Chapter Text
Sam took a deep breath as he walked through the rice fields on the outskirts of the village he lived in. The warm air felt like pure sunlight as it bathed and drenched his skin in warmth and bliss. This is why he loved being in the country. He hated the cold hard stone floors drenched with depression and blood of the city. He much prefered where he was, the rumors of demons was… unsettling at times, and a few people went missing after long nights in the farms but that was to be expected. Wild animals are dangerous and deadly too. Sam shifted the axe he had strapped to his back, the uncomfortable leather and wooden hilt scratching into his back and rubbing it raw as he walked, looking for a tree to cut.
“Mother needs wood..” He muttered to himself as he continued searching for a small tree to cut down. He slowed for a moment as he heard a twig snap. He paused, turning in a circle slowly, he heard leaves rustling and saw a stick go flying in a direction. His breath quickened and he slowly pulled the axe from his back, brandishing it. “...” Who’s there?” He says with a slight growl, not a fan of being stalked and this lack of action was making him extremely tense.
He waited for a moment, carefully observing the area before sighing after not hearing much and continuing his search. Demons couldn’t walk around so freely in the daytime, the risk of sunlight exposure was far too great to ignore.
A few hours pass by and the sun has gone down for the most part. Lugging his pile of wood and dragging it to the village in a large net was taxing. He had an unusual amount of stamina for his age or for people in general. Once, a large pack of wolves were chasing boars through the fields, Sam went out with most of the men and got separated, the wolves then decided to target him. He ran from them for two days and three nights before arriving back at the village into the loving arms of his parents. He felt no fatigue whilst dragging the wood, only mild annoyance and discomfort.
The discomfort hit a lot harder when he saw houses in flames.
His stomach sank, his ears tuned out the screams and were filled with his own heartbeat, a melody only echoing with the roar of flames, ramping its intensity. The darkness of night only highlighted the harsh glow of flames against wood. He abandoned his net but had enough sense about him to keep a grip of his axe. His vision was slightly blurry as the once beautiful rice fields that he walked through just this morning were ruined. Blood accenting the green stems and the muddy water turning into a muddled red. A few bodies lay there, burned and slashed with what looked like claw marks. He turned his head away and took a breath, forcing his tears back and choking a sob back down.
He ran into the village gates that were obviously bashed in and ran inside, stopping for a moment as he saw a figure burning his own house with flames coming out of its mouth.
Sam stopped breathing, he couldn’t even hear his heartbeat at this point, all that was left were the screams of his mother and little sister in the house, being burned alive. He screamed and rushed the figure, watching as it turned to him. It’s eyes seemed to glow, its skin was a muddled red, just like the color of blood in the muddy water of the rice fields. Its nose was more of a horn than a nose, it gleamed like silver. The creature smiled and laughed in a grating high pitch tone, its teeth were long and sharp, its mouth stained with blood.
Sam didn’t let fear shake him, he ran at the demon, rage fuling his movement as he swung at the demon with the axe, he felt it sink into the creature’s skin. He expected to hear a scream, a groan, some sort of indication that he caused pain to the creature, instead, he heard a loud
thunk!
as the bladed weapon sunk to bone, and then more laughter.
"Oh? How cute! A human child with beautiful eyes and a wonderful figure!" It complimented, licking its lips and stalking forwards, causing Sam to fall and land on his ass in shock, he began to attempt to crawl away before seeing smoke come out of its nose. "Ah ah ah! No escaping me, little human!" The demon spoke with a shit eating grin. Maniacal glee painted all over its face. "I wonder how I should kill you… Burn you? No, that wouldn't be as fun… Kill you with your own axe?! Yes! That is going to be fun!"
Sam was frozen, fear and shock taking over as the demon pulled the axe out of its shoulder. The demon giggled with glee at his face of terror as the wound closed up with a wet sound. The boy finally found it in him to crawl away, he got to his feet and began to run as the demon smiled and aimed to throw the axe at him. Sam took a glance behind him and saw the axe sailing for his head.
Footsteps, a striped haori, the chink of metal, the swing of a sword, the smell of burning flesh.
“Demons always smell awful upon death… such disgusting creatures…” A man spoke, a pinstriped black and white haori in his face, he looked up and saw a snake staring back at him with the man looking at the dissolving form of the demon. Sam took a breath and shuffled backwards slightly. The man instantly turned, turquoise and orange eyes met soft whitish pink eyes.
“Wh-Who are you? What just happened?!” Sam yells out, slight anger replacing his confusion. The man considered the question for a moment. He then kicked the axe on the ground, it landed a few feet away from Sam.
“You’re angry..” The man stated, he then began to walk away.
Sam felt anger fill him. “Answer me dammit!” The boy picked up the axe. “Don’t you dare leave!”
The man continues walking, the snake staring at Sam, watching his every move. Sam saw the man tense slightly when he picked up the axe. “You’re angry and weak, boy. Find another village. There’s one in the mountains to the east.” The man kept walking undisturbed, however his muscles remained tense, ready for any kind of action.
Sam snarled and ran at the man, anger fuling his movments as he swung. He saw a flash of movement from the man and threw the axe up and flipped backwards. Watching as the man was suddenly in front of him with his fist striking the ground where Sam once stood. The man raised his eyebrow, looking at Sam as if seeing him for the first time.
Sam picked up a rock from the ground, probing through the broken glass and wooden splinters of houses before he glanced up, seeing the axe begin its quick descent. The man spares a glance upwards, seeing the axe begin to fall. That was his mistake.
Sam threw the rock which hit the snake on the snout before charging the man again. The man winced when his snake was hit and looked down at the charging boy and blocked his first swing but was taken off guard slightly when the boy forced him to jump by attempting to sweep his legs out from under him…
What is the boy playing at?
The man noticed a smirk of satisfaction on the boy’s face and widened his eyes as he looked up, his snake was still recovering from the rock throw. The axe was inches from his face. The man took a breath, and moved with ridiculous speeds, grabbing the axe and then slamming the handle of the weapon into the boy’s back.
Sam nearly threw up, his vision was swimming as he looked up at the man who was staring at him strangely. He gagged before getting to his hands and knees shakily.
“What is your name, boy?” The man asks him, still watching him, with what, Sam couldn’t figure out.
“...Sam.. Sam Tehera.”
“Are you aware of demon slayers?” The man asks, his snake looking at Sam with clarity.
“I… know of them.” Sam respondes warily, he just got his ass kicked by this man.
“You are weak, you tried and failed extremely quickly to kill it-”
“Hey!-” Sam began, attempting to protest.
“And yet,” the man continued, ignoring Sam, “you came at me with ingenuity and strategic power. You wanted to distract me and close in on both sides.” The man deduced.
“...What of it?” Sam asked, curious as to where this was going.
“You have the potential to become someone… someone strong.” The man spoke with a sure tone. “My name is Obanai Iguro, I am a Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corps, The Serpent Pillar.” The man puffed up his chest subconsciously, his tone one of pride and his eyes showing confidence unrivaled.
Sam looked at Obanai with a bit of mirth. “....Nice to meet you?”
Obanai flinched at his disregard of his boasting and cleared his throat. “Don’t you wish to be stronger, Tehera?” Sam looked at the ground. “Don’t you wish you could’ve stopped the demon from slaughtering your friends and family?” Sam began to shake. “Don’t you wish you could’ve prevented this entire event? Well… The past is not something we can change nor revise.” Sam feels tears in his eyes.
“Yet… The future is something that is never confirmed. You can become someone, Tehera. You can become someone who prevents things like this from happening to hundreds of other people. Other humans that don’t have the power to defend themselves.” Sam glared at the Pillar.
“I.. I want to become stronger.”
“Good.” Obanai replied, he turned and began to walk. “Follow me then, Tehera. First we go to my estate. You need to get stronger, I don’t have enough time to appreciate the scenery.”
Sam nods and gets up on shaky legs, following the man who he notices, is making no noise as he walks.
They had been walking for hours, Obanai was extremely impressed by Sam’s endurance, the boy kept pace with him the whole way, not even showing a small bit of fatigue, especially with no training. Interesting. Obanai wasn’t very excited at the prospect of training a brat but, this boy intrigued him to no end. He wasn’t a very calculated person, Obanai saw the realization after the boy dodged his slow punch that he couldn’t win, and yet, the boy was clever with how he went about attacking Obanai. He kept up constant pressure, forcing him to use total concentration to move quick enough to dodge the axe, it was impressive. A good show of an advanced understanding of battle and quite a good strategy. Had Obanai been weaker he might’ve perished to the hands of a boy.
Obanai began climbing the mountain to his home, keeping up the same speed and watching as the boy behind him showed no signs of tiring. This was going to be
fun
if he just had lots of endurance.
Obanai glanced at his snake, Kaburamaru was staring at the boy, keeping watch for him. Hm.
“Boy.” Obanai spoke, and startled Sam out of whatever thoughts he was in.
“Yes, Obanai-sama?” The boy responded easily, he looked at him in confusion when he saw Obanai cringe.
“Call me. Obanai-Sensei if anything. I’m not a god..” The man says, continuing his walk.
“Ok, Obanai-Sensei.” The boy said again, correcting himself.
“The training we will be doing.. It is not for the faint of heart.” Obanai said, keeping his gaze in front of himself, not slowing pace.
“I underst-”
“No you don’t, boy.” Obanai interrupts. “You will learn how to twist your body, how to coil it in like a serpent before striking with devastating speed. You will learn how to wield a sword, how to breathe properly, how to watch others die just to slay one demon.” With every single word Obanai has spoken, the flames in Sam’s eyes only seem to grow.
“Are you saying I cannot keep up with it?” He responds, a dangerous tone on his tongue.
“I am warning you.”
“And I thank you, but I am not backing down.” Steel accents the boy when he speaks, no question or hesitation in his conviction. Obanai hummed with approval.
“Good. Because we’ve just arrived at my home, and what is going to be yours for the remainder of your stay. If you survive the final selection, you’ll be my Tsuguko.”
Sam, not knowing the weight behind the term, simply nodded.
“Then let us begin.” Obanai spoke, motioning for Sam to follow him. He began to walk into a cavern near the house, Sam following him with mild curiosity. As it got darker and darker Sam simply got more and more confused, focusing on the sound of Obanai’s footsteps to locate him before suddenly, he felt the snake on his shoulder and heard from the entrance of the cavern.
“Now come back. If you get here before sunrise, I might let you eat!” The man shouted before leaving, presumably to his home.
“What… WHAT?!” Sam yelled out, he had no idea where to go! He was just following Obanai-Senpai! How the hell was he supposed to know where to go?! The serpent on his shoulder hissed and slapped his chest with its tail, which startled Sam. “What the hell?!”