*Asura's POV*

"Holy fuck." I said opening the sack and staring at the Amount of money in it. Fucking a year's worth of pay.

"What's in it?" Inosuke asked jumping.

In answer, I just turned around and showed the Huge amount of Yen to everyone.

"Oh." Was all Inosuke answered and I looked away from him to see Haku frothing from his mouth.

"What the fuck did you kill to get that much?" Zenitsu said pinching himself.

I decided not to answer. Not gonna name a price for my life.

"Is there a festival or something coming up?" Haku said getting out of his stupor.

"With this much? I'll celebrate paydays as my festivals." I replied and then began to roll the Yen into neat and prim stacks.

"Fair enough. This takes care of all the foraging for food problems." Haku said smiling.

"Wait we can buy loads of stuff with this much," Inosuke said finally interested again.

"No," I said pouring cold water over their hopes.

"Why?" Inosuke asked confused.

"You need more clothes cause winter is coming. As far as food is concerned we can hunt well enough. Water is available as well. We need savings and warm clothes for winter. All of our swords are chipped we need to get them repaired, don't want to have them break in between a fight. Also, the cold that you got a couple of weeks ago Zenitsu, medicine didn't come for free." I said and you could see the hope being seeped out of everyone's eyes even as they looked a bit ashamed.

'I also have to get new Kunai.' I made a mental note, I had lost one inside a Demon when it had broken inside its rib cage. Never could have too many of them on hand.

And maybe just maybe if I could save enough I could get another thing made. Something that I would need while fighting hordes of Demons.

It had been a weakness for a long time and I hadn't forgotten the caves, my progress with Heaven's Breath was shit compared to my other Two Breath Styles and I could barely use the first form as a last resort.

I needed better preparations and I would rather spend a hell of a lot more on equipment.

"He's right. We need to save money for the essentials." Tanjiro joined in wisely.

"Hah. Guess you're right." Haku said and Zenitsu patted him on the back.

"One day. We'll get rich one day." Zenitsu said sighing.

"I get three more sparring sessions," Inosuke said firmly.

"Deal," I said though I was a bit saddened to hoard the money but seeing Inosuke being understandable did make me proud.

*Caw*

We all looked up to see Chuntaro being followed 

by Hakus crow and Inosukes as well all of them had notes on their legs that read the same.

"There's a place like 2 villages away. I have to collect my pay from there." Haku said reading his scroll.

"Mine reads the same," Tanjiro said.

" Same." Zenitsu nodded

" Inosuke?"

"Huh. Oh yeah, mines same." Inosuke replied. 

" Well, we can ask around there if they know about Blacksmiths," I said looking at my map.

I had been trying to make one myself but after failed attempts at parchment, I had bought a very basic one in a trade town.

I still had the one I had gotten from the Monk but it was not exactly accurate. Landmarks that should be visible clearly according to that map didn't exist. A place where there should be a crossable river was a deep ravine and things like that.

I was sure it was an outdated map but still kept it with me. 

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Inosuke said excited.

"Yeah not so fast. We need to eat up first and then clean the area up." I said beginning the arduous process of setting up a fire.

"I hate you sometimes," Inosuke said frustrated looking around to let out the anger on.

" Monitsu. Fight. Me."

And there goes a crying Zenitsu with Inosuke.

"I'll have food ready in half an hour. Return before then." I shouted into the forest and got 

"Hell Yeah" and "Help me!" in return.

"Well, what did you guys actually catch today?" I said looking at Tanjiro and Haku.

Sighing Haku held up a bag of berries which I 

could tell by looking were poisoned and some wild game that they had caught.

"Rabbit again huh? Well, at least we got spices this time." I said before delving into cooking.

"I still don't understand how you and your brother are so good at hunting. I understand the growing up in mountains your whole life part but still. You're unnatural while hunting." Haku said enviously.

" Well, Inosuke spontaneously jumps at the target and can trail them for hours upon hours. I can wait and plan patiently when required. We're better at working together in that regard than alone." I replied tending to the flames and picking out the poisoned and not poisoned berries.

" How do you keep up with him? He's... Energetic. To say the least." Haku said taking note of which berries I was throwing away.

"Believe me. Seeing him wrestle a Deer with sheer strength isn't amusing the first dozen times. But you have to be patient. If he can understand why you're stopping him from doing something then he may not like it, he may punch your jaw square off of your face for it but at the end of the day he'll listen." I replied as the flames started to soar.

" He's right. Sometimes you just have to be patient." Tanjiro said agreeing sadly and Haku patted him on the back. It was a semi open secret now what happened to his family and his journey from beginning to till he met us.

"Sometimes I'm happy that I was left alone. Mom and Dad never returned one day and I can't imagine what I would've done to take care of someone else. I can barely take care of myself and it's been 7 years." Haku said in one of his rare moments of opening up.

"Well, we can all do something. We all have something to work for." Tanjiro added determined.

" For now all of us can help each other get stronger. We need to be fast and quick about it." I said feeling pressured again. It wasn't a good feeling but it was a necessary one for me to constantly push myself.

Things would be coming together very fast now and I'll have to deal with them just as fast and just as swiftly. If shit went wrong then there was so much I could lose just as swiftly. I was getting tired from anticipation and dreading the oncoming events at the same time.

'You always have to be patient.' I reminded myself yet again. 

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Author's Note: Another chapter written while on a call regarding doctors and heath. Things will pick up in a bit, there's one piece of world building to be done before the last of this arc will start.

Read 8 chatpers ahead on Patreon.com/Ashara

Hope everyone has a nice Day/Night.