Slayer Hero: Tanjiro

Creating the Portals

Izuku woke up in the hospital. His wounds were in the process of being tended to. His mind was fuzzy but he vaguely remembered what happened. Just then, the blonde boy who saved him earlier walked into the room. He was awake now, though.

"Oh! You're awake, that's good." He showed Izuku a warm smile, "You're Izuku Midoriya right?"

"Yeah.. that's me." Izuku nodded.

"I know that I never really introduced myself. My name is Zenitsu Agatsuma." He smiled again, "Tanjiro told me to tell you that he's worried about you."

Izuku's eyes widened, "T-Tanjiro..? He's... he's alive..?"

Zenitsu nodded.

Tears began to pour down Izuku's face, "I'm so glad."

"I think that he's almost healed. He should come to this room once he's finished."

Izuku smiled while he continued to cry.

Then Tanjiro walked into the room wearing bandages around his chest and arms, "You know, I'm still very amazed about how quickly people can heal here." He looked over at Izuku and smiled, "I'm so glad you're alright. I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you earlier."

Izuku's smile widened as he saw his friend standing before him. His tears continued to flood down his face, and started to dampen his clothes. "You don't have to apologize. I'm so glad you're okay. That demon told me you died."

Tanjiro's smile faded a little bit, then he and Zenitsu exchanged glances. He remembered that Izuku didn't know that Shuichi wasn't always a demon.

Izuku noticed and asked, "What? What is it?"

Zenitsu and Tanjiro explained to him about how Shuichi's portals worked, and how he was a demon in their world, while he was only a villain in this one. Izuku then looked down trying to process the information he was just told.

"Well... if he's that powerful, then how do we defeat him?" Izuku asked.

"By using his own powers against him." Zenitsu said.

Tanjiro and Izuku both looked at him with their eyes wide.

Zenitsu turned to look at Tanjiro, "I saw when you were taken, Tanjiro. I was going to see you in your room at the butterfly mansion that night, but by the time I got there, Shuichi was sending you into his portal. Then he came back. He was talking to himself about how his portals were malfunctioning. He also accidentally gave away spoilers to me on how he makes them. So, ever since he left. I've been trying to do it myself so that I could get you back."

Tanjiro looked at Zenitsu in awe, then smiled as small tears developed at the corners of his eyes. "Thank you so much, Zenitsu."

"Yeah yeah, no problem." Zenitsu smiled a bit then turned away from him. "The first time I got the portal to work, Inosuke actually ran through it before it closed." Zenitsu paused, then looked back at Tanjiro. "Wait.. is Inosuke here too?"

"Yeah, he's here. He's with the other students in class 1A." Tanjiro reassured him with a smile.

"Oh." Zenitsu showed a blank expression, before he sighed and said, "I kinda wished he ended up lost in the many worlds out there, so that we wouldn't have to deal with him anymore."

"Zenitsu! Don't say stuff like that!!" Tanjiro scolded him.

Zenitsu sighed again and looked over at Izuku, "Oh, hey, do you think you're healed enough to walk?"

"Uh, maybe." Izuku looked down at his body which was covered in many bandages.

"You think you could try?"

Izuku nodded and slid his legs to the side of the bed. Tanjiro walked over to his side to help him. Then, with Tanjiro's help, Izuku feebly stood onto his feet. After standing for a few seconds, he regained his balance and was able to walk.

Izuku smiled and gave Zenitsu a thumbs up.

"Alright, the sooner I can show you how to travel between worlds, the easier it will be to find a way to defeat Shuichi." Zenitsu smiled and lead the two out of the room.

After both Izuku and Tanjiro were discharged from the hospital, Zenitsu picked up a very long duffle bag he had left by the door. Then the three of them exited the hospital building.

Before they could walk very far, Zenitsu turned to Tanjiro and stopped them from walking. "Hey, I got something for you."

"Oh?" Tanjiro turned to Zenitsu and slightly tilted his head to the side in curiosity.

Zenitsu opened the duffle bag and pulled out Tanjiro's katana. It was in perfect condition and still inside its scabbard.

Tanjiro's eyes widened and accepted it. "Wow, thank you so much Zenitsu! How did you get ahold of it?"

"Oh, I just made sure to grab it before I came to this world." Zenitsu replied.

Tanjiro nodded. This was his katana back from his world, not the one that was made to go with his hero outfit.

"Anyway, I should probably teach you how to make the portals." Zenitsu said, looking around for a place they could go to learn.

"UA has multiple training grounds. We could use one of those." Izuku suggested.

"Sure." Zenitsu said, "Lead the way, I guess."

Izuku nodded and began to lead Tanjiro and Zenitsu to one of the training facilities at UA. Once they arrived, Zenitsu began to explain how he made the portals, saying that you had to focus your mind on where you wanted to go. Even if you've never been there before, try to picture what it would be like or someone who was there. Then use all your senses to pinpoint an opening between the worlds. Once you've located the opening, then you must focus on it and expand it. Zenitsu explained that you must continue to focus on it, even when you walk through, otherwise it will close.

For the rest of the day, Izuku and Tanjiro tried over and over again to create the portal. But no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't seem to get it to work.

The sun was beginning to set, and they felt like they had made little to no progress.

"Maybe we could.. try again tomorrow?" Izuku sat down as sweat rolled off of his forehead.

Zenitsu looked at the ground, "Yeah, let's call it a day."

Zenitsu and Izuku started walking off, back to the UA dorms. Then Zenitsu noticed that Tanjiro wasn't following them, "Hey, Tanjiro, you coming?"

Tanjiro was focusing on trying to open the portal. His eyes were squeezed shut, and his head was aching as he stayed persistent. Sweat trickled down his face and dripped off of his chin.

"Tanjiro.. it's no use. Let's just try again tomorrow." Zenitsu stopped walking and turned towards him.

Tanjiro continued to focus, he opened his eyes as he tried to expand an opening he found.

He strained his eyes and his body, trying as hard as he could. But nothing happened. He was on the verge of giving up.

"C'mon, Tanjiro. Let's go." Zenitsu motioned for him to follow. He was about to walk away with Izuku again, but then he stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened as he looked at Tanjiro.

There was a spark of blue. Tanjiro continued to concentrate. His eyes widened a bit, and he grit his teeth. He focused all of his energy on trying to expand the opening.

Then, the blue spark started to swirl in a circular motion, and expanded until it was Tanjiro's height. The light of the portal illuminated the surrounding area. And through it, he could see Lady Kocho's Butterfly Mansion.