Wisteria Eyed

23

The Sun slowly went up as we followed the crow's direction, illuminating the otherwise dark forest area near the mountains.

The symphony of the birds chirping relaxed the demon slayers quite a bit too, letting some idle chat take place as we moved towards our destination.

"Are you feeling alright, Miyasha-san?" Zenitsu kindly asked me as he hesitantly peeked at my face.

To be honest, I wasn't.
My head was aching due to my lack of sleep for last two days, the pain in my joints had somehow increased as well, not to mention that I was feeling very sleepy as the warm sunlight touched my skin.

But then again, they were no excuse for me to be rude to anyone, so I tried to give him my best smile and replied, "I'm just feeling a bit tired, Zenitsu-san. Nothing more, I assure you."

Tanjiro's eyes widened in realization, "Oh, I'm so sorry to make you travel with me without letting you rest, Miyasha-san..." he said apologetically as I waved him off.

"Don't be— I agreed to travel with you, so it was decision in the end. And my home is quite far away from the city, so I couldn't have rested either way." I softly replied, opening my bamboo bottle to take a sip of water, "And please do stop apologizing, dear. In the end, it was me who said yes, so, it wasn't your fault or anything."

"Ah, yes, Miyasha-san—" Tanjiro suddenly halted, making us turn to him in confusion. Upon seeing him discreetly sniffing, I understood what he was trying to do.

"What happened, Tanjiro?" Zenitsu eyed him unsurely, still not used to our company despite it already been a few hours after our meeting.

"We need to go this way." Tanjiro declared, moving towards an unused road among the forest trees. I followed him without hesitation, while Zenitsu reluctantly moved after us as he saw us leaving.

"A-Are you sure it is the right way...?"

"It is." I smiled back at him, slowing down slightly to let him walk beside me, "Trust me when I say that Tanjiro will never lead anyone astray."

Zenitsu hesitantly nodded, almost stumbling on a tree root before he caught himself.

"You okay? Did you hurt yourself somewhere? Is your—"

"I'm fine!" Zenitsu sheepishly answered, walking cautiously this time as we followed behind Tanjiro, "Thank you for worrying for me, Miyasha-san."

"Well," I started playfully, "You don't need to thank me for something I do almost every minute. It's almost like my job at this point." I smiled mischievously as I heard Zenitsu chuckle.

It was good hearing him chuckle— I really wanted him to be comfortable around us, especially around Tanjiro to be honest.

(~<>~)

"Are we..." Zenitsu started after a few hours, looking unsurely around the thick forest we were in, "...there yet? Or are we lost—"

"We are not lost." I replied, focused on the concentrated demon aura I could feel at some distance away, "We are almost there, you can say."

"R-Really...?" Zenitsu asked unsurely, looking at both of us as none of us replied to him, "Hey, Tanjiro... On second thought, I'm not gonna make it. Even if I go along, I'm gonna be totally useless."

"That's not true, Zenitsu-san." I commented off-handedly as we walked nearer and nearer to the source of the demon auras.

'There must be more than one demon there...' I mused, trying my best to distinguish between the several demon auras, but to no avail. 'I'm still not experienced enough with all this to actually differentiate between the auras of unknown demons...'