A Life Worth Living

Genya

A woman stood at the gate of the Ubuyashiki household, the morning sun lighting up the wooden and metal structure. She raised her hands and hesitated momentarily before shoving the gate doors open. She made her way down the walkway towards the mansion and noticed 2 small children playing a game with a ball off to her right. She assumed that they were Ubuyashiki's children. Looking back forward, she saw an open door of the main building where the man she was looking for was lying down inside. As she approached, Ubuyashiki and the woman next to him (who she assumed to be his wife, Amane) looked up at her in shock as she stopped just short of the doorway.

"Who are you and how did you find us?" Amane asked.

"You're a demon, aren't you?" Ubuyashiki asked. "But it's the daytime and the sun is out." The woman smiled, impressed by the blind man's observation.

"You're a very perceptive man, Mr. Ubuyashiki. Yes, I am a demon. And to address the question of how I found you, I have been watching the Ubuyashiki family for over 800 years and know the location of every secret location including this estate and all of the Swordsmith Village locations. However, I am not here to kill you or any of your slayers. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Assuming you would allow me, I would like to come in and have a conversation with you concerning Muzan." Ubuyashiki widened his eyes in surprise. He stayed silent for a moment before turning to his wife.

"Amane, what does she look like?" She looked the mysterious woman up and down before answering.

"She appears to be a young woman. One would think she was in her early 20s. She has mid-length black hair, blue eyes, and is tall for a woman; probably between 160-165cm. She does not look demonic, as all of her features appear human." Ubuyashiki pondered for a moment before gesturing for the woman to enter.

"Please come in. I am in no shape to deny you entry anyway. Please introduce yourself and speak what's on your mind." The woman did as instructed and sat down on one of the mats in front of Ubuyashiki and Amane before beginning her story.

"I must start from the very beginning for this to make sense, so please bear with my long-winded story. My name is Mira Akimoto. I lived a fairly normal life for a woman in my era approximately 1000 years ago. I had a husband and 2 children who I loved dearly. One night, my family was ruthlessly murdered by Muzan, who had just turned into a demon. However, he was not the same cunning many you know today. Instead, he was a crazed monster who was only out for blood. I barely managed to escape into the woods, but I suffered major injuries. I would have died if it weren't for the blue spider lily plants that happened to be growing nearby. My grandmother had told me they contained mystical properties, so I ate them in a last-ditch effort to survive. What I did not expect were the side effects of the plant.

"Something about it caused me to change. The sight and smell of the dismembered bodies of my family that had once made my stomach churn suddenly made my mouth water. It was a sickening sensation, but I couldn't make myself turn away. Muzan was already gone by the time I got back to what remained of my family. My body was no longer my own and my mind was clouded by hunger, so I did the unthinkable... After my transformation into a demon was complete, I roamed the lands as nothing more than a crazed monster for 200 years before regaining any amount of intelligent consciousness. I think it took me so long because I knew deep down that regaining that consciousness would mean having to grapple with what I had done to my family.

"Once I was myself again and remembered all the lives I had taken while in my crazed state and spiraled into a deep depression. I vowed to never take another human life and tried ending my own life, but nothing seemed to work, not even the sun. Because I was not created by Muzan and was instead made into a demon independently from him, my weaknesses were not the same as his. While attempting to find ways to end my life, I stumbled upon the Demon Slayer Corps. The Corps's leader, your ancestor, had found me and decided to keep me alive. His name was Harumoto, and he pitied my situation, asking me to continue living to save others from demons as part of the payment for my crimes rather than dying.