Quiescent | Dororo X KnY

Chapter I - Tanjiro no Maki

Chapter I: The Story of Tanjiro

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Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Don't panic;

Just,

Breathe.

Kamado Tanjiro's eyes were blurred as he watched the figure of the demon disappeared from his family's humble and small, now broken, home.

All Tanjiro could do was breathe, burning his father's teaching of the special breathing technique to heart while his body fought from death's clutches.

He inhaled, breathing in the cold air, concentrating on circulating his high-pressured and heated blood throughout his entire body. 

Tanjiro couldn't concentrate on anything else around him; who would when you can feel the blood of your family seep through your clothes?

It's cold. 

His body, or more importantly his thought, was in a strange state of paralysis; Tanjiro couldn't exactly point out where the coldness came from. His heart? His body? His thoughts? The atmosphere? Tanjiro could only sense warmth from his breathing.

It's dark. 

He was only able to see faint outlines of his members scattered around him. The sight gave Tanjiro a gut-wrenching feeling of disgust and sadness; his family was just killed, tortured right in front of him. And Tanjiro was too weak to be able to save even one of them.

It's overwhelming. 

The scent of blood, the large amounts of blood, the feeling of guilt and remorse, everything around the last survivor was too overwhelming.

Tanjiro knew that his time was almost up, but he wanted to at least relive his memories in peace, while surrounded by his other dead family members.

So he closed his eyes, keeping his breathing at a slow, even pace to make it more gentle for him when he would pass.

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"Tanjiro."

A voice called out to him. It was a familiar voice... A warm, nostalgic voice Tanjiro knew very well.

"Tanjiro," The deceased pillar of the family, Kamado Tanjurou, called out to his eldest son again, "don't give up."

Tanjiro let his eyes open slightly, his mind envisioning the form of his sickly father kneeling in front of Tanjiro's paralysed body. His father, Tanjurou, was a frail man. However, this did not stop Tanjurou from pledging himself to serve his family and protect them from all sorts of danger, even if it exceeded his body's limit.

Tanjurou smiled down sadly at his eldest, and only living, son. He was, and still is, proud that his son was always doing his best not only to fulfill the duties Tanjurou once took in taking care of the family but to bring out the best in everyone around him. 

But now...

His family's home was now in ruins. It pained Tanjurou to see the place he swore to protect with his life, literally and figuratively, become ruined and destroyed by the demon he failed to slay those years ago.

"I'm so proud of you, Tanjiro." 

Tanjurou could only say. With teary eyes, he stares back at his son's bright, yet slowly darkening, eyes. Tanjurou holds out a hand, carding his frail and thin fingers through burgundy locks.