Chapter Text
“No, no, no, wake up, dammit!”
“Haru.. I…”
“Don’t you dare! I can’t.. I can’t… not without you!”
“‘m sorry…”
“No! You can’t die! Bastard, you promised! You promised you won’t die! You swore! You swore to never leave me…
…Sun Fei!”
“Suo-san!!”
Suo’s eye snapped open. With a roll to the side, he barely avoids the heavy mass that landed where his head was seconds ago. With another lithe roll, he springs to his feet, grabs his katana on his hip-
Whoosh.
The moonlight filtered though the trees, illuminating a horned monster. The light showed how its head was cleanly separated from its grotesque body- before both parts slowly disintegrated. Suo doesn’t watch, doesn’t hesitate. The redhead turns on his heel, body leaning forward to the sound of clanging swords and growling, and lunges.
Swish.
Three heavy thuds land on the forest ground behind him. One human, and two beheaded demons.
“Are you okay, Nire-kun?” Suo asks after he sheathed his sword. On the ground, Nirei lay panting, his sword still in his tight grasp as the blond watched the demons slowly turn to ash. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure why I was in deep sleep.”
“It’s okay,” Nirei panted between heavy breathing. “Th-thank you.” The blond eagerly accepted the hand that helped him to his feet, before both swordsmen ran through the forest.
“Where are the others?” Suo asked as they weaved through the trees.
A demon appeared in their way. Suo slowed his pace a bit, allowing Nirei to speed up. The blond made quick work beheading the demon- neither duo faltering in their pace to reach their friends.
“Kiryu-san and Tsugeura-san went ahead. They heard screams to the north,” Nirei replied. “I stayed behind to wake you up, but…”
Suo smiled apologetically. “I’m really sorry, Nire-kun.”
Nirei shook his head. “It’s really okay! You woke up just in time!”
The conversation stalled as they heard the sounds of a swordfight. Tsugeura’s trademark cry reverberated in the air, before a tree heavily fell- making birds scatter into the air. Without any more words, Suo and Nirei nodded to each other, before joining the fray.
“Ahhh, finally, some rest!” Kiryu exclaimed as they reached a wisteria house. “Sleep, here I come~”
“We have to wake up really early though!” Tsugeura reminds. He looks confused as his friends either groaned or gave him disgusted looks. “What? I’m just saying! It’s important we don’t miss Suo’s coronation!”
“It’s a promotion, Tsugeura-san,” Nirei corrects. The men bow as the wisteria house owner lets them in. “Suo-san is finally a Captain!”
“Will you be all right though, Suo-chan?” Kiryu asks.
“Hm? Why do you ask, Kiryu-kun?”
Their conversation stops as they enter a room. The pink haired slayer doesn’t hesitate as he throws himself into a futon- instantly curling around a soft pillow. Sugishita looks down at him in disgust, seeing the mud and blood on Kiryu’s clothes staining the fresh sheets.
Kiryu ignores the killing intent pouring out of their tallest friend, and giggles when Nirei smacks Sugishita’s head.
“Your dreams,” Kiryu waited for everyone to sit on the floor before continuing their conversation. “The way you keep zoning out and getting harder to wake up. That’s like what… the second time this month?”
The fourth. Suo thinks but doesn’t say aloud. He didn’t want to worry his friends. Didn’t want them to think that Suo dreaming the same thing every time he closes his eyes remain the same. Especially when he’s finally being promoted and allowed to gain more missions to kill demons, he doesn’t want his friends’ worry from preventing him in reaching his goal.
Instead, “Don’t worry, Kiryu-kun,” Suo reassures. He smiles as he looks over his four friends. “As the ones who’ll join my team, I can count on you to watch mine and each other’s back.”
“Damn right,” Sugishita grumbles.
A knock, before the sliding door to their room opens. The wisteria house owner hands each of them a tray of food, and the serious conversation is swept away by banter and carefree chatter.
Heavy rain. A mass torrent that prevents him from properly looking up.
His head cradled in a bloody arms, the red swiftly being washed away, yet the bloody flow neverending.
Held by shaking arms.
But no matter how many times Suo looked up, he can never see who it was screaming down at him. Telling him not to die.
Warm tears falling on his face, in constrast to the cold rain.
A name.
Sun Fei.
Suo sits by the engawa, looking serenely up at the moon. Behind him, the door to their room is slightly open- soft snores filtering out from the room. The sound doesn’t reach Suo, his thoughts too deep on his dreams.
Suo can’t imagine why those dreams keep appearing. He doesn’t even really remember when it started. After years defeating demons, these dreams suddenly started appearing.
It made Suo twitch with annoyance. He joined the Demon Slayer Corps to avenge his family. His family, living in a humble dojo, that trained orphans like him in martial arts and swordfighting. Until one day, someone sabotaged them. Tore down all their wisteria, and left them vulnerable to the demons.
Suo lost his family that day. Rakta. Bacchus. His disciples. Suo survived by sheer luck. His two brothers, barricading him in the master’s room- after their younger siblings have all been killed and devoured. Rakta and Bacchus piled furniture in front of the door, preventing Suo from escaping to help them. Suo heard them shout and yell, until silence.
Until the demon started beating on the door and walls that Suo was trapped in. Suo had rummaged through his master’s belongings, desperate, angry, distraught- until he finally found a blade. He barely admired the red tinted surface before the demon broke through.
Suo doesn’t remember what happened after that. Only that he somehow beheaded the demon with the sword, and unlike previous injuries, it didn’t regenerate.
Faded. Disintegrated. As if it never existed.
He lost his right eye that day. But he didn’t care about that. Not when he lost so much more.
Hiiragi found him, come morning light.
And since then, Suo had vowed to exterminate all demons.
He thought he’d never have friends. His lone cold eye was enough to steer people away from him.
But he somehow attracted Nirei. Nirei, who is now his most precious disciple, who never gave up on Suo. Then came his other friends.
Kiryu. Tsugeura. Sugishita.
His party of five. They’ve been a team for ten years now- and one of the luckiest to survive without losing a member.
But now, as a new and upcoming Captain, Suo can’t help but feel the irritation. He needs his full concentration. To protect his friends. To protect everyone. And to kill all demons.
And suddenly, these dreams started? And it’s not a simple dream he can ignore.
Sun Fei.
Not when that name was a famous name that survived through centuries and generations of demon slayers.
Sun Fei.
One of the greatest swordsmen that ever lived. Sun Fei, who fell, not due to demons, but by the sword of his closest friend.
The greatest betrayal in history.
Was something warning Suo that one of his friends will betray him?
No. Suo banishes the thought. Such foolish thoughts.
Yet as he looks up at the moon, he can’t help but wonder…
…why does he always dream seeing through Sun Fei’s eyes?
The ceremony ends without a hitch. Tsubakino cries- both in happiness and despair (as their mother figure wishes for all of them to survive and live normal lives) while Hiiragi nods his approval. Kaji and Momijikawa give their own nods, before Suo’s other acquiantances crowd him in congratulations.
The celebrations finally ended when Umemiya, their leader, stepped up.
“There’s something I wish to show you,” Umemiya says with a smile.
That earned a groan from Hiiragi.
“Umemiya,” Hiiragi murmurs, “no.”
“Why?” Umemiya pouts childishly, “You agreed you’d let me do this!”
“Yeah, but the more I think about it, it’s ridiculous.”
“I mean, it doesn’t hurt to just talk about it,” Tsubakino intones. “It doesn’t have to mean anything.”
“He just became Captain. Are we really going to add to his stress by something that may be coincidence?”
“Coincidence or not, everything matches! They look so much alike!”
“Excuse me,” Suo interrupts his leader and Heavenly Kings. Hiiragi grumbles as they turn to the redhead. “I’m quite curious as well. If Umemiya-sama thinks so, then may I have a look?”
Hiiragi squints at his subordinate, now Captain, before sighing heavily. He rubs the bridge of his noise, before giving a dismissive wave. At that, Umemiya cheers.
“Come in then!” Umemiya starts to walk off. “Bring your friends if you want!”
And oh, do Suo’s friends definitely want. Nirei and Kiryu had instantly grabbed Suo’s arms, planting their chins on top of the redhead’s shoulders. In their other arms, the blond and pinkette had Sugishita and Tsugeura in their grips.
“Don’t expect anything extravagant,” Hiiragi says as the five follow Umemiya indoors.
The walk felt quite long- which wasn’t a surprise when Umemiya lived in a large estate. After about 10 minutes of walking, Umemiya finally stopped in front of gigantic doubledoors.
“Now,” Umemiya says as he turns to his five subordinates, “before I let you in, I have one question.” The man looked so serious, that everyone stood at attention. But the next words that their leader asked, brought Suo back into his confused thoughts, “Do you all know about Su Fang Sun Fei, the swordsman of the East Wind?”
Su Fang Sun Fei.
One of the greatest demon slayers to have lived. Born 800 years ago, he came from a noble family. At that time the nobles hid in wisteria houses, living their lives in safety as demon slayers risked their lives every day to protect the people.
Nobles were selfish, cruel people, that only cared for their survival. Never opening their gates, even when one was shouting for help as a demon chased after them. Everyone hated the noblemen.
All noblemen, except Sun Fei.
Sun Fei could have had everything. Prospered in his family’s wealth and hid behind wisteria houses. But no, he chose to fight in the frontlines. Against his family’s wishes, he joined the frontlines. Everyone thought a skinny, inexperienced nobleman’s son would easily die and be devoured by the demons.
No one was ready for the hurricane that was Sun Fei.
For eight years, he only kept growing stronger. Demons feared him so much that they fled on sight. In those eight years, Sun Fei killed so many demons that everyone thought the reign of demons would finally be over.
He earned allies and enemies alike, but no one could ever stop him.
No one, except the one rumored as his closest friend.
Just a year after gaining his title as a demon slayer rookie, records show that Sun Fei gained a friend. A frail thing found in the streets- a complete opposite to Sun Fei’s lineage. A boy with unusual features that people stoned and trampled over him- claiming him a demon. A man with two toned hair and dual colored eyes.
Everyone warned Sun Fei from befriending the boy, yet Sun Fei didn’t listen. He took in the boy, and they became a duo. For eight long years, they were shown to have always been side by side. The people thought he would bring disaster to Sun Fei. And after eight years, they were proven right.
Sun Fei was killed. Amidst a circle of hundreds of other dead demon slayers. And the demon looking man Sun Fei called his friend nowhere in sight. The people branded the man a murderer. They searched for him, to bring justice to Sun Fei and the other fallen demon slayers.
But he was gone. Nowhere to be found. The people hoped he was eaten by demons. Rained curses on the no-name demon looking man.
For killing one of their best, killed way before his time.
Umemiya smiles sadly as Nirei recounts what he knows, before nodding and turning back to the doors.
“I have something to show you,” their leader says, before pushing the large doors open.
The room was small. Scarce with hardly anything in it. Only a painted portrait, at the other end of the room.
Suo hears the gasps behind him. Can hear Nirei’s thoughts go mile a minute.
Because hanging on the wall in front of them was a huge portrait of two men. Standing side by side, almost back to back. A man with monochrome colored hair, and a man with-
Red hair, long and braided, reaching his knees. Just like Suo.
An eyepatch, on a blinded right eye. Just like Suo.
Suo touches the yellow tassel earrings on his ears, his lone eye staring at the the same tassel earrings the man wore in the painting.
And that sword- the same sword that Suo had found in his master’s room a decade ago.
The man looked just like Suo. And he wore the earrings and bore the weapon that once belonged to Suo’s master.
Suo’s lone eye shifts to the name below his lookalike’s feet.
Sun Fei.
“Suo-san?” Nirei calls, but Suo doesn’t listen. His gaze slides over to the man beside his lookalike.
Shorter than Sun Fei by a little bit. Black and white hair. Black and golden eyes. Matching yellow tassel earrings adorning his ears. A perpetual poker face marring that calm face.
Suo’s eye slides to the name below the man.
Haruka.
“Sun Fei, please… please! Don’t leave me…!”
“You’re crying.” Suo jolts back to reality, his head moving to Umemiya. Their leader had moved in front of the painting, smiling sadly down at the redhead.
Suo rubs a finger under his eye, his breathe stuttering as it comes back wet.
He was crying… over a portrait?
“Umemiya-sama,” Nirei quietly voices out. Suo leans to the arm that interlocked with his, silently grateful for the support. “Is there a reason you’re showing this to us?”
“Well…” Umemiya scratches his head. “Blame this old man for being sentimental.”
Everyone ignores Sugishita’s mumbles of “You’re not old, Umemiya-sama.”
“But,” Umemiya continues as he looks up at the portrait. “When I saw our dear Suo hear slowly look like Sun Fei… well, I wanted to share a secret.” He raises his arm, and places his hand on top of that monochrome hair. Umemiya appeared to be petting the man in the portrait, which shocked the men.
Wasn’t this Haruka, the traitor that killed Sun Fei?
As if reading their minds, Umemiya says, “Just like my ancestors, I don’t believe this boy could have done any wrong. My ancestor wrote so many good things about them. They were the best of the best! They almost always keep dying for each other, and he always found them carrying the other back. Always one of them with grave injuries, while the other fretted over them. Because of my ancestor, I never believed the stories we all learned in the storybooks.”
“I got curious, what happened?” Umemiya seemed to be deep in thought, and no one dared to interrupt him. “They found Sun Fei, all alone, having bled to death from so many wounds. Amidst a hundred demon slayers, with no demon influence in sight. Am I to believe that Haruka went berserk, or betrayed the corps he swore to protect?”
“People can change, Umemiya-sama,” Sugishita replies. “We had many slayers that betrayed us for coin or from fear.”
“I know, and I don’t blame them,” Umemiya smiles. “But this,” his gaze returns to the portrait. “My ancestor wrote how this Haruka was the kindest man he ever knew. He risked his own life, protecting strangers and allies alike so many times, that it was Sun Fei that decided they had to always be together. This man, who was rejected by the people because of his appearance, acted rough and unapproachable, but he never stopped helping people. Everyone loved him.”
Everyone loved him? The younger demon slayers thought in unison. All his stories showed how people loathed him.
“And looking at his portrait, I believe my ancestor. I don’t think this man was capable of killing his own best friend. I feel like we’re missing something… but Haruka was never seen after that tragedy, nor is there proof that he was even there in the first place… Ah! Sorry, sorry, this got way too long. Anyways, I wanted to share it once I saw Suo look so much like Sun Fei and-“
“I believe you,” Suo interrupts so suddenly, that he surprises himself. When he turns to his friends, everyone was looking at him with looks of surprise. “You know my dreams?” Suo turned to the sword in the portrait, before he looks down at his sword. “I think the man in my dreams, holding me and yelling at me as if I was Sun Fei, is Haruka.”
He can hear Nirei start to sound like a tea kettle- the blond most definitely itching to write his theories on the supernatural.
Nirei had been obsessed with reincarnation ever since Suo revealed his dreams to his friends. And this resemblance in the portrait was for sure making the blond go wild.
“In my dreams, this Haruka was there, holding Sun Fei as I… he died in Haruka’s arms.”
“Pathetic,” a rough voice growled. With a thud, he plants his foot on his victim’s chest, before tearing his sword out of the lifeless body. “This was a Heavenly King? Tch. They’re getting weaker and weaker.”
He looks at the mass of demon slayers strewn on the ground- all defeated by a single strike from the his sword. Rather than feeling satisfaction, he can feel rage start to consume him.
I need… I need- he growled- hissing as his fangs elongated as he continued to glare at his lifeless enemies. -to kill them all.
Above him, the clouds slowly drifted away, the moon finally coming out of hiding and illuminating the bloody field.
A light breeze blew in, brushing newly revealed monochrome colored hair. A small horn peeked out just above his forehead, between where that dual colored hair split- further revealing the man to be a demon.
Gold and black orbs glinted menacingly as bloodlust consumed him- his desire to kill scaring the wildlife around him.
Humans… despicable scum!
“Sakura, return.” A voice commands in the demon’s mind.
Sakura lets the voice of his master envelope him, temporarily quenching his bloodlust. Once calm, the demon looks up at the moon, the moonlight illuminating sad and dull heterochromatic eyes- the kanji for Upper Moon One engraved on those orbs glinting in the light.