Eternity ↑↑↑ Inotan

One: Strange Mornings, Dangerous Missions

INOSUKE POINT OF VIEW:

I woke up with an empty stomach, and I was craving meat. 'I wonder if Monjiro is awake.' I thought, rolling off the sheets that were laid out on the floor. I looked at the middle sheet, which was where Gonpachiro had slept, but the spot was empty.

It was very cold outside so I put on the demon slayer uniform. I walked out of the current room and into the kitchen and to my surprise, Bonjiro was about to walk out of the kitchen with two trays of food. One of the trays had bacon, eggs, and black coffee, and the other tray had bacon, eggs, and ice coffee instead.

"Oh, good morning Inosuke!" He said, cheerfully. I quickly looked at the floor. "Good morning... Monjiro." I said, trying not to say his name right.

He smiled at me. "You were closer that time!" The red haired boy spoke cheerfully as he walked past me and into the previous room. I could faintly hear him say "Zenitsu, wake up, I made breakfast!" And he sounded so energetic but I could hear the tiredness in his voice as he spoke.

Tanjiro is his name, I know. But it's fun to see if he can be annoyed easily if I call him different things all the time. In fact, I love to hear him laugh, or yell, which he barely ever does. And I mean yelling, not laughing. He laughs often, but not so often it freaks you out.

"Tanjiro, Inosuke! New mission, new mission! Head south toward Dayco Park! South toward Dayco Park!" The stupid crow announced. That thing is so annoying, whenever it speaks I just want to swallow it whole and collapse dead as soon as I choke it down.

Tanjiro soon came back into the kitchen and gave me the tray with the black coffee. "I know you like your coffee this way." He said, smiling. I looked him in the eyes, and it was almost as if he weren't happy. Like he was hiding behind his pain.

"T-Tanjiro?" I said, hesitantly. Suddenly, he looked shocked. "Did you just say my name?" He asked, still smiling.

"Are you... okay?" I asked, still kind of hesitant. His smile faded as soon as I finished speaking. The boy refused to answer my question and stayed quiet. I didn't speak again, but I walked closer to him, took the tray, put it on the counter, and hugged him gently.

His body tensed up a bit, but eventually he returned the hug. I could feel him shaking a bit, and his unsteady breathing. He tightened the grip on the shirt I was wearing. I looked at him, and tears were spilling out of his eyes. He then pulled away from the hug and wiped the tears off of his face.

He smiled, and it wasn't like before when I looked into his eyes. He was happier, I could tell. "Well, you should probably eat so you can have energy for our mission today. So, go ahead." He said, setting the food and drink from the tray to the table.

"Oh, thank... you." I said, smiling a little bit. Tanjiro nodded his head, and returned the smile. I sat at the table and began to eat the food Tanjiro had made. I stopped eating after I had a single bite of food.

"This is really good! How'd you get it to be so flavorful?" I asked in awe. The food was delicious! Tanjiro just smiled at me and it took a few seconds for him to answer because he was drinking something.

"I used some seasoning, like salt, pepper and well I guess parmesan isn't really a seasoning but I used that on the eggs to give them some extra flavor." He explained to me, beginning to sweep the floor. I quickly ate the rest of my food and when I was done, I washed the dishes as Tanjiro sweeped. It didn't take long to clean the place, but we talked a little during the process, showing some boredom.

"Tanjiro, Inosuke! Be on your way! South to Dayco Park! South to Dayco Park!" The crow repeated right on time.

We were done with cleaning, so all we had to do was grab Tanjiro's younger sister and put her in the box she's always in. "Nezuko, time to go!" Tanjiro yelled, grabbing the box and opening the little door. The girl soon came trotting into the kitchen and crawled into the box. Tanjiro shut the door and hoisted the demon holder over his shoulders.

I quickly picked up my mask, put it on, and Tanjiro and I were on our way.

Tanjiro and I reached the location we were directed to, but no one was there. "Inosuke, I smell blood." He said to me, running to the right. I quickly ran to follow him.

"Where are we going?" I asked him. He started running faster. I followed his movements and when he finally stopped, I was about to vomit.

It was a bloody, unconscious, and possibly dead body of a little girl. I ran into a bush and took off my mask and it felt like I threw up my insides. "Inosuke! Are you alright? Do you need to turn around?" Tanjiro asked, walking to me.

I shook my head furiously. "No! I was just surprised, now let's go kill some demons!" I yelled enthusiastically. Tanjiro smiled at me and we started walking further.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I looked at Tanjiro, who had a sad look in his eyes again. He quickly looked at me and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. It just reminds me of my youngest sister." He explained to me, smiling.

"You had more si-" I was interrupted by Tanjiro putting his hand over my mouth. "Shush! Look, there's a demon right there." He said, pointing a quarter to our left. I noticed something as I looked at it.

I removed Tanjiro's hand from my mouth. "Kantaro, look at it's eye." I said, pointing at the demon. The red haired boy gasped. "An upper moon!" He whisper-yelled. I looked at the demon, quietly got out my swords.

I ran toward the unholy creature and screamed as I jumped in the air and sliced through it's chest. But it didn't work. The demon grabbed me before I hit the ground, the creature was basically a giant, so it's hands were huge. It used it's free hand to cut me with it's sharp fingernails and soon, I was losing blood.

"Let me go, you oversized creature of Hell!" I yelled, coughing a bit. The demon stayed silent. I heard a voice coming from below. "Inosuke, hold on! I'll help you!" Tanjiro called, he was the voice.

He ran up to the demon as the wind blew my mask off my head and to the ground. "Water wheel!" He yelled, slashing at the demon's throat. "Whirl pool!" Tanjiro screamed again, swinging again.

But the demon's neck was too thick. "Stupid little boy." The demon muttered, pinching his fingers together as he grabbed Tanjiro by his green and black checkered haori. The demon raised his arm up high and purposely dropped me, sending me to the ground. At this point, I blacked out.

TANJIRO POINT OF VIEW:

The demon dropped Inosuke, and when he hit the ground, he stopped moving. I was terrified that I was gonna end up like my family. Dead, brutally murdered by a demon, leaving everyone and everything I love behind me. "Sweet dreams, little boy." The demon said, dropping me.

I was lucky to stay conscious because of my hard skull. Though Inosuke, wasn't so lucky, he was still breathing and his pulse was still beating. But he was unconscious and injured severely. I was also injured badly, but not so much yet. I jumped back up to the demon and sliced through it's arm.

I did the same to his other, but they both quickly grew back. The demon grabbed me, smiling mischievously. It cut through my skin using it's fingernails. I had already been injured bad, but now it was severe. I was losing even more blood than before.

I sliced through the demon's throat once again, finally killing it off. The demon fell, opening it's hand. Doing that allowed me to escape.

"Inosuke, Inosuke! Are you okay?" I called out as I ran to the black-blue haired boy. "Inosuke, come on!" I yelled, shaking him.

The world started spinning, my world was then dark, like everything had disappeared.