Chapter Text
The forest was completely silent, the only sound being the soft snow hitting the ground and gathering in a thin layer. The trees cast an eerie shadow onto the plain grass as it slowly disappeared underneath the snow. The sun had set hours ago, leaving the moon high in the sky and illuminating the dark forest.
The peace was interrupted by the sound of a man crashing into a tree and falling to the ground. He’d been thrown hundreds of feet, a loud crack rang out as his arm was bent in an unnatural angle
Giyuu groans in pain as he puts pressure on the large gash leaking blood onto his stomach, he glares up at the vampire standing above him.
He’d been patrolling the area, keeping an eye out for demons, when he’d found one already feasting upon a family. Most of them were dead by the time he arrived but it seemed two had just arrived moments before he had, they stood in the doorway, one was crouched over their mother and sobbing and the other closely watched Giyuu fighting the demon.
“I really thought you’d be stronger than this, honestly it was too easy to take you down” The demon taunted him and stepped forward, intending to finish Giyuu off.
He didn’t respond to the taunt, too focused on staying alive long enough to protect the two children.
Without a word he kicked his sword into the air, grabbing it and cutting straight through the demons neck, leaving nothing but a thin mist of its blood. It screamed and glared at him with a murderous look even as it quickly burnt to ash
“I swear to all that I am worth, I will get you. I’ll wait as long as it takes, find you in hell, and tear you apart.” It continued to curse him until its throat began to burn and its voice box was burnt to a crisp.
Giyuu ignored the warning, many demons he’d slain had said similar things and it didn’t take long for him to grow used to even the most gruesome of threats.
Turning back to where the children stood, he silently looked them over, checking if they were injured. When he didn’t see any obvious wounds he unwrapped the cloth gaiters around his ankle, moving it to wrap around his stomach to cover the wound.
“We should get you to the village, there’s a doctor that can help you there” The older of the two siblings had walked over, watching him with a concerned look.
“I’m fine, you two are the priority here. Are either of you hurt?” He slowly sat up, trying to keep a stoic expression as a bolt of pain spread through his stomach.
The boy glanced down at his stomach and frowned but didn’t say anything.
“No, we got here after you, so it didn’t come after us. Thank you for that, protecting us I mean” He reached down and helped him up by grabbing his hand, he was a lot stronger than Giyuu expected. Since they lived in the woods it was likely that the boy would chop wood for charcoal, explaining his unusual strength.
He didn’t bother answering, too absorbed in planning what to do with them. Technically he wasn’t obligated to do anything, there was no rule in the corp that said he had to help any orphaned children. But, it was cruel to leave them here with nothing but a slaughtered family.
The boy walked off to retrieve his sister who had started to bury their family, his expression darkened at the reminder of what had happened but he didn’t let it consume him. Giyuu was impressed at his ability to stay calm and collected in the face of such a horrible tragedy.
Abruptly his thoughts were cut off as the pain swelled until it was unbearable, it felt like molten lava was swimming through his vains, slowly creeping up to his brain. He leaned against the tree he’d been thrown at earlier, panting heavily.
“Sir, are you sure you’re alright?” The boy called out, returning from helping his sister finish filling up the graves with dirt, they were incredibly quick workers.
“I’ll be fine. For now you should head off to Mt. Sagiri, there’s a man there that can take care of you, unfortunately I cannot come with you as I need to get back to Butterfly mansion to get this treated.” The boy looked at him confused at the mention of Butterfly mansion. Giyuu had briefly forgotten that they knew nothing about The Demon Slayer Corp and quickly began to explain
"I work for The Demon Slayer Corp, a corporation dedicated to killing demons. It’s difficult to explain how we get such injuries without being sent to an asylum so we have our own doctors located at Butterfly mansion.”
He spoke quickly and almost immediately turned to leave, he needed to get to Butterfly mansion and be treated as soon as possible, unless he wanted to bleed out and die in the forest.
He barely managed to take a step before the blinding pain returned and he nearly fell to the ground.
"Sir!” The boys voice rang out a hundred times louder than usual. Giyuu pressed his hands over his ears but that just left him with the sound of his blood rushing through his veins filling his ears.
It was horrible, every small minuscule sound was magnified so he could hear everything, the snow gently falling to the ground sounded like boulders hitting the floor, a squirrel running up a nearby tree was downright torturous, the scratch of its nails in the tree bark was a horrid screech directly into his ear.
And it was so incredibly warm, *too* warm, like he’d been walking for hours in the blazing sun despite it being the middle of the night during winter.
Without a second thought he tore off his hoari and threw it over his head, the sound of cloth rustling made him grit his teeth but once it was in place everything was much more muffled and he felt like he could breathe again.
“Sir, you’re clearly not okay. Let me help you get to the mansion” The boy reached out, intending to help the man up again but the moment he made contact Giyuu grabbed his hand, stopping him. Every sense was heightened to an overwhelming point and the gentle touch may as well have been a harsh burn.
“Don’t. Don’t touch me” his own voice and breathing echoed in his ears, slowly driving him crazy.
Glancing down at the boys hands he noticed blood so dark it was nearly black smudged over his palm and the tips of his fingers, he instantly recognized it as demon blood. Looking at his own hands he saw that they were completely covered in the sticky substance.
It wasn’t a big deal to have demon blood on your skin, if anything it was just gross. But, he’d never directly touched the demon with his hands since he was holding his sword most of the fight, he’d only lost grip of it when it threw him into the tree but by then it was too far away to get blood on him.
Suddenly alarmed, Giyuu practically tore open the front of his uniform in a desperate move to check the wound. When he could see the gaiter wrapped around his stomach he immediately noticed the same near black blood slowly seeping through the cloth.
His heart beat wildly and his breathing picked up as he began to panic. If the blood had entered the wound –which it undoubtedly had- then he only had a few hours until he turned into a demon, the very thing he’d sworn to destroy.
His mind spun from the lack of oxygen as he strarted to hyperventilate. Without giving it another thought Giyuu hit himself on the chest as hard as he could, physically forcing his lungs to restart as the pain gave him something else to focus on.
After a minute of forcing himself to take deep breaths –four seconds in, hold, four seconds out- he looked back up at the two siblings with a determined look and began to speak.
“I’m going to go with you to Mt.Sagiri. Hurry, we don’t have much time.”
Without explaining he picked up the smaller of the two –the sister- and lifted her onto his back, then he started walking off in the direction of the mountain, ignoring the boys confused and frantic questions. Giyuu cut him off, deciding that he might as well learn their names.
“I assume the two of you are related. What are your names? I am Giyuu Tomioka” He glanced back at the boy, who was now looking up at him and walking at a faster pace than usual. Giyuu hadn’t even noticed how fast he was walking, he considered slowing down so he didn’t have to push the boy so hard but quickly forbade the idea. They had to get to Urokodaki as soon as possible, he’d know what to do.
“I’m Tanjiro Kamado and she’s my sister, Nezuko.” She shuffled a bit on his back at the mention of her name but otherwise put up no fight. She was exhausted, worn out by the intense crying and high emotions from not too long ago as well as the fact it was well into the night and nearing dawn.
The walk to Mt.Sagiri was almost entirely silent, neither Giyuu or Tanjiro said a word. Tanjiro had picked up that Giyuu wasn’t going to explain the sudden shift in plans pretty early on and had given up asking him questions.
Giyuu was being silent solely out of fear. He was scared out of his mind, he didn’t want to become a demon, what would happen to him now? Would Urokodaki be forced to kill him? He couldn’t quite decide whether or not he’d be happier if he was the one to cut him down when he turned. It’d be nice knowing that his last moments were spent with the man he considered a father but it’d be cruel to make him do such a thing after he’d already lost all the other children he’d trained.
He’d been so stuck in his mind that he barely noticed when they finally arrived at the foot of the mountain, only being pulled back to reality when Tanjiro politely asked for a break, saying “I’m only really used to walking down to the village at the base of the mountain where we lived and back, I hope you understand” He spoke with a sheepish smile and Giyuu just silently nodded and put down Nezuko, settling her down next to her brother.
As Tanjiro caught his breath and stretched his overworked legs Giyuu took the time to try and fully calm down, the adrenaline from earlier had mostly faded away by now and for the first time in an hour he felt as if he could actually think properly instead of the rapid incoherent thoughts he’d been trapped in.
He wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing, the offical procedure when turned into a demon was to commit seppuku. At some point he considered trailing off and leaving the two kids with instructions to get to Urokodaki's cabin, it wouldn’t be hard to lose them considering the fact he was undoubtedly much faster than either of them. But, he couldn’t force himself to leave them on their own, they reminded him of himself when he was younger, when his only family –his sister- had died and left him alone, he’d been lucky and Urokodaki found him before he could freeze to death on that mountainside. Something told him that they wouldn’t be so lucky if he were to abandon them now.
Taking a deep breath to clear his mind, Giyuu froze. The familiar scent of the candles Urokodaki always made filled his lungs, forming a deep pit of longing in his gut.
It’d been so long since he last visited the man, too ashamed after failing to protect Hayato to see him. He hadn’t even realized how badly he missed the warmth of his cabin and his tight hugs that always bordered on painful.
He was so wrapped up in nostalgia that he didn’t register the fact that his scene of smell was heightened to an inhumane amount.
Without thinking he began to walk towards the smell, it invaded his senses until he was so caught in memories he could practically feel them as they flashed through his mind
“Mr.Tomioka!”
Tanjiro's voice pulled him out of the memories and threw him back into reality. The warmth of the soft memories completely vanished, leaving him in the harsh cold of the night as if he’d been thrown into a freezing pool of water.
The boy ran up to him, Nezuko close behind.
“I’m sorry if we were taking too long! We can start to move on if you feel restless.”
Giyuu felt bad for making him worry, he shouldn’t have to be concerned over someone older than him.
“No, it’s alright. I just got stuck in my head, if you need more rest we can stay here for a bit longer”
He nervously glanced up at the sky, charting the stars to approximately 4am. They needed to get to Urokodaki's cabin before the sun came up and he burnt to ash but he didn’t want to push the kids too far.
“I’m alright to start walking again!” Tanjiro beamed up at him as he held Nezuko's hand and lead her forward. Giyuu had no idea how he could be so positive in such a situation, his entire life had been flipped in less than twenty-four hours and he was still smiling? He had to respect his will at least.
After all the time spent thinking about his memories on the mountain, going up it felt dreadful.
Tanjiro seemed to pick up on his reluctance to go up the mountain, Giyuu could tell that he wanted to ask about it but he didn’t, presumably too worried about upsetting him more.
He felt horrible for making a child worry about him so much. It was pathetic really, a child feeling sorry for him. Jesus, he couldn’t keep himself together for just a few hours? No wonder all the other Pillars hated him.
The same familiar smell of Urokodaki's candles slowly suffocated him. The mixture of self-deprecating thoughts and overwhelming smell was quickly leading him into a panic attack. God, he’s had more breakdowns in the last six hours then he had in eight years, it was more exhausting then he remembered.
“Giyuu?”