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Chapter Text

???’s perspective

Location: ???’s household

“Please Nezuko… you don’t have to do this…” A generally weak voice calls out to a girl who just finished putting on some warm gloves and a pink coloured scarf with black flower patterns spread across it, making her sigh as she turns around to look at her older brother.

“Onii-Chan, you are sick right now. Please, just rest for a few days.” The girl, Nezuko, requests of her brother, who is about to say something but is cut off by coughing, which makes the younger sibling rush over to him and lays his head down on his bed.

“*Cough*But… it is my… responsibility as…” He tries to counter, but is stopped by Nezuko.

“Look Tanjiro, you have working hard for everyone, so just rest. You have earned it.” She tells him with a gentle smile, making the older sibling sigh in exhaustion, barely keeping his eyes open.

“Okay… please come back… when done…” He pleads, causing his little sister to smile and nod her head, making the eldest child smile before allowing sleep to overtake him.

“I must agree with Tanjiro dear. We can wait until tomorrow to sell the charcoal.” Nezuko heard a slightly concerned voice speak from the entrance of her brothers room, causing her to turn and see her mother, Kie Kamado.

“I’m sure. I know how to get down the mountain safely almost as well as Onii-Chan.” The eldest daughter tells her mother, who shakes her head with a small smile on her face as she knew that was true.

“All right then. I suggest that you…” Kie attempts to say as they head outside, but stops herself as she notices the look in her eldest daughters eyes.

“Is something wrong dear?” The older woman asks her daughter, who takes in a deep breath as he hands shake a little as she reaches for the basket hold the charcoal they gathered to sell.

“I’m just… I’m worried that this is the same as…” Nezuko tries to answer her mother, tears beginning to well up in her eyes but stops herself as she wipes them away, just noticing her mother’s eyes widening in surprise before softening.

“It’s reminding you of your fathers passing. Don’t worry, I can tell that this is just a flue that will pass in only a few days at worst.” Her mom told her, allowing Nezuko to take in a deep breath to calm herself and smile at the reassurance… though the dark possibility of the same illness that took father coming back for Tanjiro still lingered within her mind, so she was thankful when the sound of crunching snow and the voices of her little brothers and sisters distracted her.

“Okaasan! Nēchan!” Both mother and daughter turned to look at Nezuko’s approaching siblings as they crowded around them.

“Is Ni-Chan going to be okay?” Hanako questions the two as she was able to reach them first, holding their youngest sibling, Rokuta, in her arms.

“He’ll be fine sweetheart. Now, why don’t we all go inside and prepare something for your brother everyone?” Their mother suggests, making Hanako and Taeko nod in understanding while Shigeru frowned a bit.

“But Okaasan! Shouldn’t one of us go and help Nēchan with the charcoal?” The 2^nd youngest sibling questioned, making the family pause as they knew this was a fair question, even though they knew that Shigeru just wanted to climb down as well. While all of them can help the family with activities, Tanjiro was the one to shoulder the burden of the most taxing of tasks.

“I’ll be fine. Besides, I can’t take the cart today anyways and it is now our turn to look after Tanjiro.” Nezuko assures them with a gentle smile as she straps the basket of charcoal onto her back before leaving.

If only Nezuko knew what would occur that day or the swapped fates caused by her brothers illness, she would have done something, take her siblings with her or stay and get her family away from their home…

…but sadly, fate is ever so cruel…

Hours later

Tanjiro’s perspective

“Nezuko…” Tanjiro whispers as he looks out a window and sees the darkness of night before trying to stand up, but found himself lightly pushed down by a cutely glaring Hanako, just barley hearing footsteps approaching the entrance of their home.

“No you don’t Ni-Chan. You are getting rest.” She says, making Tanjiro smile a little as he reaches out and rubs the head of his little sister fondly, absently hearing his mother’s voice through muffles and a voice he couldn’t recognize. Did someone get lost and find their home?

“Sorry… just… worried…” Tanjiro says, making his sister frown sadly, but before she could say a thing, they both hear a scream and loud slamming sound against a wall.

“What the…” Hanako asks in terror, approaching the door of Tanjiro’s room and opening it to see what was going on and screamed.

“Hanako!” Tanjiro called out as he forced his body to get up and stand in front of her, but was hit by a black blur that sent him crashing through a wall, feeling his ribs crack from the blow as he coughed up blood, forcing himself to stand as he saw the family’s hatchet on the ground by his side.

“Ni-Chan!” He looks up and sees Hanako running to him before grabbing her outstretched hand and pulling her behind him as he picks up the hatchet.

“Hanako, I want you to get out of here with your siblings. I’ll buy you time…” He warns his sister, but is cut off as he sees a man walk through the hole, smelling the large amounts of blood the man likely spilled as Hanako screamed at what the man had with him as Tanjiro felt the blood in his veins freeze.

The sight that greeted him was a very pale skinned man standing at 5'10½” feet tall blood red eyes with dangerous silts instead of pupils wearing an extravagant embroidered black tuxedo and a white tie over a black dress shirt, white dress pants with black loafers and pure black cloak. But what caused the reaction from the siblings was the sight of two tendrils coming out of the mans back that held Taeko with a snapped neck, the other tendril lifting up Shigeru as it pierced through his heart and the headless body of Rokuta being held withing the mans hand before tossing their younger brothers corpse to the currently alive siblings.

“Sorry about the mess, though you won’t be making complaints about it any time soon.” The man says with a malicious smile, before freezing when he looks at Tanjiro, to which the eldest son was confused by the sudden scent of confusion, shock and even… was that fear coming from this man?

“Those hanafuda… I see, so you are his successor, possibly even descendant now that I have a better look of you. How disgusting.” He says with a snarl before carelessly tossing the corpses of their family, making Tanjiro growl as he pushed Hanako behind him, having been able to ignore the pain of his cracked ribs due to both rage and adrenaline.

“Hanako, run now!” He orders as he charges at the man, determined to keep at least one of his siblings alive, but the man knocks the hatchet Tanjiro was holding without effort before grabbing his throat and squeezing so hard Tanjiro was barely able to make a choaking noise.

“Sorry, but I will not allow a single one of you to leave this night.” The man comments with a smirk before the tendril on his back whipped out and quickly dragged a running Hanako back to them, having wrapped around her chest while trapping her arms and squeezing hard, making her cry out in pain.

“N-Ni-Chan!!” Hanako cries out as tears welled up from her eyes due to the pain and her face beginning to turn blue from a lack of oxygen, making Tanjiro glare pitifully at the man.

“N-No! I-I can’t fail! I-I have to at least protect one of them!” Tanjiro thought as he kicked out his legs before getting an idea that might work. Suddenly, he widened his mouth and bit into the man’s hand hard enough for blood to gush out and enter Tanjiro’s mouth, causing man to actually widen his eyes in shock and pain as he dropped Hanako and tossed Tanjiro out of the room with a furious yell.

Now that he wasn’t being strangled, Tanjiro took in a few quick breaths, which allowed some of the blood in his mouth to enter his body as the man looked at his bloodied hand in surprise before it turns into shock as he now turns his head to look at Tanjiro.

“You… you actually stole my blood…” The man speaks in surprise, seemingly not noticing Hanako leaving the room and hiding under a cabinet as Tanjiro shakingly stood back up, but collapsed back onto the ground.

“G-GRRRAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!” Tanjiro screamed as he felt a sudden pain and a burning sensation spreading through his body and mind, to which the man started to lowly chuckle.

“Hehehehe! Hahahahaha!!! HAHAHAAHAHAHA!!!!! Oh, this is too good!!! His successor choosing to become like me!! I’ll be honest, I would never have thought of this idea!” The man began to laugh like crazy, the sound almost seeming foreign to the man’s body initially before clapping his hands and giving a genuinely amused smile as Tanjiro withered on the ground in pain. Through the pain, Tanjiro was still able to glare at the deranged man.

“Tell you what boy, for the good laugh and the brilliant idea you gave me, I shall give you a reward for your new life.” He says before approaching Tanjiro and inserting his sharp finger nails into Tanjiro’s neck, to which the boy felt something enter him that caused the pain to become agonizing as his screams became much louder.

“Now then, you will either be reduced to a flesh puddle, or you will become the very thing that he would despise. I’ll even leave that girl alive as a bonus for you. After all, a demon with your kind of potential will be needing quite the feast once you wake up in your new form.” He says before having a tendril once more search for Hanako and drag her to Tanjiro as she screams in fear before she suddenly stops moving.

This filled Tanjiro with fury as he jumps up and tries to headbutt the man, but he disappears from the eldest Kamado’s view as Hanako almost falls to the ground, but Tanjiro catches her before she can hit the hard wood, feeling his mind beginning to black out but forces himself to turn around and face the man as he leaves their home as casually as any normal person would, but turned his head one last time to look at Tanjiro.

“Let’s see what you can do…” Was the last thing he said before disappearing in the blizzard outside as Tanjiro tries to shield his sister from the cold and the man if he turns back for them, but quickly loses consciousness as well.

Chapter Text

Hanako’s perspective

Location: Kamado household

Time: Day

“Ugh…” Hanako groans out as she feels cold and shaking, not even having the strength to open her eyes but forced them open just enough to see her Ni-Chan.

“Was it all a nightmare?” She thought to herself as she sat up, her brothers body holding her in a tight, yet comfortable embrace before feeling terror consume her as she sees the bodies of her family and screams as reality and her memories caught up with her.

“Hanako! What’s wrong!?” As soon as the scream left the mouth of the 10-year-old, she heard the voice of her Nēchan yell out in concern as she turned a corner and widens her eyes as she sees the house covered in blood and the corpses of their family.

“Nēchan! P-Please! H-He-Help us!” Hanako cries out as she felt Ni-Chan’s arms loosen and drop, letting her leap into her older sisters arms and cling onto her as she cried into Nezuko’s shoulder.

“H-Hanko! What happened!? Is Tanjiro okay as well!?” Her sister stumbles for a moment as she jumped into the eldest daughters arms, moving over to Ni-Chan, and trying to feel for a pulse.

“A-A! A man c-came fo-for us! H-He d-!” She was just barely able to get out through her tears, making Nezuko glare at nothing at the information and knowing that this wasn’t something like a bear that was unable to hibernate.

“N-Nēchan! H-He did something to-to Ni-Chan!” Hanako finished as she loosened her grip on her sister, who widens her eyes in surprise at this news.

“What do you mean? What else did this man do!?” Nezuko asks her, making Hanako cry a bit again as she gets out one word that makes her Nēchan freeze in shock.

“D-Demon!” She gets out, but both almost jump out of the skin when they suddenly hear a furious roar, turning to see Tanjiro on his knees with his head in his hands as he claws at it and draw blood…

Tanjiro’s perspective

Where was he?

Hunger…

Why did his stomach hurt?

Feast…

Who were those two?

Food…

Food? That… why did that feel so wrong?

You know you want to…

Perhaps just a… no… no, it…

“…Tanjiro…”

Tanjiro…? Was that… him…

That does not matter…

Perhaps? But…

“…to Ni-Chan…!”

Ni-Chan… why did that word… What was Ni-Chan? Wasn’t he Tanji-Tan… Whatever T word they said earlier?

They are only food… you need to eat…

He was exhausted but… wait, what was… Imouto? Was that what they were?

“Nezuko… Hanako…”

Where did those sounds come from? Did he say them? the two… Imo… Imon… Imouto’s didn’t seem to notice the sounds though…

CONSUME!!!

With that single command, he felt a splitting headache shot through him, causing Tan… Tanjiro to howl in agony as he drops to his knees and claws at his own head as yelling consumes him.

CONSUME!!!

FEAST!!!

DESTROY!!!

OBEY!!!

The yelling… MAKE YELLING STOP!!!!!!

You can make it stop… just eat…

Eat? The two Imouto’s smell nic-

NO!! IMOUTO’S ARE TO BE PROTECTED!!!

But you need it. They’ll understand…

Understand… could a bite actually be ok-

“…Onii-Chan!/Ni-Chan!…”

Onii-Chan… Ni-Chan… are they talking to him? but he’s Tan… what was he again?

“It’s… okay…. We’… family… again…”

JUST EAT ALREADY!

Wait… family… that felt… nice. Family is something to… to protect… Imouto’s are… Sister’s… baby sisters…

They are only food to make you stronger!!!!

No… Onii-Chan and Ni-Chan… is me!… Big brother… job to… protect sisters…

Stop this foolishness at-!

NO!! LEAVE… ALONE!!! WON’T HURT!!!

And with that final declaration, the voice suddenly stops, and his head feels lighter. Calmer even, but…

“Tanjiro…” He heard the voice of one of his Imouto’s call out to him, causing him to tilt his head and see… was he always in cold and crunchy stuff? Oh, was his arm bleeding? Did he… no, focus! Taller Imouto approaches him and gets on her knees and wraps arms around him, along with small Imouto.

What were they doing? It felt… nice… should he copy what they were doing?

Oh wait, they were standing now and making… sounds? He couldn’t understand what was happening, but they seemed sad… he should help.

With that, he stands and approaches them, but stops as he smells something coming at them with… bad…?

DANGER!

Launching himself forward with a kick, he grabs both Imouto’s and gets away from where they were standing and into hole where wooden… thing was. Quickly looking over both Imouto’s for injuries, he was happy to see none, allowing him to turn around and growl at a… some kind of half-half thing with some king of pointy and shiny thing that might have tried to hurt his Imouto’s!

Nezuko’s perspective

This was one horrible day. When Nezuko came up the mountain to her family, she was prepared to have her family and possibly Tanjiro, if he was, no, would be better, hoarding her about where she was last night. Instead, she found her entire family dead in horrible ways with the exception of her little sister and Onii-Chan. The only reason she hadn’t thrown up at the horrible sight and horrendous smell was due to her concern for her siblings. Now, she learnt that the Demons her grandmother and old man Saburo warned her about are real and her gentle brother was now one of them!!

Sufficed to say, she was impressed that she was able to keep a mostly cool head and not start screaming when her brother started thrashing about and wrecking the remains of their home in a frenzy while knocking her and Hanako back when they tried to get close to him and she felt horror consume her once again when Tanjiro bit into his own arm, drawing not only blood, but Nezuko was sure she heard breaking bones as well. For that, she was relieved when he finally calmed down, but she quickly grew fed up when he tackled both her and Nezuko and now there was this strange man standing where they once were with a sword pointed straight at Tanjiro and glared at him as if he was the most offensive thing in existence.

“You two, get out of here!” The man ordered her and Hanako, but Nezuko growled with a glare as she stood in front of her brother and sister, not noticing the brief look of surprise in his eyes.

“What are you doing!?” She demanded, making the man frown a bit as he looked at he slightly, though she can tell that he was mostly keeping his eyes on her brother. Suddenly though, he disappeared from her sight, and she heard a growl soon after, seeing her brother restrained by the man as he struggled within his grasp.

“Hey! Leave Ni-Chan alone!” Hanako demands as she grabbed at the mans haori and tries to pull, making the man widen his eyes in surprise as if he just realised something and his eyes gained a slightly more sympathetic light within them.

“Do the both of you know what he is now?” He asks with a slightly gentle voice, but stayed firm as he kept a tight hold on their struggling brother while also grabbing the back of Hanako’s Kimono and tossing her at Nezuko, though the older sister was honestly surprised by how easy it was to catch the younger girl, as if this man was using the absolute bear minimum to not hurt them.

“I know our brother is a demon now, but he hasn’t done anything wrong!” Nezuko glares at the man as she protectively hold Hanako, making the man’s eyes shift to look through the hole in their home and see the corpses and blood of their family.

“And yet, evidence to the contrary is right there and on your brothers mouth…” He states blandly, making Hanako growl at him as Tanjiro’s struggling increases, but was unable to escape still.

“That wasn’t Ni-Chan! He protected me when the one who did this attacked us, and the blood is his own!” She challenges, though the man didn’t seem to listen or care for her words, neither sister noticing his eyes briefly shifting to Tanjiro’s healing arm.

“Even if that is true, your brother won’t be able to stop himself. Man eating Demons multiply by having their blood enter a humans body, forcing them to lose their memories and for every cell of their body to desire blood and flesh. Tell me, would your brother really want to live like that, especially if there was even the tiniest chance he would hurt, let alone kill you?” The man asks, though both sisters knew it wasn’t a question. Knowing their brothers kindness, he would probably be agreeing with the man if he could respond so long as they were safe. And while both girls were Kamado’s, a family known for their seemingly unending kindness, the two were just a bit more selfish than their older brother.

“You don’t need to watch, and I’ll make it quick, so he does not suffer.” He tells them, which only fuelled the anger of both siblings because he wasn’t listening!

“Just leave us alone! Our brother couldn’t even comprehend hurting someone, let alone eat them!” Nezuko rages, noticing their families hatchet and picking it up, making the man sigh.

“Tell me, can you look me dead in the eye and say with total confidence that your brother didn’t try to eat either of you before I showed up?” He asks, and was surprised when they looked him in the eye without wavering in the slightest.

“Our brother was flailing around, but he was trying to get away from us and even bit into his own arm. We know that he is in there and was trying to protect us.” The eldest daughter says surprising the man for just a moment before shaking his head with a sigh.

“I’m sorry, but while he is fighting back his instincts now, he will eventually cave into the desires of his new form.” He says, and while the two sisters were consumed by anger, they could feel the genuine remorse from the man as he lifted up his blade.

“Then why not turn Ni-Chan back!? If anyone deserves to live, it’s him! And if you really are a Demon Slayer, then where were you last night when the Demon behind all of this showed up!?” Hanako demands with tears in her eyes, causing the man to stop himself for a moment before sighing, neither sister noticing the momentary tear that fell from his eye in remorse.

“I’m sorry….” Was all he said he continued with his blades movement, causing Hanako to pick up some snow and throw it at the man, to which he dodges as he sees Nezuko charging at him.

“Stupid girls…” The man thought to himself, and so with a heavy heart, he knocked out the older sister with the hilt of his blade before appearing the younger girls and lightly striking her neck, causing her to lose consciousness as well, not noticing Tanjiro stiffen in his grasp, nor the look of horror on his face.

Unknown man’s perspective

“For what it is worth, I will… hold on…” The man was about to make a silent promise, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the hatchet that the older sister no longer had her hatchet.

“Where is… There!” Realising what was happening, he grabbed the younger girl’s body and jumped away just in time as the hatchet landed where he was, leaving the man stunned at what the two girls did.

“I see. The younger sister had used the snow to briefly distract me and draw attention to her, to which the older sister threw up her hatchet into the air while I wasn’t looking and charged at me before I could notice, so once I knocked them both out, I would be taken down…” Looking over the situation, the Demon Slayer could honestly say he was impressed with the strategy for two girls that likely never took part in a fight. They certainly had potential, so perhaps…

Before his thoughts could wonder any further, he felt the Demon roar out in pure fury before slamming the back of its head into his face, briefly stunning the Slayer as the Demon took the girl from his grasp before leaping at the sister on the ground.

“No! he’ll eat them!” The man thought in worry as he tried to follow, but knew he wouldn’t be able to close the short distance in time before one of the girls was killed, but froze in place at what he saw next…

A Demon, instead of eating the girls, was putting their bodies in the house for warmth while holding both girls close in a manner similar to a parent wolf when their cubs were injured, whimpering sadly with tears flowing from its eyes.

“N-Nez… Ha-Hana…” The Demon just got out as it rubbed the heads of both girls lovingly yet worriedly, looking over for any injuries.

“He’s actually…” The man thought to himself, almost not believing what he was seeing despite the evidence right in front of him as he remembered the words of the girls and realised that they were apparently true.

However, before he could continue his thoughts, he heard the Demon growling and looked up to see it… no, he was glaring at the Slayer in pure rage as his body grew a bit and a tendril came out of his back. Seemingly done with its transformation, the Demon charged at him and swiped a claw at the Slayer, who was just able to dodge from the surprising speed of the enraged older brother and blocked another attack with his weapon, but the man was left flabbergasted as he almost felt the bones in his arms snap while a crack formed over his weapon.

“So strong… could these siblings…” The man thought before recomposing himself just in time, as he notices the Demon gathering up some kind of energy in its mouth and jumps away as the power was unleashed, vaporizing everything behind him instantly.

Knowing that he couldn’t afford to be distracted for even a moment, the man waited for the Demon to close the distance before cutting off the tendril and knocking him out with a hard blow with the blunt end of his weapon and is left breath heavily for a moment before looking at everything around him.

“I hope that I am making the right decision…” He says before taking out a Bamboo muzzle from his pocket that he keeps for demons that he can capture for the Final Selection and putting it in his mouth before wrapping it with a red cloth. Now, to wait for the sisters…

Nezuko’s perspective

“No… no… Don’t leave us!” Nezuko woke up with a scream, breathing heavily and sweating a bit before looking around, relieved to see her sister and brother safe, but was confused when she saw a Bamboo muzzle in his mouth.

“So you woke up.” She heard the man speak, turning her head to see him stand next to the hole in their home, causing her to stand up in worry as she tried to scoop up her brother and sister and hold them close.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt any of you. Your brother refused to eat you both or even bite me and instead protected you when he must have been starving due to the many bodies, his injuries before his transformation and the process of becoming a Demon in the first place.” He assures her, to which Nezuko looked at him cautiously but relaxed ever so slightly. She trusted her intuition and it was saying that the man was telling the truth, but she was still cautious because if it was wrong, her brother was dead.

“What are you planning…” She questions while looking for any movement from him, to which the man nods at her question.

“Once your sister wakes up, I plan on taking you both to an old man named Sakonji Urokodaki so he can train you both as Demon Slayers.” He explains, and at that moment, Hanako woke up and froze at the sight of the man before standing in front of their brother protectively.

“Don’t worry Hanako. I don’t think he is going to hurt us now.” Nezuko tells her little sister and while the girl relaxed slightly, she still stood in front of their brother.

“I think it is time that we have some introductions. I am Giyu Tomioka and I am a member of the demon slayers. And you two are?" He asks, making the sisters cautiously give their name to the Demon Slayer.

“I’m Nezuko Kamado and this is Hanako.” Nezuko says, making Tomioka-San nod his head in acceptance.

“Then let me ask you both, are you really going to spend the rest of your lives looking for a cure? Many people like you have tried to turn Demons back into human and they all failed…” He warns as he challenges their resolve, making Hanako glare at him.

“Just because no one discovered it doesn’t mean it isn’t out there! Plenty of illnesses seemed uncurable at first but now they can be treated because someone kept looking!” Hanako challenges the idea, surprising the man as he smiled for just a moment.

“I see… I’ll help you bury your family, I already dug up holes for them while you slept.” He tells them, taking the girls by surprise at first, but nodded as they picked up the bodies of their siblings with a heavy heart. They both knew that things will never be the same again, but they both knew that Tanjiro would spend every second of his life looking for a cure with them and they would do the same in a heartbeat…

Chapter Text

Giyu’s perspective

Location: Kamado household

“Thank you…” Hanako says to him as he came back from their house with the bodies of her family all placed neatly within body bags. Looking up at her, he saw that Tanjiro was lowly growling at him as he kept Hanako behind him while looking at the bags oddly, much to the girls embarrassment.

“You do not need to thank me. It is the least I can do for the dead.” Giyu responds before turning to look at Nezuko as he hears the snow crunching beneath her feet as she approached him.

“Can… can we see them one last time…” Nezuko asks him, taking Giyu by surprise for just a moment, but he ends up nodding his head in understanding as he opened the body bags to let the two siblings see their family one last time before moving away for their sake and waited by a tree a good few feet away.

While he was waiting, Giyu prepared a message and has Kanzaburo deliver it to Sakonji, but was slightly surprised when he started to smell something, but became alarmed when he heard the Kamado brother growling, causing him to quickly approach them in concern and reach for his weapon for a moment, but stops when he sees the Demon prowling around his two sisters protectively as he looked around the area for something.

“What is wrong…” Giyu asks as he approaches cautiously, and while their brother’s growling grew and he brought out the tendril he had during their brief fight, he ignored Giyu as he still looked for something after giving him a glare. Seemed that while the Demon did not like him, he knew that he wasn’t going to hurt his sisters now.

“No bite marks…” Hanako just whispers out as tears formed in her eyes, confusing Giyu for a moment before he realised she was talking about as he didn’t pay attention to that detail with everything that has happened in a short time frame.

“Why are there no bite marks!!?” Nezuko screamed as she stood up, taking her demonic brother by surprise by her yell.

“You said that Demons ate us humans because we are food and can’t remember being a human, right!? Than why did they kill our family if not for food and turn Tanjiro into a Demon!?” She demands an answer, though he knew it wasn’t from him and that she was talking with her emotions more than anything.

“Wha! Ni-Chan!?” Giyu was taken by surprise as the siblings’ brother picked up Hanako in a single arm before grabbing Nezuko’s hand and taking them away from the corpses of their family before putting them behind him and standing protectively in front of them as he growled at the surroundings, now seemingly ignoring Giyu himself.

“Um… what is he doing?” Giyu couldn’t help but ask to which Hanako cries and hugs a surprised Tanjiro, with the Demon seemingly deciding to abandon looking for whatever it was trying to find in favour of picking Hanako back up and after a moment of hesitation, rubs her back almost robotically, as if he was acting on a distant instinct more than anything.

“Tanjiro tended to take us away from situations when we got upset… I remember one time when a drunken man was talking bad about him and he took me away when I got upset like he just did now.” Nezuko explains as she wipes away tears from her eyes with a sad smile, reaching out and rubbing her brothers head, who hums in contentment as he fully relaxes now.

“So there is enough in him to act like he would in a situation like this, though only by instinct…” Giyu muses with some surprise.

After that, there was a moment of silence as he left the Kamado siblings on their own to pay their respects to their family while he looked for something that would protect Tanjiro from sunlight before finding a basic Parasol that should keep Tanjiro safe from the sun and a discarded basket almost buried in the snow that he picks up as well before returning to the 3 siblings and saw that they were finished.

“We need to get going soon, but I suggest that your brother uses these.” Giyu speaks up after a moment, causing the siblings to turn around and face him.

“Why does Ni-Chan need to get in a basket?” Hanako asks with a weirded out look that Giyu honestly couldn’t blame her for since accurate knowledge is rare for a non-Demon Slayer, though it was still annoying.

“The reason why Demons don’t constantly walk around is due to the sun. Being exposed to it for just a moment can instantly kill a regular Demon and with these, he will be safe for now. In fact, he is lucky that it is cloudy today, but I can’t tell how long that will last.” He explained, causing the siblings to widen their eyes in horror.

“Ni-Chan! Come on, you need to get in!” Hanako yells in a panic as she grabs a startled Tanjiro and drags him to the basket and begs him to get in. Seeming to comply, the young Demon gets in… but is unable to fit.

“No… no… no! It isn’t going to help! Why can’t he have the ability to shrink or something!?” Nezuko demands, to which Giyu also feels a bit worried but notices Tanjiro’s eyes gaining a little light inside of them when his sister spoke. Before her could say or do anything though, they were all taken aback when they witness the Demon boy shrinking to the size of a 5-year-old and fitting in perfectly.

“Mmm! MMMM!!” The now tiny Demon beamed up at this sister from within his basket with a clear smile despite his muzzle as they all stared down at him dumbly.

“Well… getting him around is going to be easier at least…” Giyu remarked before shaking his head and giving the tiny Demon the parasol, who holds it and lowers it down to hide him from view just in time, as Giyu noticed a small ray of sunlight approaching them.

“Tomioka-San…” Nezuko spoke up, drawing his attention as he looked at her before she strapped the basket with her brother inside and Hanako standing beside her with a fierce look in her eyes

“We’re ready.” Hanako says, causing Giyu to smile for just a moment before walking forward with the Kamado’s right behind him, leading them to his teacher and… no, he didn’t deserve to think of him as such…

Sakonji’s perspective

Location: Mount Sagiri

“Greetings Lord Sakonji Urokodaki…

I am currently on my way to your location with two young children that have had their family slaughtered by a demon, with only one of them and their older brother having survived the attack. However, their brother has been turned into a demon while defending his sister, with the girls having the courage to try and fight me despite no experience in combat for him, with their brother refusing to consume humans, even when he believed I had hurt them. Because of this, I have left the boy alive, but he is terrifyingly powerful despite just being turned and from what I have seen, is easily agitated should his siblings appear even slightly hurt in anyway or thinks there is a danger towards them. Once we arrive, I hope that you shall indulge in the selfish request of training the girls, as I believe they are worthy of carrying on your traditions and I can explain more soon should you have any questions. May this find you in good health and in good spirits.

Sincerely, Giyu Tomioka.”

Sakonji almost couldn’t believe his eyes when he received the letter from Kanzaburo, heck, he still didn’t believe it but it was right here. Giyu was… he was coming back… while his student, his child, had kept in touch with him since… since the Final Selection he took years ago, Giyu had seemingly refused to return here after recovering from the trauma he suffered.

Honestly, he couldn’t blame the boy, as he likely hated him for allowing Sabito and Makomo die when they were not ready. In fact, Sakonji despised himself for not only allowing their deaths, but the deaths of so many more children with a bright future that he came to care for as his own, and for that, he knew he did not deserve to think of any of them as such, but the news that his last surviving…

It took him every last ounce of strength left in his old body to not tear up at the news, but he was able to keep himself composed after a moment and head into his small home to put on some warmer clothes. While he was afraid for those girls meeting the same fate, he knew he couldn’t refuse the first request from Giyu he had since the Final Selection, so he would train them to the absolute best of his abilities. As for their Demon brother, he trusted within Giyu’s judgement and so would give the Demon a fair chance and learn about it when it arrived with the others.

Taking a quick smell, he was just able to make out Giyu’s scent a fair distance away, so he estimated that they would likely arrive tomorrow afternoon should they rest for the coming night and in the early morning should they continue through instead. With that, he climbed the mountain to prepare for their test, he just hoped that they won’t make the same fate…

Chapter Text

Tanjiro’s perspective

He was… confused…. After listening to the Imouto’s talk for a bit, he was able to piece together a few things that made understanding things a bit easier, but whatever sounds his Imouto’s and the mean half-half man were making just made no sense to him. But some of the sounds they made stood out and made his chest feel warm, such as Onii-Chan, Ni-Chan, Brother, and Tanjiro. There were also a few other sounds that made him cry, but it was muffled up by the thing in his mouth, which he was thankful for since he didn’t want to bother his Imouto’s or hurt them!

Though, this did cause his thinking to shift a bit. Why did his Imouto’s smell like food? He had no intention of taking a bite, even if they offered, but it was confusing, after all, why would family smell like food?

“…Demon’s… human’s…” He picked up half-half make sounds that he could understand, which made T… Tanjiro! Yes, that was his name, as that was what Imouto’s said, so it must be true! What was he thinking about again…? Oh right, Demon’s. Apparently, they were very bad because they ate humans, though he was confused. Humans were food, right? But then… oh… oh no! His Imouto’s are humans! That means that they would be seen as food when they were not! They were His Imouto’s!

However, that made Tanjiro feel bad. He knew he was a Demon, even Imouto’s said so and that meant he ran the risk of eating them. That also made him think, was that why they buried that unmoving food? Because they were once human? He apparently was a human once as well since his Imouto’s said something about the food and… returning?

Suddenly though, he felt them stop moving and place down the dark safe thing he was in. Curious, he stood up and moved the dark making thing that was held in his hand to the side just slightly and saw that dangerous light was gone.

“… Tanjiro… safe now….” He heard small Imouto say to him, causing him to hum happily as he pulled himself up and grew to normal size and getting out, cheering happily at being free now.

“MMMMM! Mmm? MMMMMMMM!!!!!” He screamed in muffled panic as he saw Hana… wait, she was small Imouto, right? Or was this similar to what his Imouto’s do and call him multiple things? Doesn’t matter, she was hurt and tired!

Deciding to take care of her, he picked up small Imouto, much to the shock and confusion of all humans and placed her in safe spot, humming happily as he saw that she was able to mostly fit in with only her head sticking out before rubbing her head. Looking at tall Imouto, he gave small Imouto the dark making thing before putting safe spot on his back and picking up tall Imouto in his arms as he looked at half-half warily.

As he stood there, he heard Imouto’s make some kind of shocked noises, but he didn’t smell anything bad so he left that alone, but he could smell some kind of amusement from half-half. Ignoring half-half for a moment, he felt something enter his head and hum it out and while he couldn’t remember where it was from, it made his chest hurt and eyes to tear up but succeeded in putting Imouto’s to sleep as they cried happy tears.

Looking at half-half, he seemed surprised but content by what he just did. But why? He was Tanjiro, Ni-Chan, and Onii-Chan! It was his job to protect and comfort them and he was going to do just that! However, half-half said something and while he couldn’t make it out, he knew that he should follow. As much as Tanjiro hated to even think it, half-half was probably the safest option for his Imouto’s… especially when he was feeling so…

Shaking his head, he focused on half-half as he jogged forward this time, to which Tanjiro tries to keep up but was falling behind when he got an idea. Stopping for a moment, as half-half noticed, he closed his eyes and made himself a fair bit bigger. Smiling when he saw that his idea worked, he was able to easily keep pace with half-half while keeping his Imouto’s safe and comfortable.

Eventually, half-half stopped when they arrived at a place similar to the hurting place but the building that was there was fairly small and didn’t cause his chest to hurt. Looking at half-half he smelled a bit of confusion while smelling someone else further up the mountain, to which half-half finally seemed to notice and smiled sadly for a moment.

Returning his attention to him, half-half then starts making sounds that he couldn’t make out before opening the buildings door and letting him in, letting Tanjiro feel the warmth in the building as he looked around. Hearing half-half pull out something that sounded soft when it touched the wood beneath them, he turned and saw something that he couldn’t make out, but appeared warm and safe for Imouto’s.

“…Nezuko-… Hanako-… rest here…” half-half spoke, making a few sounds that Tanjiro could make out, causing him to hesitantly nod his head and place both of his Imouto’s in soft things and saw them relax. Humming softly as he looked at them both, he shrunk in size and rubbed both of their heads, making them stir.

“Ni-Chan/Onii-Chan… don’t leave me…” They spoke out in their sleep, making him smile as he held no such intentions. However, he felt his eyes going heavy and struggled to stay awake when he felt the things on his ears might help his Imouto’s, so he took them off and placed one in each Imouto’s hand before finally allowing sleep to take him as well. He will protect his Hanako and Nezuko, no matter what…

Nezuko’s perspective

Location: ???

“I’m sorry that we have to leave sweetheart. But please, protect Tanjiro and Hanako alright?” Nezuko heard the voice of her mother ask her and while she couldn’t see them, she could feel the rest of her family. Feel their departed souls lean in close to her and provide

“I will!” She promises without a moment’s hesitation, feeling her families bitter joy and sadness before they left and she woke up.

“I see that you have finally woke up…” She heard a rough, but gentle voice as she woke up and saw a man with similar height to Tomioka-San with white hair and wearing a red tengu mask as well as a cloud-patterned jinbei kimono with navy-coloured pants which are fastened at his shins by white kyahan guards and traditional black tabi socks with blue straps cooking something in a pot above a small and controlled fire.

“Wait… are you Urokodaki-San?” Nezuko asks, making the man nod his head before taking out some food in the pot before pouring it into a bowl and giving it to her, letting Nezuko see that it was soup that she gladly ate, feeling her stomach fill up and thanking him.

“Indeed. Your sister woke up a few moments ago and I am letting her clean herself up a bit.” He explained, making Nezuko sigh in relief now that she knew that her sister is safe before looking to the left and smiled as she saw Tanjiro sleeping with the size of a 5-year-old next to her but widens her eyes in surprise as she saw the one of the earrings he inherited from father in her hand.

“Did you take off my brother’s earrings?” She asks with a frown, causing the elderly man to shake his head.

“No. According to Giyu, your brother took both of them off and gave them to you and your sister before falling asleep…” He explains before taking her empty bowl and putting it to the side.

“Nēchan!” Nezuko heard Hanako call out to her, turning to see her sister looking fairly healthy and jumping into her arms, smiling at seeing her sister awake, to which Nezuko couldn’t stop herself from returning the smile herself when she noticed…

“You put on one of the earrings?” Nezuko asks in a bit of surprise when she saw the other earring on Hanako’s left ear.

“Y-yeah. Tomioka-San told me what Ni-Chan did before sleeping and he put it on after offering….” Hanako explained, letting Nezuko see a puncture in her sisters ear that somehow seemed like it didn’t hurt. Heck, her skin wasn’t even red!

“Wait, where is Tomioka-San?” Nezuko questions as she realises that the Demon Slayer wasn’t here, though both her and her sister noticed Urokodaki-San seemingly stiffen for just a moment before walking to the both of them and sitting down in front of them.

“He… left a few moments after I showed up. However, I must ask you both a question….” He says, making Nezuko sit up straight and hold her little sister as they faced him.

“What will you do when your brother eats someone?" Urokodaki asks, making Nezuko and Hanako glare at him.

“Ni-Chan never will.” Hanako declares, to which the man’s turns to look at Nezuko, who gulps for a moment.

“I… I know that if our brother was fully here…” Nezuko begins to speak before briefly looking at the unconscious form of her brother and then facing Urokodaki with determination that she could almost feel caught his interest.

“I know that Tanjiro would have wanted Tomioka-San to kill him so there isn’t any chance that he could end up hurting others or us, let alone eat. So, if only for him and knowing that it will never reach that point, I will kill him if that impossibility becomes real.” Nezuko says, feeling Hanako’s shock but it was clear that her sister was only uncomfortable since she knew Nezuko was correct.

“I see…. I like the both of you so far, but should your brother eat someone, then you are to also kill yourselves for failing everyone, understood.” He says sternly, making both sisters nod their heads. After all, allowing another human be killed by their brother would also be a betrayal to Tanjiro as much as that person and that they were acting against their brothers wishes by keeping him alive as a Demon when he wouldn’t want there to be any chance to hurt, let alone kill another person or them.

“Now, follow me. I shall give you a test that will determine if you shall be my students.” Urokodaki-San declares as he stands up and both Nezuko and Hanako follow suit and climb up the mountain next to the old man’s home.

After a few hours, Urokodaki-San came to a stop at an incredibly high point of the mountain without any sign of exhaustion while Nezuko and Hanako are left sweating and panting just slightly due to the thin air supply this high up. Looking around, Nezuko made note of the extremely dense fog, but was glad that she could still clearly see Hanako and Urokodaki-San, with the elderly man looking up for just a moment.

“You have about five hours until Noon. Make it back to my hut before the sun sets and I'll take you both on as my students.” Urokodaki-San told both siblings and before either of them could act, the fog seemed to consume their potential trainer for a moment before fading just a bit and revealing that he had disappeared.

“Hanako, can you smell Urokodaki-San?” Nezuko asks, making her little sister turn to her and nod her head with a big smile. While only Tanjiro’s sense of smell was strong enough to smell the difference between different things, Hanako’s own smell was nothing to scoff at and is capable of tracking someone’s general location fairly easily.

“Yep! Follow me!” Hanako says as she lead Nezuko through the fog, but Nezuko felt her intuition spike, so she grabbed Hanako and pulled her away from a log of wood that almost smashed into her sisters side.

“Aahh! What just happened!?” Hanako asked as she was pulled back and saw the log race past where she was once standing, making Nezuko frown for a moment before realisation struck her.

“I think Urokodaki-San set traps around the mountain, otherwise the climb up would have been the more difficult task instead of down. Hanako, can you smell his scent anywhere up here in multiple places?” Nezuko asks, making her sister shake her head sadly, causing the older sister to hug her younger sibling with a smile.

“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll follow your sense of smell and I’ll use my intuition to avoid and traps he triggered.” She promises her sister, making Hanako nod her head with a small smile now back on her face.

“Okay… your intuition really is cool!” She says, causing Nezuko to briefly chuckle. While she didn’t have an enhanced sense of smell like her brother or sister, Nezuko was always able to somehow feel when something was wrong and where it was happening when it concerned her or her siblings, though never what. For a moment, a memory of her stopping Takeo from drinking expired milk when he was sick entered her mind before shaking her head and refocusing on the task at hand.

Afterwards, the two followed Hanako’s sense of smell down the mountain while Nezuko used her intuition to drag them away from triggered traps along the way, though actually dodging them was rare and she was really only able to minimise the damage she and her sister took from them, so when the siblings finally got back to Urokodaki-San’s house, they were covered in dirt, snow, bruises, and a little bit of blood.

Looking in, they saw Urokodaki-San preparing some bowls of food and their brother in a blanket sleeping peacefully.

“W-We… made it….” Hanako breathed out to Urokodaki-San, who merely nodded his head while facing away from them before turning to look at them and giving them warm bowls of soup that they gladly dug into.

“Hanako and Nezuko Kamado… I accept the both of you as my students. Rest well, for your training shall begin when you wake up.” He tells them before leaving the house, to which both sisters forced their aching muscles to get to Tanjiro and sleeping next to him like they did back during much simpler times. If only she stayed awake for just a little longer….

“Nezu…. Hana….”

Chapter Text

Hanako’s perspective

“Urokodaki-Sensei…” Hanako asks shyly, making the old man turn to face her as she and Nezuko stood outside in a bamboo forest.

“Before I train either of you, you should know what you are getting into with the Demon Slayer Corps. The number of members withing the Corps is around a few hundred people of varying ranks. The organization is not acknowledged by the government; however, they still exist and continue to kill demons.” Sensei explained about the organization, allowing Hanako to understand why she had never heard of them before outside of what she believed to be bedtime stories from Grandma and Saburo-Jii-Chan.

“Um, sensei. What about the leader and Demons?” Nēchan asks, making their new teacher nod his head at the reasonable question.

“Fair questions. For the leader, not much is known as they are shrouded in mystery. Demons on the other hand, are much more malicious in nature. They kill and consume humans as their main source of food to consume the victim’s blood and flesh to grow in power, and unluckily for you, human females apparently provide a bit more sustenance, so it is likely that they will target you both out in the field.” Urokodaki-Sensei trails off slightly to caution them, making a shiver run up Hanako’s spine and she was sure she smelt discomfort coming from Nēchan. However, this new information made Hanako’s heart hurt for her brother a bit more. According to Tomioka-San, transforming into a Demon, recovering from injuries and while he wasn’t aware of it, her brothers sense of smell must have made it agonizing for him to not attack them, but he still chose to protect them from harm. Her brother truly deserves to return back into a human from fighting against that alone as far as she was concerned.

“When and where the Demons originally came from is unknown outside of the identity of the first Demon and the progenitor, Muzan Kibutsuji, and the only one that can create more Demons through his blood….” With that, the man genuinely paused when he heard the two sisters growl and allowed it to happen. Thanks to the information, Hanako now knows the name of the monster that caused everything and she will make him pay, her mind briefly flashing to show her the appearance of the Demon King. But first, she is going to help Nēchan and Ni-Chan find a cure and protect each other. Seeing that the two have calmed down a little now, Urokodaki-Sensei continued with his explanation.

“Sadly, Demons have greatly enhanced physical abilities that allow even the weakest of Demons to tear apart a human without much, if any effort. And even should they be injured or lose limbs, they can almost instantly repair the damage or regrow lost limbs while still having a connection to their hacked off limbs. There are also a rarer few that have an incredible power and ability to change their body structure.” He explained, making the two sisters gulp nervously as they remember the Demon that Tomioka-San killed on the way here. If he wasn’t there, what could have happened?

“H-How do Demon Slayer’s beat them then?” Hanako just gets out, to which made their new teacher take out his dull grey coloured sword as if it would help his answer.

“Since we Demon Slayers are human, they fight with mortal flesh and blood and cannot recover from a lost limb, yet they still fight. But despite that determination, we would have all been killed a long time ago without these Nichirin Swords, which passively absorbs sunlight and grants the weapon needed to kill a Demon so long as they are decapitated, however….” Urokodaki-Sensei explained how a Demon could be defeated, which made Hanako remember how Tomioka-San moved so fast that he killed the Demon at the temple without her realizing what happened, only seeing a bit of blood on his weapon.

“I am a ‘cultivator’, and as it implies, I cultivate potential swordsmen and swordswomen who wish to enter the Demon Slayer Corps. However, if either of you truly wish to join their ranks, you must survive a test called the Final Selection on Fujikasaneyama, but I will be the one to decide if you both are really ready for the Final Selection. Under my tutelage, you shall be taught the Water Breathing techniques of the Demon Slayers.” He finished his explanation by spinning around as a torrent of water seemingly came from the weapon itself before cutting many bamboo trees instantly, leaving the sisters in awe.

“How will we learn to use these techniques Sensei?” Nezuko asks with a determined look, to which Hanako smelt the slightest signs of amusement from the elderly man before he faced Nēchan.

“For now, the Breathing techniques will be for later. Right now, you are both too weak and so, I shall train your strength.” Urokodaki-Sensei tell them, to which Hanako felt a shiver run up her spine at his words, but still stood determined. For her family, she will do anything.

Giyu’s perspective

Time skip: 6 months later

Location: Mount Sagiri

“So they are finally beginning their Breathing training?” Giyu asked his former teacher as he observed Hanako-Chan and Nezuko-Chan from a distance swinging their practice blades and trying to control their breathing. Idly, he noted the changes both sisters have gone through within the short amount of time, both growing a bit of muscle on their arms and legs, though it was clear how they would progress in the future. Nezuko for strength and endurance and Hanako for speed and agility, which will make them a deadly team when they grow a bit more. Their clothes were also a bit torn and dirtied, but were in decent enough condition.

“Indeed. I also see that you have brought a gift.” Urokodaki says as he looks at the box in Giyu’s hands, to which the Water Hashira was only just able to fight off a smile appearing as he relaxed slightly. He still believed he didn’t deserve to view his teacher as a parental figure for failing… back then. However, his brief visits to check on the Kamado sisters allowed him to speak with the former Hashira more and the girls also got closer to his heart every time he visited.

“Correct, but that will be for later.” He responded as him and Urokodaki-San approached the two, quickly gaining their attention when they were close enough for Hanako to smell them.

“Now you two, it is time to begin your Breathing training. For now, concentrate and swing your blade while allowing energy to flow from your lungs into your arms and then your weapon.” His former Sensei tells the sisters, to which they nodded and try to do as instructed. It took a few times, but Giyu did feel his lips curl up slightly as he saw a strong wave of water burst appear as Nezuko swung her practise weapon, a clear sign of a Water Breathing user, but Hanako….

“Wait, what is going on!?” Nezuko yells in a panic as she saw water initially bursting out as well, but quickly mist started coming out instead, causing the young girl to drop the weapon and stop the Breathing Style from continuing. For some reason though, the style felt familiar….

“Um… Urokodaki-Sensei and Tomioka-San… was that normal?” Hanako asks, clearly worried as his teacher hums in thought and rubs his chin beneath the Tengu mask.

“Interesting. I have never seen a Breathing Style like that before, though it isn’t too much of a surprise for something like this to happen…” The previous Water Hashira says, making Nezuko frown as she heard this.

“Wait, you mean you were expecting something?” She asks with a small glare. She truly became protective of her sister, especially since their brother was still sleeping from what he could remember, so he supposes he should have expected the reaction.

“The reason I wanted to do this is because some individuals can end up creating their own Breathing Styles, either through hard work or naturally. However, your sisters style is something I have never seen before, so she’ll need to work hard in making it powerful.” His teacher said, to which a recent Demon Slayer entered the Water Hashira’s mind in that moment.

“Actually, there is a recent Demon Slayer who has a Breathing Style similar to Hanako’s. I can get in contact with him since he is on a mission within the area and see if he’ll help train Kamado-Chan.” Giyu offers, taking them all by surprise.

“That would actually be helpful. I trust you know what to do, Giyu-Kun.” Urokodaki-Sensei says, making the current Hashira nod his head before giving his former teacher the box he had and then leaving to look for the recent Demon Slayer.

“Do you need something Hashira-San?” He eventually heard a detached voice ask as he entered a clearing, causing him to turn around and see a young boy only 2 years older than Hanako standing at 5’3” tall with a light complexion. He had long, straight hair of a black colour that fades to mint green as it approached his waist while keeping his hair loose with two clumps protruding slightly from each side of his head, a set of marginally shorter hair left down to frame his face, and unruly bangs over his forehead. However, what did slightly concern Giyu was the empty-looking mint-green eyes that made it appear as if the boy wasn’t even there.

Quickly looking over his attire, Giyu made note that the boy was wearing a dark, slightly turquoise-tinted version of the Demon Slayer uniform. His uniform having longer, looser sleeves that are more reminiscent of those of a kimono than of the standard cuffed uniform. Along with this, the lack of bands of cloth wrapped around his calves gives his uniform an overall loose and sizable appearance. Finally, he was also wearing dark blue tabi socks and a pair of white zōri with dark blue straps.

“You are Muichiro-Kun correct? There is something that I would like to request your aid in…” Giyu tries to inform him, to which the younger Slayer spoke up, likely thinking he knew what the request is.

“If it is in regards to a Demon lurking within the area, it is already dead. You arrived 5 minutes too late if so.” He said, to which Giyu wasn’t annoyed since he could feel no arrogance radiating from the young Slayer.

“Actually, it is in regards to a young trainee that wishes to join the Demon Slayer Corps. She possesses the same Breathing Style as you from what I can tell and would appreciate it if you could help her grow.” He explained, causing the Muichiro raise an eyebrow curiously.

“I suppose helping them would be beneficial….” He ponders for a moment, looking up to the sky as Giyu sighs. He was more than aware of the boys airheaded nature and his ability to quickly lose new memories. He just hoped that the knowledge of another potential Demon Slayer with the same or similar Breathing Style will stand out for the Kanoe.

“So, will you help in training them whenever you have the time?” Giyu asks, as while having Muichiro teach Hanako would be a benefit for her, she could still become stronger on her own.

“Okay Hashira-San, but I can’t promise I’ll always train her. The clouds look nice….” He accepts the offer, before trailing off as he watched the clouds. At least Hanako will have proper instruction in her Breathing style, though hopefully Urokodaki-San and the Kamado sisters have hidden Tanjiro in a good hiding spot.

Chapter Text

Time skip: 3 months

Muichiro’s perspective

Location: Mount Sagiri

“They certainly have the skills for Final Selection, they just lack control and strength.” Giyu comments as they watched the Kamado sisters duel each other with techniques that were expected of a Mist and Water Breather, however, they lacked the ability to actually use either Breathing styles Forms.

“Indeed. But why is Urokodaki-San insistent on Total Concentration Breathing be saved for last?” Muichiro asks his fellow Hashira, having joined, and gained the rank of Hashira, some of the most powerful Demon Slayers in history a bit over… a month ago right? Oh, hold on, Giyu-San was sighing. Seems like he has asked that question before.

“Urokodaki-Sensei wants them to be capable of using the Forms like it is second nature and for them to be used to their blades as fast as possible. With it, the strain that initially comes with learning a Breathing form is decreased and should we have the time, we can help improve the speed and power of their techniques.” He explained, to which Muichiro could see the logic of the explanation and his memory briefly flashed to when Urokodaki-San made the request. He felt that there was more to it than the explanation he gave, but he didn’t really have a reason to distrust the former Hashira’s word.

“Oh, hi Tomioka-San! Tokito-San!” Hanako greets them, making Muichiro turn to look at the girl that had the same Breathing style as him as she and her sister approached them with smiles on their faces.

“Where have the two of you recently?” Nezuko questions, to which Muichiro couldn’t stop a pang of pain appearing in his chest for a moment before smiling a bit. He didn’t know why, but these two have really made him open up and reminded him of something, but he couldn’t quite remember what.

“Sorry, but we have…. What were we doing again?” He asked his fellow Hashira, to which Giyu shakes his head and begins to speak, but the recently made Mist Hashira ignored it in favour of looking over Nezuko and Hanako while they listened with rapt attention to Giyu’s explanation and following story.

Hanako had grown a fair bit and was now standing at 4’7” feet tall with her hair having been tied back into a double bun on the sides of her head and was wearing a pink kimono with cloud patterns along it that allowed for flexibility and free movement, a single Hanafuda earring on her left ear and a blue and black coloured scarf with a checkered pattern. There was also some noticeable muscle on her arms, though it wasn’t really much while her legs seemed stronger for speed, which he knew would be deadly with the techniques of Mist breathing.

Nezuko had also grown to now stand at 5’2” tall and has tied her hair into a ponytail so it doesn’t get in the way during combat but was untying the pink bow that kept it in place now that she has stopped sparring with her sister, allowing her long black hair to fall down just above her waist. Looking over her clothes, Muichiro made note of Nezuko wearing a short pink kimono top that was opened to reveal a blue top with wave shapes circling around the cloth with baggy black pants and the other Hanafuda earring on her right ear. Seeing the muscles she gained from training was more difficult, but Muichiro knew that Nezuko has grown into a Water breathing user that can stand against the aggression of most Demons and deliver a devastating counter and being more than capable of going on a terrifying offensive, or at the very least she will once they both finally learn Total Concentration Breathing.

“… However, it only turned out to be a few lower-level Demons.” The Mist Hashira just caught the end of Giyu’s explanation of their latest mission.

“So, I am assuming that you have gotten used to the blades?” He comments, making Hanako nod with a large smile.

“Yep! I can’t wait to show…!” She begins cheerfully, but stops and looks down in sadness while Giyu became uncomfortable and Nezuko gave her sister a hug. Why were they acting like this again? Oh wait, they had a brother right? Yeah, that sounded right, so was he perhaps in a coma going off of the atmosphere and their looks? Shaking away the question for now, Muichiro got on his knee and brought his future fellow Mist user into a hug.

“I might not know…. What is going on, but I’m sure that the person you’re thinking of would want you to keep your head held high with pride. So do so.” He provided a little bit of support to the young girl, who wiped tears away from her eyes and smiled at him.

“Th-Thanks. Kind of hard to believe you are only 2 years older than me.” She says, causing him to smile a little as he heard snow crunching, making him look up and see Urokodaki-San approaching them.

“I see that you have both made great progress in your sword skills. Can you give me a moment with Giyu and Muichiro please?” He asked, to which both girls nodded before heading down to Urokodaki-San’s house with a slight pang in his chest. However, he suddenly had a feeling like he was going to agree to something without the full context.

Wait, was that a horse shaped cloud he just saw?

Nezuko’s perspective

Time skip: 3 months

“Well, we are making progress….” Nezuko says as she heaves in deep breathes before exhaling, her breathing being little issue to her now as well as her sister, but trying to cut boulders in half for hours was still draining.

“But… not… enough….” Hanako says, being a bit tougher for her, causing Nezuko to take out some gathered wood in a bag next to her before making a campfire to provide them a bit of warmth, with the relaxing heat allowing her mind to wonder a bit.

“I have nothing left to teach you girls as potential Demon Slayers. From here on out, the both of you must improve the basics and skills taught to you by me, Giyu and Muichiro.” The statement that shocked her and Hanako and lead to their current struggle entered her mind as she and Hanako sat down. It has now been two months now since Urokodaki-Sensei brought them up the mountain again and showed them two large boulders bigger than either of the sisters that they needed to slice in half if they were going to be let into the Final Selection. They practised with some larger rocks and were able to cut into them, but lacked the strength needed to slice them and by extension, the boulders that Urokodaki-Sensei had tasked them with cutting.

“We need to continue pushing but… Hanako needs the rest. Hold on a bit longer Tanjiro….” Nezuko thinks to herself, feeling more and more anxious by the day since the longer they are here, the more likely it is that Tanjiro…. God, what kind of situation was Tanjiro in!? When he was awake, she knew that her brother, the same one that worked himself into sickness multiple times and treat people with kindness when they frankly didn’t deserve it, was there behind that seemingly mindless shell that wore his face! Now that she knew about demons, she could tell that her brother was effectively fighting every cell in his body to not hurt her or Hanako and instead protected them! But now, he has been asleep for nearly a whole year while trapped in a coma and while she didn’t know what was going on with him, she knew that he was in pain and she couldn’t do anything about it!

“I’m so useless….”

“you are not! It’s going to be okay Nezuko. I am so proud of you for taking care of Hanako and we will get through this. We always did back home after all.” She heard her brothers voice inside her head and it almost caused her to cry right then and there like any other time she did. She has been hearing Tanjiro’s voice inside her head for almost as long as Tanjiro has been asleep and she is sure Hanako has been as well. God, they are so broken.

“Hey, Nēchan….” Hanako called out to her, making Nezuko put up a smile like Tanjiro would in this situation and turn her attention to her sister, rubbing her head affectionally as she did so.

“Is something wrong Hanako?” Nezuko asked, making her baby sister shake her head with a small smile.

“No, it’s just…. Tanjiro would be dancing for Hinokami-Sama tonight now….” She explained, making Nezuko remember the family dance ritual for the first time since they left their home behind. The Hinokami Kagura Dance was a tradition that their father, despite not liking traditions that much, followed until his death and seemed to give him the strength to do anything.

“I know what you mean Hanako. But like our family, Hinokami-Sama isn’t perfect but is smiling down upon us. Knowing Tanjiro, he will dance for us once more with Hinokami-Sama’s blessings when he returns to us.” She promised, pulling in Hanako for a brief hug. Honestly, she had lost faith in Hinokami’s existence after what happened to her family, but kept up this mask for her sister, who needed this strength and one of the few connections to their past that didn’t hurt either of them, or at least much in her case. However….

“Now listen to me…” Nezuko tries to continue as she held her sisters shoulders and explain something she came to realise, but stops as something felt… off…. Wait a minute…!

“DODGE!!” Nezuko screams out to Hanako as she tackled her sister, just avoiding a blade being flung at them. Quickly grabbing their weapons as they were rolling through the snow, the stood up and saw a boy and girl sitting on Nezuko and Hanako’s boulders, respectively.

Looking them over, Nezuko could tell that the boy was the same age as her and stood at 5’5” tall with fair coloured skin and has thick, spiked, peach-coloured hair of varying lengths, with the longest reaching his shoulders and wore messily down with side micro bangs over the left of his forehead. He was wearing a green kimono, patterned with a geometric hexagon design of yellow and a darker green, tied off at the waist with a piece of black fabric, below which he sported a pair of tattsuke-hakama pants and over which a plain white haori. Around his calves, he wore a pair of kyahan, that bore the same design as his kimono, which his pants were tucked into, as well as black tabi socks and a pair of zōri on his feet. On his face though, was a white fox shaped mask with a large scar painting across the right cheek, with the mask having eyes and nose that were a dark green while the ears were more of a grey-red, and it was secured around his face by a thick piece of red rope around his head, the ends of which hung down from behind each of his ears.

The girl that was sitting on her sisters boulder was of a similar height to Hanako and had pale skin, while possessing gentle eyes of a deep cyan colour, their pupils rectangular and white, that were a notably paler turquoise near the bottom. She had black hair that came down to her shoulders, spiking outwards at the ends, and short micro bangs over her forehead. She was wearing a red yukata with a pink and white flower dot pattern, over which she sported a dark-purple sleeveless haori and a paler brown piece of fabric tied around her waist. On her feet, she wore a pair of sandals that were tied around her ankle from her heel and closed at the toe while having a similar mask that the boy had, except that her mask has two blue flowers painted on its left-hand side instead of a scar.

“How didn’t I notice them until they attacked!?” Nezuko thought to herself in shock but was able to keep it mostly hidden while noticing a more visible look of shock on her sisters face. During their training, Nezuko’s intuition had pretty much became a passive awareness of her surroundings that could even detect their teachers every now and again while Hanako could smell different scents a bit beyond the limit of their field of vision. So how did they sneak up on the both of them!?

“Good, you are finally aware of us. Seems like you have potential after all….” The boy says before jumping down with the girl and they both pulled out sturdy looking wooden swords before charging forward to clash with the Kamado sisters…

???’s perspective

Location: ???

So… tired….

Where… Hana…ko?

Nezu…ko… sisters need…

Hurts… hurts so bad…

“It is okay Tanjiro. Follow the light.”

That voice… why did it….

“You have been through so much. I am sorry I couldn’t help you but…”

Gone…? What happened to nice voice…?

“Tanjiro, your sisters need you. It is your duty as the eldest son to help them…

No…. Voice wasn’t leaving… something was…. Pushing away

“Remember, we shall always be by your side. Now, allow me to guide you, one last time my son….”

Place felt… scared…? But kind voice…. Fathers voice was…. Did he grab something…?

“Go Ni-Chan!”

“Kick that jerks butt!”

“Be safe!”

“I know that you won’t let Hanako and Nezuko be hurt…. Always remember, you are family.”

So many… voices…. Rokuta… Takeo… Shigeru… Ooasan….

“Follow my movements and feel the strength buried within.”

Father…? You are… light…?

Safe… warm….

“Push through! You must take the last steps!”

Right…. Dark place keeps… Nezuko and… Hanako away…. Fleshy stuff is dragging him away…

“I WILL PROTECT THEM BOTH!!!” And just like that, as he felt power well up from his chest and silent screams of encouragement and one of fury, his vision was consumed by a swirl of fire and was left stunned. No more darkness, no more fleshy things. Just snow, trees, and the bright moon… it was… beautiful….

“Tanjiro….” He heard a shaky voice call out stunned, making him turn to face his Imouto’s. His Nezuko and Hanako. And they were hurt. With that, he dropped thin in his hand and charge forward to them, quickly pulling them into a tight hug.

“Ni-Chan…. We thought that you would… don’t leave….” Hanako cried into his shoulder as he positioned himself to lift her up a bit.

“I never will leave you. Either of you.” Tanjiro tries to tell his beloved sister, but is unable to. So instead, he allowed his presence to slowly sooth his sisters as they cried in relief. They were family after all, and he would do anything for them.

“Thank you… Hinokami-Sama.”

Chapter Text

Hanako’s perspective

Location: Urokodaki’s home

“So, this is your brother. I wasn’t expecting a….” Muichiro-Kun begins to say but stops, unsure if he should continue. Honestly, even ignoring the fact the her brother was a Demon, Hanako was unable to blame him since the sight that was before them was Tanjiro forcing both her and Nezuko to sit down as looked over injuries they gained from training and panicking over them while shooting the three Demon Slayers a terrifying glare. She could smell their unease after all.

“Demon? Well, he only really cares about his sisters, meaning that as long as they aren’t hurt, he’ll only glare at you at most. Trust me, I know.” Tomioka-San explains, making Hanako giggle a little and drawing her brothers attention.

“Mmmph.” He hummed happily with a closed eye smile as he rubbed her head, seeming to forget about the three Demon Slayers to spoil her instead.

“You said that he had a practise sword with him?” Urokodaki-San asks her Nēchan, leaving her and Tanjiro alone for the time being.

“We didn’t see what exactly happened, but it looked like Onii-Chan was finishing the Hinokami Kagura.” She explained as she looked to Tanjiro and smiled over at him, though he doesn’t see it.

“Um, by the way. Why has Ni-Chan’s appearance changed?” Hanako asks, making Tanjiro sit down confused. Did Ni-Chan understand things better? The light in his eyes were a bit brighter, but it still wasn’t by much. Either way, now that her brother was awake, he now has dark pink eyes and sun yellow tips along his hair. If he did actually perform the Hinokami Kagura, did that somehow cause these changes?

“It isn’t unusual for a Demon’s appearance to change when compared with their human selves, from subtle changes to grotesque and drastic. Though, you do need to explain why you’re making it sound like he didn’t immediately change physically.” Muichiro points out expressing his confusion, none of them noticing Tanjiro looking directly at the Mist user with wide and curious eyes.

“Because when I found the three, the only physical signs of Tanjiro being a Demon was the fangs and claws. But now that he is awake, he seems to have suddenly gained yellow hair tips and his eye colour has changed from a bright red to dark pink.” Giyu points out, making Muichiro widen his eyes in surprise. But before anything more can be said, Tanjiro stood up and walked up to Muichiro and looked to lock eyes with the Mist user.

The air was quite, when Tanjiro proceeded to reach out and pick up the Demon Slayer from under his armpit turn around, walk over to Nezuko and Hanako, sat him down and rubbed his head with a clear smile despite the muzzle in his mouth. After doing so, he laid down on the ground and fell asleep once more.

“…I think Onii-Chan sees you as a part of our family Muichiro-Kun.” Nezuko says after a pause, smirking and laughing a little as the atmosphere eases greatly and the others began to talk. However, none of them noticed Mist Demon Slayer keeping his eyes on Tanjiro or the tear that fell from his eyes, not even Muichiro himself.

Sakonji’s perspective

“Nezuko, there is something I would like to ask you.” Sakonji asks the older sister as she and Hanako walked back into his small home covered in a few bruises each that will heal by next morning. Honestly, he was getting a bit concerned about their progress and them being able to enter the Final Selection, but if they did cut those boulders, then he would allow it. However, that isn’t what he is trying to focus on right now.

“Hm? What is it Sensei?” Nezuko asks as their brother ran straight over and enveloped Hanako in a hug, making the little girl giggle like the child she should be. Underneath his mask, the former Hashira smiled at the scene playing out in the corner of his eye.

“You have noticed how your brother acts when he sees you two practise and what you told me about this Hinokami Kagura Dance, correct?” He inquired, making Nezuko nod her head with confusion in her eyes. Ever since her brother woke up, he tended to be as close to his sisters as possible while keeping a healthy distance from them, surprising given his clearly fractured mind. Because of this, whenever he saw the two practising his stances, the Demon became on edge and groaning as if he was seeing them do something completely wrong.

“Mmm?” He heard Tanjiro hum in a questioning manner, seeming to stiffen a bit as he looked around and so the three humans kept quite as he walked over and picked up a wooden practise sword and looked at Urokodaki curiously.

“What do you want Ni-Chan?” Hanako asks as she tilts her head, making the boy get in a stance while the girls made noises of realisation.

“You know what this is?” He inquired them, but mainly focused on the stance their Demon brother was in. As a fighter and a cultivator of swordsmen, he can recognise a sword stance but he needed to make sure.

“That’s the beginning stances of the Hinokami Kagura. I think Tanjiro wants to perform it.” Nezuko explained as her brother walked outside a fair distance away and looked at him specifically.

“I am curious to see what this means. You may go for it.” Sakonji tells the boy with a nod, making the Demon smile brightly before taking in a deep breath that momentarily takes the former Demon Slayer by surprise. Was that Total Concentration Breathing?

Now beginning to move, Tanjiro preformed his family’s dance and while Sakonji can tell why someone untrained in combat would think it was a dance, he knew what this really was…

“So it actually is a Breathing Style….” Urokodaki mutters to himself as he watched Tanjiro perform the Hinokami Kagura, though it appears that Hanako just heard him. That, or she smelt his surprise.

“What’s wrong?” She asks, to which he was about to respond when they saw bright yellow and red flames consume her brother as he continued onward.

“Tanjiro!!” Nezuko screamed out to her brother before running forward with her sister, the former Demon Slayers brief surprise preventing him from reaching out and grabbing the two as they closed the distance between them and their older sibling and entered the flames as their brother made a muffled sound of surprise.

“NO!!” He yelled out to the two in fear and began to move forward, as while he was unable to smell harmful intent from Tanjiro, it didn’t mean that whatever Breathing Style this was wouldn’t hurt them. However, he stopped as he realised that he wasn’t hearing any screams and he could see the shadowed shapes of each sibling clear as day.

“We’re okay! It actually feels… nice….” Hanako called out to him sleepily, to which the flames appeared to grow stronger for a moment but quickly decreased in size until they extinguished themselves, revealing all three Kamado siblings sleeping on the ground peacefully.

“*Sigh*Seems these siblings still have some surprises up their sleeves….” Sakonji comments with a tired but happy smile on his face beneath the mask he wore. However…

“Whatever their Hinokami Kagura truly is, it certainly isn’t Flame Breathing despite some similarities.”

Tanjiro’s perspective

Half-half was right here. Honestly, Tanjiro didn’t really know what to think of the human. It was clear to him that he got close to Hanako and Nezuko and they seemed happy to see him whenever he showed up. However, he still hurt them.

“Look. I’m sorry about our first meeting….” Half-half begins to make noises. Ever since he woke up, Tanjiro could put together sounds more easily without them blanking out, but he still didn’t understand most of the sounds. To show this, he tilted his head and blinked, smiling a bit behind his muzzle when Half-half appeared to pick up on this.

“You don’t understand what I’m saying do you. Well, I wanted to give this to you as an apology.” He continued to make noises, with the only sound that stood out being ‘you’, ‘give’ and ‘apology’. Because of this, Tanjiro sat up straighter and tilted his head curiously as half-half gave him a… haori? Yeah, that sounded right. It was similar to his own, but it felt light and more flexible.

“It’s the same as what you are wearing, but it’s stronger and more fit for battle.” Half-half tried to explain, to which Tanjiro didn’t understand the sounds he made but he could understand the intent. This haori is like Nezuko and Hanko’s clothes, still them and what they liked, but was more suited to what they were trying to do.

“Mmm….” Tanjiro hummed out, before a feeling struck him. With that, he neatly folded the haori and placed it down before leaving and gathered some things. He honestly had no clue what he was doing and just let his body do the work, but when the feeling left, he felt proud of the end result. For laying on the table before him were 5 different arm wraps with different colours and a checkered pattern across the fabric.

“What is that?” He heard half-half make confused noises behind him, so Tanjiro turned around and gave him an arm wrap that had red and yellow colouring, to which he motioned for him to put it on and so, half-half did.

Seeing this did cause Tanjiro to smile brightly behind the muzzle. While he was still a little wary about half-half, he trusted his sisters and he appeared to be sorry about what he did. Because of that, Tanjiro would consider half-half family!

Now, where were Imouto’s, mist boy and Ojiichan? He had to give proof that they were family after all!

Hanako’s perspective

Time skip: 3 months

“I must say, the both of you have made leaps and bounds since we began sparring.” Said Makomo with a smile, who is one of the two that appeared before Tanjiro woke up. Ever since she and her friend appeared, Hanako and Nezuko have repeatably returned to this spot to spar against them for a bit now.

“But they still have one last test.” Said Sabito, the boy that appeared with Makomo, as he and Makomo drew out genuine swords instead of the wooden ones they have used up to this point.

“So, you finally see us as true fighters.” Nezuko called out with a smile as she stared down Sabito while Hanako did the same with Makomo. The sisters knew the importance of the two former students of Urokodaki-Sensei since this meant this was a real fight.

From there, no words needed to be said, and once an unspoken signal went off, all four charged forward and two sword swings landed on their target. And the ones hit were Makomo and Sabito as their masks were cut cleanly in half.

“You have surpassed us. So please, win against them….” Makomo tells the sisters before a sudden burst of mist surrounded her and Sabito and they disappeared.

“Wait, hold on a-!” Hanako tries to call out, but stops as she and Nezuko saw something they hadn’t even realised they accomplished. For behind Makomo and Sabito were the boulders Ojiichan wanted them to cut in half…

…and they were….

“You did it….” Hanako heard Urokodaki says, causing her and Nēchan to turn around see their teacher, along with Giyu, Muichiro and Tanjiro walking over to them.

“I honestly thought that neither of you would succeed. I didn’t want any more children to die under my care because I sent them to the Final Selection…. Not when they have such bright futures ahead of them….” The former Demon Slayer says as he placed a hand on one half of a split boulder, with Hanako being able to smell quilt radiating from him for both the deaths of fellow students she would be unable to meet and for holding them back.

“We don’t blame you and you shouldn’t blame yourself either.” Nēchan tells him as she walked over and placed a hand on their teachers shoulder while Tanjiro moved over and hugged the man, taking him by surprise. With that, he brought both Hanako and Nezuko into a hug.

“You are all amazing children. Please, you both must come back from the Final Selection when the time comes. This old man and your brothers shall be waiting for you.” Urokodaki says, to which she smelt the surprise of Muichiro and Giyu before they walked over and joined the hug. With that, Hanako fell asleep in the comfort of the family she, Nēchan and Ni-Chan created.

Nezuko’s perspective

Time skip: 9 months

“I would wish the both of you good luck, but you won’t need it.” Muichiro says with a tiny smile on his face as Nezuko and Hanako walked outside. It was currently day, so Tanjiro was sleeping, which did hurt Nezuko slightly that she couldn’t say bye to her brother right now, but she and Hanko did explain things to him last night.

“Before the both of you go, you should take your warding masks.” Urokodaki says as he gave both Hanako and Nezuko a fox mask that she smiled at. The one that Nezuko takes into her hands the mask that possessed red and green coloured vine patterns spreading out from around the eyes with a sun mark atop the forehead of the mask and a thin blue rope that will allow the mask to stay on. Turning to look at Hanako, she saw her sister putting on hers, which had the same sun marking atop the forehead of her mask as well while a mist pattern centres itself from the masks right eye and spreads out to the right.

“Good luck to the both of you and don’t let your guards down for even a second out there.” Giyu warned them, to which the girls nod their heads before running onward, but Nezuko does turn around for just a moment.

“Oh, I almost forgot! Make sure to give Makomo-Chan and Sabito-Kun our thanks when you see them again!” Nezuko calls out before turning around again and running after her sister, not noticing the shocked look on Giyu’s face or the words said by Urokodaki.

“Nezuko… how could you or Hanako know the names of those dead children…?”

Urokodaki’s perspective

Time skip: 4 days

“Hopefully the message will get to Giyu and Muichiro in time….” Urokodaki mumbled to himself as he picks up his Nichirin Blade and walked outside his home to see the final rays of sunlight disappear behind the mountain. And as soon as it does, he hears snow crunching beneath the feet of something approaching and going off of its scent, it was both dangerous and held no good intentions.

Soon after, he saw a shadowed figure approaching past the shadows of the forest behind it and glowing eyes. But the thing that was able to instantly tell Urokodaki of the danger of this figure was the writing in the figures right eye…

…Upper Rank…. This was an Upper moon Demon.

Chapter Text

Nezuko’s perspective

Location: Mount Fujikasane

“Hey, Nēchan. Aren’t these the same flowers that used to grow around our old home?” Hanako questions as they climbed up a set of stairs and pointed at the flowers around them.

“Indeed they are Hanako. But I thought they were meant to be out of season now.” Nezuko confirmed, allowing a bit of confusion to show in her voice as she looked at the unique flowers. They did look nice, but she didn’t understand the point of them being here, though it could be for aesthetics as much as the blue haori’s she and Hanako were currently wearing or as a show of respect to someone.

As they got to the top of the stairs, Nezuko looked around and saw that there was about twenty of them in total. However, she was slightly confused when she believed that she saw a boar head past a few people but shook her head and focused on two children with festival lanterns standing in the middle of the group of potential Demon Slayers as they began to talk while holding an important aura without trying.

“Greetings everyone. Thank you for gathering tonight for the Final Selection. Mount Fujikasane holds Demons that Demon Slayer Swordsmen have taken alive when out on missions and have brought here to test if you are ready to join the Corps.” The black-haired child explained, to which Nezuko couldn’t help but get an odd feeling from them. While they appeared to be a girl, she couldn’t help but feel her intuition tell her that one of the children was actually a boy but couldn’t figure out which one of them was the correct gender.

“Demons themselves hate Wisteria Flowers, which uniquely bloom out of season here to keep them from escaping. The Wisteria Flowers reach from the mountains foot up to halfway up the slope.” The white-haired sibling continues onward with the speech of their sibling, causing shock to fill Nezuko. Could it be that their father…? No, she was probably over imagining things. After all, there is likely plenty of other families that have Wisteria Flowers and are unaware of this fact.

“However, from that point onward, the Wisteria will no longer be able to bloom like it would anywhere else. So the Demons will be able to roam freely on the mountain. To pass the Final Selection, you must survive there for seven days.” The black-haired sibling spoke up for the speech once more, moving to the right side to reveal an open path with Wisteria while their sibling moved to the left.

“However, any of you who feel overwhelmed with the task or are about to die are allowed to traverse back down the mountain to this spot to recover. However, this will be taken as a sign of giving up or failure with no exceptions, and you will be unable to join the Corps but can try again at a future point in time.” The white-haired sibling informs them, making a little bit of relief fill Nezuko. Worst comes to worst, she can get Hanako to safety if the Demons are to strong and they will be unable to hurt her.

“Now go.” They both say in unison, allowing all of the potential Slayers walk up the path until they passed the Wisteria path and most of them went out in separate directions, some in groups of 2’s or 3’s, with Hanako and Nezuko staying together.

“Do you think we should set camp for ourselves Nēchan?” Hanako asks her, having fully placed her fox mask on while Nezuko kept her mask on the side of her head to show her face still. Focusing on her sisters question, Nezuko thought about it before looking up and seeing that the sun has now set for about 15 minutes, meaning that Demons would start hunting them down now, that is if they haven’t already.

“I… don’t think so. It might be best to mostly rest during the day in a spot with plenty of sunlight since a Demon won’t be able to get to us that way and we will have plenty of energy should we encounter a Demon that is actually strong during the night or a dark location.” Nezuko eventually decides. Perhaps the sisters could have tried this if the trees were large enough to stay out of sight and the branches sturdy enough to support their weight for a time, but her intuition told her that wasn’t going to be the case.

“Hey! Back off you bastard! Those brats are mine!” Both sisters heard a voice screech, turning around and seeing two humanoid looking Demons approach them, their intent very clear. With that, Nezuko takes in a small inhale of breath as she drew her weapon.

“Fuck off you weakling! I haven’t had-!” The other Demon snarls at his unwanted companion before widening his eyes in surprise as it saw the arm blade Demon lose its left hand with Nezuko appearing in front of him before he can react.

“Fourth Form: Striking Tide!” Nezuko mentally yells in triumph as she decapitated the Demon with little to no issue, turning around just in time to see Hanako killing the other Demon with Mist Breathings First From.

“That was….” Hanako says, trembling a little and Nezuko didn’t need anything to know what was going through her sisters head. Even though it was a Demon that lost their humanity, she still killed something for the first time and that was a big deal for a 12-year-old girl.

“I know. But at least they won’t be hurting anyone else and their souls are now free from him.” She tells her sister gently and brings her into a hug that Hanako returns. In all honesty, Nezuko had developed a hatred for Demons due to their existence having killed their family and reducing Tanjiro’s mind to that of a child, potentially even an infant. But she knew that their existence wasn’t as black and white as she might want it to be and her sister needed this, if only so they can walk down this path and help their brother.

“You both have helped more than enough….” Once more she heard Tanjiro’s voice reassure her, making Nezuko frown for just a moment. But before her thoughts could wonder down to why that wasn’t the case and this was her way of repaying all of Tanjiro’s kindness, Hanako suddenly gagged as if she smelt something horrible while Nezuko’s intuition screamed at her only a second later.

“DANGER!! IT IS GOING TO TARGET HANAKO!!”

Hanako’s perspective

“Wh-What is that smell!? No, it couldn’t be!” Hanako was taken off guard for a moment as she smelt a horrible scent, widening her eyes in fear for just a moment. The smell was stronger than the scent of other Demons that her enhanced smell could detect, making her hallucinate the monster that killed her family! That hurt her big brother! That… that…!

“It’s okay Hanako. This isn’t that man, so he can’t hurt you. Stay strong with Nezuko and everything will be fine.” Ni-Chan’s voice told her within her head, speaking to her when she needed it like always. And he was right. While this smell- the smell of blood, of mangled and crushed bodies, of bloodlust and hunger!- was greater than any surrounding Demons, it wasn’t like Kibutsuji, it was far less potent or powerful.

“WAAAH!” Another potential Demon Slayer screams as he ran into the clearing that the sisters were in, quickly turning around as he noticed the both of them.

“Run! There’s a huge, deformed Demon back there! I’ve never seen anything that strong before!” He cries out to them, but before either sibling could hope to even move a muscle, a loud slamming sound rang out, as they saw a mass of green arms crawling towards the boy, holding another potential Demon Slayers corpse in one of its many hands.

Suddenly, multiple of its arms begin to merge with one and spring forward towards the poor boy at lightning speed, grabbing his leg before he could finish taking a step.

“No! Fourth Form: Shifting Flow Slash!” Hanako cries out mentally before charging forward with incredible speed for her age and stature, appearing right under the Demons long and outstretched arm and cut it clean off while her sister appears from above to try and kill this Hand Demon. She couldn’t remember the Forms name, but she knew it was the Second Form of Water Breathing.

Seeing the new girl above it, the Hand Demon sent out a few of its arms to intercept her sister, and while Nezuko easily cut off the extra limbs without issue, it did stop her momentum. Because of this, the Hand Demon tries to attack her with an arm covering its face, but Nezuko was able to spin under it and land beside Hanako as the boy they just saved stood back up in terror.

With its arms quickly regenerating, the Demon looked at the sisters with annoyance and rage for a moment, but Hanako was left confused when it widened its eyes at the sight of her warding mask and looking at Nezuko and quickly spotting hers. That was until it began to chuckle childishly, with her blood running cold at its words…

“Hehehehe! Two more of my dear foxes have come!”

Muichiro’s perspective

Location: Demon Slayer Headquarters

*SHATTER!!!*

“Tomioka-San….” Muichiro couldn’t help but speak in a bit of worry as he saw his fellow Hashira shatter a glass filled with light alcohol in his shaking hand, the tiniest ounces of fear and panic clear in his posture.

“Sorry Muichiro. I’ll clean it up.” He says, quickly cleaning the glass and alcohol off of the ground. Looking around, Muichiro couldn’t help but sigh in both worry and relief. His bro… friend was clearly not okay and he didn’t want it to get worse by one of their fellow Hashira saying something that might genuinely get under his skin this time. But why is he like this? Wait a minute…

“Are you worried about the Kamado sisters?” He asks, to which his friend flinched at the question. So that was it? Seems like a dumb concern considering that he himself thinks they are ready for the Final Selection.

“Yes. Getting through the Final Selection itself is something I think they could do with little issue, but…. There is a Demon too strong for initiates hidden within Mount Fujikasane. It has been there for the past 47 years and has made it its life goal to hunt down and eat any of Urokodaki-Sensei’s students that enter the Final Selection. When I escaped it, the Demon bragged about a friend of mine being the 13^th of Urokodaki’s pupils it consumed and having eaten 50 humans in total.” Giyu explains, causing the Mist Hashira to widen his eyes in surprise. If a Demon has survived that long on the mountain, than it is likely that even a few experienced Slayers would have a difficult time with it.

“I can understand your fear for them then. But remember, they aren’t helpless, especially with how hard we and Urokodaki-San trained them. Besides, the extra nine months did give them something…. Wait, what were they again?” Muichiro promises him, before stopping as he couldn’t quite remember what the girls had that could help. However, it seems to have made Tomioka-San a bit better given his chuckling and small smile.

“Your right. Thanks Muichiro….” He says, reaching out and rubbing the teens head and causing the Mist Hashira to smile slightly as well. Briefly, he couldn’t help but look at the checkered arm wrap hidden under the Water Hashira’s haori and the one he wore under his sleeve, which was coloured with mint green and black along the pattern.

“I like this family, but… why do I feel like we are going to be in danger soon…?” He couldn’t shake a sense of dread as he kept his eyes on the small piece of cloth that usually brought comfort to him.

Chapter Text

Nezuko’s perspective

“Fox cubs? What are you talking about?” Hanako asks in confusion, which Nezuko herself shared. This Demon was clearly powerful and easily surpassed the Demon they encountered with Giyu when traveling to Urokodaki’s home and the two the sisters just killed, so it was best to approach the fight cautiously.

“Tell me, my dear fox cubs, what Meiji Emperor currently sits upon the throne?” The Hand Demon ignores Hanako’s question to ask his own, confusing the sisters. But before either of them could hope to say anything, their fellow potential Slayer spoke up to answer in a combination of frustration and fear.

“What are you talking about you freak!? The Imperial family is Taisho!” He yells, which seems to cause the Demon to enter shock for a moment before lifting up its covered head and screaming in rage.

“GAAAAGH!!! I’VE BEEN HERE SO LONG, THAT DYNASTIES HAVE RISEN AND FALLEN!!” The Demon screeches in barely contained fury that briefly hurts Nezuko’s ears from the sudden yell.

“Quickly, get out of here while he is distracted.” Hanako urges the potential Slayer behind them, to which he nods his head before taking off, the Hand Demon not noticing him at all as it scratches at its head and squeezes to the point it drew blood.

“DAMN UROKODAKI! DAMN UROKODAKI! DAMN HIM! DAMN UROKODAKI!” The Demon continues to scream into the night sky, making Hanako speak up.

“Wait, how do you know-?” She tries to ask, but the Demon slams one of its many hands into the ground so hard that the ground shook under the impact, growling at Hanako in a barely contained rage, causing Nezuko to step in front of her sister protectively.

“Oh, I know him! Urokodaki was the one who captured and trapped me in this hell of a mountain for the past 47 years! I encountered him back when he was still an active Demon Slayer within the Edo Period… The Keio era!” He screams, surprising sisters with this information. If this Demon was telling the truth, not only did it explain why its scent stood out so much to Hanako’s smell, but it also meant that it has eaten so many potential allies.

“Could it be possible that…?” Nezuko thought to herself before scowling at the Demon, deciding to ask the question that was now placed in her mind.

“Tell me, did you also kill Urokodaki-Sensei’s other students that came here!” Nezuko demands, which caused the Hand Demon to giggle like it was a child that was caught after pranking someone and believing they could get away with it.

“Hehehehe! Ever since I arrived on this mountain, I have consumed up to 50 of you human brats. But the ones that possessed the same masks as you, a symbol of you being one of Urokodaki’s students, came up to 13.” It explained before regaining its composure, looking at both sisters with a venomously hungry look.

“And with the both of you, I shall have eaten 15 of his brats. But above all, there are two of them that I shall never forget. The first was a boy with a colourful jacket and easily the strongest human I have encountered since being trapped here. He had peach coloured hair and a scar by his mouth. The other one was a female brat wearing a kimono covered in flowers. She was small and lacked a lot of strength, but she was very fast and agile.” It told them with barely concealed glee, and while the sisters couldn’t see the Demons mouth, they knew it was grinning like it was telling an older sibling about something they were proud of.

“No…” Hanako whispers in horror as she realised the same thing that Nezuko did. This… this monster killed Sabito and Makomo! But, how? They trained the siblings to prepare them and fight against an opponent without subconsciously thinking it was a spar. Did he kill them after their training or where…

“…Where the both of them spirits that couldn’t find peace?” Nezuko thought in confusion before shaking her head. Now wasn’t the time to think on that.

While Nezuko was able to focus on the Demon in front of her, that wasn’t able to stop the unbridle fury that was consuming her very being. Because of it, whatever nonsense the Hand Demon was saying was unable to reach her ears, so with her grip on her blade tightening, she charged forward.

“Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin!” Nezuko cries out mentally as she jumped up and slashed downwards, taking the Hand Demon by surprise briefly but it quickly recovered and used a couple of its arms to just barely block the attack, but it was still amble to cut through the limbs like butter.

As she was just about to land on the ground, Nezuko saw a few of its giant fists coming for her and as she turned to block the attack, Hanako appeared in front of her faster than the limb could ever hope to and used Mist Breathings Third Form, which was able to either cut through them or deflect the attacks to the side.

“Jump!” Hanako warns her sister, which set Nezuko’s intuition off as they both jumped high and was able to avoid the grasp of multiple hands coming out of the ground. But Nezuko’s heart stops as she sees a fist flying straight at Hanako.

Responding quickly, Hanako used Mist Breathings Third Form once more, but the fist got too close and hit her sister and sent her flying through the air and out of sight.

“Hanako!!” Nezuko screams in panic when she heard the laughing of the Hand Demon. And with it, any restraint she had was shattered as the worst-case scenario enters her mind. Of her sister dead, body splattered so harshly across the ground that her corpse couldn’t even be recognised. That she failed to protect her sister while Tanjiro, if he was in her place, would has stopped Hanako from gaining even a scratch.

“Nezuko, while your family’s dance is in fact a breathing form and your brother has taught both you and Hanako how to use it, I want you to promise me something…” She heard Urokodaki-Sensei’s voice in her head as she remembered a conversation she had with him, time slowing down to a crawl in her mind.

“Hm? Sure thing. What is it?” An image of herself from a few months back flashed in her head while she got into a stance that wasn’t from the Water Breathing techniques.

“While you and your sister can use the breathing style that was hidden as your family’s dance to a god, it is clear that it causes the both of you immense pain and even disrupts your breathing. I want you to promise that you will only use it as a last resort and to not use it simply because of your emotions.” Urokodaki’s voice ask as Nezuko’s arms began to move, the Hand Demon unable to do anything but look at her in shock.

“Sorry Ojiichan.” Nezuko thought to herself as she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep the promise as she was.

“Hinokami Kagura: Clear Blue Sky!!” She yells as she rotates her body and delivers a perfect 360° slash that cut the Hand Demons head off without any issue, but felt her chest tighten up in agonizing pain as she coughed harshly as a result.

Ignoring the Hand Demon, Nezuko was just able to take in a few successful breaths that allowed her the use of Recovery Breathing to overcome the strain of the Hinokami Kagura’s techniques. Mentally reminding herself to thank both Muichiro and Giyu when she sees them again for their help in making Total Concentration Breathing easier so she could use the technique, she runs forward further into the forest, not noticing the Hand Demon crying before being reduced to dust as she looked for her sister but mentally prayed that the spirits of her fellow pupils could now rest easy.

Hanako’s perspective

“Nēchan… I have to… Gagh!” Hanako struggles to stand on shaky knees, but falls back into the tree she crashed into. Taking a moment to use Recovery Breathing, she was able to sooth her cracked ribs before looking herself over.

“Dang it…. I’ll be needing some help to heal these injuries.” She thinks to herself as she noticed a few light cuts along her arms and legs before noticing a deeper cut on her side. It thankfully wasn’t anything that was worrying at the moment, but if left untreated for a few hours than she would run the risk of bleeding out, assuming the wound doesn’t get infected.

“Oh my! Some easy prey at last!” She heard a giddy voice say, making her look up and glare at a Demon with bone blades on both of its arms looking at her like she was a rare meal.

But before Hanako could use her blade or the Demon could reach out to grab at her, the Demons head was suddenly cut off in a bloody manner that shocked the poor girl.

“Damned coward! If you are going to fight or claim prey, make it so it was because of your hard work next time!” She saw her saviour yell at the Demons head with disgust before it fully disintegrated and then looked at Hanako.

Thanks to her position and the moons light, Hanako was able to get a full view of her fellow potential Demon Slayer. They appeared to be girl like herself and she estimated about 4 or so years older thanks to her scent, had a decent skin complexion that was leaning to the more pale side of things and she was also standing about 5'3½" tall or so while possessing an athletic build and some muscle. As for her clothes, Hanako was confused when she saw a hollowed-out boar covering her saviours head, but long black hair was coming out of the back as was styled in a rough pony tail. She was also wearing multiple bandages that appeared to be there for varying amounts of time to cover her chest and makeshift straps connected to makeshift sword holders that currently held one blade. Finally, she was wearing baggy hakama pants that was tinted dark blue and was fastened around her hips with a thick belt of fluffy brown deer fur that might come from a bear and knee-high socks that was definitely made from a bears hide that exposes her heels and toes, which also appear to be what fastens the sandal-bases she wears on her feet from what she could tell.

“Oh, um. Thank you for the aid, miss…?” Hanako greets the odd girl, but stops as she doesn’t know her name. Realising that Hanako was referring to her, the girl scoffed harshly but still looked at her through the mask before pointing at herself.

“Count yourself lucky that the benevolent Aoi decided to help you. After all, I despise seeing someone with potential or strength being taken down by something when they didn’t put in the work. Now get up or I won’t save you from the next Demon that comes after you.” She declares, making Hanako sweat drop a bit. Well, seems like she has quite the new ally until she finds Nēchan.

Giyu’s perspective

Time skip: 4 days later

Location: Demon Slayer HQ

“Hm. That’s odd….” Giyu mutters to himself as he sees Urokodaki’s Kasugai Crow approaching him, causing the Water Hashira to hold out his arm and allow the elderly bird to perch itself on his arm. Looking it over now that it was close, Giyu quickly became concerned as he saw the poor guy breathing heavily as if it flew here as fast as it possibly could, which wasn’t good for the elderly crows health.

Taking the letter attached to the crows leg, he opened it as the crow flew off to rest in the Headquarters. Scanning over the contents, Giyu felt his blood run cold as he ran far faster than he ever has to find Muichiro, bursting into the teens room and surprising him as he prepared to get out of his uniform and sleep.

“Tomioka-San? What’s-?” The Mist Hashira tries to ask in both concern and shock before the older Hashira gave it to him, causing the boy to look over what was written inside. Freezing up in horror, it only took a second for Muichiro to grab his Nichirin Blade before both Hashira ran as fast as they possibly could to Urokodaki’s, not noticing another person watching them in both confusion and surprise and following after.

Chapter Text

Hanako’s perspective

“Here, we should have something to eat.” Hanako offers an Onigiri to Aoi, who takes it curiously and takes off her boar mask, which allowed Hanako to actually see her face for the first time in the 3 hours they have known each other. Surprisingly, while there was a claw induced scar on Aoi’s cheek and a single one near her right eye, her face held quite a bit of beauty for their age despite her new friends rough nature. She also has deep blue eyes that fade to a lighter blue at the bottom, along with white rectangular pupils and allowed Hanako to see the greasy black hair of her friend, though it was styled in a surprisingly nice and clean manner, particularly the ponytail.

Bringing the food in front of her face, Aoi proceeded to quickly smell the Onigiri before taking a small bite into it and humming in a surprised but pleased manner.

“No half bad. What animals did you best to get something like this?” She asks curiously before taking some larger bites into her Onigiri, making Hanako chuckle a bit before taking another out for herself and begin eating herself.

“I honestly don’t know the ingredients for Onigiri. It’s mostly either my Nēchan, Ni-Chan’s or Ojiichan that made the food, though I know how to make a few quick meals and tell what fruits and meats are okay to eat.” She explained, causing the wild girl in front of her to grumble in a slightly disappointed manner before finishing her Onigiri and standing up while looking at the sky and seeing that the moon was fairly low.

“Well, the sun is going to come up in an hour or so. If we are going to find this ‘Nēchan’ of yours, now will be the safest time to do so, but we should rest soon…. Actually, what even is your name?” Aoi states, causing Hanako to finally realise she hadn’t introduced herself yet.

“Oh right! Sorry about that Aoi-Chan. I’m Hanako Kamado.” She introduced herself, causing Aoi to nod before putting the Boar mask back on.

“Alright then Nahoka Komoda. Follow me!” She declares, causing Hanako to blink in confusion for a moment before realising that Aoi was referring to her and quickly followed in a slightly flustered manner.

“W-Wait! That isn’t my name! It’s Hanako Kamado.” She tries to explain, only getting a head tilt from Aoi as a way to show her confusion.

“That’s what I just said. Nahoka Komoda.” The wild girl says before shaking her head and continuing to forward while Hanako sighs. She didn’t need her sisters intuition to know that her new friend will be mispronouncing names for a long time.

Nezuko’s perspective

“Out of my way you fucking weaklings!” Nezuko heard a ferocious yell, causing her to freeze up in surprise and running over to the sound. The voice was deep, almost demonic in nature but not quite, but if someone was going to die then she needed to help. Especially if it was Hanako that needed her help!

As she approached a small ravine where the yell seemed to come from, her intuition screamed at her, causing the eldest daughter of the Kamado family to jump to the side as a Demon’s headless body went flying by and slammed right through a tree before disintegrating.

“Tch, damn Demons.” She heard the same ferocious voice say with a scowl, but noticeably calmer now. Turning around a tree that was blocking her view of the voices owner, Nezuko was surprised by what she saw. Standing next to the ravine was a short young man whose eyes were currently closed as he sheathed a short sword. Looking him over, Nezuko made note of his appearance, from the eyebrows that almost look like they never left that position, multiple bulging veins that look ready to burst at a moment’s notice across his face that it makes her concerned for his health, a buzz cut hair style, with only a small clump of messy black hair left to grow on the top of his head and a large, jagged scar that ran over his right cheekbone from his ear and to over his nose. He was also wearing a purple, sleeveless yukata over a plain black shirt with long sleeves.

“Seems like you don’t need help.” Nezuko says somewhat quietly, but feeling impressed all the same. However, it appeared that the boy noticed and turned around in a bit of worry, to which Nezuko tensed at what she saw. Instead of the white of a humans eye, she saw black along with light red eyes and the silted pupils of a Demon. With that, she grabbed the hilt of her blade and was about to draw it when she noticed her intuition hasn’t flared up around this Demon, making Nezuko confused on why her intuition wasn’t warning her about the Demon in any way. Was it possible they were similar to Tanjiro in some way?

“Wow, wait! This isn’t what it looks like!” The Demon exclaims in worry, becoming flustered and worried as he looked at Nezuko and her weapon. Wait a minute, was he… blushing? Why would he be blushing?

“… You have 10 seconds.” Nezuko tells him, deciding to see if this one was indeed somehow similar to her brother, but she didn’t drop her guard in the slightest. Though, she couldn’t help but feel like the Demon was familiar somehow.

“Okay. Okay, how to best explain this? I’m still human, just a bit… changed at the current moment….” He tries to explain awkwardly, only getting a deadpanned look from the potential female Demon Slayer as a result.

“You are really not helping your case here.” She says, making the boy groan in frustration before sighing.

“God fucking dammit. Look, just wait for a few minutes and things will become clear and you might actually believe the truth.” He says to which Nezuko decides to give the boy the benefit of the doubt. From the look of things, it appears like he is either in denial about being a Demon or somehow similar to her brother in that he refuses to hurt humans.

After a few minutes, Nezuko was left surprised when she saw the boys eyes change from their demonic appearance to the white of a human, his eye colour changing into dark purple with normal pupils and the veins across face begin to recede until any evidence of them existing could not be found. Right now, he was undeniably a human like her….

“What… how?” Nezuko couldn’t keep the amazement in her voice hidden as she slowly approached her fellow teen, who takes a step back and scratches the back of his neck nervously.

“Well… I can’t use any of the breathing styles because my body can’t handle any of them. However, during an attack from a Demon about a week ago, I bite into it and accidentally consumed its flesh, which gave me a boost based off of its abilities.” The boy explained, making Nezuko smile a bit as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

“So in short, you temporarily gain their traits by eating a Demon. Not going to lie, that sounds awesome! What’s your name anyways? I’m Nezuko Kamado.” She says before taking her hand off of his shoulder and holding it out for the boy to shake, who looks at it for a moment before grasping her hand with his own and shaking it with a small smile.

“I’m Genya Shinazugawa. It’s… actually nice to meet you Nezuko.” He says before looking to the side and seeing the sun begin to rise, which Nezuko also notices.

“We should probably stay together to increase the chances of our survival. We should also leave the ravine as well.” Nezuko says to which Genya nods with a sigh.

“Alright. Something is telling me that you aren’t going to leave me alone either anyways.” He says, to which the both of them left the area as Nezuko kept an eye out for Hanako still.

Sakonji Urokodaki’s perspective

Location: Mount Sagiri

Time skip: 3 days later

“Second Form: Water Wheel!” Sakonji yells as he leaped forward and vertically spins forward in the air while releasing a flowing attack in a circular motion, to which the Demon he was fighting raised his arms to block the attack, but his attack was able slice off the arms but was kicked from the side and was sent skidding back as a result.

“My, my. I must admit, I am surprised that you have been able to hold your own so well given your aged body. Oh, how I would have loved to face you in your prime if you are this strong already!” The Demon says with a mad grin before regenerating his arms, causing the retired Hashira to scowl beneath his mask. Sakonji will be the first to admit that his fighting prowess and physical capabilities have long since withered when compared to his prime, but he is still a former Hashira that survived into retirement, so he was still not an easy target for any Demon.

“So, I would like to apologize for disregarding you earlier. I am Akaza, the Upper moon 3 of the Twelve Kizuki. I would like to know the name of someone with your abilities.” The Demon introduced himself, with Sakonji using the time the Upper moon gave him to steady himself with Recovery Breathing before standing up.

“I am Sakonji Urokodaki, the former Water Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps and a cultivator of Swordsmen.” He says, deciding to use this little conversation to buy as much time as possible. Knowing Giyu and Muichiro, they should be arriving within the hour and with them by his side, they might just be able to take down this Demon.

“A cultivator? My, I can only imagine the power your students must possess then. I must fight them sometime if they are anything like you are now and still have the room to grow! A shame about your age though, because I can tell you would have been an incredible Demon otherwise. Perhaps one of your pupils will accept the opportunity to fight and improve for eternity!” Akaza exclaims in excitement before calming down slightly, making Sakonji’s blood freeze in his veins before growling. If this Demon thought he would let him so much as look at Giyu or the Kamado sisters after that sentence, he was dead wrong.

“If you think I’ll allow you anywhere near my students, my children, then you are sorely mistaken!” Sakonji warns before getting into a defence stance, making the Upper moon shake his head with a smile still on his face.

“Oh well, that is something for the future either way. Besides, my master gave me a job and might as well complete it.” Akaza says before getting into a stance with a half crouch posture while extending his right arm with a half-clenched fist facing his body and bending his left arm with an open palm.

“Destructive Death: Compass Needle.” He states calmly as a Snowflake pattern spread across the ground before fading away, to which Urokodaki decides to go on the offensive to try and make this Blood Demon Art less dangerous. Charging forward, he swings his blade forward only to be dodged, to which the Demon prepares a counterattack but Urokodaki turns…

“Sixth Form: Whirlpool!” He uses Water Breathings Sixth From to strike out against Akaza’s counter by spinning his body and allowed both attacks to clash against each other, but the Demon’s attack appeared to find a counter in Sakonji’s attack, resulting in him getting punched in the face and sent flying back and slamming into a tree harshly.

“Damn. With the way things are going, I won’t be able to last an hour against Akaza. My best chance truly is to wait for the both of them.” The elderly man thinks before standing up, feeling his mask crack before breaking apart on his face and falling to the ground, making him look down to see it split in 3 large pieces.

“So, that is your face. I must admit, it wasn’t what I was expecting from someone like you, but it’s good to know the face of a fighter I will have to kill.” Akaza spoke up, making Sakonji glare at him for a moment.

“I don’t know what you did, but I noticed something off. Your counter initially appeared to be going for my lungs, likely as an attempt to disrupt my breathing. However, once I stuck back, your attack seemed magnetically pulled to a different area that ended up launching me back. Does that have anything to do with your Blood Demon Art?” The former Water Hashira inquires, taking the Demon by surprise for just a moment before he began to laugh.

“Hahahaha!! So you noticed!? If you are this observant and strong at your age, I can only imagine how powerful you were in your prime! It truly is a shame that we didn’t meet earlier in your life, otherwise I would be ecstatic and offered you the chance to become a Demon!” Akaza says with a large grin before shaking his head.

“However, you are correct. It is connected to my Blood Demon Art, or more specifically, the technique I used a bit earlier. However, while I respect you Sakonji Urokodaki, I will not tell you how it functions. If you can figure it out or not is entirely up to you.” Akaza says before getting into another fighting stance, to which Urokodaki got into a defensive posture.

The next 3 hours were excruciating on Sakonji’s aged body, but for Tanjiro, he fought on until he physically couldn’t and lost consciousness.

Chapter Text

Tanjiro’s perspective

Location: Urokodaki’s household

Blood. Why there blood close by? Were Imouto’s back and hurt? No…. Blood smelt familiar, but not them. Standing up, Tanjiro couldn’t stop the low growl of confusion that escaped his throat, though it was muffled thanks to his muzzle.

Growing into his normal size, he looked through the closed blinds of Ojiichan’s windows and saw the bad light was gone. Honestly, he didn’t know why bad light was even bad, but him going out into it seemed to terrify family, so he stayed away from it.

Opening the door, he froze as two very distinct scents hit his nose and instantly got rid of any drowsiness he still had from sleeping. The first scent was the blood from earlier, but now he could recognize who it came from, but that wasn’t what he was focusing on right now. Currently, it was focused on a calm, though angered storm of death right next to the blood source, right next to… to Ojiichan!

Growling in rage, Tanjiro quickly rushed back into home to grab one of the swords that his Imouto’s had used when practising with Ojiichan before running at full speed to help. In no time at all, he saw some weird pink… marking thing? Standing above the bleeding and unconscious man and let out a muffled roar of rage at the sight that drew pink marking thing’s attention.

Looking over pink marking thing, Tanjiro was able to look him over better and saw that he had pink hair, multiple blue markings spread all across his body with grey looking skin and was wearing a short, sleeveless dark purple-pink haori that was cut off at his waist, left open to expose his chest, that was decorated by a square pattern on his back. Below this, he sported a pair of baggy white pants that he rolled to just below the knee with a blue rope belt to secure them at his waist. He also had a chain of large round pink pearls around each of his ankles, but no footwear.

“Hm? Oh, a new born Demon looking for food. Wait, hold on a minute….” The pink marking thing said (because that was what he really was dammit!), initially dismissive before looking him over in more detail before chuckling.

“I see. So, you are the one that my Lord has an interest in. Why don’t you come with me? You might even have a shot among the ranks of the 12 Kizuki with my masters interest in you.” Pink marking thing started making noises that Tanjiro most knew he never heard before, yet he could somehow properly understand one specifically. ’12 Kizuki’. Why did it feel like that was important?

“Mmmm!” Tanjiro growled out behind his muzzle after shaking his head to focus on protecting Ojiichan, getting into the stance for the Hinokami Kagura with his sword, though he paused in confusion when he saw the pink marking thing look at the sword and scowl.

“I am really getting annoyed with Sakonji’s fondness of using wooden objects as weapons.” He says, making Tanjiro actually look at his sword for a moment and whine a little. He grabbed one of the stick swords instead of a shiny one. Seriously, why did Ojiichan keep calling these sticks swords!

Bah, words were stupid….

Tossing away the stick sword, Tanjiro jumped forward and tried to claw at pink basketball, only for him to shift to the side slightly to dodge, but Tanjiro twirls in mid-air and launches out a kick that took pink marking thing by surprise for a moment but quickly blocked with his arm and throwing out a punch at Tanjiro’s chest that lands, cracking his ribs under the power of the attack and sent him flying through the air before skidding across the dirt and mud of the mountain.

“Well, seems like he decided to give you quite a lot of blood for you to be this strong. Heh, since you haven’t eaten a human, your power suggests that its almost as if you were born solely to become a Demon…” Pink marking thing says with interest as Tanjiro struggles to stand up, feeling his ribs trying to heal but was taking a bit. Once he fully stood up though, pink marking thing grabbed his throat and lifted him off the ground and began to squeeze tightly.

“And yet, you waste your potential by playing as a human with that old man. While weaklings are what I despise the most, seeing such wasted potential in the hands of a fool like you pisses me off.” He continued on with a growl as he continued to squeeze, causing Tanjiro’s to choak behind his muzzle as he began to claw at pink markings things arm, but the damage inflicted by his claws was healing almost as fast as they ripped through flesh.

“Tell you what, why don’t I help you.” Pink marking thing states with a fanged smirk before walking over to his still alive but bleeding Ojiichan and ripping off Tanjiro’s muzzle before kneeling down to grab Ojiichan’s arm and lift it up to his mouth.

“Go ahead, let’s take your first steps to your full potential.” He says, making Tanjiro growl in rage and disgust. His family were humans. Ojiichan is a human and is his family, and he could never even comprehend hurting them.

“GGGRRRAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!” Tanjiro roars out as he quickly summoned his tendril and slashed it across pink marking things left eye, making him scream in surprised pain as he lets go of Tanjiro’s throat, allowing the young Demon to spin around and kick him away. Turning away from pink marking thing for a moment, Tanjiro kneeled down to Ojiichan and touched his head.

“O-Ojii…Chan! .ake… up!” Tanjiro tried to say with tears in his eyes. He didn’t know why his chest hurt so much, but the sight before him caused tears to well up in his eyes, an all-consuming fear taking him over.

“You… fucking brat!” Surprised by the yell, Tanjiro turned around in alarm just in time to see pink marking thing appear in front of him from literally nowhere, leaving him unable to react as the older Demon launched a kick to his head so hard, half of his head exploded upon impact before being sent through multiple trees and crash into a split boulder.

“While Lord Muzan may want me to bring you to him for reasons I don’t know, I doubt he’ll care what state you’re in so long as you are alive. So, I’m going to make you pay for that cheap shot.” Pink marking thing says in anger, his eye having already healed from the earlier attack before charging forward.

Snakingly standing up, Tanjiro was just able to block the coming attack but it mattered little as the force from the older Demons punch snapped his arms clean off, resulting in him momentarily howling in pain before being grabbed by the face and slammed face first in to the ground hard enough for a crater to form beneath them.

Not being done, pink marking thing then grabbed Tanjiro’s wildly slashing tendril and ripped it clean off before punching straight through the younger Demon’s spine and gut while he was on the ground, causing Tanjiro’s howls of pain to only grow louder as his body couldn’t regenerate fast enough, leaving the poor Demon to bleed from numerous injuries that would have killed a human almost instantly while paralyzed on the ground due to his broken in half spine and the overwhelming pain.

“Ga-Gagh! Imo-Imouto…. Bro….” Tanjiro tried to call out to any family that could hear him, but his vision suddenly went black as he felt a sudden pressure smash down upon the regenerating remains of his head…

Location: ???

“Where… am… I?” Tanjiro was barely able to mumble out as he forced open his left eye, looking round a black void. Was something on him? It felt… fleshy….

Hello again, Tanjiro.

That voice… it sounded… familiar. But why…?

Poor boy. You have pushed yourself quite a lot during for a quite some time, haven’t you.

He had… hasn’t he? He just… wanted family… again….

Is that so? Why not come to me? You can have a family just like you….

Family…? Like me…? But what about…?

Your sisters and brothers can join. Just take my hand.

With the offer made, Tanjiro saw a clawed hand reach out in a kind manner from a black suited man. After a moment, Tanjiro began to reach out to the hand in an entranced manner when….

No. Family needs… help now… Ojiichan in… danger!

You brat! If you think that…!

Suddenly, a flash of sun-coloured flames appeared in between Tanjiro and the voice man, causing that person to disappear from his sight instantly, leaving a tall man standing above him that looked… familiar?

He couldn’t get a proper look thanks to… thing over his right eye, but he looked like… father. He was wearing a red… haori and had long and spikey red hair tied into a ponytail standing above him.

You… Hanafuda?

“Indeed. I’m sorry that this has happened to you Kamado, but I can’t help you in regards to this place.” The man says, turning around and kneeling down next to him with a sad look on his face.

Don’t… sad…. Everyone make… mistakes.

“…You truly are kind. Even so, I have an idea on how you can help your Ojiichan. Do you trust me?” The man says, holding out his hand. This time though, unlike with the earlier man, Tanjiro didn’t hesitate to take it.

Trust… help…. But who… you?

“I won’t let you down for letting me help. As for who I am…. I am Yoriichi Tsugikuni.”

Akaza’s perspective

“Tch. This job was a lot more annoying than I expected….” Akaza mumbles to himself as he stares down at the beaten up and bloodied mess that was the new born Demon on the ground, trying to regenerate while unconscious but the Upper moon 3 Demon wasn’t concerned. With what the little Demon showed, it was going to take at least a few hours to fully heal and by the time he made any progress in healing, Nakime will have gotten him to lord Muzan long before that happened. But before he could try to establish a link with her, he felt a slight pain that caused him to pause for a moment.

“Dang it. Seems like those two pushed me a little more than I expected. Oh well, a quick snack should help.” He mutters before trying to walk away from the unconscious Demon to feast upon Sakonji Urokodaki, when suddenly, he felt something tightly grip onto his leg.

Before the Upper moon Demon could even turn around to see who grabbed him, he was lifted up into the air with ease before having his back slammed harshly into the ground. Not stopping for even a moment, his attacker lifted up once more before being slammed face first into the dirt, to which he was spun around in circles as his opponent dragged him through the ground so fast, that his flesh was being peeled off as a result. Quickly though, his attacker stopped with this action and proceeded to launch Akaza into a tree hard enough to snap it and a few more instantly.

“RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!” Akaza heard a roar of such bloodlust and rage as he tried to stand up while his torn flesh was quickly healed, briefly feeling his spine shiver in terror so strong, he had only felt it on the rare occasion that he failed a mission for Muzan and when he was overwhelmed by Kokushibo when he challenged the Upper moon 1 to a Blood Battle.

“Tch! So you can use your full Demon form. Guess you did eat a few humans after all….” Akaza says with a small smirk as he saw that the little Demon he beat down standing and clearly much stronger than before. Now in an awakened Demon form, the new born Demon appeared to be almost 7’0” tall and has gained quite a bit of muscle that would put most fighters to shame while keep a somewhat slim build. His hair has grown long enough to reach the bottom of his waist and was flowing out in nine different directions as if they were tails, the bottom yellow of each strand of hair taking a darker shade of yellow than it had in his more childlike form and his pupils were no gone for the pure white of his eyes. A final thing of note to Akaza was that the Demons increased size caused his haori and clothes to become stretched and tear open a bit, but they still clung onto him in a manner that Akaza could tell wasn’t going to be restrictive or tear them apart through movement alone.

Crouching in a feral position that was reminiscent of a wolf and that told anyone that looked at the new born Demon that he barely had any semblance of a mind left as it snarled at him with drool leaking down the sides of his mouth. With an ear-splitting roar of fury, the much younger Demon leaped forward at a speed that Akaza was barely able to follow, causing the 4^th most powerful Demon to try and dodge, but was too slow as both of his eyes were destroyed by the clawed hand that slashed at him with blinding speeds.

“Dammit!!” Akaza yelled in pained anger as he swiped out with his arm, feeling his attack connect with his fellow Demons head and destroyed it with ease still, but this only resulted in his feral opponent grabbing his extended limb before pulling him in close and….

Well, Akaza didn’t know what connected with his skull in the following instant, but it was crippling and hard as hell. Why? Because not only did it actually crack open his skull, but he felt it shatter, resulting in multiple bone shards tearing through the flesh of his head and stab into his brain and resulting in his motor functions being disabled as a result. Because of this, Akaza could do nothing but feel agonizing pain all over his body to the point he didn’t notice a chunk of his flesh being bitten into by the new born Demon or even know what his opponent was doing to him except that it hurt like hell. By the time Akaza was able to heal enough, he barely had enough strength in his arms to hold himself up and not collapse onto the ground.

“Damn! Damn it!! Why won’t my body heal!!?” Akaza mentally demanded in fury, not even having the strength to talk as his injuries barely closed enough to stop himself from bleeding and regain a single eye when he suddenly felt his instincts flair up as if to provide an answer as to his weakened state. Following his instincts, Akaza turned his head to the right and saw his severed arm bleeding just a few feet away, which only served to piss of the Upper moon 3 even more until he noticed something…. His severed limb was beginning to turn an unhealthy purple.

“Wait a minute… poison!! But when could he have? When he slashed my eye with that tendril! He must have poisoned me back then, which was also why I felt hungry during that time! Grr, that fucking bastard!!!” He couldn’t help but mentally scream once he realised what the brat had done. On one hand, this kid clearly was strong and had potential he doubts he has ever seen before, but not only was he letting it go to waste by playing pretend with humans but was also spitting on what he could be with such! Such cowardly tactics!!!

“You… fucking… BRAT!!!!!” Akaza forced out his roar of rage as the new born Demon approached him in a crawl, similar to that of a wolf that has cornered its prey and that only caused the older Demons rage to boil even more as he was left helpless in his current state. Then, as if it has decided to end this once and for all, the feral Demon opened its mouth and gathered up some kind of energy in front of its mouth before blasting at the helpless Akaza.

“I’m… disappointed Akaza….” He heard an all too familiar voice say, causing the Upper moon to widen in eyes in shock as the attack was sliced in half so he would be unharmed, shocking the feral Demon and even faster than either could hope to react, the young Demon gained multiple slashes among his body so fast that his blood looked almost as if it exploded out of him while having lost both his legs and arms within the same moment as they were severed off without issue.

“G…Gagh….” Akaza almost felt bad when he heard the younger Demons quite and shock induced whimpers of pain before he collapsed to the ground unconscious and began to shrink down to what Akaza assumed was his usual height.

“I didn’t…!” Akaza tried to say in anger as he felt his legs heal enough to let him stand up, but was cut off by his fellow Demons response.

“While you might have been capable of beating this one if you were serious… you had clearly lost by the time I arrived…. I suppose that will prove to be a valuable lesson for you in the future, Akaza.” The other Demon says with a clear frown in his tone and it became evident he turned around to face Akaza, allowing him to see the 6 eyes of his fellow Upper moon and right now, the rank in his eyes felt all too taunting.

Upper Rank 1….

Chapter Text

Giyu’s perspective

Location: Mount Sagiri

“Please! Please let us make it in time!” Giyu couldn’t help but mentally beg to whatever god that might be listening as he and Muichiro ran up the mountain the held his teachers home. Just before he could reach the point in which they would see Urokodaki’s home, he suddenly fell to his knees.

“Wh-what… is… this…?” He heard Muichiro’s voice question, making Giyu force his body to turn and look at one of his little brother figures. Shakingly reaching out, he placed a hand on the teenagers shoulder.

“It’s… it will be fine. But Tanjiro and… Urokodaki-Sensei need… us.” Giyu says, making the Mist Hashira nod before shakingly standing up. Giyu quickly followed this accomplishment before both of them ran in the direction of this presence and quickly hid behind a tree when they found two Demons standing over a bloodied Tanjiro.

“Those Demons… they’re Upper moon!? But why would they come here? Is it because of Tanjiro or is there something else going on?” Giyu thought to himself, shaking as he saw them. A single Upper moon could very much kill multiple Hashira and they have two of them right here.

“I’m aware you are here, Slayers… I suggest coming out now….” The Demon with long black hair and purple haori says without so much as looking in their direction, to which the other one seemed briefly confused before looking in their general direction tensing up slightly. Silently cursing, Giyu walked out from behind the tree as he signalled for his fellow Hashira to sneak around, to which he nods his head and does so.

“I suppose there is no point in hiding.” Giyu says as he openly reveals himself and steps into the clearing, barely keeping his rapidly beating heart in check as he gained the attention of both Demons and saw their ranks.

“Upper moons 3 and 1. But why would such powerful Demon be working together and show up here of all places?” Giyu think to himself as he unsheathes his Nichirin Sword, to which he saw the Upper moon 1 smile ever so slightly before shifting his attention to the side.

“While I would like to praise your… mental strength Slayer… I think your friend should halt… their attempts at sneaking around….” The Upper Demon says, causing panic to rise within Giyu despite still being able to keep his composure. Did this one have a Blood Demon Art that could detect them? Before he could hope to react, the Demon drew a blade and got ready to attack, so Giyu took action.

“Second Form: Water Wheel!” Giyu mentally yelled as he used the Water breathing technique to try and stop whatever was bout to happen, though it appeared that Muichiro had the idea to counter, as he used the Second Form of Mist Breathing to send multiple powerful slashes, but faster than either Hashira could react, Giyu was knocked out of his attack by multiple slashes that thankfully didn’t cut deep due to the water made by his attack, while Muichiro was kicked into a tree by a kick.

“So, two Hashira’s showed up. I got to admit, I’m surprised by all the different types of people that seem drawn to this one mountain.” The Upper moon 3 comments with a small smile and stands up as he looks at both of the downed, though conscious, Demon Slayers.

“Your… names… what are they…?” The purple wearing Demon questions the Hashira’s, seeming to take his companion by surprise while Giyu forced himself to stand.

“Why would that… even matter?” Giyu breathes out as he makes use of Recovery Breathing to steady himself before standing in front of his little brother with a look of determination. However, this response seems to impress Upper moon 1 if his nod was any indication while Upper 3 whistles in appreciation.

“There are very few… who have ever calmed their panic in my presence…. Not only that… but you both have the will to stand and fight… so I wish to learn the names of the rare few who have ever done so…. As for your fellow Hashira… there is something I wish to confirm and his name… shall provide that answer.” The Demon explains as he sheathes his blade but kept his hand on it in preparation for an attack, though, Giyu wasn’t sure if the Demon was preparing to attack himself or defend.

“I’m Giyu… Tomioka Giyu….” Giyu answers, hoping that this could help buy valuable time. He knew that the sun would begin to rise within a couple of minutes, so if he can draw this out then they might survive. Looking to his side while watching the Demons, Giyu saw Muichiro stand up on shaking legs while glaring with a fire that took the older Hashira back a bit.

“Tokitou Muichiro….” Muichiro says as he drew his Nichirin sword, to which Giyu had to take a moment to realise the new stance Muichiro entered.

“Alright… I see…. The Tsugikuni name has died out like I expected….” Upper moon 1 Demon says with a somewhat melancholy tone that not only confused both Hashira’s but also Upper moon 3 as he looked at his fellow Demon.

“Something up Kokushibo?” Upper 3 questions with a small smirk, only to get his head cut off from his upper jaw and above for the question.

“Why would you attack your own ally?” Giyu asks with a glare. Having had so many people close to him die throughout his life, the sight before him genuinely pissed him off.

“So he wouldn’t hear our conversation…. After all… I believe you have questions, Muichiro….” The Demon explained before looking at the Mist Hashira, who swallows some spit before speaking up.

“I’ll admit… yes. What do you mean by Tsugikuni?” The teen asks to which Giyu stands in front of his little brother when Upper moon 1 begins to move around.

“My name… back when I was a human and Demon Slayer… was Tsugikuni Michikatsu…. The Tsugikuni clan existed all the way back… during the Sengoku era…. However… it has been hundreds of years… so quite inevitably… my families name would change through the generations….” Kokushibo explains before pausing to look over the reactions of the Hashira’s, to which Giyu’s eyes widened with shock.

“No… you don’t mean….” He questioned, to which the Demon nods his head.

“Indeed… you, Muichiro… are a… member of the Tsugikuni family… that I left behind… the descendant of my human child…. So you… are my offspring….” He revealed to which Giyu didn’t even need to look behind him to feel his fellow Hashira’s shock and potential horror.

“Otouto….” Giyu spoke softly as he looked over his shoulder, gaining the Mist Hashira’s attention while his apparent ancestor watched on curiously.

“Just because he claims to be your ancestor doesn’t mean a thing. At the end of the day, you have already made your life and this doesn’t change a thing.” Giyu reassures him, making Muichiro take in a calming breath and nod his head.

“You’re right Ni-Chan.” He says before glaring at the Demon, who looked at Giyu curiously now.

“You call him your brother… yet you do not possess the same surname… and I see a few differences…. Are you truly related to our family…?” He inquires as he tilts his head, making Giyu glare with fury, but still made note that Upper moon 3 was slowly regaining the upper half of his head.

“No. But for us, that does not matter.” Giyu explains, to which Kokushibo nods his head in thought. Going for the hilt of his sword, the Demon quickly draws it and charges forward at a speed Giyu could barely see.

“Eleventh Form: Dead Calm.” Giyu barely spoke in time to activate the new Water Breathing Form he made, to which he felt his body move faster than his own mind could comprehend in an attempt to defend himself.

“First Form: Dark Moon, Evening Palace.” Kokushibo says, drawing out his blade a little out of reach from Giyu, but it resulted in creating numerous chaotic crescent blades that lashed out at him. Thankfully, Giyu felt a sudden increase in his strength and following the attacks became slightly easier, but he was still overwhelmed by the speed and power of his opponent and so…

“GGGAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!” Giyu Tomioka, the Water Hashira, lost his left eye to Upper moon 1. However, luck appeared to be on his side as before the Demon could hope to continue with an attack, an intense mist covered the area as a powerful slash was sent towards the Demon from within. However, Giyu didn’t need to see to know that the attack was avoided but Muichiro used the opportunity to take Giyu and gain some distance from their opponent and thus stand protectively above Tanjiro.

“Mist and Water… I see…. I must admit, not bad… especially the development of the new techniques of your Breathes…. Muichiro… as of this year, you are 14… and your technique is refined for your age…. Giyu… I would say that you are 21 as of now… and your technique may surpass the Sengoku era Water Hashira…. Despite faltering before even seeing me… you suppressed it to challenge me and cut me down.” Kokushibo says with a small smile before nodding his head as if he made a decision.

“I suppose it should be expected of my descendant… my blood may have been watered down… but that is trivial…. Even if my name has died out… my cells have increased and remained within you, Muichiro…. As for you, Giyu… I should apologise for initially thinking light of you… one who is considered family by my blood… should never be underestimated. Which is why your awakening to that mark… is truly tragic….” He says with a small semblance of sadness, confusing Giyu as to what he is talking about, so he looked at Muichiro and widened his eyes in shock as he saw red Mist cloud patterns on both sides of his cheeks and one on the left side of his forehead.

“Muichiro….” Giyu speaks in concern, drawing his attention and causing the young Hashira to look at him in confusion before widening his eyes in surprise.

“Giyu-San… why is there a mark on your cheek?” The teen questions, to which the Water Hashira tenses slightly. So, he also had this mysterious mark as well.

“That mark… is known as the Demon Slayer Mark…. It enhances the power of a Demon Slayer upon awakening… to the point of being superhuman…. However, those who awaken to it shall die at the age of 25…. Unless…” The incredibly old Demon explained to them, shocking Giyu with this information but focuses on his opponent.

“You become Demons…. It is the only way to avoid the Marks curse now… and for your talents to not die before you reach your peaks….” The Demon offered, even cutting his arm to bleed and offer his hand to them, causing Giyu to scowl at him as he got into a defensive stance and he felt Muichiro do the same.

“Why would you offer such a thing when you know we won’t accept?” The Water Hashira questions, to which Upper moon 1 merely shakes his head sadly.

“A descendent of my own cells… is something I never imagined…. It warms my heart to know one exists… and is already so strong…. I am also curious… about one who is labelled as family by them… I doubt that man will reject either of you as well.” Kokushibo says in a way that felt like he was attempting to reassure them, but Muichiro steps forward with a scowl on his face.

“You have already hurt our family. What makes you think we will accept?” He questions, to which the Demon shakes his head.

“If it is about Giyu’s eye… he will regain it upon his transformation….” Upper moon 1 says, causing Giyu growl.

“That doesn’t mean a thing to me! But if you think I’ll let you get anywhere near Muichiro, you are dead wrong!” Giyu declares, to which the Demon sighs sadly.

“I see… Akaza, lets finish the mission….” Kokushibo says, making Giyu widen his eyes in horror. He completely forgot about the other Demon!

Turning around, he saw Upper moon 3 appear behind both himself and Muichiro and was bout to land a fatal blow on them both…

“Fourth Form: Constrictive Love!” They hear another yell, to which a familiar whip like Nichirin Blade wrapped around Akaza to restrain him before he could land his attack, and spun him around while throwing him next to Upper moon 1.

“*Sigh* Thank you, Mitsuri-San.” Muichiro says with gratitude clear in his voice as another Hashira appeared next to them, drawing Giyu’s attention as he looked at her with his only eye.

Mitsuri Kanroji is a curvaceous young woman of average height and muscular build with a slightly pale complexion and round, pale green eyes with long eyelashes, a small beauty mark beneath each of them. She has long, light pink hair that fades into a lime green colour at the halfway point, which she wears in three thick braids. She has five shorter, choppy clumps hanging over her face as voluminous bangs, the tips lime green as well. She was also wearing a heavily modified pink tinted version of the standard Demon Slayer uniform along with a plain white haori. However, he did avert his eyes eye away when his gaze arrived at her chest area, as that part of her uniform was left unbuttoned, but he didn’t need to continue looking over her to know that the rest of her clothes consisted of a short, pleated skirt in place of the usual tattsuke-hakama pants, a pair of navy-blue thigh-high socks layered with the vertically striped lime-green socks and a pair of white zōri with pink straps.

“Um… yeah, you can deal with her Kokushibo.” Akaza spoke a bit awkwardly as he looked over Mitsuri, making Upper moon 1 sigh before looking up at the sky.

“We have very little time before the sun rises… we shall leave them injured and put the boy in the shade of some trees… before leaving to be safe.” Kokushibo decides, making Akaza scowl but did not protest before both Demons charged forward.

…The Hashira were lucky the Sun began to shine on the mountain a minute later….

Tanjiro’s perspective

Hurts… hurts so much…. But….

“Fam…. Family… be safe… please….” Tanjiro begs with tears flowing down his eyes as he began to crawl across the ground. He was in the shade of numerous trees that was surrounded by the bad light. If he wanted to get back home, he had to go through.

*Sniff**Sniff*

“Otouto… Onii-Chan… Ojiichan…. Hurt…!” He says with fear as the scent of their blood hit his nose and another close to his brothers that was injured just as badly.

“Got to… save…” The young Demon says as he forced his aching body to stand up, barely able to stand but forced himself to do so. For his family, he had to be strong! He was a big brother! It was his job to look after siblings and family!

“Sorry…. But must… to save….” Tanjiro mumbles to himself weakly, knowing that what he was about to do will break a promise he made to his family. The promise to not go into bad light.

And so, Tanjiro Kamado reached his hand out into the bad light and…

Chapter Text

Mitsuri’s perspective

Location: ???

“Ugh. What happened?” Mitsuri, the Love Hashira of the Demon Slayer corps questions as she tries to sit up, but felt agonizing pain course through her body as she does so, causing her to scream a for a moment.

“Y-You… O-Ok-kay? Need… r-rest.” She heard a quiet and almost dehydrated voice ask her, taking Mitsuri aback for a moment that she didn’t notice a presence by her side until they spoke, causing the girl to turn her head to the side and saw an adorable little boy with red eyes looking at her, though she couldn’t make out all of the details since her vision was blurred due to both exhaustion and pain.

“To think that Breath using Demon was so strong. If I’m alive, than the sun must have risen before we could have been killed.” She did think critically for a moment, but did nod her head to the child’s question with a small smile.

“I’m fine. Thank you so much for the concern though. Wait, is there anyone else injured here?” She asks, as right after reassuring the kid, she remembered that both Tomioka and Tokito were badly injured, possibly much worse than herself, and she didn’t know if they are okay.

“You… kn-know… Otouto… Onii-Chan… and… Ojiichan?” The boy asks, confusing Mitsuri for a moment. She was sad to know that the boy’s brothers and grandfather were apparently hurt, but how did he confuse her fellow Hashira for one of them? She should probably describe them.

“No, no. One has a… half-half haori and the other has long black hair that changes colour near the end.” The Hashira tries to explain to the boy, her vision beginning to focus a bit more, so while she could more clearly see the child in front of her, she didn’t notice his eyes or the fangs.

“Yes! Ot-Otouto a-and… Onii-Chan! They… okay.” The little boy says happily with a bit of struggle, surprising Mitsuri. Were Muichiro-Kun and Giyu-Kun really this little boys siblings? She knew the two weren’t related but they were quite close so them considering each other siblings wasn’t a surprise but how did this adorable child get involved?

“No! focus Mitsuri! The both of them might just be hanging on by a thread for all you know!” The Love Hashira had to mentally scold herself for a moment before focusing on the boy once more.

“Are they all really okay? As in they are awake?” She asks with concern clear in her voice, making the boy nod his head happily with a large smile on his face. Wait, were those fangs she saw? No, probably just her imagination.

“F-Family… okay. W-W-Want… see… them? Can… bring here.” The poor boy says to which Mitsuri now began to get a little concerned for the kid. Has he never spoken until recently?

“I would appreciate that little guy. Thank you for all the help.” Mitsuri says as she gives into the adorableness of this child and pulls him into a hug and mentally squeals when the boy leans into the hug and gives one of his own. Eventually though, she did let go of him as the boy left for his brothers and Mitsuri sighed and laid down her head on a pillow to calm down her aching head.

“Mitsuri-San….” She heard a quiet voice call out, making her turn her head to see Muichiro walk over to the Futon she was resting in.

“Ah! Muichiro-Kun! I’m so glad to see you okay!” She says in her usually happy tone once she noticed her fellow Hashira, leaving her surprised when she saw him smile for just a moment before sighing.

“I guess you met my Demonic older brother, huh.” The Mist Hashira says, his body tensing but the Love Hashira didn’t notice because she was distracted by the shock she felt from the sentence.

“I’m sorry… did I just hear you right?” She asked a bit uneasily, resulting in the teenager nodding his head.

“Yes. Though, he hasn’t eaten human flesh or drank human blood because of his love for family. That has been the case for two years now and I’m sure you realise the amount of opportunities he had to eat us all from today alone but instead helped us.” Muichiro quickly explained while looking at her with a slight glare, leaving Mitsuri amazed. To think that the passive boy was this defensive about someone and appeared ready to fight for his apparent brother in his current state. But…

“KKKKKYYYYYYYAAAAAA~!!!! That’s so adorable and amazing!!” The older Hashira couldn’t stop herself from squealing at the admirable determination of Muichiro and the incredible willpower that Demon boy must have to not hurt anyone.

“I guess this means you won’t tell the other Hashira? After all, someone like Sanemi would try to kill my brother despite him not hurting anyone.” The Mist Hashira correctly brings up, to which Mitsuri takes a moment to think on it and not. Besides, if Muichiro and Tomioka of all the Hashira are trying this, than who was she to take away something that brought genuine happiness to her fellow Hashira?

Nezuko’s Perspective

Time skip: 2 days later

Location: Mount Fujikasane

“Hanako!!” Nezuko yelled with relief as she saw her baby sister near the Wisteria exit, drawing the attention of the 12-year-old girl as she charged and brought her into a tight hug, one that her sister returned just as fiercely.

“Huh? Is this your Nēchan, Nahoka?” She heard another girl ask, though it was a bit muffled since the person was likely wearing a mask but Nezuko paid them no mind. Though, she became confused as she felt her sister nod while they still held each other tightly.

“Yep! Um, Nēchan… who is that boy with you?” Hanako says happily to the other person, to which Nezuko raised her head briefly to get a good look at the girl wearing a boar head before reluctantly letting go of her sister and standing up.

“Well Hanako, this is Genya. I met him after we got separated and he has been helping me look for you and we protected each other while on the Mountain.” Nezuko explained to her sister as she motioned to her new friend, who rubs the back of his neck awkwardly before raising his hand with a wave.

“Um… nice to meet you kid.” Genya says with a weak and nervous smile, to which Hanako gives him a large smile as she nods at him in acknowledgement.

“It’s really nice to meet you as well Genya-San! Thank you for helping my sister.” She says before bowing, only causing the poor boy to become more nervous but he did nod at her with a smile.

“Hey! Did you all forget about me?” The boar head wearing girl questioned, causing the siblings and Genya to jump back in shock, though Hanako quickly recomposed herself.

“Oh, sorry Aoi-Chan. Nēchan, this is Aoi and she helped me out like Genya did for you. She is really nice!” Hanako introduced her new friend, making Nezuko nod with a smile before walking forward and holding out a hand to the girl.

“Thank you for looking after my little sister Aoi-San. My name is Nezuko by the way.” She introduced herself to the girl, to which she could feel a smirk from the boar head wearing girl as she grabbed her hand and shook it.

“No problem Bezuko. I am the benevolent Aoi after all.” She says, confusing Nezuko for a moment before hearing her sister sigh.

“Um, that isn’t Nezuko’s name.” Genya says in confusion, causing Hanako to step forward to explain.

“Aoi-Chan apparently grew up in the wilderness on a mountain a bit away from here, so she hasn’t interacted with other humans much. In short, she isn’t exactly the best with the stuff we consider normal.” Hanako explained to which Nezuko and Genya made sounds of recognition before nodding.

“Anyways, we should probably head back so we can pass and get our swords.” Genya says, to which the group nods and goes down the Wisteria path and entered a clearing, to which Nezuko had a quick look around and saw that only the two siblings from back when they started the Final Selection were there and another who stood a ways away in yellow clothing.

“No… are we the only ones to survive?” Nezuko thinks in horror, glancing to the side and saw that while Genya kept his composure, his eyes told her that he was also unsettled by this possibility while Hanako looked at her with fear as her sister realised that this was all but guaranteed.

“Hey, keep your chins up. Just because we are the only ones here, doesn’t mean that all the others died. We could have left at any point before today, remember.” Aoi says when she noticed the atmosphere surrounding them, even placing a hand on Hanako’s shoulder. This action caused Nezuko to smile at the girl and give a silent thank you before the small group stood in front of the two children.

“Welcome back. I would like to congratulate all of you for surviving and making it back safely.” The black-haired sibling says to them, to which Nezuko makes note of the mumbling of the group and Hanako letting out a sigh of relief. However, she did notice that the yellow wearing girl off to the side didn’t show any sign of a reaction.

“So, what are we supposed to do now?” Genya questions the two siblings, making Nezuko look at him and the look was able to make Genya sigh and relax slightly. She knew he was anxious to get their blades and join the Corps, she was also anxious because it allowed her another step forward in helping Tanjiro, but they did need to be patient.

“First, we will provide your Corps uniform. We will take your measurements and then engrave your starting rank.” The white-haired sibling began to explain after taking over for their sibling, but paused and looked over to allow the black-haired sibling to continue.

“There are ten ranks. Kinoe, Kinoto, Hinoe, Hinoto, Tsuchinoe, Tsunchinoto, Kanoe, Kanoto, Mizunoe and Mizunoto. Right now, you are all the bottom rank of Mizunoto.” The black-haired sibling took the chance to continue on with their speech.

“So in short, we need to prove our strength to rank up. But what our new weapons? Don’t you provide them or something?” Aoi asks the two children, causing the white-haired sibling to nod their head.

“Today, we shall provide you a variety of ore that you will choose for a Swordsmith to utilise and create your own Nichirin Swords. This will be a process that will take up to two weeks for them to accomplish. Now, we shall assign you a Kasugai Crow.” The white-haired sibling explained to the newly cemented Demon Slayers, to which they all looked up as they heard the flapping of wings and a crow either landed on their arms or shoulders.

“I’m Nezuko Kamado and it’s nice to meet you. I hope that we can get along.” Nezuko says to the crow perched on her shoulder, who appears to puff out his chest in pride.

“Huh. You might not be a crow, but I know we’ll be a great pair. I’m Hanako Kamado by the way.” Hanako says cheerfully, drawing Nezuko’s attention as she saw a Sparrow land in Hanako’s hand instead of a Crow, to which she heard the tweets of the little guy. Unlike her brother, Nezuko didn’t have the ability to understand animals like he could, especially a bird, but she knew enough to make out the Sparrow saying ‘Ukogi’, which she assumed was his name.

“When you are all done with the introduction to your new allies, you may come over here to choose the ore that will be used to create your katana.” The black-haired sibling said after waiting for a moment, grabbing the attention of the new Demon Slayers as they all walked over to the selection of ore placed on a nearby table.

“We need to choose the ore… I can tell apart charcoal from other ores without issue, but ones used for metal was never our speciality.” Nezuko thought to herself, knowing that even Tanjiro would be stumped by the options and be left unaware of which ore is the best. However, Nezuko looked over to her left and saw Hanako reach out after using her sense of smell and grab an ore for herself.

“Heh. I suppose overthinking it isn’t going to help in the long run. Alright intuition, don’t let me down!” Nezuko thought to herself before relaxing slightly and reach out, picking up an ore for herself and saw the others have done so as well.

“Thank you all for the effort you have put in until now. Place the ores on the empty table and they shall be delivered to the Swordsmith that shall forge your blade, and if you have any personal request for how your weapon is made than I recommend to have your trainer send a note and shall be delivered at their location by the Swordsmith themselves.” The white-haired sibling began to explain once each of them chose their ore, causing Aoi to hold up her arm and began to speak once she had the attention of the sibling.

“What about me? I don’t have a trainer to send that note or stay at.” Aoi brought up, to which Nezuko almost spoke up but held her tongue back. She was grateful for what Aoi did for her sister, but if she offered to allow her to stay with them at Urokodaki’s until the weapon was delivered but she had no clue how she would react to Tanjiro. It was simply too much of a risk for the older sister to take and if the uncomfortable look from Hanako was anything to go by, her little sister felt the same way.

“You may stay at the Butterfly Estate during the next two weeks and the Hashira that owns it can send the letter in your stead. You may also train there in the meantime or simply relax.” The black-haired sibling answered, causing the boar mask wearing girl to nod her head in thanks and so the group placed their ores down on the vacant table and began to go their separate way, but Nezuko and Hanako were stopped when the two siblings spoke up.

“Excuse us, Kamado-San. But there is something we must discuss with you and your sister real quick.” The white-haired sibling said, confusing Nezuko as a bit of panic began to rise in her gut and her intuition blared out a warning. Why was it acting up? Wait… did they somehow know about Tanjiro!? No, that should be impossible… right?

“Hm? Is something?” Hanako asks innocently to which Nezuko positioned herself in a way that could pull Hanako at a moments notice. But the words that came out of the white-haired siblings mouth nearly caused Nezuko’s heart to stop.

“Sakonji Urokodaki, the former Water Hashira, has been critically injured and is within the hospital of the Butterfly Estate as we speak….”

Chapter Text

Akaza’s perspective

Location: Infinity Castle

“That was… odd.” Akaza thought to himself, feeling the very cells of his body mend back together as he walked away from both Kokushibo and Muzan, hearing the sound of a Biwa playing for a moment and finding himself elsewhere in the seemingly infinite space of the Infinity Castle but he wasn’t concerned about that for now.

No, what he was concerned about was the Demon kings reaction to his and Kokushibo’s report. Now, Akaza was fully expecting a punishment and even prepared himself for it, heck, the puddle of his blood that was left behind was an example of that and the only reason he was likely not regenerating from a flesh puddle was because the information he gave on the new-born Demon seemed satisfying for Muzan. Yet for some reason…

“Muzan-Sama… I believe that you should know… the Water and Mist Hashira’s… have awakened to the mark….”

Those were the very words that Upper Moon 1 said and the reaction of the Demon king left Upper moon 3 confused. He briefly saw some kind of mark on the Water Hashira’s cheek during their brief fight, a shame since he did want to enjoy it more, but he simply thought it was a tattoo he didn’t notice initially because of the Demon brats poison having a greater effect than what he initially thought.

“And yet Muzan-Sama saw it as important enough to dismiss me. I’ll take the small victory given the shit show today proved to be, but it what exactly is so important about that brat and Mark?” Akaza couldn’t help but question to himself, but he couldn’t think about the subject any further and he felt an arm be placed on his shoulder, causing his eyebrow to twitch sine he was also here.

“Hey~! It’s good to see you again Lord Akaza! You seem to have gotten yourself in quite the situation, huh~?” The Demon heard the annoyingly fake cheeriness of a fellow Demon, making him growl as he spoke.

“Get… your arm off me.” Akaza warns, barely containing his anger. Why, out of all the Demons he could have encountered in this damn place, was it him?

“Aw~! Seems like you really are annoyed! Though, I suppose I should expect such a thing since the great Upper moon 3 was put on the backfoot by an old man, a fledgling Demon and a couple of sticks~!” The Demon says, with Akaza being able to hear the large grin on his face already, causing the Upper moon 3 Demon to swing out an arm that instantly took off the lower jaw of his fellow Demon and causing them to stumble back for a moment.

“Whoa! Ohhh… nice punch! Are you even stronger than before, Lord Akaza?” The Demon questions after taking a slight moment to completely regrow his lower jaw, finally causing Akaza to turn around to face the Demon with a growl of rage and his veins bulging in irritation.

“What is it that you want, Doma!?” He questioned the grinning Demon. Doma being a male standing at 6'1½" tall with a toned and muscular body. Like almost every Demon, Doma has a notably pale complexion and possessed unusually long, pointed claw like nails that appeared to be stained with a pale blue colour. His hair was a pale golden blond, and he wore it parted to his left, the shorter parts around his face seeming to flare out to either side around his head, curving backwards with one strand left down his face to fall between his eyes, while the longer parts were left to drape centrally down his back in a thinning spiral. Doma’s eye possessed multiple colours like a rainbow, mainly being blue, yellow, and red in pastel tones while the kanji for Upper Rank and Two where etched into his eyes, signifying the Demon as the Upper moon 2 of the Twelve Kizuki. Doma was wearing a blood-red turtleneck of a design that made it appear that the section between his neck and upper chest is covered by a black substance that looks like it's dripping slightly down his body, this same design repeated at his wrists and down his hands, as well as on the small, circular "blood stain" he adorned on his head. Below this, he wore a pair of straight, tan-coloured hakama pants of a pinstriped design, their cuffs visibly loose, which he secured with a pale, green-tinged golden belt, its buckle a bright silver. He was also wearing black tabi socks on his feet.

Though, Akaza’s fury felt ready to burst as he saw a woman’s corpse being dragged across the ground by Doma, multiple chunks of flesh having been eaten by the Demon while what Akaza assumed was the head that belonged to the corpse rolled across the ground, having been knocked out of Doma’s hands by his earlier attack.

“Aw~! I can’t have a talk with my best friend~? Especially while he is in trouble with Muzan-Sama.” The higher ranked Demon says as he got in front of Akaza, having the woman’s head in his hand again and held it out in offering to him.

“You must be hungry after that ordeal on that mountain. Don’t worry~ I have no problem sharing since I have plenty to spare~.” Doma says, to which Akaza scowls as he walks away from the younger Demon.

“Don’t you have something better to do? Like looking for some kid?” Akaza questions, smirking mentally as he saw the seemingly cheerful Demon freeze up, a dark aura emanating from him for just a moment before it disappeared as quickly as it came.

“Hm. I suppose you are right. Still! If you ever want to hang out, I’m always available Lord Akaza~!” Doma says before walking in a different direction, with the sound of a Biwa playing for a moment and the Demon was gone from Akaza’s vision.

“Thank god….” Right now, Akaza was willing to take this small victory and was thankful for it.

Muzan’s perspective

“I see. While the return of the Mark will be annoying for a while, it won’t be a problem for long. Is there anything else I should know?” Muzan says after taking a moment to think and ultimately deciding to be cautious for the immediate future, but overall was left unconcerned for now. At worst, he will have to wait out a few generations before the Mark is forgotten once more.

“Indeed… one of the Hashira that awakened the mark… they are my descendant…. I would like your permission to transform him… into a Demon, Muzan-Sama….” Kokushibo says to which Muzan was a little surprised. To think his Upper moon 1’s human family lived into the current era was surprising, but overall…

“If you can get your blood into him, then very well. However, if your descendant is killed by any of the other Moons, than it is of no concern to me.” Muzan decides to grant the request of Kokushibo. While this might be Kokushibo’s human sentiment talking, something that Muzan utterly despised, he supposed he allowed the lower ranking Kizuki members to get away with it, what with Akaza’s refusal to eat women or even fight them is possible, the continued existence of Rui’s ‘family’ and allowing Daki the position of Upper moon 6 thanks to Gyutaro asking for him to share the position with his sister, so why should Kokushibo’s request be that different.

“I thank you… Muzan-Sama. But I must inquire… why are you interested in… the fledgling Demon? He may be able to join the Twelve Kizuki as he is… and climb up the ranks within a few years’ time… but you never acted this way with other possible… candidates.” Kokushibo asks, making Muzan chuckle a bit. He supposed that if any Demon was going to notice, it would be his Upper moon 1.

“While having the Kamado brat on our side would be beneficial and I considered it in the past, my connection to him is weak but still there, however, I am unable to establish a full link unless he is in great danger or pushed to his limit and even then, the link is very brief. Ultimately though, my main motivation back then was that I simply didn’t want to lose control of a Demon like I did with Tamayo and deal with a Demon that could give the Corps information on me while wasting the blood I gave him. Sufficed to say, I was seconds away from simply sending Akaza earlier on to simply kill the boy when I couldn’t bend him to my will. That was until I noticed something interesting in his shattered memories.” Muzan says with a small smirk, picking up a glass canister and stirring rod and proceeding to mix together a few chemicals.

“You mean a connection… to my brother? If so… I can confirm that he has no blood relation… to either of us, Muzan-Sama….” Kokushibo guesses, making Muzan shake his head in amusement while focusing on the chemicals.

“No, that was something I realised around a year ago. Rather, that the boy knew of the location of the Blue Spider Lily in his human life.” Muzan explained with a smirk, causing Kokushibo’s eyes to widen in shock.

Giyu’s perspective

Location: Demon Slayer Headquarters

“Is Tanjiro okay?” Muichiro questioned Giyu as they both approached the area where the Hashira and the Master usually held the Hashira meetings, to which Giyu nods his head.

“Nobody really comes to the Water Estate besides you and I told Tanjiro to keep an eye out for unfamiliar scents and hide if they approach the Estate. For now, we need to give the report and see if the Kamado sisters did pass.” The Water Hashira assured his younger brother, causing him to sigh in exhaustion that Giyu couldn’t blame him for.

“You both look like shit.” Was the rude greeting that came from Sanemi Shinazugawa, the Wind Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, as soon as they entered the opening, looking around through his single working eye, Giyu saw that all of the other Hashira had arrived already and that Iguro Obanai,  while up in a tree at the moment, was effectively hovering around Mitsuri protectively since her right arm was broken and still healing but thankfully she would make a full recovery in a few weeks while him and Muichiro would take a few days longer.

“Who are you again…?” Muichiro asked their comrade, to which Giyu had to fight back a smirk as he not only heard the growl from the temperamental man, but also saw the brief glint in Muichiro’s eyes. Seems like him forgetting Sanemi’s name was a lie… this time at least.

“I must say, Tomioka! You look quite flamboyant with the eyepatch!” Tengen Uzui, the Sound Hashira, says to the Water Hashira as an attempt to possibly cheer him up and possibly provide a bit of comfort for his disability, resulting in Giyu only giving a nod of acknowledgment and a quick thanks.

“Ara-ara, I’m glad to see you are recovering quite well Tomioka-San. Though, I am curious as to how you, Muichiro-Kun and Mitsuri-Chan ended up in the conditions you all are in.” Shinobu Kocho, the Insect Hashira, says with a smile, though Giyu was able to detect a fair bit of genuine concern from her.

“It is for the best to wait for Oyakata-Sama to arrive. Besides, there is also the concern of those who passed the Final Selection.” Giyu says, to which he heard a scoff come from one of the other Hashira, but ultimately, they silently agreed and so sat in a comfortable silence for most.

“Oyakata-Sama is approaching.” Iguro Obanai, the Snake Hashira, says after hearing a hiss from his snake companion, dropping down from the tree branch he was lying on to kneel towards the approaching leader of the Demon Slayers, to which the rest of the Hashira quickly followed in kneeling before their leader.

“Good morning everyone. We have some really nice weather today. Is the sky blue?” The gentle voice of their leader greeted the gathered Hashira, two of his children carefully walking beside their father

“Yes, Oyakata-Sama!” The Hashira responded as one, a few such as Mitsuri even smiling a bit at seeing him once more.

“I am glad to hear that you are all still hear. As for you, Giyu, Mitsuri and Muichiro, I have heard the extent of your injuries and hope you all make a full recovery. My condolences as well for your lose, Giyu.” Their master says the brief relief in his voice clear as day before taking a saddened and sympathetic note as he addressed the 3 injured Hashira.

“We thank you for your concern master.” Giyu says for the 3 of them, seeing Oyakata-Sama nod with a gentle smile.

“Now then, while I would like to get the full report on what happened to you 3, I must ask for the report to wait for now. Kiriya, can you provide the results for this year’s Final Selection please?” The master gently requests of his son, causing the black-haired child to nod his head and step in front of his father before taking out a piece of paper and looking it over.

“As of this year, we had a total of twenty-five participants that entered the Final Selection. After seven days, up to eight participants had left before the final day while six ended up passing, making it likely that the unaccounted eleven had died during the Final Selection. The passing participants have all been registered and both their uniforms and Nichirin Blades are being made as we speak.” Kiriya explained before placing the paper away, to which Kanata steps forward, signifying that some additional information was going to be given.

“Due to one of the participants, a young girl named Aoi Kanzaki, having no cultivator to return to or a known place of residence, she will be sent to the Butterfly Estate until she is given the standard Demon Slayer Corps uniform and blades and is sent out on a mission.” The white-haired girl explained, briefly sending a look to Shinobu, causing the Insect Hashira to nod with her signature smile.

“Me and the children at the Estate shall look after her in the meantime.” The young woman assured her, causing the child to smile for a bit before she and her brother took steps back to be by their fathers side once again.

“I thank you both. Now then my children, may I ask for your thoughts on this year’s results?” Oyakata-Sama asks of them, to which the one to first respond is Obanai.

“Honestly, I’m a little disappointed master. Not only have we got less members than last year, but at the rate the lower ranked Demon Slayers are dying, we aren’t able to refill the ranks fast enough.” The Snake Hashira shares his opinion as they all continued to kneel before the master but all raised their heads to face him properly now.

“I must agree. The candidates the cultivators have been training as of late have had a lack of flashiness as of late and the few that have passed during the last few years lack aren’t flamboyant anymore, with very few exceptions.” Uzui Tengen agrees with their comrades thoughts, speaking loudly yet respectfully as he does so.

“I pray for those poor, lost souls.” Was the answer of Gyomei Himejima, the Stone Hashira and strongest amongst them, as he brought his hands together in a prayer as tears flowed down from his milky white eyes, a sign of the man’s blindness. However, in the back of his mind, Giyu couldn’t help but wonder if the mark he and Muichiro gained may have allowed them to surpass the strongest Hashira.

“Come on now, I’m sure everyone did their best. Besides, since some have survived, they come again next year when they are much stronger.” Mitsuri says in the defence of the cultivators and the failed participants who survived, though the uneasy look showed her worry for the Corps’ ranks and the lack of surviving participants that came from the Final Selection.

“Well, whatever the case may be, I say that we cheer on our new comrades!” The loud and proud voice Kyojuro Rengoku, the Flame Hashira, says with a large smile as he radiated optimism for the future of the new Demon Slayers.

“Can you stop shouting for a minute? Most of those brats are probably going to only be food for the Demons in the long run anyways.” Sanemi says to the positive Hashira, with Giyu being able to tell that he was only holding back from yelling and cursing due to the presence of both the master and his children.

“While we might be losing members, the quality of most of our remaining Slayers is above average in comparison to previous generations. Best to have quality if we can’t have quantity as well.” Giyu gives his opinion, deciding to defend his little sisters even if not directly from the Wind Hashira’s dismissiveness of them.

“What were we talking about again?” Muichiro asks, with Giyu being able to tell that the question was an actually genuine one this time.

“I see. Thank you all for your honest opinions, my children. Now then, Mitsuri, Giyu and Muichiro, can you all be so kind as to reveal how you all ended up in this state?” Oyakata-Sama asks of them gently, to which Mitsuri couldn’t but laugh a little sheepishly.

“Sorry Oyakata-Sama, but I only joined the encounter near the end. In fact, I only followed because I noticed both Muichiro-Kun and Tomioka-San rushing over somewhere in the middle of the night and felt like I should follow.” Mitsuri explained a bit nervously.

“It’s fine Mitsuri-San. Was ultimately for the better that you did follow actually.” Giyu assured her, ignoring the utter shock that overcame the faces of the rest of the Hashira.

“In that case, I trust that you will explain the circumstances behind your current conditions.” Their master urged gently, making the Water Hashira nod his head as he explained everything.

“In the middle of the night, I got a letter from my former mentor, Sakonji Urokodaki, requesting for aid from both me and Muichiro as he sensed a powerful demonic presence approaching him rapidly. When we arrived, Urokodaki-San was gravely injured and standing above him was Upper moons 3 and 1….” Giyu began the explanation, but stopped as the others made sounds of shock and began to ask questions but ultimately silenced themselves when the master waved a hand calmly to reassure them and urged him to continue.

“Knowing that we couldn’t face either Upper moon head on, let alone at once, I revealed myself when Upper moon 1, who is named Kokushibo, called us out. However, he still detected Muichiro’s presence and lashed out and while we were able to block and counter, he overpowered the both of us with ease and so we began to bide time for the sun to rise. Midway through the encounter, both myself and Muichiro gained some kind of Mark that took him by surprised and revealed some information.” Giyu continued on with the opportunity given to him, but he stopped to look at Muichiro with when he saw the boy flinch, something that Gyomei also noticed despite his blindness.

“Is some wrong, Muichiro?” Gyomei asked gently, causing the Mist Hashira to sigh in exhaustion before looking at Giyu’s single eye with a silent request that he understood, and so nodded his head. With that, Muichiro explained his apparent connection to Upper moon 1, the limited time given to them by the Mark despite its benefits and ending with how they and Mitsuri were barely left alive.

“Thankfully though, a boy nearby noticed us all and brought into some shelter. From there, he was able to provide enough medical attention to keep us alive long enough for the three of us to live and return here, where we got proper treatment for our injuries.” Giyu eventually took back over for his brother once he explained everything while using the cover story they made up to hide Tanjiro’s existence, making Oyakata-Sama hum thoughtfully.

“This is… troubling news. If Muzan is allowing his Demons to work together, especially his strongest Demons, than we may need to take precautions for the future.” Their master says, to which Muichiro got an idea and spoke up.

“Oyakata-Same, might I suggest having our members group up in squads more? It will increase their chances of survival if Demons are truly beginning to work together and they can be watched over by a Slayer or two of higher ranks for the newer members.” The Mist Hashira suggests, to which Giyu quickly realised what his brother was trying to do. Increase the chances of survival of the Kamado sisters and allow at least one of them to stay by their side if an Upper moon attacks again.

“That… might actually be a good idea. In fact, perhaps we could have our newest members work together to test this idea?” Mitsuri adds in, to which Tengen laughed a bit.

“In that case, I think I know the most flamboyant person that will be perfect for them!” The Sound Hashira says to which their master nods his head with a smile in response.

“I believe that will be for the best. Mitsuri, Muichiro and Giyu, the 3 of you shall take some time off your duties to properly recover while a squad of Demon Slayers shall be sent to watch over your districts in the meantime. For now, you are all dismissed, so go get some well-deserved rest.” Oyakata-Sama orders, making the Hashira all bow their heads to the man.

“Yes, Oyakata-Sama.” They all said in unison before standing and going their separate ways for now, but Muichiro and Giyu almost immediately rushed to the Butterfly Estate to see Urokodaki.

After all, they didn’t know if the former Hashira would even survive his injuries…

Chapter Text

Nezuko’s perspective

Location: Butterfly Estate

“Eh? Bezuko? Nahoka? Why are you-?” They both saw Aoi in front of the building that Nezuko could safely assume was the Butterfly Estate given that Hanako could smell Urokodaki-San’s scent here.

“SorryAoi-Chan,butwecan’ttalkrightnow!” Hanako yelled in a rush as the sisters sped past the poor confused girl. Running into a building where Hanako could likely smell their Ojii-Chan, they both stopped to catch their breathes a bit as they stopped just short of running right into a woman, causing Nezuko to look her over.

The woman standing before them has a slender build and stood around 5’2” tall with a pale skin complexion, though not to an unhealthy degree. She had long, straight, black hair that reached just below her waist, worn down with two shorter clumps over her shoulders, and arched, ear-length bangs on either side of her face. Her eyes were a pale violet and slanted towards the sides of her face, bright and bug-like, with many notable white sparkles reflecting light off of them. As for her clothes, she wore a purple-tinted version of the ones Giyu wore under his haori, as well as a piece of black fabric around her calves and zōri with pale straps. She also sported a pair of green and pink butterfly hairpins that she wore adorned on either side of her head and finally was wearing a white butterfly-patterned haori that fades to mint green then pink toward the cuff and hem. However, Nezuko’s eyes grew sympathetic as she saw the woman using a pair of crutches to move around.

“Oh, hello there! Are the both of you here to visit someone?” The woman greeted them kindly with a soft smile, to which Nezuko couldn’t help but be reminded of her mother as she felt the warmth and care behind that smile.

“Um, yes! We’re sorry for rushing in miss, but do you know where Urokodaki-Sensei is?” Hanako asks the woman with a polite bow, quickly snapping Nezuko back to reality as she followed her sisters lead. Looking up a bit, she saw the surprise in the woman’s eyes before they turned sympathetic and her smile somehow became more gentle.

“I see. In that case, Zenitsu-Kun. Do you mind taking these two to our old friend?” The woman asks as she turns her head, to which Nezuko follows her gaze and saw a black-haired boy squirming behind her.

Looking over this Zenitsu in detail, Nezuko made note that he was 5'4¾" tall with fair skin and downward-sloped, scared-looking eyes that fade from soft brown to gold. He has short, pitch-black coloured hair of varying lengths that falls in front of his face in uneven bangs. The boy was also wearing a uniform like Muichiro’s but tinted with a brown colour alongside a white scarf and white nurse dress that was kept in place by an orange sash.

“Sure thing Onee-Sama.” Zenitsu says with a small smile and Nezuko was a little confused when she saw a blush on his face while the injured woman giggled a bit in amusement before the boy motioned the siblings to follow him, to which both girls did so and Nezuko saw Hanako’s shifting as they followed the boy at  a walking pace. Not that Nezuko can blame her sister, as she knew that Hanako can smell Ojii-Chan and so knows where he is but…

“Neither of us know how he is except that Hanako will be able to smell any blood on him. Just… what happened? Do Muichiro and Giyu know? Is Tanjiro okay!? Onii-Chan… what would you have done in this situation?” Nezuko thinks to herself as her breathing quickens in worry, but takes a brief moment to calm down where she heard her brothers voice within her head.

“Calm down Nezuko. There was nothing you could have done, so don’t blame yourself, especially when you have done an amazing job in becoming so strong! Especially since you protected Hanako!” Tanjiro’s voice tells her cheerfully, though this was one of the incredibly rare times when Nezuko couldn’t take comfort in it. She still wasn’t around to protect her family AGAIN! Nor was she even able to protect her sister within the Final Selection…

“… is right here. But I must ask that you be quiet and give him space since it took a lot of effort to get him stable.” She heard the voice of Zenitsu say, snapping the eldest daughter to snap out of her thoughts as she registered that she, Hanako and Zenitsu were standing in front of a closed door. The very one that likely has their teacher waiting behind it.

“Thank you so much Zenitsu-San.” Nezuko says with a boy, causing the boy to stutter with a bit of a blush before quickly leaving, confusing Nezuko slightly before shaking her head and turning to the door and saw Hanako effectively burst through.

“OJII-CHAN!” Hanako screamed into the room, to which Nezuko heard a cough as she quickly followed her sister into the room and couldn’t stop both the overwhelming joy and crippling pain she felt as she saw her sensei and grandfather figure practically bound to the bed he was lying on. She also felt a bit off seeing the man without his usual red tengu outside of his home, but the gentle appearance of his wrinkled face was still comforting to see.

“Nezuko… Hanako…!” Urokodaki says with a smile, though he began to cough once more when he spoke their names, causing both girls to immediately run to his side and hug him, though they thankfully were able to stop themselves from clinging onto him tightly for his sake.

“Ojii-Chan… thank Hinokami you’re okay.” Nezuko says, barely holding back her tears and sobs while hearing her sister either failing to accomplish the same task, or simply not even trying to do so.

“Don’t worry about… this old man…. I’m just glad… you could return safely….” Urokodaki tells them gently as he embraced both sisters with a single arm each, to which the family enjoyed the silence as they took comfort with each other’s presence when they began to hear two sets of rapidly approaching feet.

“Da-Urokodaki-San!” Giyu spoke as he came into the room in a hurry, causing Hanako to gasp in horror while Nezuko placed her hand over her mouth and widened her eyes in shock as she saw a couple of scars across Muichiro’s body and an eyepatch over Giyu’s left eye, to which she saw a bit of a scar past the dark blue fabric of the eyepatch.

“Giyu-San! Muichiro-San!” Hanako yelled out as she carefully, but quickly got out of the weak grasp of Urokodaki and ran over to them in concern, to which Muichiro smiled at his fellow Mist breath user and brought her into a hug.

“Congratulations on passing the Final Selection you two. We’re glad to see you are safe.” Muichiro says, raising his head and giving Nezuko a nod of acknowledgment that caused Nezuko to nod in return with a small smile before looking at Giyu’s missing eye and back to the bedridden Urokodaki.

“Just… what happened to you three?” Nezuko asks uneasily, to which she heard a sigh from Urokodaki while the two Hashira’s sat down on a chair each next to his bed, causing Nezuko to sit on one herself while her sister sat in her lap.

From there, the 3 injured Demon Slayers began to explain what happened while Nezuko and Hanako were left horrified by the information. One of the strongest Demons alive coming after Tanjiro and being the culprit behind Ojii-Chan’s injuries, the 2^nd most powerful Demon attacking their brother and leaving him covered in his own blood and then taking Giyu’s eye and would have… oh, Hinokami….

“I would have lost my family again…. I would have lost them to Demons…. Those two… I promise that I will make you pay!” Nezuko thought to herself, a hatred that had been reserved only for Muzan Kibutsuji taking over her as she memorized the details of the Demons given to her by her family.

“Wait…. What about Ni-Chan!?” Hanako asks in worry, causing Nezuko to hug her sister from behind in the hopes that not only will it calm her down, but also allow her to hold back her worry as she listened to the 3 in worry.

“Your brother… is fine…. He healed up… long before we got here….” Urokodaki assured the sisters of their brothers physical condition, but looked to the two less injured Slayers, causing Giyu to nod.

“He is currently in the Water Estate and will hide if he smells someone he doesn’t recognise. Not likely to happen though since not only is it a bit away from Headquarters, but only Muichiro visits and I get my missions from Kanzaburo.” Giyu assured them with a small smile, causing the sisters to relax in relief a bit, thankful that Tanjiro wasn’t in danger.

“Thank Hinokami-Sama. But… can we visit Ni-Chan, Aniki?” Hanako asks him, causing the young adult to nod his head with a small smile on his face.

“Sure thing. Muichiro, do you mind taking them to Tanjiro?” Giyu asked, causing the young Demon Slayer to nod his head, standing up to give Urokodaki a quick hug before moving over to the door of Urokodaki’s room.

“Come on you two. Also, I suggest you prepare yourselves for Tanjiro to launch himself at you.” Muichiro says with a small smirk, causing Hanako to giggle a little nervously since she knew that was true while Nezuko merely smiled at the very likely to be true statement as they left Giyu and Urokodaki alone for now.

Tanjiro’s perspective

Location: Water Estate

Wait a minute…. Those scents… Nezuko! Hanako! They’re okay! Pink thing and creepy Hanafuda look alike didn’t get to them! Sufficed to say, the very moment that Tanjiro was able to detect the scent of his baby sisters and Otouto approaching place with half-half’s smell, he ran out of the room he was in and stood in front of the front entrance while staying away from bad light. He didn’t want to scare them after everything that just happened after all.

“Ni-Chan!/Onii-Chan!” Both of his precious sister yelled out, causing Tanjiro to smile behind his new muzzle as his heart practically leapt in both concern and joy. Concern because he could see the bruises and scrapes on them both, but feeling joy at simply knowing that they were safe. His sisters were truly some of the most amazing people in the world.

Growing slightly, he caught both Imouto’s in his arms and spun around a bit to keep his footing and held them above the ground without any issue, but held them both closely but gently. While he knew that whatever happened was something they needed to do, the knowledge he couldn’t follow and protect them truly hurt.

“Tanjiro… thank god you’re okay.” He heard Nezuko, though he couldn’t understand the sounds she was making besides his own name, he grew concerned as he heard her hiccup and felt tears dampen his clothing a little.

“Ni-Chan…. We’re sorry for….” Hanako struggled to speak through her own sobs, to which the ‘sorry’ of the sounds stood out to him. Why would his Imouto’s have to be sorry? Wait… did they blame themselves for what happened because of pink marking thing and creepy hanafuda look alike!?

“MMMM!!!” Tanjiro made of muffled sound of denial as he pieced together what is wrong with his sisters, putting them down gently and bumping them on the heads lightly, though both still reacted in a bit of pain as they rubbed their head with their hands in a manner that felt… familiar to him…. But why…?

“Ow! Why did you hit me Ni-Chan!?” A young boy with black hair and dark red eyes questions with tears in his eyes, rubbing his head from the spot where he was hit.

“Because you shouldn’t blame yourself for my scar Takeo. I wouldn’t hesitate to push you out of the way again.” Tanjiro’s own voice speaks as he looked down at the younger boy with a small smile.

“… Tanjiro?” He heard the voice of Otouto ask, snapping Tanjiro’s mind back to reality and looked at his younger brother figure, finding himself confused on why was he so close. Did he bring the family here into a hug? Wait…

“Grr!” Tanjiro felt a growl escape his throat as he stood in front of his family as he smelt someone with a strong scent approaching, and moments later, he saw…. What was that? Was that a Demon? No… they smelt human…. But what was up with the boar head if they are human?

“Oi! Nahoka and Bezuko! What was… why is there a Demon with you?” Boar head asked, confusing Tanjiro on who this ‘Nahoka’ and ‘Bezuko’ were. So why did his Imouto’s make sounds in response to boar heads question?

Honestly, Tanjiro just wanted to sleep again now and avoid this mess….

Chapter Text

Hanako’s perspective

Location: Water Estate

“So… this little Demon is your older brother? Not going to lie, he looks weak.” Aoi says, all 5 of them now sitting in the main room of the Water Estate as the Boar head wearing girl watched Tanjiro kick his legs back and forth absentmindedly as he likely didn’t understand what was going on. This being a fact that hurt Hanako’s heart, as she knows her brother would likely try to get to know Aoi thanks to her being Hanako’s friend.

She never noticed the light in her brothers glazed over eyes as his gaze focused in on Aoi….

“Indeed. The reason he hasn’t been killed is because he hasn’t harmed a single human since being turned and trust me when I say that he has had plenty of opportunities.” Nezuko explained to the girl, passing her a bowl of Ramen, prompting the wild girl to look at it for a moment before taking off her mask.

“So, how did that happen? The both of you definitely aren’t demons.” The girl asks before picking up the bowl curiously, causing Hanako to smile as she grabbed a pair of chopsticks in the bowl and quickly explained to her how to use them.

“You don’t know how Demons reproduce?” Muichiro asks, a bit surprised that someone who joined the Corps wasn’t even aware of the version that a Demon Slayer tells citizens that are exposed to the Demon Slaying world, especially those who had their family turned into a Demon.

“I didn’t even know that they were called Demons until a few months ago. I only learnt more about them in terms of weaknesses and such when I got my swords from some dead guy.” Aoi explained nonchalantly, causing Hanako to flinch at the lack of care her friend had with the mention of death. She couldn’t blame Aoi since she grew up in the wild, but it was still unsettling for Hanako.

“Well in short, the Demon King goes around and gives his blood to humans. When he does so, that person is transformed into a Demon and all the cells in their body will crave human flesh. Despite this though, Tanjiro has fought his hunger off and has even defended humans from other Demons before.” Muichiro explained to the new member of the Corps, causing her to nod before turning her attention to the Ramen bowl in front of her and began to eat, quickly becoming delighted by the taste and gobbling it all down.

“Mmm.” They all heard Tanjiro hum through his muzzle and stand up. A little confused, Hanako just sat back and watched her brother approach Aoi and…

Bonked her on the head, grabbing the Ramen bowl when it fell out of Aoi’s hands as she reached them up to rub her head while the sisters gasped in shock, just noticing Muichiro widening his eyes in surprise and opening his mouth a little in shock.

“Hey! What’s your-!?” Aoi began to yell in anger and reach for one her swords, making Nezuko stand up with a hard glare while Hanako began to panic a bit, but everyone stopped whatever they were going to do as Tanjiro rubbed her head softly, quickly calming down the wild girl of her rage before the eldest Kamado then placed down the bowl of Ramen and began to gently feed it to Aoi with a closed eye smile. The sight caused Nezuko to laugh while Hanako giggled a little, piecing together her brothers thought process.

“What is… *Gulp* he doing?” Aoi questioned, barely having the time to speak as Tanjiro gently fed her food, to which Nezuko wiped away a tear before eventually getting her breathing under control again.

“Hahahaha! Sorry…. It’s just that one of out brothers used to gobble down all the food offered to him, so Tanjiro pretty much fed him so he doesn’t choak on whatever he was eating.” Nezuko explained with a sad smile, causing Hanako to remember the many times that happened with Shigeru.

“Mmmm!!” Tanjiro responded through his muzzle happily, succeeding in having Aoi finish the whole bowl while Aoi seemed confused on what to do. That was until Tanjiro grabbed her hand and began to drag her to one of the bathrooms within the Estate.

“What is Tanjiro doing?” Muichiro asks, to which they could hear the muffled yells of Aoi through the closed door.

“I’m… not sure.” Nezuko had to admit to which Aoi’s yells quickly became screams and continued through the door, causing Hanako to approach the door and try to open it, but found that she couldn’t as something was pushing against it to keep anyone from getting in.

“Um… Onii-Chan, what are you doing?” Hanako asks in confusion and a bit of worry, to which she just barely heard her brothers muffled voice and something… running?

Suddenly though, Hanako could breathe a bit easier as she could smell Aoi’s scent…. Oh, that’s what was happening!

“Hehehehe! Onii-Chan is trying to give Aoi-Chan a bath!!” Hanako began to giggle as she figured out what was happening, surprising Muichiro and Nezuko before her older sister began to laugh while Muichiro smiled in amusement, a light chuckle escaping his lips.

With that, the three of them began to play with a deck of cards that they found within the Estate and explained in great detail to Muichiro about the Final Selection, with the Demon Slayer actually paying attention once Hanako got to the point where she survived with Aoi and Nezuko shared her experience with Genya and his unique ability.

“Genya huh…. I think I remember him from somewhere…. What was I talking about again?” Muichiro briefly interrupted, causing the sisters to smile fondly. Until they saw Muichiro beat them for the 15^th time while they weren’t paying attention.

“Aw! How are you so good at this game?” Hanako asks with a small wine, making Muichiro smirk as he reached out with his arm and rubbed her head fondly.

“Because I can pay attention while doing multiple things.” The young teen explained, chuckling a little when she proceeded to pout adorably.

“Mmmm!!” They all heard the cheerful muffled call of Tanjiro, causing the 3 of them to turn their heads and see Tanjiro standing just in front of the bathroom door, before then stepping to the side and holding out his arms in a way that tells them to look at what he wants them to see.

Because of this, the Kamado sister and Muichiro were allowed to see Aoi, her hair and body now much cleaner than before and smelling much nicer as well. She was still wearing her clothes from earlier though, except now she was wearing a bear hide fur jacket that left her arms and stomach exposed, but covered up her friends bandaged up chest. However, Hanako couldn’t stop herself from bursting out into laughter when she saw the content, yet annoyed face of her new friend.

Aoi’s perspective

Time skip: 5 days

Location: Butterfly Estate

“Hey you! I challenge you to a fight!” Aoi demanded of a boy that was in an empty training room, swinging around an Arctic blue coloured sword, pausing in his motions as he turned his attention to her.

The boy was one she has seen within the Butterfly Estate, helping out the Slayers who had been injured whenever he was around to do so. The boy stood at 5'5" tall with a pale yet healthy skin complexion and possessed a pretty face with large, wide eyes that are framed by an array of long eyelashes, their irises a dark to soft pale green, thin eyebrows and what could be a small, well-mannered mouth. His thick, black hair reaches just past his shoulders, fading into blue at the tips with two braided bangs hanging from the sides of his head and uneven fringe that falls just above his eyes, puffing out before curving and thinning towards his forehead. As for his clothes, the was wearing the clothes that all the injured people were when they are brought in except that his version was coloured the same type of blue as his sword and he was wearing a white coloured cloak.

“Huh? Why do you want to fight?” The boy asked, briefly taking a moment to wipe the sweat from his head while Aoi only glared at him.

“Because you’re the only one that can actually fight right now and I want to train.” Aoi says, causing the boy to shrug a bit before heading over to a door.

“Alright. Just let me grab Kanae-San before we start so she makes sure we don’t go too far.” The boy says, making Aoi sigh but nods her head in acceptance to the request.

With that, she was thankful she only needed to wait for a few minutes before the boy returned with the crippled woman, though her body instantly tensed in her presence. Aoi had seen many animals that hurt their hind legs yet were still terrifyingly strong, especially in her early years and this woman kept on reminding her of such animals.

“Ah, so you’re the one who wanted to spar with Inosuke-Kun, Aoi-Chan?” Kana asks her with a gentle smile, causing Aoi to nod her head.

“Is that okay, Kanae-San?” Inaku asks her with a raised eyebrow, causing the injured, yet dangerous woman to chuckle a bit.

“I see no reason why it shouldn’t. I’ll be sure to interfere if one of you look like you will be injured badly.” She assured him, making Aoi grin as she drew both of her swords as her opponent held his sword with both hands and in front of him.

“Nature Breathing: First Form: The Winds Sword!” Taking the offensive, Aoi charged forward at her opponent before zooming around the area, sheathing a single sword while her opponent tries to follow her.

Suddenly though, Inaku placed an open palm on the ground while Aoi charged from behind and began to unsheathe her 2^nd sword and swing at him when…

“Ice Breathing: Fourth Form: Freezing Clouds.” He declares before spinning around performing a single wide slashing attack, forcing Aoi to jump back just before she was hit.

“Second Form: Cherry Blossom Dance!” Aoi declares to herself, charging forward with a fair amount of speed while her opponent began to prepare a counter, when suddenly, Kana appeared between them both and before Aoi could even hope to react, she felt her swords get knocked out of her hands with ease, sending her crashing onto the ground while she distantly heard a thud that was likely from Inaku also being knocked back.

“Now, now. I think that is enough.” Kana says with a smile, before doubling over for a moment and using her sword to keep herself up, coughing a bit and Aoi was a little surprised when she noticed a tiny amount of blood on the woman’s hand.

“Kanae-San! Hey, take it easy.” Inaku says with worry and even… guilt? In his voice as he quickly reached the woman and supported her with his body, causing Kana to take in a few steady breaths before looking at the boy with a small and gentle smile.

“Thank you… for the concern Inosuke-Kun…. But you don’t… need to worry about me.” She assured him, with Aoi taking the opportunity to pick up her swords and sheathe them once more before looking at the two in confusion.

“Why did you interfere? There is no way that the match could have gotten that deadly so soon.” Aoi asks, restraining herself from actually demanding an answer considering Kana’s state.

“Physically? You’re right, but my breathing style is… dangerous against other Demon Slayers without…. Wait, you can’t use Total Concentration Breathing Constant!?” The boy asks, as If he pieced together why something just happened, leaving Aoi confused.

“The hell is that? Are you referring to what I do when fighting?” Aoi inquires, to which Kana began to chuckle a little behind her hand.

“It seems like we have a lot to catch you up on, Aoi-Chan. Follow us so we can explain Breathing techniques more to you and make you stronger.” She says to which Aoi merely shrugged and followed the two out of the empty room. Anything to make herself stronger after all.  

Muichiro’s perspective

Time skip: 3 days

Location: Water Estate

“So, why did the both of you want us to come here?” Nezuko asks both Muichiro and Giyu, making the Mist Hashira smile a bit as he decided to answer.

“While the both of you have learnt to use the main Forms of both Water and Mist Breathing and made some progress with your family’s Hinokami Kagura, you are going to need every advantage you can get. So, we are going to tech you both the new techniques we made.” Muichiro explained, catching the attention of both Kamado sisters as Hanako leaned forward with an eager grin.

“To explain things, the new technique I made is the Eleventh Form of Water Breathing, which I have named Dead Calm. With it, you are to cease all body movements and enters a state of complete tranquillity, deflecting, blocking, and cutting any incoming attacks with imperceptible speed with their blade. This even helps against attacks that you normally can’t react to, though fast and numerous attacks will overwhelm you if your body can’t keep up.” Giyu explained the technique to Nezuko, even slowly demonstrating the opening stances of for Dead Calm. After allowing Giyu to go through his demonstration, Muichiro turned his attention to Hanako.

“My technique is the Seventh Form of Mist Breathing: Obscuring Clouds. With it, you will need to drastically change the tempo of your movement to disorient your opponent and even create a powerful mist that is almost impossible for an opponent to see through. However, this does mean that if your enemy finds where you are hiding, you will appear slow to them while being faster than they can track if you are hidden from their sight.” Muichiro explained, showing her how he himself performed the ability within a few slow stances that he knew the youngest surviving Kamado can easily track while still being fluid in his movements.

“That is really cool! We’ll make you both proud!” Hanako promised the two Hashira, causing them to smile a bit.

“Is there anything you would like to ask before we begin your practise sessions?” Giyu asks to which Muichiro noticed Nezuko was in thought before she lifted her head to look at them.

“Yeah actually. Which Form do you think is better when pitted against each other? They both seem to be perfect counters to each other after all.” Nezuko points out, taking Muichiro a minute to think it over and honestly. Nezuko was right.

“Huh. Never thought about that. Want to test it out, Ni-Chan?” Muichiro asks, making Giyu shrug his shoulders.

“Might as well. Besides, seeing the techniques in action might help out in you both understanding the Forms than simply explaining the principals behind them.” Giyu says, grabbing his sword and preparing himself while Muichiro did the same, noticing how the Kamado sisters leaned forward in anticipation out of the corner of his eye.

“Seventh Form: Obscuring Clouds!” Muichiro declares within his mind, mist forming all around him before charging forward, seeing Giyu turn around and clash their Nichirin Blades together as he used Dead Calm. However, both Hashira’s stepped away from each other in shock as something odd happened to their weapons, with even the concerned sounds of the Kamado siblings being distant on his ears as Muichiro looked at his trusted weapon…

For Muichiro and Giyu’s white and blue coloured Nichirin Swords turned into a bright red colour.

Fan made Breathing Styles!

Swap! Inosuke= Ice Breathing

Ice Breathing Forms (5 Forms)

First Form: Sheer Cold= The user creates ice particles while performing a singular upward slash that freezes the hit area of the target for a short time.

Second From: Frozen Prison= The user performs up to 5 slashes on a Demon target that creates an ice cube, successfully trapping the Demon within until the prison is either destroyed to decapitate the Demon or the Demon overpowers the ice.

Third Form: Baron Hanging Garden= The user delivers up to 2 quick slashes on a target that coats them in frost, restricting the opponents movements for a short time while potentially blinding those within close range due to the mist made by the freezing cold, but the stronger the enemy, the quicker the frost breaks.

Fourth Form: Freezing Clouds= The user delivers a single wide slashing attack that scatters ice particles, making the ground more slippery due to a coating of ice and making it harder for the hit target to breathe properly.

Fifth Form: Wintry Icicles= The user preforms a downward slash while coating their blade in a strong layer of ice, making the attack stronger than a regular swing.

Swap! Aoi= Nature Breathing

Nature Breathing Forms (6 Forms)

First Form: The Winds Sword= The user sheathes at least a single blade and dashes around the area to confuse the enemy, using a spare blade to ward off potential attacks and drawing out the sheathed blade for a single devastating attack.

Second Form: Cherry Blossom Dance= The user charges forward with both blades and effectively dances around their opponent, evading many attacks with little issue while striking out with minor attacks to ware down an opponent and create and opening for decapitation.

Third Form: Bamboo Basket= The user performs a 360 spin before backflipping and either striking up or down, allowing the user to move fast enough to create a brief dome within the area and attack from all sides.

Fourth From: Bear Claw= The user slashes out with both swords in a manner that is reminiscent of a wild Bear, allowing the practitioner to strike up to 2 times with a single swing.

Fifth Form: Legendary bite= The user swings both blades at a targets neck in a way that is reminiscent of a mythological dragon biting down on its prey, using the serrated edges to dig into flesh more easily.

Sixth Form: Natures Hierarchy= The user controls the breathing and heartbeat to a level that most are unable to reach, allowing them to sense the immediate area for a few moments and alerts them to the presence of any creature (Human, Demon, or Animal) that is around their level of strength and above.