"... and that... was how i got separated from my sister."

tanjiro sighed as he finished telling the story of how an unknown demon trapped his sister in a series of boxes, then him, and how he somehow got regurgitated back into the world of the living knowing nothing of his surroundings. a small creature, which he coincidentally pulled out from the water while fishing, floated beside him, a worried look on its face.

"hm... i see. well, we've been together for such a long time, so i'll definitely help you find her!" its words were expressive, yet the facial expression stayed blank.

"thanks, tokitou. now how do we start actually doing something? i have no idea how we're only doing this now despite me having reeled you in quite some time ago, but if it's plot relevant, then let's start our journey! i'm leaving you in charge of guiding me."

"yeah. i'll be giving the tutorials to the players as well."

"... the pl... ay...???"

"ah, no no no, nothing. i'm just self aware."

tanjiro ran, defeated slimes, swam across a small body of water, and arrived to a point where he could see a city.

"wow, that's a lot of windmills." tokitou stated, his small feet dangling in the air, swinging excitedly. "let's go!"

they walked through the forest.

a sword flew through the air and dug into a tree infront of tanjiro, causing both him and the floating creature to freeze in their tracks.

i forgot whether or not the dragon comes first, but i'm writing this here, so insert it wherever adequate. tanjiro and tokitou saw a demon with wings, and a twink, in the forest, collected a red, teardrop-looking crystal from the small hill thing, then bam walked.

going back, a girl approached tanjiro silently from behind, pulling her sword out of the dent it made on the tree bark. there was also a bow, and a quiver of arrows, strapped to her back, and tanjiro had to wonder why she threw her sword instead of launching an arrow as the girl sheathed her weapon.

"stop. intruders." she said softly, her soft voice that is supposed to belong to ganyu in this game soothing the two travel buddies' ears.

"ah, well, we're not intruders. this here is a... a traveller. i'm tokitou."

"i see. what is this floating creature, sir traveller?" the girl acknowledged tokitou's remark, then turned to tanjiro.

"... he's my friend!"

"gods be damned, you didn't choose the emergency food option. was getting tired of that joke anyways." tokitou's strange remarks were nothing unusual, and this time as well, the traveller chose to ignore him.

tanjiro smiled at the girl. "what's your name? what are you doing out here in the woods?"

"kanae. i'm here to murder demonchurls."

now, this is hilarious because 'churl' was a term for peasants, or the lower class, back when they had the peerage thing in 1707 england.

"m-murder?" tanjiro gulped.

"it's my job. outrider kanae. at your service." she assumed a cutesy pose, but just like tokitou, her facial expression didn't exactly change save for a small, narrowing motion of the eyes, as if that was supposed to equate to a smile.

anyways, tanjiro trusts people since he sees the good in them, so they both went to murder demonchurls. they went into the city with windmills after a short while, and before he even had a chance to climb houses for mushrooms, the traveller got involved in a great incident that would change his standing with the citizens, and with the rest of the continent's population, forever. the wind blew hard and he got sucked into the vortex, and it was a wonder how there, he saw the same winged demon instead of gr*ffith and the rest of the god*and.

he just got his glider things from kanae. now he had to use them.

suddenly, he heard a voice echoing in his head, telling him to shoot down the demon.

"i'll help you with my wind powers." the voice said. tanjiro, his bizzare experiences not falling short in number, shrugged and did as he was told. you know how this entire thing goes, but i still have no idea who venti is going to be so goddamn.

as tanjiro glided down towards the solid ground, kanae approached him and checked for any visible wounds. she breathed a sigh of relief as he saw no serious abrasions and bruises.

the sound of clapping was magically loud enough to be heard over the howling wind, and a man dressed flamboyantly made his dramatic entrance, an eyepatch adorning his right eye, yet both his arms remaining intact because he wouldn't be able to clap otherwise.

... unless...?

haha jk, i'm keeping his arms but we gotta get post-red light district fight eye condition because eyepatch man.

"welcome to mondstadt, shortstack. we got cats and dogs everywhere but unfortunately, you can't pet any of them. anyways, what was i to say... ah, yes. ahem. will you be a friend? or a new storm?" he cringed. "damn, the fuck do my lines have to be like this?"

tokitou shushed him from the side.

"sir i think your clothes were damaged in the tornado thing."

"hm? ah, oh no, i'm really supposed to wear this kinda thing. tits out, my guy. much sexy."

"... oh."

"anyways, i'm uzui, captain of the knights. i'll take you to meet the acting grandmaster real quick, so you better smoothen out your hair bro. you look like you've got a bird's nest up there."

tokitou flew up to uzui. "yo, wasn't kanae supposed to introduce you?"

"she's mute bro."

"ass."

i'm way too lazy to write, so they took the steps up the square to the knights of favonius headquarters, finally finding themselves infront of tamayo's office.

"hey thur mommyyyy, tha uzui man is back in la casssaaa (credits Ty the Synthesist on YouTube, go give his crack genshin vids a go. not sponsored)."

"oh, hello uzui. kanae. and that is?"

"he's a traveller." kanae stated, eyeing uzui as if frowning at him for saying she was mute.

"hello, traveller. this is yushiro, our resident librarian."

"hi kids. wanna sleep with me? hehe. as long as you keep your fucking hands off tamayo-sama, i'll even suck your d--"

"yushiro."

"ah, hehe, yes, sorry tamayo-sama."

tamayo turned to the group once more. "sorry about yushiro, he's a little hostile with other people since he stays inside the library all the time."

"haha, yeah, classic ass nerd we got here guys." uzui leaned towards tanjiro and tokitou, whispering. "he's obsessed with the acting grandmaster so it's better to stay quiet."

anyways they explained everything about this and that, yaddah yaddah. they went to fight in the domains, then you get yushiro and uzui as playable characters. tanjiro was crowned with the title of "honorary knight", and one day he met up with kanao, who volunteered to teach him the ways of gliding. i forgot how the gliding lessons were interrupted, but i think it had something to do with an incident wherein they had to fight (???), so let's go with that. tanjiro got his license anyways, and now he was using the glider everywhere, enjoying the freedom of being able to fly, unlike in a memory from a distant world, wherein he was limited by his mortal capabilities, knowing he could have done better only if he could fly...

"THIS IS AN UNEXPLORED REGION. LET'S GO BACK. WHY DON'T WE EXPLORE THE CURRENT AREAS FOR NOW?" tokitou's voice rang out as the surroundings began to get dimmer, and tanjiro automatically was diverted by wind or some shit, towards the mapped areas. he had to thank the small creature for disrupting his undesirable thoughts, but before he could do that, the two of them spotted a familiar figure in green, running below them. the travel companions looked at each other, and without the need to utter a word, they agreed upon the action of pursuit.

"you there! weren't you the person with the dragon?" tokitou called out, pointing a finger at the figure, whose back was turned to them. slowly, said person began to slowly turn towards them, revealing massive honkers, the clothes she wore struggling to keep them in check.

"oh, hello..." the girl (?) stated shyly, sinking back as if to bury her face behind her pink and green braids. she had a hand to her cheek, her face naturally blushy. she glanced back and forth from the floor to tanjiro, then tanjiro to the floor. "what business do you have with me?"

"we've met each other before, haven't we?"

"hm??? oh, yes, i remember you scared my demon friend away... that was a little mean of you but i'll forgive you because you look like a nice kid. and you're cute, hehe..."

tanjiro spared tokitou a sideglance. the look of absolute confusion on the creature's face was enough to tell tanjiro something was wrong, yet when he questioned it, the creature shook his head and made no attempt to explain it to him. so the redhead left it be, deciding to talk to the girl.

"so what's your name?"

"it's mitsuru*. i mean, mitsuri~"

"... you." tokitou came out of the shadows. "you. you, you, aren't you-- aren't you supposed to be a..."

mitsuri smiled.

"a..."

mitsuri was still smiling.

"supposed to be a..."

mitsuri's smile was still there.

"... you know what, nevermind. this is tanjiro, a traveller. i'm tokitou. his tour guide."

"hehe~ ok, now let's go save my demon friend from the evil mages! look at this tear, traveller. it's red. so agony, much sad."

"i have that too!" tanjiro pulled out the red crystal he picked up from the forest the other day and showed it to mitsuri.

"i see... meet me here, 12am. we'll be stealing the heavenly lyre from the church since i know that's one thing that can cure my demon friend's current affliction."

"why don't we try asking nicely first? you know... like borrowing."

"no, that's not going to work, unfortunately... so hehe yes we steal!"

that was definitely not me skipping the writing.

so anyways, electro cicin mage stole the lyre and tanjiro was labelled a thief.

as soon as they entered the tavern, an ordinary-looking bartender greeted them.

"hello there. what can i get you?"

"oh, it's fine, we would just like a seat somewhere..." kanroji trailed off, spotting a man in heavy coats by the side of the counter. he had an air of authority about him, as if he owned the place.

turns out he actually did.

"there's a table on the second floor that's well hidden by the darkness at this time of the evening. you may proceed to claim it for yourselves... if a drunk hasn't already done so."

"thank you, sir." kanroji expressed her gratitude and ushered tanjiro towards the flight of stairs. as soon as the two of then crouched in their wooden stools, the door to the tavern opened and in came two knights dressed in full armor. they approached the tavern's owner, and by the looks of things, they were questioning him about "strange people" who may or may not have dropped by.

"i haven't seen anyone come in except the regular customers. if that's all, leave."

"damn," tokitou thought. "this guy's antisocial attitude makes him look cooler than he actually is."

as the knights left, the bartender shot the owner a puzzled look, to which the latter simply waved his hand at. as kanroji and tanjiro descended from the second floor, the owner crossed his arms. "so... i'm housing thieves in my tavern?"

"no! it's a misunderstanding."

「you explained everything to the tavern owner」

"i see. well... i, giyuu tomioka, shall help you. the only reason being you aren't the knights."

ok idk i've become way too lazy to continue so i decided to specifically end it there lol, anyways, just checking around for people. y'all still alive? very nice. i've been consumed by this game lately so should i make a textposts book for it too??? asking that question was literally the only reason i made this chapter lmaaao

note i forgot to add:

*mitsuru is a boy's name in japan. so yes. when mitsuri corrected her(?)self, well...