Chapter Two – Song of Silence

My name is Henma Kanao, and I am a Demon Slayer.

I've been an official Demon Slayer for two years, having picked up two toy nichirin blades at three years old and never looking back. At age eight, I was the youngest Demon Slayer on the record…and the first completely mute Demon Slayer.

For some reason, I was born somewhere in a place called Great Britain on April 10th, 1910, and I was born with no vocal cords, or what Mama Kanae called aphonia. I had been taken to the Catholic Church , according to Mama Kanae,…and my case was handled by a hateful Catholic nun, who believed I was a "Gypsy demon child," and decided to toss me in the river to drown.

Enter Mama Kanae…who'd been on assignment for the British Demon Slayers hunting down a fever demon. For some reason…she dropped everything she was doing, stabbed the dirty nun in the chest, plucked me out of the river and took off.

"That was the only human I ever openly attacked…and even now, I don't know why," Mama always said. "I think…even then…I sensed that you were born to be a Hashira.

I remembered grabbing my little writing book the first time. "Why a Hashira?" I asked, being only four and a half and barely able to write, back when I was wearing little pink haori jackets and white hakama pants, one of Mama's butterfly hairpieces on top of my short brown hair.

Mama looked at my writing as soon as I was done, sighing. "There's a big mark on your right eye…you've had that mark since you were born. It is the same mark that was on Yoriichi's forehead, even though no one knows how you two could ever be related. I've been looking into it, but…"

We both fell into silence for a minute, then Mama broke it. "Henma, your name means 'broken piece,'" she said. "Think about that. The world tried to break you off and throw you away because you have no voice…and you must make them pay for that. Your destiny is to become a Hashira…and if I hear Rengoku right…the greatest Hashira to exist since Yoriichi himself."

Then…in came Papa Rengoku. He was my adopted father, and my main teacher in the art of Total Concentration Breathing. It was he who gave me the dream that has made me the Demon Slayer I am now: the dream of mastering every breathing style in existence. He lit a flame of resolve in my soul that, even now, still burns.

"Henma, my sunshine!" he said, lifting me up into his arms and surrounding me with a giant hug, his red eyes flashing with joy. He knew I loved his hugs – I would get them at least three times a day. His hugs were so important to me that I used the memory of them during the toughest parts of my training in Total Concentration Breathing. "Wanna train some more, my baby girl?"

I shook my head yes vehemently…but Sister Shinobu, sitting across the room, didn't look so happy. "Onee-chan, Rengoku-sempai…you have to be careful with her!" she protested. "She's not even six, and she's already learning advanced Total Concentration Breathing! You keep this up, and everyone in the Corps will hate her."

My parents sighed. "Nee-chan…Henma is the future of the Demon Slayer Corps, whether the Corps likes it or not. Henma isn't here to make friends with everyone…she's here to become a powerful Demon Slayer," Mama Kanae replied.

"Does that mean you don't love her smile as much as mine?" Shinobu replied. "Does that mean her happiness doesn't matter as much as mine?"

The tension in the air was so thick it could have been cut with a knife, but Rengoku stepped in. "Henma's happiness does matter, Shinobu – it always has. She simply draws happiness from fighting…from setting her heart ablaze with the passion to become a great Demon Slayer. She may or may not be the one to end Muzan…but her blades will help lead a new generation of Demon Slayers."

I hugged Rengoku again. That was Papa in a nutshell – "set your heart ablaze." With those words, there was no demon I could not take down, no amount of training I could not endure, even when I would puke up blood and crack bones. It was "I love you," taken to the limit – if those words had one. We went to train, and Shinobu never again tried to argue about my training. It may have helped that Shinobu and my parents made an agreement for me not to take my Final Selection exam until I was ten years old.

At least…that was until Mama Kanae got killed by Doma a week before my eighth birthday, and my life was forever changed. I was spending the weekend working with Papa's new apprentice, Kanroji Mitsuri, on what would become Love Breathing.

"Mitsuri, I think you are an acrobat princess," I wrote, now wearing a smaller version of my dad's fiery uniform. "Why not…make a Breathing Style about being an acrobat?"

Mitsuri looked at my writing, her green eyes flashing. "You mean…you think I can do that? Create a whole new breathing style, just for me?"

I nodded, then scrawled, "If anyone needs their own Breathing Style..."

Just then, a loud scream from Sister Shinobu rent the air – and even though I couldn't see Shinobu, Mitsuri and I looked at each other, wondering who was dead.

We knew those screams too well already…and we didn't have too long to wait as Papa Rengoku and a sobbing Shinobu carried in Mama Kanae's lifeless body. I stared at the corpse in their arms…and everything my mama said suddenly rang true.

She had wanted me to go to Final Selection at six for this reason. She had pushed Papa Rengoku to teach me the six forms of Flame Breathing he knew for this reason. She had made me keep an awful secret from my father for this reason. She had made me survive in demon's nests alone, with no outside help, for a week at a time for this reason. She had even pushed me to learn Wind Breathing with for this reason.

She knew she was going to die…and when she did, it was going to fall to me to take up the mantle.

Papa Rengoku ran to me, Mitsuri grabbing my shoulders as I stood there, face and body rigid. "Henma…Henma, are you okay? Sunshine…are you all right?"

I didn't answer him with a hug. Instead, I went back to my pad and paper, mind made up. I didn't even care which demon killed Mama…not one bit. As Shinobu sobbed in front of me, I quietly wrote out what I knew I had to do.

"Henma…what are you doing?" Papa asked fearfully, almost as if he knew what was about to happen next. He'd spent so much time reading my facial expressions that he could almost read my thoughts.

I didn't answer until my words were on the page, then I turned to face Papa and Shinobu.

"I want to participate in next week's Final Selection. It is time for me to become a Demon Slayer."

Shinobu looked like she wanted to scream at me, tell me it was way too soon…but Rengoku already knew the die was cast.

"Mitsuri!" he said. The girl in pink pigtails was already raring to go.

"Yes, Rengoku-sempai!"

"Protect Sunshine with your life! Both of you are headed to Final Selection!"

It was at Final Selection that I met Kaguya Ubyashiki, head of the Corps – and the biggest thing I remember are the words he said to me before Selection started.

"Kocho," he had said to me, taking my hand. "You are a brave and remarkable child, choosing to lay aside your grief and go to battle. But…you must not let vengeance cloud your vision."

I tapped him on the shoulder, then pointed at my clipboard. "Yes, but you haven't much time before Selection," he said, realizing what I wanted. "Write quickly."

I did as I was told, and then showed him my message: "Muzan only gets one free kill," I said. "He – or any other Moon – comes after me or mine again, then I get to kill them."

Kaguya looked at me like I was off my rocker, then he smiled. "I see. Try me once, you can play. Try me twice, you have to pay."

I nodded.

What happened the next week was the most boring Final Selection I'd ever seen – and at that time, we had the highest number of survivors that year with ten, which would be broken two years later by Sabito. I couldn't believe how easy it was… but I wondered if that was because I had done Final Selection pre-tests with Kanae. I suddenly felt bad about all the demons I had killed previously…none of them would count.

Then came my turn to receive my Mizunoto (first rank) badge…and I noticed a mistake. Instead of the standard Mizunoto badge, I had a Mizunoe (second rank)! I looked at the Ubyashiki children and their father, who just smiled back.

The situation didn't appear to cause much of a fuss…at least, not at first. However, it wasn't long before word got out about my early promotion, and people being people, rumors started to swirl – mostly that people thought I was being gifted the Mizunoe role due to having two Hashira as parents. However, I was strong enough to silence my doubters, and two years later, I was at the rank of Kanoe, and I was already on track for my future title: the Smoke Hashira. When Mitsuri became the Love Hashira around that time, it was expected that I would take her place as my father's Tsugoku, or apprentice.

And then…came the strangest argument I had ever eavesdropped on. One morning, as I was practicing my 2nd form of Smoke Breathing, I overheard Papa and Kaguya in a strong discussion.

"Gyomei, myself, and Mitsuri will all be better equipped to handle such a journey than she is!" Papa protested. "And...if this Shelby ever uncovered the truth, he could irreparably harm the entire Corps!"

Kaguya sighed. "I have taken that into consideration…but Shelby is still lost at the Somme, Verdun…and in his criminal empire. He has cared nothing for his daughter, and I doubt he ever will – he has never once looked for her."

"That's because she's been halfway around the world, Master – and Kanae did everything she could to erase Henma's existence," Rengoku replied. "She even edited the paperwork to make it look like she drowned. If he finds out…"

Kaguya stood still a minute. I noticed how I was finding it harder and harder to look at the leader of the Corps – his blue eyes had gone milky white with blindness, and the skin on his face was turning purple.

"Henma deserves her blood family – or, at least a chance to know them. She has fought with honor and distinction in the name of the Corps, officially and unofficially…and with the war ahead, Britain is able to fight against demons in a way we are not able."

"You…you truly believe…that the war of demons doesn't end with Muzan?" Rengoku said, flabbergasted. "You…"

"The intelligence from Walter is very strong," Kaguya said. "Demon Slayers have overspread the world…but the neo-demons are being kept underground by Muzan. If he ever discovered the existence of neo-demons...he would exterminate them, simply because he has no hold on them. Remove Muzan…and we have a power vacuum for the neo-demons. They will likely have a power struggle…and then a war to enslave the human race. Walter has spent his career as a Slayer preparing for this…and I consider sending our best young Demon Slayer to aid him an act of support."

Rengoku stared at Kaguya, and then looked up at me. "I think she heard us. Come on, Sunshine…we need to talk."

I walked up to them, then scribbled on my clipboard. "I only have one daddy, Papa – and that is you. This stupid Shelby may be my father…but he will never be my daddy!"

Rengoku and Kaguya looked at each other. "Rengoku…it seems you have made yourself her father. That…is a high honor."

Rengoku looked at me, and it looked like he was trying not to cry. "Thank you, Sunshine," he said. "I pray you never change your mind."

Two days later, myself, Nihashi Zaraki, Yarichu, and Asuka Nisigari set sail for Small Heath, Birmingham.

And that was when all hell broke loose.