Twist of Fate

Chapter 3

Life had a funny way of working.

Zenitsu's stance never wavered as he swung the wooden sword over and over again. Though his body was in focus, his mind was not. He felt different, and not exactly the good kind. His body was weaker. It seemed that only his mind went back, not his body.

All that hard training they did was erased.

Great, just what he needed.

Not only did he have to figure out how to save everyone from dying—and not die himself—he also had to think about getting back to his original strength. Though his body wasn't as weak as it previously was in the past, it was still very far from his state before he went back in time.

His mind was still in shambles when he thought about it. Time travel, something he thought only existed in fairytale books, happened to him. He didn't know why or how, and he wasn't planning on finding out.

He had enough on his mind. Adding the stress of figuring out how time worked was not on his agenda anytime soon.

But it did make him curious. If he was able to time travel, would someone else be able to do it too? Did someone else remember the past? Or was it the future? The past-future? He didn't really know what to call it. Was there someone out there that was experiencing the same thing right now?

He hoped there was. Especially someone from the demon slayer corps. The tiny possibility of a demon time traveling like him made his hands quiver slightly, but he gripped the sword tighter.

His anger was still seething. But at least now, he had the chance to change things.

He only hoped he could actually pull it off.

------

The night was nearing.

"Zenitsu, come here," Jigoro Kuwajima called.

The blonde followed the request, sitting in front of his grandfather. He wouldn't deny that his heart had started beating a bit faster.

Had his grandpa figured it out?

Did he know he wasn't the same Zenitsu as before?

"I wanted to talk to you before you left." Jigoro looked into the brown eyes of his grandson with nothing but love, "I believe in you. No matter what happens, I will always be proud of you." Jigoro smiled brightly, "Zenitsu, you are my pride and joy." The man encased him in a tight hug.

This had momentarily caught the blonde off guard. This had never happened in the past. If he remembered correctly, the day of the final selection, his grandpa was sternly telling him to keep training and to never fail.

This was different. How come?

Zenitsu knew his jii-chan cared about him. But to display it this openly, it was so brand new.

It made his heart clench.

Zenitsu's gaze turned hard.

This time, his grandpa won't die.

It was a vow to the heavens. Set in stone.

"Thank you, jii-chan. I promise, I'll make you proud!" he answered.

If it wasn't for his enhanced hearing, he probably would've never heard the reply of the former hashira, "You already have."

------

The final selection wasn't as bad as Zenitsu remembered it to be. Or maybe he thought that way because he had experienced so much more powerful demons already. It was only the first night, yet he had already killed three demons. Albeit pretty weak ones, but still, it was something.

The first time he went to the final selection, he was asleep the whole time. He barely even remembered what had occurred in those seven days. But now, he was awake. Zenitsu knew he couldn't depend on his sleeping form forever, so it was best to practice fighting awake while he had the chance.

Should he try to find Tanjiro and Inosuke?

He was still contemplating whether to meet his friends now, or to wait until the Tsuzumi Mansion mission. He had been thinking about it the whole day. Of course, he could try and go meet the five survivors of the final selection, but he was worried that might change too many things. Especially if it was Tanjiro and Inosuke.

A scream of terror made him flinch. It was loud. And it was desperate. Zenitsu immediately ran towards the scream, only to find a giant demon who had snakes for hands. Its arms were that of an anaconda, and incased in them, were the bodies of two kids. They were being suffocated to death.

Zenitsu hid behind the tree, trying to focus on the demon. Then, he hesitated.

In the original timeline, these kids probably died. If I save them right now, would anything bad happen?

Zenitsu's heart was beating fifty beats per second. He wanted to help. He really did. But what if helping only had negative effects? He put a foot forward to step away, but as the screams and pleads kept getting louder, he knew he couldn't just leave as the demon devoured the two.

He jumped forward, appearing in the snake demon's line of sight. The demon gave a sickening grin, "Oh? What is this? Another child? Hehehe... Looks like my meals are piling up."

Zenitsu gave a sneer at the demon, "Let go of them."

The demon feigned curiosity, "Oh? And why is that? You wanna play hero, child? Go ahead! Let's see if you can defeat the great Isami!" The demon's arms stopped the constricting, letting the beaten bodies of the two fall on the ground. The arms slithered forward quickly, choosing to target the blonde at the front.

Before the arms could even reach him, Zenitsu leaped out of the way and positioned himself, "Thunder breathing, first form: Thunderclap and Flash!"

A quick loud rumble echoed in the woods as the boy seemingly flew with great speed. Not even a second later, the snake demon's head was cut off and falling to the ground.

"What! How? You are so fast! I didn't even see you!" The demon tried to feel for its head, finding nothing, "No! No! it isn't over yet! No!" the sound of the demon's anger gradually got quieter and quieter as its body turned to dust.

Zenitsu hastily ran to the two would-be demon hunters, "Hey! Are you okay? Its fine now. The demon is dead." The two stared at him with wide and terrified, but otherwise grateful eyes.

They stared at him, before falling into tears. They were so thankful. Someone actually saved them! They could live for another day!

"Haa! Thank you so much! You are so kind! Thank you! Thank you!" One of them screamed.

Zenitsu gave an awkward smile, "Ah, well, it was nothing. I... better get going now. You guys should be more careful next time."

Zenitsu swore he was only going to help those two. He wasn't going to change things in the next six days. But when he heard the many terrified shouts around him, he couldn't help but save them. He knew it was probably messing something up. It was probably changing a lot of events. But he couldn't just sit there and watch as they suffered.

As a demon slayer, his duty was to protect.

So he spent the whole seven days of the final selection just doing that.

The world had given him a second chance, why not use it to do something good?