~BRAVE~ (Tanjiro X Reader)

Season 2- The Dried up ocean

Through a long and terrible journey by train, we had finally arrived at the so-called "dried up ocean's" town. It was a lot colder than I expected it to be and I held onto myself to keep up with my body heat. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it was when I got lost in those mountains a few months ago. It was pretty obvious by now, fall had washed into play.

"Here we are. Shall we start looking around now or should we check into an inn?" Shinobu asked with her regular smile.

"Let's look around" Tanjiro adjusted the sword on his waist to be hidden behind his haori. Just to make sure to not scare the townspeople.

I looked at my sword to do the same, but realized I had nothing to hide it under and sighed.

Inosuke sneered at Shinobu before looking at the floor and walking away. "I'm going to do what I want."

I tilted my head at the boar heads behavior. He had no respect for the Hashira. "I think looking around to be more intact with our surroundings is best." Kanao gazed softly around the road we were walking on. She looked at all of the cute homes that lay adjacent to each other.

Zenitsu was once again on the floor. His arms were clung around Tanjiro's leg, and he continued to fall in step next to me as if he hadn't had the weight of a full person to pull. "THE INN!" He complained.

"It seems like we have come to a winning vote!" Let's all split up for now and take a look at what there is to see about this town. (Y/n), be on the lookout for the personalities you mentioned." Shinobu began to walk away by herself. Surprisingly, Kanao drifted towards Inosukes direction. I was left with the two other boys and Nezuko.

My gaze went from Tanjiro's unbothered innocent face as he carried his sister, to Zenitsu's pathetic form on the floor. "How come all you wanna do is avoid demons if you became a demon slayer?" I didn't ask the boy to patronize him. I asked because I was legitimately curious as to why he was such a wimp.

Zenitsu's wailing stopped and turned into quiet sniffles. "It was her fault." He quietly mumbled. Tanjiro and I stopped walking and faced each other with concerned faces.

"Who's? Your mother's?" Tanjiro asked.

Zenitsu eventually sat up and locked his eyes with Tanjiros. "Of course not. My mother's an angel. It was the girl who left me with all of my money with her." He sneered at the ground.

"How did she have a part to play if she left you?" I sat down on the ground with Zenitsu. Discarding the fact that we were still on the road.

I could see Zentsu's nose shrivel up at my comment. Ah. I hit a nerve. Whoops. Fortunate for me, he didn't say anything about it and continued. "Gramps saw my state after she left. He found me in a bad place and decided to do something about it." He stood up and offered me a hand to follow suit. And I had just sat down too...

"It's nothing. Nevermind." The yellow-haired boy who was once wailing and on the floor was now walking ahead of us.

                                          🌸

The sight of the dried-up ocean sent chills down my spine. It reminded me of when we were stuck in the desert that night. Although there were certain perks of that day, such as feeling Tanjiro up, I still didn't like the taste of sand in my mouth.

I looked over to the burgundy boy as he smiled at his yellow-haired friend. I couldn't help but smile with them.

It was so hard not to look at Tanjiro. He just attracted attention to being good at everything he did as well as his personality. He was so bright. My gaze soon shifted over to the ocean once I realized that Tanjiro was staring back at me.

It was quite strange. With it being a dried up ocean, you would have expected any form of wildlife to be present. But no fish. No seaweed or creatures. Just plain bare sand. "Where do you think the ecosystem could have gone?" I asked the two boys as they walked up to me.

Tanjiro scratched his head and shuffled his feet in the sand. "I'm not sure. Do you think it had something to do with that teleportation entity that sent you to the snowy mountain?"

"It could be likely. But I think the ocean is on a larger scale than a single person. (Y/n), do it remember what it was like being teleported? Were you placed somewhere only to be placed into another area?" Zenitsu moved his fingers to his chin in contemplation.

"Now that you mentioned it..." I began to walk over to a tall, wooden pole standing in the middle of the beach. There were many fliers for restaurants and missing pets posters. But what was most evident was the huge "DRIED UP OCEAN" newspaper article that was placed there recently. "You know when you are swimming in the ocean, and there's a huge wave about to crash into you?"

Tanjiro answered my question before Zenitsu could. Unfortunately, it wasn't an answer I could work with. "I can't relate to that... I've never been to the ocean you see."

"It's fine if you don't understand. Continue. This place gives me the creeps and it looks like it's about to rain." Zenitsu's hands went up onto his shoulders to try to shoo away his aching pains. So he was rushing the answer out of me so we could check into the inn as quickly as possible.

"It felt like I couldn't breathe. Like I kinda died but was reborn as the same person and memories as I am today. It was like diving into a huge wave, and getting thrown around in all of these directions that you don't know which way is up. It lasted for maybe....3 minutes? But I think the actual time was 3 seconds." My body shivered against my will as I relived the situation. It was not something I wanted put myself through again.
__________________________________
Original release date: December 20, 2020