He didn't remember anymore, why he lingered here. It had long ago stopped giving the scent of upturned earth, giving away what was buried within. It had long ago grew grass and flowers, hidden away as trees grew around it, lost to all but the one who couldn't recall her clearly even when he first awoke, when he only recalled a wide smile and a hazy face, as if trying to see through fog.
All of his mind felt so foggy, no longer truly recalling who he had once been.
Things like slayers, like breathing, like a blackened sword that turned red--as distant as a dream, at the tips of his fingers and yet clawed hands unable to grasp.
But the feeling remained, the pull to this bit of earth. There was something important here, even if no one else knew of it. Something he had to keep safe, or, or--
Or he didn't know. Just that it would hurt so much.
There were times, years before, a mother wandered close with her children, looking for those blue flowers that bloomed so rarely. He would hide himself away, unwilling to harm humans, even less one with children, such an oddly painful feeling that twisted in his chest, causing him to prefer hiding away until it passed.
But now--a young boy, but one seemingly alone. There's something familiar in his face, in those earrings, but the demon doesn't think of that too much, because he is too close--a warning growl, as Yoriichi settles himself upon that spot of earth.
At least, he makes no effort to actually approach Tanjiro, too busy guarding what was left of her.