Chapter Text
From the beginning, Nezuko had always knew she wasn't really what you could call a "normal" girl...
Adults, she could manage, they usually keep their remarks to themselves, at least most of them.
Children, however, weren't that wise, or even kind.
"What the deal with her hair?"
Nezuko started to hide the pink tips of her hair in a neat bun. She had tried to dye them with some coal; the result had been desastrous and ridiculous. Cut them ? The pink came back in just a few days.
And so, she hide it...
"Aren't her eyes weird? Why are they like this? I have never seen nor heard of someone with such an eye color! They are so creepy!"
She had lowered her head since then, staring at the ground and never risking to meet anyone's gaze...
"What's that strange mark in her neck?"
She began to wear scarves, concealing her birth mark, whether in the freezing winter or in the overwhelming heat of summer...
But the worst of it was probably when everyone discovered her particularity.
She hadn't think at the moment, half asleep and half nauseous from hunger, the carpenter needed help lifting a huge beam, and so, she simply helped... She just forgot that a young girl isn't supposed to be able to lift such a heavy thing all alone...
"What was that?!"
"What is she? A bear in disguise?!"
"Monster!"
Nezuko didn't go anymore in the little town...
She was fed up... fed up to receive mean remarks, fed up to feel out of place, fed up to be so miserable all the time; she didn't ask to be like this!
She won't lie, the demon that attacked her family got the burn of years of cumulated frustration, misery and anger.
Nezuko carved to be useful, to understand why she was born this way, to know that her strengh wasn't just a fluke, that it mean something...
The relief she felt when she met Mitsuri Kanroji, offering to train her, was so immense that she cried.
All of that, all of her being, wasn't a mistake...
***
Her father had been reluctant to let her go, so Nezuko had to insist, shamelessly using some lame excuse about Tanjiro's condition being her fault for not acting sooner. Maybe she looked desperate - and she was - but Nezuko didn't care, because deep down she knew that was the path she had to follow, her destiny.
After her father had finally agreed to let her cure Tanjiro, Nezuko left with her new master and her brother was brought to a certain Tamayo.
From what she understood, Tamayo was also a demon, but abstinent, who worked with the slayers for several hundred years, under the protection of the Rengoku clan. Mitsuri assured them that Tanjiro will be completly safe with them and that they were the best suited to take charge of her big brother's situation.
Well, Nezuko doubted that he will be a problem in the near futur, having regressed at the same mentality than a toddler and then falling asleep in their mother's lap without a care in the world - but she wasn't going to question the Pillar's decision.
***
The training started with ... a diet.
Because Nezuko was way too much underweight compared to her physical abilities. To make simple, her body consumed so much energy, she would die prematurely of exhaustion and starvation if she did not feed herself more.
The statement gave her goosebumps and she swallowed her embarrassment as she eat even more than Mitsuri - and Mitsuri eat a lot.
However, she had to admit that, after only a few weeks, she no longer felt the exhaustion that had always accompanied her, leaving place to a kind of restless energy that Nezuko took pleasure at exhausting during training.
But, she keep limiting herself, anguished at the idea that she could hurt someone again - she had already broke her father arm the day she saved him from his near death when he almost fell from a cliff, she hadn't controled her strengh. Even if a broken arm was better that being death, she didn't wish to repeat the experience... specially when she could break a boulder with a little flick of her fingers.
***
"Well, it just mean that Nezuko-chan is exceptional."
The declaration was said nonchalantly, as it was a obvious fact. It probably was for Zenitsu with whom she trained regularly. He said that casually, with a soft smile and sincerity in his warm amber eyes. He did truly thought what he said.
Nezuko had been told that she was a monster, the word spat with such disgust she erased herself, she was told that she was normal, told with benevolence but she felt ashamed of herself for not being ordinary... Then her world changed little by little, her love and admiration for her teacher helping her to accept herself, letting her hair out in a braid, head high. Though, 'accepting' doesn't mean 'loving'...
And then, he said that she was exceptional...
And suddenly, her shoulders felt so light, her heart started to beat so hard she swear it was going to burst out of her chest, a pleasant warmth on her cheeks.
She didn't realise she had begun to cry until Zenitsu started to fuss over her.
"Nezuko-chan?! Are you alright? Is it what I said? Did it upset you? I'm so sorry!"
She giggled between her tears. Zenitsu acted always so cold and mature, when in fact he was such a sweetheart, it was funny that a lot were afraid of him...
***
After the Selection, in which it hadn't had a single death for the first time in all history of the Slayers, Nezuko went through the missions, feeling proud of each person saved who thanked her warmly. She knew she could still do better ... but Tanjiro had a knack for getting in the path of her sword.
Of course, she was glad that Tanjiro was himself again, more or less because he was still a demon ... She was happy, really, but Tanjiro was just a bother during the missions...
She should have accepted Tamayo's proposition.
***
Nezuko frowned, sprawled on her back, gazing at the starry sky. This mission was really very strange; first there had been this Lower Moon which had merged with the train, and now an Upper Moon had appeared, sending her flying away when she wanted to prevent it from attacking Senjurou.
"I don't attack weak little girls!" he had shouted.
And the next second, Nezuko was several hundred yards away, a slight tug in her muscles, but other than that she was fine. Physically at least, she was fine.
Nezuko was much more stunned at the demon's words; shocked even.
Weak...
He had called her weak ...
Weak...
Weak?
Nezuko?
Weak?
Weak?!
She stood up abruptly, anger running through her veins and sprinted towards the carcass of the train.
Speeding through the battlefield, Nezuko smacked the demon with all her might before the astonished gaze of the Rengoku brothers.
Driven by rage, she screamed:
"Don't underestimate me, asshole! I'm your opponent !!"
Never Nezuko had feel so insulted in her life. She was going to show this Upper Moon which one of them was weak!