I Spy

Chapter 60: Mysterious Mansion Part 2

Date: December 23, 2024
Time: 8:06 PM
Location: Sausureiku Forest
Weather: Light Snowing and Frost

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*Crunch*

*Crunch*

*Step*

*Step*

*Step*

"Man ... that was a tiresome walk ..." Zenitsu complained while stepping over a bush; Tanjiro was ahead of Zenitus only by a few meters, "At least we're here now!" Tanjiro replied with an ecstatic expression.

"Yeah ... but now comes the hard part ..." Zenitsu said, "No worries! As long as we're both together, we're fine!" Tanjiro spoke with the same tone as before, "I wonder how the others are doing." He asked, "Better than us ... probably ..."Zenitsu answered.

"But we just started." Tanjiro stated, "Eh ..." Zenitsu simply responded with a bit of a bland expression on his face, he looked like he was a little tired.

Tanjiro noticed his sudden change of expression, "Jeeze, mood change ... definitely can sense something is wrong with him." Tanjiro thought with a bit of a concerned expression. "Usually in these circumstances, he would be an absolute p*ssy and sitting while pissing his boxers ..." Tanjiro wondered, he took a quick sniff of the air including Zenitsu's scent.

"Ope, never mind, he is a bit scared, but there is something else ..." Tanjiro thought, he decided to ask Zenitsu what was going on and hoped for an answer from him.

"Yo, Zen. Something wrong?" Tanjiro asked, "N-no ..." Zenitsu replied. Tanjiro looked at him with a bland face and one raised eyebrow. "You serious?" Tanjiro said nonverbally through just his aura and posture alone, Zenitsu immediately understood what Tanjiro's expression meant and decided to give up since there was no use of telling him it was fine. "Ok ... so maybe yesterday Kaigaku and Gramps got into a fight, and it ended up in Kaigaku leaving the house ..." Zenitsu replied while scratching his head. 

"Oooo ... older brother problems?" Tanjiro asked, Zenitsu nodded and looked at the ground. "Sometimes people can just be a*sholes ..." Tanjiro thought with a sigh before looking up to speak to Zenitsu, "Look, maybe he'll come back soon, he probably just left to let off some steam." Tanjiro spoke as he tried to reassure Zenitsu a bit, "He does do that when he and Gramps get into a fight, but he's always back in a few hours ... he's been gone for almost a day and a half..." Zenitsu responded with an even more gloomy expression.

"Look man, he's going to come back anyway, what's he going to do without the guidance of his elder? How old is he again?" Tanjiro questioned, "He's 19, turning 20 soon though." Zenitsu replied, "Don't worry man, he's still a young person biologically, his brain hasn't fully developed yet! He's probably still undergoing some mood changes because of puberty and his hormones." Tanjiro responded.

This comment managed to calm Zenitsu down a bit, "Yeah ... I guess you're right ... maybe he will come back!" Zenitsu replied with a sudden change in mood from gloomy and mopey to a much more active and positive mood, "Though ... I really hope he comes back tonight ... I want to say goodbye to him before we leave for the trip ..." Zenitsu added as he got quiet for a bit and expressed some doubts.

"Trust, he's going to come back no matter what," Tanjiro said, Zenitsu looked at him, smiled, and nodded. 

"This feels like a cartoon, I swear to god ..." Tanjiro thought while maintaining the same expression he had on the outside.

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*Rustle*


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"You hear that?" Zenitsu asked while unsheathing his sword.

"Yeah, wh-" Tanjiro replied as he also unsheathed his sword and looked at Zenitsu who began cowering in fear again, he was looking all over the place with his guard up. 

Zenitsu's hands were shaking and his heartbeat spiked, so much so that even Tanjiro heard it. "Oh my god ... you were doing so good ..." Tanjiro thought with a frustrated expression under his mask, "Zenitsu!" Tanjiro exclaimed. "Ye-yeah?!" Zenitsu replied with an absolutely terrified tone, "Calm down!" Tanjiro stated.

"I-I'm trying!" Zenitsu responded.

Then out of the dark and dense forest on the outskirts of Kimetsu, a black silhouette of a man slowly emerged from the darkness and into the light where his character was made more apparent.

He was wearing a plaid white shirt with pitch-black track pants, the white shirt looked very old and dirty, it even had a few rips and stains from living in the forest for so long. His skin was pale red with a singular horn emerging from one side of his forehead, his hair was pitch black and was cut pretty short, and he had two chains in his with sharp blades at the end.

"Dam bro ... Halloween was a few months ago ..." Tanjiro thought with a concerned look.

"My my, looks like food is going to be served earlier than expected." The demon stated before he got a closer look at them, "And won't you look at that? You two are demon slayers! I thought you guys died out a long time ago! I thought I would never get to fight one!" The demon said with a cocky tone.

"What?" Tanjiro asked as he turned to Zenitsu in question. But he turned out useless as he was still cowering in fear of the intimidating figure in front of him. 

"Bruh ..." Tanjiro thought with an annoyed sigh, he turned around to face the demon, "What business do you have with us?" He asked. The demon chuckled a bit before finally speaking, "Isn't obvious? I want to eat you!" The demon replied with malicious intent, "Plus, I've never really experienced a good fight in my life up until now." He added before chuckling some more.

"Well then buddy, prepare yourself for this fight, because it may as well be your last fight," Tanjiro said with a confident tone. "Very well, come at me and show me what you got!" The demon exclaimed before whipping his chains at the two demon slayers.

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"Spot anything out of the ordinary?" Kanao asked while looking around the dense forest she was in. 

"No ... not yet ..." Nezuko replied as she looked around some trees to find any claw marks or something that looked relatively close to something a demon could have done. Kanao on the other hand was searching for footprints on the ground, she found some earlier but she couldn't deduce whether the footprints were old or new.

"Hey, Kanao?" Nezuko asked while running her hand on the bark of a tree, "Yeah?" Kanao replied. "When are you going to plan to confess to Tanjiro on the trip?" She said, "Uh-II-uh ..." Kanao stuttered as she turned into another blushing mess. "Hm?" Nezuko raised her eyebrow in confusion and wanted an answer. "We-well, you know how we're going to go through downtown Tokyo before we leave back to Kimetsu?" Kanao stated, Nezuko nodded in reply.

"S-so I was planning to confess to him while walking back to our buses through downtown ..." Kanao added, "When?" Nezuko continued to pester, this time she had a bit of a smug face on her. "I-I don't know! Maybe I'll find the perfect time to do it while there!" Kanao stammered. "What if you don't find the perfect time?" Nezuko continued to question which led Kanao to further blush in embarrassment. "I-I don't know! I guess I'll have to confess to him later!" She replied.

"Don't worry! You'll find the perfect moment to confess to him during the trip!" Nezuko suddenly changed her tone to a much more bright and reassuring one, "Re-really? ..." Kanao asked while calming down a bit. "Yep! But if it doesn't come around naturally, we'll just force it!" Nezuko said.

"Ple-please don't do that ... it's fine ... I-I can confess to him later if it doesn't work ..." Kanao replied as her blushing got worse again after a moment of calm, "No! You must confess to him during the trip! We're going to get you two alone so you can finally tell him how much you love him and adore him!" Nezuko demanded. Kanao was further blushing in embarrassment as soon as she thought about the phrase: "...how much you love and adore him..." 

"Pl-please stop! It's fine! Don't f-force it on him!" Kanao exclaimed as her blushing got to her peak and tried to hide it by pushing her mask further into her face and curling up into a ball of embarrassment.

"Nope! Can't do that! He's going to hear your confession during the trip no matter what!" Nezuko stated while smiling brightly under her mask, "It's fi-" Kanao said while lifting her head and meeting Nezuko in the eye, only she stopped when she saw a dark silhouette moving through the trees behind Nezuko.

Her eyes shrunk in shock before quickly getting in a stance and charging Nezuko as she unsheathed her sword.

"Wh-" Nezuko stated in surprise before getting shoved to the ground by Kanao. 

Kanao quickly decapitated the demon that was about to attack Nezuko from behind.

"Curse you!" The demon shouted in anger as he quickly fell to the ground and slowly started to disintegrate. The two could care less about the demon's word though as Kanao quickly came to realize that there were many more demons around the area.

"Thanks." Nezuko said as Kanao helped her get up, "No problem, but we aren't finished..." Kanao replied as she quickly got into a guard as she saw even more silhouettes move around in the darkness, her mood quickly changed from embarrassed and shy to serious and much more focused. Nezuko also took out her sword and quickly switched her attitude to better adapt to the current environment.

"You see them?" Kanao asked, "You have the eyes ..." Nezuko replied with a bit of an "obvious" tone. "Right ... I'll tell you when they're attacking ..." Kanao stated, Nezuko nodded again. 

The silhouettes in the darkness were constantly switching from tree to tree in an attempt to confuse the two slayers, the slayers knew they were surrounded as they heard sounds coming from behind them as well.

"Now!" Kanao yelled as she and Nezuko saw three demons emerge from the darkness and attack them from above.

The two quickly charged the demons with their swords in hand and a fierce battle ensued.

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"Inosuke! Get down here, idiot!" Genya exclaimed at Inosuke who was climbing a tree while trying to get some acorns.

"Shut up! No one orders around the great lord of the mountains!" Inouske proudly said while pointing to his chest, he quickly lost balance on the branch he was sitting on and fell to the ground with a loud, "Wah!".

"Oh my god ..." Genya frustratedly said with a facepalm. "Inosuke, get up ... we have a job ..." Genya said with a frustrated and annoyed look on his face, "After I get the acorns!" Inosuke replied, "FOR WHAT REASON?! YOU'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET ACORNS FOR LIKE 10 MINUTES!" Genya shouted as his anger finally peaked. 

"If I tell you, then you would make fun of me!" Inosuke exclaimed back, "You're acting like I have not made fun of you ever since we first met!" Genya argued, "It's different this time!" Inosuke shouted back with a little blush.

"Tch." Genya scoffed, "How so?" He added. 

Inosuke froze for a few seconds before speaking, "Every time I'm around pigtails, I always get this feeling! Something in my stomach keeps disturbing me, and I don't like it!" Inosuke exclaimed with a huff, Genya suddenly felt like he understood it all, but to make sure his assumptions were correct, he decided to question the boar head more.

"Are you sure you don't like it?" Genya asked.

"No! It disturbs me!" Inosuke shouted back, Genya raised an eyebrow under his mask and looked at Inosuke further, "Well ... judging by your current attitude ... I would say otherwise ... you sure you don't like it?" Genya questioned.

Inosuke gulped before replying, "Well ... maybe I do like it a bit ... I also kind of like it when she gives me attention ..." Inosuke replied. "Hmmm ... what else do you like about her ...?" Genya further questioned.

"I also kind of admire her bossy attitude as well as her toughness are others ... her cooking is kind of good as well ..." Inosuke said.

"Yep ... I knew it ... the idiot's in love ..." Genya thought to himself before sighing, "Is that why you've been constantly bugging her throughout the school day and trying to collect acorns for the past 10 minutes? Just for her attention?" Genya asked, "The acorn part is a different thing! But ... I kind of want to give it to her as a gift ..." Inosuke stated.

"For what? The last time I saw you give someone a gift was back in 2nd year ..." Genya sort of exaggerated, but was being a bit truthful at the moment. "I don't know! I just felt like she would like it!" Inosuke replied with a little blush under his mask, "Ugh ... I getting the feeling in my stomach again!" Inosuke said in annoyance to himself.

"Look, buddy ... I think I know what's going on here ..." Genya said with a sigh while shaking and stroking his forehead.

"What?!" Inosuke asked while looking genuinely confused and frustrated at himself for feeling these things. Genya put his hand on Inosuke's shoulder with a large *slap*, "You're in love ... just admit it ..." Genya stated with a straight face, "What?! The great lord Inosuke knows none of these things!" Inosuke replied with a state of shock and fury. "Don't worry ... it happens to all of us ..." Genya answered, "Why?!" Inosuke demanded.

"Well ... if you paid attention in biology last year, you would know that at a specific age in everyone's life, they reach something called "puberty" ..." Genya stated, "And?!" Inosuke demanded further explanation.

Genya paused for a second before speaking, "I don't know ... I didn't pay attention in that class either ... but not as much as you..." He said with a goofy smile, "..." Inosuke was a little bit surprised at his answer and had nothing to say.

"Ok ... if it happens to all of us at this age ... then what about you ... ?" Inosuke asked with curiosity. 


"..."


"Goddamit ... I knew it was unintentional but that still hurt!" Genya thought with a single comedic tear of loneliness after he realized that he never had a first love or crush during high school. 

Genya sighed and replied to Inosuke's comment, "I'll probably experience it soon! D-don't worry!" Genya said with probably the most confident face he could muster up at the moment while hiding all of his despair.

"Ok ... then tell me! What makes you think that I like pigtails?!" Inosuke exclaimed, "Well ... do you appreciate her company?" Genya started to ask.

Inosuke nodded slowly.

"Do you like her personality?" 

Inosuke nodded again.

"Do you like it when she gives you attention?"

Inosuke nodded again.

"Do you not like it when she's talking to other dudes?"

Inosuke nodded again...but with a little hesitation.

"Ok ... pretend I like her for the moment, and if I confessed to her, what would you feel?" 

"..." Inosuke was speechless for a while as he thought of an answer to give.

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*Chirp chirp chirp*

A total of five minutes had passed by before Inosuke could answer, Genya was fed up and decided to slap him out of his trance.

*SMACK*

"OW! What was that for?!" Inosuke shouted, "You took too long!" Genya replied, "I was thinking!" Inosuke stated. "For how long?! Come on, I'll teach you along the way! We have a job to do!" Genya exclaimed as he pulled Inosuke along the trail by the ear.

"Ow, ow, ow! Not so hard!" Inosuke exclaimed, "We've been doing nothing for like 18 minutes! Come on! The others already cleared their places and are already heading into the mansion!" Genya stated back, "O-ok! But stop pulling on my ear!" Inosuke demanded.

"No!" Genya replied before disappearing into the darkness of the forest.

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Tanjiro and Zenitsu on the other hand were very occupied with the demon that was attacking them.

"HAHAH! Having fun boys?!" The demon said with a sarcastic tone. 

"I would if the p*ssy over there would quit whining and start doing something!" Tanjiro thought while deflecting and dodging blows from the chain blades that the demon kept swinging around the place, he looked at Zenitsu who hadn't even moved an inch and was kept in place by the chains and the amount of fear he had at the moment.

"Zenitsu! Do something!" Tanjiro demanded as he kept moving around the battlefield while dodging chains. 

"I-I'm trying! I can't! I'm too scared!" Zenitsu exclaimed at Tanjiro with a terrified face, "Oh? What's this? Seems like a yellow boy over here is too scared to move!" The demon said with a laugh.

"I'm surprised how you even managed to become a slayer!" The demon added before he suddenly focused his chains on Zenitsu to kill him first.

"Blood Demon Art: Hellfire Chains!" The demon said as his chains started to become engulfed by flames and the blades became red-hot with the amount of heat emitting from the chains.

(What ... I did not mean to make this a Ghostrider reference ... but let's do it anyway ...)

"AH!" Zenitsu could only yell that much before the chains surrounded him.

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*Ching*
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Tanjiro managed to redirect the attack with his sword by hitting it. 

The chain was redirected into a tree and it quickly swung around it and wrapped onto the tree. 

The heat coming from the chains was enough to light the tree on fire; "Tch." Thought the demon before he whipped the chains off from the tree and let it burn, "Shit! That's going to start a wildfire!" Tanjiro thought as he looked around for something to extinguish the fire with.

"I'm just going to have to use some of my power to direct some air to extinguish the flame ... but I can't let Zenitsu see me ..." Tanjiro thought as he looked around while figuring out a way to deal with Zenitsu.

"I think this could work ..." Tanjiro thought as he suddenly noticed a chain that was coming right at him.

He jumped up and dodged the chain before landing on the ground and picking up a rock, "I believe I've seen the others do this to him before ..." He thought.

He then turned to Zenitsu, "Hey, Zenitsu! Think fast!" Tanjiro screamed. "Wh-" Zenitsu replied while turning around as he was quickly hit in the head with a rock, knocking him out cold. 

There was a little silence on the battlefield after Tanjiro did that, "D-did you just knock your friend out?" The demon asked while looking visibly surprised. "Yeah ..." Tanjiro replied, "W-why ...?" The demon questioned. "Something's definitely going to happen ... we're just going to have to wait ..." 

"Tch ..." The demon said to himself, "Never mind that! I'm just getting started!" He added with a large smile before resuming his attacks. 

"Ope! Ok!" Tanjiro replied as he also began to dodge and weave his chains, "Now to deal with the fi-" Tanjiro thought as he turned to the fire to see how far it spread.

"It's already spread to 5 other trees ..." Tanjiro thought with an "oh shit" face, he turned around to see Zenitsu who was still knocked out, and decided to go for trees to extinguish them so it doesn't turn into another Australia or California.

He dodged one of the demon's chains and went near the burning trees. 

"What is he do-" The demon thought before he got his questions swiftly answered when Tanjiro quickly spun around and kicked in the direction of the trees.

In an instant, the air and dust around his leg started to pick up and launch into the trees at a near-sound speed. 

The fire that spread to the trees was quickly extinguished, and the demon was absolutely flabbergasted at the show of power from the boy, "H-how ..." The demon asked with a wide-eyed expression.

"I'm just really powerful ... that's all ..." Tanjiro simply answered, "Also I wouldn't worry about me at the current." He added as he pointed somewhere.

"Huh?" The demon said out of pure confusion as he turned to where Tanjiro was pointing. He noticed that Zenitsu was gone and he started looking everywhere for him.

"Wh-where?!" He said to himself with pure confusion and shock.

"Thunder Breathing: First Form: ..."

The demon's eyes widened as he realized he was right in his ear as soon as heard that.

"Thunder Clap and Flash!" Zenitsu stated as he decapitated the demon in one sword swipe.

The demon's head landed on the ground with a plop and he soon started to watch his body disintegrate from his legs.

"C-curse you! You bastard slayers! I wish all of you would've just died!" The demon shouted out of anger.

"..."

He received no reply as he soon saw the two slayers turn around and start to leave him, "IF YOU THINK YOU'RE LEAVING RIGHT NOW, I'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING FOR YOU BUDDY!" The demon screamed out of pure anger as he mustered up the last of his strength from his body to attack them in a last-ditch attempt. The slayers turned around in confusion and interest as they wanted to see what the demon had left.

"Blood Demon Art: Final Ditch Teleport!" He said as a large vortex of purple and black appeared underneath the two slayers.

"Hmm ... I'm kind of interested to see where this goes ..." Tanjiro thought to himself as he watched the demon's body fully disintegrate and he was soon teleported away to an unknown location in the forest.

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"Great ... I think I'm lost ..." Tanjiro thought to himself as he looked around the unknown area of the forest at the time.

He shrugged and decided to call for some help with his earpiece. 

He clicked a button on his earpiece before pressing the button to talk in it. 

"Hello? Minato?" Tanjiro asked, he heard some rustling in the background before a voice came onto his earpiece, "Tanjiro? Thought you were on a mission?" Minato asked with a confused tone, "I am ... but I got hit with an attack that teleported me to a random place ..." Tanjiro replied.

"And you need directions to where ...?" Minato questioned, "Is there anything that closely resembles an abandoned mansion on your computer near my location?" Tanjiro answered.

"Hold on ..." Minato said while typing on his keyboard and clicking on various things with his mouse.

"Yeah ... found it ... you want me to tell you where it is?" Minato asked.

"Yeah ... just tell me the general direction, and you're good to go." Tanjiro replied, "Aight' just head straight for about 5 minutes and you should be there." Minato answered, "Thanks." Tanjiro said, "No problem." Minato said.

Tanjiro then disconnected the call and started to walk towards the mansion.

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"Dam ... I know that walk was 5 minutes, but that felt like 20!" Tanjiro thought before clearing through a bush and entering into a large opening.

Just as suspected, the mansion was in the clearing. It was old and worn down, with architecture from the late Taisho era, it hade several holes on the exterior with vines and other vegetation even growing in some. There was no light coming from the mansion, and the only way Tanjiro could see it was because of the moonlight that was constantly shining and illumniating the clearing.

Tanjiro looked around for a bit as if he was checking for something.

"Good ... that crow isn't here ... it's kind of weird to have a crow spy on you at all times ..." He thought before shrugging.

"Welp! Here I go! I wonder how the others are doing ...?" He thought as he shrugged again and decided to walk into the mansion with both a goofy walk and a completely innocent smile as if he saw nothing happen.

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"Hello? ... pizza delivery ..." Tanjiro stated with a goofy tone as he entered the abandoned mansion.

To a bit of his surprise and satisfaction, he saw a few lanterns dimly lighting the hallway to the right of the redhead boy. "Welp, can't use the flashlight." He thought while gripping a flashlight in his hoodie pocket and slowly letting go of it, "So ... that solves the question of whether or not someone is living here ... the new question is what lives here?" Tanjiro thought before taking in a big breath of air through his mask and into his nose as he studied the scents that were coming from the mansion.

"A few dead bodies ... seems like it's been weeks since they've last been alive ... the rackety, old smell of the mansion ... and ... the familiar smell of a daemon ... four actually!" Tanjiro thought as his expression quickly changed from a joking and casual tone to a much more excited one.

"Great! I shall head to the first one!" Tanjiro stated to himself with a finger up in the air as he started walking towards the light of the right hallway.

But just as he started walking towards the hallway, he noticed that the room change.

"Da fuq? Where am I this time?" Tanjiro thought as he looked around the room.

There was basically nothing in it, but it was much more well-kept and maintained as compared to the exterior of the mansion, it also had light bulbs as a source of light instead of the old lantern that Tanjiro saw earlier.

"Oh god ... it's going to be like this episode of KNY? Isn't it ...?" Tanjiro thought with a sigh before he slowly stroked his forehead and shook his head in disappointment.

"How have I not guessed earlier ...?" He thought with genuine confusion.

"Ok ... so I just need to find the Kyogai ... and the other demons that are in this mansion ..." Tanjiro thought as he began to walk to the sliding doors that were seemingly the only entrance to this room other than being teleported there. 

And as soon as he reached the handle for the door, the room changed again. This time, it had a dresser as well as a mirror to liven up the view.

"..." Tanjiro thought with a annoyed face, "If this is how it's going to be like ... then so be it ..." He thought before taking out his sword and take a deep breath through his nose.

He then kicked down the door to the room and it quickly changed to another room.

He also kicked down that door and the room changed again.
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He went from kicking down doors to being in a new room for a good while before finally meeting something.