Our Bond Can't be Severed by Anyone!

9 - A Dire Warning

"Danger!" Tanjiro's voice hissed urgently.

Kyojuro suddenly stood up and gently pushed the conductor aside, drawing his sword. The demon appeared momentarily, but it didn't last for more than a few seconds. Kyojuro dealt with it before Nezuko could draw her sword.

"Wow," Inosuke murmured, he had pulled his head out of the window just in time to witness the decimation of the demon.

Kyojuro looked back to the three and smiled. The children were all gawking and Kyojuro chuckled.

As Kyojuro returned, the conductor shakily asked him if he could punch his ticket. Nezuko mentally applauded the man for continuing to do his job, even with that recent event of a monstrosity appearing before him and a stranger pulling out a sword and killing it. Tanjiro's mind, however, disagreed, warning her that all was not well.

As the conductor asked Nezuko for her ticket, she hesitated. Tanjiro was warning her, he was pleading that she stay alert. She had the ticket punched and swore to Tanjiro that she would stay on the lookout.

That promise lasted a few hours.

Nezuko was sleeping soundly, emersed in a peaceful state of mind

But the hunter was out. She had been found and Enmu giggled to himself as he sent his followers out to finish the work. Once the spiritual centers of the demon slayers had been destroyed, they would be easy prey.

Nezuko however, wasn't prey. She was dreaming, for the first time in a long time, she was dreaming without nightmares.

She was much younger and was with her family, curled up in a blanket, listening to Father tell them all a story of the sun and the moon and how they were brothers who at first loved each other and then fought one another. She was leaning on Tanjiro and when her father got to the portion where the moon covered up the sun, she whimpered. Tanjiro laughed and pulled her closer to him. Mother was smiling as Father told the story, holding a snoozing newborn Rokuta in her arms as she looked at her husband. The other children had all fallen asleep and were snoring contentedly.

But... Nezuko had a strange feeling. Like there was someone watching her. She looked behind her and saw no one, she looked up at her big brother and smiled. She was safe here.

Outside of her dreamworld dangers lurked but it all went unnoticed by the girl who was happily listening as Father finished the story.

There was a knock at the door before Father could finish the story and Nezuko looked to it, confused. Who was visiting home at this time of night? Father got up and opened it... and yet no one was there.

"Maybe a stick hit the door after the wind blew it off a tree," Tanjiro offered.

"Perhaps," her father answered.

Nezuko looked around, once again feeling watched. She looked at the window and saw something duck under the windowpane.

"There!" she cried pointing. "There's someone outside."

Father immediately grabbed a lantern and a hatchet while Tanjiro put on his haori.

"It's probably an animal, enticed by the warmth," her father dismissed. He stepped out alongside Tanjiro into the winter's night. Nezuko listened as they walked to the side of the house. She stepped into the doorframe and looked out into the darkness... someone was there.