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Part 6 of Demon Slayer small stories
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2023-07-14
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2023-09-19
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2/?
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A fantasy dream brought to reality

Summary:

The encounter with the Kamado siblings and the Water Hashira, Tomioka Giyu, was the biggest turning point in the battle against Kibutsuji Muzan, due to the act of compassion from a seemingly emotionless man and the bond of siblings too loving for their own good. But what if a different Hashira whose Style ultimately came from Water Breathing was the one to come across the massacre instead? What if it was delayed? What if there was only 1 sibling to be found? And what if someone else became the Demon on that night?

Well, why don't we take a peek?

Notes:

Hello everyone! This is a small idea that had been floating around in my head for a bit and while I doubt I'll continue this, I thought I may as well write it. Hope you all enjoy!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1

Chapter Text

Shinobu’s perspective

Location: Unnamed mountain

“There is definitely a powerful Demonic presence that was here not too long ago. Perhaps even a Lower moon based on the strength of the presence nearby.” The one and only Insect Hashira, Shinobu Kocho, muttered to herself as she travelled up the snowy mountain right next to the town she just arrived at, sighing before running up in a sprint to reach the family that had likely perished to a Demon some time ago and at least avenge them and bury any remains that may remain of their bodies.

You see, while Shinobu would normally not be here since this area falls into the routes that Giyu usually took when on patrol, but things changed a few days ago. You see, the socially inept Hashira had recently fallen ill thanks to a Blood Demon Art that had hit him thanks to taking the blow for a lower ranked Slayer that was taking a few days to heal, but it had thankfully never been life threatening. As a result though, the practitioner of Water Breathing made the request for Shinobu to travel his usual routes if she had the free time on her patrols, not wanting others to be killed, and since her own routes so easily overlapped with Tomioka’s, she accepted the request. Really, it was those small moments that made the swordswoman realise and remember that Tomioka wasn’t arrogant like she initially believed when Kanae introduced them, but was instead a kind man that who just didn’t socialise for one reason or another.

“Seems I’m too late.” Shinobu sadly muttered to herself as after a few minutes of running, she came across the sad sight of a small house that had clearly seen better days, with splatters of blood nearby. The only reason why the Hashira didn’t think that this was the sight of a Demon attack that occurred a while ago and was in fact recent is because the house hadn’t withered yet despite its destroyed state, though it oddly looked like there was effort, though amateurish, to rebuild the small building based on the sliding door. Was the scene already discovered and someone is try to fix things?

“Eat… up….” Suddenly though, a voice that sounded human but wasn’t quite that reached Shinobu’s ears, making the swordswoman tense as she moved to hide herself by the sliding door, making sure to be quiet as possible, knowing that even a Lower moon wouldn’t detect her unless they laid eyes on her. After listening a bit more and hearing something heavy slam down onto a table, then hearing a few footsteps as things grew quiet, the Insect Breathing user leaned forward and peaked through the slightly open door, feeling sadness and confusion as she saw a group of 6 corpses around a table, their limp bodies identifying them in different age groups (specifically 1 adult woman, 4 pre-teen children and a single toddler) and were positioned to sit on a chair while the carcass of a dead deer was laid down on the table, with the dead body of a bear laid to rest by the other bodies. Was this the doing of a Demon trying to gather food before-.

“Excuse… me…. Need… help…?” Hearing a voice from behind her, and recognising this person’s presence as a Demon only a moment later, Shinobu spun around and drew her unique Nichirin Blade before thrusting forward as a speed greater than even Giyu when he used Water Breathing’s dedicated thrusting technique in Drop Ripple Thrust. A natural thing considering how Shinobu’s own weapon was built purely for speed and offence so it can inject poison into her opponents, so it makes sense that attacks from this blade grants a natural advantage and add on Shinobu’s own level of speed, then not even a Lower moon 1 Demon could track the short woman if she desired it. And as a result, it was no surprise that he blade, while lacking the ability to decapitate a Demon like the Kocho woman herself, was able to easily pierce through the Demon’s body and inject some of her strongest poisons into their body, perhaps not needed but something that no one who has experienced countless life and death situations when caught off guard by something their whole body has recognised as a threat.

“AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!” Hearing the scream of the Demons and seeing that their form was that of a child, perhaps a 14-year-old at most, Shinobu couldn’t help but feel bad seeing the Demon collapse onto the ground and scream in agony as his pale flesh began to turn purple and cough up blood. Whoever this Demon once was, it was clear that he had barely eaten to her and was recently turned, so it was a pity that she didn’t use one of her less lethal poisons on him.

“I am sorry this fate has befallen you young man.” The 16-year-old teen said with a sad frown before turning away from the Demon wearing a checkered, black-and-sea-foam-green haori and entering the small house and walking over to the 6 corpses around the table, sighing as she picked up the dead toddler so she can begin the process of burying them.

“STAY AWAY!!!” Suddenly though, a yell filled with nothing but rage, protective instincts and fear cried out and Shinobu barely had the time to spin around before the back of a fist slammed straight into her skull, hitting with enough force to send the Insect Hashira flying into the air and through a wall, skidding across the ground before her back slammed harshly into the a tree with enough force to splinter a bit and cause the snow on its branches to fall and land of Shinobu, the cold briefly causing a shiver before standing up dizzily thanks to the blurred vision the attack gave her. But as she stood up and her vision returned to normal, Shinobu couldn’t stop the gasp of shock at what greeted her, for it introduced 2 things that should be physically impossible for a newly turned Demon.

The first was a newborn Demon not dying to her poisons and was actually healing the damage it caused until no signs of the poison remained. The 2nd was said Demon holding the young toddler’s corps while crying, using the sleeve of its haori to wipe away the blood from the corpse’s head, which had gotten there most likely when she dropped the body.

“Ro… Roku…. Please… okay….” The Demon boy begged with tears in his eyes, completely ignoring the female Demon Slayer in favour of trying to provide comfort to the corpse.

“This is…. Could this Demon actually….” Shinobu muttered to herself in shock before quickly shaking her head and focusing once more. Taking advantage of the Demon’s lack of concentration, Shinobu sheathed her Nichirin Sword and did what was needed to change out the poison the unique blade was currently using, and changed it out for a toxin that would put Demons to sleep, a rarely used by valuable type of poison when the Insect Hashira faces off against a Demon who could overcome her strongest toxins and she needed to wait for a Slayer capable of decapitation to arrive.

“Dance of the Dragonfly: Compound Eye Hexagon.” The Demon Slayer spoke before charging forward at incredible speeds, which appears to earn the attention of the Demon boy. But before he could hope to counter, Shinobu already struck six times at the Demon’s vital areas and injected the sleeping toxin, before jumping upward to avoid an arm swing and land on the carcass of the dead deer on the table.

“Leave… family….” The Demon just barely growled out before the toxin took full affect, causing the boy to fall over and collapse, completely asleep with only his faint breathing being any sign of life left. However, the female Slayer’s current plans were solidified by the Demon’s words and the sight of him still trying to protect the corpse of that toddler.

“My, you are one odd little Demon. Well, might as well get you to the Corps and see if you shall be killed.” Shinobu said to the unconscious Demon as she jumped down from the animal carcass and looked around.

“But first, I’ll be needing something to transport you.” The Hashira continued on before walking around the room in search of a few items. Eventually, she was satisfied when she came across some rope, and while it may not be much, it should do a decent job of restraining the unconscious and odd Demon long enough to return to the Corps. And with the little basket that had nearly been covered completely by the snow, all it took was using the spare fabric within the house to tie it up so there would be no risk of sunlight touching anything within once she places a checkered black and orange haori to finish off the protective layers once the Demon boy is put inside.

“And now for you.” Shinobu says to herself, feeling a little uncomfortable with the silence, but pushes through it as she walks over to the sleeping Demon and puts a bamboo muzzle on. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but they were effective in getting new Demons to the Final Selection without problem. Once that was done, she put the Demon within the basket and placed it on her back, only needing a moment to adjust to the weight before walking out and smiling as her Kasugai Crow, En, flew and rested on the Hashira’s outstretched arm.

“You have perfect timing as always my friend. If you don’t mind, could you notify the nearest Kakushi to come here and clean things up here? Something has happened and so, I won’t be able to even bury the bodies here.” The only living Kocho asks of her companion while stroking En’s feathers, who merely nodded and cawed in confirmation before flying off in search of those in charge of cleaning up the battles and aftermath of a battle between a Slayer and Demon.

After watching the Kasugai Crow fly off for about a minute, Shinobu began to walk in the direction of the Demon Slayer Corps, quite curious about the fate her master shall pass onto this Demon who seemed uninterested in eating those dead humans and even tried protecting the toddler’s body.

“Perhaps…. Perhaps your dream isn’t as impossible or fruitless as I believed Kanae. At the very least this boy is the closest possibility to it that I have ever seen.” Shinobu thought to herself, her mind wondering to her deceased sister. She doubted that would actually be the case, but in her Oneesan’s memory and respect for her dream, might as well give it a shot with this one and worst-case scenario, one of the other Hashira will kill the currently sleeping Demon.

Chapter 2: A battle between Demons.

Notes:

Honestly, surprised that I made a new chapter for this, but I look forward to seeing how people react to this. Hope you all enjoy.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Shinobu’s perspective

Location: A Northen Post Town

“A man-eating bear?” Shinobu asked of the elderly woman sitting across from her, the Hashira still keeping an eye on the box that held the still sleeping Demon boy within it since she had to make a small detour on the way back to the Corps thanks to possible Demon activity around.

“In these parts, we call them Anamotazu. It even attacked our Matagi Hunters.” The elder spoke sadly, most likely since one of these hunters were a victim of this ‘Anamotazu’, though as a Hashira, Shinobu was more than experienced to instantly tell otherwise.

“Ah… that’s why everyone here is so tense.” The Insect Hashira mused to herself after finished eating a little bit of food, before then sorting out the medicines and poisons by her side, unafraid of the elder realising the poisons in particular since they were too complex to be recognised by civilians and the woman wasn’t a doctor like the Slayer herself.

“Yes, so you shouldn’t stay here.” The woman told her in a nervous warning, causing Shinobu to chuckle a bit in amusement, looking over her shoulder to face the elder while currently still being fully aware of the Demon held within the box.

“Well, I’ve got time on my hands and I rarely trust others to buy my supplies for me. Besides, the liver of a man-eating bear is quite intriguing to someone in my line of work.” Shinobu answered the woman as she stood up once all of her medicines and poisons were sorted out, before then putting the box back onto her back.

“So if you get any, let me know!” The Demon Slayer finished with a closed eye smile before walking out of the building, being greeted by a yell as she widened her eyes a little at the sight before her.

“You went into the mountains alone, again!?” And that sight was a collection of grown men with arguing with a young girl of rather short height with dark eyes that tilt slightly inwards, framed by thin eyebrows. She has long, dark hair that reaches down her back, parted to the right with a shoulder-length clump hanging down on either side of her face, which she wears tied back in a low bun. As for clothing, she was wearing a short, patterned hanten which she fastens with an obiage and buckled belt, and a pale-coloured animal skin cloak. She sports a pair of pale nikka zubon pants and shin-high traditional straw fukagutsu boots, and she wears her hunting rifle on a belt around her torso and over her shoulder.

“Not alone! Taro was with me!” The young girl yelled out in retaliation, earning a bark from the dog by her side.

“Taro’s just a dog! Let us adults avenge Matazo!” One of the irritated adults yelled at the girl in frustration and concern, with Shinobu turning around to look at the woman she had been speaking to until now.

“Who is that?” The female Slayer questioned, the movement of turning around causing her to miss a small movement within the box on her back.

“Do you mean Yae? She’s Matazo’s daughter. The bear killed her father and the other Matagi right in front of her. Other than her supply runs into town, she’s been staying in the mountains, hoping to avenge her father. It pains me to see it.” The woman explained to Shinobu, being a bit surprised at first, but still answered the Hashira’s question with sadness and pity clear in her voice, causing Shinobu to frown as she looked at the girl break away from the group of men sadly. Though it did cause her to ponder…

“Just what is it that makes the boy so different from others?” The powerful teen thought to herself curiously, as while she very much had her doubts of the Demon contained within the box being good, the way he acted when she found him is a clear indication that he was very different from the average Demon. Especially with how he acted around those corpses.

“Ah! Yae!” Hearing the cries of distress from some of the Matagi hunters, Shinobu was snapped out of her thoughts as she saw the young girl collapse a bit, things perfectly clear to her.

“Ah~! There is no need to worry too much! She just has a fever, so all she’ll need is rest and a bit of medicine.” The Insect Hashira informed the hunters as she approached them all with a smile, gaining their attention.

“So you boys go and do your jobs while I do mine as a doctor.”

Tanjiro’s perspective

Location: ???

Time skip: Half a day

“Mmm…. Where… am…?” Waking up after who knows how long, Tanjiro forced his eyes to open and found himself in a small and enclosed space, leaving little room for him to move.

And so, doing what any sleepy and annoyed child would do that was uncomfortable, the young Demon kicked at the door of what was holding him, knocking it completely off its hinges before crawling out and stretching.

Once free, the Kamado simply looked around and saw that it wasn’t home, quickly becoming worried and panicked as he ran out, seeing many homes surrounding him that weren’t his.

“MMMMM!!!” Yelling through the thing that was in his mouth, Tanjiro did not notice it in his distress as he looked around and sniffed at the air, desperate to smell his family, any of them when they were so vulnerable. Especially Rokuta! He was just a baby!!

But despite this distress, Tanjiro… noticed something. Something familiar and…

“So, this is what his legacy has become. How utterly pathetic. Though, even if I hadn’t planned to make a sun immune Demon through your blood or saw the utter failure that your family had been, you would still become mine boy. A perfect insult to that monster.”

That man. This smell was just like that man!! THE SAME ONE WHO ATTACKED FAMILY AND MADE THEM STOP MOVING OR MAKE SOUNDS!!!!

“MMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!” Growling out in rage, his thoughts of family were pushed to the side in favour of blood boiling rage before launching himself off into the direction of the smell, ignoring everything to right to the monster who harmed his family.

“WOOF!” By the time that he came across the smell, Tanjiro found a large figure standing above a dog that was about to have its head chopped off. However, the bastard didn’t get the chance as the Kamado leapt straight at him, causing them both to fly away from the defenceless animal and tumbled through the snow, both struggling to over power the other until eventually, the Kamado came out on top and pinned the other Demon below him.

However, as soon as he did so, the former human paused, blinking in surprise as despite the similarities in scent, this wasn’t the bastard that hurt his family. Instead, what he saw seemed to be an elderly man, but he wasn’t like family. Instead, his eyes were blood red, he had small horns growing from his head and possessed fangs like Tanjiro himself.

Taking advantage of the boy’s sudden pause and confusion, the man below Tanjiro shot upwards and bit into his neck, causing the Kamado to scream out in pain through the thing in his mouth (only barely registering it) and leaning away, causing his throat to be torn open. Despite this, the boy instinctively knew that this was no danger, as his new biology was already hard at work repairing the damage done to him and closed the wound in only a second.

Despite this being a short time though, it was all the old man needed to attack, as he created an axe from his own flesh in a horrific manner, before tossing it right at the child with enough force to slice the Kamado’s head in half (including the thing in his mouth, causing its 2 halves to fall to the ground) and imbed into a tree. Growling in annoyance, Tanjiro was about to head back onto the offensive, when a sudden bang went off and the old man’s head was instantly blown off, causing the headless body to stumble.

Sadly, despite not knowing how he was aware of it, Tanjiro knew that this wouldn’t kill the monster before him. And he was proven correct as almost instantly, the elderly looking creature lifted his half blown off head, clearly regenerating and would completely heal in only a few moments, and turned to the direction of the sound, which Tanjiro followed and saw someone almost hidden amongst the blizzard and snow looking at them in shock, holding something that was smoking while the animal from earlier was barking at her in worry.

Then suddenly, the elderly monster charged right at the girl, running on all fours while the Kamado followed right behind him to defend this person that tried helping him. And thanks to his greater speed and this feral creature’s brain having been damaged, Tanjiro was able to quickly catch up and grab one of the beast’s legs, causing it to turn to look at him and growl, before Tanjiro lifted it above his head and began to repeatedly slam it into the ground, leaving many blood stains on the pure white snow, before spinning the creature around in a circle and tossing it away with enough force to snap any trees it hit in half until it was out of sight.

“Mmm.” Making a concerned noise, Tanjiro began to approach the person that helped him fight, finding a young girl that had a vaguely similar scent to what he just fought and the dog from earlier. Did she survive an encounter with that monster in the past or something?

“Get back!” Hearing the yell of the girl as she was able to take in the sight of him and leapt back while pointing her… stick? At him, Tanjiro could only tilt his head in confusion while humming in response. Was she scared of his strength? He felt like something like the idea happened before, but he couldn’t quite remember.

“Safe…. Won’t… hurt….” Taking a moment to reassure the girl with a fanged smile, before turning around and growling when the creature’s scent began to approach them again, causing the Demon Kamado to crouch down and prepare to leap forward and attack. And when the elderly beast came back into view and charged at the 3…

“Ara-Ara~! Seems you really are an unusual Demon. Oh well, may as well take care of this first and send this typical Demon to the Netherworld.” A sweet-sounding voice that held a lot of anger commented, causing Tanjiro to ignore the approaching monster to look around for the source of the voice and barely saw a white blur charge past him and at the charging elderly beast, stopping just in front of it in a stance to reveal the girl who attacked him.

“Dance of the Bee Sting: True Flutter.” Was all she said before performing a single thrust of a weapon that felt vaguely… familiar. But that thought didn’t last long in Tanjiro’s head as the attack that pushed the monster back with enough force to slam it into a boulder.

However, as the beast began to stand back and growl as its wound healed… its pale flesh began to turn a horrid purple like it had when Tanjiro was also stabbed by the girl, causing it to scream in agony and collapse and thrash about on the snow, the screams sending a chill up the Kamado’s spine.

“Dad!” The girl behind Tanjiro began to yell and try to walk forward while the dog ran over, but she was stopped by the young Demon stopping her, not wanting her to get close to the dangerous lady.

Then, out of nowhere, Tanjiro’s vision suddenly turned black, barely able to register a small cut that had appeared on his neck.

Notes:

Taisho Era Secret:

“My, that was rather lucky of you Yae-Chan! Had the boy not been around, both you and your companion may have perished!” Shinobu comments as she, a sleeping Tanjiro, Taro and Yae jumped out of the manga panels and spoke to the other girl.

“What would you expect me to do!? My own father apparently became a Demon and killed everyone but me! I… that was something I needed to do.” Yae snapped back a bit before calming down slightly, but looked down at the sleeping Demon.

“What’s up with the kid though? Is he your relative or something?” The unofficial Matagi hunter quickly changed subjects though, watching as Taro sniffed at the Demon boy curiously.

“Oh, no! Rather, this is just an odd member of his species and so, curiosity got the better of me. Lucky for you that his oddness saved your life!” Shinobu denied with only the slightest bit of irritation visible on her, unsettling Yae and causing Taro to bark at the Insect Hashira, making the teen flinch a bit and step away from the furry animal.

“Anyways, for today’s Taisho Secret! While Yae took half a day to recover from her fever, Taro kept scratching at this young Demon’s box and barking at it! This may have gave the final push the boy needed to push past the sleeping toxins I gave him, and thus wake up at the perfect moment.” The female Slayer then turned to the audience and gave the Taisho Secret of the day.

“And next time, ‘The fate of the odd Demon’! Don’t miss it!” Yae then followed up and declared the next chapter’s title, earning a bark before large red curtains closed in front of the characters, with the last thing being heard was a groan from the sleeping Tanjiro.

Thank you all for reading! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I hope to see you all next time! Also, please be sure to leave a comment about your thoughts on the chapter and story so far! And again, for anyone who may want to, you are free to make drawings based on any of my stories and my only request is that you give me a link so I can see it for myself when you are done and so I can credit you and leave a link to your drawing in a future chapter.

Also, what should I do with Yae? Would you lot like me to keep her included in this story, or for this to be her only chapter in the story, like her appearance in the Giyu Gaiden spin off?

Notes:

Well, this could go so many ways.

I don't really have too many thoughts to share about how I made this, but I can tell you of the inspiration. In short, due to some talks over comments with a YouTuber called BxBBLEGUMM, I got inspired to do this. Those talks were basically the idea of a Hashira coming across Demon Tanjiro as he was cleaning the dead bodies of his family of their blood while crying and trying to protect them. Add on how Tanjiro did know Total Concentration Breathing to an amateurish extent via the Hinokami Kagura (delaying his transformation a bit) and this story was then stuck in my head.

Taisho Secret: After they had all died, the Kamado family was confused when they didn't see Tanjiro in the afterlife after reuniting with Tanjuro. As a result, they looked back into the living world and while they were happy to see the eldest son of the family alive, they were absolutely crushed seeing their brother/son had become a Demon and how he didn't even realise they were dead in his damaged mental state.

Thank you all for reading! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I hope to see you all next time! Also, please be sure to leave a comment about your thoughts on the chapter and story so far! And again, for anyone who may want to, you are free to make drawings based on any of my stories and my only request is that you give me a link so I can see it for myself when you are done and so I can credit you and leave a link to your drawing in a future chapter. I would be really interested to see what you all may draw for this story.

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