"Now that we may start the presentation, this is where Giyuu's pain had started as well. Where this world had begun to shape him into the person he has become today." Everyone had looked forward, not quite sure what to expect from the words the entity had told them. Letting the projector do its work, the hashira saw the picture and it's newest display.
What they hadn't expected to see certainly wasn't a young boy and an elder girl traveling through a small village. The boy had on an ocean blue haori and his hair was long and messy. The girl on the other hand, wore a deep red haori and had her hair neatly braided. Shinobu was almost ready to question what these two had to do with Giyuu, until she finally saw the two people from the front and saw ocean blue eyes she has long been use to staring back at her.
"It's Tomioka-san! This must be when he was a child." Everyone had focused on the younger version of their comrade in arms, almost bewildered at the sight of him. He was smiling, he was showing open affection and care towards the girl, his eyes had a shine to them like the sun reflecting off water.
"Oh my dear goodness tiny Tomioka-san is sooooo cuuute!" Mitsuri couldn't contain her excitement and glee. This had open up a whole new side of him to her, believing that under the cold exterior lied a warm, caring, and loving center. "This is truly exceptional! Who could honestly have believed that Tomioka-san could be so expressive?" Rengoku had finally proclaimed, sharing in the praising of the sight of seeing him so happy.
"Of course the moment we actually see him showing emotion, it's the time where we aren't even a part of his life and he's a child." Obani had commented still processing the view in front of them. "I've actually had the chance to see him smile while we were on a mission together. It was over salmonand radish of all things." Shinobu reminisced on the mission, and suddenly finding all eyes on her instead of on the projection. Mitsuri had almost tackled Shinobu and held onto her shoulders, demanding for the details as to when and how it happened.
"Has anyone noticed it yet? Has anyone looked at his eyes? They're still shining, there's still light in them." Muichiro, was the one to point it out, and everyone had found he was right. For the Giyuu of their time, his eyes were dull, looking like they had lost any and all life in them. This young one however, still looked like this was before his learning of demons. Like he was still pure and untouched by the evils the world hid from the public.
"I know you all have forgotten of the girl with Giyuu Tomioka." The crowd had looked away in any and all direction, realizing they had in fact forgotten her. Now they had focused back on the girl, noticing the warming smile and presence she radiates. "This girl is Tsutako Tomioka, the elder sister of Giyuu. At this point in time, Giyuu is 13 and Tsutako is 19. This is the day before her marriage."
The hashira focused now on the pair, rather than or the other. They saw the siblings happy, they saw them enjoying life like anyone could without having to worry of demons. That's when they remembered what was said before, this was the day when his pain had started. No one trusted that this would end well, they just had no idea as to how this part of his story would end.
The scene had changed, they had watched as the young Tomioka was sound asleep. He truly looked as if he was at peace. Before long, perspective had changed to someone else. They saw Tsutako, breathing ragged and running for her life. "I need to make it back. Please... let me make it back to him. Please let me look out for him like a good big sister one last time."
"Oh no..." "Fucking demons..." "This sense of despair and desperation. We've all seen what causes it." The hashira have each seen someone react this way, to cause this level of panic and fear. Demons have always driven fear into the hearts of humans, less to slayers, but even some in their ranks have felt that sense of dread. Nearly each of the hashira can remember a time there they felt that own fear, that feeling of being weak or helpless compared to the demons they fought. They refused to be that weak again.
The scene had changed again, back to the young version of Giyuu Tomioka. Hearing loud and heavy steps quickly approaching, he woke up in time to see his sister in his door way. "Tsutako nee-san? What's all the commo-" Giyuu was quickly silenced by his sister and carried over to their closet. Still in a state of daze and confusion, he couldn't register the level of panic that was obvious on his sister's face. His mind only seemed to focus once his sister threw her red haori on him, now wearing it loosely over his blue.
"Giyuu, no matter what stay in here and do not make a sound, I am begging you please just listen to this one last request. Just do this for me." Giyuu became less confused and more concerned by the second. His sister was crying, she woke him up with a sense of panic, and she was trying to hide him away. He nodded looking up at her, hoping to find some answers soon.
"Thank you Giyuu, thank you." She kissed his forehead and closed the closet doors on him. "Remember your big sister loves you very much. Thank you. Thank you for being my family." Tsutako quickly grabbed onto a knife and stood her ground as the demon stood in the doorway. Everyone watching this scene knew that this would be her last day, as no normal weapon would hold a demon off against for long.
The hashira were among some of the strongest people in Japan's current time, yet they all felt a chill run down their spine at the sight of one scared child. Giyuu Tomioka watched his sister being eaten alive, unable to make even a single noise. His face, his reaction to it all, they couldn't take their eyes off him. He was biting his lip so hard to avoid screaming he drew blood, but his crying eyes, the screaming he did with only his eyes even when no sound was made, was deafening.
The demon had eventually left, potentially looking for another meal. Giyuu had remained in the closet, too afraid and too paranoid to leave until daybreak. Nothing remained of his sister's body had remained. the only remnants of her that proved her existence, was the red haori Giyuu was still wearing, and the blood that now stained the floor and walls. Only now did he allow himself to scream out and cry, riddled with anguish.
Shinobu was lost in her memories, finding herself holding onto her sister, only a few feet away from their dead parents. The only reason her and Kanae lived past that day is thanks to Gyomei. She went through her own loss, but she at least didn't have to go through it alone. Giyuu however was alone; he had no one. His only family that they knew of just died in front of him, where were their parents when this happened? He wasn't even allowed to bury her, he was only allowed to have her in his memories.
Sanemi reflected back to his own past, feeling his nails dig into his palms in frustration. Even if he lost almost all of his family, he at least didn't have to see their deaths. He had gone back to his house after his demonic mother burned away in the sun. He looked down at the mutilated bodies of his younger brothers and sisters, and he felt something snap inside of his mind. Demons were nothing but a damned creation, meant only to cause suffering and loss. No demon slayer got into the corps without some loss to act as the drive. It was one thing to half think about and acknowledge, it was another to have to see the experience of another first hand.
Muichiro felt a familiar pain in watching the scene, why could he not remember from where though? He saw a demon, there was one attacking him before he became a slayer. His thoughts, his memories, they were lost in a fog and he couldn't remember what was there before he first picked up the sword and uniform. The fear and dread he saw on that boy's face, why did this remind him of something? It hurt to try and remember, but he had to know. This became his priority, perhaps the more he saw of this person's memories, the more he could unlock his own.
Everyone saw the young Giyuu finally stop crying. Lifting himself up from the blood that soaked the floor and now coated his clothing. "The, the monster! I have to go warn everyone! Tsutako nee-san gave herself over for me, I can't let anyone else go through this!" The boy charged out of the small house, running towards the village he lived on the outskirts of. Even when still trying to deal with his own pain of loss of a loved one, he wanted to try and save others from the same fate.
"Everyone! The monsters of legends, they're real! They came into my house in the night and killed Tsutako!" He ran through the village as he continued to scream out his, not caring his voice was becoming shrill in the process. "Please understand! I saw it happen, Tsutako hid me away but I could still see everything! We need to prepare ourselves in case they come back!"
The people around him began to form a crowd, confused and annoyed that a child is going on about nonsense of legend. "Oi young Tomioka! Quit spouting on about that. Demons have been nothing more than a myth, used for campire stories and told to children to scare them out of unruly behavior. Something your sister seems to haven't gotten you out of yet." Giyuu could no longer find himself being able to speak loudly from the wear and tear he just forced on his throat. "I'm not lying... This is nee-san's blood. They ate her..."
An elderly lady had walked up to the scared boy, noting that he was in fact covered in blood. "Oh Giyuu you poor boy, it was just a wild animal. Someone go check on his house please, the boy is too shaken up. We know you're scared, but it couldn't have been a demon. They just aren't real." She looked down at the boy with mercy, attempting to clean up him. "Even if your sister has died, you shouldn't make up stories like this to try and cope. You and your sister already lost your parents, and neither of you made up stories about that right?"
This was a situation the slayers found themselves in too often; normal every day people thinking demons were just fantasy stories. Each of them recieved a fair share weird looks, even having to escape from authorities from time to time because of their weapons. Everyone was too deep in their annoying memories that no one was prepared for what Mitsuri had to say. "Did... Did they just say Tomioka-san lost all of his immediate family?"
"No, no this has to be a joke right?! Tsutako-san was all the family he had left?!" Mitsuri couldn't help but weep and feel heartache for him. She grew up with a family who showed her unconditional love. They're what helped shape her into the all caring and all loving person she is. She couldn't imagine losing them, what it would do to her. Here she was finally learning of Tomioka-san, and all it started out with was pain and being forced to go through life alone immediately following tragedy.
Gyomei had tears running down his face as he focused on his prayers. To learn that another of his comrades was an orphan thanks to the demons fed to his desire to protect humanity as a whole. He has finally been given sight and it was only to witness a man's darkest time so far. He prayed for Tomioka to be able to use this feeling of loss as fuel to become strong.
The few who had left to inspect the scene had finally returned, each having a look of shock on their faces. "So... So much blood. It had to be a wild animal to create that scene. There's claw marks across the room, and the blood is hours old, it's already being soaked into walls and floor." Everyone looked at Giyuu a bit more sympathetic, knowing at the very least he was right in that his sister was taken from in, in a manner too violent that he shouldn't have been forced to witness.
"Tsutako-san really is gone, there's no way anyone could've survived that horrible of an attack." "Maybe the trauma of it all snapped something inside of the kid? He said he saw it first hand, something like that really could've done something to him." "That does make sense when you remember he's barely a teenager. Certainly makes more sense than a demon."
Giyuu could only look on in hurtful awe, they thought he was crazy. He lost the only family he had left, was forced to witness it, came to warn these people because he cared for them, and they thought he was crazy. "No. No no no no no! I'm not crazy! I know what I saw! A demon broke into our house. Tsutako nee-san came and woke me up pleading and panicking, and hid me away for my safety against the monster that killed her. Don't insult my sister by thinking her brother is crazy for saying what he knows he saw!"
"And YOU shouldn't disrespect your sister's memory by saying she was killed by nothing more than an urban legend!" The villagers felt sorry for the kid but this wasn't a time to joke around. He just went through a traumatic experience of witnessing a violent tragic end, and here he was trying to make a joke of it. Maybe the kid was crazy or touched in the head even before today.
"Hey doesn't the kid have some distant family that runs a private hospital? If we send him there, he won't be alone and they can help look after him and get him past this crazy talk." "I don't like the idea of sending him while he's shaken up, but he needs all the help he can get." "Come on, let's get him cleaned up; someone can travel with him." "Don't worry kid, we'll make sure you get the help you need."
Giyuu refused to go anywhere with these people, he tried to warn these people of danger and they thought he was insane. Slowly backing away while having his eye on everyone around him, he turn quickly turned and broke into a sprint. His only goal now was to escape. "I'm not crazy! I won't let you people send me away! I lost my sister and still tried to help you people! I'm not crazy!" His own tears nearly blinded him once again, but he didn't care anymore. The only person he could rely on anymore was himself.
"He was nothing more than a child!" "He was just a grieving and scared boy! He tried to help you people and all you did was call him crazy!" Gyomei and Mitsuri had scared everyone in the room with their newly shown fury. Gyomei was seen as a gentle giant, one who always showed compassion to anyone around him aside from his enemies. Mitsuri was someone that people didn't even believe could become angry at all. She had the biggest heart out of any of them, and had earned the place of pillar thanks to her aptly named love breathing. To see the kindest souls show an unfiltered rage, they were thankful the two of them were on the side of the slayers.
Giyuu had made it to the foot of mountain Sagiri, he felt exhaustion slowly taking over as he trudged through the snow on the ground. "I'm... not crazy. I know what... what I saw. Demons killed nee-san. It was demons. I'm not cra-" Exhaustion had finally caught up with him, and he fell face first into the fresh cold snow. Was this it? Was this finally his time to die? He was scared, but he was ready to accept it. He knew his truth, and he was just wanting to be with his sister again.
He heard crunching snow slowly approaching him, being too weak to look directly at what it was. Maybe it really was his time, maybe it was the demon that killed his sister that had come to finish the job. Before passing out, he saw it was a normal person. A hunter maybe out looking for food, instead had found him. At least maybe this will give him the chance to live just a little bit longer.