Take Your Hands Off My Neck and Hold On To the Ghost Of My Body

This One?

"This way." Muichiro directed as he, Tanjiro and Inosuke hurried through the forest.

Both Inosuke and Tanjiro had guns in hand, ready to deal with any hordes that happened to get in their way. (though now they had specific orders to only incapacitate them.)

Muichiro only had the syringe Shinobu had given him, not caring enough to grab anything else.

He stepped through the rubble, remembering the exact steps to where he'd left Genya (It was one thing he could never forget).

"Genya!"

He called out, as he stepped into the space their camp had been.

There was no reply. There was no Genya.

The rope lay limp on the ground, ends frayed. Someone had cut the rope.

"Is this where you left him?"

Inosuke asked, looking around. Tanjiro had already begun to connect the dots, and he made a shushing gesture at Inosuke.

Muichiro stared at the rope, trying to figure out how far Genya could have possibly gotten. Giyuu said he was there when he checked a few hours ago, so he can't have been gone for long. He had to be around here somewhere. He had to be.

Tanjiro placed a hand on his shoulder, but Muichiro flinched away.

Genya was here somewhere. He had to find him now.

"Spread out. We'll cover more ground."

He ordered.

"But don't go too far from the rest. If you find anything, call out."

.................................

"I hope there's a universe where we get to grow old together."

"Who says it can't be this one?"

God apparently, because after 20 minutes, Muichiro was starting to lose hope. Weren't Zombies supposed to be slow?

"Tokitou"

He heard a soft voice whisper from behind him.

Muichiro turned around quickly, his eyes shining. His face dropped when he saw Tanjiro standing behind him with a concerned face.

"We'll have to head back to Kocho soon."

"No, she told me that they would handle everything."

Muichiro protested.

"She told me to go straight to Genya."

"Tokitou..."

Tanjiro went to say something, probably trying to be the annoying little makeshift therapist he always tried to be. Fortunately, Inosuke cut him off.

"Monjiro! Tokiro!"

Inosuke's voice echoed through the rubble. Normally Muichiro would roll his eyes at the butchering of his name, but he was still too depressed to even care.

"I found him!" He laughed triumphantly.

Muichiro shot up. He took off racing toward Inosuke's voice, Tanjiro following close behind.

Inosuke was standing atop a pile of rubble, looking down a significant drop. The ground wasn't far enough down to die from the fall, but it would definitely hurt if they were to jump down.

Wandering around aimlessly down below, was Genya. Or maybe it wasn't him. Are Zombies still the same person they were?

Muichiro could barely look at him like this. It hurt to know that he could have prevented his suffering.