Demon Slayer: Equilibrium (An OC Story)

Prolouge: Cruelty

Trigger Warning-

He was alone. Standing before a figure who had his back turned. He screamed out to them, "Niinii!" There was no answer and he ran up to him tugging on his black kimono and still shouting, "Haido..! Brother..! It's me..It's Yuraki...! I'm so sorry...!" Haido let out a sigh and turned to them, his face bloodied and beaten. His body was riddled in stab wounds and large contusions. Yuraki wanted to throw up, scream, he just wanted to let out all this anguish. "Yuraki..." Haido whispered, his voice sounding raspy and defeated, "I'm sorry that I couldn't get you out..." Yuraki shook his head, "No, no don't apologize this is all my fault..! You died because of me..!" Suddenly it felt as if he was being pulled away from Haido by an invisible force. Yuraki let out a scream trying to keep a hold on his brother's sleeve but he wasn't strong enough, "No! NO!! HAIDO, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME AGAIN..! NIINII!!" Haido tried to give them one last smile, "You know who you are and you're stronger than you think. Do not think any less."

He sat up panting and in tears, hugging their knees. They raised his face and gazed around the room, realizing that they were dreaming before. "Niinii..." Their long black hair flowed behind them stopping at their waist, they hated it. His parents made him grow it out and keep it straightened in preparation to be sold as a courtesan. They had high hopes for them to bring in a lot of money with their "feminine charms'' and beauty. They were due to be given away like an object in three days' time. It bounced around Yuraki's mind, "What kind of parents..what kind of sister would do that to you..? They say I'm going to save them and that it means so much to them..but they aren't going to love me if I do this and they do not love me now... Was I just unlucky..did I do something to deserve this treatment..? Is this normal...?' He was only ten and he felt so much responsibility and he knew who he was. He rose to his feet, his legs shaking from the fear of what he was about to do. He went into the bathroom with his lucky knife and started to slash off his long hair. It was a long grueling process but it was liberating and he felt like he was in control of something for the first time. With every cut more tears started to stream down his face and a big smile spread across it. Suddenly however when they got to chin length there was a bang on the door. "YUKARI!! HURRY UP, I HAVE TO DO MY MAKEUP!!" That name made him scowl but the screeching voice made him mortified. Would he dare continue and make his elder 'sister' wait longer? Yes. She always got everything she ever wanted, they named her Rin fitting her foreboding and glacial nature. Their parents loved her and Yuraki becoming a courtesan was her idea. She was so horrid to him, so this was just a little bit of vengeance. Vengeance for Haido's death. Vengeance for telling their parents that he was transgender. Vengeance for everything. He continued to cut his hair to the length he wanted before the door was forced open. "KARI! DAMN IT YOU STUPID CHILD! WHAT IS TAKING YOU SO..." She paused seeing his hair, "WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE?!" Yuraki put the knife down so that she wouldn't see it. He didn't say anything either, he had nothing to say to her. His expression was blank too, yes internally he was afraid but fear was weakness in this house and he was not about to show weakness to her. Rin shrieked out to their parents hysterically, "MOM!! DAD!! COME IN HERE AND GRAB A PIPE ON YOUR WAY IN!! THERE'S AN EMERGENCY!!" Their parents, Zankoku and Tsukihime came rushing in before standing before Yuraki who was still on the floor surrounded by clumps of his once gloriously long hair. Tsukihime covered her mouth, "Yukari...what have you done...?" He glanced at her silently, before Rin started shouting again, "See! Look at what she's done! Her delusions are making her do crazy and drastic things! She's killed and now look at what she's done!" Yes it is true that he had killed but that is only because of Rin. Those men deserved it for trying to force themselves onto Yuraki and died by the hands of his lucky knife. The very same one that he used to cut his hair. Tsukihime marched up to him grabbing his hair, "STUPID GIRL! WE HAD THREE DAYS! THREE! AND WE DESCRIBED HOW BEAUTIFUL YOUR HAIR WAS!" She shook his head, gripping onto his hair more. She shook him violently until he started to bleed and that entire time he had to pretend as if it didn't hurt. He had to pretend like he wasn't terrified. Tsukihime finally stopped and hugged Rin who was still sobbing, "Mother, how are we going to get the riches we desire now?!! She went and ruined EVERYTHING!" Tsukihime comforted her daughter, also crying herself. Zankoku approached Yuraki now, holding the pipe that Rin had asked for. He said nothing and just grabbed Yuraki's hair as his wife did before, and winded the pipe back. As he did this Yuraki's eyes revealed his emotions for the first time. Terror, anguish, resentment, and rage was just scratching the surface of the things that Yuraki was feeling. Zankoku saw it and decided to hit them harder than he was going to before. He knocked them to the ground, striking them and scowling. "How DARE you look at me like that?! Your father?! You should respect me! That stupid Haido or whatever the fuck his useless ass name was caused you to act this way. He's the one who fed you these delusions on thinking you want to be a boy! You want to be a man huh Yukari?! Well, how about I beat you like one!" He screamed before hitting them again and again with the pipe then something snapped inside of Yuraki and his hand flying to his knife and pointing it up at Zankoku defiantly. The three of them gasped at this act of defiance. Yuraki stood up holding the knife in his shaky hands, "No..you will not hit me anymore..." He muttered, his voice shaking slightly. Zankoku scoffed at him and stuck him in the side with the pipe before screaming at him, "You dumb bitch! How dare you speak that way to me!" Yuraki started to cough up blood as Zankoku continued to hit them. This went on for a while before Zankoku got tired of him and threw him against the sink. "That oughta teach you..I'll come and finish this later." He grumbled before stomping out, Tsukihime in hand. Yuraki sat there bloodied and bruised, coughing blood onto the bathroom floor as Rin approached him. "That's what you get for being so selfish. If you just tell them that you are sorry and that you'll be a good girl from now on and become a courtesan, maybe you'll live..." She lifted his face and touched one of the gashes with her long nail, "You always had such a pretty face. Hopefully these wounds don't give you scars as ugly as your personality." She traced it with her thumb causing him to wince, "Stop touching me..." He snarled. Rin gripped his shoulder now digging her nails into them, "I'm your sister. I'll do as I please." Rin finally had her fill of tormenting Yuraki and grabbed him by his hair and dragged him to his room, throwing him in and locking him inside. Yuraki inched to the wall grabbing a piece of a mirror that he had snagged and studying his wounds, "Is he finally going to kill me...? I can no longer serve my purpose can I..? I'm not going to apologize so...is this the end...?" He had nothing to clean the wounds with so he just curled up on the ground, too tired and numb to cry, "I guess I'm joining you tonight Haido. I miss you..." He mumbled before passing out.

When Yuraki woke up he heard screaming and crying. He noticed it to be Rin's voice. He went and put his ear to the door so he could hear. "She could still be of use! We shouldn't execute her yet!" "But she's beyond repair! SHE IS WORTHLESS NOW RIN! We will get the money a different way!" Tsukihime asserted. Yuraki heard multiple crashes and Rin screeching and sobbing. The crashes seemed to be mostly glass and Yuraki moved back to his corner, covering his ears as the fighting continued.

Yuraki woke up again a hours later to a ghastly roar-like sound. He got up to see what it was, knife in hand. He picked the lock to his room and walked out trying to avoid all the destruction that Rin caused. He noticed the wisteria candles that they kept in the house shattered on the ground. He heard a sound coming from Rin's room, it sounded like heavy breathing. He tiptoed over to it and saw a figure hovering over a bleeding, trembling Rin. It was too short to be Zankoku but too tall to be Tsukihime. It looked humanoid, but everything about it seemed slightly off. It snarled at Rin with a frothing mouth and Yuraki covered his mouth so he wouldn't be heard. Rin then let out a scream, "SPARE ME PLEASE! THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER PEOPLE IN THIS HOUSE YOU CAN EAT! I'LL SHOW YOU! I'M SORRY I SAID DEMONS AREN'T REAL!" Yuraki took a step back, 'Demon...?! That's a demon..?!' They thought, taking a step back, accidentally stepping on a glass shard, wincing at it piercing his foot. Somehow Rin knew that it was Yuraki and called to him, "Yuyu please! Please help me! I'm sorry! Yukari, I'm so sorry little sister!" As she called, the demon thrust its claws into her stomach, killing her. Yuraki felt so many emotions at once and he cursed himself for being slightly happy about Rin's demise. He didn't have time to be feeling his feelings though 'cause now the demon was sprawling towards them slowly calling in Rin's voice, "Yuyu..~ Come to sister, Yukari." Yuraki started to run down the hall trying to make it to the stairwell before he was tackled by the demon. Its eyes stared into his, "You must be Yukari." It said before Yuraki quickly jabbed his knife up its chin and kicked it away. The demon smirked as Yuraki swiveled around and stabbed it repeatedly, "Sorry kid. But that puny little knife isn't going to do much." Yuraki just bolted out of that house into the alleyways of the Red Light District, occasionally slashing at the demon to gain more distance between them. That was until they bumped into a man in a uniform, he knew this uniform from the stories that Haido would tell him. The man wore a haori of two different patterns and colors and looked at Yuraki, his face blank but his eyes worried. "Are you okay..?" Yuraki just hugged the man and pointed at the demon that was chasing them, "You're a demon slayer...! Aren't you...? Please help me..I'll assist you in whatever way I can but please help...!" The man unsheathed the sword but not before Yuraki let him go for a moment and threw his knife full force into the demon's eye, screaming at the top of his lungs holding all the hatred that he'd been suppressing for years. The demon stumbled back screeching and the man cut its head off with his sword. The demon started to disintegrate afterward and the man turned back to Yuraki. "That was awfully reckless. But you have good aim. Where do you live? I can take you home." "I don't have a home." Yuraki responded, blankly. "Well I need to take you to get your injuries treated. That demon did a number on you." "I didn't get these from the demon." "Then where...?" "I got these from my family. The demon killed them." Yuraki said plainly. "Your...What's your name..?" "Y..Yuraki..." "I'm Giyu Tomioka.." "Nice to meet you..." Giyu brought Yuraki to a doctor who was also a slayer who he called Kanae where he told them everything. The two of them looked at him with shock and Giyu decided to take care of them after a bit of Kanae's persuasion. Yuraki had also begged to be trained to become a demon slayer and after months of asking he allowed them to become his Tsuguko, his student. To his luck other hashira had tsugukos around their age. The Serpent Hashira had his spar with Yuraki a lot, his name was Haruka Kusaka. Kanae also had one named Kanao. The three of them actually got along and Giyu made Yuraki talk about his feelings to Kanae when he wasn't training. It was peaceful and fun and he was finally safe and away from those people. He was free from his blood.

Taisho Era Secret Time!

Just like the Kocho sisters and Kanao, Giyu refused to train Yuraki how to slay demons for a long time. He felt as if Yuraki was too reckless in a fight to be a successful slayer but when they slayed a demon on their own without hesitation while tagging along one of Giyu's missions he finally allowed them to officially become his Tsuguko.

I hope you enjoyed! Bye my lovelies. -Lazuli