I do not own Kimetsu no Yaiba or MHA.


Chapter 3

He couldn't ever remember a time where he was so broken. Not like this. It felt like the world had already ended. Nothing mattered anymore. He lost everything he cared about, his house, job, possessions, but most importantly, his family. His wife and kids.

All because of some insane psychopath that was too lazy to earn his own money.

Before the incident. Yuuto Fugiwara was a hardworking individual, with a stable job, and a happy family. They resided on the outskirts of Shizuoka, in a city called Musutafu which never seemed to have any problems.

His quirk, Shadow, was especially versatile. It allowed him to travel through shadows that he could see. If he saw two shadows, one next to him, and one far away from him, he could simply walk into a shadow and reappear on the other side. It was a convenient quirk, yet he never let the praise get to him. He knew such a quirk could be used in a hero setting, yet he never had the desire to go forth with it.

Every day was calm and fun, until one day, when Yuuto had gone to work, he came back with his house on fire and in ruins. He rushed in, ignoring the smoke that was making his lungs heavy and ragged, and found his family members with stab wounds in various different places. He tried. He tried with all his might and with everything he had to get them to wake up, to open their eyes, anything. But it wasn't any use.

He was a shell of a man the day after. Everyone who looked at him could tell. Gone were the once bright eyes that went day and night, front and back, to the job that he loved. He sat at the front of his ruined home, not eating, sleeping, anything. People who knew who he once was were genuinely worried.

Later on, a few days later, a coworker of his, who he was friends with, tried to help get out of his current state by showing him a piece of news about the crime that had happened to his family. The man thought that by Yuuto hearing the news that the man was put to justice, it would help him slowly recover from this incident.

Little did the man know, that wasn't how the mind worked.

When he saw the segment of the news that talked about the arson in Musutafu, he read the news with wide eyes as he saw all of the details of what had happened. The murderer was a 29 year old man with a quirk that had to do with knives protruding out from his body, and he was later arrested and taken into custody from the new pro hero Ryukyu.

Ryukyu? He has never heard of that name before.

But didn't they say that she was a "new hero"?

Why didn't they send someone out that knew what they were doing?

If she was supposed to be a "hero", then why didn't she come and save his family sooner?

Wasn't that what heroes were supposed to do? Protect the people against villains?

Where were they when people really needed them? The people and everyone else just disregard the deaths of people, and parade around the heroes, even when they failed to do what they were supposed to do!

The sorrow slowly turned into a boiling rage within him. If it wasn't for incompetent heroes like her, then maybe he wouldn't have lost everything!

Maybe then families could live in peace!

But instead, they just care about their own fame, their own successes. Why else would they be parading around the victories of heroes? It wasn't a victory! It was a complete and utter failure!

Just because they were born with some lucky ass power, they get to do whatever they want! Disregard the lives of the people they claim to be helping just because they weren't born with powers that allowed them to kill!

What made them any better than the people they claim to stop?

She was the one responsible. She was the one responsible for the deaths of his family.

And he would make her suffer for it. Just like she made him.

No matter what.

After learning all of this, he changed. He abandoned his job, and all of his remaining possessions. He changed his attire and appearance, and he made use of the quirk that he had. He turned to the life of villainy.

His quirk was too notch for infiltration. Looking through a window, he could easily access buildings, and get whatever he wanted. All he needed to do was to steal as much as possible, and his ultimate goal was to find the dragon hero.

He first stole money. Money was always essential for whatever task you want to do, that much was obvious to everyone.

A month after the incident, he took a knife from the remains of his home and approached a bank. Through the window, he could make out various different shadows in which he could access. All he needed was to execute the method which let him go in and out undetected.

Through the side of the building, he could see a shadow from a door and a light to the right of it that led to the back safe, where all of the cash was bound to end up in. Carefully, he leapt into the shadow of the building, and reappeared on the other side.

While trying to execute the narrow maneuver, he realized something. The lighter the shadow, the harder it was to make his full body appear out of the other side. This was important information about his quirk that he needed to file in later. The suffocation he had felt was almost too much. But such was his goal. He couldn't expect everything to go smoothly.

He had managed to get hold of over half of the cash that was in the bag, and no one, not the police or the heroes, had been able to detect him yet.

Maybe he should have done this more often. But that wasn't what was important here. What really mattered was seeing that his mission was done.

Financially, he was set for a very long time. His next step was to look for information. Various things that meant a lot to her, other than her own life, of course. He needed to make her as miserable as he possibly could before killing her.

He then proceeded to steal as much as he could from tech companies in the dead of night, where the shadows were simply amazing, he could get anywhere.

Looking through all of the information that he could on the hero, all he could find was….. general appearance and past incidents resolved by her?! What was this? Not even her name?

This was slowly going worse and worse….

But no matter.

He would find what he needed to do, and get his revenge.

Even if he thought that he had nothing useful, he still examined every piece of evidence, every article that existed with her name on it. Something had to have been there. Old records. Anything to find out who she was.

Half a year passes by, and he feels like he's made substantial progress. He examined every and all articles, and found out more about her than anyone else. Many people by now would have just given up, but he wasn't one of them. He was determined to see her fall, if it was the last thing he would do.

All of the sites where there was some sort of case that she had to resolve were in areas where there weren't a lot of people.

Makes sense, her quirk would be very dangerous to use in places with a lot of people. Not like it mattered, she was a murderer either way.

If he wanted to finally catch her and find more, then he had to find a location in which she would do her heroic acts, he could follow her and find out more.

Except that was way too difficult.

She would leave the scene too fast, because of her quirk. She could fly as fast as a plane could, by herself, through the air. It was just very unlikely.

But not impossible.

His quirk had the potential to travel equally as fast. He just needed to get faster. Stronger. Better with his quirk. Then he can do what he sought to do.

Then that night, in the middle of the city, at the place where he least expects it, she appears.

The explosions. The deaths. Truth to be told, what could have anyone done about it? No heroes were around. He saw it himself. He thought himself to be a criminal mastermind. He could do anything without being caught.

Yet the execution was phenomenal.

Many people died that night. That would have been a normal day, yet she came.

In the middle of the city, the one place where he didn't look, she came. The damn hero came.

Why?

Why does everything have to not go his way?

Why was fate always not on the side of Yuuto Fujiwara?

Lamenting on his constant failures, the day after the incident, he was walking down the alleyway, trying to investigate the scene, when he saw it.

The face that he had investigated for so long.

For 6 months.

It was right in front of him.

She was walking down the road, in her daily life, and…..

Was that….

A kid?

What was a kid doing with her? Did she have any family…..?

No, it made sense. No one knew what her real name was anyway. She didn't work in an agency yet, she was a solo hero.

It would make sense for her to keep a family member away from all of the heroic business.

Especially a kid as young as that one.

He found it. He found it all, the hero he hates beyond all others, and a lot more. Someone she cared about.

Just like he cared about his family.

And he promised 6 months ago…

He would make her suffer. By taking everything she loves away from her…

And then herself along with it.

And now was the perfect time. Starting with that kid.

I will not let this get away! After everything I have done! Fate is finally on my side!

He leapt into the shadow of a building, and he moved. His quirk has developed so much in time. He could pass through any and all shadows, no matter how light.

And it was nighttime with street lamps. Shadows were everywhere.

Including hers, and her kid.

He leapt into the young boy's shadow, and followed him back to their house without a single trace of his existence being noticed by either of them.

He found the address of the house they were staying at, and memorized it. If things went awry, then he would need to know where they were.

The boy and the hero both were relaxing on the sofa, with the boy's shadow being underneath his weight, though Yuuto was forced to bear with it for a while. After a while, he went upstairs to a room.

Perfect.

Now was the chance. He would take what she cared about away from her once and for all.

The boy was isolated. His shadow was dark, exposed, and it made for an easier ambush.

Taking out his stored knife, he dug his feet in the void, and launched himself at the fastest possible speed, and stabbed directly in between the boy's eyes.


Tanjirou felt the whistle of the wind pass directly over his head. His sense of smell detected something was off about the situation, and he jumped out of the way at the last moment.

Then he saw the knife.

Though small, it wasn't unlike anything Tanjirou has seen. Demons usually had claws or fought with their fists using their enhanced strength. The goal was the same either way.

Avoid it at all costs.

Even if he had a younger body, he still had to survive this.

He had survived everything else that had come his way, because he had a purpose.

Protect Nezuko, kill Muzan, and let humanity live in peace. Now, it was to become a hero, save as many people as he could, and use his power for good.

He could take him on.

Total Concentration Breathing!

He leaned back, and saw the body stumble behind him being carried forward by the excess momentum. He shifted his footing, shoulder width apart and fists in front of him, ready to read his every movement.

He didn't have the strength to effectively use his normal fighting style, and he was without a weapon. That required agility that he didn't have right now, and his power was far too low to be taken seriously by any opponent .

He recalled a time where he needed some sort of power in a certain part of his body, and Zenitsu had told him the trick. It had caused his legs to accelerate at speeds he normally couldn't execute all the time.

"I just use my Total Concentration Breathing and push all of my power into my legs."

Though the after-effects were rough, it had worked. If he could empower his legs that way, why not his arms?

The man in front of him turned to look at him, with a crazed expression. Dark, red eyes combined with long, black hair. Teeth gritted so hard that they might be shaking. His quirk was something along the lines of teleportation, but he didn't know what. And he was in front of him, and was radiating killing intent

Why does this situation feel so familiar?

With an angry growl, the intruder made a mad dash and swung his knife around in a clumsy but deadly arc towards Tanjirou's neck. He saw his arm go outward before he even went towards him.

Tanjirou ducked under the arm, using his small stature to his advantage while flooding all of his energy to his fist and thrusting it into his stomach.

It hurt, more than he expected. The first time he had used that, his legs broke. But he was used to that pain. He had been used to fighting large battles on broken bones, far too many than was healthy.

Sacrificing a little backlash seemed to do the trick. The man flew back and tumbled across the hallway, rolling on the floor face-down.

The impact of the man on the floor was sure to alert Ryukyu downstairs, so he wouldn't have to fight alone for much longer. Hopefully the hero knew how to fight without turning into a dragon, because that would be needed here.

Coughing, the intruder got on one knee, and both he and Tanjirou noticed the barreling sound that came up the stairs.

Ryukyu, with feet and hands turned into dragon paws and legs, bounded up the stairs.

"Tanjirou! What's going on…?"

That was when she noticed the dark figure that wasn't supposed to be there.

Eyes narrowing, she focused on the figure. Claws slid out, and approached him.

The man on the floor raised his head, and saw her. The one that he had been hunting for over half a year.

Right in front of him.

A maniacal grin stretched across his face, and he started to laugh.

"Ahaaahahahhh…. I've finally found you…." His voice was strained, and he was still struggling for breath from Tanjirou's concentrated punch.

Ryukyu approached the man, and knocked him back down with a swipe of her hand. She took out some binds used to detain villains, until he made a mad dash towards a shadow.

However, this time, Tanjirou could tell where he was going to end up. He wasn't trying to run. His eyes were focused straight onto him.

Taking a deep breath, and with Total Concentration active, Tanjirou looked around him for any signs of movement. With only one light trained on him and with obstacles around, shadows were being created everywhere.

Yet that was something that Tanjirou didn't know yet.

Out of a shadow to his left, he could see a figure coming at him. he moved away in the opposite direction, until something caught the nape of his shirt.

How….?

The figure that was in front of him started to recede, as the man reappeared behind him, holding a knife to his throat. His grip was tight, insanely so. The blade was pressed into his throat, a small drop of blood trickling down his neck.

"You… took everything away from me. Everything I've ever lived for." A low murmur, yet the two present could hear it as clear as day.

The wide-eyed dragon hero watched, a few meters away, preparing a mad dash towards Tanjirou.

"Let go of him, bastard…," The dragon hero growled, succumbing to her quirk's nature.

Yuuto Fujiwara gladly basked in her look of absolute rage, and his grin grew even wider.

"Now it's time to lose yours!"

Tanjirou could tell that he was about to die if he didn't do something, and yet, he wasn't scared. Death's door was nothing new to him. All he had to do was what he did every time in odds that weren't in his favor.

Overcome it.

Closing his eyes, he drew on all of the breaths that he knew.

Total Concentration! Dance of the Fire God…

The knife came up in front of him, and he could feel the man pressing him against his short body to keep him from running.

Not like it mattered in the end.

Parhelion Rainbow!

The attack was designed to evade attacks with twists and turns, and needed the agility to create an after-image, but Tanjirou knew he couldn't execute that yet. Instead, he twisted in his grip, muscles stretched to their limit with his breathing.

He felt the slight falter, and he took advantage of that. The knife came down right when he twisted and ducked down, causing the man to nearly stab himself.

Once again, he had no weapon, so fighting him head-on wasn't an option. Ryukyu was dashing towards the intruder at high speeds, ready to intercept the knife as it came down on Tanjirou. Even if he hadn't had broken free, she still would have gotten the knife out of the way in time.

In the split second in which it occurred, Ryukyu saw what Tanjirou had done, and changed her target from the knife to the villain itself. Her dragon claws outstretched, she grabbed the front of his face, and slammed it down hard, causing the wood floor underneath to crack under the impact.

The man went still for a few seconds, and Ryukyu kept a firm hold on his head, making sure that he wouldn't be able to escape.

She didn't notice what he was doing in time.

His body started to sink in the floor, and disappeared while escaping the hold the hero put him in, leaving her paw stuck inside the cracked floor.

He reappeared on the wall next to Tanjirou, who saw it coming due to his enhanced senses. Once again he dodged, but now fully aware of any feints that he might do. Still looking around him for a sign of the intruder, he didn't realize what was below him.

Though he expected he could pop out from anywhere, he couldn't predict what happened next.

Popping out from below, one arm reached out, threatening to grab him from underneath. Tanjirou jumped at an angle towards the right to avoid coming back down into his grasp, but he didn't notice the man never moved from the spot next to the wall, colliding right into him.

Wha-

The man, which his hand plunged into the wall, and appearing on the floor re-grabbed Tanjirou, and shoved him into the wall.

This whole exchange happened in 3 seconds.

Ryukyu was able to get her hand free in that time by bringing it back to human form, and turning back to a dragon. Hearing the commotion, she turned around.

To see Tanjirou and the intruder gone.

Shit!

She turned her limbs back into dragon form and bounded inside the house in pursuit.

Meanwhile, all Tanjirou could feel was emptiness. He couldn't breathe. His eyes were vacuumed shut. He had no idea where he was going. All he could feel was the grip of the man's hand on him as he was dragged along with him.

The sensation lasted for about 30 seconds, and his lungs were about to lose its strength until he was suddenly hurled out of the void, his small body hitting the cold floor underneath him.

Even if his body had none of the physical training, his mind still remembered all the times Urokodaki had knocked him to the ground, and made him get up as fast as he could, taught him to recover from all kinds of absurd positions.

It was this training, and all of those memories, he wouldn't call it muscle memory, but it was in a weird way, that allowed him to flip back around and face the villain once more.

He toon in his surroundings, and he was in an area that was a lot more open, and enclosed with a little bit of light seeping in from all sides.

It could be considered an arena all on its own.

All that was in front of him was the villain.

And this is what he needed to take down.

Unarmed, with only his fists and Total Concentration, he approached the figure that was rapidly gaining distance on him.

His senses were still reaching out in all directions, prepared for the moment that he would teleport behind him, but strangely, he didn't. He kept charging straight in, knife in hand.

The movement was slow, even to him. Though he was used to using swords, it was easy to tell that the man had never had experience with the knife.

He only saw it as a tool, as a mere material that allowed him to kill.

He didn't see it as an extension of himself, as something that was attuned with him, that he could understand from the inside out.

Once again, ducking under the swing, Tanjirou thrusted his fist forward into the stomach of the villain, in the exact same maneuver that he used in the house.

Though he was inexperienced, the villain wasn't stupid enough to get hit by a move that has already been used against him once before.

He twisted his body and let his fist fly past him. The knife that was previously ducked under came back again towards the small of his back, the point ready to pierce his heart.

Tanjirou bent his body forward, and let his momentum carry him the rest of the way. Rolling forward, he created some space between the two and bought himself time to reset his position from the awkward landing earlier.

He used this time to gather his scattered thoughts together, and rethink everything that just happened within the past two minutes. Someone broke into Ryukyu's home, and tried to kill him. He seemed to have something against Ryukyu, because he talked about 'taking away what she cared about, just like she did hers'.

She was a hero! Her job was the exact opposite, to save people! Why did he want to take away someone who does good for the people in this world?

Why attack him to begin with?

"Why did you try to attack me and Ryukyu? What are you trying to accomplish?"

The man, who had also stopped to buy some time, perked at the question. A reaction alone was a good thing, that meant he wasn't completely insane.

"Do you really want to know, boy? Ryukyu let my entire family die, everyone I cared about! And now, I'm gonna take away everything she cares about too! STARTING WITH YOU!" He spoke calmly and then escalated to a shout at the end, and as he spoke the last line, he took out yet another knife, and started to run at him.

So that's why. He's not after Ryukyu at all, well he is, but she's not the one he's trying to kill.

He was the target. He was the one the villain was trying to kill.

If only he could disarm him somehow, and level the playing field with a weapon, he could utilize more of his breath styles.

He couldn't do that with hand to hand combat. The only one that he could use without a weapon was…..

Dance of the Fire God…

Blinding forward, and picking up speed, his deep and rhythmic breaths pumping energy into his already stressed muscles, he went forward to knock the weapons out of his hands.

Waltz Flash!

With a large gulp of oxygen, he pushed with his legs, accelerating the pumping of his blood, and speed to levels that he normally wouldn't get, yet making sure that the pressure he put on them wasn't enough to shatter his bones.

Unaware of his technique, the man had his knife only half-raised until something slammed into his arm, forcing him to drop the weapon and leaving it to clatter on the floor.

Tanjirou exhaled, halting his legs temporarily, and he tried to assess the current situation of his body. He put slight weight on his legs to test if they would hold up.

He didn't feel pain.

His legs were slightly warm, but that was to be expected given what he just did, and there was slight disorientation, however, Tanjirou has fought on much worse before.

Then, the situation got better.

Since the clattering of the arm jerked his knife arm back, it caused him to lose the knife. Since the brunt of the force was sent in the direction of Tanjirou's current position…

A knife, it's owner absent, was laying at his feet, ready to be used.

Finally armed with something that would be effective with his breath styles, although it wasn't a Nichirin blade, it was something.

He picked the knife off of the floor, and held it in front of him with the standard two-handed grip.

Normally, this would be a glaring issue, given that the knife was about a third of the length of a regular blade, however that wouldn't matter.

In the same case as Natagumo Mountain, where he first used the Dance of the Fire God in battle, it could be effective, no matter the blade used. His blade was completely cleaved off, yet it could ward off attacks even from one of the Twelve Kizuki.

He watched as the man, once again, thoughtlessly charged him. He couldn't understand why he kept repeating the same charge over and over, and made the same swings multiple times, but that didn't mean he would misuse the chance that he got.

Now fully expecting the wild, overhead swing that the man would do, he waited until the knife was directly in front of him, then took the knife into one hand, and slashed up, blocking it.

Scorching Crimson Mirror!

His opponent's knife jerked back a tiny bit, but he wasn't fazed by the block, he made it thrust down at the boy's heart, still intent on killing him, that he didn't realize that he left his chest wide open.

Years of ingrained battle experience led Tanjirou to see the thread linked from the top of his blade, directly at the man's heart. The Opening Thread.

His knife was compelled with great speed towards the end, and he executed his 7th form of the dance.

Sunflower Lance!

The knife dug into his chest, cutting through flesh and bone. He could head the audible crunch of the knife digging into his skin, and the ear-splitting scream of the man in front of him.

He staggered back, dropping his weapon, with the knife still lodged in his chest. He was still screaming, taking short breaths, though every time he seemed to breath in, he would let out another scream. During that time, Tanjirou grabbed the second knife off of the floor, making sure that he wouldn't be able to pick it up again.

He then ran over to the side of the villain, and jumped in the air, using the same move that he did to finish off Akaza.

The Setting Sun.

Flipping backwards, he thrusted the pommel of the second knife into the man's skull with all of the strength he could muster.

He fell to the ground, knocked completely out, knife protruding from his body.

Tanjirou let out the breath, and his hands dropped down to his knees, trying to recover from the sudden exhaustion from the fight.

Even if the fight lasted about a few minutes, it still took a lot out of him. He knew the reason why.

Before he met Urokodaki, he was very unathletic. He didn't have much stamina, though that improved slightly once he was old enough to carry charcoal up and down the mountain he lived on, though that wasn't at his current age.

Tough and strenuous fighting suddenly without training would be disastrous for an untrained body.

Walking over to the unconscious body, he went to make sure that he was knocked out, until he took a closer look at the body.

It didn't hit him until a few seconds after he looked at the body that he had done.

I fought a villain, again! And I stabbed someone that wasn't a demon!

He was so used to fighting demons for the past three years, that he completely forgot that his opponent couldn't regenerate instantly. He forgot that every shot that he took could potentially be lethal. He forgot his opponent was just like him.

He may have just killed a man, and not even realize it.

Because he attacked so suddenly, like a demon, he reverted to his old mentality of when he was a Demon Slayer. Go for any part of the body, try to damage your opponent as much as possible.

They will heal it anyway.

This wasn't the case. What he did right now, it could lead to punishments he couldn't imagine.

In his time, some people might have called for him to commit seppuku, given that the murder of a man would be considered as a capital offense, though since he attacked him first, he doubted that would have happened.

One thing was for sure; he potentially destroyed his hero career. Murder would now be on his record, even if there was nothing he could do about it.

He used his 'quirk', when he was specifically told that was illegal.

In the middle of lamenting his mishaps, he heard something shatter behind him. Tensing up, he turned around, and raised his fists as he prepared for another fight. However, the sight that greeted him was a welcome one, and one that he needed right now.

A dragon-like creature broke through a section of the glass rooftop that he was currently in, the shards falling nowhere near him. She dove down towards his position, landed cleanly on the floor, and started to shrink down to human size.

"Ryukyu-san, I t-" he started off, until she did something that he didn't expect in the slightest.

She ran over to Tanjirou and immediately enveloped him in a tight embrace. Shock was written all across his body for a few moments, until he tried to squirm out of her grip and tell her something.

"Ryukyu-san, I think I might have killed the villain," he confessed with a somewhat shaky voice, not unlike one of a young boy.

He felt her stiffen slightly, unwrap her arms around him, and walk over to the villain on the floor, with the knife in his chest.


The dragon hero observed the knife placement, though her calm facade showed that she wasn't worried. Internally, it had no effect on her state of mind.

Completely agitated.

For the past 10 minutes, she had been relentlessly searching for a boy who's life was in danger and had no ways of defending himself. And now here he was, safe, however he said he might have killed someone to protect himself. She couldn't help but feel relieved.

If something had happened, it would have been her fault. Her fault and no one else's. If she couldn't save a kid from being taken from a villain in her very home….

She wouldn't be a hero.

After assuring his safety, there was the matter of the villain in front of her. A knife in his chest, from a 9 year old boy.

She knew it would have been painful having experienced a stab wound once upon a time, yet she couldn't help but think.

He had a teleportation quirk. How the hell do you let a kid stab you?

Dangerous thoughts, Ryuko. The kid almost died. Be happy about that.

The knife was lodged somewhere below the chest area, which was a good sign, because he didn't puncture his heart, so he was probably still alive.

She had no idea if it had hit anything else, though. She wasn't a doctor. What could she do?

For now, the important thing was to secure the villain, and make sure Tanjirou wasn't hurt.

Taking out some restraints that were given to every hero in case of an attack like this, where no officers were nearby, she tied up the villain as tightly as she could.

After making sure that he wouldn't be able to use his quirk to get out of there, she turned to Tanjirou, and grabbed his shoulders, and tried to examine him.

Other than lots of dirt on his clothes and face, he had no visible injuries. There was a little blood on his shirt, which made her worry, as she lifted his shirt slightly to see the skin there wasn't ripped at all.

"Are you hurt anywhere? Do you feel any pain at all?" She questioned with a lot of urgency in her voice. "Did he strike you anywhere?" Dumb question, yes, but who could blame her?

Shaking his head, he replied, "No, I think I managed to avoid everything, though my legs hurt a little because I used my breathing technique."

His response put her off a little. Didn't he seem too calm from this? Any normal kid would be panicking, or be at least a little shaken by this! But here he was, acting as if everything that just happened was part of his daily life!

Does living in the woods for that long tend to do this to people? To make them face death itself and not be worried?

Just what has he gone through?

She had to address some more concerning matters, this villain and Tanjirou's health.

"Even if you think you're fine, we still need to get you checked by a doctor, as soon as possible. I will go to the police station to sort some matters there." She pulled off her stern adult voice quite terribly, but the message got across. The boy nodded.

"That's fine," he replied.

She turned into a dragon, and once again flew a villain and a now-conscious Tanjirou to the hospital.

Didn't the same thing happen yesterday? I carried a villain and Tanjirou to see the police station and hospital….

She didn't even know what to say to that. Not did she want to.

Strange day indeed.


It had taken little more than 10 minutes for Ryukyu and Tanjirou to reach the hospital. She dropped him off over there, and explained the situation to the lady at the front desk, who was well aware of who they both were, having met them yesterday.

Tanjirou, being once again checked in the same room by the same doctor that had met with the 12 hours prior, had him lay down on the bed to check his condition.

"Well, young Tanjirou, it is a surprise to see you here once again, not even 24 hours after we last saw you." Was that amusement or some other emotion? He couldn't tell.

"Sorry, Doctor-san. A villain made his way into Ryukyu's home and tried to ambush me with a strange quirk that he had. He seemed to be targeting her through me," he explained briefly, summarizing what had happened the best he could.

"If that is really how it all happened, I cannot fault you for getting hurt and coming here this time. You were, after all, defending yourself." The doctor sighed. Strange kids brought up strange days, didn't it?

"Though I can't advise you to be more careful, given that you couldn't have predicted this situation, what I would say is if something like this happens again, it is imperative that you visit the hospital after calling a hero to take care of the situation."

The doctor finished his instructional speech, and then proceeded to tell him the analysis of his current state of health.

"Other than that, the only problems my quirk could detect were minor strains and tears on your biceps and gastrocnemius, but those were healed quite easily. As of now, you are free to go," he finished off his analysis.

Lifting himself off of the hospital bed once more, he tested the weight on both of his legs to validate the doctor's words. Sure enough, he felt no pain.

He bowed his head to the doctor slightly. "Thank you very much, Doctor-san!" Respect should be given when respect was due, after all. He was grateful for even the opportunity to be instantly healed.

For all the problems this new world would bring, it certainly has a lot of benefits that he was grateful for.

"No need to thank me, young man, I am just doing my job." Came with being a doctor. All he did was activate his quirk. That didn't take that much effort, he just has to drink a lot afterwards, an unfortunate yet healthy side effect.

Tanjirou exited the hospital once again, and contrary to the first time he exited, the full moon was now shining down upon him, slightly illuminating his surroundings, along with some help from the street lamps. Not too many people were currently out, a few people walking out and about, most likely trying to get back to their homes as fast as they could.

The weather wasn't exactly warm, even though it was summer.

He supposed that all he could do was wait, given that his current guardian was at the police station, probably dealing with her hero business there.

A thought struck his head at that moment.

I totally forgot! Will I get in trouble for using Total Concentration Breathing on someone! Does self-defense even count as an excuse here?

He started to panic, but his training prior coming to this world took hold. He evened out his breath and started to think.

Could he really be blamed for what had happened? He had no idea that some villain would break into his home, and attacked him of all people. Only a few people would have known that he existed. The doctor, Detective Tsukauchi, and Ryukyu. That was it.

Furthermore, if he didn't use his supposed 'quirk', he would have died. An adult with a weapon against a 9 year old kid. That was too unreasonable.

This was a world with superpowers. They couldn't be that unreasonable as to condemn him for trying to save his own life!

He found a nearby bench, sat down, and continued his lamenting.

He would be okay. There was no reason for him to not be. But there was one thing that he was not at the moment.

He wasn't strong. All of his strength that he had gained in the last three years had seemingly vanished.

He could barely hold Total Concentration for more than 10 minutes, let alone Constant. How was he supposed to use his power when it all disappeared?

His mind drifted back to when he first was about to arrive in this world, and his conversation with Yoriichi. His age was responsible for his power loss, so why did he set him back to a point with no power?

What was the reason for it? Did he want him to do something to regain it?

What were his plans for him? Did he know the events that were already going to happen, and send him to change events there?

Could he even see the things going on, or was he watching from above, waiting for the people down here to make changes?

Everything about this was so confusing! He has no idea what that was, what Yoriichi could currently do, and why he was chosen to be sent here out of all the people who had the Demon Slayer Mark…..

Hold on…

There have been other people with records of that mark, right? They all died within the age of 25 while getting it, so that meant that there was a possibility of other people also being transported to other worlds, like this one….

To put it simply, there are other worlds out there…

Didn't Yoriichi say 'worlds'?

Besides this world of quirks and the one of Demons, were there others? Were there other marked people who were sent to other words just like he had?

Or maybe they weren't set to other worlds at all. Maybe they were sent to this one….

He heard a weird sound of something rolling up directly in front of him that scrambled his thoughts. He looked up and saw the very same car that belonged to Ryukyu, along with the hero in the driver's seat with her hands on the wheel.

He stood up from his seat on the bench, and walked over to the now opening window.

"Why are you out in the open like that? Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital still?" She seemed worried and angry at the same time.

He shook his head in denial. "They released me after they checked that nothing was wrong. They only found a little strain in my legs, and they fixed that."

That didn't do much for her mood. "Still, you just got attacked by a villain as soon as you left my sight, and now you're out in the open. It's like you're asking for that to happen again!"

Oh. That made a lot more sense when he thought about it. Someone with the appearance of a kid, alone in the middle of the road would look quite vulnerable.

The sight was quite common in his time, was it not here?

If this world was so advanced, then there probably weren't people who were constantly orphaned. Especially if no demons existed to kill off families.

Like his.

"I'm sorry, Ryukyu-san! I'll be careful next time! It won't happen again!" He apologized as formally as he could, bowing slightly.

The hero sighed. "Nothing happened this time, so it's fine. Just get in the car. Tsukauchi needs you to tell him what happened. And he told me to tell you that you aren't in trouble."

She saw Tanjirou open his mouth to interject as he climbed into the back seat of the car, and she quickly added, "Yes, I know he said that last time and this probation is technically a punishment, but you acted in self-defense and there was nothing you could have done to avoid it."

With that, Tanjirou's initial worry dissapeared. They said that they would not punish him for using his concentration breathing to protect himself, just like he had hoped. Now it was time to move forward from there.

Traveling the same route, they once again stopped at the police station where they met up with Tsukauchi waiting for Tanjirou.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice. I think you already know why you are here. This is concerning the villain attack that happened just an hour ago. I am aware of the fact that you may know as much as I do about the motives of the villain, but…"

"Actually, in the middle of our fight, I asked him about why he attacked, and he told me the reason," he corrected Tsukauchi before he could finish the statement.

Whatever it was that he was expecting, this certainly wasn't it. Nevertheless, it would make the investigation run much smoother.

"Really? You managed to get him to tell you the reason?" Tsukauchi asked with a surprised tone. Was that not normal? He assumed the job of a hero was to find out why things happened and put a stop to things.

Tanjirou nodded once more. "He said that Ryukyu did something to him in the past, or wasn't able to save people he cared about. He said that she 'let them die', and he was going to do the same to her as revenge. So he targeted me."

Tsukauchi was writing down this information on a sheet of paper he had in front of him. All he wanted were details of how the altercation went down, but this was even better than he expected.

He certainly wasn't complaining about this.

"That bit of information will greatly help our investigation of this incident. Now, onto the thing I was actually going to ask you about, the wounds on the villain. How did that happen?" He questioned Tanjirou after finishing writing it all down.

Tanjirou couldn't even decipher the way he asked the question. Was it interest, or something else?

"I used my quirk in that fight to enhance my speed, and I targeted his arm to disarm him. After that, he left too many openings," he explained the situation in a way that he could understand.

Was it wise to talk about the breath styles or Dance of the Fire God at all? Would he even understand or believe him?

"I could tell that he didn't have too much experience holding his knife, because all of his swings were wide, and I could easily block them," he continued on. He was about to add more when he was stopped by Tsukauchi again.

"Hold on, what do you mean by 'block'? Do you mean with your hands, or something else that you had? Because I'm not too sure that even with a quirk, that can't be blocked with a limb." An expression of confusion was present on his face.

"I dodged until after I disarmed him. He pulled out a second knife afterwards," he elaborated.

Tsukauchi made another quick note of something, scratching his pen rapidly across another sheet of paper.

"And after you disarmed him and got the knife, what did you do?" It was at this moment that Tanjirou knew he would have to tell the detective what he did. But Ryukyu had told him that he wouldn't get into trouble because of the self-defense laws for minors.

He should be good, right?

Taking a deep breath, he continued on. "After that, he charged at me, and he swung too wildly. I saw the chance and I took it, and stabbed him in the chest. He recoiled back and didn't try hitting me after that. He would have used his quirk to escape, but I knocked him out with the hilt of the knife before he could."

There it was. The full and unaltered truth. What would Tsukauchi say about it?

He couldn't tell. His silence was like a mask on his current emotion, and he couldn't break through it. He continued to write details down, and Tanjirou wasn't all that skilled at reading the page backwards.

"Alright, from what I can tell here, even with the added details, you clearly didn't do anything wrong. He attacked you first, and you were just defending yourself. As for the stabbing, that was a spur-of-the-moment action, and anyone who reads this could hardly blame you for what happened," he finally said, stating his verdict.

Tanjirou heaved a sigh of relief. He wouldn't get any additional punishments, and his future as a hero wasn't in jeopardy.

It would have been bad if I came here to do good, and ruin it immediately on the first day!

Seeing the relieved look on his face made Tsukauchi smile. "Well, I think the best thing now is to stay with Ryukyu for the time being. Continuing the probation would do good for this whole' punishment' thing, and because being with her is the safest option for now."

Tanjirou nodded. He was fine with that. More than ever now, he needed to focus on getting stronger, and getting used to this world. Being with Ryukyu was probably for the best.

"Thank you for everything, Tsukauchi-san," he responded, bowing his head. "I greatly appreciate everything you have done for me since I came here."

The detective seemed taken aback by the actions shown by Tanjirou. He was just doing his job! Why was the boy thanking him?

"There's no need to thank me, Tanjirou-kun. Helping people who need it is part of my job after all." A soft smile formed on his face. Even if he found it unnecessary, he was glad the boy appreciated what he did.

"Very well, then. I believe that Ryukyu-san would be waiting for me outside. I best not keep her waiting." He then got up from his chair, bowed once again to Tsukauchi, and left the police station.

A few thoughts were in the front of Tsukauchi's mind, and they all revolved around the strange boy in front of him.

He felt like Tanjirou was too accepting, too honest. Someone who genuinely wanted to help people, but knew he couldn't. Ryukyu has told him earlier that one of his desires was to become a hero, and that was why she asked him to look at his actions as self defense.

Not like he wasn't going to anyway, but it gave light to what he really was like.

Being a detective, Tsukauchi could read people pretty well. If he couldn't, one wouldn't get far in that occupation.

Tanjirou was someone who was always respectful, always willing to help others. He had power, yet didn't let that consume him. He kept striving to be stronger, not for himself, but for others.

He looked at the retreating figure once more. That boy would become someone important, no doubt about it. It's not unlike a certain blond Symbol of Peace…..


The ride back to the hero's home was strangely silent. Neither one of them made a sound, still deep in thought of what happened to both of them.

Tanjirou, calmly listening to the sound of the wheels rolling on the paved roadway, was once again finding himself with nothing to do. It was still an unusual feeling to him, given that his life was constantly surrounded by action and training, with no room to relax.

Not to say it wasn't welcome. It certainly was.

He took a deep breath, breathing in and out, trying to relax his breathing state, which was shifting to Total Concentration Constant at times, which would give him some chest pain.

Though when he did breath in, he picked up various different scents from Ryukyu. Some were normal, and were the same as he was currently feeling right now. However, there were others that he couldn't explain quite well. Or why she was feeling them in the first place.

One was tension. Overwhelming tension. That was understandable. It was natural to be on guard if someone was able to break into your own home without you noticing. Tanjirou certainly would, and he was feeling the same way.

The other was a small amount of anger. Once again, that tied into the tension aspect of it.

The last one was something that Tanjirou didn't understand, though it was one that was constantly on someone else that he knew. Something that used to revolve around him so thick it was sometimes suffocating.

Self-loathing.

She was blaming herself for something, and was degrading herself because of it. He couldn't tell the reason why, but it was weighing heavily on her. Affecting her, even though she was trying her best not to show it, probably for his sake.

He needed to tell her that it was all right. It was fine to let out whatever you were feeling. It'll make it better in the long run.

But he couldn't bring himself to do it. It would just hurt her even more.

They both arrived home, and wordlessly got out of the car. She seemed to be in a really miserable mood rather than a bad one, but he didn't breach any of the subjects that happened today with her.

It was late in the night, dawn nowhere nearby. It would do for both of them to get some sleep, but after the fight, they would both be hungry. And hungry they were indeed.

As they entered the house, Ryukyu went into the kitchen, and it was there when she finally spoke.

"We've both had a long day, and it would be good to freshen up. The shower is right next to the bedroom you slept in earlier," she told him, tone of voice lacking any sort of strength.

Not wanting to worsen her current mood, Tanjirou agreed. "Okay. I'll be back quick," he replied.

Taking the fresh bag of clothes that was laying abandoned since they came back, he went right back upstairs.

The shower was….. an enlightening experience.

With a strange metal head attached to what looked like another metal hose, there was something on the wall that looked like one of the doorknobs on the doors that points towards the kanji that translated to "cold" and "hot" on the sides.

Turning the knob all the way to "hot" he was surprised, but not disappointed.

From the head above him, hot water sprayed out, not unlike the waterfall that Urokodaki had him constantly sit under and "attune himself" with it.

It sucked, yet it was effective.

But wasn't that training in general?

It could function as a bath and training technique at the same time. Maybe he should experiment with it later? Now, he had no time. Maybe some other day.

After finishing the shower, feeling fresher than he had in a long while, he went downstairs to a smell in the kitchen that indicated that Ryukyu had made a simple Tempura dish. It seemed like she had finished eating relatively early, because she was bringing an empty plate to a nearby sink.

He sensed that she didn't want to be talked to at the moment, so he decided to eat his meal quickly and in silence. It wasn't extravagant, but it definitely wasn't bad.

After finishing his meal and setting his plate down, Ryukyu spoke once more in a low voice.

"Tanjirou? Could you come here for a second?" Was it sadness, or something else? It wasn't anything good, if he was going by her prior emotions, but he did it anyway.

He and Ryukyu were sitting across from each other, on the couches that were there.

"I've been a terrible hero, haven't I?"

That was a line that he wasn't expecting to hear. Though it would make the self-loathing part make sense. But why? She's trying to be the best hero she could be!

"At first when Tsukauchi told me to take over your probation, I wasn't sure I could do it. I was, and still am, terrible with kids. I'm not someone a kid should be looking up to, especially one that hasn't seen any other example of a hero."

She broke off for a while, sitting in silence once more. There was a story about to be told, Tanjirou could tell. It was the same with Yoriichi on that night in his cabin.

"Then I thought to myself, if I outright refused the boy, and left him on the streets or with someone else, what would that make me? So I decided to give it a shot. It was only a week, what could go wrong?" She let out a light laugh, if only to calm herself. The look on her face told a completely different story than that laugh.

"I was enjoying it, a little too much. The life of a hero is never all that good. I should have expected that. I let my guard down too far, and the one that I was supposed to protect nearly got killed from right under my sight." A look of anger took over her face, until she looked at Tanjirou, and tried to mask it.

"I thought I could have stopped him then and there, but what did I do? I let him slip. He slipped literally from under my hand, and got to you. Put a knife in your face, and I wasn't even the one to stop it, you were."

Tanjirou began to realize where she was getting at. She was blaming herself because she was supposed to protect him, but didn't. She thought she failed in her job as a hero.

"Then I heard about why the bastard was there in the first place. Because of me. Again. Because I didn't save his family, he turned like this. He tried to take what I cared about. I was so worried that because of my incompetence, it would get an innocent boy killed."

Tanjirou made to speak, to try to reason with her, try to tell her that it wasn't her fault, she did the best she could, he didn't blame her at all, anything, but he was silenced when she continued once more.

"Even though I try to help people, I end up making things a lot worse for people that had nothing to do with the situation in the first place. I'm not helping things at all. I'm doing the opposite. Does that even make me a hero at all?"

Tanjirou intervened, trying to help her. He understood where he was coming from. She had the power to help people, but all her efforts made things go the wrong way. She didn't have bad intentions at all, and that was what mattered to him.

His mind was blank at first, then the words came flowing out.

"It was four years ago when I lost my parents and most of my family."

She looked up, her gaze shifting into surprise quickly then she thought one could. She was listening with rapt attention.

"A villain came to attack that day, and to this day, I still don't know why he did it. I came back from selling charcoal in the mountains, and I found my family dead on the floor." The memories of that first day started to hit him, but he kept going nonetheless.

"When I saw the bodies, I ran over to see if they were alive. They were all dead, except for my sister. I took her. I took her and ran, to find someone who could help, as fast as I could. I didn't have my quirk at the time, and my lungs were burning from running more than I had ever done."

He remembered the face of Giyuu, who was about to kill his sister for what she became, and how he pleaded with him to let her live.

"Then I saw a man. He had a bright blue sword, and he knew how to use it. I don't know if he was a hero, or something else, but I asked him. I asked him to save my sister. And that day, he told me, 'Stop looking so pathetic, lying on the floor like that. Pleading won't do any good. If it had, then your family wouldn't have been dead.' He was right. It didn't. But even then, I tried. I tried all I could to save her. Even if that man said that it was no use."

He remembered chucking his axe at Giyuu, and how he moved so fast he couldn't see it. It was like he teleported. He knew he couldn't hear Giyuu, so he threw it to catch him by surprise.

"So he told me to go see an old man that lived down on the mountain, and that he could save my sister, and help me become stronger."

He remembered the first demon he had tried to kill, and he remembered seeing Urokodaki for the first time.

"And save her he did. I lived with him for a year, and he taught me many things. How to use my quirk. How to survive. I learned many important lessons from him during that year."

He remembered them cutting the boulder, Sabito, Makomo, all his adventures, and how he saw Giyuu on Mount Natagumo.

"I met that same man again later, who I discovered that he was a hero, and he was in pursuit of the villain that killed my parents that day. He told me this himself later, and to this day, I still don't blame him for what happened."

"He told me that I got stronger, very much so. I wasn't who I was back then, and I had learned from the things that have happened to me."

He stopped reflecting back on his memories, and looked back to Ryukyu.

"I don't blame you at all, Ryukyu-san. You were trying your best to help, and you were trying to help that man and his family too. You tried your best, and even made the decision to watch over me for the week. I'm not angry. In fact, I'm grateful," he told her, trying to calm her worries.

"The things you feel right now were probably the same things that Giyuu felt that day. A little bit of guilt. But everyone isn't expected to be perfect. Giyuu wasn't. You aren't. And certainly not me. So, it's all right to make mistakes at times."

Ryukyu, who was listening to the whole story, started to finally react at the end, a small twitch upwards of the corner of her lips, and small tears.

"Now I'm wondering who really is the little kid here…. To think I actually would get a life lesson from someone more than half my age… hahahahahaha…" she started to laugh uncontrollably at the end, to which Tanjirou joined in a little while later.

When she stopped, she told him one last thing, "Thank you, Tanjirou. That really helped out, more than I care to admit."

Tanjirou just shook his head. "We all need something to keep us up at one point or another. I'm just glad I was able to help."

She then abruptly stood up. "It's getting kind of late, and we both need some rest for what I have planned tomorrow."

Tanjirou looked at her, confused. She had a plan? But what was it?

"You want to be a hero in the future, right? Then from tomorrow, I'm going to show you what it really means to become one."

A bright smile once more took over Tanjirou's face. Finally, the moment he had been waiting for.


Thanks for reading!