Being the only child in your family does sometimes made you feel alone. Not to mention that your parents are often busy with the works they needed to do as a pretty well-known merchant; selling herbal medications as a way of living.
But that is why they finally offered you to come along. Often being outside and taking you with them as they sell out medicines to the people in need.
Your parents would always ask for your help to communicate with other people; no matter what age they are in. They do this in order for you to get comfortable with the presence of others—as well as to help you make new friends. Who knows? Maybe you'll get along with someone after all.
You enjoyed your time. Cherishing fully the sun descending from the sky, as your exhausted body of a six-year-old peacefully starting to close her beautiful eyes into slumber. Your father's faint chuckle disrupting the silent moment whilst he carried you on his back. The gentle breeze passing by the bushes and your (S/C) skin, as if singing a good night lullaby with your mother's palm caressing your head.
Though as time passed by, your mother was the one who went out, as your father suddenly caught a serious disease when your age was turning eight years old. It unfortunately made his physical body grew weaker and he's not allowed to move as much as before.
It was discovered that he already had the disease ever since he was little, but little do the doctors know how it overcame his physical body just now.
Of course you're worried for him—but a little upset at the same time as he won't be able to go out to deliver medicines to other people like you all used to; as a family. However, you tried to cheer yourself up, murmuring soft and reassuring words that as long as both of your parents are still with you, your life is already more than complete.
Unfortunately, not until a certain accident happened. When all of your hopes for the great future spend with your beloved parents had been ruined completely.
---
The smell of charred wood and the cries of a few young children can be heard within a few meters from where you stood, tears falling onto your cheeks as you could only stand around and watch as the fire spread even more to your house; turning the once beautifully-carved wood walls into nothing but ashes that soon fall to the ground.
You were safe. You went out of your house in time after the smell of something burning entered your nose a little while ago.
But your success in escaping the fire costs both of your parents' life.
Someone had saved you earlier from that one unknown creature—a creature resembling that of a normal human being. The savior came in time right before the creature was about to devour you alive.
It had red, glowing eyes that frightened you even more. Glowing in the midst of the wildfire that consumed the entirety of your hometown. Followed by its sharp claws and teeth, perhaps even sharp enough to shred one's skin better than a knife can do.
However, it was unfortunate that you didn't get to see your savior's face, as your instincts had told you to just run away from the scene as fast and as far away as possible.
With the sight of your once beloved home got burned down by some unforgivable people, you could only cry so loud that your throat felt heavy. Your tears won't stop flowing down from your eyes, in result from witnessing the chaos before you.
It was as if happy memories were alas burnt away, followed by the lost of your parents. The people and place you cherished so dearly deep down from your heart, somewhere that you thought that you could lean yourself against whenever you felt lost and not know what to do.
Now, they're all gone. It is now just a horrific memory that's etched directly into your brain; the view of seeing the dead bodies of your own parents lying on the floor.
Now that nothing's been left out, what else could you possibly do?
In her early months of being an eight-year-old, (L/N) (Y/N) has to learn to survive on her own from now on.
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"...Demons?"
You repeated to make sure that you didn't misheard anything. The rope that is used to carry the basket behind your back for several years now is tightly being gripped out of rage.
The people nearby once in a while scrunched up their faces out of pity before continuing on with their daily lives, pretending as if nothing happened. What a pitiful sight of a girl selling herbal medicines at such a young age.
Demons.
That word somehow repeats itself inside your head.
Their opinions did not matter—for you soon discovered that the incident was not caused by ordinary people, but by the same kind of creature as the one who were about to eat you back then. Monsters and youkai itself were just mere fairytales that your parents often read the stories about, stories that shouldn't have become a reality because they, in fact, just ordinary beliefs.
You knew they were just an ordinary folk stories, and different from what the other girls thought about them back then, those stories were.. In a way, interests you.
Yet at the same time, you now find it slightly amusing how a demon-like creature actually exists.
Lowering your head, your heart is instantly filled with rage. A voice that resembled that of yours whispered low; you convinced yourself that demons are nothing but a menace. They were all practically insects that needs to get rid of; the creatures that you now loathe so much.
Things that you won't hesitate to find a way and hunt them all down, even if your age is now only thirteen years old.
Thanks to the lessons you remembered about creating medications from your parents, you've been using those knowledge to your advantage to sell your own medicines that you create out of natural ingredients—At least after a few years of many failed attempts at marketing, yet now enough to fulfill all of your needs.
This new knowledge about demons certainly piqued your interest. By traveling from one town to another, you discovered many more things about the demons and eventually to the rumors about the Demon Slayer Corps.
An organization that rumored to have yet been noticed by the government, even though it had been hunting and slaying demons for centuries. A specific organization where you have all the rights to hunt down these man-eating creatures. To gather this much information was a long work, especially having to mostly eavesdrop different people. Not many public libraries have specific books regarding the demons, and especially not the Corps itself.
A perfect chance.
With every information you gathered so far, you were a bit disappointed that in order to officially become a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, you need to have an incredible amount of strength and master the Total Concentration method.
Not to mention, the need of also mastering a breathing technique.
From that one book you read, demon slayers must have their own breathing techniques. There are at least three-to-ten forms in one technique that needs to be mastered in order to defeat the stronger demons.
Breathing forms were created by the elder slayers back when demons were still a new thing; a new threat. The breathing forms are usually being passed down to the elder slayers' disciples, trusting them to inherit their forms for future demon slayers as well.
It looks like a year-worth of training your swordsmanship skills and enhancing your strength was not enough.
It was a challenge to put together how breathing forms work, how to enhance your breathing rapidly in a year, or even to do mere research about the first breathing form to ever exist. Only a few of the branch breathing techniques were found within the ancient books from several libraries, and they were so old to the point of even almost being thrown away!
None of the breathing techniques worked for you, or rather, you couldn't master any of them all by yourself. Thunder Breathing, Insect Breathing, Wind Breathing. Heck, not even the Water Breathing forms that is said to be the most basic breathing technique could be mastered!
From the moment the realization hit you, you have ultimately decided to create your own breathing technique. You judged your own strength and how far you've come from the very beginning of your journey, and made those breathing techniques based on them. They were mediocre, they were imperfect, and they certainly wouldn't be on par with the breathing forms that were created by the veteran demon slayers from the old days.
Yet the symbol behind your own breathing form held a special meaning. They mean everything from your memories; they mean everything that you wished you could've done before.
Breath of Nature.
Although it may won't be as powerful as the other forms, you trained yourself again for the next year in order to upgrade them. Drugs and lethal poisons were not something that you're unfamiliar with anymore. They partially had become the embodiment of your life as a young merchant.
Besides, it won't be as satisfying to you if the demons doesn't suffer enough pain before they die.
---
The sun had finally rise from the horizon, giving an orange and yellow hues that decorated the rough path you're currently walking on.
However, your steps soon came to a halt, followed by your narrowed eyes seeing a certain glint of something in the distance as it reflected the sunlight. At first glance, it looked like some sort of metal that gleamed under the sunshine of dawn.
Until you took a few steps closer to observe the unknown object, your eyes widened in surprise as to what you just found.
Who would left a sword in the middle of the road?
Nonetheless, you noticed a kanji was engraved on the metal near the hilt, making you even more shocked with your discovery.
Destroy demons.
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(Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading the Prologue of 'Natures Within Our Grasp' ^^)
(This is the Author, and I hope you guys enjoy my writing even though my grammar is the worst thing ever qwq)