*Asura's POV*
Me and Tanjiro woke up around noon. I made some food and then we went on our way to find the others.
It shouldn't have taken too long due to me and Tanjiro having a great sense of smell but it still took us quite a while because the mountain air did well to mask our scents and the scent of Cerberus.
We were in a hurry to regroup before sunset because we had already been incredibly lucky that the Devil or a demon didn't find us when we were recuperating.
Fenris can take care of any ordinary demon, I taught him enough for that but if whatever attacked Tanjiro found us then we would've been dead meat.
So like that we continued through the mountain looking for the others.
Tanjiro was happy that I also lived in the mountains during my childhood.
'Well can't blame him. He doesn't understand how I got to those mountains. Well we'll take care of that when we get there.' I thought while chuckling at the innocent looking Tanjiro.
Even Fenris was joining in on the conversations with the occasional barks. Fenris was shy towards people other than me, Inosuke and Cerberus but he seemed to trust Tanjiro. Well the guy literally oozes Sunshine and it was fun to see which one out of the three of us has the best sense of smell.
*1 Hour later*
"They're close Tanjiro." I said while nodding at Fenris.
I had already sent Fenris ahead to scout for the others but told him to nope out at the first sign of danger.
We arrived at a clearing and I saw everyone there with a depressed look on their face.
Zenitsu was ready to cry. Haku seemed to be practicing with his swords but by the way he was literally clenching his sword I could tell that he was agitated.
'What did I do to deserve people like these? Hell even Zenitsu is sad.' I thought but the next thing I saw made me rage.
Inosuke was standing away from the others with Cerberus lying near him but what enraged me was the fact that Inosuke was clenching his fist. He was clenching them too hard and his nails were making his hands bleed while Cerberus was whimpering.
I immediately dashed through the clearing.
*Boink*
I smacked the back of Inosuke's head.
"Oi,oi who the hell do you think your brother is? I'm not dead you know?"
Inosuke looked at me with a shocked expression.
"You look like you saw a ghost." I said to my younger brother who now had tears in his eyes.
"Nii san!!!!!" Inosuke said as he jumped and tackled me to the ground.
'Ah fuck. He must've been worried about me. I don't even remember the time when he was away from me for this long and there I was walking leisurely.'
I thought while hugging Inosuke. Normally he would be too embarassed for something like a hug not to mention in front of others so I'm gonna enjoy my sweet time.
"There, there. Now stop crying." I said while patting Inosuke's head.
*Woof*
*Bark*
Me and Inosuke both turned around to look at a strangely similar scene.
Fenris was angrily barking at Cerberus, while Cerberus was hugging and licking Fenris with all the strength he could muster.
Fenris looked like a mother scolding her child. Well the guy only had Cerberus as blood family.
Then I suddenly remembered something and turned to face Inosuke.
"Hey Inosuke show me your hands will ya~?" I asked with the sweetest voice that ever came out of my throat but this sweet voice sounded like a Devil's call to Inosuke who immediately clenched his fists.
"I suddenly remembered that I couldn't find my sword Nii san I'm gonna go and look for it." Inosuke said trying to get away.
'Oh no you don't.' I thought while I had a huge smile plastered on my face .
I immediately unclenched Inosuke's fists and saw the blood on them. This idiot never cuts his nails so his hands were bleeding a lot right now.
"You dumb brat. You're gonna go 'Nightmare mode' for at least a month as punishment and don't worry I'm working on coming up with something even harder." I said while glaring daggers at my little brother.
He wanted to refute but instead he just hugged me while saying "Glad you're back".
"Yeah,yeah enough with the sappy stuff. Now here drink this." I said to Inosuke while cutting my hand and letting blood ooze out of it.
He was expecting an explaination but seeing that I wasn't about to give him one he simply drank my blood.
Don't get me wrong I won't be going around offering my body as a 'Health Potion' to others but seeing my brother hurt was something that I couldn't accept.
I immediately felt the pain but I still had enough regeneration that wounds of this kind would be healed in 15 minutes at max.
I simply couldn't help but smile at my younger brother who was looking at me with concern because I was hissing a little from the pain.
I again got a urge to smack this idiot who put his body at harm but I knew that now was not the time, so I simply got up and looked around to see Tanjiro already happily talking with Haku and Zenitsu.
I helped Inosuke stand up and walked towards them.
Tanjiro looked at me and Inosuke and gave us another one of his 'extremely kind Sunshine' smiles.
He then walked towards us and offered Inosuke his hand for a handshake.
"My name is Kamado Tanjiro. Pleased to meet you."
"Kamaboko Gompachiro?" Inosuke said with a nonchalant attitude.
'Oh my fucking god. He said it. He said the thing.' I thought while practically jumping from excitement.
'Ahh why the fuck do I don't have a camera to record this historic moment. You fucking author why couldn't you give me a camera? Someone get me a camera!!!'
I then escaped from my rant and again looked at the two awkward people standing in front of me.
"No it's Kamado Tanjiro." Tanjiro repeated himself.
"Oh I see. Kamaboko Gompachiro."
This went on for a little while until I decided that it was too much now.
"Inosuke what did I tell you about Introducing yourself?" I said while cracking my knuckles.
"Ye-yes Nii san. I'm Inosuke Hashibira. Nice to meet you Kamaboko Gompachiro." Inosuke said while shaking Tanjiro's hand.
"But it's--"
"Hmm, now that everyone's introduced to each other let's find out a plan to survive tonight. We have a few hours of sunlight left so everyone catch as much food as you can and let's find a clear area. Tanjiro here was defeated by the Devil or whatever that shit is,so let's be vigilant. That thing is most likely out for blood and if it has any form of intelligence than just basic needs to survive than it's going to be pissed to be locked up here in this mountain."
"Everyone collect everything you can and carry light and if there are any other items than just give them to me I'll give them back to you after the selection is over."
I had everything that me and Inosuke had already stored up in my Inventory but I didn't want anyone to get caught due to something like an accessory falling off and them running to get it.
Tanjiro just had a few rice balls to eat and Zenitsu only had some bandages on him.
Haku on the other hand gave me a pouch of coins, some medicines and a locket.
"Please make sure that locket stays safe." Haku said while looking at me with a serious expression on his face.
"I swear on my blood." I said with an even more serious face.
*3 Hours later*
The sun was again setting in the distance and we were already moving out. I made everyone move in a very specific formation.
Zenitsu who right now had the weakest combat strength in our group was at the centre with everyone protecting him.
Zenitsu was supposed to be scouting the surrounding area with his hearing. Zenitsu also made sure that whatever was approaching us was a demon or a regular human. We didn't want to kill other participants.
[Author: Zenitsu has the ability to discern between the sounds of human and demons. It's canon.]
Inosuke was on the right sensing everything in his surroundings while Haku was on the left but he was a little closer to Zenitsu because I wasn't sure of his abilities at least not right now.
One funny thing I noticed about Haku was his sense of sight. I didn't know the full extent of it but his sense of sight worked better at night and that's considering the fact that he had near perfect eyesight and could see things very clearly.
Hell if I had something to test his eyesight then I was sure he would score a perfect.
Haku could make sure that we don't get charged at by some mad demons during the night.
Tanjiro was at the front of the group while I was at the back.
I was pretty sure that I could react to the enemy faster than Tanjiro but I still didn't want some random Mob to come out of the back and stab one of us.
As for warning each other about the enemy I just asked everyone to have their katanas out and whoever noticed the enemy makes a grunt and makes a small cut.
The sound and smell would be enough to warn me, Zenitsu and Tanjiro and the movement would be enough to make Inosuke aware of the enemy.
Fenris was in the front with Tanjiro while Cerberus was between Zenitsu and Haku. None of us had all our senses perfected but the formation helped us carry each other's weaknesses.
While looking around the forest we came across an area with a lot of corpses mostly bears and other animals. There were even some foxes with their heads and limbs missing.
'As far as I remember Demons don't usually eat animals and only survive on Humans for sustenance. Either this thing is hunting for sport or there's some other shit going on here.'
While walking we came across a few demons but even they seemed to be injured.
Inosuke had already cut his finger a little to warn us about them as his ability allowed him to scout in the largest area. While Zenitsu had grunted to confirm that it was a Demon. Haku had cut his finger to confirm that they were in the front.
The Demons were most likely dashing towards us but as soon as they were in eyesight and were just about to dash at us their heads were already rolling in the air. I had killed them before they even got a chance to turn towards us.
The moment the Demons had their heads rolling on the ground Tanjiro had already arrived next to me but was startled that they were already finished.
I gave everyone who cut themselves a drop of my blood to heal them faster and within seconds their wound were healed.
This formation was the best I could come up with, at least for now and it mostly worked. I wanted to increase this groups synergy a little before so we could work better in the future.
For now we had to stay vigilante.
We were about to head out again when I smelled another smell, something that made me scrunch my eyebrows together.
I instantenously carried Tanjiro back to the group. I just took him by the collar and ran.
"Everyone get ready!!"