𝓝𝓪𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮𝓼 𝓦𝓲𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷 𝓞𝓾𝓻 𝓖𝓻𝓪𝓼𝓹𝓼 || кαмαвσкσ тяισ χ яєα∂єяѕ

Chapter 6 : That Familiar Scent

The scent of uneasiness lingers about his surrounding area. Tanjirou looked from left to right, noticing the rather gloomy atmosphere as he walk further into the town that he was assigned to for his first ever mission.

A lot of people seem to gather in groups, deep in their gossips as if his presence as a new passerby striding around town doesn't matter as much. Taking into account his mere appearance alone; with a rather huge box hanging on his back that carried a sleeping Nezuko and a Nichirin sword on the side of his hip, he's quite out of the ordinary and would've been the talk of the town for looking rather suspicious just from a single glance at the equipments he brought with him.

Though to be frank, the people's attempts at whispering was rather pointless as it didn't even take a minute for him to listen in and pick up on the current situation the town has been dealing with.

"Another girl went missing again? That's terrible!"

"It's been happening a lot lately, too.."

He heard it quite clearly, and it was the same things that his Kasugai crow mentioned before he departed a few days prior.

It's just that the mental image that out of nowhere appeared in his mind when he heard those words made him pause on his tracks.

He's trying—he truly does, to not get sidetracked by the guilt that gnawed him from the inside. If he has all the time in the world to dwell on the infinite possibilities or reasons as to why his partner went missing the other night, then he should spend those times to further investigate the demon who's responsible for the several missing young woman from the last couple of days based on the gossips Tanjirou managed to pick up on.

He's not one who get distracted easily, but if the matter involves him one way or another (especially if he's more than halfway convinced that when something happened was entirely his fault), then Tanjirou has to juggle between the options he was presented. The safety of his friend matters just as much as everyone else's in this town he had stepped into.

For now, he has to place his bet on the possibility that she's alive and well.

Somewhere out there.

Soon after reality hits him again, the topics within the groups of people around him suddenly shifted onto somewhere else. Tanjirou shook his head lightly before trying to listen in again.

"Oh, isn't that Kazumi-san?"

"Poor man.. I heard that his fiancée went missing the other night."

"A-are those.. Bruises?? I wonder what happened.."

Beside him, a man who fits the description earlier by the townsfolk drags both of his feet rather slowly—either unaware of their not-so-quite gossips or decided to just being rather ignorant about it.

Based on his disheveled dark hair and dark circles under both of his eyes, it was clear that this person named Kazumi has yet to get himself a proper good night sleep. It was truly a pitiful sight as the burgundy-haired male wouldn't even dare think of the reasons how a couple of bruises managed to land across the man's face.

'Maybe if (Y/N)-san was here, she could've—'

Cutting off immediately the words that crosses his mind, slapping himself across the face seems like an appropriate thing to do in this situation. Though by doing so he'd surely bring unnecessary attention towards himself and loose the chance at getting more clues regarding the demon's whereabouts. Tanjirou even went out of his way to label himself foolish as to even dare think a single thought about his other problem that he promised himself to deal with later. Focus! He has to focus!