Our Halcyon Days || Reader x Tanjiro | RESUME 2022!

* t h i r t y - t w o *

A/N: Voting rates have gone up by 15% already. Thank you guys so much! Enjoy the chapter!

(Also thinking of starting a My Hero Academia novel, but deciding between Midoriya x Reader or Todoroki x Reader. I know many of you are also MHA fans so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

And don't worry about updating! I'll do both at the same time but prioritize Our Halcyon Days so the wait won't ever be too long!)

• • * • • * • • * • •

For the first time in the longest ten minutes of your life,

you lay, resting.

But the peace was too easily shattered by a scream that could pierce the heavens itself.

Every hair on your neck stood up on end.

"Our swords," you gasped, and he nodded, almost stunned.

"Nezuko, too."

Tracking back to where the water had hit you, you quickly searched for your scimitar. The current had tossed it aside by the base of a tree, near Nezuko's box which stood upright. Tanjiro picked up and sheathed his own weapon and shouldered the box, reunited with his silent sibling.

Though you absolutely despised the idea of investigating that terrible shriek, it was almost as if you had no choice. To ignore it was to ignore your duties as a Demon Slayer.

And, you still needed to go back to Inosuke.

Who knows how long he can keep that thing at bay...

Each step that fell onto the ground grew more quiet and stealthy as you approached the sound of a crying girl. Your heartbeat drummer louder in your ears, if it were at all possible.

"Get down," he whispered to you and crouched. Peeking out from behind a wide oak, you spotted two small, white-clad figures in a barren clearing.

The one who knelt was the demon girl who'd called on her 'father' to downright slaughter you.

The other one, you'd also seen before. He was the boy that had stood complacently on his threads as he watched the puppets try to cut you down. His hands were splayed out in front of him, a complex spider web woven between his fingers.

Globules of blood saturated the dry earth, falling steadily from the girl's face.

A feeling of disgust and hatred surged under your skin -- yet it wasn't directed at her.

They call themselves a family.

You remembered the girl calling for her father.

And yet she trembles in fear before this one.

The boy held an air of confidence and brutality. For some reason, he seemed even deadlier than the father. And given how Tanjiro had called that monster one of the Twelve Demon Moons, you dreaded the fight to come.

"What are you looking at?"

Both you and Tanjiro flinched.

"This isn't some show, you know."

The demon had spotted you.

We have no business here, you thought, preparing to flee. We're tired and injured. We should retreat for now.

But Tanjiro was not on the same page as you, for with an uneasy voice, he asked, "Wh-What are you doing? Aren't you two allies?!"

The boy tilted his head, as the girl continued to cower, covering her wounded visage desperately with her hands.