Chapter Text
Sakonji have many doubts about the demon his student mentioned through the letter, be it a kind or repenting demon. He wouldn't forget how every demon once killed a human regardless for their own desires, just a drop of blood they will get addicted to it, resulting to them devouring every human they see. Just the thought of a demon repenting for their sins made Sakonji sick, no matter how they change would never change the exact point of view Sakonji has for them, he will never change his heart as the demon would.
Sakonji gave enough understanding to them, trying to understand what they feel, what's their motives and why. Unfortunately they won't and would never emphasize with the humans they devoured, would disregards others for their own. Their greedy desires forced willingly them to go to a path to a pitch darkness, Sakonji gave up in the end.
Demons would do anything for themselve, would kill anything for either entertainment or survival. They've been in the abyssal darkness that no one could help them to the light, it's of no use to even try and help them for they never finds solace in other's help.
It was understandable for Sakonji to have doubts, everyone would. He forced down the slight hope in the pit of his heart, not wanting to hope for nothing in return. The letter his student wrote was so unrealistic in general, though demons are too but they somehow exist. For now, Sakonji would be faithful to his student's beliefs.
Half a week have been passed, and Sakonji's nerve's told him to flee, hide and never return to the presence of the being miles away. Sakonji wasn't a hashira just for the title for nothing, if it were anyone else they would be either suffocated to death or having a considerable amount of uneasiness. He stood, ready to strike to a such sinful demon to even have a presence that rotten.
Sakonji was extremely surprised to find the presence through a lovable family of seven, riding a wagon a person pulling instead of a horse. Well was supposed to be a human, he figured that was the demon Giyuu spoke of. Giyuu was right about the letter, the demon's smell has no malice if you ignore the rotten smell it's giving, it's expression softens just by looking at it's supposed to be dead family.
Sakonji still has his guards up, ready to strike from the trees if the demon ever attacks them. He watches the demon runs of the temple to stop the demon that he smelt before, he silently mourned for the family who have been devoured. Sakonji masked his presence well, watching with no expectance, waiting for the demon to show it's true colours by the smell of blood.
If Sakonji was surprised, he didn't expressed it. Instead of fighting the demon for the flesh and blood, Tanjiro, he heard from earlier, fought the demon for devouring people's lives. Even help through burying the devoured people, and not even looking at the blood like it's some kind of meal. Tanjiro just brushed it off and mourned for the lives of dead.
Still, Sakonji would not have any of it. It's extremely suspicious, Tanjiro probably knows he was hiding and assumed it was a test so he could act all good and a saint. The family probably was all a cover to gain hin some empathy and they were just mindless puppets or he hypnotized them. This demon was smart, but not smart enough to think this deceives are more used and known throughout the entire society.
Before Sakonji would let his presence known, the demon looked specifically at his direction, already knowing he was here the entire time. It was no use so Sakonji showed himself to the others, introducing himself and mentioned the letter Giyuu sent him of Tanjiro. The closer he got, Sakonji smelt life.
He smelt life towards the family, they don't smell death, dirt and sorrowful smell of the grave nor they smell any lack of emotion. The thought of them actually being humans and possibly not hypnotized eased him a bit, but he would still keep an eye out. They smelt so full of life, a tint of sorrow but it was overcome with the feeling of comfort and happiness. This made Sakonji hope a little.
Tanjiro told their family he turned into a demon, now that did terrified everyone for him, not from him, they all love Tanjiro to death and would never consider him as a monster. Nezuko heard demons from her grandma before, that they're a man eating cruel demon and burns in the sunlight and how disgusting and evil they are. But Tanjiro is so opposite to the description her grandma told her, he makes a disgusted expression when he smelt blood from the temple and walked under the sunlight, that made everyone in the family drop their hearts to their stomach that the fact that Tanjiro willingly walked under the sunlight and expected him to burn to ashes, and relief that Tanjiro can still walk under the sun and able to see him smile with the sunlight.
Though the relief was ended when they Nezuko found out that Muzan would most like target her brother because he conquered the sun unlike him. They don't have any money to buy any carriage to travel, though since Tanjiro now has enhanced abilities, he said he would make a wagon for them and of course everyone helped him even if he was reluctant of us helping. They begun their travel to Urokodaki's location.
No matter how happy Nezuko that Urokodaki-san gave them chance of avenging a being that he have been slaying since he hold those blades, but the unnerving feeling in her stomach never left, the beginning of doubts for their future. She was so flabbergasted of the fact that their completely normal life changed overnight, and her brother turning to a being from a fairytale their grandmother spoke of before. Nezuko understood their role was far more harder than any other, siding with her brother who is a··· and their family as a human would make them inbetween the line of slayers and demons.
Nezuko is angry, so furious that she wanted to challenge Muzan on spot but that would be unwise and stupid, her anger towards Muzan was like a flooding, raging waterfall turning into hatred but that would be a secret, Tanjiro wouldn't let her or their family feel any dirty feeling such as hate. Tanjiro would want us to be happy but Muzan had to ruin it all, turned Tanjiro to something like him and maybe, probably maybe expected his newly turned demon to devour his own family. She hates how little faith Muzan has for him to think Tanjiro would do such thing, and now he will regret ever making an enemy out of Tanjiro and their family.
Nezuko would train to death until she's strong to protect her family, herself and Tanjiro. If Tanjiro ever loose sanity, and ever consumed blood and even be consumed by the overloading negative feeling, she would march down to slap him and hug the ever cruel life out of him, get him out of the looming darkness off of him. Nezuko may not be as strong as her brother, never have a big heart as him and never have hard forehead as him, but Nezuko sees many things clearly, she understand just by slight body language. She could see how suffering with guilt her brother is, and how when he looks at us he thinks that we're gone, dead gone.
Tanjiro might be hiding something extremely big, a confidential secret, something might be even unbelievable as if he's carrying the world on his shoulders with no help from others but she would trust him no matter what, she will wait when the time is right, when Tanjiro is ready to share it, ready to open up. But Nezuko doesn't want him to go too long for him to share it, she knew how it's hurting her brother inside, suffering all alone and bearing all of it alone and all Nezuko could do is watch helplessly, not knowing what to do. She wants to help, remove the world from his shoulder and toss it to someone else who's more capable and an adult, they're just kids, Tanjiro is a kid, they should be enjoying their life first before worrying for the future.
But the emotions hidden in the depths of his eyes says it all, as if watching the world ending in repeat, as if reading the same book again and again. Just the thought of his suffering made her eyes formed tears, Nezuko wiped them off with the fabric of her kimono and angrily slammed her sword to the gigantic boulder, releasing all her frustration out not from the lack of progress of slicing the boulder, but something else··· Tanjiro was just so precious, what have the world done to her brother? Even of she wiped her tears, the tears won't stop. 'We're too young damn it!'.
She saw a wooden sword swinging it's way towards her, with all the determination she put through all the training and hardwork, she manage to block it with hers and retreated to give enough space to see who's the offender. Nezuko saw a boy in Tanjiro's age with a peach coloured hair, a patterned kimono fabric with a white haori and the most noticeable thing of him is the mask he wore. Nezuko observed him for a little, disregarding the compliment he gave, he may be visible like a human but she can see really well of how slightly transparent the boy is, she can see the trees a little from behind him.
"Good reflexes, but not good enough." The boy spoke, no emotions could be heard from his tone, though Nezuko can see a mildly surprised from his body. The boy strikes again, his speed and strength even increased as if holding himself because she's a girl. That made Nezuko more angry but she hel her emotions down, not let herself be unthinkable during her rage and lash out with pure instinct, is he a friend or foe? A ghost yeah but she doesn't know unless she sees it.
Without even thirty seconds through the fight, Nezuko lost. Nezuko glared at him from where she laid on the dirties ground, ready to ask why and what he wants but he beats her into it, "You're protecting someone with that level of skills?". Even if he's dead and a ghost, Nezuko had the urge to beat him up. He said he will teach her to understand Urokodaki-sensei's lessons, and of course she would agree, if it means successfully ending Muzan's reign, she would learn it again.
Another months have passed, her brother was in search for Muzan to end him before it goes more ugly, but even so he would come back with no success. He started training, and even training the hinokami dance which made their family surprised to find out that the dance was a breathing style. Tanjiro is so motivated to end Muzan to prevent them from getting hurt··· again, he said, even though we weren't from the beginning, physically atleast. Unless he saw a vision from his dream of us dying, and maybe getting turned into a demon but none of those happened, did her brother prevent that from happening? Or was it just an alternative thing that was supposed to happen if he didn't choose this path?
Nezuko progressed a lot in two years, probably even stronger than Tanjiro in that time from Urokodaki but she doesn't need to know that. Nezuko saw how powerful Tanjiro can be, that made her frustrated, she doesn't want to be protected, she's also the eldest damn it, it's also her job to shoulder the family's burden, also her job to protect her family. She doesn't want Tanjiro to be the only one carrying the burden all alone, she wants— no, she needs to get stronger to fight along side Tanjiro, not at his back.
Nezuko will get stronger, she has a lot to protect and that includes her big brother. Even if she won't protect him physically, she will protect him from the overwhelming negative feeling he's bathing. Nezuko would be damned if she sees her big brother's shine fade into nothing.
The day of the final selection, Nezuko was participating with her brother, she may see how large and genuine Urokodaki-sensei's trust and care towards her family and Tanjiro, but she can see how slightly scared he is for others with Tanjiro, maybe he wanted him to participate with her just in case he looses control. Nezuko scoffed at that, such little faith towards her brother, but she understand in his point of view, even so, Nezuko knows her brother wouldn't do that.
Tanjiro masked his presence well, she couldn't even tell if he's there if it weren't with her eye reading ability thing. No body else can tell, they would look at Tanjiro with confused gazes because of the blindfold covering his eyes, thinking he's blind. Tanjiro made sure to hide his eyes because of the crimson colour of eyes with a white cat like slit of pupils decorated in his eyes, he can hide it really well but he covered it just in case his emotions go haywire.
Starting with it, every demon there was fortunately weak, therefore more participants could survive. That was her brother's plan in the beginning, let everyone live and if they chickening out they would just quit on the spot if they value their life, Nezuko's words not Tanjiro's. The only obstacle of their plan is that large hand demon, Nezuko fought the rage from rising in her stomach, of how he killed every students of Urokodaki-sensei. Nezuko calmed herself down when her oh so loving brother touched her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile, she would like to see the soften eyes too but it was enough to calm her down.
Tanjiro leaped up, attacking— no, distracting. As if waiting for her to take the final blow, Nezuko wants Tanjiro to do and take the honor of defeating a huge demon but she wants to avenge Sabito and Makomo with her hands, even if all of Urokodaki-sensei's students believed in both of them. But Nezuko smiled at her brother's consideration and dealt the final blow.
Nezuko felt a mild sympathy for it, but Tanjiro has a different heart no matter how same their blood are. He hold it's hand, praying for him to have a better life in it's next life, she saw it cried, very large tears from it's also large eyes, she could see how sad and regretful, shameful it is to itself. She felt a pang of guilt of how cruel she is to not even trying to see the demon's point of view, she ignored it, refusing to sympathize. Tanjiro would support her no matter what her beliefs would be, but she wants to see how Tanjiro's view of the world, wanting to understand him more.
She may or may not be late to understand it, or maybe understood from the beginning but ignored it because no one else seems to have the same thinking like her until Tanjiro showed it to her. She questioned once on how it's like to be turned into a demon without your consent, she wondered why would they eat human flesh and even the flesh of their family, her only conclusion was, either the blood of the demon king changed their flows or lost their memory or just outright greedy and power hungry.
Every slayer she saw seems to hate demons, and it grew on her, believing that demons are very evil with the exception of her brother, he's just too pure for this world. Now her view might of changed, she would like to understand them, emphasize them, for her brother turned like them unwillingly. Tanjiro's trait to change someone for good without even knowing he did always brings a soft smile to Nezuko's face, both from pride and proudness.
During the final selection, Zenitsu was fidgeting anxiously and trying to focus. He heard a banging noise, it made him visibly flinch, though it wasn't really loud but it was still like banging drums and he also heard a glass being scratch with a shard. The cringe noise made him look for the noise, now that he looked at everyone else to see them unbothered by it and finally realized he was the only one hearing it.
Zenitsu almost fainted from the fact a ghost is likely hunting him, choosing him as a target to be taken by them, his heart beated so hard in a fast motion made him took heavy breaths, but the large air he's taking wasn't any help from the suffocating feeling he's currently feeling right now. In a panicked motion, he continued searching for the noise to find them with a kid with a blindfold, that baffled the bright blonde to hear two noise from him, one is the beating of his heart, a comforting sound of light waves, it was so pure and gentle but the cringe noise from him made him think otherwise.
Zenitsu would tell his grandpa that he died a sincere, shameful death of hearing noises from a pure hearted person. From the suffocating feeling he fainted right at the start of the exam, what joy. Only to gain consciousness at the end of the final selection to find everyone he saw at the beginning either terrified or shitting tears but alive and well notheless.
Weeks later, another mission he almost died. He slumped down the dirtied ground to bawl his eyes out from the horrific feeling of almost dying again, when a cute girl came to his way to ask him of his well-being, Zenitsu fell inlove instantly. Crying out "Marry me please!" Repeatedly out of desperation, so he could have a nice life with a wife and quit this horrifying job, he would be more safer.
He froze.
He felt the familiar discomforting feeling once again. He let go of the lady and crouched down to hide himself, cupping both his ears with his hands to prevent it from hearing, biting his lips to prevent himself to scream so loud because the volume of his scream would just increased the loud noise. It wasn't as loud as before as if··· As if the boy is close, like beside him.
Zenitsu was asked by the same boy if he was alright, but Zenitsu couldn't say anything, too focused on silencing the noise from him. He wants to tell the boy to leave, get the hell out of here and never get close to him. The warm, concerned and fearful beating of his heart prevented his mouth to speak, he wasn't intentionally letting that horrific noise out just to mess with him and that Zenitsu knows.
The noise stopped.
Zenitsu looked so pale, he was shaking and sweating all over and tears with lots of snots was leaving his nostrils, he probably looked so ugly. Now, Zenitsu only hears the comforting light sound of waves, he looked at the boy with the blindfold to see him with a guilty expression, he probably found out of the source of his misery. The boy helped him up and gave him food when his stomach grumbled, Zenitsu wanted to cry from the boy's caring nature.
He introduced himself as Tanjiro Kamado, and introduced his little sister Nezuko. Now if Zenitsu was at his right state of mind he would gush about how beautiful Tanjiro's sister is, but he's still processing what happened and didn't bat an eye on Nezuko. Maybe he will if he did, but he wants a little rest for a bit.
Inosuke Hashibara, the king of the mountains, and the most strongest of all. Inosuke is really sure that weak looking blindfolded guy is a demon and very strong at that. When he first stood on his presence, his body froze, as if facing a large predator with poison flowing in his blood ready to bite Inosuke to death, as if a large snake slithering around his air bag and squeezing it until he can't let in and out air from it. Inosuke really wanted to flee but that would be unpredator like so he doesn't, he demanded the demon to fight him.
The demon didn't, though he was left sleeping for an hour to wake up that the demon was playing with the little humans as the sunsets— wait sun right? How is the demon avle to walk under the sun? Inosuke wondered until his brain couldn't understand what was the question he was trying to find. If he could walk under the sun, he's human that's it.
He's still strong so of course, The great Inosuke will dominate him with a fight. Show him how capable he is to be followed by him, let him feel special that he's gonna serve the great Inosuke from now on. He's going to be the best of the best from his followers.
Inosuke kept on picking a fight but to no avail, the blindfold just gives him all kind of nice things which made Inosuke's chest flutter. That made Inosuke frustrated but if he's offering food does that mean he's already serving Inosuke? Of course Inosuke won in the end, but he wanted a good fight with blindfolds! He can tell a strong human when he sees one!