Slayer Hero: Tanjiro

Dear Sweet Nezuko

Tanjiro continued to concentrate on the portal he created as he saw the butterfly mansion on the other side. One step after the other, Tanjiro walked through. He felt a sense of comfort as his foot rested upon the ground of the world he was used to. He must've felt a little too relaxed, because as soon as he stepped through, the portal closed behind him. Tanjiro turned around, looking at where the portal once was. He felt slightly guilty for leaving Zenitsu and Izuku by themselves.

Turning back around to face the butterfly mansion, Tanjiro took in a deep breath of the fresh, crisp air. Then there was a small butterfly with a magnificent pattern that delicately landed on his shoulder. Tanjiro smiled and tried not to move too much so that the butterfly wouldn't fly away.

"Tanjiro? Is that you?" Tanjiro looked forward to see Aoi wearing her demon slayer uniform along with her usual white nurse dress on top. Approaching him, she said, "Where have you been?"

The butterfly that was resting on Tanjiro's shoulder was startled by the sound of Aoi's voice and flew away.

"I apologize for my absence." Tanjiro bowed in apology.

"No need to be so formal." Aoi displayed a shooing motion with her hand, "But you'd better tell someone before you disappear like that again. Everyone was worried sick, especially your sister."

Tanjiro stood upright again and smiled, "Ok, I will."

Aoi began to walk away to the mansion after picking up a basket of laundry. "Nezuko is inside. I'd suggest you go see her if you haven't since you came back."

Tanjiro nodded and then followed Aoi inside of the building. He felt his heart rate slightly increase as he neared the room where Nezuko usually slept. It had been so long since he had last seen her.

Once he reached the door to the room where Nezuko was, he took a deep breath and opened it. There was Nezuko's wooden box resting on the ground next to the neatly made bed. Tanjiro slowly approached the box and knelt down beside it. He lifted his hand and gently patted the top of the box. After doing this, the door to the box slowly creaked open. Nezuko peaked her head out and looked up at Tanjiro.

Tanjiro smiled warmly. Even after he knew that Shuichi lied about killing her, it was still a relief and a blessing to see that she was still alive, "Hi Nezuko."

Nezuko's eyes widened and shimmered as she saw her beloved brother. She crawled her way out of the box and stood up. Since the size of her body was still shrunken, the height at which she was standing was as tall as Tanjiro who was still kneeling on the ground beside her.

She walked up to him and held out her arms, with her dark brown haori dragging on the floor since it was too large for her child-size.

"MmmMmm!" Nezuko wrapped her arms around Tanjiro and closed her eyes.

Tanjiro closed his eyes and smiled as he hugged her back. Stroking her hair, Tanjiro said, "I'm sorry that I was gone for so long."

Pulling away from the hug, Nezuko smiled brightly with her eyes in forgiveness, "Mmmm."

~•~

Zenitsu and Izuku were shocked as Tanjiro walked through the portal. Once it closed behind him, Izuku asked, "Should we wait for him?"

"Probably not. I don't think he'll be back anytime soon. He's probably going to see Nezuko chan~." Zenitsu said, developing a grin on his face.

"Nezuko? Is that his sister? I remember him telling me about-" Izuku looked over at Zenitsu who seemed to be daydreaming all of a sudden.

After a little while, Izuku sighed and shook Zenitsu's shoulder a bit to make him come back to his senses, "C'mon, let's go back to the dorms and wait for Tanjiro there."

Snapping out of it, Zenitsu responded, "Yeah, Ok."

The two of them walked back to the UA dorms. When they got there, they saw that some people were fixing the wall that had been smashed through. They were still allowed inside, so they walked in.

When Zenitsu got inside, he saw Inosuke and looked at him with an annoyed expression.

Inosuke had his boar mask off and was being admired by the girls in class 1-a. He looked up and saw Zenitsu, "Monitsu?? You're here too?" Inosuke shoved passed the girls and ran up to him.

"Yeah, obviously. If you weren't being an idiot before, I would've been the one to go through the portal that sent you here!" Zenitsu rolled his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?? You weren't even there!" Inosuke huffed.

Irritated, Zenitsu replied, "I was the one who made the portal, you moron!!"

"No you didn't! Me and Tontaro were with Mr. Flame Guy after we killed that big, upper rank demon! Then I saw a swirly blue thing in the woods and it sent me here!" Inosuke argued.

"Huh? Don't you remember anything?? Mr. Rengoku's gone." Zenitsu calmed his voice a bit.

"No he isn't!! I remember super clearly!" Inosuke crossed his arms and scrunched his eyebrows.

"No! You're so frustrating! Mr. Rengoku was killed by the Upper Three demon!"

"No he wasn't!! He's the one who killed that upper rank!!" Inosuke raised his voice.

Zenitsu was more irritated than ever. He was about to blurt out another argument but then he stopped and thought to himself. Inosuke was convinced that Rengoku was still alive, and that he found the portal appear out of nowhere in the woods. But Zenitsu knew that Inosuke ran into the portal he created at the butterfly mansion. He knew that Inosuke was stupid, but he also knew that he wouldn't have been stupid enough to forget Rengoku's death.

Zenitsu's eyes widened, and his irritated expression turned worried and confused.

If this Inosuke doesn't remember Rengoku's death, then this isn't the Inosuke that ran through my portal. Zenitsu thought, The Inosuke that ran through my portal is somewhere else in the universe. While this one is from a world where Rengoku killed Akaza.