Chapter Text
The sun shone down warmly upon the earth. It was a bright, beautiful day. Yamashi Koen stared up into the clear blue sky. No person ever lived completely free of hardship, that he knew, but he reflected on how fortunate he had been. Two living and loving parents who had raised him well, a beautiful wife who he wouldn’t trade for the world, two healthy children, and even a family farm where it seemed no drought or disease would touch it. He sighed in content and lowered his eyes to his daughter, Kagayaku. The young girl squealed in delight as the chickens surrounded her, clucking in excitement for the food she had for them. Aged only 9, Kagayaku was already a beauty, like her mother. Koen knew that as she grew, she would only become even more lovely. When she became of age, she’d have men lining up to ask for her hand. “You missed one, dear. Over there.”
Not far from the house, Chiyo and her her husband, Taiyo, sat in the field harvesting some of the crops for their son. Taiyo scratched his head and looked back at the lone bean pod he had left on
the stalk. He leaned forward and bit it off the stem. His wife gasped beside him and promptly met his arm with a gentle smack.
“Taiyo! You cheeky devil! These are Koen’s crops!” She chided her husband. Taiyo only laughed in response. He waved her off.
“Oh, you know our dear boy won’t be sore that I ate one bean.” He told her, chuckling softly. Chiyo only laughed at shook her head at his antics.
“You’re awful!”
Inside the Yamashi residence, small feet pattered against the tatami. Kirameki glanced over his shoulder. A giggle of boyish delight bubbled out of him as his mother’s figure grew smaller.
“5….4….3…”
The fuschia-haired boy quickly rushed into a room near the back of the house. He ducked under a small writing desk and giggled again. This room’s shoji was partly open. Surely his mother would be fooled and think he ran outside!
“2….1! Ready or not, here I come, Kira-kun!” Rumiko called out to her son. Kirameki moved his hands over his mouth to stifle his laughter. He felt excitement bubbling up inside of him. There was absolutely no way his mother would find him this time!
Rumiko had known exactly what room Kirameki had ran to. Her son had a heavy footfall for a five-year-old. However, she humor him. She walked just in sight from the doorway of the room Kirameki was hiding in.
“My, my! Just where could my sweet, little boy be?” She wondered aloud, placing her hands on her hips. Rumiko stooped down.
“Is he under the tatami?” She asked loudly, lifting up a mat. Kirameki bit down on his haori to hold in his fit or giggles. His little feet kicked in front of him. He continued to watch her with gleeful eyes.
Standing up straight again, Rumiko’s eyes moved to a shut door to her right. She slowly reached for the the door.
“Maybe he’s in….HERE!” She slid the door open. Her expression quickly shifted into one of terror as a cry left her. A pale arm shot out from the now open doors and grabbed Rumiko by the throat, cutting off any sound she’d been producing. Kirameki flinched back, tears forming in his eyes. A head slowly emerged. The skin was sickly pale, almost gray in color. Short, straight, black hair hung in it’s face. It’s eyes were an unnatural pink and were unlike any human’s. A fangly grin painted it’s lips. Strange markings of a deep indigo adorned it’s body. Kirameki shivered in fear from the sight of this monster. He knew it had to be a demon. His grandmother had told him about the many she had encountered in all her years of life and work as a priestess.
The demon took a fistful of Rumiko’s hair, tugging her closer to his face. He took a big whiff. A contented sigh left him.
“Ahhh, you smell so good.” He commented. Rumiko looked back at him, eyes wide, mouth agape and tears sitting in her eyes. A chuckle rumbled out of him at the sight of her.
“I got into this house just in time, y’know? The sun was creeping up on me, but someone here left that shoji open. And now, here I am. After going days without a bit to eat, I’m sure you can imagine how grateful I am to have a tasty morsel like yourself just fall in my lap.”
Kirameki trembled uncontrollably. He wanted to do something! Anything! Save his mother, cry for help, go get his grandma, something! Put his fear kept his locked in place under the desk as he watched this demon threaten his mother.
“Thanks for the meal..” The demon laughed. Lifting his free arm, the demon sunk his claws into Rumiko’s throat and tore it open in a violent spray of blood. Her pupils seemed to shrink. Her body twitched in his hold as moist choking sounds left her before she went completely limp.
“MAMAAAAA!!” Kirameki screeched, tears now streaming down his face. The demon now looked over at him, blood and viscera spilling from his lips. He swallowed and smiled maliciously back at the little boy.
“Well, hello little one! I didn’t think I’d be having seconds today.”
Kirameki shuffled back until he was pressed against the wall. He shook his head as his eyes were wide in terror. Hot tears spilled from his eyes and ran down his cheeks. The demon tossed Rumiko’s lifeless corpse to the ground and began to move into the room Kirameki was in.
“NO! NO NO!! GO AWAY!!” The young boy screamed, picking up a fallen pen and chucking it at the demon. It fell short of closing the distance. The demon laughed at the feeble throw.
“Now, now, little boy. No need to get all worked up.” He snickered. With almost a flourish of his wrist, he threw the desk to the other side of the room. A shriek left Kirameki as he saw that pale, clawed hand shooting towards him.
In an instant, the demon found his hand pinned to the wall. He cried out in surprise. An arrow protruded from the back of his hand.
“W-What the hell??!”
He looked back to see an elderly priestess standing in the doorway, bow in hand. Her scowl was fierce. Kagayaku ran up behind her, clinging onto her grandmother’s legs. Her eyes fell to Rumiko’s body. A cry left her before she turned her face away. Chiyo looked down to her trembling grandson.
“Kirameki! Come over to me!” She told him.
The fuschia-haired boy scrambled to his feet. As he began to run, the demon swiped at him. A claw dragged over one of his eyes, slicing through the skin. He shut his eye as he fell to at Chiyo’s feet. Pain washed over him. The most he’d ever had happen pain wise was maybe a scraped knee. This was so much worse! He sobbed uncontrollably from the pain and grief as he clung to his mother’s body. His salty tears stung his wound, but he couldn’t stop crying.
The demon, meanwhile, growled in frustration. He furiously pulled at his hand. Much to his surprise, it wouldn’t come free. He looked back at Chiyo again.
“YOU DAMN WITCH! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME??”
Chiyo readied another arrow. The demon’s eyes went wide. He struggled to free himself again before he felt the shooting pain of an arrow piercing into his shoulder, pinning that to the wall as well.
“Those arrows have been blessed. You’ll find that you can’t be free of them yourself.” Chiyo explained to him. He growled before it turned to a calloused laugh.
“Maybe so, but you still can’t kill me! Do you plan on keeping me in your house for all eternity?” He snickered in delight.
The priestess pulled yet another arrow from her quiver. She raised her bow and pulled back the arrow.
“That’s where you’re wrong, you vile creature.”
The demon flinched back, his laughter immediately coming to a stop.
“The tips of these arrows are made with the same steel to make a demon slayer’s nichirin sword!”
With those words uttered, the air seemed to go still in the room. Chiyo fired her arrow. It tore through the flesh of the demon’s neck, severing the head from the body. The head fell to the floor with a soft thud, landing just short of where Kirameki was. His one open eye fixed on the still open ones of the demon. He saw how it’s lips twitched as if it were trying to find something to say. He could have fallen into tears all over from the sight, but he was too terrified to say or do anything more. He saw how the head and body slowly began to crumble and disappear. He was almost mesmerized by it.
Once the last of the soil had been packed, Kirameki laid the fresh handful of flowers he had picked on his mother’s grave. His father, grandmother, and grandfather knelt down and prayed for Rumiko’s safety in the afterlife. He stared blankly down at the mound of dirt where his mother’s body laid under. Kagayaku took his hand in her own and fresh tears filled his eyes. Something rang in his mind. He looked over at his grandmother.
“Bachan!”
Chiyo looked over at Kirameki and tilted her head.
“What’s a demon slayer?” He asked.
The old woman smiled gently back at him. She moved closer and placed a hand on his head.
“Shin'ainaru-kun e; demon slayers have been around for longer than even me. They are special swordsman who have dedicated themselves to protecting people like us from the demons that plague this earth.”
These words struck something inside of Kirameki. Protect people from demons like the one who killed his mother and slashed his face? That was something that he would want to do. If this is how much it hurt to lose someone so important to you because of a demon, he didn’t want anyone else to have to experience it. His mother deserved justice. She had done absolutely nothing to deserve the death she had received. It was then in that moment Kirameki made up his mind.
He would become a demon slayer.