A Wild Temple Demon Appeared!

"Talking"

(Added words in the head or thoughts)

'Whisper'

[Ki Technique/Breathing Form]

• POV change •

*Sound*

∆Time and/or Place∆

~Sounds made by a character like a sigh~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• 3rd Person •

As the two males of the surviving family walked along with the two females with them, they notice that the thick cloud will disperse after a 20 more minutes. Because of that, they were forced to stop.

However, the two thought of a way to keep traveling without the need to stop when it's day. The two walked around and found a cave nearby and they hid Nezuko and Lily in there for them to stop and take a rest. Well, more like a huge rest for Lily as she is not good at walking too long, and Nezuko is now a demon so it doesn't bother her.

Tanjiro and Raiden decided to look around to find something that would help them to carry Nezuko at day. Luckily, Tanjiro and Raiden found a nearby farm. An old couple who were currently tending minding their business.

"Excuse us!" Tanjiro said in a audible voice as he asked, "Would it be okay if we took that basket, straws and some bamboo?"

"Sure, you're welcome to take it," the man added, "but that basket's full of holes."

"Yes. We'll pay you for it." Tanjiro nodded.

"No, that's alright. I mean, it's a basket with holes." the man said.

Tanjiro insisted, "Yes, I will pay you!"

"No, it's alright. You two can have the bamboo and straw for free too." the man denied.

Raiden sighed at Tanjiro's stubbornness and just told the old man, "Just take it, please... He's more stubborn than anyone else you know."

The man sighed in defeat and said, "Alright, alright..."

Tanjiro was about to give the money to the man, but Raiden stopped his hand that was approaching at fast speed. Raiden gave the money instead of Tanjiro, since he knows that Tanjiro is a big ball of stubbornness. His stubbornness is equal to how hard his forehead is.

Since they are now far from their home, and forgot to take their basket from there, they took the basket and managed to get some straws and bamboos to strengthen the basket with holes.

When the two arrived back to the cave, they saw a sleeping Lily. Meanwhile, Tanjiro panicked when he didn't saw Nezuko. His panic caused Lily to wake up, and she told Tanjiro that Nezuko dug a hole to hide from the sunlight. Nezuko's head popped out from the hole she dug with a grown on her face.

"Nezuko..." Tanjiro whispered in worry.

Raiden just closed his eyes as he leaned on the wall outside the cave. Waiting for Tanjiro so they can start repairing and fortifying the basket they got.

The two young men started repairing the basket as they work simultaneously, with Tanjiro repairing the holes while Raiden chopped the bamboos so it can be weaved by Tanjiro.

Meanwhile, Lily was sleeping on the ground inside the cave and used a huge thick blanket to sleep on. Raiden proposed to take this huge blanket in case Lily got exhausted through the walking. Though, Raiden never revealed it was him who took the blanket with them nor did Lily know that it him who decided to take it with them.

After finishing the basket, the two decided to see if Nezuko can fit inside.

"Nezuko? Nezuko?" Tanjiro called. "Do you think you can fit inside this? We want to keep moving during the day too. I'll carry you, okay?"

Nezuko just stared while Raiden only sat down, leaning on the wall. Lily is still asleep, and they never woked her up as she's really tired.

Tanjiro says as he pointed at the basket, "Can you fit? In here? Basket."

Nezuko climbed up from the hole she dug and tried to get inside, only to be able to get inside with only less than half of her body. She stopped trying to get inside when she reached the bottom of the basket and just lied down there on her stomach.

"She kinda protrudes, huh?" Tanjiro muttered.

Then, Tanjiro remembered something and said, "Nezuko? Do you remember how you became big like an adult earlier? Do you think you can do the opposite? Get smaller?"

Tanjiro chanted, "Smaller, Nezuko. Get smaller!"

Nezuko pulled the basket a little and then she pushed herself up until the basket is standing as she entered it with her head first. Tanjiro quickly reacted and safely held the basket so it won't fall down. And then, he saw that Nezuko was successful on entering the basket.

Her 12-year old body turned into that of a 5-year old child.

Tanjiro petted her head as he gave her compliments, "Good job! That's a good girl, Nezuko! I'm impressed!"

Seeing Tanjiro and Nezuko ready to go, Raiden decided to wake Lily up so they can use the blanket she's using to sleep on to cover the basket, but...

"Oi, wake up." Raiden said as he shakes her a little.

"2 hours more, please..." Lily replied in a weary voice.

Raiden's left eye twitched a little. Then, he decided to use his special attack.

[Forehead Flick Technique]

*Tik!*

She moved, but she's still sleeping.

[Forehead Flick Technique]

*Tok!*

"OWO!" she literally said it with her face like that.

"What was that for?! Did you know that it hurts like I hit my head with a rock?!" Lily asked in frustration.

"Well... That technique was specifically created to wake up Tanjiro..." Raiden shrugged.

When Raiden saw Lily has tears on the corner of her eyes, Raiden couldn't help but sigh.

"Sorry about that..." Raiden said and looked to the side.

"Eh?" Lily was shocked at Raiden apologizing to her.

"Let's go. We gotta move." Raiden said as he stood up and stepped outside of the cave. Lily gave the blanket she's using to Tanjiro, who wrapped the basket Nezuko was in, in order to keep her from the sunlight and to be able to move at day.

They traveled non-stop and asked some people on the way to ask where they should go in order to reach Mt. Sagiri so they can meet the old man Tomioka Giyu talked about.

"Mt. Sagiri?" the woman they asked spoke, "If you want to go to Mt. Sagiri, you'll have to cross over that mountain, but...the sun's about to set. Are you three really heading there with all that luggage?"

What she said was true. When the three walked, Raiden became famished and they decided to visit a house of a kind person. Since that person was kind, Raiden, in return, cooked for them. But since he cooked a lot, they were given the food he made to carry along should they get hungry. All of them were carrying bags, two of which are foods, and one is where Nezuko is.

"It's dangerous, you know." The woman said with concern with her son beside her.

"We'll be careful." Both Tanjiro and Lily said, while Raiden is silent.

"Thank you very much." Tanjiro, being a kind boy, thanked them.

As the three of them started their walk to Mt. Sagiri, the woman told them that people have gone missing lately, and try not to lose their way.

Soon, the sun had set, and Nezuko was now with them, walking.

They trekked the road, they stepped on the ground, they walked on the pathway. All of these means the same thing; to travel. But they have been used on different occasions. They traveled by foot until it is so dark that they didn't know if it was still the same day, or it is past midnight, because they walked and only rested when Lily's feet are exhausted.

On the way, they finally saw a temple with lights on.

"There's a temple over there. There must be people in there since there is light." Tanjiro said to both Lily and Nezuko as Raiden was not the talkative type.

"Tanjiro, I'll take a quick leak over here." Raiden walked to the part where the trees are thicker.

"Alright, be careful." Tanjiro said but his faced scrunched.

Tanjiro was about to call Raiden, but he already disappeared, but he knew whe won't get killed by a demon.

Tanjiro pulled both Nezuko and Lily towards the temple, "I smell blood! This mountain path is pretty rough! Someone must've gotten hurt!"

The three of them run upstairs, quickly going into the entrance of the temple. Tanjiro opened the sliding doors with both of his hand while asking, "Are you alright?"

But what he saw shook his very soul. What he saw was a man-eating demon, feasting on people's corpses. Due to his shock, he accidentally dropped the basket on his body. Meanwhile, Lily was petrified and ran to the side to vomit.

She didn't vomit when the Kamado family was massacred because she never saw their corpses. But this one, this one really made her stomach to churn when she saw those corpses, one being eaten.

"What the hell?" the demon asked in annoyance. "This is my turf. If you break into my territory, I'll make you pay!"

Nezuko, seeing the corpses, started to drool, but did not move on her place.

"There's something off about you." the demon asked as he stood up, "Are you both humans?"

Tanjiro stepped back a little. But the demon moved faster than his eyes can see after the lights on the candles dies.

Tanjiro and the demon flew out of the temple. When the demon was about to stab Tanjiro with his sharp nails, Tanjiro was quick enough to pull his hatchet and hacked it towards the demon's neck.

Tanjiro slid on the stone path, and the demon backflipped to stand up properly.

The demon chuckled and said, "A hatchet, huh? Not bad. But a scratch like this...should heal in no time."

The demon demonstrated what he meant, his wound on his neck closed and the bleeding stopped almost instantly.

"See that? The bleeding has already stopped." the demon said in a cocky tone. Then, he looked around and saw Lily. "Oh? So there's three of you, huh?"

When Lily heard that, she quickly ran to Nezuko and called her name as well as encouraging her to fight the urge to eat human flesh.

"You won't get me twice!" the demon says with a big grin on his face. "Alright, I'm gonna snap your neck!"

"Nezuko! Fight! Fight it!" Lily told Nezuko.

Nezuko snapped out of it and quick ran towards the demon who was choking Tanjiro, and gave the demon a strong kick that separated the head from his body.

"Eh?!" Tanjiro was shocked at what happened. Then finally realized what happened as the body fell to his side and pushed it away from him.

"N-Nezuko..." Tanjiro called out but...

Nezuko kicked away the body that was trying to approach Tanjiro. The headless body crashed on the tree with its back.

Tanjiro was shocked when he also noticed that the body moved without the head.

"You bastards!" the demon head screamed in annoyance. "One of you is a demon all along? You gave off such a weird vibe! Why does two humans and a demon teaming up?"

(HE'S ACTUALLY TALKING!!!) Tanjiro internally screamed.

The body moved on its own and jumped up and was going to land an axe kick on Nezuko. It did hit, but not on Nezuko not on the ground.

What the kick landed on was two arms in front of Nezuko.

"What the?!" the demon head was shocked when he saw that a child that looked no more than 9 years old blocked his attack.

"Are you a demon too? No. It's very different than demons, but also different than human... What are you? I though I can eat that Marechi girl since I thought the three of you were all human. A human, a Marechi, a demon, and a strange human..."

The body jumped away from Raiden who blocked the attack and said coldly, "So what? It doesn't matter when you're going to die, anyway. Tanjiro, take care of the head. I'll take care of this overgrown pest."