urgent summons

"Nezuko!"

She turned around to find zenitsu doing his best to flirt with her.

"Nezuko-chan~" he blushed

Nezuko started running away from him.

Zenitsu was chasing her.

"Nezuko!" he called out

Tanjiro stood in front of the two

"Zenitsu! Please behave yourself! She doesn't like you!!" tanjiro said

"I bet you 1000 yen that inosuke's gonna come in and headbutt tanjiro" kage said

"Bet" kuki and taiyo said

"Tan. ji . Ro" zenits smiled.

He grabbed tanjiro's hands, and tanjiro pulled away in a panic

Then zenitsu started chasing both tanjiro and nezuko

"Let's get along tanjiro!!"

"Zenitsu stay away from us!!"

"Don't say that, tanjiro!"

"Stop it zenitsu!"

"tanjiro! Nezuko!"

"Wait! Wait for me tanjiro! Nezuko!"

Then the door flew open

"AHHH!" inosuke screamed

Then he headbutted tanjiro.

Then the chase continued leaving nezuko out.

Kage put out his hand for his money

"Ugh…"

Kuki and taiyo gave him 1000 yen each

…

That night tanjiro took nezuko to stay with the girls, away from zenitsu.

…

A couple of weeks later

The group sat there, waiting for the doctor to tell them their state

"You're all recovered!"

Tanjiro sighed out of relief while hoshi contemplated lying and saying she's still in pain, or just going.

Then a crow swooped in

"Northeast! Your next stop is northeast! You 9 are going to mount natagumo! Go to mount natagumo!"

…

"We're off now" hoshi smiled at the old lady.

The group had changed into their uniforms and were outside.

"Thank you for your accommodation" she continued

She sparked some rocks together

"EH?! WHAT THE HELL OLD HAG?!"

Inosuke was about to hit her, but hoshi and kuki had to hold him back

"YOU IDIOT SHE'S DOING THAT FOR GOOD LUCK BECAUSE WE'RE GOING ON A DANGEROUS JOB!!" kuki yelled

Then he calmed down.

"You should be proud of yourselves and strive to survive at all times. Good luck in your fight."

The group bowed down in thanks and ran off to their next mission.

"'Proud of ourselves'? 'Good luck in your fight'? What does that mean?" inosuke asked

"What a blockhead…" zenitsu muttered

"He does have a point… it sounded quite cryptic to me..." hoshi said

"To be proud of ourselves...i think it means to fully comprehend our own position...to be able to bear it with our own conscience...and do the right thing...something like that" netsu said

"Besides, the old lady wished us a safe journey" shizen said

"What does clear conscience mean? And what position?"

"Well-"

"What is doing the right thing? Why did the old woman wish us a safe journey? She's not even my relative, so why did she do that? She didn't comprehend her position, did she?"

Tanjiro started to run faster.

"Wait up!!" taiyo yelled

"I'M NOT GONNA LOSE!!" inosuke yelled

"WAIT! WAIT FOR ME!!" zenitsu yelled

…

They arrived at a mountain

"wait a second!" zenitsu yelled

"What is it zenitsu?" kuki asked

"I-i'm scared..."

He slumped to the ground

"We're getting closer to our destination and it's freaking me out!!"

"Chill out lemon head, here take a snack"

kage tossed him bread

"Bread isn't gonna do anything!! I'm still scared!!"

He tossed more bread at him

"Why is he sitting...it's disgusting" inosuke said

"You have no right to rebuke me pig head!! Can't you guys feel anything coming out of that mountain up ahead?"

"But still, you can't just sit there…" shizen said

"You're disgusting, indeed…" inosuke said

"I'm not disgusting!! Im normal!! You guys are the weirdos!

Sniff sniff

Tanjiro and hoshi started to run

"Tanjiro! Hoshi! Wait!" zenitsu yelled

The rest followed them

"Don't leave me alone, dammit! Don't leave me alone…"

The thing hoshi and tanjiro smelled was a person

They looked beat up, and was bleeding like crazy

"Help…" they muttered

"He's wearing a corps uniform...he's a slayer...something must've happened" hoshi said

"Wait!" the slayer yelled

"Huh?"

She saw a glint and the slayer was flying in the air

"THEY'RE TAKING ME AWAY TOO! HELP ME!"

And the slayer disappeared back into the forest.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"We have to go save him" tanjiro said

"Let me go first! You may follow my lead and tremble...i'm starving!!" inosuke said

"Eh?"

"He's hungry for power…" zenitsu explained

The group ran inside the forest.

Kuki and hoshi stayed back and stared at zenitsu

"We can't just leave him here…" kuki said

"Why not?"

"Hey!" zenitsu yelled

"He's an asset to the team!"

"You're off by two letters...but fine"

"We're staying here?" zenitsu asked

"Oh, no we're going with tanjiro and the others...we're just taking you along too" kuki said

"How're we supposed to find 'em?!" zenitsu yelled

"Don't worry, i've already memorized all of their scents, so we're fine" hoshi smiled

"If you say so...you guys will protect me right?!" zenitsu cried

Kuki and hoshi looked at each other

"Yeah...sure…"

"Why'd you hesitate"

"We didn't hesitate"

"You looked at each other and then answered me"

"We do that all the time"

"You just met two missions ago"

"Can we go fight demons or not?!"

Hoshi was already running towards the forest

"HEY! WAIT FOR US!!"

…

"ACK! EW! GET OFF, GET OFF, GET OFF!" shizen screeched

There was a spider web on her face and she was clawing at her face to get it off.

Netsu used her swords to cut off some of the other spider webs.

"There are webs everywhere…" netsu hissed

"They're getting in our way!!" inosuke yelled

Once shizen got the webs off of her face, she turned to the group.

"Hey...uh...thanks for letting me tag along with all of you...i know i was trained by a hashira, but sometimes i get scared...so...thanks" she smiled

Some fuzz balls started flying in the air near inosuke

"Where did those come from?" kage said

"They look like cotton balls…" netsu said

"Inosuke?" shizen asked

Ckrik

There was another slayer a couple of feet in front of them.

"Hello?" kage said

The slayer aimed his sword at him.

"Woah! Calm down jamal...we're slayers too...we're rank mizunoto...the name's kage yami"

"Mizunoto...mizunoto?! Why not pillars?! No matter how many mizunoto they send, it's hopeless!"

"HEY! I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I'M THE TSUGUKO OF THE FLAME PILLAR THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!"

Then inosuke punched the slayer in the face.

"INOSUKE!!" the group screamed

"YOU'RE FUSSY! ONLY PLANNING WILL DO US GOOD. YOUR EXISTENCE DOESN'T DO US ANY GOOD! NOW TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON, YOU COWARD"

"I'm your senior you know...anyways, I received a message from the crow. There were 10 of us who came here. Not long after that, my compatriots...my compatriots started killing each other"