*Asura's POV*

'Well, this is good a time as any to start.' I thought as I flicked the Hiraishin Kunai from one hand to another and with the slightest startle, I threw it high up in the air. Gliding perfectly through at an angle between the lantern lights and the shadows of the buildings to not be visible to anyone but the one it was intended for.

With the Kunai out of my hands, it was a moment before I myself disappeared into the crowded streets and entered a quiet alleyway devoid of any life. It was startling to find such quiet in a city that seemed so loud but now was not the time to consider that.

I looked up at the wooden beams and miscellaneous objects poking out of from both sides and got ready to jump. I hadn't had time to develop a breathing form for this from the raws provided to me. They were after all just patterns of breathing. What I did with them was entirely my own.

I braced my legs and inhaled a sharp breath of cold air as I jumped and caught a wooden beam almost a meter up in the air. To even the most well-trained samurai of this era this would've been an impossible jump to make. Sure the body could in theory take the jump in extreme situations if the body was in shape and the adrenaline was high enough but there was something called self-preservation that stopped people from doing that.

For me, that amounted to a sharp tear of muscles in my leg for a moment and then the pain was gone and healed completely in the next moment. One of the benefits of learning Breath Styles was inhumane control over the body to the point that it gave the word 'suicidal' a new meaning.

Thinking about the progenitor of these Breathing Patterns I could guess how that was passed down.

Now was not the time for contemplating about warriors of the old era though. I climbed up the wooden beam and crouched down as I eyed the other objects poking out. Trying to find a way to the roof and after a moment I had one.

With short and sporadic breaths I ran from one platform to another and finally made my way to the top of the roof.

Looking around I had a clear view of every passerby in the streets and Muzan was tough to forget when you've seen him. It was only a moment later that I saw a blob of red moving through the crowd.

[*Ding*

Eye of Hermes: Activated

Eye of Solomon: Activated]

I had specifically asked Tanjiro to use Water Breathing Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow, Turbulent to try and avoid staying at one place for too long because that could spell doom for us. It was only after a moment of incredible focus that I noticed Muzan's grip tightening around the child just a little and his back straightening up just a bit more into what could only be his very own fighting stance.

This wasn't accounted for but it was information for sure. Muzan didn't lash out at all and instead returned through the crowd going opposite of wherever Tanjiro was and making the moments seem so natural that no one could notice that he was sometimes asking the question continuously in the middle of the road.

The woman certainly wasn't in on the training though since Muzan's calm smile itself made her sweat and her hands hidden in her dress to shake.

Tanjiro was doing his best with the Kimono and wild-haired look that I had given him.

Muzan started moving and it was at that moment Tanjiro broke character and started moving towards him and most probably for the exact reasons I hadn't let him in on the subjects of this task.

I jumped from rooftop to rooftop, quickly avoiding hanging clothes and jumping over the thousand box of cabbage that seemed to appear out of nowhere while my attention was focused on the ground.

It was only after Tanjiro was getting too close to Muzan for my comfort that I threw a Hiraishin Kunai at him and it whistled through the air, past his ear, and stuck itself on the sheath of his hidden sword. It probably ripped the back of the Kimono in half but I honestly didn't care.

My cover was blown and I was sure that I had eyes on me at this very moment but that was just an afterthought. The situation below had mym utmost attention.

Muzan had noticed though. As he turned around Tanjiro couldn't but blabber something out of his mouth and I jumped from the rooftops straight down in an alley and ran as fast as I can towards Tanjiro. Not minding the aching and creaking the bones of my legs gave.

Muzan just answered with a smile and tried to move on in the crowd but before Tanjiro's hand was still moving his hands towards his sword.

'Don't do it, idiot!' I shouted inside my mind as the crowd fucking didn't give way for me to move at all.

Much to my horror, I saw a flicker of red. No what's more reasonable to say is that I noticed a single flicker of red and couldn't even comprehend the speed of it. But I was sure that there wasn't just one.

I expected many things. Tanjiro's head falling off, People screaming bloody murder, or the crowd turning into rabid Demons.

Horrible outcomes sure but I wasn't gonna fucking bump into Kibutsuji Muzan every single day to find out more about him. My past experiences had told me enough about how retarded and dangerous wrong information could be to me and those around me. Tanjiro being enraged was a variable I hadn't accounted for. You could look at his smile once and swear on your life that the boy couldn't hate.

But to my surprise, none of what I was thinking about happened. Instead, Muzan disappeared.

It wasn't a metaphor or anything. He simply vanished as if he never stood at the spot in the first place. I couldn't locate him at all and instead took the chance to pop up next to a confused Tanjiro.

What he did was stupid and I was probably being hypocritical since I didn't tell him the whole thing in the first place but this wasn't the best place for me to discuss that.

I tried to calm him down. It was a good thing on the broader scale that his senses were weaker than me since it took him less time to come out of his stupor and look around at the surrounding crowd dumbly.

Muzan hadn't even touched him. I could see. That was a good outcome but just as I was getting ready to grab Tanjiro by the arm and rush out of the place I heard a feral growl from an alley.

The growl turned into several and this time they were in the crowds too as a plethora of new smells assaulted my senses.

My blood ran cold.

___________

Author's Note: As fun as it would be to just say I was procrastinating during all this time unfortunately i wasn't. This is a basic run down of everything that's happened in my life over the last few days:

1) I had family stuck in Ukraine. I think that one's pretty self explanatory.

2) One of my family members got surgery and I'm taking care of them.

3) The deadline of my practicals was moved forward by a week so essentially I'm giving them right after exams are over.

4) I'm surviving off of 6 hours of sleep and a lot of coffee. My mental and physical health is fucked up beyond belief. I've genuinely never felt shittier.

5) The typing on phone thing is becoming more than just a nuisance. I'm getting knots in my thumbs making moving them for long periods of time constantly to be painful. I'm still saving for that laptop.

That's the bare bones of what's been going on. I'm trying to get back into writing because goddamit I wanna write these stories without interruption.

If anybody wishes to they can support me at Patreon.com/Ashara. All donations are appreciated.

Take care of yourself everyone and hope you have a nice Day/Night.