Chapter Text
Shinobu’s long since trained her crow to give silent messages. Her crow is fast and capable, enough so that with a triple-flap of her wings she knows Shinobu understands. She begins to fly north and Shinobu begins to run. What Shinobu sees is a shadow leaving heading up the mountain she’s patrolling. The moon is beginning to rest on the horizon, but it’s snowing and the sun won’t be out for a long time. Quietly, swiftly, and efficiently, she follows.
She sees a little home covered in snow. A boy is working the front, shoveling charcoal into a large basket. “Mom!” The boy shouts. “I’m almost done! Do you want me to head down to get Nezuko yet?”
The shadow moves faster than Shinobu can blink. One minute it’s a few meters ahead of her, the next it’s gone, but the boy lets out a choked sound and is crumbling to his knees and he has a puncture on his forehead.
Oh no.
The shadow is completely out of sight.
Shinobu curses in her mind, both out of fear and out of empathy. If the boy got turned, that means that was Him. Muzan.
But it also means she’ll have to kill the demon in front of his family.
“Tanjiro?” A woman’s voice calls from outside. The door cracks open and a woman — perhaps in her late thirties — gasps. “Tanjiro!”
She rushes to her son’s side and Shinobu feels a pang in her heart. “Tanjiro, baby, no,” she whispers, tears filling her eyes.
Shinobu clears her throat. “Ma’am?”
The woman snaps her head up. Shinobu smiles Kanae’s favorite smile, since she says that’s her most welcoming expression. “I’m sorry, but your son is a demon now.”
The woman pales. “What do you mean?” She asks, clutching him tightly.
“Your son was turned into a demon just now by another demon,” Shinobu says. “It’s what happens when certain demons transfuse blood into humans. That’s why he’s breathing,” she says. “He’s not dead, but…”
The woman lets out a sob. “He’ll—He’s a good boy. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt us. He’s a good son. A good brother.”
Shinobu pulls out her sword. “My nichirin blade is one that cannot kill by decapitation,” she says, tracing her finger on the tip. “I use poisons because I’m not physically strong. If you’d like, I can use a painless poison…”
“No!” The woman hugs his face to her collar. That’s dangerous, Shinobu thinks. “He’s — Tanjiro is strong.”
The clouds hide the sun from rising.
Shinobu hears someone walking behind them. It sounds like a girl, humming a soft melody. Shinobu sighs. “Ma’am,” she probes gently. “Either I do it now, peacefully, or I do it later when he’s eaten you.”
“He won’t do it,” the woman shakes her head. “You don’t know him. He just turned.”
“We can’t guarantee that later, ma’am,” Shinobu feels herself starting to get frustrated.
The humming stops. A gasp.
“Tanjiro?”
The woman lets out another cry. “N-Nezuko!”
A girl with long, dark brown hair tied up in a tight bun and a pair of strange earrings rushes up to her mother and brother. “Is he — He —”
“He just got turned into a demon,” Shinobu repeats, her patience wearing thin. “I can either end this now or let you all get killed. I assume you have more children in the house, ma’am?”
Nezuko stares at her with pleading eyes. “No, he wouldn’t do it! He’s a good person!”
“As your mother has said,” Shinobu fights the urge to roll her eyes. She points her sword at the group of three. “But your brother is a liability to your family now. He is a demon that may eat you when you sleep. If I don’t kill him, he may kill you. Is that a risk you’re willing to take?”
“Yes!” Nezuko cries out, her pink eyes filling with large tears. “Because I — we — know Tanjiro! He’d never try and hurt us!”
Grr.
Shinobu flies back as the boy wakes up. What were once short fingernails stained with charcoal dust are now claws, long and black. His eyes are bright red with black slits for pupils and his teeth are sharp fangs. He lunges at her, and Shinobu lets her heart fill with Kanae’s pity. I told you so, she thinks softly. She pulls her arm back and prepares an attack when the demon stops running towards her.
Instead, Tanjiro runs back to his sister and stands in front of her, back to her face, his red eyes trained on Shinobu.
“Oh?” Shinobu tilts her head. The boy lets out another growl.
“Don’t!” Tanjiro yells out, the word slurred by his teeth. His eyes are flickering all over the place. “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t.”
Nezuko and her mother hold each other as they cry.
Shinobu clicks her tongue. “Impressive,” she admits. “Let’s ask you, then,” she says sweetly. “Do you want me to end this? I can do so painlessly, you know.”
Tanjiro’s eyes flicker to her sword. He pulls his arm closer and drags his black claw across his neck.
Shinobu drops her sword, stunned. She didn’t expect him to want to die. Most demons, even the incredibly rare docile ones, rarely want to let go of their new immortality.
“Tanjiro!” Nezuko shrieks. “No! We believe in you!” She breaks out of her mother’s hold and launches herself at her brother. The pins fall out of her hair, her long tresses flowing down her back like water. “No, no, I’ve got you,” she murmurs. “I’m going to turn you back. You didn’t attack us. You only protected us because you thought we were in danger, yeah?”
Tanjiro wiggles his finger up and down. “Yeah,” Nezuko smiles, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I’ll turn you back into a human, okay?”
Tanjiro tries to mimic her smile, like he’s forgotten how to do it on his own.
He closes his eyes and falls asleep.
“Huh,” Shinobu says.
The woman — Kamado Kie — gives Shinobu some tea. “I’m sorry for the trouble,” Kamado says, bowing low enough for her forehead to touch the floor as they sit.
“No, no, don’t worry,” Shinobu smiles. “My older sister is the same way. Always looking out for me and our youngest sister. So stubborn about it, too.”
Kamado gasps, delighted. “Tell me about your family!”
Shinobu giggles. “My older sister is named Kanae. She’s very sweet, even when she’s slashing demon’s heads off. She’s very talented, she even made her own sword technique for herself and me. My little sister is named Kanao, and she’s… eccentric. She’s quiet and likes to keep to herself, but she’s training to join the Corps just like Kanae and I.”
“The Corps,” Kamado repeats, sighing into her tea. “Nezuko said she was going to join to try and turn Tanjiro back. I am made… uncomfortable, by the notion of my daughter slaughtering demons.”
“Why?” Shinobu asks, taking a sip.
She hesitates, then whispers, “I don’t want her to be alone.”
As if summoned, Tanjiro wakes up. Shinobu fastened a bamboo gag to his mouth to keep his teeth hidden away from the younger siblings, and he pokes at it before turning to his mother. He points to himself, then to Nezuko.
“If you wander with her, you might get struck by the sun…” Kamado says.
Tanjiro shakes his head.
“How will you move with her during the day?” Kamado challenges.
Tanjiro pokes his head out of the window, making sure it’s still snowy out. He leaves the small home then comes back with the charcoal carrier.
Then he shrinks.
“Oh!” Kamado gasps, bringing her son close to her chest. “You haven’t been this small since you were five, Tanjiro!”
He presses the bamboo gag to her cheek like it’s a kiss before crawling into the charcoal carrier. He puts his hands up to mimic covering his face from the sky and Kamado nods. “I see,” she says. “We have some sheets you can wrap around that for now. If you leave, will you promise to send letters?”
“Now, Kamado,” Shinobu sets her cup down. “Surely you don’t expect me to leave you here?”
The woman blinks. “What do you mean?”
“I interrupted a demon from feeding,” Shinobu drawls. “It likely thought it would be worth too much trouble to pursue you with a slayer on its trail. If I leave you in your little isolated mountain home, I’d be leaving you and your children in a lot of unnecessary danger.”
“Oh,” Kamado says quietly. “I…”
Shinobu stands. “My sister is a Pillar,” she says. “All of the Pillars are given estates close to heavily patrolled areas. The Butterfly Estate, which is where we live, has other estranged families and children orphaned by demons. If you’d allow me, I could bring you all with me. And… it means Nezuko could train in the company of her family.”
Another little girl crawls closer and rests her cheek on her mother’s lap. “Mama,” she says. “Why is Tanjiro so little?”
“Hanako,” Kamado says softly. “Mama’s having an important conversation,” her eyes meet Shinobu’s. “Will my children be safe?”
Shinobu nods. “Of course.”
Kamado shuts her eyes and exhales. She opens them after a few seconds.
“We’ll go. Hanako, Takeo,” Kamado stands up. “Get your things. We’re leaving.”
“Mama?” Takeo rubs his eyes.
Kamado stares out the window. “We’re leaving.”