The Red Fox [Original]

Chapter 8 - Mt.Natagumo

Tanjirou stood at the base of a mountain covered with forestry,

it's height reaching to the sky from the view of from its base. "Mt.Natagumo, I guess this is the place that Tamayo said to investigate," he said to himself. 'I just hope that I can save anyone that is still alive in there. I smell a lot of people up there. Only 3 of them are human. Please hang in there.' he thought as he vanished from where he was stood, dashing into the forestry mountain. All the while, in the back of his mind, the events of four days past played like yesterday.

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Tanjirou had just awakened from ingesting Tamayo's blood, she said that it had anti-bodies that combatted and neutralised that Man's blood as she had already had his influence nullified. He had to admit, it was extremely painful. More so than his initial demonic transformation. But he was glad that there was something he could do to deter the urges he had, even if it was only temporary. "Ah you're awake, how are you feeling Tanjirou?" Tamayo asked, sitting right next to him.

Tanjirou sat up, stretching the soreness from his stiff joints. "I feel... Free, thank you Lady Tamayo" he said as he bowed before her.

"There's no need for that, I'm sure that you would do the same. In any case, I need to talk to you about your first assignment and the structure of our communication" she said, her tone turning from a kind and nurturing voice to a stern and stoic one. "For our communication, I'll send my cat, Chachamaru. I cannot meet you directly after this because of Kibutsuji and his relentless search for me. As for the assignment you will need to head to Mt.Natagumo to investigate the disappearance of slayers on the mountain, it isn't a significant number but I fear that the number of slayers going missing is only going to increase and I would like for the threat to be eliminated before it gets any worse." she continued. Her head lowered at the mention of the missing slayers.

"It's fine Lady Tamayo, I will put an end to that threat for good. In any case, why did you take the risk coming here if you knew that man had been here?" he enquired

"In all Honesty Tanjirou," She said, lifting her head. "We took a massive risk coming here. We knew that Muzan had been here recently but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to recruit a sun breath user," she said, guilt laced in her voice.

"Well, that's something I didn't expect and also expected at the same time. Well, I appreciate the honesty, Tamayo. Let's make sure that your faith was not misplaced" Tanjirou responded with a slight, but significant, smile. As he tried to get up, only to come crashing to the ground. His entire body feels like it's been through being set on fire and then being extinguished repeatedly within the space of a few seconds.

"Well let's make sure that you can get up first before trying to make promises that you can't keep as of now," she said, almost laughing at the irony of what had just happened. As Tanjirou looked away in embarrassment. "This mission as few as the missing slayers, only barely reaching double digits, is still something to be fully on guard for. It could be any demon causing these disappearances it could just be an extremely specialised demon or it could be one of the twelve Kizuki." her voice, sounding surprisingly stern and serious in comparison to her usual eloquence.

"I'll be sure to be careful. Even if it is a member of the Twelve, they can't kill me. To my knowledge." He said a sense of doubt at the end. She nodded. "But they can harm you. Sometimes death is a blessing more than it is a curse." She said, making Tanjirou slightly flinch at the idea of torture. They then conserved some more about non-essential things like demons and the slayer corp in recent years as Tanjirou hadn't been as 'in the loop' as he should've been.

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He had smelt the first of the three humans on the mountain nearby after only three seconds of being inside the forestry mountain, granted he was moving at speeds too fast for the eye to see. He saw her only seconds later, in a bush. Shaking uncontrollably, most likely in fear. She was around sixteen. Long brown hair to her hips. The Standard Slayer uniform in Brown is much of Tanjirou's, the only difference being that she wore and skirt whilst he wore the trousers. Her foot ware is much like Kanao's boots but brown, matching her uniform. Her katana grip a pure black. Her sheath matched her grip. As he got closer he saw her brown eyes, a puffy red most likely from crying or lack of sleep. Dried blood littered her face and hands. He walked towards her from directly in front of her. She noticed him and his red slit-like eyes, immediately drawing her sword. But slightly hesitated from the sight of slayer uniform.

"Who are you and what do you want?... Why are you wearing that uniform?" she asked, trying to sound strong but failing miserably and sounding so scared that you could've mistaken her for someone half her age.

"My name is Kamado Tanjirou. And I am here to stop whoever is causing the slayers to disappear from this area... As for my uniform, I'm not an official slayer but my father was. It used to be a family heirloom but now I wear it as a show of defiance against that man" he responded in a calm tone. Her posture was still attentive, not fully trusting in what he had said. "What is your name and what happened here?" he asked. Making her flinch a little.

"M-m-my N-name is... Yui... Nakamura Yui. I came here with 3 others, 2 Kanoe including myself and 2 Tsuchinoe. We had entered the mountain and minutes later one of the Tsuchinoe just attacked us, saying that he was not in control of his movement. He killed everyone except me. I managed to run away before he started coming after me. His arm just flew towards the two behind him and... and..." she said collapsing to the floor, tears flowing like a tsunami. Shaking again uncontrollably. He rushed over to her before she could fully land on the ground. He hugged her as he consoled her and shushed her to try to get her to calm down. She hugged back and cried on his shoulder, onto his haori, for a few minutes "It's ok" he said countless times. She eventually calmed down as she was still extremely terrified as she did know that he was a demon. They separated from the hug and sat across from each other.

"Are you hurt at all Yui?" Tanjirou asked, concern overflowing through his eyes. She shook her head. "Is there anything abnormal you noticed when you entered the mountain?" he asked, his tone slightly more serious but still incredibly concerned.

"Nothing really, aside from an abnormal amount of spiders and webs surrounding the area we walked through" she barely spoke, sounding utterly destroyed.

'So they had no control of their movements and there are a lot of spiders in the area. There's also a demonic scent all around us. Could the webs be some sort of string for the demon to control objects or creatures like puppets?' he thought. His eyes turned slightly more serious. At this Yui jumped as the change in his aura was very noticeable, as she slightly moved away from him. However, stopping suddenly. She built up her courage to ask a question.

"You mentioned that you wanted to show defiance against that man. Who is that man and is that the reason you wear a mask?"

"You are quite smart you know." He said with a smile that could be felt through the mask, his eyes showing a level of kindness she had never seen in her life. "That man... That man" he said in a dark and demonic voice. "Kibutsuji Muzan, the lord of all demons," he said as he stopped for a second. This startled Yui as she was now even more terrified. Muzan was a myth to many of the slayers within the corp as no one has ever seen the demon king, anyone living anyway. "Well, looks like Tamayo's blood done the trick," he said, to the bewilderment of Yui. "Muzan wanted my family dead and he succeeded but made one flaw. He missed that I was still alive, even though on the outside I appeared dead," he said, in a tone that was filled with regret and sorrow.

"You fought him and survived... How?" is all she could say. Her eyes widened to an unnatural degree

"The Breath of the Sun is an extremely powerful tool. One of which I was able to fight Muzan in single combat with until my stamina ran out" he said, the guilt only intensifying.

"The Breath of the Sun..... That's a breath that I've never heard of before. But that would explain the uniform, katana and your situation." she said her tone turning slightly focused. Much to the surprise of Tanjirou. 'She just might do' he thought to himself as he smiled under his mask.

"What do you say that we rid ourselves of some demons?" he asked her, in an almost playful tone. Much to her shock.

"S-sure," she said, still terrified about her experience on this mountain

"I won't go until your 100% confident" he pouted. She straightened up. 'I will avenge my comrades' playing throughout her mind

"Yes," she responded "Let's get to work," she said, newfound confidence and determination flowing from her voice. As they both got up and proceeded to go towards the summit of the mountain. Intent on stopping the disappearance, now fatalities, from ever-increasing again.

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Hope you enjoyed once again and thanks for the support. TBH I wasn't really expecting the attention this story has gotten and I will continue to update this as I am able to.

Cya👋