𝔂𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓴𝓷𝔂 𝔁 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓮𝓻

一

At first, I couldn't understand why I had woken up, then after a moment, I could hear a scream. I go from lying to sitting up in an instant, getting scared because it is still night and nobody should be up at this time. I bolt up, hearing my mother let out a blood-curdling scream that shakes me to my core.

I bolt to the door, sliding it open to see my mother bleeding out. My mother's blood drenches the floor while I take the view in. A creature with long, sharp claws is tearing my mother's flesh off the bone, bringing it to its mouth and eating it. The creature doesn't seem to notice me so I back up as slowly and as quietly as I can, hiding in the best place I can think of, praying that it doesn't notice that the door opened.

After what felt like hours, I could hear the disgusting sounds of chewing stop and loud footsteps fade away from our home. I only saw my mother dead, so I get up to search my house to see if anybody else was still alive. Walking around my house, I see the mutilated bodys of who I used to know as my family. Tearing up, I go back to my room, waiting till morning.

It felt like hell when it was morning, knowing I needed to dig everyone's graves. I get up from my place and grab the digging tool we used to use for our garden, digging up two large holes to place my parents. I grabbed my parent's bodies, trying not to think about all the blood that soaked into the wooden floorboards. After I finished the burial, I started heading back inside, grabbing the bucket we used for cleaning, and walking to the well to fill the bucket up. My movements were slow and slightly sluggish, from not sleeping and being mentally and physically drained.

The walk back was just as slow as the walk there if not slower. Taking my time to make sure I didn't spill very much water. I enter the house getting ready to scrub the floor to rid the floorboards of all of the blood that was there before. I get onto my knees with the dish rag I was using and I hear a soft voice from the doorway. Whipping my head to face the door, I see a man that has long blackish-blue hair. He looks at me for a moment before starting to walk towards me, crouching next to me.

"Could you please inform me of what happened here?" He says quietly, with a deadpan expression on his face. I study him for a moment taking note of the katana that is sheathed at his waist. Taking note of me studying him he quickly adds, "I'm a demon slayer, and I'm guessing that the reason that there is blood here is because a demon killed someone."

I look at him for a moment longer before saying "Yes, a demon killed both of my parents." he takes note of the fact that your voice is strained and that your movements are quite laggy, studying your body he cannot see any injuries on your showing skin. his deadpan expression softened a tad bit being taken over by a almost nonexistent look of confusion. I look at him before asking "What's wrong?"

He replies quietly saying "I've noticed that you do not have any physical wounds that can be seen on your visible skin." I thought he was quite insipid, with how he stated only the thoughts he was thinking and not caring that people had died.

"I saw the demon before it could sense me, so I hid and it didn't find me. That's why I'm uninjured." I replied, explaining it as briefly as I could, trying to elucidate the man. He seemed to understand what I said very well.

"I would like to tell you that if you wished, you could probably become a demon slayer so that you can avenge your parent's deaths." He was very straightforward with his words. I look at him in confusion, as if asking where and what I would have to do. He read my expression saying, "If you want to become a demon slayer all you have to do is go to Mount Sagiri and tell the man that's living there that Giyuu sent you." I nod my head understanding what you were about to get yourself into.

Giyuu thought that you were quite peculiar, so much so that he almost dropped his emotionless facade to talk to you. It seemed almost as if he was slightly infatuated with you. He thought you looked heavenly, and was wondering if you used to have a husband. After a while he told you about becoming a demon slayer, he wasn't too fond of the idea himself because, although he had just met you, he gained interest in you immediately. With that last thought, he left you there, alone with your thoughts. He knew that you are going through a mental debate. He decides to leave you there to make up your mind.

I start to think about my options while scrubbing the floor. Honestly, I have nothing at all to lose now. I tell myself that I would leave my house tomorrow while getting the last bit of my mother's blood out of the floorboards. I stand up, grabbed the bucket, and started walking to where my father's blood stained the floor. I sit down and grab the rag, making sure it was cleaned off so that it can clean the blood.

After about an hour I finish cleaning up the blood, so I get up and grab my wassaga. I look around for things I should bring with me, before deciding to only bring food and clothing. As I'm packing I go into my parent's room, wanting something to have as a relic of the times I've spent with my parents and the memories we've made together before they died.

As I'm looking around I find a necklace that my father gave my mother on their 1st anniversary. I recall my mother telling me about it when I was still a small child, I used to score the story hoping that one day I could also get married to the one I love. I thought that happy ever after was how all love would end. but as I grew older I knew that almost nobody could live their perfect happily ever after.

I grab the necklace, putting it on. Then I continued to look around trying to see if there was anything else I should take. I grabbed the rest of my mother's jewelry, knowing that if I left it someone would steal it, then I look around for keepsakes that I could carry with me, to my training. I found my mother's haroi on a hangar. I observed the beautiful cat patterns on it before grabbing it. When I went back to my room I also grabbed my kokeshi that my parents made me when I was young. After making sure that I got everything that I need I leave my house.

I start walking to my village, trying to be as fast as I can to make sure that I can get there before nightfall. I didn't want to get caught up with any other demons that could be hiding in the shadows. While I was walking I ended up tripping, it skinned my knee and blood started gushing out. I didn't stop walking even with the injury.

At about dusk, I was at my village. I started walking around asking for directions, and while I was talking I ran almost face-first into a person I'd probably never seen before, he had red eyes with slit pupils, with midwestern-styled clothing. I'm quick to apologize about the run-in, he was surprisingly kind though, and helped me back onto my feet. Honestly, I was getting a bad vibe from him but he seemed fine so I left it at that. After thanking him I told him that I had to leave. I quickly ran off to see if there are any places where I can get directions. I could feel eyes boring into the back of my head as I left, and chills went down my spine.

When I got my directions I quickly started my journey to Mount Sajiri. After about a day of walking, I go to an inn to take a rest from all that walking. I walked to my room and put all my stuff down before grabbing a yukata to go the small hotspring that the inn was built around.

When I got to the hot spring I took my geta off and dipped my feet in, before taking off the Yutaka and sliding into the water. The water immediately calmed me down, I started to think about what's been going on. It's pretty unbelievable that demons exist and eat human flesh. I almost didn't believe it, but I know that I can't deny the truth so I'm just sticking with the facts

I spent just about an hour in the spring, listening to people coming and going, and birds chirping on top of trees. It was calming, to say the least.

I got out of the hot spring, putting on my Yutaka and geta back on, and then walking back to my room. I make it to my room and get changed into my jinbei. I took my kokeshi out of my wassaga and set it down, then I started at it for a minute before falling into a deep sleep

Geta: traditional Japanese footwear
Yukata: bathing cloth; bathrobe
Jinbei: traditional sleepwear; loungewear
Kokeshi: a wood-carved doll
Wassaga: traditional bags made of bamboo, wicker, or straw.
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