The Dreams of the Girl in the Box
And here we are again ladies and gentleman at another chapter for Breath of the Rifleman! Or rather here we are at a little recap from the point of view of everyone's favorite little demon girl! And be sure to read the AN at the bottom as it shall answer a few questions you all might have about the continuance of this story. Also, a quick shout out to LoneTaker for his help on this chapter as well as Noble Eight and groche9655 for their contributions as well. Now then, onto the chapter!
Aboard The Mugen Train
Dreaming, yes, she was dreaming again as she'd done many times before. Being confined to a box during the day and only being able to come out during the night made for plenty of time to sleep and dream. She'd dreamed a lot throughout her two-year long slumber and dreamed some more when her brother and friend, well more than that now, were training to become even stronger for her. Like anyone, her dreams varied from pleasant, peaceful fantasies to outright horrifying nightmares depending on the circumstances. Though tonight was one of those nights when she dreamed about memories, or at least what she believed were her memories. Ever since she'd become a demon, Nezuko had had more than a little trouble sorting out what were real memories and what were dreams.
Tonight it seemed, the memories she'd be dreaming of would start off as some of the last she'd had as a human. She remembered that day well, how Tanjiro had shown up at the house after being saved from a boar with Subaru, gruff but caring Subaru, carrying said animal on his shoulders. She'd been busy putting Rokuta to sleep at the time so she'd only been able to say hello and see them off as they headed down the mountain and into town. She'd waited patiently that night for the two of them to return, but they wound up taking too long due to Tanjiro helping several people and if she knew Subaru's father, whom they lovingly referred to as grandad Saburo, he'd made them stay at his place for the night.
Little did she or the rest of her family suspect, that night was the last for most all of them. Because the next morning, he came. The man she now knew of as Muzan Kibutsuji had arrived from practically out of nowhere and slaughtered her mother and siblings in the blink of an eye. She'd barely had time to grab Rokuta and attempt to run before she too was cut down with her sibling. It should've been the end for her then and there, but the man apparently felt it necessary that one of them should survive as a demon and had decided it would be her.
The next time she woke up, she was on her brother's back heading down the mountain. But by then, all reason and logic had left her. She'd attacked him and even tried tearing into his flesh with her teeth until a strange man in a red and checkered hakama stopped her and held her with a surprisingly strong grip while making a point to Tanjiro about fighting for what he wanted. That's when Subaru had shown up, helping them like he always did by trying to shoot the stranger. Between his interference and witnessing her brother getting knocked out by the swordsman, she managed to regain enough of her senses to attack the threat to her friend and remaining family.
It turned out to be futile, but her behavior had caused enough of a hesitation in the now named water pillar, Giyu Tomioka, for him to let them all go with advice on where to find one of the trainers of demon slayers. It would turn out to be a lengthy journey as they needed to keep her in a wrapped basket during the day and an encounter with another demon at a temple came close to costing her both her brother and her good friend. But it was also there that she discovered she could fight and aided in bringing down the demon. They would come to meet the former water pillar, Sakonji Urokodaki, that same day and after he revealed that Subaru's father was a former slayer, the two would begin their training.
She would sleep and dream of happier days during that time as her body underwent a number of changes. When she next woke up, the sight of her brother and Subaru returning as demon slayers greeted her. But they were more elated to see her finally awake than anything, and soon after that, their journey would begin. It would start off simply enough with the hunt for a demon who kidnapped young girls in a large town.
It would be her second taste of combat alongside Tanjiro and Subaru as she helped them fend off the swamp demon's multi-directional attacks before having to grab onto Subaru to keep him from being pulled into the appearing swamp himself. But her favorite Matagi was resourceful and managed to blow the demon apart with something called a grenade while her now much stronger brother was able to carve up the demon's other two bodies. It was a good end to a first mission, all things considered, but they were given little time to rest before being sent to Asakusa, Tokyo for their next job.
In all honesty she didn't really remember a lot of what happened while they were there. She'd been falling asleep standing up during their conversation with the ninja, Izayoi, and was left sitting by a noodle cart when Tanjiro went off to find Muzan. The next thing she knew they were following a rather rude demon boy by the name of Yushiro to a hidden house where another demon by the name of Tamayo offered them what they'd been looking for all along, a cure for her demonic state. She didn't pay much attention to the details at the time and even if she had they were all interrupted by two attacking demons sent by Muzan himself.
She'd been worried about Subaru's fight with one of the demons, a girl wielding Temari balls, but found she had little time to think on the matter as she and Tanjiro had their hands full dealing with a demon capable of creating arrows to control their direction, often slamming them into the ground or walls. The two of them were thrown around quite a bit until her brother was finally able to use his Breath of Water form to redirect the arrows and cut off the surprised demon's head. Though that didn't stop him from using one more technique which sent her brother flying all over the front and back yards of Tamayo's home. She did her best to keep him from getting hurt by holding on tightly to him, but in the end he just had to keep using his breath form to greatly lessen the impacts until the spell finally ended.
With that battle won, she was given an offer by Lady Tamayo to stay with her while Tanjiro and Subaru hunted down the Kizuki and Muzan to collect samples of their blood in order to help find a possible cure. But she knew they needed all the help they could get and made her decision clear as she stood by the two of them, clasping their hands in hers. They would all leave Asakusa together afterwards and proceed on to the next place they were needed, an abandoned mansion inhabited by multiple demons, one of which was formerly a Kizuki. Because it happened during the day, she'd spent the time sleeping and only woke up partially to the sounds of fighting and yelling outside of her box.
Thanks to her hearing and sense of smell, it didn't take her long to deduce that two more slayers had joined them, and they were both very loud. Though one issue she didn't realize was how easily infatuated one of them, a blond slayer named Zenitsu, was with any pretty girl. The boy would follow her with a lovesick expression every time she exited her box, making it practically impossible for her to spend any time with her brother or Subaru, save for one instance when the Matagi was healed before everyone else and about to leave on a separate mission. She'd hated terribly having to watch him leave, but there was no helping it now that hunting demons was his occupation.
Though had she known the circumstances of their next meeting, she would've held him just a bit tighter and for just a little longer. Tanjiro, Inosuke and Zenitsu were all sent on their next mission as soon as they were healed, which meant she was riding along on her brother's back once again. But this one turned out to be very different from the first few as they faced a family of spider demons, including one of the current lower moons who went by the name of Rui. She'd never felt so helpless in her life, only able to protect her brother from one attack before being taken and strung up among the trees where she had to watch Tanjiro take a brutal beating before passing out herself after struggling and bleeding too much.
When she next opened her eyes, it was to use her newly discovered blood demon art: exploding blood, to burn up Rui's webs and allow her brother the opening he needed to slice off the demon's head. It took her remaining strength to do so, and when she woke up again, she found herself in the arms of Subaru, the person she'd been most wanting to see for the last couple of days. The moment was short-lived, however, as Rui turned out to be alive by severing then reattaching his own head. She was forced to watch yet again as her, friend, struggled against the Kizuki, his weakened body hardly a match for the demon.
Despite that, the Matagi had managed to fire his Derringer into Rui's eye, likely putting an eventual end to his life. But his moment of possible victory meant little to her as she witnessed the demon's numerous red threads surround and start to close in on him and her brother. She reached for Subaru in that moment, noting that he was reaching for her as well. It was strange really, now that she thought about it. She'd spent years playfully poking and prodding at him in an attempt to get him to reveal how he felt about her.
Nezuko had honestly liked the Matagi for a long time. He'd been a good friend to their family and he and his father had even returned the kindness shown to them when their own father died by showing up and helping out periodically. It made her happy to have someone around to take a little of the burden off of Tanjiro's shoulders, or to help him out of a rare trouble spot. And despite his gruff nature he never refused a request for help, at least when it came from her, and was more than willing to bring the occasional gift of meat or animal hide to their home whenever times got a little difficult.
And even when he had his eye on a new traveling cloak at the festival one year, he instead chose what had become her favorite pink kimono. Predictably he brushed it off by saying that his current cloak was just fine and that she needed something nice to wear more than he did. The look on his face was priceless when she declared to him that it was now her favorite kimono to wear on any given day. She still wished she'd been able to personally give him his new cloak on that fateful day two years ago.
It was all of these memories flooding through her mind that confirmed what she felt in that moment. She, Nezuko Kamado, was in love with Subaru Genjirou and had been for some time. And it brought tears to her eyes to see the one she loved about to be cut to ribbons, or so she had feared. Before she lost consciousness, the flash of a familiar red and checkered robe alerted her to the arrival of Giyu Tomioka, the Hashira and at the time, their savior. She was able to fall asleep in relative peace then.
It wouldn't last long, as the next time she awoke was in the arms of her brother Tanjiro who was now on the run from a fellow slayer whose name she would later learn was Kanao. He was quickly overtaken and knocked out, forcing her to keep running in her child form, barely dodging a number of her slashes until Subaru showed up and barreled into her. It wasn't enough to stop Kanao, though, as she managed to knock him to the ground as well. It was only thanks to the timely arrival of his hawk, Shika, and a Kasugai crow that her blade was halted per orders from headquarters to bring them in alive.
The last thing she remembered before crawling back into her box, was the look of absolute relief on Subaru's face. She was able to dream pleasant dreams for a time after that, until she was awoken by the box being violently shaken and then a sword was stabbed into her shoulder. It was agonizing, and the sound of her tormentor delighting in her pain told her it was just the beginning. At least that's what she had feared until a gunshot rang out and the box was suddenly dropped as she heard two more voices, Tanjiro's and Subaru's, angrily threatening the one who hurt her.
She was filled with overwhelming relief to hear that they were both alright. But even she wasn't prepared for what she heard next: "-if this little trial goes bad I'll kill you anyway for hurting my Nezuko." The demon girl didn't hear much else as the final two words kept repeating in her mind. 'He said 'my Nezuko',' she thought as an incredible feeling of elation filled her chest, 'he really said it, 'my Nezuko'! Does that mean he really-.'
She was too excited to finish the thought as she caught bits and pieces of the conversation from that point on. But she really started listening again when she felt the box placed inside, out of the sun and heard Subaru speaking to her. He wanted her to come out and show that she didn't mean anyone any harm. And it would've been a simple request if not for one thing, she was far too happy.
The demon girl didn't even register that her bamboo muzzle had come loose as the moment the door to her box was opened, she leapt on Subaru. In hindsight she felt a twinge of regret for possibly making his chest wounds hurt a bit, but she couldn't think of any other way to show her affection, well accept for nuzzling his nose with hers. She'd decided from that point on that she'd do that a bit more until the day she could finally kiss him properly. Alas, all good things had to come to an end at some point and after bowing to a man who apparently had the title of 'Master of the Demon Slayer Corps', Nezuko had to get back into her box as they were all carried to the mansion of one of the Hashiras known as Shinobu Kocho.
It was on their first night in the hospital ward that her brother, Tanjiro, would give his blessing to Subaru to begin a relationship with her. Those few weeks were wonderful times, even if they both came back each night looking ragged and worn out they were still happy to see her and she was happy to cuddle up with one of them. During that time, another very loud man came to help train them, or more specifically to train a lazy Zenitsu and Inosuke. Even in her box Nezuko could hear his foul-mouthed words. Fortunately, it didn't last too long as the time came for them all to set out once again.
Now here she was, traveling with her brother, her love and their two companions on the mighty Mugen Train to their next destination. It would not be an easy road, but she was determined to face what was lying ahead with all of them. But for now, she felt tired and found herself being embraced by a warm, yet familiar sense. Like a motherly comfort, easing her back into a peaceful languor. Alas, the smell of demons on the train insured that her sleep did not last very long.
And there we are at the end of this short little recap. Now for those wondering on why I did this intermission chapter, it was for a couple of reasons. The main one being that I am also resuming my story 'Re:Zero A New Crusade' this week and wanted to focus on getting back in the swing of it first. The other reason is a little side story from Nezuko's point of view had been requested a couple of times and now seemed like a good time to write one in. Lastly, I'd like to announce the results of the vote as to whether or not to continue this story and you have spoken my fellow readers, the story shall be continued using the manga! So as always feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters, and be sure to stop in next time as our heroes encounter a mass demon infestation aboard the Mugen Train. 'Til then.