Tanjiro had just fallen asleep when he was woken up by someone pinching his nose. He jolted awake. After sitting up, he noticed it was the Mist Hashira, Muichiro Tokito.
"Tokito-san! It's you! Did you just pinch my nose?" Tanjiro asked.
"Yes," Muichiro replied. "And you reacted too slowly."
"If you'd done it with animosity I would have known!" Tanjiro said.
"...but I wouldn't pinch a nose in anger," Muichiro said. "Do you know a swordsmith named Kanamori?"
"I know Kanamori-san," Tanjiro replied.
"He's my new swordsmith, so I'm looking for him," Muichiro said.
"I'd guess he's with Haganezuka-san," Tanjiro said. "Haganezuka-san is my swordsmith! Shall we search for them both together?"
"...why are you so helpful?" Muichiro asked. "Don't you have your own concerns?"
"Helping others often ends up helping you as well!" Tanjiro replied cheerfully. "Besides, I was thinking about doing it anyway, so this is perfect!"
Silence.
"What did you just say...?" Muichiro asked. "Just now...?"
"I said this is perfect!" Tanjiro replied. "I was thinking about searching for them myself!"
Muichiro and Tanjiro heard Nezuko yawn long and hard.
"Big brother, what's going on?" Nezuko asked, rubbing her eyes and still half asleep. "Who's this?"
"Nezuko! You're up!" Tanjiro said. "We were talking about searching for Kanamori-san and Haganezuka-san. Would you like to come with us, or stay here?"
Before Nezuko could answer, Muichiro and Tanjiro both sensed that something- or someone- was close nearby. They saw a demon enter the room. Its skill at remaining hidden was shocking. Tanjiro and even Muichiro didn't know it was a demon until they saw it. Maybe they held back because they couldn't see a number in its eyes, but there was no doubt that this was an upper rank demon.
In under a second, Muichiro and Tanjiro had assumed battle stances.
"Mist Breathing, fourth form," Muichiro breathed deeply. "Shifting flow slash!"
With incredible speed, Muichiro rushed toward the demon with his sword in an attempt to decapitate it. The demon dodged the attack and jumped up onto the ceiling.
"Stop! Don't be so mean to me!" the demon cried. "It hurts!"
"Hinokami kagura," Tanjiro said, drawing his sword. "Sunflower thrust!"
Tanjiro thrust his sword at the demon.
The demon dodged the attack again, but wouldn't fight back against them. It fell onto the floor, and at what looked like the speed of light, Muichiro was easily able to behead it.
"You cut off his head already!?" Nezuko asked. "That was really fast!"
"Tokito-san, don't let your guard down!" Tanjiro said, thinking back to the fight against upper rank 6 in the entertainment district. "Sometimes an upper rank doesn't die even if you cut its head off!"
This held true for the upper rank that they were currently fighting, who they would later learn was upper rank 4, Hantengu.
Instead of dying, the demon's head grew a body and the demon's body grew a head. One of them had a weird fan and the other had a strange staff.
"I'll take the one with the staff!" Tanjiro said.
Muichiro rushed toward the one with the weird fan. The one with the fan waved its fan at Muichiro, and the wind was so powerful that it blew the building apart.
Muichiro flew into the forest, and Tanjiro and Nezuko almost fell off the edge of the building but managed to hold on.
"This is fun!" the fan demon, Karaku, said. "They really went flying, didn't they, Sekido?"
"There's nothing fun about it," the staff demon, Sekido, said. "I am just angry. Angry about being mixed in with you too, Karaku!"
"Oh? Then it's good we've been separated," Karaku said.
"Do we have to cut off their heads at the same time again?" Tanjiro asked himself.
Sekido slammed his staff onto the ground, and Tanjiro and Nezuko were both hit with a powerful electric shock.
"What is this?" Tanjiro thought. "I'm going to pass out!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Tanjiro noticed someone on the roof of the building. Well... what was left of the roof. Tanjiro looked closer and saw that it was Genya.
Genya was holding a gun. He fired at the heads of the two demons. Tanjiro noticed that, although it was a gun, it smelled just like a nichirin sword.
"That was fun," Karaku said. "I've never felt an attack like that before!"
Genya jumped down from the roof and charged toward the demons, with his sword in his hand.
"No! Genya!" Tanjiro said. "No matter how strong the weapon, this demon can't be defeated!"
Genya swung at both of their heads and severed them.
"It's rejuvenating! Getting stronger!" Tanjiro said. "It WANTS you to cut its head off!"
The demon now had four separate bodies. On top of the original two, there was now one with a spear, and one with wings and talons.
"The demon isn't worried that we'll take its head, so that's not its weak spot!" Tanjiro said. "We need to figure out what the weak spot is!"
The one with wings and talons used its talons to grab Tanjiro and flew away with him.
"How wonderful! It's been so long since I divided!" the demon with wings and talons exclaimed happily.
"This one can fly!" Tanjiro thought. "They each have different abilities!"
"Big brother!" Nezuko cried. "I'm coming to help you!"
"Don't worry about me!" Tanjiro said. "Go help Genya!"
"You're so weak it's sad," the demon with the spear said, stabbing Genya through the chest.
"GENYA!" Tanjiro yelled. "Nezuko! Help Genya! Please!"
"Okay!" Nezuko said, hurrying over to where Genya and Aizetsu, the demon with the spear, were.
Tanjiro was carried away by the demon with wings and talons. He attempted to use a breathing technique and the demon dropped him.
Tanjiro tumbled down into the forest and landed on the ground. He tried to get up but his body was numb and he couldn't hear anything.