Chapter Text
Zenitsu was sobbing while dodging Aoi’s swipes at him. It was gross the way he was crying, snotty and tears running down his face while he felt his cheeks go into probably an ugly shade of red, and judging by Aoi’s increasingly bigger scowl, she was this close to knocking him out and forcing him to put on the damn haori.
“Zenitsu!” Aoi shrieked shrilly, and finally she stopped in the middle of the room while he huddled in the corner, shaking. She shook the haori in her hands angrily, the cloth fluttering with her furious movements, and she said, “you have to put this on and leave already! You’re late as it is!”
“Aoi,” Zenitsu moaned, feeling lightheaded as he backed himself into the corner even more. “That haori is cursed! I know it is!”
In truth, it really wasn’t. The hoari in question was a pretty one, a light purple color with white triangles stitched into the fabric by thread, but it was what the haori meant that had Zenitsu wanting to crawl into the ground and never come out again. If he put that damned cloth on, it meant that he was officially going to go to Final Selection, and goddammit, why was he even approved by Shinobu?
He knew he was too weak, could barely go without saying something stupid or crying his eyes out, and still Shinobu had said he was ready.
“Is he still being a crybaby?”
Zenitsu looked up with tears in his eyes to see Shinobu in the doorway, her smile as pleasant as ever but her noise irritated as she nodded at Aoi and took the haori into her arms.
Aoi huffed, glared at Zenitsu, and then stomped out before slamming the door behind her.
“Come, sit down,” Shinobu said, looking graceful as she carefully placed herself on Zenitsu’s folded futon and smoothed out the sleeves of her own haori. Looking at her only made Zenitsu more glum, reminding him that she was far more regal and in control than he could ever be with his own body, and he sighed before walking over and sitting down beside her.
“Why are you making me go," Zenitsu sighed, letting the last of his tears drop before he irritably wiped the rest away. He tugged on a piece of his hair, the dark color a such a contrast against his nervous and pale skin that he immediately let go of the strands before sniffling angrily.
"Nee-san chose this haori," Shinobu said.
Zenitsu stiffened at the mention of their older sister. His blood was boiling as he gritted his teeth and clenched his hands in his lap - just the thought of her was enough to have him so angry that he felt he could lunch mountains in his rage. Her death had been stupid, meaningless, horrifying, and all because of that cowardly Upper Bloom who dared to kill the person who'd taken Zenitsu in and -
"She picked it out the moment you came home with us," Shinobu continued to say, and her voice was soft as she stroked a triangle with a finger, like she was trying to find some trace of Kanae in the fabric. "And I told her that it was such a dumb idea - you were hardly twelve years old and already she chose you to become a demon slayer. Not only that, she picked this haori up even though it was clearly too big for you at the time."
Zenitsu was silent as he watched Shinobu sigh and clutch at the purple haori like it was a lifeline, and her sound became bitter with grief as she said, "I told her, how can she know that you'd be such a great slayer? How does she know that you'll succeed?" She unfolded the haori laid it out across his lap, and smiled sweetly at him. "She was right, because she's always right. You're a warrior, Zenitsu, but more than that, you're my little brother."
Zenitsu was crying as he leaned into Shinobu's shoulder and wept like he did the night Kanae died and she was buried. Just like back then, he was crying silently, streams of tears running down his face while he sniffled and Shinobu stroked his hair.
"I-I don't want to d-dishonor her," Zenitsu croaked.
"You won't," Shinobu said fiercely, convincingly, and when he looked at her, he could only sigh helplessly before pulling the haori on.
It fit perfectly like Shinobu said it would. It hung loosely but not overly on his shoulders, and when he tied his hair up with a small ribbon, he looked at himself in the mirror and had to turn and cough before he started crying again. There wasn't a lot that could relate Zenitsu with his two sisters, but his dark hair was the only trait he shared with them. It had been such a proud aspect for him that he'd grown it out long, trying to prove that he was worthy of being the little brother, but now, it only served to remind him that Shinobu was his only sister, now.
"One last touch," Shinobu sing-songed quietly, and he blinked as she went onto the tips of her toes and something attached itself right at the base of Zenitsu's hair tail.
He gaped in the mirror, a trembling hand reaching up and touching the butterfly clip that Shinobu had pinned into his hair. He recognized the color and the veins of the wings, and he was whirling around and hugging Shinobu so tightly that he would have been worried if it wasn't for the fact she hugged him back just as much.
Five minutes later, Zenitsu was waving goodbye to the entirety of the Butterfly Estate with a new haori on his shoulders, a sword on his hip, and Kanae's butterfly clip in his hair.
The trek to the wisteria mountain where the selection took place was actually rather fun - he rarely left home without Shinobu or Aoi to accompany him, but it was easy to get lost in the freedom of it all, especially whenever he saw certain flowers and had to sit down and draw them in his tiny sketchbook.
Admittedly, Zenitsu could be sort of an air-head when it came to certain things (like clouds and birds and trees and - whatever, so he liked a lot of nature, okay?) and could get side tracked very easily, and as such, he was embarrassed that he was one of the last few students trickling into the base of the mountain when he knew that the Butterfly Estate wasn't too far away.
Zenitsu sighed dreamily to himself as he took in the sight of the area - it was beautiful, almost unbelievably so, how the wisteria trees bloomed all throughout the year and seemed to glow in the darkness of the setting sun. The petals were all purple and vibrant, and when he lifted a hand and let some petals fall gently into his fingers, he cooed at the velvet touch of them.
" - elcome, everyone," someone said, and Zenitsu jumped before sheepishly realizing that in his fascination with the flowers, two girls had somehow materialized at the back of the area right underneath a red gate. They were both cute in the sort of they're-probably-haunted-dolls kind of way, and Zenitsu's nerves returned full force when the area sounded like determination, fear, and anxiety.
The one with the white hair somehow spoke seamlessly with her twin, taking over the conversation not even a beat later by continuing with, "congratulations on attending the Final Selection for the Demon Slayer Corps. As you can see, the mountain here is one of the few areas where wisteria trees bloom through all seasons."
"The wisteria," the other one began. "Which demons hate so much, is what is trapping them on the mountain. In order to pass Final Selection and become demon slayers, you must survive seven days and seven nights on this mountain."
"Those who survive will become official members of the Demon Slaying Corps."
"Good luck, everyone," the both of them bowed, and with that, they stood apart, both of them holding up a lantern and casting an eerie orange glow beyond the gate.
At first, no one moved, but then someone darted into the gate, his white haori fluttering around him like some kind of hazy cloud, and his movements causing a frenzy as the dozens of students began shouting and running in as well.
Zenitsu hadn't wanted to go charging in, not when it was such a stupid idea to do this in the first place, but he got swept up in the storm of students so before he knew it, he was pushed beyond the gate and was soon so far from it that he couldn't see the glow of the wisteria or the lanterns.
For a moment Zenitsu stood there, frowning up at the night sky and tears already beginning to gather around his eyes before the first sounds of a demon grated his ears. It was horrendous, loud and screeching and like nails to a chalkboard, and Zenitsu only barely managed to jump out of the way and crouch on the branch of a tree before a demon was pouncing on the spot he was standing just seconds before.
"A pretty giiiiiirl," the demon hissed, its long tongue slithering out of its mouth and its too-big blue eyes staring at him in a way that gave him chills. "I haven't tassssted the sssssssupplness of a female in monthssss!"
Zenitsu squawked. "I'm a boy! What, you think guys can't have long hair? Huh? I'm going to make you repent for saying that, you disgusting moron!"
The demon cackled, loud and gross and it said, "I'll kill you ssssssoon enough! You ssssssmell weak, I'll ssssswallow you in one gulp!"
"That's disgusting!" Zenitsu wailed, clinging to the branch. "Don't put such a gross picture in my head! Hey, wait, don't come near me!"
He shrieked as the snake demon began to claw at the trunk of the tree, its claws sinking into the wood like it was cotton while its long tongue licked its scaley lips. Zenitsu jumped off the tree and rolled onto the ground before bouncing to his feet, and he was crying again, tears rolling down his face as he unsheathed his sword and cried out, “why me, why me, why me! Goddammit, Shino-nee, I told you I wasn’t cut out for this!”
“Sssstay ssssstill so I can devour you!” The demon hissed, jumping back onto the ground and lifting its claws maliciously so they were glinting in the moonlight. It was meters away from Zenitsu, but the boy could already hear muscles start to clench in preparation for a jump.
“No thank you!” Zenitsu yelled, and he went into a proper stance, tightening his core and holding his sword in his hand while willing Kanae’s spirit to reach him. He could remember her words, gentle and carefree while still firm, and with that, he slowly took in a breath, the sweetness of the wisteria blooms filling the air even this far away, and he said, “Flower Breathing…” He exhaled. “First form…”
“Come here, girlie!” The demon shrieked, and it jumped, its claws diving straight for Zenitsu’s nose.
“Roses and Thorns!” Zenitsu leapt into the air, jumping from place to place while swinging his sword in the direction of the demon, a flurry of red rose petals bursting into the air and making everything smell hazy and sweet. His feet were bouncy but firm as he jumped around, leaping on rocks, dirt, trees, and bushes and grimacing as his blade made contact with the demon’s skin and it screamed in pain. It was a harsh noise on his ears, and he pursed his lips before giving one final swipe of his sword.
He shrieked and jumped away when the head flew off and smashed into the ground, making him wail as he landed neatly on the dirt and held his sword tight to his body while the snake demon slumped to its knees and began to disintegrate. “Oh, god, that’s disgusting!”
Still, the sound of death was horrible no matter who or what died, so Zenitsu felt guilty for feeling that tinge of remorse while he stood there and watched the blood flake off of his blade like ash. He knew that this demon had probably eaten a few people already, was vicious and cruel and had been ready to kill Zenitsu at a moment’s notice, but it’d been human once, hadn’t it? So Zenitsu sighed, bowed his head, and held his hands together in a short prayer.
May you find peace in your next life, Zenitsu thought, and with that, the body was gone, not even a trace of blood left behind to suggest what had just happened.
Just as he was about to turn away and find his way back to the wisteria trees, something rang throughout his ears that had him clasping a hand to his mouth and trembling. The demon he just killed seemed like nothing compared to this - this absolute horror screeching into his ears. It was unbelievable how much pain and suffering he could hear, and he wanted to cry, he wanted to crouch into a ball and stay there until the sun rose up because how was he supposed to survive if something that horrible was coming his way, he’d never make it, he knew he wouldn’t -
“SOMEONE HELP ME, PLEASE!”
Zenitsu jolted, hand still clamped to his mouth and sweat dripping down his face as he watched, wide-eyed, when a girl burst through the trees looking haggard and half-dead on her feet. She was sobbing, covered in multiple scratches and bleeding heavily from the forehead, and she tripped over a root and was unable to get back up, her limbs shaking. Not even seconds after her were long arms and hands bursting through the leaves, reaching straight for her, and she was screaming, so loud and piercing and inches from death -
“Flower Breathing, second form - Honorable Shadow Plum!” Zenitsu was darting forward and swinging his sword without hesitance, rotating his blade and shredding the demonic flesh like it was paper. He felt tears pooling in his eyes but his breathing and hands were steady as he crouched in front of the girl, sword outstretched and ready to strike again, and sure enough, something was thudding its way towards them.
Zenitsu shuddered when he caught first glimpse of the demon, its grotesque hands pushing away trees and leaves, and there was the sound of teeth grinding and horrible, raspy giggling.
“Ohhhh,” the demon cooed, and Zenitsu had to hold back a shudder. It was humongous, large in both height and width and wrapped with its own hands and arms. Its neck was thickly protected with two binds of flesh, and its eyes were a gross yellow color as it slowly moved past the last of the trees and stood from Zenitsu a few meters back. “What’s this? Hmmmm? Two girls, two girls! You’ll be the fiftieth and fifty-first I devour… yummy, hmmmm!”
Zenitsu bristled. This demon was the worst one yet, he told himself - if he stretched his hearing out he could hear the sounds of fighting and demons screaming, but none of them were as loud as this one in front of him. Fifty humans... this demon had eaten so many people, so many children, and the thought of it had Zenitsu’s hands gripping his sword tighter than ever.
“Tell me, black-haired girl,” the demon cooed, its voice warbling and vibrating. It giggled, holding two hands up to its head and where its mouth should be, its red nails glinting in the moonlight. “What time period is this, hmmm? Tell me!”
“It’s the T-Taisho period,” Zenitsu managed to say.
“Ho, so it’s the Taisho period,” the demon repeated, giggling even more. “Another era has passed and gone! How long has it been, do I think? Thirty? Fifty? Maybe even a hundred years! And they keep sending me more and more delicious meals, such a wonderful deal, don’t you think? I’m protected from those mangy pillars, and I get to devour all you little brats without even a - “
“Shut up!” Zenitsu screamed. He hated this demon, he realized. He hated it, hated it from the bottom of his heart, hated the way it sounded and laughed and mocked those souls he ate, hated it because Zenitsu could imagine the cries of the children that died at this monster's hands.
"How dare you speak to me that way, you little brat!' The demon shouted, and with sickening noises, srms shot out from its body heading straight for Zenitsu. "I'll eat you first, then I'll devour that girl behind you!"
"Not a fucking chance!" Zenitsu shrieked. "Flower Breathing, fifth form - "
"Wind Breathing, first form - "
"Peonies of Futility!"
"Dust Whirlwind Cutter!"
Zenitsu blinked as the wind picked around him, whipping his hair around him furiously while he leapt into the air and peony petals lashing throughout the air. He swung fiercely, the extra push from the harsh blow of wind helping him, and he swung nine more times, cutting through nine arms and blood splattering onto his clothes.
"Ew!" Zenitsu whined, landing on the ground and watching as the hand demon shrieked and stumbled back out of pain. "That was disgusting, and now I'm covered in blood! Why do these things always happen to me?"
"Be quiet," someone muttered, and Zenitsu turned his head to see a boy in a white haori standing beside him with his own blade drawn out.
He had big blue eyes and snow white hair that tapered off to the same blue at the tips, his bangs slicked back and pressed against his head despite the fact that it all looked wild and curly, and his Hanafuda earrings were clinking with the remnants of the wind. He sounded like a hurricane, Zenitsu thought dimly, fierce and whipping and ready to tear into this hand demon at a moment's notice, and Zenitsu glanced at the demon to realize in addition to Zenitsu's Flower Breathing, this guy's Wind Breathing had cut deep slashes into the demon's main body.
Two things hit Zenitsu right then - one, this boy had been the one to first run into the gate, his white haori plain and simple but easy to spot, and two, this boy was an absolute ass.
"Excuse me?" Zenitsu said shrilly. "Did you just tell me to be quiet?"
"Yes," the boy said, and his words were curt as he bent at the knees, wind starting to gather around his blade. "So please, for the sake of everyone's ears, shut your mouth."
"Like you can talk, sounding like a goddamn hurricane - "
"Look out!" The girl behind them screamed, and Zenitsu leapt to the right while hurricane boy jumped to the left.
Zenitsu landed neatly on the branch of a tree, crouching with his knees bent and his teeth gritted with his irritation. Still, this was no time to be pissed off at hurricane boy and his asshole personality, so Zenitsu took in a deep breath, ready to use another form, only to falter when the demon started speaking.
"You two," the demon giggled into its hands. "So loud, so petty! Just like those two fox children, don't you know? One who was a girl and angry with me, the other one with hair just as dark as hers, hmmmm, yes. Ohhhh they were the children of Urokodaki, that bastard who put me in here, and mmmm I always try to kill his children!"
It cackled, loud and horrible. "I told them, told them how they were numbers eleven and twelve, and oh that girl got so mad she went straight at me and I crushed her! That boy, oh he loved her, loved her like he'd love a sister, and he was so much stronger than she was but it wasn't long until he - "
"You piece of shit!" Zenitsu screamed, and it was Kanae all over again, that Upper Bloom mocking her and berating her death while Zenitsu could do nothing but watch, too weak to defend his own sister, but this time was different, he told himself. He was stronger, he knew the forms of Flower Breathing, had trained so hard that he thought he was going to die, and he would not let this demon kill anyone else!
"Hey, asshole," Zenitsu barked at the hurricane boy who was on a tree as well, his sword in his hands. Blue eyes pierced Zenitsu like knives but he ignored them and said, "we need to cut the head off, okay? Don't go slashing willy-nilly!"
"I know that," the boy mumbled.
"You'll never cut it off!" The demon giggled. "That black-haired brat was the strongest one I've met, and his sword broke right against my skin! You should have seen his face, the look in his eyes as I devoured him whole!"
"I'll make you repent for the lives you took," Zenitsu seethed, and he drew his sword, muscles tensing and anger coursing through him like liquid fire. He glared at hurricane boy and said, "I'll support you from behind, go and slash its head off!"
The boy nodded, and despite the fact that he didn't say anything, there was a fierce determination in his blue eyes as he drew in a breath in tandem with Zenitsu.
"You'll never kill me, you disgusting brats!"
"Flower Breathing, seventh form - "
"Wind Breathing, ninth form - "
"Dinnertime!"
Zenitsu jumped into the air at the same time as hurricane boy, and he let out his breath. "Petal Dance!"
"Idaten Typhoon!"
Petal Dance was a special sort of move, the final one Kanae had taught Zenitsu just months before she died. It filled the area with flowers, an overwhelming flurry of colors, smells, and shapes, meant to disorient the enemy so they wouldn't notice the swordsman attacking them. The air exploded with all kinds of flowers, and the area smelled so sweet that it was like sugar was spun into the air, but hurricane boy seemed to know what to do.
He didn't even blink at the flowers bloomed around him, and his voice was stony in his determination as wind gathered around his sword like a sheathe before it swept forward in a circular arc. It was so strong that Zenitsu had to hold a hand up to his face to keep dust from entering his eyes, but he watched through his fingers as the demon laughed loudly, reaching out, then stopped short.
Hurricane boy did it. With a clean slice of furiously fast wind, the demon's head flew into the air and splattered onto the ground grotesquely.
The area was so quiet compared to the noise from before that it was almost jarring to watch as the body negan to burn, flaking off into the wind and disappearing without a trace, but Zenitsu blinked when he heard the first few drops of tears fall from the demon's eyes.
It couldn't speak, not when its mouth had disappeared and the rest of it was burning away, but the sounds of anguish and remorse were tinging throughout its body.
Zenitsu sheathed his sword and walked over, but just as he was about to dip his head and give a small prayer, hurricane boy reached the demon before he could.
Hurricane boy didn't say anything, just kneeled onto the ground and took the demon's hand into his before resting his forehead against the knuckles, but it was like his Hanafuda earrings were clinking a silent prayer. Zenitsu didn't realize it until then, but he took in the sounds of the boy's heartbeat and was taken back by the sympathy coursing through the boy's veins.
Zenitsu dipped his chin, clasped his hands together, and thought, may you find peace in your next life.
He closed his eyes, hoped that his words would mean something to the gods and that this poor soul would rest easy in death, and then he muttered, "hey, hurricane boy… sorry for calling you an ass. I… guess you aren't as bad as I thought you were."
No answer.
"What, no response?" Zenitsu grumbled. "Look, I get I may have been a little mean, but there's no need to ignore me when I helped you take down the - hey!" Zenitsu's eyes opened and he looked around wildly, realizing that there was no one in the area except him and the girl from before, and he resisted the urge to scream into the air out of frustration.
He was wrong, that boy was definitely an asshole!
The rest of the week passed by okay. It was seriously disgusting having to kill all these demons, even worse when a good number of them released that faint sound of remorse, and by the end of the week, Zenitsu was tired, dehydrated from crying so much, and he was pretty sure that he’d broken one of his ribs after a particularly bad scuffle with a bird demon.
His mood only worsened when he trudged back to the wisteria trees and the gate to realize that only a few of them remained. There was hurricane boy sounding as windy and stoic as ever, sitting underneath a tree and his Hanafuda earrings clinking gently with the breeze, there was a girl with pink and green hair who was swaying to some unheard music, a blond boy who was for some reason shirtless, and the last one was a scary-looking boy with a shaved sides on his head. Zenitsu couldn’t believe that out of the dozens of students, only the five of them had survived.
Zenitsu turned away from them, especially hurricane boy, and was crying to himself silently as he lifted a hand and a butterfly landed gently on his curved finger. He adored butterflies - they were like parts of him by that point, and to his delight, the butterfly on his finger was a light pink color, matching the pin in his hair. He hoped that Kanae’s spirit was soothing him.
He let the butterfly tickle his chin with its curious antennas, and he tuned out the rest of the survivors in favor of playing with the butterfly.
When it was time to choose the ores for their nichirin blades, of course hurricane boy was the first one to step forward and reach out a hand towards one of the rocks. He seemed like the type to always take the first step, and when he accidentally brushed past Zenitsu and their shoulders touched, Zenitsu shuddered at the sound of a hurricane blowing through trees and he told himself that he was going to avoid this boy at all costs.
He was definitely more trouble than he was worth.