Chapter Text
The sun rises once more, though no one can see it behind the clouds. The quaint village at the feet of Mount Kumotori seems less lively than usual. Some children go out to play in the snow under their caretaker's watch. Some other adults prefer to stay indoors and light the heart to ward off the chilly winter air. Those who have jobs to do, prepare to open their doors.
The Takamis wake early, to have everything ready for visitors. The cold brings sickness, and that’s when they have to work the most. As they are having a quick breakfast, their charge, Tanjirou, wakes from slumber. He greets them and joins in the morning ritual. Once they finish, Himari goes to prepare the herbs requested the night before, and Takaya gets the futon that Tanjirou used to clean it.
The young boy puts on his overclothes, gets the packet that Ms. Takami prepared, puts on shoes, his basket is secured, and bids goodbye to the couple.
He walks through the middle of the village, greeting those who are awake, and smiling to the playing children. As he nears the trail that goes up the mountain, he stops near a small shrine. It’s not very old, prepared by the temple so people don’t crowd the bigger one. Tanjirou decides to make an offering. The gods are present in this land, and maybe they’ll help his father recover.
The eldest child of the Kamados kneels before the shrine, and pays respects. It's no more than a few minutes saying his prayers, but by the end, he feels like a weight was lifted off him. As thanks, Tanjirou deposits one of the mochi he bought yesterday for Shigeru in the altar. With this done, he resumes his way up the mountain.
It seems he did well following his mother’s advice. The snow fell heavily during the night, and the cold made a thick fog cover most of the path, but besides that, nothing has shifted much. There’s no new sheets of ice and most of the animals seem to have left the zone alone.
It’s when he passes Saburo’s home and halfway up the mountain that he smells it.
Blood.
A coppery smell that reminds him of the coins he carries, now a heavy weight.
For the smell to reach this point with no difficulty means that there’s a lot of it.
There’s no time to think. He rushes upwards, thinking of what it could be.
A territory dispute? Hurt prey leaving a trail? But no, this doesn’t smell like any of the animals who live here, and the air smells of family and something else he can’t quite place.
He reaches his house in record time.
He calls out for the others, but the only answer he gets it’s the beat of bird wings fleeing the noisy boy.
The door is broken, snow having piled inside overnight.
The fire in the kotatsu has long since been doused by the snow, but there’s far too much ash mixed in it.
The amount of bloody smell mixed with the ash makes Tanjirou want to gag.
Could a bear have woken up and sought food?
It doesn’t seem likely, were that the case, there would be a carcass at the front, knowing his father, it would not have suffered for long.
There’s no one near, Takeo and Nezuko would have responded to him. Or his mother would have tried to intercept him.
There’s not much information that he can get from the clearing. Any footprint has long since faded and the smell covers tracks of anything less pungent.
There’s a smell of death and fear far too prominent from within.
Is his family inside, too scared or hurt to come out?
The alternative, that someone, everyone, is dead, is covered by worrying by the hope of finding someone alive. They have to be alive, he can’t even bring himself to think about being alone.
Deep breaths. Tanjirou is the eldest of six, and so it’s his duty to seek the others out when they won’t answer.
He enters his house.
And internally cringes at not taking off his shoes, but time is precious and he can deal with cleaning the floors later. tracking mud inside it’s the least of his worries.
There’s lashes in the walls and futons, too erratic to be done by one person, and far too separated to be any animal that shares the mountain with them. Getting closer to the sunken heart, he sees that the fire grew rapidly and wildly, and the smell of gunpowder is easier to discern from this close.
He wants to cover his nose, but whatever forced his family to make an impromptu firework could come back, and his sense of smell is his best bet to find the others.
The fire doesn’t seem to have spread far too much, the humidity in the air probably made it die as quickly as it started. The blood is more concerning. There’s splatters and arcs near the emergency exit, which is just a thin shoji door that goes outside but looks like part of the wall. There’s some holes in the paper and a big puddle of blood before it. Something also was dragged away from it, and droplets are everywhere, but mostly near the rest of the bedding and the main entrance.
Did his family leave the house? He should search for them, maybe they’re lost and hurt in the forest… but he should finish searching the house first. He’ll get to run away from here after.
His breathing quickens as he searches depper, the cold has seeped into the building long ago, and his frightened pants are apparent by the small clouds he makes.
The incense trays that his mother uses to burn the sticks are toppled over. He goes to fix them to avoid more fires, accidental or not. He works with this element often, and no matter how unlikely, one never must grow careless, or the wood may catch a spark and consume more than what is offered.
He crouches, grabs the tray with the iron holder, but as he goes up, something grabs his ankle and pulls .
He falls forward and manages to catch himself.
He turns to look at what did that, and only manages to see a pale, clawed hand and glowing eyes from the darkened corner of the room.
They both freeze when their eyes lock on the other, but it’s only for a second. The eyes turn away and the hand disappears, making haste in scuttling away.
It takes him a lot longer to snap out of his shock. What is happening? The hand was human, but no one except for nobles had long nails.
A youkai? His grandmother had tales to share about demons and legends, could it be that? Nothing short of the supernatural seems to make sense anymore.
A sharp cry makes his heart speed up far more than the fear coursing through him does.
He knows that sound!
“Rokuta! Stay there! I’m coming!”
He forgets about the hand, and speeds down the hallway, not caring about the noise he makes.
He reaches a small supply room where they keep the extra futons, and carefully slides open the door.
Rokuta is inside in his pajamas, cries slowly calm down as he looks up from his bedding nest.
His clothes are a bit ripped, and his eyes-
They look… different.
Yet, he would recognise his family anywhere, especially when his baby brother makes grabby hands with eyes threatening to start the waterworks again, and some sniffles for extra effect.
Tanjirou caves to his sibling demands, now calmer that he at least found one.
If the youngest is here alone, that means someone left him here where it’s safe.
That’s not as good for the rest of his family, but it gives him hope.
Rokuta is held close to his chest, hugging as thigh as he dares. He can’t break down now, he has to find the others.
His baby brother starts to gnawn on his haori, and under normal circumstances he would make him stop, but he’s probably nervous and without his normal teething toy for comfort, clothes will have to do.
There’s not that many hiding places in the back, and the calm that his little brother gives him allows him to search with his nose better.
He decides to make his way back to the front. Maybe he’ll see something he missed in his panic.
Rokuta’s eyes… they were just a shade darker than his.
Don’t worry about that.
Or, they were supposed to be.
They still have the same color, but the pupil.
Don’t think about the differences.
Since when do they look like a star?
Ignore it. That’s your brother and now he’s safe with you.
That’s all that matters.
Don’t think about it.
Find the others.
He’s unceremoniously pulled out of his thoughts by a drop of water that falls in front of him. That makes him pause.
A leak?
he looks up as some other droplets fall.
There, on the ceiling, a pair of pink eyes stare down. The pupils are slit, the fangs shine with the drool that pools in the mouth and drips down.
The spit is not the only thing to fall, though.
Whatever is there, lunges down towards the pair.
Tanjirou immediately covers Rokuta and tucks down to roll with the impact.
The three don’t go far, and they manage to land in the light coming from the broken door.
The figure rises up, and Tanjirou now can see who it is.
It's Nezuko.
As she lunges again, with hunger in her animalistic gaze and claws extended towards the eldest, all Tanjirou can do is stare and hold close to his chest the youngest.
A growl comes out of the fanged mouth, but before she can go too far, a light blue blur tackles her, taking them both outside the house.
Tanjirou somehow manages to stand again without letting go of Rokuta, and rushes to the door to see what happened.
Nezuko is alive!
And different.
Too aggressive, she does get angry, but she is always kind.
Strong, for how else would she hold onto the ceiling?
Fast, he didn’t see her move.
Don’t think about it.
The one who defended him gets lost in the fog, where it dragged his sister. She’s easier to see, even with her wild movements and interrupted lunges towards the house.
The one who tackled her is faster than her, and constantly pushes her back. They collide, and immediately disengage. Nezuko doesn’t have time to rush forward, and the other takes advantage to keep her attention on them.
After a second, Nezuko manages to grapple the other, and throws them down. The snow explodes upwards from the force.
The wind pushes the fog away and he’s finally able to see the one his sister is fighting with.
…
Takeo?
Why?
His little brother manages to get one leg under their sister's core and kicks her off him.
She flips in the air, and lands easily in a tree branch.
They’re growling at each other.
But for now, they don’t clash again.
Takeo looks back, but not at him, something else out of the corner of his eyes, but then rapidly locks on the figure of their sister, who came down and is trying to sneak around, like a wolf trying to circle to get a better angle.
They both seem to not sink in the snow, movements feral but not completely graceless.
Like predators.
How?
Tanjirou can only clutch Rokuta as tight as he dares, not taking his eyes off of his siblings. And they are, no matter how much they change, Tanjirou knows his family by heart and scent.
He needs to track them, because they’re not acting like themselves. They have become dangerous, but he’s frozen in place, unable to process and act accordingly.
Some big brother he is.
Two pairs of arms snake around his legs, and startle him out of his shock.
He looks down, only to see the different gaze of Hanako and Shigeru staring back at him.
All the young ones are here.
Relief and another feeling he can’t name crash over him, rendering his knees weak and bringing him down to the floor. He would collapse completely, if not for his siblings acting as pillars. They’re strong now, too.
They hum at him worriedly, and it takes all of his effort not to succumb to the darkness encroaching at the edge of his vision.
As his heartbeat slowly steadies, Rokuta finally finishes gnawing through all his layers. His star-like eyes sharpen to pinpricks, his hands that hold onto the haori pull him upwards towards his brother’s throat. Baby teeth replaced by needle-like fangs.
As the youngest prepares to do an unforgivable act, the pair who were duking it out in the clearing manage to notice and rush back towards the entrance. They won’t be able to reach before fresh blood covers the floor once more.
But the other two closest to Tanjirou also see, and they act.
One moment, the eldest was about to suffer a fatal wound.
Next, Shigeru is holding onto Rokuta and pulling him away before he can close his mouth around flesh.
Takeo finally reaches them all, only to bonk rather harshly at the head of the infant.
His mouth closes fast with a loud and rather painful sounding click of teeth.
Naturally, the small one responds as all babies do to pain.
He starts bawling.
And at the center of the huddle, The eldest, now reunited with the youngest, can’t stop himself from seeing anymore.
They’re his family, but not.
The same, yet different.
How did this happen?
What did his granny tell him once?
What does Saburo always warn him about?
Demons.
Monsters with human skin who devour their fragile counterparts.
He’s surrounded by a group of demons.
He’s surrounded by his family.
All his siblings are here, safe, and changed.
What does he do now?
He needs their parents, they’ll know what to do.
And yet, he can’t get enough air to ask the others the whereabouts of their missing members.
Aren’t they worried about their father?
Even with his strength, he’s sick.
Is he with mom?
Have they changed too?
He can’t ask.
…
He can’t breathe.
He’s wheezing, and can't catch his breath. He inhales and immediately exhales and the oxygen isn’t going to his brain. His heart accelerates and his hands start to shake and the others are looking at him. He wants to pull himself together, but he can't. They shouldn’t see him like this, but he needs to stay close. What does he do?
Hanako makes a cooing noise at him.
And after that, his mind just… stops.
He can’t think about anything, except the same things over and over and over.
His arms and whole body seem to tense and slacken at the same time.
Nezuko, now that Rokuta is contained in the arms of the second youngest, seems to calm down, and herds Hanako inside.
Takeo, whose eyes are the same as the ones he first saw, with segmented rectangular pupils and taking the color of copper, peers at him with a huff, worry evident, even with the moody attitude. It manages to make Tanjirou chuckle a bit. Satisfied with the reaction, Takeo grabs his hands and pulls him up.
Once his legs are steady, they slowly make their way inside with the rest.
Everyone is looking at him, and Rokuta still tries to get a hold of him, even if the others aren’t letting him close.
It takes a while, but once he catalogs all the differences, blinks, blows a small puff of fog out, he manages to calm down his raging heart. He takes a deep breath, cringes from the smell and takes his basket off his shoulders.
There’s much to do and as much as things change, they all seem to retain their bonds.
He goes to the shed to get materials to fix the door, get a shovel to take the snow out, and some products to clean the mess. The mending and cooking will have to wait. First, their home must be safe for them.
When he comes back, all the others seem to have disappeared, but while he’s worried, he doesn’t panic, just goes about fixing as much as he can, and cleaning things up so he can get their kotatsu lighted up again.
As much as he remembers from the tales he heard, he doesn’t know much more. His family are demons, but they don’t act like in the tales.
The door is back in place and slides easily enough. The snow is out, and the blood is as faded as he can get it.
He lets out a long sigh. He is spacing out.
The others come back, claws and sleeping kimonos painted red, but the second and third eldest bring with them the carcass of a deer and a boar. The three youngest seem to have caught a few rabbits.
He decides to focus on what he can do. So he goes to the bathroom and prepares the tub for a long, long soak. All his siblings seem to take to their meals with gusto, even if it’s raw. At least they know not to dirty the floors.
Once the water is hot, he goes towards them to herd them to the bathroom. They don’t seem very enthused with the idea of a bath. Until he brings Rokuta to the water, and feeling its warmth, the infant starts to splash and make excited sounds. The rest seem to lose their reluctance and shed their clothes. He grabs those and once he puts those in the laundry basket, brings a new set for each of his siblings.
He goes to do the same with the ripped futons, when he catches sight of the meat. It’s a gorey sight, and frankly, he’s not hungry after all that happened… but the bones can be sold, as well as the furs. He can preserve the meat for the others when they can’t… hunt as well.
It’s better to avoid problems before they make themselves apparent. Their isolated place in the mountains secures his family from the temptation of human flesh, he’ll just have to be careful to not get hurt and try their self control.
As the others seem to take their time playing in the water, Tanjirou finishes with the last of the animals, and even manages to eat a bit of the leftovers he found.
If only their parents were here, all of this wouldn’t feel as overwhelming.
All he can do is try his best.
He finishes fixing the shoji door, when the soft patter of feet on tatami brings the others to him. They have changed and even found the spare bedding.
He’ll have to fix the rest later, he doesn’t know if Nezuko can sew without ripping the cloth more.
They all come together in the center of the house. The kotatsu slowly dies on its own, and the others seem to decide to cuddle around him. He won’t complain. They’re here, they’re safe, they’re all home.
He sleeps surrounded by his family, determined to do his best as the eldest until his parents come back.
They have to.
When Tanjirou wakes the next day, the clouds still cover the sky over the mountain, there’s no snow storm brewing in the distance, the one which struck before long since moved on. Tanjirou wants to believe everything that happened is just a horrible nightmare, but he’s aware of the change in the air before he even opens his eyes.
For one, the smell of death and blood still lingers, even after he did his very best cleaning. Besides, he can hear the pitter-patter of bare feet in the wood, far more subtle, as if the sound were being made by a clawed animal unused to wooden floors telling their location, rather than human steps.
The decision of opening his eyes or believing he’s dreaming is ultimately taken from him. When Shigeru decides he slept for long enough, so he flops on top of him to wake him up.
The wind knocked out of his lungs from the unexpected weight forces him to open his eyes, and by habit he makes eye contact with his little brother. Spirals greet his gaze instead of pupils like his own, freezing him for a moment. Shigeru tilts his head in a familiar way, but makes an animalistic coo. Tanjirou, as much as his brain tells him that what he sees is not his sibling, can’t quite convince his heart of that. The oldest reaches his hand to the check of the younger one, slowly so as to not startle him. A calloused palm meets a petal soft cheek, and the small demon leans on the warm, safe contact like a content cat.
Tanjirou clenches his teeth behind his lips and closes his eyes to not let tears escape. His little brother is the same, even if he has changed. When he opens them again, Shigeru seems to just decide that he’s comfy in his oldest brother's lap, and refuses to move. Tanjirou’s hand migrates to his brother's scalp and starts to pet softly, a small smile graces his face.
Though the moment is nice, he has chores to do, and it seems that the rest of his family are unfamiliar now with the concept. He sits up, and when Shigeru complains about the movement, he just picks him up and takes him with him. He’s gonna try to find the others, leave them together, and then change to start the day.
His siblings seem to not have left the house, though they did raid the kitchen. Some jars seem to have left the shelves they were supposed to be in, and some are opened, but they all seem to not have touched them more. That’s not to say they’re not having breakfast, though it seems to consist mostly of the preserved meat they reserve in the winter for emergencies.
Granny told him that demons consume meat, so they will have to start hunting far more often. It’ll be difficult, balancing the amount of food vs leaving enough animals alive so they mate and don’t abandon the mountain completely, but he can probably get far more game if he manages to save the bones and furs they don’t destroy.
Shigeru decides to leave his place in his arms and rush towards the others, and while they play-fight over the food, Takeo and Nezuko seem to zero their focus on him.
It’s unnerving how much they look like predators now.
Still, they don’t immediately move. They exchange glances, and Takeo huffs, but stays put as Nezuko stands and walks slowly towards him. She keeps going and pushes him back to the main room. Once there, she just stares at him. Tanjirou just goes to change his clothes with his sister's gaze on him. It makes him wary to show his back to a demon, but the constant reassurances that it’s his sister lets him prepare for the day.
Once that’s done, he turns back to the second oldest, only to blink when instead of his normal sized sister, he sees her rather small.
She makes the same gesture Rokuta did the other day, and he, just like with his baby brother, goes to embrace her.
It seems they both needed this.
Once they’re calmer, Tanjirou asks the question he dreads most at the moment.
“Nezuko, do you know where mom and dad are?”
Nezuko furrows her brows, makes soft grunts and short whines, but when words don’t go beyond her fangs, she just pouts and shakes her head.
The answer was expected, still, he can’t help but be a bit disappointed that his parents aren’t near… Maybe they went to get help?
The alternative, that they died, that his siblings ate them, that they’re demons now and are attacking some other town is too horrid to even contemplate.
He’s pulled out of his funk by Hanako loudly shoving open the door, and demanding her Tan-Nii time.
In the following weeks, Tanjirou dedicates himself to fixing, then reorganizing the house after his sibling's newly gained strength breaks far more than they can afford.
He learns about demons and what he can and can’t do around them.
The incense cannot be lit again, most of his siblings seem to get incredibly harsh rashes at the smell of wisteria.
Veggies and anything related to plant matter is now ultimately only part of Tanjirou’s meals, as the others seem to be unable to digest them.
They all tend to stay away from him when he hurts himself, either by taking the others far until he tends to his cuts, or hiding inside the house when he works with fire.
He has fashioned curtains for the windows and darker shogi paper so the sun that rarely peeks through cannot reach his siblings.
Tanjirou now also tends to sleep far less, to keep his siblings company, even though he works more than ever, and he’s exhausted, he wants to make sure they’re fine.
They hunt together, and he takes to practicing with a bow to help them catch anything that flies.
Most of their meals are either some kind of red meat, bone broth (sometimes mixed with rice), or any bird they manage to catch.
He finds the ceremonial clothes he’s supposed to wear for their new year tradition, fixed and clean, and when he has time, practices for their kagura. He hopes that Hinokami answers his prayers once more, and brings his parents back.
The siblings all enjoy seeing him dance, and also seem to want to help, but they are now far too strong to deal with their normal tasks, so until they can stop breaking their tools, they’ve been relegated to getting wood and anything that doesn’t require as much finesse.
Everything is far from normal, but they’re together, and that’s all that matters.