~BRAVE~ (Tanjiro X Reader)

Desert

The bird appeared that morning, waking us all due to its squawking. "Head south! South! Halfway across Japan! South! Get back in connection with Diakoku (L/n)! Lost connection the day he lost connection with (Y/n)! South!"

"(L/n)? The same last name as yours. Are you related to this man (Y/n)? Tanjiro asked, getting up from his resting place next to myself and Nezuko's box.

"Yeah, he's my brother. But I haven't seen him since I got teleported. We were both fighting a demon and right when Diakoku was about to behead the thing, I ended up in the snowy mountains."

"You have a brother?!?!" Zenitsu yelled out. Since he was also sleeping next to me, his yell hurt my ears a bit.

"Y-yes." Flinching a bit, I got up from the ground and crack my neck doing simple morning stretches such as touching my toes with straight legs and then moving my upper body side to side to crack my back. "It's a little unnerving that he's missing but, Haven't I mentioned him before?"

"No. Not a word." We started moving. Zenitsu and Inosuke were already down each other's throats about manners. How were they so energetic in the mornings? My hand covered my mouth as I yawned and afterward I rubbed my eyes.

"Still sleepy?" Tanjiro asked. My head nodded slowly.

"It's only been like, five minutes since we've gotten up. But I'm also not a morning person..." I shook my head to try to shake the drowsiness away but once I stopped, it came back.

As if a light turned on in my head, I remembered something I had said two days ago. "Hey, you promised you would tell me more of your story remember"

Tanjiro laughed and nodded. "Do you like listening to stories (Y/n)?"

"I have ever since I was a child. My mom would tell me great stories of how gods came down to earth to rule, then they became too holy to live in this land. Or stories of how she met my dad, which always melted my heart." My face lit up at the memories of the bedtime stories my mother told me. About all of the silly things Diakoku would do before I was born. Or what kind of things dad would say to me while I was in mom's belly. I don't think anything would top the stories they've told me. "The way you tell your story reminds me of the way she told them. Plus it's really interesting..."

"Well, where did I leave off?"

🌸

My back leaned over, my breaths were heavy. Zenitsu suggested to take a train to get closer to our destination. While the others were still talking about it, I just boarded the train. So the others had no choice but to follow. But if we took a different path to avoid this, that would've been ten times better. The sand was making it difficult for any of us to walk. Deserts suck.

"There's got to be an oasis somewhere," Zenitsu said.

"Seventh style, Spatial Awareness." Inosuke crouched down to the ground and spread his arms out wide with flat palms.

"What's Inosuke doing?" I asked Tanjiro.

"It's one of his techniques for his breathing style of the beast. He's checking to see what's around. It's super useful in this kind of situation." His hand reached to the back of his head to scratch it.

I hummed in response as we all stood to watch and wait. The sweltering heat was burning my skin but the job needed to get done. It was my brother after all.

"Found it" Inosuke had said. I jumped a bit from the surprise and sighed. Inosuke pointed ahead and slightly to the right. "There's a shelter there! We can camp out there if we make it by night."

"How far? Zenitsu asked.

"15 miles!" All of us moan in exhaustion. Zenitsu started to cry. I would have cried too if I had an ounce of water left in my system.

"Well let's try to keep a positive mindset about it and I think we can get there in no time!" Tanjiro clenched his fist. I could tell he was angry about the situation.

"That's a nice way to think," I added. We continued to walk in the sand. The sound of water sloshing around in the water skin motivated all of us to keep going, as well as Tanjiro's encouraging words. By sunset, we had already arrived there and were fighting over who got the water first. Inosuke obviously. I was the last to drink and Tanjiro and I had a fight over it.

"Don't worry (Y/n) I can have what's left of today's water once you're done with it." He said.

"It doesn't work like that. It would literally hurt my soul to let myself drink before you. So I might as well not drink at all."

"Wait, I never said for you to do that! I would be upset if you didn't have anything..." he pouted.

In the end, I had won the argument, but if I felt like Tanjiro tricked me a bit. He didn't drink that much at all. But he looked about as refreshed as ever. I left some water knowing that Tanjiro would be drinking it later.

Nezuko finally had the freedom to roam around. As soon as she finished stretching, she ran up to give me a hug. She was sweating herself due to the heat, but the cold that came with night would be much worse. In the corner of my eye, I could see Tanjiro smiling at us.

"(Y/n), how did you become a demon slayer?" Zenitsu asked while the boys set up a fire. The question made me smile a bit. Why was he so interested in me? All of last night he was clinging to me while we slept. I woke up a couple of times due to it. My assumption was that he was cold. I'll make sure to have him sleep next to Inosuke and Tanjiro next time.
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So I'm at a point with my writing where I have so much time on my hands that I'm updating twice a week now. Wednesday's and Sunday's. I'm tempted to do 2,000 words per chapter, but I'll leave that up to you guys.
Edited release date: April 11 2020