Eat Your Heart Out | Kimetsu no Yaiba | Demon Slayer

Prologue

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-=Five (5) years before the canon timeline=-

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He came on the first day of summer, slaughtering an impoverished family you would think no one would notice was missing.

But, of course, humans are very particular beings, and the smell of rotting carnage tends to attract attention.

"Did you hear? The Muzufumi's are all dead! All slaughtered! It's so spooky, I wonder if one of their boys went crazy,"

"I hear it was a stranger that did it,"

"I hear it was a cannibal,"

"Cannibals" Were the talk of the town for days before the next victim was found, gored and entrails missing. Then it was "Oni", after the next two where found, legs and arms stripped of flesh and tendons. Fear spurred the debate of "Demons" next, a prominent family getting gutted and devoured.

The baby was never found.

Demons really seemed to take root after a few witnesses reported a humanoid figure dragging off a newly wed couple, their screams echoing in the forest hugging the west of town. No one dared explore it's haunting depths.

Well... Except for little Kouha Hisamaru. She has a gift.

Kouha also has a duty. She scurries down the newly abandoned forest path, hands held in two others as pale as ash and pockets heavy with paper. Kouha is supposed to help the wayward dead, her grandmother says. Kouha guides them home and disposes their bodies when no one else will. She's seen it all, gouged eyes, half rotted skeletons, drowning victims, strangled children her own age, and many more. Death and Demons are a well known (and unwanted) companion of the Hisamaru bloodline.

But no one can know that, though. Not after Kouha's family got chased out of her hometown.

They'd been accused of raising witches and housing criminals in their temple home. While the townsfolk were correct, they couldn't see past the urban legends foreign missionaries whispered in their ears, leading to the Hisamaru sisters, her mother, and grandmother getting fully outed as blood witches.

Her father, a novice studying under the current Kannushi, was exposed as a ex-criminal. Although exonerated, his tattoos and scars painted him as a violent, greedy man taking advantage of the priest. No matter what they did to prove they were honorable people, their fellow villagers listened to the missionaries and turned on them. Grandmother was murdered for her supposed sins, and Kouha's parents fled with her and her younger sisters in their arms that very night.

Masami Hisamaru passed her gift onto Kouha that night, passing on her duty as well.

Kouha does not blame the townsfolk, they were manipulated after all. Her parents say that fear mongering, a new term she learns at the ripe old age of 8, is a strong tactic for control. Control over people, specifically. 

She is still furious in her newly gained knowledge, however. Furious and with nothing to direct that rage at except her chores and her memories of the snide missionaries.

But, that's a long time ago, now. Kouha doesn't need to be worried about it anymore. Besides, Grandmother said she doesn't want Kouha to hold a grudge. Grudges are dangerous for Hisamaru's to hold, after all.

Kouha misses her old friends very dearly, though.

Upon finding a pair of mangled legs and half a torso, Kouha confirms with the spirits that this is all that is left of them. The woman sobs into her husband's shaking arms as she nods.