More Than A Friend {Tanjiro X Reader}

7: The Black Swamp Demon

Night had fallen upon us. The sky was now dark. The only light coming from the houses nearby. Mr Kozume asked: "Are you still gonna keep going? It's already late. We should just  wait until the morning." "No." Tanjiro cried. "They are only active at night see we mustn't rest now." He was slightly sniffing the air again. 

"(Y/n), I smell a new scent in the area. And it's nearby. It won't be long before it begins to attack." He was looking South-East as he told me. So I faced that direction too. And in a flash, Tanjiro took off running down the road. Following him, it didn't take much for me to match his pace. 

At that moment I had forgotten Mr Kozume was just a civilian and wouldn't be able to keep up. "Hey! Please wait for me you two!" He did make an attempt to catch up to us, but of course, he failed. "The scent got even stronger! The Demon is now active!" He yelled as we both ran. At the same time, we leapt onto the closest roof and processed in running. 

"How'd they do that?!" Mr Kozume was running on the road trailing behind, clearly not used to the amount of movement, and lacked the stamina. Tanjiro leapt off and slid across the ground unsheathing his sword. While I jumped onto a nearby fence having my weapons ready, I didn't want t get in the way. 

"There are two scents here. One demon and one human girl." My eyes widen slightly. "Two scents?!'

Tanjiro wandered around for a minute his blade still at the ready. He then stopped and had the tip of the blade face the ground. "Here" He whispered underneath his breath. He jammed into the ground. Black dust admitted from the ground his sword was.

A small pitch-black puddle appeared. And then Tanjiro reached his hands in. I leapt down and went to assist him. But he had pulled something out. It looked like a... girl?! Tanjiro had bounced back. The girl was unconscious in his arms. 

A demon stuck its head out and was grinding his teeth rapidly. Mr Kozume had finally caught up a soon as the Demon sank back into the ground. "Here take her." Tanjiro handed the girl to him. "(Y/n) be careful. He could appear out of nowhere." "Got it." 

My eyes were scanning everywhere. He sniffed the air before running forward. "Water Breathing Fifth Form!" 3 of the Demon appeared out of the ground. The all went to grab Tanjiro. I was watching over Mr Kozume and the unconscious girl, that I hadn't realized until last second that the Demon come up from under me. 

"Earth Breathing 1st Form! Bouldering Crush!" Huge chunks of stone appeared and rained down onto the demon. I screeched before disappear. An arm flew off and landed close by to us.  "Are you guys ok?" Tanjiro asked as he sprinted over to use, sword still ready to strike. "Yeah, we're all good" The demon had completely sunk back underground.

"How come there are more demons? I thought they didn't work together?" I asked. "They all have the exact same scent. So think it can split to make copies of himself." 'That was a very good theory.' I thought to myself. 

"Water Breathing Second Form! Water Wheel!" Tanjiro sliced at the Demon's arm that had reached for Mr Kozume and the girl. I pulled him back so Tanjiro didn't have to worry about hurting them. He was able to cut the Demon's shoulder instead of his arm. The demon had reacted just in time to dodge. 

The Demon's head poked out of the ground from the black puddle. "You bastard! Move now before it goes stale!" Both Tanjiro looked at him confused. "Let me eat her now while she is still delicious!" Mr Kozume looked horrified. His aurora was uneven, it was a mix of fright and terror, as well as confusion. 

Then another black puddle appeared behind us, a double of the demon rose up. "Calm down other me, nights like this are bound to happen. And besides, I've already feasted on many of this town's 16-year-old girls. And every one of them was plum and tasty. I am satisfied with that." This copy was completely different from the other one. "Well, I'm not satisfied at all other me! I want to devour all the girls!"