The Blood of a Phoenix: A Tanjiro x Half Demon OC story

The Wandering Witch

As three slayers enter a different town for a mission one evening, they noticed how quiet the townspeople were. Not a single interaction in sight.

"Hey..." the yellow boy asked the other with a box in his back, "is it me or does this area feel off?"
"Now that you mention it," the other answered, "it does feel strange, even the smell is giving strange odors."
"Is... isn't that... a b-b-b-bad thing!?!"

While walking, they noticed something felt wrong.
The first turned and yelped.

"Hey wait! Where's Inosuke?!"

The two looked around and noticed the third in their group vanished into thin air. With his sense of smell, Tanjiro found Inosuke's beastly scent.

"Come on, Zenitzu!" The other called out, "He went this way!"
"Wha-wait up, Tanjiro!!"

As the two ran towards the sound, they ran towards Inosuke, who was watching a very odd theater performance. Various people dressed as characters, performing their hearts out and speaking as if they were different people.

"Pardon me, sir," Tanjiro whispered to a strange man, "but what are they doing?"
"You must be new here, right?" the man asked.

As he nodded, the man looked at the theater again to see the performance.

"They're talking about the Wandering Witch."
"A w-w-w witch?!" Zenitzu cried softly.
"Yes. They say at this time like today, a strange witch would wander in every village or town for certain things."
"What kind of things?"
"No one knows. But they say if you wander alone at night, the witch may either bless or curse you with some sort of gift."
"A gift?!" Inosuke spoke loudly but was hushed by several people in front of him.
"Yes, but no one has ever caught sight of the Witch in years. So, it's only a matter of time till someone catches them."
"Thank you. We greatly appreciate it." Tanjiro bowed as he grabbed the two and walked away.

In a different location, meanwhile, a hooded figure was looking through the streets from a distance. It seems as though they were looking for something in particular as they scouted in the area entirely. Just then, the figure spotted the three demon slayers from a distance.

"Demon Slayers? Here?" the figure asked in shock, "This can't be good. I have to leave."

As the figure started to leave, they noticed a shortage of food and water in the bag which was required for their next journey to the other village.

"Damn it!" They replied, "I guess I need to buy some more supplies. Let's hope there's enough money for me to buy some food. I can't afford to steal anything from anyone. Not after last time in that other city."

They removed the staff and bag on the side near the trees as they only grabbed a small pouch and money bag. With a deep breath, the figure went down the mountain and towards the village down below.

Just then, the villages started to close up shop as Zenitzu, Inosuke, and Tanjiro were trying to find a small inn to rest for the night.

"Why should we go find a place when we can sleep in the mountains?!" Inosuke suggested.
"And get infected with bugs and all kinds of creatures? No way!" Zenitzu cried.
"Well, what else can we do?" Tanjiro asked.

As the two tried to debate about sleeping arrangements, Tanjiro smelled a strange scent. He started to follow the smell, leaving the two behind.

"This scent..." Tanjiro thought internally, "I've never smelled anything like this before. It's wisteria, but more burnt. But why? Maybe a demon? No. A demon would have a disgusting odor. Unless they're like Nezuko, which is a possibility. I need to check and find out first before anything."

Tanjiro finally found the scent, but recognized that it was a human being, knocking on a random stranger's door.

"A human? No. It has a demon scent. Then why-"

The stranger opened the door, seeing the person and closed the door. Minutes later, opened again with a bag of food as the figure gave them money from their pouch as payment. As the door closed behind, the hooded figure started to leave. Tanjiro started to sheathe his sword to prepare for an attack as the figure stood still for a moment. Without any hesitation, the figure jumped towards the air and threw something right towards Tanjiro. He started to back up from the strikes, but puffs of smoke covered the area. It became gruesome he started to cough from breathing all that smoky air. Just when the air regained clear as before, Tanjiro noticed the figure was already gone.

"Where did they go?" Tanjiro asked himself, looking for some clues.

He tried to sniff the air again, but the aroma from the earlier smokes blocked everything out from his nostrils he couldn't detect anything.

"Wait a second." he continued monologuing, "My sense of smell isn't working? Oh no. This is bad. Without my sense of smell, I can't seem to detect any demons lurking around at night. Which means, I have to go back."

Tanjiro began to turn to the other direction, but stopped as he noticed a small pendant on the ground. It looked like a glass crystal gem, covered with what seemed to be wisteria powder.

"Must've been from that hooded figure from earlier. I'll hold on to it until I can find them again."
"TANJIRO!! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!" Zenitsu cried out in the distance.
"KOMPACHIRO!!" Inosuke called afterwards. "COME ON OUT!!!"
"My friends, I have to go back to them."

With the necklace in his pocket, Tanjiro ran towards the others, trying to figure out how to fix this nostril problem. Meanwhile, the hooded figure came out of the shadows and went to the same spot where the necklace once laid to rest on.

"Damn it!" they growled angrily as their fists pounded to the ground. "He took my necklace?! That was the only thing I had left from Master! Now that he has it, I can't go out wandering in this state! Without that powder in the necklace, things will go out of control not just for me, but for everyone around me! I need to get that back fast before sunrise, but how?"

Thinking of how long the sunlight will take effect, the hooded figure followed after him quietly, making sure their presence is out of his sight.