As per their plan, they were divided in smaller units. Tanjiro with Kanao, Shinobu with Zenitsu, Sanemi with Inosuke and Giyuu with Genya.
Originally they wanted 1 Hashira with each but since there were only 3 Hashiras, it was planned that Tanjiro and Kanao would be together, since they can survive.
Each of them were assigned different missions. Tanjiro and Kanao were to find any other demons in the forest, Shinobu and Zenitsu were going to the mountains to get more evidence, Sanemi and Inosuke were going to find any other demon in the town and lastly, Giyuu and Genya were going to find the human who was helping the demon.
All of them left for their missions.
Tanjiro and Kanao
Both of them went to the forest, sticking with each other.
After walking for hours,"Umm .... Are you hungry?", Tanjiro asked the girl demon slayer, knowing she skipped breakfast to leave early.
Kanao just looked at him, without a word. "Well here....", Tanjiro offered Kanao a carefully wrapped rice ball to eat. "I saw you skipped breakfast so I wanted to give you this....", Tanjiro said.
Kanao took the rice ball and was about to eat but Tanjiro's stomach made a grumbling noise. Tanjiro blushed at it, clearly embarassed and looked down.
Instead of saying any word, Kanao splitted the rice ball in half and gave it to Tanjiro.
"Th-Thank you!", Tanjiro said, taking the rice ball.
Both of them were eating in silence but suddenly Tanjiro asked," Do we really need 8 of us to defeat an uppermoon?"
Kanao shook her head in denial. "It's not only 1 demon", Kanao replied.
"W-What?", Tanjiro asked, clearly shocked.
"A human was involved, so it's much complicated. Me and Shinobu san also met a group of lowermoons on the way, but sadly, they all escaped, they were here to divert us." Kanao explained, her grip on her katana tightening.
"They are still here?", Tanjiro asked.
"Highly possible", Kanao replied and started eating again. Tanjiro gulped, now understanding why all of them were with a Hashira each.
Shinobu and Zenitsu
Shinobu was leading with a scared Zenitsu following her. He was surely slow when compared to Shinobu but not so slow to loose her.
"Zenitsu kun, why did you stop?", Shinobu asked watching that Zenitsu suddenly stopped.
"Wait!", Zenitsu yelled and Shinobu stopped on her tracks, going to Zenitsu.
"Ara Ara ~ Zenitsu kun, you'd better give me a good reason to make me stop", Shinobu said with a smile.
"I-I hear something, some sort of shuffling! It's like something big is moving", Zenitsu said, shivering.
"Where?", Shinobu asked, becoming serious in an instant.
"From there....", Zenitsu pointed to a side which had too much snow to run fastly.
"Let's go", Shinobu said and dragged Zenitsu by holding his Haori.
When they reached from where the shuffling noises were from, they saw a big cave. Shinobu entered the cave without a second thought.
"S-Should we call others here too?", Zenitsu asked Shinobu, entering after her with his sword in his hand.
Before Shinobu could answer, there was a loud noise. Both of them ran towards the noise.
There, they saw there was a hole in the wall of the cave, leading to the side of mountain which wasn't suitable to go to.
Shinobu was about to go but Zenitsu stopped her, covering his ears," IT'S COMING DOWN!", Zenitsu yelled, tears forming in his eyes from the noises.
Shinobu knew, she lost the demon. She gritted her teeth in anger and left the cave with Zenitsu, just after some seconds the cave came crumbling down.
"Let's go back", Shinobu said and left, with Zenitsu following her silently.