Slayers And Heroes

Acceptance

Six hours had passed from when Class A had seen Magne commit proxy suicide. While the Demon Slayers were talking to Nezu about what had happened, they were all sitting in the main room. Nobody had even made any movements to make food. They weren't hungry. No one had even said anything.

Startling everyone was a knocking on the door. Midoriya slowly and cautiously walked over to the door. He cracked it open and saw all of the Demon Slayers, led by Tanjiro.

"You guys haven't eaten yet, have you?" He asked.

Midoriya got a better look at the Demon Slayers and saw a few of them were carrying baskets and containers of food.

"You know, food tastes better when you eat with friends," Tanjiro said

"Sorry, Tanjiro. We're not hungry," Midoriya said.

As he was closing the door, Tanjiro kept talking.

"Listen, I understand what you're going through. You just lost someone that you were helpless to save. Believe me, it's a feeling that all of us know all too well. All of us... we lost someone to the Demons," Tanjiro said.

"But it was a villain who was a demon. Why are we feeling so bad if..."

"It just means that you have what Demons always lacked: empathy. You can't let any life slip away, even if as a human they weren't or aren't good people. You still see the humanity in them. You don't want to see a life end because you feel a bit of yourself go whenever anyone dies, be them good or bad. Hero or villain. Human or demon."

"How do you guys manage it? Keeping your humanity after killing so many?"

Tanjiro put on a forlorn smile.

"By thinking of who we just saved. And who is safe in the future now that the demon is no more," he gently said.

Midoriya felt a couple of tears streaming down his cheeks. He opened the doors wide and the Demon Slayers all began walking in. When everyone saw the food, they solemnly walked over to it and took some to eat. It was a silent meal, despite some of the Demon Slayers trying to lift the mood and start any conversations.

"I still believe we could have turned the demon back into a human. If only we could have stopped it from invoking Muzan's name," Iida said, at long last.

"Maybe. But if what Tanjiro said was true and a demon that's already eaten humans can't be returned to being a human, it would have been pointless," Todoroki said.

"That's just a theory, though. Had that demon... we could have figured out for certain," Yaoyorozu said.

"The blood sample that I have of the demon is proving most invaluable. Of course, in order to iron out all of the particulars, I will need to study the blood of those who already underwent such a process," Shinobu said.

"And that was Tanjiro and Nezuko?" Jiro asked.

They nodded. A couple more moments of silence followed.

"Did you give the demon a burial? I know that it tried to eat Uraraka, but--" Kirishima started to ask.

"There's nothing left of the demon to bury," Obanai interrupted.

"Wha-- but how? There's no way since..." Ashido said.

"I suppose we should have told you. Even though there was a lot of the demon left, when a demon dies in sunlight or decapitation, the entire body disintegrates, leaving nothing," Giyu said.

"Didn't it attack in heavy shade?" Kaminari asked.

"The sun does this new thing. It's called moving across the sky, idiot," Jiro said.