Chapter Text
Sanemi Shinazugawa was late getting home. Much later than normal, that is. He usually go home relatively late.
Ever since his father was killed, him and his mother had to take double shifts just to have the money to pay off the house and feed the baby. Today, his boss needed him to get something done quickly and he was promised overtime pay.
Now is was around midnight, and the streets were almost completely empty. Not a sound, but the soft rattling of a merchant’s cart on the cobblestone road.
It was so quiet, even the soft murmur of the wind seemed to echo through the branches of the trees like a forlorn Juliet calling for her Romeo.
This serine silence was interrupted by sombody calling for Sanemi.
“Hey, kid! Shinazugawa! Over here!”
It was a friendly co worker of Sanemi’s who was just slightly more well off than the Shinazugawas were. Sanemi trusted him. He was a family friend.
The man waves Sanemi over.
He really should be getting home… but he doesn’t want to ignore a friend. So he half walk half runs over.
“Shinazugawa-kun, you shouldn’t be out this late. The demons will get you.”
Sanemi tilted his head in confusion.
“Demons?”
“Yeah, demons. They are man-eating monsters that only come out at night.”
Sanemi was at a loss for words. Demons? Really? He knew this guy was kinda strange, but he didn’t know he was a nut job. Now the white haired boy didn’t know what to do. His coworker might be crazy. But… in retrospect, he was right. Sabine shouldn’t be walking around a shady neighborhood like this one at night.
“Kid, why don’t you stay over at mine for tonight, then go home in the morning? And don’t worry about your siblings, Genya is strong.”
“Hmm…” there was a high chance this was a trap and he was about to be assaulted or trafficked or something like that, but there was an even higher chance that he would offer food.
Sanemi could really go for some food…
Sanemi planted one foot into the cobble ground towards his coworkers house.
Then another.
Then another then another then another then he’s there.
There’s a warm light shining out from the man’s house. It’s soothing and almost maternal. If the light had a face, I’d be comparable to his mother.
“C’mon in, kid!”
The man’s smile was quite bright. It had a ‘atta boy’ vibe.
Before Sanemi noticed it, he was already eating with the man. He had eaten about four bowls of rice at this point. At first he felt really bad, but the man even offered to take some home in the morning.
The man rolled out a mattress for sanemi and himself and got up to close the lights.
“Hey, sir?” Sanemi mumbled through a yawn.
“Yeah, kid?”
“You mentioned *yawn* demons before… what were you talking about?”
The man’s smile dropped to indicate that this was a more serious topic.
“Demons are man eating monsters that come out at night.”
Sanemi subconsciously chuckled at the thought of this. Demons? Pshaw.
“But… they’re like vampires right? They can’t come in.”
“No, they can.”
“So… why don’t they just eat us all? There’s nothing stopping them.”
“Well, we have the demon slayer corps to help us. They are a secret organization of swordsmen that go out in the night and kill the demons.”
The whole idea was silly.
Bullshit. We have enough demons in this world- like my ‘dearly departed’ father. This man must be absolutely crazy. Like fucking insane. Maybe he could benefit from a little human contact. I’ll bring over Genya and maybe mom, and he’ll come to his senses….
Before Sanemi knew it, he had fallen into a deep sluber.
Sanemi definitely underestimated the walk home. Although he left for home earlier than normal, he still had about an hour’s walk left.
His boots tracked groggily in the heavy layer of snow that had coated the ground the night before.
The snow though, was nothing compared to the thick layer of clouds that completely shrouded any semblance of sunlight.
As Sanemi approached his house, he narrowed his eyes at a splotch in his vision. A bright red one, which clashed incompatibly to the cool grays and whites of the world around him.
Food? No they were too poor to afford vibrantly colored foods. It was…
Blood!
Shit!
Sanemi hastily ran over to his house, stumbling over shows that were clearly not made for snow.
He stopped and immediately grabbed at his wounded little brother, then hesitating letting his 13 year old hands hover over his little brother’s body.
“G-GENYA!”
Genya lay in a ball position, Koto (the youngest brother) tucked under his arms.
Sanemi turned his head to face the innards of his house, only to be greeted by and more blood.
The blood had stream he’d from wall to wall and beyond, coating the once beige sleeping mats with bright vibrant crimson.
Sanemi’s mother was completely sprawled out on the edge of the door frame. We stomach was completely open, her stomach organs growing every witch direction.
Behind her, his sister Sumi’s head completely crushed by the sheer gorse of being flung into a wall and then pushed back again when her mother promptly seemed to have collapsed on top of her.
Taiko was on the whole other side of the room- her head was almost preactucally detached from her body, handing only by a very frail chunk of skin. Her eyeballs were popped almost all the way out of her head, like there was a pop-it sticking out of her head.
Shuya was an odd one out in this situation, for his whole body was scattered across the room.
Sanemi felt his brother’s neck quickly to check for a pulse, him being the only one who sustained less injury.
A pulse.
Not much of one but it’s there.
Sanemi swiftly lifted Genya onto his back and started running him farther into town. See, his house was just slightly out of the way, but not that far. Still in a suburb-y area, but in a non grid-plan part of town.
Who the hell would do this?? Do this to me, do this to my family! I’ll kill them! I’ll kill-
Suddenly, he slammed right into a boy with crimson red hair.
“Woah, kid, you okay?” He asked quickly noticing the brother on his back.
“Oh my god is that kid okay?”
“Get out of my way! I need to get to a hospital!”
“Kid-“
Suddenly, Genya flung his head backwards, causing sanemi to lose balance and fall right backwards.
The red haired man caught the both of them with his arms, but quickly grabbed a tighter hold of the smaller boy when he began attacking.
Sanemi stood up from the ground.
“Let my brother go!!”
Sanemi lunged forward at the red haired man with an intense killing intent burying in his eyes.
Tanjiro bounces back while holding Genya with his sword unsheathed.
“What are you doing to him?!?!?!? Let him go!!!”
Sanemi wanted to fight back, he really did, but he knew he would only get himself hurt fighting an adult man who was clearly a swordsman.
The man took on a sullen expression.
“I’m really sorry. Your bother has been turned into a demon. Please, let me kill him before he kills sombody.”
Sanemi scrambles upwards.
“No, you bastard! My brother isn’t a demon!”
“His open wounds must have been exposed to the blood of a strong demon, that’s how they reproduce.”
The man’s words were stern, but his eyes pitying. Sanemi hated it.
“let go of him! He’s still my brother, I know he is! He was protecting our youngest sibling!”
Angered tears streamed down Sanemi’s face.
Suddenly, while the man wasn’t paying attention, the demonized boy kicked him off.
Now that sanemi got a closer look, he could clearly see his younger brother’s features.
He certainly was larger and stronger looking. But that wasn’t the main issue- the whites of his eyes were a deep black and his pupils were bright yellow. His hair too, had grown substantially fading into yellow tips that defied all natural hair logic.
Genya suddenly lunged toward his brother, his sharpens claws reaching to him.
Suddenly, the red haired swordsman’s eyes widened at the sight that he saw.
The demon boy was protecting his elder brother.
“Oh… so it’s like that is it…?”
Sanemi found it impossible to read the red haired swordsman’s face. He put his arms out hesitantly as if trying to tame a wild animal and carefully dropped his sword to the ground.
“Look kids, I’ve… seen this happen before. I can see that your brother is not going to harm anyone. Trust me.”
Sanemi was very very very hesitant. He lifted his arm up to his brother and placed a hand on his shoulder, and slowly lowered him to the snowy ground and quickly pulled him into a tight hug.
“What… what do you mean?”
“Your brother, your family… this all happened because of one man, the demon king, muzan kibutsuji. Become a demon slayer, and hunt him down.”
Sanemi could do nothing but nod and pull his brother closer.
The red haired swordsman kneeled down to sanemi.
“What’s your name? My name is Tanjiro Kamado.”
Tanjiro’s lips curled to a warm comforting smile, though anyone could tell he was actually holding in a lot of anguish and regret pointed at himself.
“Sanemi Shinazugawa. And.. and this is Genya, my younger brother.”
Tanjiro smiled again.
“It’s nice to meet you both.”
Suddenly he stood and bowed very very lowly, slumping his shoulders very far down with locked elbows and knees, letting his fingers graze his black uniform pants.
“I apologize for not being able to be here in time. Please forgive me.”
Sanemi didn’t really know what exactly to say.
“Let’s get back to your house and give your family a proper burial.”
Tanjiro lets out his hand wary and guide sanemi and his brother up from the ground.