|| 𝒀-𝑶-𝑲-𝑨-𝑰 || 𝑲𝑵𝒀 𝒙 𝑶𝑪 ||

Chapter 18: Gramps

{Rei's POV}

"Be careful." She whispered before her ashes flew away. "There's member of the Twelve Kizuki here," I paused as I started giggling as I tied my blindfold back. "A genuine member of the Twelve Kizuki. I haven't encountered one of you since the village incident." I whispered as I grabbed the hilt of my sword. All of a sudden, something took most of my energy resulting in me falling down onto my knees.

'I totally forgot about Tengu and Bakeneko.' The two yokais then appeared in front of me as Bakeneko ran towards me as Tengu stayed still. 'Rei-sama! Are you okay?', "I'm fine Bakeneko, it's just my energy is almost drained but I could still fight.' I reassured the two-tailed cat as he backed away slightly. Suddenly I was lifted up as I was placed on something hard. 'There's no way we would let you fight. Try to get some rest, we'll find a place to stay while you're resting.' Tengu told me as Bakeneko followed behind.

I sighed, 'All right then.' I answered as I closed my eyes before all light sources were closed off. In my dream, there stood Baku, the "Nightmare Devourer". His eyes stared right at me as I stared right back. His large body walked towards me as I cautiously watched his movements. Baku bent down, showing some respect to me. 'It's nice to meet you, Rei-sama.' He greeted me as he went back to his standing position.

'The same for you, Baku. If I may ask, how did you do it?' I curiously asked him as he tilted his head sidewards. 'What do you mean, Rei-sama?', 'How did you manage to exit your realm? How did you get summoned even if I'm the active user of the breathing style?' I clarified my question as I sat down, Baku following my lead. 'I suppose out of instinct I guess, others usually do this to safely protect our user. I guess it was a part of the training.' He explained.

I hummed. Me and Bake talked for a bit before everything started fadding. 'Time to wake up, Rei-sama. Train hard so that you would be able to see me again.' Bake encouraged me as I opened my eyes to see that me, Tengu and Bakeneko were inside an open cave. Both Tengu and Bakeneko were fast asleep when I stood up. Walking towards the entrance of the cave, I decided to send the two back to their realm to get some proper sleep. After doing so, my red eyes wandered over to the entrance as my legs ran towards it and into the dark forest.

{3rd person POV}

Tanjiro looked up to the moon as he remembered that he left Inosuke somewhere in the forest. "Oh, right! Inosuke!" He called out as he ran towards the eerie forest. "Did you defeat 'em?" Inosuke asked the burgundy-haired boy as two visible irk marks appeared. His arms were dripping with his own blood as he also had an open wound by his torso. "Are you all right, Inosuke?", "I asked you whether you defeated that thing or not!" Inosuke ignored Tanjiro's question.

"Uh, yeah, I did!" Tanjiro answered. "But anyway, how are you feeling?" He worriedly asked the shirtless boy as Inosuke pointed a finger towards him. "Don't go showering me with your sensitivity and kindness! Y'hear me? Got that? Anything you can do, I can do too, after all! Before you know it, my head will be harder that yours! Not to mention... To mention... Um..." Inosuke's words slowly faded as Tanjiro looked down in worry.
'He's severely wounded. I couldn't save our allies, either.'

He looked up from his gaze towards the ground to see Inosuke wasn't in front of him. Tanjiro panicked as he called out his name several times. "Inosuke! Inosuke!" Then, he suddenly caught a familiar scent nearby as he looked around to find the source of the scent. Tanjiro walked around the area to find Inosuke with bandages around his torso and both of his arms. The shirtless boy wasn't alone though, sitting beside him was an older female with a familiar magenta haori.

"Rei?" The burgundy-haired questioned as the female looked up to him. "Nice to see you again, Tanjiro." Rei greeted the younger male as she hugged him which caused the boy's face to flush at the close contact. "N-Nice to s-see you too, Rei!" Tanjiro greeted back as he slowly placed his hands on Rei's back, returning a hug. After a minute of hugging, she parted away from Tanjiro, causing the burgundy-haired boy to miss the warmth that radiated from her body.