A Cook, A Doctor, A Ghost and A Ronin.

Strangely Familiar

"Hey! Moss-head! Moss-head! Do you hear me? Oi, moss-head! Mossjuro!" Sanji keep on cursing Zoro while trying to garner any response from his fellow pirate. He is reaching out to him via River Snail.

"Shut up! Shitty cook! Go die somewhere else! What do you want with me?" Zoro replied. He is getting tired of Sanji calling him moss-head. 

"Where are you right now?" Sanji asked for Zoro's location. Zoro seems to be reluctant at first. He didn't understand why Sanji suddenly calls him out. 

"I was about to leave. I'm at the door of the inn. Why?" Zoro was just about to leave the place as he is standing on the entrance of the inn. He departed much late unlike Sanji since he wanted to take it slow and because he was busy stuffing some food in his stomach.

"I may or may not have bad news. Something big might happened." Zoro raised his eyebrows. What's going on this time? Zoro thought. He knew that the cook won't bother telling him if it was just some random things. Did the shitty cook cause some trouble somewhere?

"Demons" Sanji spoke one word. Zoro's face changed. He was also confused. He thought that this place's location is being kept confidential. How did demons found out about this place. He's also quite excited for some fight.

"What kind of trouble are we talking about?" Zoro wanted to know more about the details of what's coming. He gladly took on all of them. They need to protect this place. The swordsmith is the backbone of the Corps after all.

"We're talking Swordsmith Village right now. The place is big and also guarded. What do you think of the enemy's forces then?" Sanji throws out a question that Zoro understood the meaning behind it. 

"Upper Moon, probably a horde too." Eliminating the swordsmith is going to take a lot of manpower. They're not going to eliminate any traces in one night. 

"Well, we can't rule out that possibility." Both of them must be ready for anything that would happen.

"Another thing. Where do you got the source? How the hell did you know about this?" Zoro wanted to know how Sanji found out about this.

"Trust me bro. We'll talk about this later." Sanji promised to tell everything after this whole fiasco ended.

"Great, I can't wait to see you dying here." Zoro mocked.

"You're the one who's dying tonight asshole!" Zoro put his River Snail back in his pocket and exhaled his breath. 

*Swish!*

Zoro could hear a sword sheathed from its scabbard. It came from the house! There's only one swordsman inside the house right now, and its Tanjiro! Zoro barged through the door, not even bothering to enter like a civilized man.

---------------------------

Tanjiro is sleeping peacefully alongside his sister. They both were sleeping in their room on the tatami mat, without any futon. Beside him there was his sister who is also sleeping with him. Tanjiro is drooling as saliva flows out from his mouth.

*Shh..* 

The door to their room was opened. A small figure entered the room. He looked straight to Tanjiro who is sleeping. He extended his hand on Tanjiro's face. He pinched Tanjiro's nose, preventing him to breath out from his nose, resulting in Tanjiro waking up suddenly.

Tanjiro woke up, and sees the one who did this to him. It was Muichiro. But he wasn't angry at all. In fact, he was surprised to see Muichiro again. He  had never seen Muichiro again after Zoro and him fought in a duel.

"Hey, do you know a swordsmith named Kanamori?" Muichiro come forward and asked Tanjiro whether he knows about Kanamori or not. 

"Wah! Tokito! Did you just pinch my nose?!" To be fair, Tanjiro was surprised. He took a glance at Nezuko, who's still soundingly asleep. He's thankful that he didn't accidentally awoken his sister.

"Yes, and you reacted too slowly." Muichiro commented on Tanjiro's slow reaction to him pinching his nose.

"Well, if you'd done it in anger I would have known!" Tanjiro smiled. Since Muichiro didn't do it with any signs of hostility, it completely went through Tanjiro.

"But I wouldn't pinch a nose in anger." Muichiro replied. 

"Tokito, I hope you wouldn't mind me asking, but how did it go with Zoro-san the other day?" Tanjiro asked Muichiro about the duel.

"Oh, that? I lost." Muichiro confessed that he had lost to the Ronin. Tanjiro never thought that Muichiro would openly talk about that.

"I lost to him fair and square. He was strong, stronger than me." Muichiro still remember the suffocating feeling inside him. The taste of defeat.

"I see." Tanjiro scratch his head.

"I know Kanamori but why? I'd guess he's with Haganezuka." Tanjiro knew about Kanamori since he's the one who came in clutch and reveal to them Haganezuka's weakness but he wanted to know why Muichiro is searching for him.

"Kanamori is my new swordsmith. Where is Haganezuka?" Muichiro's previous swordsmith died before so Kanamori was appointed as his new swordsmith.

"Shall we search together?" Tanjiro offered to help Muichiro. Muichiro didn't answer.

"Why are you so helpful? Don't you have your own concerns?" Muichiro didn't understand why are Tanjiro is so keen on helping others.

"Helping others often ends up helping yourself. Besides, I was thinking of doing it anyway. So this is perfect." Tanjiro believes that helping others would end up helping himself someday. Muichiro's eyes widened at Tanjiro's reply.

"What? What did you say? Now...just now..." Muichiro would like to hear what did Tanjiro said again. It felt strangely familiar to him.

"Huh? I said it's perfect!" Tanjiro exclaim.

*Bonk!*

"Ouch!" Nezuko gets up and accidentally headbutted Tanjiro. She's awake.

"Nezuko! You're up!" Muichiro stares at Nezuko.

"Well, let's go find Haganezuka together." Tanjiro suggested at Muichiro.

"That girl is a strange creature." Muichiro find Nezuko somehow very weird.

"Huh? Strange?" Tanjiro sweat dropped. He was scared that Muichiro finds out that Nezuko is a demon. He might kill Nezuko if that fact is known to him. Looks like Muichiro had already forgot what just happened at the meeting back then.

"I've met that girl before and it was way back then too. What is it exactly." Muichiro tried to remember something, but he can't. 

Uh oh! Has Tamayo's cat come back? She was researching the change in Nezuko's blood again! It won't come out in front of Tokito! Tanjiro hoped that the cure for Nezuko exists. He believe Tamayo won't betray his trust.

"Hmm? Is someone here?" Tanjiro could sense someone behind the door. 

"Yes" Muichiro nodded. 

*Shh*

The door was opened, and a demon was revealed to be crawling through. It was Hantengu.