The Month of Love: Demon Slayer Oneshots

Goodbye (TanjiroxKanao)

Prompt: Tanjiro and Kanao + angst & unlikely love 

"Bye." 

That was my first word. The first sound of speech that I had uttered. Of course, I had shocked everyone when they found out I could speak at such an early age. 

Some called me the devil. 

Others called me some sort of demon. 

But my favorite? 

My favorite was probably a monster. 

Yes, fear me. 

For I was a monster. A force to be reckoned with. And I enjoyed their looks of terror when I passed by them on the streets. I enjoyed the sound of their frantic whispering when I approached them. 

"Y-You'd like to enroll in the Assassin's Camp?" 

Of course. Why wouldn't I? After all, people feared me. I was... what did you call it again? 

Evil. 

I had no mind of my own, only the emotions that other people thought I had. 

I had a bloodlust. 

A longing to see that splash of red taint the Earth. People were scared. They were afraid. And they should be. 

That was all I ever was anyway. 

I was feared. 

Bye. 

Bye. 

Bye. 

Bye. 

Bye. 

I had said it over and over and over again, until the word was just another mindless echo in my mind. 

"Bye." 

A man was quivering underneath my hold, his cheek scratched open and his eyes filled with a delightful, painful terror. 

"Bye." 

Why didn't I hear that sound of death in my ears? 

"Why are you doing this?" 

I looked in front of me, finding a man. About my age. 

"Don't do this." he pleaded. 

"And why shouldn't I?" I replied, flipping a coin in my hand, a device I used when necessary. My orders were to kill the target and then get out, unseen. But I was seen. 

By these pathetic, so-called police officers. 

"I've killed your kind before," I noted, twirling the dagger in my hand, "one with a green and black haori." 

The man gritted his teeth but said nothing. 

"Doesn't that make you angry? Doesn't that make you frustrated?" I smirked. 

"No. It's in the past." he muttered. 

"The past?" I raised an eyebrow. 

"We have to move on. What's keeping you-" 

"Nothing's keeping me! This is just the way I am!" I laughed maniacally, though for the first time, I noticed something in my tone. 

Psychopath. 

"Everyone has something tying them to their past. Is yours that coin?" he implored, pointing the shiny gold object in my palm. 

"Of course not. I stole this off my first corpse. Where else do you think I got it?" I scoffed.