Demon Slayer Nezuko

The Smell of Blood

"Nezuko, you really don't have to go." Kie Kamado says as she wipes away the smudge on Nezuko's cheeks. "It's snowy and dangerous out there." "I'll be ok, mama. We need the money, and I want us to have a good New Years feast."

Kie gives Nezuko a worried look before smiling. "You really are a good child. Make sure you be back by sundown, I don't want you getting lost in the woods." She says with a pat on the head and a wave goodbye.

Nezuko made her way to the village on the foot of the mountain and was greeted by the villagers. "Nezuko!" Shoji, a boy around Tanjiro's age, yells to get her attention. "You gotta help me! My mom thinks that I broke our vase, but it wasn't me, I swear! Can you take a look?!" He holds up a rag with some broken pottery on it.

Nezuko nodded and leaned forward, furrowing her brows. "Ah." She says after a few seconds, her fingers carefully plucking a single white hair from the pile. "Looks like a cat to me." She says, presenting the hair to Shoji and his mother. "See?!" Shoji says to his mother. "Oh my..." she responds.

"Hey, Nezuko, ya mind selling me some charcoal?" "Yeah, me too!" "Don't forget about me!" Some villagers say as the start to come out of their homes with some coins in their palms. "Where Tanjiro? Shouldn't he be helping you?" One villager asks. "No, he's sick right now." Nezuko explains. "Oh! And on New Year's of all times! Such a shame."

After some hours of selling charcoal and doing labor for the townspeople, Nezuko began her trek back up the mountain with money jangling in her pockets. "Hey, Nezuko." Nezuko hears old man Saburo say from behind her. She turns and sees him with his head peeking out his window. "Your not going back up the mountain at this time of night, are you?"

"I'll be okay. I've got good eyes, and I told my mom I would be home before sundown, so she must be worried sick." Nezuko says. "The suns already down, it's best that you stay here for the night. Your eyes can't save you from the dangers at night." Saburo says, moving to his front door and opening it.

"So why is it so dangerous outside?" Nezuko asks once she got inside and got settled on a warm futon. "Because of the demons. They eat people during the nighttime." Old man Saburo explains, sitting down next to Nezuko with a warm bowl of stew for her. "Now eat up and get some rest."

"But, can't they just come inside and eat people?" Nezuko asks once she takes the bowl. "Well, yes, but the usually don't." "Why is that?" Nezuko asks. "Because we have the Demon Slayers who protect us. Now get some rest." Old man Saburo says before standing up, turning off the lights and getting into bed.

Nezuko sighs and lays down, thoughts traveling through her head. She didn't believe the crazy stories of demons, of course she didn't. No such thing could exist. It's just one though that peaked Nezuko's curiosity. 'My grandmother would say the same things before she passed.'

Early into the next morning, Nezuko thanked old man Saburo and went back to going up the mountain. She shivered and trudged up the mountain for several minutes before she saw the top of her house be revealed over the snow covered horizon. She smiled and went slightly faster, just to stop dead in her tracks when she got onto flat ground.

Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened at what she saw. Her brother, Tanjiro, was laying on his back with his arms spread apart with a giant gash across his chest and blood staining his kimono and the snow surrounding him. Some feet ahead of him wants a smaller person whom Nezuko recognized as her younger sister, Hanako. She was curled into a ball in a pool of blood.

Nezuko immediately ran over knelt in front of Tanjiro, shaking him and yelling at him to respond. When she turned her head to look inside her house, she screamed at the top of her lungs. Blood... so much blood... the rest of her family was inside, each cut and bloodied with a dead look in their eyes, none of the moving. Dead... dead... dead.