Blease call me out on spelling and grammar errors, I'm Dummy Inspired rn and trying to get everything out at once before I look back
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-=Five (5) years before the canon timeline=-
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Kouha wakes in a cold sweat, her stomach screaming at her for more than one reason.
The room she wakes in is unfamiliar, the air smelling of incense as sunset rays pour onto the walls. It would be familiar and comforting, if it weren't for the fact that it wasn't the incense her family used at their shrine. Sitting up with a grunt, Kouha startles when a stranger walks into the room, cringing and holding a hand to her stomach.
She can feel a firm wrap of bandages under her thin, white shirt. She doesn't remember changing, though... Why does it hurt again? What injury did she receive? Did a ghost attack her again?
The woman gasps, quickly making her way over. "Thank goodness you're awake! We we're starting to think you'd succumbed to the infection!" She says, relief in her voice despite the strange striped cloth curtaining her mouth. She wore a black uniform similar to the blind man's, a head wrap concealing the last of any identifying features other than her eyes.
"Who-?" Kouha coughed, throat dry and clearly unused for a long time. The woman darts back to the door. "Oopsie, here, sweety, drink up, you need to stay hydrated!" She chirped, handing her a cup of water from the cart she pulls over.
Kouha takes a tentative sip, her throat immediately feeling better. "Who are you? Where am I? What happened?!" She croaks out frantically, her confusion and fear bleeding into her scratchy voice. The woman pitters. "Oh, um, after the fire, your village doctor turned out to be dead, so Oyakata-sama had your injured treated at one of the Hashira Estates." She says, sitting down on the bed as she gestures to the room around them. Dozens of beds lay in rows on either side of them. All of the are empty. "You were the only one who got hurt severely, what with the demon almost killing you," She explained.
Kouha blinks dazedly at her, her own heartbeat almost drowning out the woman's voice. Kouha is remembering, but the more she does, the more she doesn't want to.
The woman refilled Kouha's cup, continuing as she drank. "Oyakata-sama and Himejima-sama wanted to speak with you personally, for some reason, so everyone just agreed to have you sent to the Mountain Estate!" She added cryptically, obvious curiosity in her tone.
Kouha's mind was reeling with this new information. Mountain Estate..? Demon? Fi-? FIRE!
"M-my family, they were at the shrine..!" Kouha croaks, stopping as memories started to come back. She grips her head, barely registering her shortened hair. "No..! No, no, no, no..! They didn't - they didn't - he ate them didn't he-?!" Kouha gasped out, curling into herself. She only vaguely registers pain blooming across her abdomen again.
There were arms by that dream demon's feet, Her sister's kimono cloth hanging off one-!
Momma, Papa, Kiyomi, Chiyo..!
They're all dead.
"Their auras are gone now,"
Kouha wailed, gasping for air as her wound throbbed and grief consumed her. Her world, her light, they were dead, gone, and not even their spirits remained. They would be here if they did, like grandma's was, but they aren't - they're gone. Their bodies burned in the fire, didn't they? Their bodies burned in the shrine, didn't they?!
She resisted the strange woman's hug at first, but quickly latched on as her world crumbled to ruins.
What would she do? Where would she go? How could she go on without their presence? She barely moved on after her grandma's murder, how could she move on from her whole family's?!
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Eat Your Heart Out | Kimetsu no Yaiba | Demon Slayer
Fanfiction[Hiatus Ending Soon!] Kouha has done a lot to get to where she is now. Like her mother, Kouha's arms grow scarred with the cost of her powers. Like her father, her body grows rough and sturdy in order to protect and hunt for her family. Like her lat...
