Into the Darkness (A Demon Slayer Fanfiction)

Chapter 16: Peculiar Man

Disclaimer:

I do not own nor claim all the rights to 鬼滅の刃 | Kimetsu no Yaiba | Demon Slayer; all rights are reserved to its respective creator, Koyoharu Gotōge. This is purely a work of fiction; names, characters, businesses, events, localities, and occurrences are all extrapolated from the author's writings and imagination or utilized in a fictitious manner. As such, any direct or indirect references to actual entities, dead or alive, or events do not, in any shape or form, resemble the opinions of the author.

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"..." = Dialogue

'...' = Internal monologues

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Shinobu

The enemy seized hold of me—grasping me by my neck with its right arm.

"Arrrgh!" The abrupt, indomitable stranglehold on my neck meant that no air was flowing in and out of the lungs.

In other words, I was being choked.

My vision starts to get distorted as the absence of a fresh supply of air needlessly wrought a bodily shortage of oxygen.

Tears begin to swell up in my eyes, occluding my field of vision and distorting my eyesight.

No... I don't want to leave now... I can't leave now...

I can't...

Nee-san...

Tomioka-san...

..

..

My eyelids immediately widened.

I remained still and was completely disoriented, as I was reeling from the horrible pain incurred from the chokehold.

I panic, where am I? Am I still bleeding? Where's the demon? Where's Tomioka-san?

I came to a realization.

Oh right...

I'm still alive somehow...

I'm somewhere else now...

At a different time.

"It's January 15th, 1934, the seventh year of the Shōwa Era."

Those accursed words pierced me harder than any blade or demon could.

This all seems impossible, and there's a chance the Old Man could be senile and lying to me.

And yet, I feel like the Old Man's telling the truth. After all, what would be the point of lying in the first place?

But it's still hard to believe that I was suddenly transported twenty years into the future, along with the fact that I magically teleported from the Greater Tokyo Area to the island of Hokkaido.

I pulled over the blankets and raised myself aloft from the futon.

I walk over to the washroom and turn on the faucet.

After splashing some cold water onto my face, I look up at the mirror.

Huh... I look exactly the same. If the year is 1934, then I should be around 37 years of age.

But, from the looks of it, I still look like the 18-year-old Insect Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps—nothing's changed. I'm even wearing my uniform, but I can't find my Nichirin Blade anywhere...