Chapter Text
It was cold outside, the rain droplets still in the air from the midday rain carrying a foresty smell as the hilly and high outskirts of Mitakihara Town came into view.
Kamado Tanjirou walked alone, carrying some groceries. It was still 8 pm, yet fall’s arrival had brought with itself a way earlier sundown. His whole family was busy tending to more important things at home, so it was his job to quickly go to and from the konbini not too far from home.
Tanjirou liked walking. He liked walking with Inosuke, he liked walking with his sister’s friends, and he loved walking with his family, but being alone had its charm.
He could be distracted by any smells surrounding him, be it that of a cat’s wet fur and fishy smell as they stole some more yellowfins, a serving of karaage at the Kanzaki Izakaya that had been taken to go, or the smell of human emotions.
Stagnated water and seaweed upon sadness, clearing up into a fresh, clear river’s smell full of fallen flowers as mothers sang their children’s sorrows away.
Sometimes he wished his sense of smell wasn’t so great, that would spare him from thinking more about his current situation.
Nezuko’s short breaths and hacks resonated through the house. He could almost smell the cherry blossoms and chamomile that she usually carried withering and rotting away, sinking into a bottomless lake. He could only hold her pale hand as Kie brought more wet towels to place on her head, their younger siblings shuffling worriedly into their two shared rooms.
“Mom, please, I-” she couldn’t finish her hoarse-spoken sentence before more relentless coughs made their way up her throat.
Her illness was as unexpected as it was deadly. It reminded the family of their father’s passing not long ago, but whereas Tanjurou’s sickness left him to calmly listen to his wife as he rested in bed, Nezuko could barely sleep, eat, and stopped talking much a week or two ago. She wore a mask the rare times she went out, which were getting less and shorter every week.
His two-story home came into view as he reminisced. The small building had just the cozy, warm atmosphere a bakery would be expected to have.
“Moom, I’m here. Could you take my bags please?” A flour-covered face (and two dough-covered, smaller faces) peeked into the hallway. “Nii-chan!” they smiled and tugged the flour-covered person’s sleeve. She then wiped her face, finally being recognized as Kamado Kie.
“Sure thing! Oh, sugarbread, aren’t these too heavy for you?” A small peck on the cheek, and his arms were free. His mother’s physique was nothing to scoff at, as during one winter trip to the mountains she defended Hanako from a bear with just her rock-hard forehead.
“Not at all mom.. I know it’s late already, but I’ll be back in half an hour.”
“Did you forget something? Everything seems to be here though..” his mother replied as she looked inside the plastic bags.
“No, I just want to walk. Clear my head a bit, if that’s fine with you of course!” Kie nodded to this, picking up her son’s bags and going back to the kitchen.
“Sure thing, honey. I know you’re my super strong son, but be careful, okay? I love you.”
“Love you too.” He gave her a quick peck, then set out into the night to clear himself up.
“Now, Hanako, help mama put this in the fridge…”
Tanjirou started taking one of the quieter paths of town, one that crossed two apartment blocks filled with balconies. It was quite close to the end of the small town, so the now-empty road was lined with a small fence which separated it from a bush-filled patch of forest.
It was quiet outside. And fresh, just like what he needed. Just sitting outside on a small bench and breathing worked like a charm every time.
Half an hour passed in complete silence, not even the mountain fauna let out a sound.
Yeah, it felt nice.
Now, to get back home he usually took the path next to the four vending machines, but the problem now was that.. the enviorment seemed to have completely changed. In small ways, all the roads had titled so that they looked similar, but they lead to dead ends or loops back to the same bench and road.
The wind brought in a scent of iris ingulfed in snapdragons. Even these light floral smells now made his head spin.
A flick of a white tail caught his attention, and when he blinked, a white.. cat.. thing…? Stood in front of him.
“The best of evenings to you, Kamado.”
“You..speak?”
“Well, of course I do.” It began circling him. “Communication is very important in business, is it not? You and your family would know.” Pink, beady eyes slanted a little once it spoke. Well, not really spoke, as its mouth permanently showed a feline smile, unmoving yet somehow producing sound.
“Um.. do you sir, or madam, have business with me?” Tanjirou followed the “Thing” with his eyes as it walked around and behind him.
As it spiraled him, it replied “Why, yes, I have a very interesting proposition for you.. and your sister.”
He felt himself straightening at the mention of his sister. “I do not know who, or what you are, but if you wish to harm my family..” the shade of his eyes darkened, the light disappearing, “I will make sure your head hangs on my wall.”
It stopped its stride, staring at the now angered teen.
“No, no, I wish no harm. In fact, I wish to help you! Besides, even if you tried to kill me, that’d be very hard.. and it would hurt a lot for you and me.”
It began walking in circles again, closing the spiral in which it walked so it walked closer, and closer to the boy at the center.
“Nay, what I want is for you to..join me.” Its head turned, eyes slightly glistening.
“Join.. you?” it approached him even more.
“Yes! It will be the best deal you’ll ever see, for I.. have a certain power.”
It now sat at his feet, looking straight up.
“I’ll make any wish of yours come true. Money, love.. health.”
If its static grin got any wider, it would’ve coincided with the widening of Tanjirou’s own pupils.
“How can I know I trust you? For all I know, you’re not even real.”
“But I am sitting on your feet, aren’t I?”
“That.. is true, but-”
“Say, Kamado, haven’t you noticed strange things going on? Don’t you remember the Kanzaki Izakaya?”
He recalled walking by it.
“The inn? Yeah, and?”
“Weren’t they.. at the brink of bankruptcy?”
“Tanjirou, could you lend me today’s homework. I know I missed school, I just really needed to help at my parents’-” she stopped talking for a few seconds, seemingly collecting herself and clearing her head before she spoke again. “-inn.. and I’m really tired so I need them now before I fall asleep.”
“Aoi, it’s 7 pm.. and there’s a lot, and you.. your eyes are so dark.”
She rubbed her eyes in response before facing him again.
She sighed. “I’m.. I’m sorry. I…” *hic* “I just don’t know how else I can help, everything is so expensive and my parents are more nervous each day and I’m missing school, and-” the smell of seaweed and salt permeated the air as her tears started to fall.
“Oh, Aoi.. you really are doing your best, aren’t you..” he pulled in his neighbor for a hug.
“Tanjirou…” she sobbed, wetting his uniform a little. It was one of the rare times he’d seen her cry.
“Yes?” he pet her head.
“I’m so sorry, I know Kanao warned me, she told me not to go, but I will go. I need to go.”
“I don’t understand what you mean-”
“And I hope you ever do. Please, your family is healthy and prospering. Don’t let misfortune get you.”
“Aoi-!” She shuffled and slid away from him, wiping her face with her wrists and dampening her apron even more than before.
“I’ll join them, whether they deem it a good decision or not.”
“Why are you being so cryptic about this, Ao, I want to help you but I can’t do so like this-”
She gave no response. “See you at school tomorrow, Tanjirou.” She ran off into the alleys of Mitakihara, and once he went behind her, he swore he followed her scent correctly but was suddenly stopped by a dead end.
That night, the air smelled of poison and salt.
“I.. do remember. They went from barely selling half their stock daily to selling out completely on weekends and still performing well on weekdays.”
“How lucky of them, right..? You might even call it.. a miraculous save.”
“So, all this time, Ao-chan.. and some Kanao? Kanao.. ugh, where had I heard it before..” he started thinking.
“It’s not like you have anything to lose, Tanjirou. No one’s died here.. but they could.”
“Really?” He thought about Nezuko.
“Yes, yes. We have these wretched creatures called ‘Witches’ that wreak havoc and disturb citizens' lives just by existing. And your dearest sister might be under one such curse.”
Snapdragons. Cherries in the air.
“You can help Nezuko?”
“You and I, Tanjirou.” the creature jumped onto his head, staring down at his face.
“Well.. I guess I can’t go home anyways if I refuse.” he thought.
“What even are you, though?” He poked its head, feeling fluffy fur and a sugary scent being released.
“Glad you asked!” He felt its tail swishing on top of his head. “My name is Kyubey, progenitor of magical girls and wish granter.”
“Magical-?”
“Well, yes, miracles are magical and so are the people that receive one and fight witches.”
It skipped onto his shoulder and back to the ground.
“So, Kamado.. mind becoming a magical boy? And I’ll grant you your deepest wish.”
“You and I know which it is, isn’t it?”
Of course. He loved his family more than anything, and he’d been worried sick with doctors across Japan unable to identify what was wrong with Nezuko. Being given the opportunity to heal her and not using it would make him the worst brother of all, wouldn’t it?
“I.. will join you. As long as you promise me my family’s safety.”
“That will rest upon your hands, Kamado.”
“I understand.”
“Now bring me those same hands.”
Tanjirou crouched to the cat’s level, holding out his palms almost as if it were some kind of prayer. The sky was oddly clear for a fall’s night, the moon clear to see.
Tell me, now, what is your wish?
“I wish to rid my family of disease for as long as they walk this earth.”
Something cold was placed on his palm, the source unknown.
Despite no cloud being on sight, somewhere in town, thunder struck.
“A contract has been made!”
Upon opening one of his eyes, he saw that a red, egg-shaped.. stone? gem? was placed on his hand and was now overflowing with light and warmth.
Tanjirou felt himself being lifted upwards, his feet leaving the ground. “Hey, wait, what-”
Pink and green neon flames surrounded him, and in the moments before he processed the need to scream he noticed how.. unharmful it was.
Feeling his feet weirdly encased in something other than his sandals, he found a pair of boots resting on him, his previous clothes somehow gone. The same went for the rest of his body, donning a black uniform with ruby red details and gold linings. Held to his shoulders by two golden, square-printed clips was a checkered cape that reached just below his kneepits.
An itch on his right ear revealed a second piercing just above his hanafuda earrings. Its shape was a small red square lined in golden motifs of fire and something dripping down the bottom of it.
“Welcome to our team, Kamado Tanjirou. I’m sure you’ll find your first mission soon.”
“Is this your.. uniform?”
“Kind of, it varies depending on the wearer. And so does your weapon.”
“Weapon?”
“Just.. feel it. Manifest it. Wapow, as some warriors like to say when they call upon their weapons.”
“..wapow?”
“Just do it.”
He held out his hand, unsure about what he really should be doing.
“Try moving it a little.” Kyubey climbed onto his shoulder, observing his movements.
Tentatively, he swished his hand to the side, which caused more of those flames to travel up his arm and rest on his hand, elongating until they let out a small blast of light revealing a beautifully crafted, sheathed white blade, rubies incrusted on its darker handle. The sheath itself showed light, almost pastel green argyle engraving along its length.
“You’re good to go!”
“So I can help people with this? I can save Nezuko?”
“Of course!”
“Tch.”
Tanjirou turned around to find the source of the new sound, how had their smell gone unnoticed until now?
“Incubator, not again.”
A lean figure stood on a rooftop, his smell mirroring saltwater showers, peaches and hints of burnt violets. It began approaching the creature and new slayer by effortlessly jumping over 6 meter gaps over rooftops with a dancer-lake grace.
Now that the moonlight shone upon a better angle of the figure now identifiable as a boy, Tanjirou could see his similar uniform, though it was looser at the back as if it were a tuxedo’s end, and had a smaller but thicker cape that only covered one arm.
He carried a long weapon with a sharp tip covered in gold, its long body painted in the same pearlescent colour and shiny accents, gold to match his whole appearance. It seemed to split off into two handles..
“You damned stray…!” It spoke in a low tone.
In a short amount of time, it disappeared from its height, dropping next to the Incubator at such a speed that a small current was formed, shaking the surrounding flora. Small sparks flied through the mist as the metal collided on the small creature’s head, piercing its eye out. Said eye disintegrated once impaled, healing and reappearing in its original spot.
“Agatsuma, you’re always so mean to me..”
Its high-pitched voice took a fake sad tone once the creature spoke to the stranger.
“Please do not adress me. At all. I would prefer it if you shut your mouth and dissapeared.”
Tanjirou held onto the white blade’s handle, gripping it so hard his knuckles turned white.
The newcomer looked at his state with sad, amber eyes.
He grabbed his katana by the blade, severely harming his own pale hand and yanked it from his arms. “You don’t need this anymore.”
“What are you-”
It was promptly thrown out into the town as if it were a javelin, flying across the Mitakihara sky with complete disregard for anyone or anything it might hit.
“My blade! Hey, what if it harmed-” The blonde shushed him.
“It won’t. It’s secure now. And so are you. Hey, Kamado, right?”
“Yes, uh, I feel like I’ve heard the name Agatsuma and seen you before-”
“Listen, did that cat get you to wish?” He suddenly grabed Tanjirou’s shoulders, staring daggers, or scissors into him.
“Y-yeah I wished for-”
“Just Please, PLEASE tell me you didn’t wish for love, or to revive someone.”
“No, I just wished for health upon my family, if you know me, then you know Nezuko, right?”
Agatsuma’s expression turned somber. “Yeah. I know about her.” He sighed a little. “What a reliable big brother she has that is willing to give himself up to that bundle of trash packaged in a white cat bag that you know as Kyubey.”
“Does this mean…” “Don’t worry. She’ll be cured. She and your family will be fine, but..”
He separated himself from Tanjirou and pointed the sharp blades at him. “If you wish to live as ‘fine’ too, I advise that you’d stay away from what was your blade, and this world. I’d rip off that earring of yours if it meant you’d be free, but here we are.”
The stranger’s face had a bright, yellow gem on his right cheek, showing significant scarring around it.
“Agatsuma.. I’m still here, you know. Don’t go looking like the saviour you want to be, you don’t want to decieve anyone, do you?”
Agatsuma promptly split his scissors in two, throwing one of the blades at Kyubey with mortifying precision, landing him stuck on the wall with the blade right between its eyes, blood oozing from the wound.
“Hey, why’re you harming him?!” Tanjirou tried to headbutt him, only to be met with the scissor-blade’s handle on his forehead.
“Nunnafya business. Now go before I lose my cool and cry and look lame before you.” The blonde then walked away from him, the salty, slightly spiced scent of frustration emitting from him as he stuck the other half of the blade inside Kyubey’s head and stabbing it a few times. Could it be some sick destressing method?
“But-” “Go. You have a family that’s wondering what’s taking you so long.” Why did he keep cutting him off?! That’s kind of rude, but he wouldn’t be the one to say that to him!
“Kamado, I’ll be fine. Agatsuma -kun and I are having a friendly quarr-” The moment it pronounced the -kun, in an almost mocking tone, Agatsuma had raised one of the blades and built up to deliver a satisfying stab that made one of its ears plop on the ground, releasing more bright red liquids. Somehow, no scent of blood was felt.
“I.. will be going then.” “Remember your uniform, Kamado.”
“Oh, Incubator, you bastard, what will I tell Kanao, huh? Should you be the one to tell her?”
Tanjirou, for just a second, wondered who this Kanao was that made even a seemingly godly creature capable of granting any wish shiver at the concept of delivering unsavory news to her.
“Mom, Takeo, I’m home!” small steps of socks on wood were head before the second oldest of the Kamado sons, Takeo, came into view.
“Mom’s already sleeping, and surprisingly, so is Nezuko. She’s calmer than usual. Now where the hell were you, Nii-chan?”
“Takeo… who taught you these words, huh?” His brotherly smile was kept even when his eyes showed noticeable hints of anger.
“Ack- I- just go shower while you still can. Good night.” He pouted and went back upstairs.
Chuckling a bit at his family, he went through his usual nightly routine.
As he went to bed, he made a mental note to find out why Kanao and Agatsuma looked and sounded so familiar.
That night, he dreamt of a field of sunflowers.