Chapter One: Two Deaths And A Birth

Kamado Tanjirou, for the last 18 years of his life, has felt as though danger looked around every bend. He checks behind himself whenever he turns a corner, notes all the exits in rooms when entering buildings, and instinctively reaches for - something - whenever a loud noise occurs.

Growing up, the adults around him simply assumed he was a particularly attentive child. As he grew older, however, people began to question his near-fervent devotion and protection of his family. Paranoia, unnecessary fear, all these things follow him like a plague.

There are other things, too. Like the fact that he seems almost confused or amazed by simple technology, like trains, cellphones, even just clocks. The fact that he almost always writes the year wrong in one way or another.

Sometimes, he feels as though he wasn't born in the correct century. Sometimes, he dreams of swords and demons and blood and death. Those nights he wakes up drenched in sweat, adrenaline pumping through his veins, as he frantically checks on his family members one by one.

His parents worry for him. His mother, Kie, prays for his health and is careful to hug him extra hard. Every night that they hear footsteps on the tatami mats their hearts grow heavier. His father, a former kendo teacher, decides to help him destress by teaching him the way of the sword.

Tanjirou takes to the lessons like a fish to water.

He tries to explain it to his siblings and parents, the safety and serenity that comes with the feel of a sword in his hand. The peace that fills his mind when he goes through his stances, the extreme force that takes over his body as he slices through the air.

His father teaches him all he knows of the Breath of Fire. Tanjirou pays no mind to how the bokken* feels wrong in his hands, as though he needs to use something else, and focuses instead on perfecting the techniques. After just one and a half years of practice, his father declares his training done and that he has no more to teach him.

A year after that, he meets Tomioka Giyuu, and his whole life changes.

It happens on a sunny day in the middle of winter. His family's bakery is packed to the brim that morning, salarymen, office workers, housewives and house husbands all clamoring for a warm treat in the wake of a harsh winter. Nezuko and his mother are running the cashier and front of house while Tanjirou, his father, Takeo, and Rokuta all work in the ovens, kneading dough and mixing batter.

By the time they have to leave for school, Tanjirou is pleasantly still warm from the oven's heat as they all head out for school. Tanjirou and Nezuko herd their siblings into their respective classrooms before heading to the junior high and high school.

The day is normal. Classes go by, they all eat lunch together (made fresh that morning by their mother) before finishing the afternoon classes and heading home.

As they pull around the corner to their house, however, it's very obvious that something has gone very, very wrong.

As Tanjirou's eyes widen in fear, his siblings seem none the wiser to his panic.

Panic, because the smell wafting from their house (since when could he smell so well?) is one that brings bile to his throat and tears to his eyes.

It's the scent of blood.

The moment Tanjirou smells the blood it's as through his body begins to move on auto pilot, arms and legs and lungs and heart working like a fluid machine as he cuts in front of his siblings and heads towards the door.

Nezuko, not quite understanding her brother's panic yet knowing better than to question his intuition, stops their siblings from following.

The scent is putrid, invading Tanjirou's nose and clothes unrelentingly, leaving no room for escape. He tips the door open, willing the room to contain his mother and father, safe and whole and embarrassed to have been seen.

It's almost like he's watching a horror movie, except Tanjirou is the protagonist and there are no spoilers to help him figure out what will happen next.

Here's how this plays out:

Tanjirou opens the door and his mother has accidentally broken a vase or a glass or a plate. His father, frail and sickly as he is, leaned down to attempt to help pick up the pieces, cutting himself in the process.

His mother, also attempting to pick them up, cuts her hand as well, sending them both into a panic-filled laughing fest. Tanjirou will laugh slightly and they will make a joke about his overactive imagination.

Nezuko will bring their siblings in and they'll all carefully pick the blood-stained pieces off the floor together, and everything will be fine.

Here's what actually happens:

Tanjirou opens the door, and comes face-to-face with a red-eyed, pale-faced man who has his parents' blood dripping down his lips.

And then suddenly, the face is gone, rolling onto Hanako's slippers. It's replaced by a handsome man with blue eyes, black hair, and a face as though he's just seen a ghost.

Tanjirou blacks out, and then begins to dream.

I'm so sore, is Tanjirou's first face. He's laying on the ground facing towards a misty sky. How does Urokodaki-san expect him to cut that boulder? He can't imagine that even a person twice his height could do it.

(Who's Urokodaki-san?)

"Hello!" a voice says, before the owner's face obstructs his bland view of gray.

It's a little girl in a pink floral haori, leaning over him. She's smiling softly at him, and Tanjirou is reminded vividly of the Nezuko from before (before what?). Pushed out of her face is a fox mask, which rests carefully on the side of her head.

"He - " he coughs, lungs still working in overtime. "Hello."

The girl is still smiling down at him. She opens her mouth again, to saying something, but Tanjirou's brain is fuddles. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" he asks, but nothing comes out. She continues talking, smiling all the while, unaware of the panic he's in.

It's like there's cotton in his mouth, in his ears, and in his eyes, his nose, it's suffocating him -

"You need to breathe better, Tanjirou-san."

He breathes, sees the opening thread, and slices through nothing.

"Kamado-san?" is the first thing that Tanjirou hears upon waking up. Tanjirou finds himself wincing at the noise, despite the fact that the other person is whispering.

"Mmmmph," he says. He feels like he's been run over by a truck, or something of the like. One time he'd overheard one of his classmates groan about his hangover after breaking into his parents alcohol cabinets. Is this what a hangover felt like? If it was, Tanjirou was grateful that he'd never gone behind his parents back and drank any.

Had he been drinking, though? He tries to think back on what had happened before he arrived at… wherever he is.

At least this bed is soft, he thinks. And then he opens his eyes in alarm, realizing that he is definitely not any place that he knows of.

His senses jumpstart themselves, quickly taking in his surroundings. A classic Japanese style room, completed with old hanging lanterns. He's sitting on a western-style bed, and a person in black clothing that covers almost all of their body and face is sitting next to him. There are rows of beds next to his, as though he were in a hospital or a military barrack.

Strangely, Tanjirou feels more at home in the rustic Japanese house than he has in any type of modern building.

"Kamado-san? Are you okay? Do you need anything?" the person beside him asks.

Tanjirou doesn't know how to respond, mind still taking in his surroundings and trying to figure out just how he got there.

"Kakushi-san," a female voice says to Tanjirou left. A woman dressed in an intricate purple haori is suddenly standing beside Tanjirou's bed. Her hair is done in a bun with a butterfly pin which twinkles in the light of the lanterns.

Her clothing is very traditional, with her feet even in geta. Attached to her waist is a sword that Tanjirou can tell has been very carefully maintained. He swallows nervously. "I'm sure that Tanjirou-kun must be deeply confused right now. Isn't that right?"

"Um." He still doesn't understand where he is, why he's there, or who the woman watching him intently is. "I don't… "

"Ah. You must have just had your first vision, huh?" the woman says. "That can be quite confusing. The first time I had mine I was asleep for three days. It's quite the out-of-body experience."

"My first what?" he asks. He thinks she means the dream, yet Tanjirou can't seem to remember what he actually dreamed about. He knows there was a gray sky, a girl, and he had just been -

"Oh dear," the woman says. Her voice sounds far and distant, as though she's speaking from the room over. "Having a vision so soon after your first will probably hurt." Tanjirou can barely hear her, brain working overtime to figure out just what the dream had been about -

A slap to his face brings him out of his dream-like state. The pain begins to spread, waking Tanjirou up fully for the first time since he passed out. He stares shocked at the woman, her hand still raised from slapping him, smile fixed on her face. "What did you just - "

"My name is Kocho Shinobu," the woman says. "You're currently in the Japanese Demon Slayer Corps."

"Wait a minute - "

"I hope that you're ready, because we've all been expecting you, Kamado Tanjirou."

"Has Oyakata-sama been found yet?"

"I've been flamboyantly looking, but I haven't found anything."

"Oh, Oyakata-sama! I miss him so much. I hope that he's okay!"

"So many poor souls have been reincarnated, but not a single sign of him. I'm sure that Oyakata-sama would be proud of us wherever he may be,"

"Tomioka-san, are you excited that Tanjirou is back?"

"… "

"Silent as ever! How wonderful!"

"It's so unfair that Tomioka-san was the one to meet Tanjirou first."

"Tokitou, don't worry, I think you're great too! I'm sure Tanjirou misses you a lot!"

"Kocho-san, has Tanjirou woken yet?"

"Has he remembered anything yet?"

"Yes. I believe that he just had his first vision."

"What was it? I'm sure that Tanjirou's spirit is just as ferocious in this life as it was in his previous one!"

"Ahh, Tanjirou-kun is so amazing! I can't wait to meet him again!"

"Does Nezuko seem to have remembered anything?"

"No. It seems that she hasn't had her awakening yet."

"But Tanjirou did?"

"Perhaps it would be better if she doesn't remember. Living as a demon… I simply cannot imagine the disgust I would feel."

"How sad it is that they have been born once more into this sadness-infested world."

"With Tanjirou back, we will surely prevail regardless!"

"I flamboyantly agree. We are much stronger than we were in our flamboyant last lives."

"Ah, when do you think Tanjirou will be able to join us? I miss him."

"It seems that he'll be back in action within the week."

"With Tanjirou back, it's time for us to make our move, with or without Oyakata-sama."

"So soon?"

"Tanjirou isn't back at full strength, and he hasn't even gotten all of his memories,"

"We must move fast, or else that bastard will surely catch word of Tanjirou's return. No matter what, we can't let that happen."

"I flamboyantly agree! Tanjirou is powerful enough with or without his memories."

"Don't forget, we were - are Oyakata-sama's handpicked hashiras. We must finish what we started two hundred years ago."

"Dead or alive, we must take back the human world."