Fairy Tail watches Kimetsu no Yaiba
Chapter 1
"WE'RE BACK!" Shouted a certain pink haired dragon slayer, as he kicked the front door of Fairy Tail Guild building to walk in with his teammates and their Exceeds at his side. As usual, Natsu seemed to be in a good mood while Gray had lost his shirt, and was about to lose his pants as well if it wasn't for Lucy who constantly reminded him that he was unconsciously taking off his clothes. Erza was walking behind and talking to Wendy, who had become an official member of Team Natsu.
"Ah, welcome back, Natsu, everyone!" Several members of Fairy Tail shouted back from their tables, some of them looked drunk from drinking too much beer, like the master who sat on the bar counter in his usual outfit "So how many buildings did you destroy this time?" one of them asked, and his friends busted out in laughter, knowing how destructive Team Natsu could be whenever they were on a mission.
"Shut it, we did not destroy anything this time." The ice-make wizard pointed out with a confident smile on his face as he crossed on his chest, not noticing Juvia who had moved to his side and started bouncing around him with heart filled eyes.
"Oh now that is a surprise." Makarov said as he received another beer from Mira, the beautiful barmaid of Fairy Tail and a fellow female S-class mage of Erza that was hailed as the Demon of Fairy Tail "What's the mission about?" He couldn't help but ask, remembering that Natsu and his team left earlier that day with the last mission on the board.
"Ah, it was nothing serious. We merely had to take care of our client's niece so he could concentrate on his work. She's a fan of us." Everyone nodded their heads in understanding. So that was the reason why there was no collateral damage. Everyone knew that Team Natsu, the one it was named after especially, were really good with kids, even though none of them but Wendy and the two Exceeds looked like it. "He has this weird device that lets him see and record events that take place in other worlds and dimensions, like Edolas."
"I see… then he must be a 'researcher' working for the Department of Other Worlds Securities in the Magic Council. They are the ones who carry out the research of other worlds like Edolas to decide whether or not any of them poses a threat to us." Master Makarov explained while rubbing his chin.
"Now that you mention it…" Lucy continued as she reached her hand into Natsu's backpack and pulled out a lacrima the size of a small ball, making Makarov widen his eyes in surprise because he had seen one like that before "This is the reward that he promised us in the mission description. He said it's a transcript of his life works that he had made into a movie and wanted us to watch it with everyone at Fairy Tail.. so we can all learn that there will always be hope even in the darkest of times."
"I see, interesting." Makarov said with a smile as he put his drink down. Everyone in the bar had also done the same thing, becoming both curious and interested in what the lacrima had in store for them "So what are we waiting for then? It's movie time, Fairy Tail" He declared and everyone cheered out at the same time. It's not the first time that Fairy Tail had watched a movie with each other, but this time, the movie would be about the events of another world.
Once everyone had settled down and closed the curtains, Makarov looked at Mira and nodded his head to her. The beautiful demoness then wasted no time to head into the back for a moment before she returned with a Lacrima Projector, which she placed on the bar counter beside the third master. Makarov then took the lacrima from Lucy when she handed it to him and slotted it into the machine, which was then turned on and shot out a multi-color beam onto the farthest wall of the Guild building.
"Yosh, here we…" Natsu cheered, but the words died in his throat when he looked at the first scene, which showed a very young boy and a girl walking under the snow in a forest. The boy had red eyes and ruffled, black hair and dark red tips that were combed back to expose his forehead and tied back. wide, dark red eyes. His outfit consisted of a loose checkered, black and seafoam green shirt that extended down to his knees and was worn over a white robe and black pants. He also had a turquoise scarf around his neck and a scar on the left corner of his forehead.
The other person, meanwhile, was a petite girl with fair skin and long, black hair that reached down just below her waist, turning a flame-orange color as it passed her elbows like that of the boy's. Her clothes was a pink kimono with a hemp leaf pattern, the lining had paler shade, with a red and white checkered obi and a thin piece of orange thread looped and knotted around her waist, with another band above it.
What caused Natsu and almost the entire Guild to become silent and stare at the scene in shock, was the fact that the girl was unconscious and being carried on the boy's back as he crossed the forest. The boy did not look hurt, but he looked tired, which must be because of the snow covered ground. The girl, meanwhile, had blood all over her kimono and trailed down from the side of her head.
"Nezuko, please… don't die, don't die." The boy pleaded as he forced his body to take another step with the girl, Nezuko, on his back "I will save you, you can't die." He chanted as if he was in a trance, as tears started to fall from his red eyes, as if his bottled up emotion had finally been unleashed. "Your brother will definitely save you!" He declared and took another step in the snow.
The scene came to an end, leaving everyone in utter shock. Even the talkative one like Natsu was speechless.
"What the actual…" Finally, the first word came from his mouth as the third master paused the projection so that everyone could have time to process what they had just seen. A brother carried his unconscious, badly hurt sister on his back, both of them didn't even look that much older than Wendy or Romeo… and yet both looked like they had been through hell. What's going on? What happened to them? Where were their parents… The veteran, more experienced members of the Guild could see that in the brother's eyes, there was sadness, and solicitude for his sister... but there was also horror. He was afraid, and at the same time, he was scared.
"Lucy… did your client mention anything else about this recording?" Mira couldn't help but ask. For some reason, that look in the brother's eyes was oddly familiar to her.
"N-no, Mira-san… he didn't" The stellar summoner could only shake her head in response.
"Let's continue." Makarov finally decided "We won't be able to find anything out if we leave it like this." With that said, he resumed the lacrima and allowed the projection to continue.
"Tanjiro!" A beautiful woman called, and the brother turned his head around to look at her. Her face resembled his sister Nezuko's, but her hair was of a much darker tone, and her outfit consisted of a scarf that she wore around her head, and a white long sleeve smock on top of a cream checkered kimono.
"Wait wait, hold on… who is this? Where is Nezuko and her brother? I'm so confused." Natsu shouted and pressed the pause button on the remote control that somehow found its way into his hand, causing the whole Guild to turn their heads and look at him in annoyance.
"We are in a flashback." Lucy decided to answer his question, as she pointed her hand to the word [Flashback – a day before] that came into the video after she took the remote control from Natsu's hand and pressed the resume button. "See. You are so impatient."
"And that woman must be Tanjiro and Nezuko's mother." Erza finished as she received a slice of strawberry cheesecake from Mira, who continued to serve a bit more food and drinks to everyone in the bar before returning to her chair behind the bar.
"Mom?"
"See?"
"Obviously, everyone but Natsu can see the uncanny resemblances." Gray pointed out and caused Natsu to narrow his eyes at him, fist crackling. Before a fight could break out between the two of them though, Lucy used the remote control and allowed the video to continue. Makarov meanwhile, was quiet as the scene from before came back to his mind. He had so many questions that needed to be answered.
"Your face is all black." The mother said with a motherly tone as she kneeled down before Tanjiro, who carried a basket of coals on his back, and raised her hand "Please come over here." Tanjiro did as he was told and walked toward his mother as leaned closer to him and used the sleeve of her smock to clean his face.
"It's dangerous with all this snow." She said as she continued gently cleaning her son's face. "You don't have to go, you know."
"I want everyone to eat their fill on New Year's." Her son answered with his eyes closed. "So I'm gonna sell as much charcoal as I can."
It seemed that his father had passed away, and Tanjiro had to be the pillar of his family, was the thought of everyone in Fairy Tail. Even Natsu could see that Tanjiro and his mother, possibly Nezuko as well, were living in poor conditions but he seemed determined to make the best of it for his family. To overcome your adversities and strive to become the best version of yourself for the sake of your loved ones, that was something Fairy Tail could respect.
"Thank you." His mother said with a smile.
"Nii-chan!" Someone called out and the two turned their heads to see a little boy and a girl walking towards them with smiles on their faces.
"So Nezuko is not his only sister." Laxus muttered as he crossed his arms on his chest. He was sitting with the rest of the Thunder God Tribe, and all three of them understood the reason why their leader mentioned that. They could only hope for the best, that Nezuko had an accident of some sort so Tanjiro had to carry her through the forest to find help. It'd been hard for them to see it clearly, so they could not tell whether or not her wounds were caused by accidents or from attacks.
The little girl was wearing a peach kimono tied with a brown obi, with a pink jacket over it, her hair was black and went down to her shoulders with the fringe right above her eyebrows and her eyes had a deep shade of red just like Tanjiro's. The boy seemed to be even younger than she was, with the same hair and eye color, and his outfit consisted of a light green checkered kimono with a jacket of the same color over it. There seemed to be another kid looking at them from the house, making it three siblings in total for Tanjiro.
"You're going to town again today?" His brother questioned excitedly.
"Please let me come with you!" The little sister declared.
"He won't let her do that." Wakaba said as he blew a cloud of smoke from his mouth.
"Why not?" Natsu couldn't help but ask. If he had a brother or sister then he would let them come with him whenever he goes, like Mira, Elfman and Lisanna.
"Well it's obvious, they are normal civilians living in a forest, and it's winter no less. Tanjiro looks like he can take care of himself, but I don't think I can say the same for his sister. She's still too young." Makarov decided to answer him and everyone could not help but nod their heads in agreement.
"Not everyone is a monster like you, Natsu." A member of Fairy Tail remarked, causing the whole guild to break out in laughter and Natsu to pout in annoyance. That did help lighten up the guild's heavy atmosphere a bit.
"Oh no, you're not." Their mother shook her head as she partook in the conversation. "You both can't walk fast like Tanjiro."
"I can walk fast in the snow too!" Natsu cheered as he stood up and made a walking movement with his feet, making Lucy and some members around him chuckle.
"No flame brain, I am the one who can walk fast on the snow." Gray interfered with a roll of his eyes, remembering the last time Team Natsu had taken a mission to a snowy mountain "You melt the snow around you so you can walk normally because you are afraid of being left behind."
"Oi, I am not afraid of anything, ice princess." Natsu yelled, and the two heat-butted each other fiercely.
"Beat it you two!" Finally, Erza decided to interfere with a dark aura around her, making Natsu and Gray return to their shit, both of them scared shitless.
"Mom!" The little brother complained.
"No, you shall not." She repeated and walked towards them. "Since he isn't using the cart today, he won't be able to let you rest when you're tired." The two siblings pouted for a second before the boy ran towards his brother and embraced him.
"I wanna go with you!" The girl repeated as she moved closer to her older brother. "I'll help you sell the charcoal too!"
Tanjiro smiled gently and placed a hand on top of her head.
"Thanks, Hanako." The girl, Hanako, smiled widely at his words. "But you're staying home today." Her smile was instantly replaced with a scowl as tears formed in the corner of her eyes.
"That's for the best. She will understand when she is a bit older." Mira said with a small smile, remembering when Lisanna and Elfman used to ask to let them come with her on some of her riskier missions but she did not let them. Her little sister used to cry a lot about it, but when she and also Elfman were older the two started to understand the reason after seeing her coming back with bruises and wounds all over her body. It made her think back to the day that she almost lost Lisanna, and made her smile sadden for a second.
Tanjiro gently moved his brother away before kneeling to his height and placed his hands on his shoulders.
"You too, Shigeru. But I'll get you tons of goodies, okay?"
"Really?" Shigeru asked with a smile.
"Yeah." The red haired teen confirmed making his younger brother giggle; he then moved his right hand to his sister's head. "And Hanako, I'll read a book to you when I return home."
"Okay!" The girl said with a small smile, as much as she wanted their brother
to take them with him.
"That's a good girl."
"Such a good brother, he handles that very well." Elfman stated in amazement. He used to want to do something like that to Lisanna when she was little, but he could never and Mira had always been the one with the more tender touches of sibling love among the three of them, even back then when she was quite rude to everyone.
"Thank you, Tanjiro." Their mother said, her son nodded.
"Okay, I'll be heading out now." Tanjiro said before looking at the boy who stood at the house and smiled at him when he saw an axe in his hand. "Takeo, can you chop some firewood for me?"
"Sure, I'll do it, but…" Takeo trailed off and looked away with a pout. "I was hoping we could do it together."
Tanjiro smiled and approached his younger brother before patting him in the head with one hand.
"There, there."
"What's with that all of a sudden?" The kid said as he swatted the hand away.
"You're blushing, Take-nii!" Shigeru laughed while pointing at him.
"Sh-shut up!" Takeo yelled, Tanjiro said nothing and patted him on the head again, this time with both hands. "I said cut it out!" He yelled again in embarrassment as he took a step back, earning a laugh from the rest of his family.
And so did Fairy Tail, seeing that made those who had siblings treasured them even more and those who didn't wish that they could like Tanjiro. But then again, Fairy Tail was one big family, and everyone was brothers and sisters to each other, related by blood or not, so the feeling didn't last that long. They had those that they wished to protect and cherish around them too.
Once their laugh subsided, Tanjiro said goodbye again and began to walk away.
"Hurry back, okay?" Shigeru yelled at his brother before waving at him along with the rest of his family.
"Be safe, okay?" Hanako shouted with a huge smile on her face.
Tanjiro waved back before looking forward, but before he could leave the house, a girl walked toward him from another direction and it was none other than Nezuko herself-
"Damn she's a beauty." Macao blurted out, and as perverted as that sounded coming from a pervert like him who spent more time trying to flirt with Mira with his best friend Wakaba, most adults in the bar had to nod their heads in agreement to that. In the first scene, because her face was covered in blood and buried in her brother's shoulder as he carried her through a snowstorm, they could not see her face, but now that they could see it, no one could deny that Nezuko was a very beautiful girl.
- carrying a small child on her back, both of them wrapped in a blanket.
"She has a kid!?" Natsu cried out in shock with a dramatic face, and before Lucy's hand could come in contact with the back of his head, another one came out "She is a mother!?"
"Dumbass! That's her little brother!" Lucy corrected him as she hit Natsu square on the back of his head, but for someone who had the durability of a dragon slayer and the hard head of an idiot, the hit didn't even hurt that much.
"Onii-chan." Nezuko called out as she came to stand before Tanjiro.
"Nezuko." He smiled at her, then looked at the kid resting on her back.
"I was putting Rokuta down for a nap, or he'd make a scene when you leave."
'True, he has done that before."
"I think he's just lonely because dad passed away." She mentioned with a sad smile as she looked behind her shoulder, making Tanjiro smile in a similar way as he reached his hand out to pat Rokuta's head. "That's why everyone clings to you, Onii-chan."
"I see… so that's why Tanjiro seems so mature." Bisca Connell commented as she looked at Tanjiro with a sad smile. After all, with so many brothers and sisters like that, it's natural for the oldest child to step up and become the pillar of their family and someone their loved ones could lean on in difficult times.
"I have to go now." With that said, Tanjiro took his hand back and readjusted the basket of coals on his back, before he walked past Nezuko and went on ahead.
"Come back safely!" Nezuko answered before she headed back into the house with Rokuta still asleep on her back.
Then, much to their surprise the members of Fairy Tail could hear Tanjiro's voice as he crossed the forest, as if he was talking to them: 'Living isn't easy. But we're happy. Still, life is like the weather, it's ever changing-'
"Wise words coming from such a young man." Makarov said and many adults in the guild could not help but nod their heads in agreement, becoming more and more amazed at Tanjiro. Having so many immature members (cough… Natsu… cough) that liked to fool around childishly and would only show themselves off in critical moments within their rank had that effect on them.
"Still, how was it possible for Natsu's client to record Tanjiro's words like that?" Lisanna couldn't help but ask, looking at Warren Rocko, the one who used a telepathy magic that allowed him and everyone to converse mind-to-mind "I mean… does he have mindreading magic or…"
"There are several telepathy magic but… it is possible that he has traveled to this world and met Tanjiro himself." Erza answered after she had taken a second to think about Lisanna's question herself "What we see here is obviously a flashback of Tanjiro from the first scene. Our client did say that he had a hobby of editing the lacrimas to make them feel like movies, so Tanjiro's words just now could be reordered and edited after it's over."
"What is over?" Natsu couldn't help but ask.
"Whatever it is that happened to Nezuko, I suppose. Our client did say he wanted us to learn that there will always be hope even in the darkest of times after all."
"Let's continue. I have a feeling we will find out soon enough."
'it's not like it always stays sunny, and it's not like it will ever snow endlessly… but, whenever happiness is destroyed, it always comes with the smell of blood.'
"Oi oi, what the hell!? What kind of music is that?" Natsu asked in shock, his face lost a bit of its color. That kind of music should belong to a horror movie, something that Erza forced him to watch with her from time to time.
"Why did Tanjiro say something like that?" Mira asked, sounding a bit shocked "Just what attacked Nezuko?"
As Tanjiro arrived at the town, the people there greeted him in a friendly manner.
"Oh, Tanjiro." An elderly lady standing in front of a local inn greeted when she noticed Tanjiro walking toward him. "You still came down the mountain in a weather like this." She said with a smile. "You're so hardworking! Don't catch a cold you know"
"I'm fine with this weather." Tanjiro answered with a smile. "Do you need some charcoal? Do you have enough at home?"
"Hey, Tanjiro!" A man called out. "Can I have some charcoal? You helped fix my door last time. Thank you!"
"I'll need some charcoal, too!" A third one said.
Tanjiro smiled at hearing them all.
'Looks like I'll be able to sell a lot.'
Just as he thought that, someone else called out.
"Tanjiro!" A young man cried as he stumbled out of a house with an older woman behind him, with a bloody nose, showing that he had been beaten. "You came at the right time!" He then rushed over to the boy and kneeled down before him, gripping his pants. "I was treated as the culprit who broke this plate!" He showed it to the red haired boy. "Please Help me out, will you? Smell it!"
Moving his face closer to the broken plate, Tanjiro sniffed the air a few times before turning to the woman.
"He can tell just by sniffing that?" Wakaba asked in surprise, "His sense of smell is good."
"Like that of us dragon slayers." Gajeel pointed out with a shrug, and everyone looked at Natsu and the other dragon slayers, who on several occasions had demonstrated the values of their heightened senses.
"Or like those who use nose magic."
"What the hell is that exactly?" Lucy said with a dramatic face while looking at Natsu, who crossed his arms with his cat Exceed and said matter of factly with a very straight face. She had learnt a lot about magic, but never had she heard about it before.
"Still, is it really okay to beat someone in the face like that just because he broke a plate?" Erza couldn't help but ask.
"And you are the one to talk?" Everyone shouted at her, remembering that she would beat them if they accidentally broke something in the guild. making Erza's visible eye widen slightly.
"I smell a cat." He said.
"You see?" The man yelled.
"Oh my, so it was a cat?" The woman thought out loud.
"I told you it wasn't me."
"That plate must cost a lot, judging by her outfit, she seems rather wealthy."
"Or she's just being an ass." Gajeel said in dismissal after Levy, making her pout cutely at him.
.
.
By the time Tanjiro had finished selling all the charcoal and begun to walk back home, the sun had long since set.
'It's really late.' The red haired kid thought. 'But thank goodness I was able to sell all the charcoal, though.'
"Hey, Tanjiro!" Someone called out to him as he was about to enter the path leading up to the mountain. "Are you gonna go back to the mountain at this time?" A man with black hair asked from the window of his house. "You'd better not, it's too dangerous."
"Because of what? Animals?"
"Possibly."
"Or something else." Gray crossed his arms and said, this scene was becoming a bit too familiar for this taste.
"I'll put you up for the night, come on, get back here." The man insisted.
"But…"
"Don't argue! Come on! Before the demons show up."
For a moment, everyone was silenced then it hit him.
"What the… Demons?" Gray asked in shock, remembering Deliora, the demon that was responsible for the death of his parents and countless others.
"So there are demons in their world too but… does that mean that Nezuko will be attacked by a demon?" Mira asked worriedly. She knew better than anyone how dangerous demons were, having been forced to take over her Satan demon in order to save her home village and family.
Tanjiro turned his head and took a long look at the mountain before he went back to the man before nodding and walking towards the house.
Everyone became silent as the scene changed, knowing full well that if Nezuko was indeed attacked by demons then it would happen that night. There's no way that it could happen any other time.
But what worried them the most, however, was what was going to happen to the rest of Tanjiro's family. The boy was seen carrying his sister through the snow, bleeding and in bad condition. If a demon really attacked Nezuko, then there was a chance that it had also attacked her family at the house.
The thought made them shudder worriedly, because even the demons of their world left nothing behind in their paths of destruction.
"Thanks for the meal." The red eyed boy said after finishing his meal. "Hey, Saburo-jii-san, what are demons like?"
"Since a long time ago, Man-eating demons have always come out after sunset." Saburo answered as he prepared a spare futon for Tanjiro. "So you must never wander around at night." He said, putting down the futon on the ground. "Sleep after you are done. You can go home tomorrow morning."
Nodding, Tanjiro got into the futon as the older man placed another one beside his.
"These demons… they can't go inside houses?" Tanjiro asked curiously.
"No, they can." Saburo answered as he smoked a pipe.
"If so then everyone would have been eaten by them."
"That's why the demon slayers have been helping us fight them since the old time."
"Thank god for that." Macao let out a heavy sigh as he breathed out a cloud of smoke, making everyone nod their heads in agreement. Back in the days when demons were still roaming the land of Fiore, demon slaying missions weren't rare for the mages, but they were usually the toughest of the job so only S-class mages were capable of taking them up. It's good to hear that the people of Tanjiro's world had a force to stand against the demons' terror.
"I wanna see a demon slayer!" Natsu declared, punching his fist in excitement. "I bet they are cool as hell."
"Still, why do I have a feeling that this man speaks about them and demons like it's from his own personal experience?"
"He must have seen a demon slayer doing their jobs before." Master Makarov concluded. He had so many theories in mind, but decided to keep quiet about it at least for the time being.
The man put out his pipe. "Anyway, time to sleep."
Tanjiro simply nodded and closed his eyes.
'Saburo-jii-san must be lonely after losing his family.' Tanjiro thought as he drifted off to sleep. 'I'll bring my siblings next time, we'll tell him that there are no demons and he is safe.' As he thought of this he felt his consciousness slipping away. 'But, come to think of it, my grandma used to say the same thing when she was alive.'
"Oi oi, don't jinx it kid!" One of the adults shouted, making everyone feel even more nervous and worry at the prospect of the demon being really existing and yet Tanjiro didn't know anything about it.
The next morning.
"Be careful on your way back." Saburo said to Tanjiro while waving his hand.
"Yes, thank you for everything." The boy answered with a bow before beginning to make his way back home. It took him a few hours but when he's near, his eyes widened in shock.
"Here it is." Makarov muttered seriously, causing the atmosphere to weigh down heavily upon the mages of Fairy Tail, having figured out what was going to happen next.
"Blood!" Tanjiro thought out loud as he started to run as fast as his feet could carry him and by the time he had made it back, he was sweating and breathing heavily… but the sight before him was the reason for it.
Lying in the snow, just outside of their home, were Nezuko and Rokuta, both covered in blood.
He let out a strangled cry and ran towards them as he shook away the basket.
"Nezuko! Rokuta" He called out, kneeling near the two. "What happened? What's going on? What happened here?!" Tanjiro turned towards his home and saw a sight that not even his worst nightmares could have conjured.
Inside the house, laid the bodies of his entire family, their blood splashed around the walls and the floor.
"Oh no." Mira let out a startled gasp and covered her mouth, as everyone looked at the Lacrima projection in shock and horror. Not only was Nezuko hurt, but their entire family had been killed as well. What monsters could possibly do this to a family of innocent people?
Gray gritted his teeth in anger as he looked at the scene before him, of all the members of Fairy Tail he was the one who knew what it felt like to lose his family to a demon. The memories of the days Deliora attacked his town and destroyed everything on its path, killing his family in the process, was still fresh in his mind, and now, before him, a young boy and his sister had lost their entire family to demons.
"God damn it." Natsu growled as he slammed his hand down the table so hard that he broke it, but no one wanted to scold him for destroying something in the guild again. They all understood his anger and in fact, if someone in the guild weren't feeling shock or horror, they were feeling angry.
"Poor kid…" Laxus muttered with a heavy sigh. He was one of the only members of the Guild that was still keeping a straight face, but his blood was just like Natsu's, boiling in anger.
"He will probably blame himself for what happened to them." Freed nodded his head in agreement.
"Mom… Hanako…" He called out as he stood at the door of his home and felt his legs wobble, hoping to hear an answer from his family. "Takeo… Shigeru… Nezuko… Rokuta…" But no matter how much he waited, how much he cried then, no one answered. "Why…? How…?" Shaking himself out of his shock, he approached each of his family's bodies, almost all of them were ice cold, making it obvious that they had been dead for a while.
Everyone except for Nezuko.
"Please go find help." Wendy said determinedly. If she was there, she would stop at nothing to help the two out. "Save your sister."
Ignoring everything else, Tanjiro grabbed the hatchet his brother was using yesterday, placed a light blue haori around his sister, put her on his back and began to run down to the mountain, heading back into the town.
'She's still warm! She might survive if I get her to a doctor!' Tanjiro repeated in his head as he forced his body to move.
"Damn it, he's probably tired from all the mountain climbing and running earlier." Cana cursed. For once that day, she was drinking, even though she had an entire barrel beside her, she hadn't taken a single drop from it. After Nezuko had been taken care of and safe, however, she might need just more than one barrel.
"Will… will she be alright?" Levy couldn't help but ask, tears welling at the corners of her eyes as her teammates tried to comfort her.
"She'd better be! OR I'm coming over there and killing the son of a bitch who hurt them." Natsu roared while Lucy was trying to hold him back, knowing full well that if she let go he would very well return to their client's house and look for a way to come to the world of Tanjiro and Nezuko.
The more he ran the more he felt like he would collapse, he wasn't able to breathe properly, it had started to snow and his lungs hurt.
"Tanjiro is just a normal boy after all, this is really pushing him to the limit." Elfman said worriedly, understanding the boy's worry for his sister. He would surely do the same though, if he was in Tanjiro's shoes or one of his sisters somehow ended up like Nezuko.
Yet he ignored all of that, forcing his body to continue to move.
But then, Nezuko's hand started to twitch.
"Yes, she's alive!" The mage of fairy tail cheered, but Makarov and the more experienced members of the guild widened their eyes in surprise.
"No, something wasn't right." He said quickly, silencing everyone down. It was at that moment that Nezuko began to raise her head, her expression was blank at first before she let out an animalistic growl, showing her lengthened and sharpened fangs. Even as her eyes were wide open, she had no pupils and the veins at the corners of her eyes swelled up, becoming noticeable.
Just as he was walking near a cliff, Nezuko started to move a bit too violently, gripping his shoulders and causing his foot to slip with the snow before falling down.
"Damn it!' He yelled as he and Nezuko fell down the cliff, but when his back touched the ground, he didn't show signs of feeling pain. The snow had saved.
"Nezuko!" Moving to a sitting position, he looked around and immediately called out for his sister. His vision was a bit blurry at first, but then he saw a figure standing with their head down just a few feet away from him, and widened his eyes in shock.
"She's… She's becoming a demon." It was Mira who said that. If she didn't see Nezuko talking so normally with his brother in the flashback, she would have said that the girl was a demon.
"No way, how can she become a demon?" Gray asked furiously "Does she have power like your takeover or something?"
"I think she's turned." Mira explained, causing everyone to widen their eyes in shock. Turned? They had never met the type of demon that could turn a human into a demon before in their life. "I think… that's why she's alive."
"Nezuko, are you alright?" The red haired boy asked as he got up and ran as fast as he could towards her. "You don't have to walk. I'll continue to carry you down to town, okay?" He said as he got close to his sister. "Nezuko!"
Nezuko didn't answer, she slowly raised her head to meet Tanjiro's sight and-
"Oh no…" Mira covered her mouth as everyone silently watched on. Nezuko had become everything that she had feared when she was younger, a mindless demon that would attack her own sibling.
"Gaarrl!" Roared the younger Kamado before she lunged at her brother, trying to bite him. Tanjiro was able to dodge the first bite, before his hand shot forward the hatchet and used it to block her mouth, placing the wooden handle between her teeth to prevent her from biting him, but the girl continued to push forward, and forced the two of them to the ground
'Sh-she's… a demon!' The red eyed boy realized, remembering Saburo's words as he stared up at his little sister 'Nezuko's a man-eating demon…? No! That can't be, Nezuko's a human ever since she was born!' He is certain of it, he was there when she came to the world. 'But… she doesn't have Nezuko's usual scent.' Tanjiro continued to try to make sense of the situation.
"Could it be that she…"
"No, don't finish that sentence." Mira pointed her hand at Macao, who flinched in surprise "I know what you are thinking, and I can tell you that Nezuko did not attack her family. She was protecting her brother, and also, there is no blood in her mouth or on her hands. End of discussion." The white haired woman stated sternly, making a number of guild mates look at her in surprise. It was rare for them to see the sweet Mira to react like that, and her siblings understood it more than anyone else, knowing she was affected by this more than any of them.
"I'm sorry."
Among the smell of blood from his family there was another scent, something that he had never smelled before in his life.
"GRR!" His thoughts were interrupted as Nezuko growled once again before her body grew.
"She can do that?!"
"Now is not the time to be amazed, Natsu!" Erza pointed out.
"She can now overpower him for sure." Lucy nodded her head in agreement.
'She grew in size and… she's getting stronger.' But even in this situation, he couldn't help but think of something else.
'While I was sleeping carelessly at Saburo's house, they were murdered brutally like that! It must've hurt! You suffered, didn't you?' Tears began to form in his eyes.
"Don't blame yourself kid."
'I'm so sorry I couldn't save you.' He said, both to Nezuko and the rest of his family. 'I have to help Nezuko somehow but- ngh, she's too strong for me to push her back!' Realizing that trying to overpower her was impossible, he only had one other option.
"I knew it." Freed sighed heavily "Poor kid…"
"Nezuko!" Tanjiro called out to his sister. "Hang in there, Nezuko! Don't give in!" He began to cry and the tears soon blurred his vision, but he didn't care as he continued to look up at his little sister "You gotta hang in there! Don't turn into a demon! You gotta stay strong!" Right now, the only thing occupying his mind was to save his sister, nothing else matters. "You can do it! You can do it!" He cried out as a tear fell, causing him to widen his eyes in surprise.
The mage of Fairy Tail could only gasp in shock, because from their perspective they were able to see that the tears did not roll down from Tanjiro's face, but from above him.
Nezuko was crying, even as her mouth continued to bite down the wooden handle of Tanjiro's hatchet.
But before Tanjiro could say anything, he saw someone coming from behind Nezuko with a sword in hands.
Erza widened her eyes in surprise. From the speed he was moving on snow of all things, she could tell this one was no ordinary swordsman "Could it be that this is a demon slayer?"
Nezuko noticed it too and turned her attention towards the new arrival, the momentary distraction was enough for Tanjiro to overpower her for a brief second and quickly moved her out of the way before the sword could strike her down, bringing both of them down and causing the blade to cut off his ponytail.
"He's strong." Erza and the mage of Fairy Tail watched on in amazement as the swordsman brought his blade down, blowing up a path of snow in front of him and sending the two siblings rolling until Tanjiro's back hit a tree while holding Nezuko his arms, shielding her from the impact and taking it for his sister.
'What the… Who is that?' Tanjiro asked in his mind, trying to ignore the pain on his back after hitting that tree.
Standing in front of him was a man with messy black hair tied into a low ponytail and dark blue eyes, wearing a black uniform with a red and green haori and holding a sword.
"Why are you protecting her?" The man asked emotionlessly.
"That's because she's your sister, you narrowed eyes fuck!" Natsu yelled angrily, causing Erza to smash him in the back of his head.
"He's a stranger. How would he know that?" It was Lucy who asked him that, stating the obvious that Natsu decided to ignore, as usual.
"She's my sister! She's my younger sister!" Tanjiro answered while he was holding Nezuko in his arms, noticing she had gone back to her normal size.
The man squinted as Nezuko began to growl and tried to get away from her brother.
"You sister, huh?" He asks, in a much softer tone before suddenly lunging towards the two. Tanjiro closed his eyes and moved his body between Nezuko and the man but before he realized it, his sister had disappeared from his arms.
"Nezuko!" He cried because when he looked up, his younger sister was being held in the hand of the swordsman as he stood several feet away from him.
"fast." Several members of the guild uttered in amazement.
"oi, now is not the time to be amazed!" Natsu roared, using Erza's own words against her this time with a victorious smirk on his face. The red head merely glared at him as he sat back down in his chair and continued to watch.
"What is he going to do to Nezuko-san?" Wendy asked worriedly. If he was a Demon Slayer, then obviously, he was there to do only one thing.
"Stay where you are." The swordsman ordered as he effortlessly kept Nezuko in place with one arm, even though she was struggling much more violently than before. "My job is to slay vile demons." He said in the same emotionless tone. "Needless to say, I will need to decapitate your sister."
"What the fuck!?" Natsu asked, his face losing its color "That's brutal, man!"
"It seems… decapitating is a way to kill the demon of his world." Makarov pointed out while rubbing his chin. He could even tell that If a demon's head needed to be cut off to kill it, then these beings also had tremendous regeneration power. Maybe even more so than the demons he had seen in his life. "If he knows what he is doing, then he will go for the kill as soon as he can."
"Hold on! Nezuko hasn't killed anyone!" Tanjiro said back before trying to explain what happened. "There was another scent back at my home, a scent that I'd never smelled before! That's probably the one who killed my family!" He said, taking deep breaths between words to get them out. "It wasn't Nezuko! I don't know why she turned into something like that, but…"
"It's quite simple." The black haired man answered. "Because her wounds were exposed to demon blood, she turned into a demon." He spoke matter-of-factly. "That's how man-eating demons multiply."
"It is that easy? Fuck!" someone shouted in shock.
"To turn someone into a demon just by exposing them to their blood, even I have never met a demon like that before." Mira muttered, gripping her chest tightly.
"Still, I doubt that Nezuko and her family were able to harm it enough to cause it to bleed." Laxus pointed out as he crossed his arms on his chest. Back then, he could tell none of them looked like they had fought back, but it was understandable because most of them were children even younger than he was.
"So you are saying that it purposely turned Nezuko into a demon?" Elfman asked, to which Laxus nodded in confirmation.
"Nezuko would never eat humans!" Tanjiro declared with certainty.
"You gotta be kidding. Weren't you about to be devoured." The swordsman argued back.
"You're wrong! I'm sure she knows who I am!" The red haired boy said. "I won't let her hurt anyone! I'm going to turn Nezuko back into a human! I swear I'll heal her!"
"She can't be healed." Tanjiro felt like someone stabbed him when he heard those words but ignored it.
"I'll find a way no matter what! So, please… Please don't kill her!" He begged. "I'll hunt down the one who slaughtered my family! I'll make everything all right!" Even as he continued to talk, the swordsman didn't seem to be listening as he moved his swords closer and closer towards Nezuko. "So please! Please! Don't do it!" An image of the rest of his family flashed in his mind. 'Don't take anyone else from me.' Realizing that his words weren't reaching the swordsman, Tanjiro did the only thing he could think of at the moment.
He kneeled down, placing his forehead on the ground. "I'm begging you…" He said through tears. "Don't kill my little sister! Please don't do it! I'm begging you…"
"Tanjiro…" Elfman sniffed. "I respect you young man." Behind him, Evergreen reached out and placed a hand on his back to comfort him. She never had a little sister, so she wouldn't be able to understand Tanjiro's feelings as well as Elfman.
"Don't ever give others a chance to murder you!" The man suddenly yelled, his tone a far-cry from the emotionless one he was speaking with until now.
"Stop that pathetic groveling! If it was the least bit effective, your family wouldn't be dead!" As he continued to talk, Tanjiro slowly raised his head to meet the man's eyes. "Can a weakling who can't take the initiative in such a situation heal his sister?! Hunt down the enemy?! Don't make me laugh!" The swordsman roared. "The weak have no rights or choices! Their only fate is to be relentlessly crushed by the strong! The demons might know how to cure your sister! But don't think that a demon would respect your will or wishes! Naturally, I have no respect for you, either! That's reality!" He berated, glaring at the boy. "Why did you throw yourself over your sister earlier? Was that your way of protecting her? Why didn't you swing your hatchet? Why did you show your back to me?" The black haired man asked before pointing his sword at him. "All those blunders led to your sister's capture! I could've skewered her along with you!"
"Okay, this guy is officially an asshole." Natsu crossed his arms on his chest and growled, but even he had to admit that his words were true, harsh but true.
"But you have to admit that he has a point." Gray shook his head. That's right. The weak had no right to choose their actions. He still remembered how helpless he had felt when Ur sacrificed her life to seal Deliora. If only he was stronger back then, he might have stood at his teacher's side and fought with her.
During the entire monologue, Tanjiro could only stare, not moving as the man berated him.
'Don't cry.' The swordsman thought, still maintaining his glare. 'Don't despair, now's not the time for that. I know you're devastated. Your family was massacred, and your sister's become a demon. I know it's painful. I know you want to scream. I get it.' A small pang of guilt made his way into his mind. 'If only I'd gotten here a half-day sooner, your family might not have ended up dead… but there's no way to turn back time. Feel the rage. The powerful, pure rage of not being able to forgive will become your unswerving drive to take action!'
The mages of Fairy Tail became silent, not expecting such words to be told by the cold and emotionless swordsman. It seemed that he's more than he appeared to be. They could never judge a book by its cover.
He moved his sword back and pointed it at Nezuko. 'With such a fragile resolve like yours, you can't protect your sister or heal her… or get revenge for your family!'
"Yooo! Don't go killing Nezuko now after saying such nice things!" Natsu yelled out with his hands in the air. Wendy couldn't watch it anymore and used her hands to cover her eyes, expecting the swordsman to end Nezuko right there.
"N-" Tanjiro didn't finish his sentence as the man stabbed Nezuko in the shoulder. "Stop!" He yelled, before grabbing a rock and throwing it at him, but the dark haired man merely used the handle of his blade to deflect it and stood there.
Tanjiro saw the axe in the snow and ran towards it, grabbing it and another rock as he ran between the trees to circle around the man holding Nezuko.
"What is he doing?!" The fire dragon slayer asked impatiently "Stop running around and go save your sister!"
"He's fighting smart Natsu." Erza pointed out "He cannot fight an opponent like that head on, so he will need to use a different strategy to approach him and get his sister."
'I can't beat him straight on, what happened earlier taught me that much.'
"Hear that flame brain?" Gray mocked with a dismissive wave of his hand "The kid can think, unlike you."
"Oi! What the fuck was that? Care to repeat that asshole!?" Natsu shouted in anger, and butt headed with his rival. The two glared at each other heatly, but everyone else decided to ignore them to return back to the Lacrima Projection, wanting to see what was going to happen next.
'Please, let this work!' He threw the rock at him but it only impacted the tree behind the man as he moved out of the way.
"Ahhhh!"
'A straightforward attack driven solely by emotion…' The man thought, seeing him rush at him. "You fool!" He yelled before hitting him in the back with the pommel of his sword, knocking him out. 'You're a fool but at least you moved… hmm? Where's his hatchet?' He thought, not seeing the weapon that the kid was holding.
"Smart kid." Laxus smirked in satisfaction, having noticed the way Tanjiro charged at the swordsman.
His eyes widened when he heard a sound above him and barely moved his head out of the way in time to avoid the axe hitting him; it did manage to cut off a few strands of his hair, though.
'Just before he hid behind the tree.' The swordsman thought as he realized what had happened. 'He hurled that rock toward me and, at the same time, tossed the hatchet in the air. He hid his hands as he pretended to attack so I wouldn't realize he was unarmed.' The black haired man stared at the unconscious boy, genuinely astounded that he came up with that plan of attack in the few seconds between when he stabbed his sister and he threw the rock. 'He knew he couldn't beat me. He tried to bring me down after I struck him! This kid…'
"You are willing to go down so your sister can escape… You are one hell of a young man, Tanjiro." Makarov thought with a soft smile on his face. Ignoring the fact that he might possibly release a demon into the world if he succeeded, if Tanjiro had been born in Earthland, then he would have been made a member of Fairy Tail.
"Grr." Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, Nezuko managed to free herself and kick the man away before moving towards her brother.
"No! Don't!" Everyone shouted, not even caring that their words could not reach the girl.
'Damn! She'll devour him!' The swordsman thought, rushing to reach them- he stopped, his eyes widening at the sight in front of him as the words the red haired kid had said before repeated in his head. 'Nezuko… It wasn't Nezuko. She'd never eat humans!'
Kneeling between the boy and the swordsman, Nezuko had her arms spread out, as if she was protecting her brother.
"YEAH! Now that's what I am talking about!" Natsu cheered out excitedly along with everyone else in the guild, while Mira was wearing a soft smile on her face as she looked at Nezuko.
With a roar, she lunged at the swordsman.
'Long ago, someone said the same thing, only to be devoured by a demon.' The man thought as he effortlessly dodged Nezuko's strikes. 'When a demon is starving, it will kill and devour even its own parents or siblings. Because they're nutrient-rich. I've seen it happen more times than I can count.' He stared at the girl trying to attack him as he continued to dodge. 'This girl has been wounded, and she's expending energy to heal those injuries. She must've drained vast amounts of her strength as she transformed into a demon. That means she's severely starved at this moment, without a doubt.' He dodged a strike to his head then used his palm to push Nezuko away. 'She must've wanted to feast on a human right away, even if it's her own brother…' The image of Nezuko standing between them flashed through his mind. 'Yet, she protected him instead, and she is only aiming at me.'
"OOhhh, so Nezuko-chan is a special case?" Levy asked in amazement. burning the words the swordsman just said into her mind. Was it because of her strong feelings for her brother? The solid script mage doubted that was the only reason.
"It seems, the Kamado siblings are much more than they appear to be." Makarov said with a firm nod "And we will be following their journey."
Nezuko jumped towards a tree behind him and used it as a foothold to lunge towards the swordsman.
'I wonder…' The black haired man sheathed his blade but kept his hand on the handle. 'These siblings… might be different from others.' With that thought, he hit her on the neck with the edge of his hand, knocking her out.
"Well, that's so much better than killing her I guess." Lucy said with a soft chuckle, patting Wendy on her back. She had been comforting the young sky dragon slayer for the past few minutes, and giving her the courage to continue to watch the 'movie'
.
.
"I'm sorry to leave you behind, Tanjiro." The red haired boy heard his mother's voice, he could also feel his siblings near him. "Take care of Nezuko for me, all right?"
"Ugh, as heartwarming as it is… I think it's a bit creepy." Natsu muttered with a deadpan expression. So far, everything about this Lacrima Recording, except for Tanjiro and Nezuko, cause him to feel like he was watching a horror movie and not a very 'there's always hope in the darkness' one.
And he didn't like horror movies much to begin with. The fact that this was the record of a real event in another world only made it worse.
He unconsciously moved his hand and grabbed something, when he opened his eyes that had tears falling from them, he saw Nezuko lying beside him, she was covered in the haori he had used before and a piece of bamboo was placed on her mouth, bound by a red tie.
"Are you awake?" He raised his head towards the black haired swordsman, who was standing with his back against a tree, before moving to a kneeling position and hugging Nezuko closer to his body. "Go see an old man named Urokodaki Sakonju who lives at the foot of Mt. Sagiri. Tell him that Tomioka Giyu sent you." The man moved away from the tree. "She seems to be alright since it's cloudy now, but never let her be exposed to the sunlight, okay?" With those words, the swordsman, Giyu, disappeared.
"So… I assume that Tanjiro is going to become a demon slayer now?" Gray asked.
"Cool!" and Natsu finished.
"and Nezuko cannot be exposed to sunlight. No wonder why demons only attack at night. They can be killed by sunlight." Lucy concluded, remembering old man Saburo's words
Tanjiro isn't sure how long he stood in place after Giyu left but he knows that it was longer than he should.
Eventually, he picked Nezuko up and began to walk back to their home.
Before going to Mt Sagiri he has to get her a set of clothes that isn't covered in blood… and bury the bodies of his family.
"Pause it there please." Cana stated loudly, making Mira pause the projector. She then grabbed the barrel of beer next to her, and drank the whole thing in one go. Everyone watched her, but no one made a comment about it, feeling the need for something heavy to swallow everything that they just saw too.
End of Chapter 1
Note: Will this story gets taken down? I hope that this story is not taken down lol! This is something that I have done a long time ago for a patron of mine on p/atreon as a commission, but I actually never continue on because I lacked the inspiration for it, the fans' hype and needs to see the next chapter, so if this chapter does well (Hopefully it will do well) I will continue updating this 'watching' the story from time to time.
Hope that everyone has had a great time reading! Make sure to leave behind a review once you have finished reading! Tell me what you think about this (and hopefully it won't get taken down by the site's admins, but even if it does, you can follow me on my p/atreon as I originally only intended for this to be p/atreon exclusive only).
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See you in the next update.
Ja ne!