The Blacksmith's daugther was a witch (Tomioka Giyuu x reader)

Chapter 1: Innocent lives

  "Nee~ Tomioka-san~" whined a girl wearing a haori resembling butterfly wings.

Her name was Kocho Shinobu and she was currently trying to get the stoic Water hashira to talk to her. She has grown terribly bored during their time walking in silence and she just couldn't bare with it anymore. For the last 15 minutes she has been trying to get him to tell her where exactly they were going and why did it seem like they were taking the longest path there was, although she's seen many shortcuts along the way.

The raven haired man finally stopped and turned to her, his expression betrayed nothing but his irritation. She sweatdropped at the fact that he looked so annoyed just because of her trying to get some information out of him.

"Well, Kocho, if you weren't whining and sped up a little bit, we would already be there and you wouldn't have to ask your stupid questions."

His voice was flat and void of any emotion but still smooth as flowing water. Those two were demon slayers, specifically demon slayers of the highest rank in the corps - the hashiras. Now, you may ask why anyone would send two of such strong people on a mission into the mountains together. And honestly, they were asking themselves the same thing. Not many details were disclosed about this quest aside from the location and the fact that there might be a demon hiding near the village where they were headed.

"But it doesn't matter anyway. We're here." said Tomioka.

The girl's eyes widened in suprise and she leaned to the side to see behind the taller male. He was right, there were a few small houses peeking out of the green forest. She started running in their direction with a big smile on her face.

"I can't wait to take a bath, we've been walking for days!" she shouted excitedly.

The ravenette scoffed and followed after her. After crossing the first few buildings, they arrived at a small square - the heart of the village. The sun has already set so no one was walking around but they could see the lights inside and jolly laughter from the inn they were headed towards.

After renting their rooms and settling in, they met up again by the bar and ordered some soup. When they sat down, Shinobu started looking at the man expectantly. Her big violet eyes were staring into his soul and he couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable under her gaze. He sighed and looked back.

"Ask away, your staring is annoying."

"Finally~! So tell me, Tomioka-san, why are we even here? And where is 'here'? All I got was a letter from Oyakata-sama saying to meet up with you at the edge of this forest. Giyuu will explain everything to you, now just please hurry up was what he wrote. But here we are and I still know nothing."

"There is something living near this village. It might be a demon." he stated plainly.

She deadpanned. I'm smart enough to figure that out too, you dimwit! But why would Oyakata-sama insist on sending the hashiras in if it was just a simple task? she thought angrily but her smile remained plastered on her face as always.

"I figured that much as well, Tomioka-san ~. But there must be something unusual about this demon, right? Maybe it is a one of the Twelve Kizuki? Is it an Upper Moon?"

"I don't know... All I know is that there is a being called a witch living up in the mountains and they are the reason this little village has been cut off from the world. They say that too many people don't come back after passing that mountain or even being near it."

The female hashira looked down in thought. She was sure that there were demons in that dark forest but those people had to know about them. But could just some lower demons infesting the woods scare all the merchants and visitors away? And if it wasn't them, who? Who would kill so many innocent people? They all had families to come back to, they needed to provide for them. And some monster decided to slay them without a second thought.