Trek down the mountain

In a cold and desolate forest, there sits a house belonging to a family of charcoal makers. Next to the charcoal kiln are two boys, currently putting their woven baskets filled with charcoal onto their backs. The younger boy, who is 13 years of age, is donning a checkered, black-and-sea-foam-green haori over a white robe. The older boy, who is 14 years of age, has a black haori which turns to white halfway down the cloth over a similar white robe.

A woman's voice sounds out as the two finished gathering their charcoal.

"Hiroto! Tanjiro!" the woman calls out, wearing a white and long-sleeved smock over a purple and cream checkered kimono, along with a white cloth covering her hair. Her name is Kie Kamado, the mother of the two boys.

Turning around, Hiroto and Tanjiro both look over to their mother. Their faces and hands covered in soot from gathering the charcoal.

"Look at you two, both of your faces are covered in soot. Come over here." Kie says as she wipes her hands clean on her clothes.

The two boys walk over to their mother, who kneels and starts wiping Tanjiro's face first clean of soot. Worry can be seen in her eyes as she looks at her two boys.

"It's dangerous with all this snow. You two don't have to go, you know." Kie says, wiping off the last of the soot on Tanjiro's face and starts cleaning Hiroto up next.

"Well, we both want everyone to eat their fill on New Year's so me and Tanjiro are going to sell as much charcoal as we can." Replied Hiroto, the older boy.

Hiroto has messy, ruffled up red hair with burgundy tips tied into a ponytail along with Tanjiro. His hair is similar to his younger brother, Tanjiro, but the darker parts are more concentrated, while the burgundy seems to be sharper in contrast. Hiroto's eyes are wide and dark red, also similar to Tanjiro's. However, his eyes also have a hint of purple on the outside as it seems to be inherited from his mother.

Hiroto's height is 160cm, just slightly above Tanjiro when standing next to him.

Kie looks at the two and smiles, "Thank you boys" she says.

Hiroto smiles at his loving mother, and just when he is about to say something to Tanjiro he is interrupted.

"Big bro!" a young boy's voice can be heard.

"Hm?" Hiroto and Tanjiro both turn to look towards the source of the voice, to see their younger siblings, Shigeru and Hanako, running towards them.

"Are you both going to town again today?" Asked Shigeru in an excited tone.

Hanako shouts out beside him in a pleading tone, "I'm going with you two!"

Behind the two coming from around the corner of the house is Takeo with an axe on his shoulder. He stutters in his step seeing the scene to his left.

"Oh no, you're not you two," Kie says, standing up. "You both know that you can't walk as fast as Hiroto and Tanjiro."

"But Mom!" Shigeru says, shaking both his fists in agitation.

"No buts" Kie responds. "Since they both can't use the cart today because of the snow, they both won't be able to give you a ride when you're tired. You don't want to be a burden to them now do you?"

Both Shigeru and Hanako pouts at her words. Shigeru lunges towards Hiroto and grabs onto his clothes shouting out, "Big bro!" and hugging him.

Hanako walks up behind Shigeru and looks pleadingly towards Hiroto, "I wanna go with you!" Using her puppy eyes. "I promise I'll help you two!"

Hiroto rubs the head of both Shigeru and Hanako, calming them down a bit. "Thanks, Hanako, but you have to stay home today. It's going to be dangerous walking down the path with all this snow." Hiroto says, gently pushing Shigeru out of his embrace in front of him.

Tanjiro crouches down next to Shigeru and puts a hand on his shoulder and cheek reassuring him. "Don't worry, we'll get you tons of goodies from the village, okay?" Tanjiro says.

Hiroto, looking at the scene smiles, at how close his siblings are. He rubs Hanako's head and say's, "Don't worry Hanako, your big brother will read for you when we get back."

"Okay!" Hanako says, smiling up at Hiroto.

Kie looking at the scene playing out in front of her is grateful for her doting elder siblings. "Thank you both so much Hiroto, Tanjiro."

*Chuckle* "It's no problem, Mom. Me and Tanjiro should get going now or we might not make it back before nighttime." Hiroto says, turning to Takeo at the back, who is resting an axe on his shoulder. "Can you chop as much wood as you can Takeo? You should be strong enough to chop a lot now right?" Hiroto says to him, teasing a bit.

"Don't tease me, big bro. Sure I'll do it but… I was hoping that I could do with you and Tanjiro." Takeo says turning away and pouting.

Hiroto, seeing the scene just laughs, "Ha ha ha don't be missing us too much when we're both gone." Hiroto says to Takeo.

Tanjiro walk's up and starts patting Takeo's head, "There there," Tanjiro says.

Takeo swipes the hands away from his head and shouts to Tanjiro, "What's with that all of a sudden?."

"There there," Tanjiro says as he caresses Takeo's head again.

"I said, cut it out!" Takeo says jumping back with his hand on his hips.

"Hahahaha" Hiroto and his family laugh at the scene in front of him. "Come on Tanjiro, let's get going," Hiroto says turning away towards the path.

"Be safe, okay?" "Hurry back, okay!" Shouts Hanako and Shigeru.

Hiroto and Tanjiro waves back at them as they walk away. On Hiroto's hand, there is a bracelet made up of black beads with a silver piece that has engravings in the middle of the bracelet. This was given to him by his father before he passed away from disease.

Walking along the path, the two meet their younger sister, Nezuko with Rokuta on her back wrapped up in a cloth. Nezuko has her hair long black hair done up into a bun with pink hair ties. She has soft-looking pink eyes that match her pink kimono.

"Big Brothers!" Nezuko says with Rokuta on her back sleeping.

Hiroto looks at Nezuko and says, "Hey, Nezuko. Me and Tanjiro are both leaving now for the village. How's Rokuta? Did he cause much trouble?" Looking at Rokuta on her back sleeping.

Nezuko looks at her oldest brother and says while smiling, "He didn't cause too much trouble, I just put him down for a nap or else he would start making a scene when you both leave."

Nezuko looks back to Rokuta's peaceful smiling face and says softly, "He misses Dad a lot after he passed away. So he looks up to you a lot Hiroto."

Hiroto looks at Rokuta with a caring smile as he softly ruffles his hair a bit.

"It's been hard for us all after Dad passed away. We only have each other, so we have to look out for one another as much as we can. Especially Mom." Hiroto says quietly to both Nezuko and Tanjiro, who look towards their caring older brother with both care and respect.

Ever since their father passed away, Hiroto has always made sure to support the family as best he could. Chopping the wood and making charcoal to go sell at the village down the mountain. To their eyes, Hiroto has become a pillar supporting the family when they were grieving. This led to Hiroto's siblings treating Hiroto as a father figure to them, alongside Tanjiro as he also tries his best to help his big brother in supporting the family.

"Everyone wants to follow you where ever you go, not even allowing you to leave their sights," Nezuko says.

"Haha, ain't that true," Hiroto responds, before urging Tanjiro to follow him along to the village. "We'll be going now Nezuko, Take care!"

"See you both later!" Nezuko says looking at the departing backs of her older brothers, before turning to go back home.

As the two continue on down the path, Tanjiro looks towards Hiroto and asks. "Hey, big bro, do you think we'll make it back on time before it gets too dark?"

"Of course we can, well that is unless a certain somebody doesn't keep helping everyone around town like last time," Hiroto says, smirking towards Tanjiro.

Tanjiro blushes in embarrassment, "well… there's nothing wrong with that right?"

"Yea, yea, don't worry I was only teasing you. That's a good quality to have Tanjiro, but you should also know that there is a time and place for everything right?" Hiroto says ruffling Tanjiro's hair.

"Of course I know that it's not like I help everyone I see…" Tanjiro says, almost whispering the last part of his sentence.

Hiroto looks teasingly at Tanjiro. "Oh? Are you sure about that? You do know that nothing escapes my eyes right? I can tell that whenever you see someone needing help you would always fidget. Take Grandma Kioko for example. Last time we went to the village and you saw her looking around for something you immediately started feeling uncomfortable and start fidgeting. *sigh* it's almost like it's built into you."

"Hey now, that's not true! Well, maybe a bit of it." Tanjiro responds. "Ehhhh" Hiroto mutters with deadpan eyes. Tanjiro's hands start to fidgets slightly. Of course, this doesn't escape Hiroto's eyes.

"Ok maybe you're right, but there's nothing wrong with that is there," Tanjiro says to Hiroto.

Hiroto pats Tanjiro's head saying, "Of course there isn't. In fact, it makes me proud seeing you want to help others this much. Well, we better hurry to the Village before it gets dark." Having lost his father, Hiroto started maturing a lot faster than his other siblings to set himself as a role model for his brothers and sisters.

As Hiroto retracts his hand from Tanjiro's head, Tanjiro looks at Hiroto's hands. There is a burn mark on his right hand, stretching from inside of his palm to the side of his hand. A look of guilt is present in Tanjiro's eyes as he looks at the burn mark. Hiroto notices the look in Tanjiro's eyes and sighs.

"*sigh* Tanjiro, how many times do I have to say it. It wasn't your fault. Besides you got burnt too." Hiroto points towards the upper left side of Tanjiro's forehead, which has a sizeable burn mark on it similar to their deceased father. "Look, if you hadn't stepped in to help out your brother when the brazier fell because he knocked it down, it could've been much worse. Rokuta could've been hurt severely. Both of us getting burnt a bit to shield Rokuta is nothing compared to what could've been."

Tanjiro looks down as he blames himself a bit for his older brother getting the burn mark. When Tanjiro dove in to shield Rokuta from the brazier after it was knocked down, Hiroto reached his hand out to try and stop it from falling but instead grabbed onto the burning charcoals which spilled out next to the edge after Tanjiro bumped into the brazier when diving.

Hiroto headchops Tanjiro lightly and says, "If you don't stop it with that look then I won't bring you with me again when I go down to the village."

Tanjiro then looks as though the world was crumbling as he quickly responds pleadingly, grabbing onto Hiroto's left arm, "No no! Anything but that! Please let me go with you next time!"

"Hahaha, that's better," Hiroto says as the duo continue's on towards the village.

As the two arrive to the village they are recognized by some village folks.

"Hey, Hiroto! Tanjiro! I can't believe you two came down from the mountain on a day like this! It's so cold outside, you might catch a cold if you aren't careful now." A middleaged lady, whose age shall not be mentioned, says greeting the two.

"It's no problem miss, do you still need charcoal?" Hiroto says to her.

"Hey, Tanjiro! Thanks for fixing my doors the other day!" An old man from across the street shouts out from his home.

Hiroto looks towards Tanjiro smirking, "Well well, what did I say huh?"

Tanjiro bumps his elbow towards Hirotos arm and says, "Stop teasing me now."

From behind the two boys, there is the sound of a commotion happening inside of a house. As they turn around they see a man with a bleeding nose and mouth as he is being dragged by a woman outside.

The man, as though seeing his savior and messiah, looks towards Hiroto and Tanjiro before yelling. "Hiroto! Tanjiro! You have to help me! I've been accused of breaking this plate!" The man proceeds to unwrap a bundle of cloth as he presents it towards the pair.

Hiroto looks towards the pieces and can see very tiny pieces of fur attached to one of the plate pieces. Of course, no one else can see this as from birth Hiroto seems to have had a heightened sense of sight allowing him to see very tiny details and others tend to miss out on.

Tanjiro, on the other hand, walks up to it and starts sniffing the pieces. Hiroto seeing the scene thought to himself, 'he's practically a hound' of course he wouldn't say this out loud.

*sniff sniff* "I smell a cat." Tanjiro says looking up to the woman with her arms crossed behind the weeping man. 'Yup, just like a hound' Hiroto thought.

Tanjiro, as though he could hear Hiroto's thoughts. Twitched his eye a bit.

"Oh my, so it was a cat?" The woman said.

An old man behind the couple waves towards Tanjiro as he says, "Hey Tanjiro, can you lend me a hand with this luggage?"

Hiroto thought to himself, '*sigh* here we go again'.