Kimetsu no Yaiba doesn't belong to me. This story is a translation of another fanfic of mine. I hope you like it!
Kanroji stopped at the entrance of the small town. She was finally returning home, it had been years since she had the chance to see them.
The life of a demon slayer was tough and the girl had hardly had a moment of rest. And when she ascended to Pillar, her obligations increased.
But at least, when the boss found out about her sister's impending engagement and wedding, he granted her a few days off to attend. Although, with the recent death of Tengen, Mitsuri had tried to refuse, she did not believe it was the right time. But neither Kagaya nor his wife had allowed it.
So there she was, back in her hometown of Shizuoka. She walked through the streets, looking at the buildings, they were as colorful as she remembered. The facades of the houses were painted in bright colors. And people chatted lively as they walked through the streets. Everything was just as she remembered.
Her gaze stopped at the window of a toy store, in front of which a group of children were looking and talking to each other excitedly. The exterior of the store was painted in a flashy red color and the sign in a golden color stood out.
She approached, smiling slightly. She remembered the many times, as a child, she had done the same thing. She felt immense nostalgia, those days were long gone. She looked, with some curiosity, at the different toys on display.
There were several porcelain dolls dressed in Western clothing, although most of the dolls on display had oriental attire. But they were all beautiful, the young girl thought.
She noticed the typewriters that were also there. She had thought of getting something for her younger siblings, but it had been so long since she had seen them that she wasn't sure if she would make the right choices.
What if she was wrong? That was her biggest fear. Originally, she thought of getting a doll for one of her younger sisters, but now she wasn't so sure, what if it turned out to be too childish?
She had already bought a pocket watch as a wedding gift for her future brother-in-law. And a camera for her sister. She hoped, at least, that she had made the right choices. Choosing a gift for her brother-in-law had been especially difficult, she hoped she had made the right choice.
She moved away from the window, feeling uncomfortable with the looks of surprise and displeasure that the children were directing at her. Specifically, at her hair. In moments like these, she was even more aware of the unusual color of it.
She resumed her walk, trying not to attract any more attention. Her uniform, open at the chest, did not help improve her situation. But she had not worn any other clothes because, lacking time, she had only been able to pack what she was going to wear during the ceremony.
She pushed up her jacket sleeve and checked the time on her wristwatch. It was earlier than she expected. It was only ten thirty in the morning, so she had plenty of time.
Her parents were not expecting her until at least midnight, but if she arrived earlier, she might be able to help finalize the preparations for the wedding that would take place the next day. She smiled a little, feeling proud of the luck that Hikari had. She had not yet met her fiancé, but she had no doubt that he would be a good person.
She quickened her pace when the gazes of passers-by became too much. She hated that, they looked at her like she was a freak, a monster taken from a fair.
Yes, she knew that her hair was not a normal color and that her uniform showed more than it should, but was it necessary to treat her that way? She had not done anything to them, she did not even know them.
Trying to contain the tears and the ominous memories of her bad experiences, she ran away. It had been a bad idea to go. She could feel them pointing at her.
She turned the corner and stopped in an alleyway. She leaned against the wall and tried to compose herself. She wiped her eyes roughly and tried to calm down. She could not show up to her family with a bad face.
She would not forgive herself if she ended up worrying them in such an important time. She closed her eyes and tried to pace her breathing, while pushing away her worries from her mind.
Her sister needed to see her best side. She had to do it for her.
She left her hiding place when she felt better and set off towards her home, it would be best to arrive there as soon as possible.
She had to get to the neighborhood that was near the outskirts of the city, which at her pace, would take at least half an hour.
She walked through the streets barely paying attention to the people she passed by, but making sure not to bump into anyone.
She had become used to ignoring hurtful comments over the years. She had accepted that, because of her appearance, she would not be able to get married. But thanks to the people she had met in the Corps, that had stopped being important.
She would dedicate her life to saving people from demons, that was the path she had chosen and she was proud of it. But that did not mean that other people's comments did not hurt.
She could endure a couple of days, it would not be an impossible mission. It would be worth it, as it was an opportunity to see her family.
She smiled a little when she reached the neighborhood where her family's house was located. She knew the way by heart.
She passed by a flower shop and stopped to look at the beautiful floral arrangements on display. There were flowers of all colors, even with flowers she had never seen before.
Her mood improved significantly after that. She had always loved that. And, following an impulse, she entered the small shop.
As soon as she opened the door, the little bell on it rang, alerting the shopkeeper, who peeked out and smiled when she saw the young woman.
She was a tall woman, with black hair tied back in a ponytail. Her pale blue eyes reflected kindness. She was lightly made up, accentuating her features. She dressed simply, wearing a green kimono, held together by a white obi and an orange ribbon.
"Are you Mitsuri?" the woman asked as she approached.
"Yes, and you are...?" Mitsuri didn't know who the woman was.
"I'm Himiko Nagasaki. Don't you remember me?" Despite this, the shopkeeper didn't seem upset. "You used to play a lot with my daughter Aiko when you were little."
Kanroji nodded. Of course she remembered. Aiko had been one of her best friends. She still remembered how many times she had defended her when other kids in the neighborhood made fun of her hair color.
"I remember her. How is she doing?" She had lost track of her when she got married and moved away at the age of fourteen.
"She's doing great. She had her first child a couple of years ago," the woman told her. "Come, let's go to the back room and have some tea."
Mitsuri wanted to decline, but the other woman had already disappeared behind the door that led to that part of the shop, so she had no choice but to follow her.
It was as cozy as the store. The walls were painted white and thanks to a brazier, the heat was maintained well.
There was a wooden table in the center of the room, with two chairs facing each other. The girl noticed the sideboard against one of the walls. It was white, with four drawers.
At the other end of the room were stairs that led to the upper floor.
"I'll be right back. You wait here, sit down and make yourself comfortable," Himiko said as she headed to the stairs and went up, leaving Mitsuri alone.
The girl sat down on one of the chairs. She had had no choice but to accept her offer or she would have seemed rude.
She sighed a little. She had ended up losing track of all the friends she had during her childhood. Although she felt a certain sadness, she didn't regret any of the decisions she made at the time.
"Did I keep you waiting too long?" Himiko carried a tray with a teapot, two cups, a small sugar bowl and two teaspoons. She placed it on the table and sat in the other chair opposite the young woman.
"No, not at all," Mitsuri smiled a little. Himiko handed her one of the cups after pouring some tea.
"How are you? I haven't seen you since you left several years ago."
"I'm good, good," Mitsuri took a sip of tea.
"Your mother told me you're working, but she didn't say what you do," Himiko commented, examining her uniform with no attempt at concealment, noting her sword.
"Yes, I've been working for several years now."
"And any marriage proposals?" the woman wanted to know.
"No, not really," Mitsuri confessed, sounding a bit firm.
Himiko shook her head seriously. "That's too bad, you're such a good catch."
The girl put the cup down on the table for a moment. "It doesn't matter, really."
The woman sighed a little and looked at her. It was obvious that it was a delicate topic, and she really couldn't blame her. If her memory served her well, Mitsuri was almost twenty years old, and at that age, girls usually had been married for years. Some, like Aiko, has already given birth a few times.
"Are you going to stay here for a while?" she asked curiously. Mitsuri sighed and shook her head.
"Just a couple of days, I can't be away from work for too long."
"And what do you do that you need a sword?"
Mitsuri looked away for a moment before answering, "I'm part of a special military force," she admitted, but didn't give too many details.
Himiko was about to say something else, but the sound of the store bell distracted them.
"I'll be right there!" the woman shouted, looking towards the door that led to the shop. They both got up. "It was a pleasure to see you again, Mitsuri. Take care, okay?"
Mitsuri nodded and they headed towards the store. While Himiko attended to the customer who had arrived, the other girl left.
She left the establishment and resumed her journey home, which was a couple of streets down.
She quickly covered the remaining distance and soon found herself in front of the building. It was a Western-style house. The facade was painted sky blue, with a red roof, and was made up of two floors. On the upper floor, there were two windows that faced the street.
She approached the door and rang the bell. She had to wait a couple of minutes until someone opened the door.
"Mitsuri!" The person who had opened the door was none other than her sister Azumi. Although Mitsuri didn't have time to say anything, as the other girl hugged her tightly. "Come in, come in," she asked when they separated.
Mitsuri entered the house and took off her sandals, putting on the slippers that Azumi handed her. It was only then that she had the opportunity to clearly see how much her sister had grown.
Azumi was a twelve-year-old girl with delicate features, brown eyes inherited from her father. She had black hair that reached her shoulders. She wore it loose, although she had several hairpins to keep it in place and not get in her face.
She was wearing a blue dress with puffed sleeves. She had a white ribbon at her waist, tied in a bow on her back.
Mitsuri noticed that she had grown since the last time they had seen each other, and smiled happily to see her again.
"I'm so glad to see you too, Azumi," said the young woman.
"I'll let the others know. Mother and Father went out with Hikari for a moment, but I don't think they'll be long," she informed her.
"Who was it, Azumi?" A boy peeked out and saw both girls standing in the entrance. Mitsuri smiled and quickly walked towards him. Just like Azumi, he hugged her tightly.
"Daiki?" Mitsuri asked. Her brother had grown a lot since the last time she had seen him. "You've grown a lot," she commented while tousling his hair.
"Don't do that! I'm not a kid anymore!"
"It doesn't matter that you're fifteen years old, you'll always be my little brother to me."
Daiki was a lanky teenager. He had short black hair and green eyes, just like Mitsuri and their mother. There were several pimples on his face and, if one looked closely, one could see a bit of fuzz on his chin. He was wearing dark blue long pants and a white long-sleeved t-shirt.
Azumi chuckled a bit at hearing that, "Let's go to the living room", she requested, taking charge of the situation, and the other two followed her.
They sat in three cream-colored armchairs that were in the room and looked at each other.
"Our mother told us you would come, but we didn't expect you so soon," Azumi confessed.
"How are you?" Daiki immediately asked, not giving his older sister a chance to say anything. "Have you killed many demons?"
Mitsuri made a face when hearing that question. Her two brothers, Daiki and Hideki, had insisted on following in her footsteps since she joined the Corps. They didn't want to follow the supposedly boring life of their family.
"A few, yes," Mitsuri admitted, aware of the direction the conversation was going to take and trying her best to avoid it. "How are things around here?"
"Quiet, as you can imagine," Daiki said. "Pretty busy now with Hikari's wedding, but other than that, nothing has changed."
"And Hideki? Where is he?" Mitsuri asked.
"Resting a bit," Azumi answered, getting up from her armchair. "I'll wake him up."
Only when she left did Daiki adopt a more serious expression and looked at his older sister. "Both Hideki and I want to join the Corps."
"Daiki, it's very dangerous, I don't know if it's a good idea," Mitsuri wanted to prevent them from joining, but the boy denied it.
"I know, but neither of us wants to inherit the family business and father is starting to get pushy. His father was in the furniture business, a business that dates back to his great-grandfather's time and has been passed down from parents to children since then.
"Daiki, I..." Mitsuri didn't know what to say. There were no more male children in the family, and if both of them did that, the business would end up passing to Hikari's future husband.
"Please!" The boy insisted. "We'll train and endure whatever it takes!"
"What are you talking about, Daiki?" Hideki asked, who had just arrived with Azumi.
Hideki was physically identical to Daiki and, like him, was wearing Western clothes. In his case, red pants and a black t-shirt.
"About letting us join the Corps already. We're old enough, right?"
"Can we talk about it after the wedding tomorrow?" If their father found out, he would be furious, and Mitsuri wanted to avoid it at all costs. At that moment, they heard the front door of the house open, and the lively voices of their parents and Hikari were heard in the entrance.
"Promise us?" Hideki asked, lowering his voice so they wouldn't hear him.
"Yes."
The newcomers, after changing their shoes, went to the living room and saw Mitsuri. They stopped for a moment, surprised, as none of the three had expected her to arrive so soon.
Hisashi, their father, was a corpulent person with serious features and short black hair. He had brown eyes and a black mustache that gave him a certain air of elegance. He, like his two sons, wore a Western outfit consisting of brown pants, a white shirt, and a blue jacket.
His wife, Akiko, a petite woman with sweet features and an easy smile, had black hair, like almost everyone in the family, tied up in a rather elaborate bun. Her eyes were green, like Mitsuri's. She smiled happily to see her eldest daughter. She was wearing a long-sleeved red dress that reached her ankles.
Hikari had inherited her mother's friendly features and her father's eye color. She had dark hair tied up in a bun. She was a tall young woman who looked older than she was. She was wearing a white long-sleeved blouse and a black skirt that also reached her ankles.
The young woman smiled a little and approached. She hugged her mother and sister tightly, although she hesitated a bit with her father, and stopped in front of him. But before she could say anything, the man had drawn her towards him and was hugging her tightly.
"We are glad to see you, Mitsuri," the man said when they separated. Seeing his daughter before him, safe and sound, relieved him. He lived in fear that someday she would die on one of her missions.
That is why he opposed his two sons joining that army. But he had not been able to get them to abandon that idea, largely because they admired Mitsuri and enjoyed the stories she told every time she returned.
"I'm also very happy to see you all," Mitsuri admitted, trying, and failing miserably, to suppress the urge to cry. Several tears were already welling up in her eyes, ready to fall.
Hikari hugged her tightly at that moment. She was very happy that her sister had been able to come. The wedding would not have been the same if Mitsuri was missing.
The family settled into the living room and began to catch up. The parents telling their eldest daughter about the latest events happening in the city, while Mitsuri, in summary, tried to relate the latest events of the Corps.
She had tried to avoid mentioning Uzui's death, but judging by the way her father was looking at her, he had realized that she was not being completely truthful.
"Can you leave Mitsuri and me alone?" he asked seriously, and the rest of the family, although bewildered, hurried to obey and left the room. "What aren't you telling us, Mitsuri?"
"It's nothing important, really."
"Mitsuri."
The young woman sighed and looked him in the eye. "It's just that...one of my comrades has recently passed away. Nothing unusual," she cursed internally as soon as those words left her lips. It had sounded so accustomed, she thought, looking at her father's wide-open eyes. But unfortunately, that was her day-to-day life.
Hisashi opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to find the right words to express what he was feeling in that moment. "We'll talk about it tomorrow, after the wedding is over," he finally said, not wanting to end the conversation so soon.
"Okay, father. If it's not too much trouble, I'm going to lie down for a bit. I'm a little tired," Kanroji wanted to end the uncomfortable conversation and retire as soon as possible.
"Go ahead. You're home," Hisashi replied.
Mitsuri nodded and left immediately, leaving her father alone in the living room.
The whole family had woken up early the next day to start getting ready for the wedding. They had breakfast together and then, one by one, they took their showers. Mitsuri was the last one to enter and she made a special effort to clean herself thoroughly, washing her hair as well and drying off before returning to her bedroom, wrapped in a white towel.
And there she was again, in her bedroom. She had left the clothes she would wear for the event on the bed, but had not yet started changing. She had her hair tied back in a ponytail, but for the wedding she would wear it styled differently, abandoning her usual three braids. At that moment, someone knocked on the door.
"Do you need help, Mitsuri?" Her mother peeked in and, seeing that her daughter had not yet changed, clicked her tongue in annoyance and came in to help.
Reluctantly, Mitsuri removed the towel, revealing her body. Akiko stopped short when she saw the huge number of scars that covered Mitsuri's back. But it wasn't just there, her arms were also covered in wounds that had not healed very well.
Mitsuri grabbed the kimono and quickly covered herself up. "I can do it myself, mother," she said. That was what she had wanted to avoid. For her mother to see that. "I'm not a little girl anymore."
Akiko sighed a little. Seeing that had impressed her a lot. She didn't say anything and quickly left the room. Mitsuri looked at herself in the mirror again and finished putting on the green kimono. She walked over to the bed and picked up the white obi and the pink cord.
With some difficulty, she first put on the obi around her waist, holding the kimono in place. And when she finished, she tied the cord securely. She looked at herself in the mirror and turned around to make sure everything was in place.
She relaxed when she saw that nothing was out of place. She opened her suitcase and took a brush from her toiletry bag, carefully combing out any tangles. When she was satisfied with the result, she began to gather it into a bun, which she secured firmly with several black hairpins.
She evaluated the final result in the mirror and smiled happily. It had turned out better than she expected. She left her room and went to find her sisters, wanting to see them before the ceremony began.
Mitsuri was nervous. The pre-wedding meeting with the groom's family had gone well, although she had felt quite uncomfortable. The color of her kimono indicated that she was not married, and judging by the disapproving looks of the boy's parents, that had not gone unnoticed. She didn't blame them, she had long since reached the age of marriage and had not even been engaged once.
"Is something wrong, Mitsuri?" Azumi asked worriedly. The girl had dressed elegantly in a pink kimono, a white and red checkered obi, and a white cord. To her older sister's eyes, she looked very pretty dressed like that.
"It's nothing, don't worry," Mitsuri lied. The two followed the rest of their family inside the temple.
The floor of the place was made up of white wooden platforms, and the walls were full of images of Buddha. In the center of the room was a small black altar behind which stood the priest who would officiate the event.
See you soon with the next chapter! Don't forget to leave a review! I would love to hear your thoughts!