Disclaimer: I do not own DemonSlayer:KimetsunoYaiba or any of its characters/story.

/-Tears of a Butterfly -/

I: Alone

TTTTT

It hurts.

I'm hungry.

I'm sad.

I feel hopeless.

I'm in agony.

I'm lonely.

This was my life.

But then one day, I heard a sound like a snap.

And I never knew pain again.

TTTTT

"Useless little brat! Can't you do anything right?!"

Her parents were yelling at her again. This time, she wasn't even sure what it was that they wanted from her.

It was another hot day. They didn't have enough water to share with her, that's what her mother said, anyway. So she and her father drank the little water they had. She tried to stay cool, hiding under a small, dead tree that offered little protection.

It hurt, but she couldn't cry, because she didn't have any tears she could form, as much as she wanted to.

As it got hotter and closer to noon, she crawled to her home, a few logs as walls, with a torn cloth on top as a ceiling. Her parents were inside, lounging on cheaply-built chairs that someone from the richer people from the city must have given them, maybe from pity. To build themselves a reputation as 'kind', perhaps.

She curled up in a corner, head buried between her legs. Hearing footsteps approaching, she whimpered quietly. She already knew who it was, and anticipated the coming pain.

"Oh, what now? Too tired to work? Get up, dammit!" Her father grabbed her arm. Walking outside, he threw her onto the ground. Grunting in pain, she lay there, not really wanting to move. What's the point? She'd just be thrown down again. She knew that the pain would come, over and over. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

Her father looked angry, but then he smirked. "I know, we'll just sell you. Could do with the extra cash, and you're useless anyway."

A flurry of emotion whipped through her like wind. She thought that her parents at least loved her enough to keep her around, and that's what kept her tethered to life. But she guessed they only had her so they could work her to death. And that's when she lost the last of her hope in the world.

Inside, she heard a sound like a snap, and all her pain disappeared.

TTTTT

Kanae and Shinobu Kocho walked down the busy road. They were out buying what they needed, and had finished. Now they were heading back to the Butterfly Estate, their home in the city.

That's when Kanae noticed something, and walked toward it. Shinobu, a bit confused at first, looked in the direction her sister was walking.

Oh. She saw a man, leading a small child with a rope of all things. No wonder her kind-hearted sister went to question. Shaking her head, smiling, she went to follow Kanae.

Kanae stopped the man. "Excuse me, do you have a minute?"

The man turned, and saw the sisters. Kanae continued. "Could you tell us why that child is tied up? Is she a criminal, perhaps?" Shinobu could tell from her sister's tone of voice that she is curious, albeit a little angry that the man would tie up a little girl like that.

Said man responded. "Isn't it obvious? She's flea-ridden, and her face is dirty. Not to mention, she might try to escape." He grunted impatiently as Kanae approached the girl, crouching to meet her height.

She smiled sweetly at the girl, who didn't show much emotion other than slight surprise. "Hello there, nice to meet you. My name is Kanae Kocho. What's your name?"

The girl stared blankly ahead, with eyes that held despair and suffering. She remained silent. Kanae's eyebrows creased in worry. This child must have been treated terribly.

The man gave Kanae a dirty look. He sighed angrily. "She's got no name, all right? Her parents never gave her one. Happy now? Get away from her!" He went to push her away, then felt someone slap his arm. Turning, he saw that it was the other woman.

Shinobu narrowed her brow at the man. "Please don't touch my sister."

He finally lost it. "What's your problem, you two? If you wanna talk to this kid, pay up!" At this, Shinobu smirked. "All right then, we'll purchase her." She reached into her jacket pocket. "Would this be enough?"

Throwing her hand out of her pocket, she tossed money everywhere. Bills and coins scattered across the ground. The man looked around, surprised. Shinobu used this as a diversion, and snatched the rope from the man's hand. Grabbing her sister's hand in her own, she ran.

"Hey get back here, dammit!" The man shouted after them.

She just smiled at him. "I'd pick it up right now if I were you! After all, there's a crowd here, and the wind is strong!"

Seeing Shinobu's cocky smile, Kanae furrowed her brow. "Are you sure about this?" Shinobu nodded. "It's fine."

Still, being polite, Kanae yelled at the distant form of the man and the crowd. "Please excuse us!"

The man was too busy yelling at the crowd to notice. "Hands off! It's my property!"

Kanae smiled anxiously. "Oh my, oh my…"

The girl, in the meantime stared in shock at the two sisters.

She was saved.

TTTTT

"Sister! Sister!"

She was sitting on the ground of the luxury apartment she was taken to, watching as a woman had a one-sided argument with her sister. The woman had black hair, dyed purple at the ends, done up with a butterfly pin. She had a white jacket, and a deep purple shirt and pants. This person also was the one who washed and clothed the girl, and tied her hair up into a side ponytail.

"Sister, this child is hopeless! She can't do anything without being told, and that goes for meals as well! She won't touch her food unless I tell her to eat, even as her stomach growls and growls!"

The girl cocked her head. Isn't following orders what she was supposed to do? Her parents drilled it into her that orders came first, then nothing else. Feelings are useless and worthless. Her father always said that to her, every day. But this person seems to think otherwise.

The other woman, the sister, was sitting on a couch nearby. She had long black hair, adorned with 2 butterfly pins on either side of her head. She had similar attire to the other person, but instead of a white jacket, she had a butterfly-pattern cardigan over her clothes.

"Oh my, oh my…" She turned to face her sister, who continued her rant.

"What exactly are we going to do with her? We can't just order her around all the time, it's not right!"

The woman with the cardigan smiled at her sister. "Now, now, don't be like that, okay? I just love that smile of yours, Shinobu."

The girl, who was still sitting on the ground and listening the entire time, committed to memory that the woman with the white jacket was Shinobu.

Said woman got frustrated. "But we can't do anything with a kid who can't even think for herself! It's dangerous, Kanae!"

Okay, so the other one is Kanae. The girl nodded ever so slightly to herself.

The two continued arguing, well, more like Shinobu arguing and Kanae dismissing her words with a kind smile.

"She can't do anything on her own! She can't decide for herself!"

Kanae walked over to the girl, something in her hand. She placed the object in the girl's hand. "All right, when you're on your own, you can decide by flipping this coin. Right, Kanao?"

The girl stared at the coin. Her name, it's Kanao. A sense of individuality came to her. Usually, her father just settled for 'girl' or 'brat', but these two people, they gave her a true name. And a coin for when she was alone and had to choose.

She didn't realize the two were still talking, until Kanae took her hand. "As long as it's given a chance, a person's soul will open up, so don't worry. When you fall in love with some boy someday, you'll change too, Kanao."

The girl- no, Kanao, stared curiously at Kanae. What is 'love'? Wasn't it that emotion where you care a lot about something? Yeah, that's it. She wasn't sure she'd be able to ever 'love' something.

But maybe, she thought, she could try.

TTTTT

Sup. This may not seem like a Modern AU story, but it is, and that will definitely show in the next chapter. Same goes for this seeming like it's just rewriting scenes.

I really love Demon Slayer. Especially Kanao, she's probably my favourite character (Other than Tanjiro). I don't even know why I love her so much, I just do.

The Kanao/Tanjiro ship is something I also love. So this story will have a lot of that. I want to rewrite the scene from episode 26 (chapter 53 in the manga) when the two are talking, and Tanjiro is all like, "Follow your heart!" or something like that.

I should probably stop ranting about how I love the show and stuff…

Bye, and see you next chapter when it gets better!