraid of experiencing that feeling, of having your brain sucked out of your ears before you even die!"
Zenitsu's calves began to cramp, starting to shake.
"It's okay, with me here, I'll definitely not let you experience that." Takeshi patted his chest, guaranteeing.
"Senior Aoyama..."
In an instant, Zenitsu was moved, his eyes welling up with tears, but then he heard him say.
"If you're unfortunately caught by a demon, Tanjiro and I will definitely kill you beforehand, we'll definitely not let you experience that terror alive!"
Uh...
A certain nerve in Zenitsu's brain snapped, this, this, what kind of words were those, damn it, either way, he was going to die!!!
The further they went, the stronger the demon scent became.
Tanjiro, walking in front, frowned tightly. What would be ahead of them...?
Walking out of the forest, what appeared in front of them was a house in the woods, looking quite large.
The three of them stood in front of the house, not rashly going inside.
"The smell of blood is so strong, Senior Aoyama, there must be something inside, and the demon scent is coming from here."
"Ah? Smell? There's a smell?" Zenitsu asked.
His hand was placed next to his ear, muttering, "More than the smell, can you hear anything?"
Tanjiro's sense of smell was very sharp, Zenitsu's hearing was very acute, even able to hear a person's emotions; and because Takeshi had the system, his sense of smell and hearing were being constantly strengthened little by little by the system.
A sound came from the bushes behind them.
Takeshi took the lead in turning his head to look behind him. A pair of children walked out of the bushes, a boy and a girl.
The two children were clearly very frightened, the boy, who was a little older than the girl, tightly hugging his sister.
Comforting children was Tanjiro's strength, he always had a kind of affinity about him, making people want to get close to him.
Using Zenitsu's sparrow, he successfully calmed the two children, and they were willing to speak to them.
"Little friends, can you tell big brother, what happened? Or, is this house your home?"
As soon as Tanjiro opened his mouth to ask, the little boy immediately denied it.
"N-No, this isn't our home at all!"
"Th-This is... is the monster's house!"
Hearing this, Zenitsu fell backward, placing his hands on his chest, looking like he was about to be euthanized.
Seeing this scene, Takeshi looked helpless, walking forward, lifting the person up from the ground.
"Hey! Are you a man? Is that what a man who wants to get married is like?"
Mentioning 'marriage' brought out a bit of courage from Zenitsu, but you shouldn't have too high of hopes. The courage he showed was only the size of a mung bean, or perhaps even smaller.
The children's older brother had been traveling with them, and when they were walking on the night road, they had encountered a demon.
That demon hadn't even looked at the two of them, and had snatched their brother away. And these two children were following their brother's blood, trembling with fear, barely managing to follow him here to find him.
Based on this alone, these two children were stronger than Zenitsu by a mile.
Meeting the gaze that Takeshi cast towards him, Zenitsu lowered his head in shame. But, he was really scared to death, okay.
Back then, when he went to Mount Fujikasane to participate in the Final Selection, he hadn't even thought about going.
If the old man hadn't slapped him a dozen times, he still wouldn't know which corner he was hiding in, hiding safely.
"Hey, Senior Aoyama, I hear... disgusting sounds constantly coming from the house, it sounds like, drums."
Takeshi could also hear this sound, it was intermittent, proving that his hearing wasn't as sharp as Zenitsu's.
"Sounds? What sounds..."
Tanjiro turned to ask. The only sounds he could hear were the rustling of the leaves or the chirping of birds, nothing else.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump,
A clear sound of drums came from the door on the upper floor, and this time, they could all hear it clearly.
Each drum beat made people tremble involuntarily, and fear was born from the bones.
The sound of the drums suddenly became rapid, and then stopped abruptly...
In that second when the sound of the drums stopped, a boy covered in blood was thrown out of the window, his eyes wide open, filled with fear, his body falling towards the ground.
"Ah—!!!"
The girl screamed, and Tanjiro used his body to block in front of the two children.
"Don't look! You can't look."
A drop of blood splattered on Takeshi's haori, blooming a blood-red flower on the clothes.
Takeshi walked forward, half embracing the boy from the ground in a pool of blood, his hands, his clothes, stained with even more blood, looking at the dying boy.
Zenitsu on the side didn't faint, but was about to faint.
Tanjiro quickly rushed up. "Are you okay!? Please, hold on!"
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