The Hidden Blade

Part 1

Tanjiro's crow had presented the trio with a new mission.

The town they were sent to was very small and out of the way. It was also dead silent. Everything about this place sent chills down Zenitsu's spine. The silence most of all. The only sounds he could hear was from Tanjiro and Inosuke.

"Hello?" Tanjiro called out, "Is anyone here?"

"Where is the demon?" Inosuke muttered, "I wanna fight! I'm getting antsy over here!"

Zenitsu rolled his eyes.

"The sun is still up, idiot."

His voice shook a little despite the annoyed tone in it.

"Uh..." Zenitsu's tone matched his nerves now. "Do you guys sense anyone?"

"Nah," Inosuke replied immediately while Tanjiro took in a deep breath.

The water breather shook his head.

"It feels abandoned."

"Or they could all be dead!" the blond squeaked.

"No. No. Calm down," Tanjiro interrupted quickly. "They could have just evacuated because it was too dangerous here. Besides, I don't smell any blood."

"GRAAAH!" Inosuke yelled as he kicked down one of the doors of the small houses.

"Inosuke!" Tanjiro interjected as dust flew up to their faces. "You can't do that!"

"I can do what I want! Hahaha!" the boarhead cackled as he barged into the newly vandalized house.

The house was barren. The only furniture that was there was broken and thrown into the corner. Spiders seemed to be the only residence. Dust coated everything.

Zenitsu sneezed as Inosuke kicked up a storm of it.

"This house is empty!" Inosuke declared with his hands on his hips after searching every nook and cranny in the tiny building.

The boy was blanketed in dust bunnies.

"Okay," Zenitsu coughed waving a hand in front of his face to clear the debris from the air. "Can we leave now?"

"We should probably check the other houses while we wait for nightfall. If there is a demon here we can't just leave it to go find another town to terrorize." Tanjiro exited the house to check the one next door.

By nightfall they had checked all the houses in the town and found no signs of people or demons only homes ominously abandoned.

Tanjiro spoke as they walked back to the center of the village, "I can't believe we didn't find anything. We didn't go to the wrong place did we?"

"That crow of yours seemed pretty sure about leading us here," Zenitsu mentioned uneasily.

The boy with hanafuda earrings sighed.
"Well the supposed demon should be active soon if not right now."

"Finally! That thing better be! I've been itching all day to fight something!" Inosuke bounced eagerly from foot to foot.

A moving shadow caught Tanjiro's eye.

"There!" He drew his katana and charged at the silhouette which quickly darted away, scaled a house and began jumping from roof to roof.

The redhead launched himself onto the roof in pursuit. Inosuke joined him with a signature cackle and Zenitsu followed from the ground as best he could.

Zenitsu tried to keep his eyes on the two fast moving boys above him as well as where he needed to go in order to keep up. It proved difficult.

Soon enough he turned down one alley and came face to face with a dead end.

He knew he couldn't climb the wall, trees were one thing. He wondered at how his friends were able to do it. He'd probably die trying.

He wanted to yell for them to wait for him, but he realized that they would lose the demon if he did so he stayed quiet.

He stared at the wall unsure of what to do. He had definitely lost them by now so he couldn't just go the long way 'round.

He sighed in defeat and simply sat down where he stood.

"Why do you have to be so useless, Agatsuma?" he berated himself burying his face in his arms.

His ears twitched at the barely noticeable sound of multiple people landing with the grace of a cat.

He stood up quickly and just managed to dodge a figure aiming to grab him.

As he backed away, he gripped the handle of his sword with his heart pounding. It was too dark to see who or what the figure was. However, he could hear the sound of twisted will. He winced as the sharp notes screeched painfully in his ears.

"Who are you?" Zenitsu asked shakily.

The figure responded with silence as it continued to approach.

Zenitsu, who was greatly unnerved by the answer, continued to back up until he hit something.

He cried out in terror when a pair of arms wrapped around his neck and chest from behind.

"Crap! Crap! He's a loud one," a hushed masculine voice exclaimed from the big guy behind him. "The muzzle! Get the muzzle!"

"TANJIRO! INOSUKE!" the blond yelled without wasting any air in his lungs.

He choked when a fist connected with his stomach.

Something cold and hard was hurriedly shoved onto his face and clicked at the back of his neck.

Whatever it was prevented any movement from his jaw. It was also hard to breathe in.

"We have to get this done fast." Another voice spoke urgently.

He was roughly shoved to the ground and his haori and sword were removed before he even tried to get up. His arms were yanked behind him and tied at the wrists. His legs were bound as well before he was thrown over someone's shoulder.

It was quite obvious then that the figures were human. So was this whole thing a set up? Why would they want to kidnap a demon hunter? Were Nezuko-Chan, Tanjiro and Inosuke okay?

He didn't know who these people were, but he sure as heck knew that he didn't want to go with them.

So he struggled and tried to scream at them to release him. However, due to the muzzle restraint, he could only manage to growl.

"Could you stop squirming, brat!" the man carrying him demanded.

In a rare spark of defiance, Zenitsu growled again and kneed the brute in the head.

"Agh! You- You know what?!"

Fuming, the man knocked the boy out.

"We need to go now!" The last person ran up to the group.

Each person clothed and masked in black murmured something beneath their breath and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

I don't know why this was so hard to publish. Sheesh. What's wrong with me. I've had this sitting in my draft section for so long. Why? ~Courage