Chapter 4: in search of an answer
The moon's rays illuminated a peaceful forest where the soft singing of insects and the sweet breeze of the wind could barely be heard, however a constant panting coming from a shadow that quickly ran through the trees interrupted that moment of peace. Her eyes scanned the entire landscape in panic as she continued running in search of a place to hide. She didn't know how much time had passed but she had to hurry befor-
"Total concentration"
And as if it were dust,the shadow seemed to fade away leaving only a single eye with which he looked in horror at the imposing figure responsible for his current situation, the only thing he could think about in his last seconds of life were the crimson locks of his executioner, reminding him of the flames of hell itself, who wanted to claim his soul to pay for all his sins.
Yorichii only watched coldly as the demon he had chased for a few minutes was fading away until it was nothing more than ashes, it had been barely a couple of weeks since that samurai with flaming hair appeared in full mourning for the loss of his family. Even though he explained to him about demons, the brotherhood of hunters and even seeing with his own eyes such creatures, he still could not believe how such beings could exist in such a beautiful world, the evil they harbored seemed to be taken from some malignant entity and from the little he had been able to find out thanks to the interrogation of some of them, the demons became of their own free will, something that It further baffled the Hanafuda earring hunter. His thoughts were interrupted by small flashes of orange light falling on his face, indicating the beginning of a new day. Perhaps tomorrow he could get the answers he so desperately needed to find meaning in his still empty life.
Tanjiro woke up slowly, feeling extremely tired and somewhat sore from his recent injuries. His mind struggled between the constant headache, the dream, or rather memory, he saw while he was unconscious and the last thoughts he had during the battle against the upper moon. He looked closely at the small room he was in, barely decorated by the bed he was on, some medical equipment that was on a simple desk and a chair that, curiously, was next to his bed, indicating that someone had been watching him while he slept.
"Probably a kakushi,sent by Kanae-san" assumed as he remembered the beautiful pillar he saved, or so he hoped.
He wished this was all a bad dream but unfortunately, the bandages around his back and chest said otherwise. Seeing a demon again meant that the war was not over yet, in fact it seemed far from having any kind of outcome seeing the power his opponent had, that meant that sooner or later he had to become a demon slayer again, he will have to train his body to use his sun breathing again and be able to kill Muzan Kibutsuji. The problem was that it would be years before his body could withstand breathing, perhaps with his mark he could partially achieve or he can learn another breathing style. There was also his family, if he was going to chase demons constantly, he had to make sure they were safe, he did not want the same thing to happen again as with Uta.
"Maybe the corps could help me with that."
"Oh!you're finally awoken!"
Tanjirou abandoned his thoughts to focus his attention on the newcomer, who turned out to be the pillar of flowers. She was wearing a simple hospital gown, as she approached the nearby chair with a big smile of relief with the help of a cane. Once settled, he could see a considerable amount of bandages on her long legs, her left arm was covered in plaster and her right eye was covered by more bandages that lightly covered her head.
"I'm very glad to see that you're finally recovering,"she exclaimed sweetly.
"I'm also glad that you're fine Kanae-san"answered with an smile"by the way where are we?"
"We're in one of the shelters of the demon slayer corps, some families were saved by slayers in the past and as gratitude they offer their houses to help us with the fight against the demons."
"I see..."
"So…I'd like to ask you a few things." Her expression changed to a more serious one, but she kept a soft gaze on the redhead.
"I suppose you want to know about me and my relationship with the demon slayers, right?"
"Exactly!As a Hashira, my duty is to report on any mission I go on because they are usually I asked Oyakata-sama about the Kamado family, he informed me that there has never been a swordsman with that surname, which is curious because you were using a rusty Nichirin."
"Oyakata-sama?So the Ubuyashiki family still leads the demon slayers."You're right, my family has no relation to the brotherhood, the sword… was a gift from an old friend of the family, he died without descendants and preferred to leave it to us than for it to end up lost somewhere.
Ok..." said, not very convinced. "I also wanted to talk about your breathing style, not only were you able to use the total concentration breathing, but you were also able to use a posture of each of the elemental has never been anyone who could use the 5 elemental breathings, so that was also taught to you by that friend you spoke of before?"
"No, in fact that was taught by an ancient retired samurai who was dedicated to training the village children in the art of the sword to learn to defend ourselves" Tanjiro could see how the girl's expression became more and more serious, she definitely hadn't believed this lie and that made him somewhat tense.
"I understand... What about the dance you used during the battle against Douma? You were able to summon flames very different from those of the flame's breathing."
"That is the dance of the sun god, it is a traditional dance that my fam-" The conversation was interrupted by a cawing coming from one of the windows, the person responsible was a crow with a small purple butterfly-shaped brooch adorning its head, a rather curious sight in Tanjirou's opinion.
"Wow! It seems that it is an important message from Oyakata-sama! "Kanae slowly stood up while letting the crow perch on the side of the staff and tried to give him the letter"unfortunately, we'll have to leave this conversation for another time, I know we don't know each other very well but I would like you to trust me to help you, your skills are impressive and you could help us against the demons, if you want of course! Believe me, the last thing I want is to harm my savior."
"Of course Kanae-san, perhaps there are things that I have not explained well, I still can't think well due to fatigue from the battle."
"I understand, speaking of speaking of saviors."Kanae leaned towards Tanjiro to give him a soft kiss on his cheek, to the surprise of the redhead, who quickly looked away to unsuccessfully hide the huge blush he had, causing a laugh in the hashira.
"A-ah! Why was that!?"
"Consider it a gift for saving me, in the meantime rest, now rest Tanjirou-kun"with everything said the pillar went to the door to attend to the message of her crow.
"Kanae-san!"
"Yes Tanjirou-kun?"
"How long have I been unconscious?"
"hhhhmmmm…. I would say around 5 days" she said with some doubt "but I can't say it exactly since I was also unconscious,so I hope you don't plan on moving for a while, since you still have to recover from your injuries" with everything said the young woman left the room, leaving Tanjiro quite worried about the lost time.
"This is definitely a big inconvenience"thought didn't know how much time had passed but one thing was clear,that Tanjirou had to get out of here quickly, although he wanted to stay to talk to Ubuyashiki and start his training as a Demon Slayer as soon as possible, his priority has been, is, and will be his family. After all, they were the reason for his trip, and he was sure that he could find another Demon Slayer in the future who could help him.
With difficulty Tanjirou got up from his bed and grabbed his belongings that he found in the desk drawers and prepared as soon as possible to get out of there. He couldn't use the front door so he had to sneak through the window. Luckily, his legs didn't suffer any serious injuries except for the enormous fatigue of his muscles. After several breaths of air, he activated his breathing of total concentration and jumped towards one of the nearby trees and from there he lowered himself to the ground carefully due to the pain of his wounds. Once far enough from the house, Tanjirou looked for some point of reference to start his way back home.
During his past life Yorichii faced countless dangers as a swordsman, he came face to face with the demon king and on his deathbed he had a fight against a demonic version of his own twin brother.
And yet as Tanjirou, nothing compared to the monster in front of him….
The aura of anger that emanated was more suffocating than that of Muzan himself, the terror he felt in every fiber of his being was something he never in his life thought he could feel, all his instincts begged him to run but he was unable to move a single muscle. Tanjirou could barely even breathe from fear !He didn't know how long he was trapped in this death trap but he begged any Kami present to free him from his torture.
"So…where has my beloved son been all this time?"
"O-Oka-s-san I-"the words were stopped by a strong punch that the kamado matriarch threw against the table that was between them. Tanjiro's sense of smell warned that the anger was only increasing with every second and for the first time since he was reincarnated he seriously feared for his life.
"You were about to tell me an excuse, so I will repeat it again, where has my beloved son been all this time?" Tanjiro definitely had no choice but to tell the truth and with some difficulty he took out his ancient Nichirin to show it to his mother.
"I went to look for this ancient katana, lately there have been many dangers near home and Oto-san once told me about an ancient buried family heirloom, but he couldn't recover it due to his illness so I wanted to go pick it up" even though the story was somewhat true, he still felt somewhat guilty for lying to his mother, he hoped that in the future no one would question him about his past life.
"So a sword..." the matriarch took the Nichirin out of its sheath and looked at it closely, for a moment the Nichirin glowed slightly with its ancient crimson red, something that greatly surprised the young Kamado, however, the surprise quickly changed to fear as he saw how his mother's face began to show the veins in her head and her breathing began to become more erratic. His gaze promised enormous suffering, which made Tanjiro's skin turn as pale as a ghost's.
"So you abandoned your family for several weeks, without any explanation other than that your little sister saw you escape, you suffered who knows how many wounds, seeing the dried blood on your bandages and all this for a simple piece of rusty metal?"
"Bu-"
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED WE ALL WERE!?" With one leap, KIe headed towards his son while grabbing the bandages on his body with one hand in absolute fury and in the other he held the Nichirin that was increasingly turning a deeper crimson" TAKEO AND SHIGUERU KEPT TRYING TO GET AWAY TO GO LOOK FOR EACH OTHER, HANAKO KEPT ASKING THE VILLAGERS FOR ANY CLUE ABOUT YOU, NEZUKO SPENT DAYS WITHOUT LEAVING HER ROOM DUE TO SADNESS AND ROKUTA KEPT CRYING FOR YOUR ABSENCE, DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU'D HAD DIED AND W HAVEN'T EVEN FOUND YOUR BODY?"
"I-I'm sor-"
"AND ALL YOU'RE BRINGING HERE IS A FUCKING RUSTY KATANA THAT'S ABOUT TO BREAK?" Kie's fury began to cloud his mind and he raised the Nichirin with quite hostile intentions.
Tanjirou definitely regretted having made this trip greatly, he did not measure well the consequences of his actions for his family and all of them were worried about him. Closing his eyes, hoping he was willing to accept any punishment, as long as he could receive the forgiveness of his family starting with his mother. However, the blow never came, only the sound of metal clashing, followed by strong sobs and a pair of warm arms that wrapped around Tanjirou with such force that it seemed like it was going to break his bones.
"You had us worried! We prayed day and night hoping that you would arrive safe and sound. I asked all the gods for you to come back. I don't know if I could have endured the loss of a son, knowing that I failed my husband. I don't know if I could have endured the pressure. Please, I beg you with all my heart! Don't ever leave us again."
His mother's words were without a doubt the most heartbreaking thing he had ever felt in his 2 lives. Tanjirou couldn't help but release his own tears of regret as he wrapped his mother in a hug as a show of apology and affection. He didn't know how much time had passed but thanks to his sense of smell he could notice that his mother began to fall asleep so he carefully lifted his mother up as best he could and laid her down in her room so she could rest comfortably.
Once that was done he looked for some bandages they kept in the kitchen and took them to the door of the house to change while observing the night landscape. The trip was far from being considered a success seeing the chaos it generated in his family but at least he was able to get something good out of could Save a life, he was able to recover his Nichirin and discover that both the demons and the demon slayers were still present. So now he had a clear target list:
-Train your body.
-Learn a breathIng style.
-Seek out Ubuyashiki.
-find a safe place for the family.
-Dominate the sun breathing.
-kill Muzan Kibutsuji.
A/N:Uff,It's been almost a year since I last updated this, I really apologize for that. It was a combination of several things, first I had no idea how to start this chapter, even though I knew about the story of it.
At first I was going to start with Muzan discovering the existence of Tanjirou after torturing Douma but I wasn't really convinced by the idea.When I already had the exact idea a lot of things happened that seriously kept me busy,and the little free time I had, I admit that I was a bit lazy to write, especially seeing the few people who read the chapters (that or the statistics were bugged).
That's why today I decided YES OR YES to bring a new chapter and update it at once, especially for those people who still follow this humble story, if you are one of them THANK YOU VERY MUCH, and do not doubt that even if it takes me time, I plan to finish the story. I have the main idea but it is often difficult sometimes to link one plot with another. In any case, do not hesitate to give your opinion with a comment, that motivates enormously to update before.
Thanks for reading :)