While Haruto was lost in thought, the children of the Kamado Household noticed their unexpected visitor.
"Who are you?" asked the boy with a mole beneath his eye, straightening up.
"Takeo." The girl in the pink kimono beckoned to him, and the boy named Takeo ducked his head and moved behind her.
"Sorry, the Kamado family isn't selling charcoal at the moment." Tanjiro stood and stepped in front of his younger siblings.
His nostrils fluttered, picking up a deeper, fresher scent amid the smell of cold snow.
Was it... the scent of a starry sky?
In any case, there was no malice.
"I just happened to pass by," Haruto replied. "Did any of you witness the fight around here yesterday... or rather, early this morning? Fellow disciples of mine were injured here. Perhaps..."
Tanjiro thought for a moment, then nodded. "I smelled it."
"Smelled it?" Haruto raised an eyebrow slightly.
The dark-red-haired boy flashed a brilliant smile. "I have a very keen nose!"
"My big brother's nose is better than a dog's..." Takeo had barely opened his mouth when he caught his sister's look and hastily shut it.
Tanjiro ruffled Takeo's hair and nodded readily. "My nose really is keener than a dog's. I can smell lots of things other people miss. Last night, there was a foul smell fighting two people who smelled of water. They only passed briefly through this area, so my nose couldn't pick up much more."
Haruto nodded. That hadn't really been what he'd come to ask about, anyway.
The scrolling comments in his field of vision kept filling in the gaps in his knowledge. For instance, the girl in the pink kimono was Nezuko, and the boy who'd spoken to him earlier was Takeo...
[So Nekomata discovered that the Kamado Family lived here? That's