Dispassionate

13

13) Zenitsu and the Tsuzumi House

The young girl ahead of them was confused on why the boy had stopped yelling. She opened her eyes to see a man with dark red hair moving his hand away from the boys neck.

"Ahh! Thank you so much! Now if you forgive me I would like to get out of here before he wakes up!" The girl bowed and rushed down the dirt path, walking past a confused Seiko.

He looked past Tanjiro to see the boy knocked out on the floor. "Did you really have to go that far?" Tanjiro nodded. "Fine, but we probably have the same mission, so you're carrying him." Tanjiro rolled his eyes and nodded, picking the boy up.

"Chirp!" A sparrow landed on Tanjiro's shoulder. He glanced down at it, seemingly listening to the incoherent chirping. He made affirming hums and nodded every few chirps. Seiko looked at him like he was delusional for listening to a bird chirping for three minutes straight.

"What did it say?" He jokingly asked, not actually expecting an answer. "It, um, well, it said that he, had been harassing that poor girl for, around, around 30 minutes." He kept staring at the bird. Seiko couldn't even hear what he said but he just nodded, with the (･ᴗ･) face.

Tanjiro listened to the bird chirp for a few more seconds, before dropping the boy on the ground. He landed on his back, before sitting up. "Ow!" He looked up at the two boys.

"What?!" He looked around him, not spotting the girl from earlier. "You two did this! That girl wanted to marry me and—"

"I'm sorry to burst your bubble but that girl was desperate to get away from you." Seiko interrupted him. The boy looked over to meet his eyes. "No! She was madly in love with me, I'm telling you she was! She wa—"

Tanjiro had hit the back of his neck again. "Seriously?" Tanjiro nodded. "Ugh, you still have to carry him!" Seiko started walking. Tanjiro groaned at an audible volume and picked the boy up again, throwing him over his shoulder.

He quickly caught up with Seiko. The sparrow followed after them, deciding to nestle in the boys vibrant, ugly, yellow hair. Tanjiro honestly wanted to drop him again, because the weight put an unwanted strain on his leg.

He felt the boy shuffling around a bit, so he nudged him. He slowly opened his eyes and instantly noticed he was being carried. He screamed, making Tanjiro drop him and cover his ears.

The blonde looked up at Tanjiro. "Wait— I'm sorry—!" He got hit on the head repeatedly by Seiko. "I know your surroundings aren't familiar but that doesn't give you an excuse to scream so loud! You could burst someone's ear drums!" He yelled, making the boy cover his ears.

"I'm sorry! Geez!" Seiko turned his head away, staring off into the distance. "My name is Zenitsu Agatsuma.... And you are?" Seiko huffed. "I'm Seiko Jun and this is my friend Tanjiro Kamado." He looked down at the boy, offering his hand to help him up. Zenitsu smiled and took it.

Seiko had a crushing grip, smiling at him Shinobu style. "If you scream in my friend's ear again, I'll feed you to a demon." Zenitsu yelped and hid behind Tanjiro.

"Alright, now that that's settled let's go!"

Seiko stared at the children in front of him with a smile. He had Zenitsu's sparrow in his hand. "Do you wanna tell us what happened? Is this your house?"

"No.... That's a house of monsters..." The little girl answered while crying. "They took our brother!" The little boy yelled. "What are your names?" He asked, a calming smile on his face. "I'm Shoichi and this is my little sister Teruko..."

"Well Shoichi, Teruko, we're going to get your brother back!" He proclaimed, putting his hands on his hips. "Isn't that right?" He looked at his comrades. Zenitsu looked at the house, backing up a few feet. Tanjiro just nodded.

"I mean if you want to, you can stay out here with the children, Zenitsu." Seiko said with a somewhat threatening aura.

"No, it's not that! It's just that sound is really unnerving!" He said, pointing to the house. "Sound?" Seiko cupped his hand to his ear. "I don't hear anything." He looked over to Tanjiro for affirmation. The boy nodded, but he covered his nose, looking up at the balcony. "It's sounds like a Tsuzumi drum.... It's getting louder."

A man flew out of the window just then. He hit the ground before any of them could even react. Seiko covered the children's eyes, looking down at the dead body. Tanjiro turned away, covering his nose with his hand.

"Don't... don't look over there." Seiko told the two. Teruko grabbed her brother's hand.

"We're going inside to get your brother, don't follow us, okay? It's dangerous in there." The kids nodded, looking at each other.

Seiko took the first few steps, staring at the body. He took a deep breath, walking straight to the front door. He slid it open with a bit of a struggle, having Tanjiro help him with it. Seiko looked over to Zenitsu, who was sulking. He followed the boys inside.

'It's so dark in here...'

He looked over to Seiko, who seemed unbothered by the sudden change of light. Maybe he was just going blind, or it was the fabric basically draped over his eyes. He adjusted the scarf on his head a bit, moving it up just enough so it wouldn't cover his eyes. (Yall didn't know he was still wearing that scarf huh?)

Seiko opened one of the doors, taking a step inside. The sounds of a drum resounded through the house and Tanjiro and Zenitsu found themselves somewhere else entirely. Zenitsu started sobbing uncontrollably, and Tanjiro had started wishing he left him outside with the kids.

"We— we need to get out of here!" He grabbed Tanjiro's arm and started opening every door in sight. He soon came to one and froze when he saw what was inside.

A boy with a boar mask turned around when light poured into the room, huffing. He bolted out, knocking Tanjiro and Zenitsu down. "It's a boar monster, run!" Zenitsu grabbed Tanjiro and booked it toward another room. The two could hear the cackling of the boar boy as Zenitsu ran, dragging Tanjiro along with him.

The boy looked around for any exit, his eyes landing on a face on the floor. He yelped, backing away from the demon.

"You don't want to eat me! I probably taste disgusting, and she's all skin and bones!" He yelled, the demon licked its lips. Tanjiro didn't even notice that Zenitsu had called him a girl.

"How will I know if I don't try?"