Why is life so cruel? Zenitsu couldn't help but wonder.
He just don't get it. Just what did he do to deserve such awful things happening to him one after another.
He was a dirt poor orphan, wondering everyday exactly how he ended up that way. Did his parents die? Did they abandon him, or something? The only person who knew was the old orphanage lady who took him in, but she died of old age before he could even walk, and the new caretaker doesn't know, so he never learned his origin.
Everyday sucked, day after day they have to work if they don't want to starve. Don't misunderstand, they weren't being forced to or mistreated, not at all. Running an orphanage wasn't cheap, with so many months to feed, everyone has to work together especially if they all want to survive through winter. Looking back, it wasn't really all that bad, but Zenitsu was just human and the mere act of seeing a child being treated to sweets by loving parents makes him ache with envy.
Why can't he have that? Why can't he have doting parents that spoils him with sweets? Life is so unfair.
Everyone hated him, so he doesn't have any friends. They take one look at him and they just seem to decide he was no good. So when a girl said that she liked him, he immediately jump at the chance. He genuinely loved her too, he did everything he could to make her happy, even if deep down he knew it was just a lie. He wasn't nieve, he knew she was just using him, but he didn't care. He was just too desperate for love to even care. But in the end, she too, abandoned him. Running off with another man and leaving him with nothing but a mountain of debt.
And just as he thought that the heavens finally shined on him, finally rewarding him for all the suffering he had endured throughout his life, when a kind old man saved him from his debt and took him in, but that too has been a cruel joke by the gods as it turns out, the old man was a retired demon hunter who wanted to train a successor.
Also, demons were real, turns out.
As if the world wasn't scary enough as it is, it just have to have man eating demons too.
Why, God? Why!?
They were really scary, too. He learned that at the final selection (Which he was forced to participate in, just so you know.) when he saw one for the first time. They were so ugly and scary that he actually passed out.
He was so ready to die that day. He wanted to live up to Gramps' expectations, but he was just so tired of living at that point.
He didn't know why he didn't die that night. He was unconscious so he wouldn't feel himself being eaten. It was perfect! He will finally have peace... But God seems to have decided he was too entertaining to die, as he woke up the next morning unscathed.
Eh? Huh? What? Did another guy get the demon?... And just left him lying unconscious in a demon infested forest!? That asshole! whoever he or she was, Zenitsu hoped they got eaten.
Also, his whole body hurts that day, for some mysterious reason. That's just what happens when people sleep on the ground, he guess.
Everyday after that is pretty much a series of him fearing for his life and almost dying with the closest call being his last mission where he almost got turned into a spider.
He just wants to be happy, man... Was that too much to ask?
And as if all that pain and suffering wasn't enough, THIS happens.
Zenitsu found himself shaking with fury at the unfairness of it all as he gazed at his reflection at the full size mirror.
What he saw in the reflection wasn't him, but of a little boy that looked shockingly like him.
His fists are clenched hard, his teeth gritted shut.
He was angry, he felt tired.
He was mad, he felt like crying.
He felt cheated, he was furious.
Until, in the deepest, darkest part of his mind, he heard a sound similar to a snap.
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This is based on a fanart I saw a while back that I couldn't find again for some reason. It was a picture of the Butterfly State girls - and Nezuko, I think - doting on a toddler size Zenitsu.