Chapter Text
“Remind me why Bejinga is with us again?” Inosuke Hashibira asks Tanjirou Kamado, walking alongside the other demon slayer. Genya Shinazugawa was walking a few feet ahead of them, not the happiest about having to join the kamoboko trio on this mission either. Zenitsu Agatsuma was on the other side of Tanjirou, eyeing the dark forest surrounding them nervously and sticking close to his friend.
“His name is Genya,” Tanjirou corrected gently, “and he is on this mission with us because that is what has been requested by the Master.”
He kept a watchful eye out and his nose sharp incase anything were to happen since they were currently traveling at night towards the town they were supposed to stay at. Genya hadn’t said much to any of them since they started on this journey, only really snapping out at Inosuke when the boar-headed young man tried to start a fight. Tanjirou never let it escalate, always distracting Inosuke with something else and drawing his attention away from the younger Shinazugawa brother. After the latest argument Genya had stomped ahead of them and that’s where he had remained up until this point.
Zenitsu was the one to hear something out of the ordinary first, his enhanced hearing picking up the strange noise. He tugs on Tanjirou’s haori hesitantly, stopping abruptly and turning his head to the right to look anxiously into the forest surrounding them. Tanjirou stops as well, calling for Inosuke and Genya to pause.
“What is it Zenitsu?” Tanjirou asks.
“Y-you don’t hear that crying?” Zenitsu mumbles, looking back and forth from Tanjirou and the forest.
By that point, Genya had turned around and made his way back to where the other three stood. “What are we waiting for? We need to keep going if we’re going to make it to the town by morning.”
“There it is again!” The thunder-breathing demon slayer cries out, interrupting him. Everyone looks around and Tanjirou raises his head to sniff the air. Flowing in on the light breeze, he smells it. A deep smell of sadness, confusion, and loneliness. Without thinking he starts into the trees, following his nose to where the smell was originating from.
“Tanjirou!” Zenitsu whines, “Maybe we should just keep going! We do still have a mission to finish.”
Tanjirou ignored him and kept going, something seeming to draw him into the scent. Zenitsu whined and chased off after him, grabbing onto the back of his haori and holding on. Genya rolled his eyes but followed as well, the smallest amount of curiosity ringing through him at what Tanjirou and Zenitsu both seemed to sense. Inosuke, not one to be left behind, darted past Genya, shoving into him to chase after his other two friends. Genya let out a growl and sped up his own steps to catch up.
The four young demon slayers came to a small clearing where they found the source of their distraction. There looked to be a young girl sitting at the base of a large tree, her head buried in her arms that were resting on her knees which were pulled up to her chest. She was sobbing softly, her hair falling down around her arms, almost providing a curtain covering her face from the rest of the world. She was wearing a plain gray and blue kimono that looked worn and tattered at the bottom and her feet were completely bare. Both Tanjirou and Genya were immediately moving forwards towards the little girl, each of them feeling that older sibling tug at their hearts to help a younger crying child. Genya shoulder checked Inosuke as he brushed past him, getting back at him for shoving him earlier but otherwise ignored his loud complaints. It seemed the little girl was too lost in her thoughts and tears to hear what was going on around her as she didn’t even look up at his outburst.
Genya was the first one to reach her, his longer strides carrying him just a half a step quicker than Tanjirou. He knelt down on one knee in front of her, making sure to keep a respectful distance and spoke quietly so as to not startle her. “Um, hello, little girl. Are you lost? You really shouldn’t be out here alone, its dangerous.”
The little girl let out a gasp at his voice, her head shooting up to look at the two swordsmen. Her face was round, cheeks still having that little bit of cherublike youth. She had light blue eyes, a button nose, and wobbly lips that seemed like they were gonna open up to let out more cries and any given moment. The girl’s hair was long and wispy, dirty blonde in color with strands falling across her face to obscure one of her eyes and part of her face. Having not answered Genya’s question, Tanjirou crouched down as well, carefully balancing the box that held Nezuko on his back.
“Where are your parents? The nearest town is still quite a bit away, how did you end up so far out here into the forest and all by yourself?”
She doesn't answer either of them, only beginning to sob once more. But this time she mutters some words under her breath that almost go unheard from Genya and Tanjirou.
“My kitty. I lost my kitty! Please, I wanna find my kitty!” The little girl sobs, tears becoming a constant stream down her face, quite frankly rivaling Master Gyomei Himejima. “Will you help me find my kitty?”
“Sure, we’ll help you find your kitty,” Tanjirou is quick to reassure her. He stands up once more and turns to call to Zenitsu and Inosuke. “You two, can you search around here for a little cat?”
“A cat?!” Inosuke huffs. “We can’t be wasting our time trying to find a tiny feline!”
“Just do it, you boar-headed imbecile,” Genya growled back at him as he turned his head and glared. Zenitsu was the one to grab Inosuke’s arm and drag him away, wanting to avoid a fight and find this cat as fast as possible so they could leave this creepy forest and get to town. Even though he hadn’t heard anything indicating there was a cat nearby, Zenitsu just chalked it up to the other miscellaneous noises that were echoing through the dark, looming trees.
A steady breeze was blowing through, causing leaves to rustle against each other and branches to creak. In the far distance there were two owls hooting back and forth to each other, bugs and other small creatures rustling in the underbrush. There seemed to be an air of hesitance surrounding the clearing, like something drastic was going to happen very soon. Genya continued to try and console her, a hand hovering just over her shoulder, unsure whether to actually touch her or not. She had continued to cry and mutter the same words about wanting her kitty over and over, not listening to anything Tanjirou or Genya was saying to attempt to calm her down.
“My kitty! I want my kitty! I just want my kitty!”
Tanjirou’s nose was flooded with a fresh wave of grief from the little girl. It drowned out all the other smells around them and overwhelmed the Kamado brother for a moment. He couldn’t understand why these smells hit him so much stronger than they would a normal human…
Unless-
He’s just reaching to draw his sword and shout at Genya to step back when the girl lets out an ear piercing shriek. Tanjirou has a brief moment to be thankful Zenitsu wasn’t closer here or right next to her, or the poor thunder-breathing demon slayer would’ve been brought to his knees and possibly incapacitated from the sheer volume that was coming from the girl. Both he and Genya leap back, the younger Shinazugawa drawing his shotgun from the holster attached to his belt.
In the blink of an eye, the young girl’s eyes are now glowing a vibrant purple, no longer the icy blue they originally were. Her tears that were continuously streaming down her cheeks also glowed, leaving streaks down her cheeks. Claws were protruding from her hands and her teeth had grown razor sharp, almost needle-like in shape. She moves quickly, avoiding the bullets from Genya’s gun and the swing of Tanjirou’s blade with impressive agility for someone of her size. All the while she continues shrieking about her missing kitty, the air around them heavy with agitation and sorrow.
Both of the young demon slayers know what needs to be done. She is a demon after all. No matter her size or form she takes.
Its in a brief moment of hesitation that Tanjirou is caught off guard, which is very unlike him. The young demon girl had used one of the nearby trees to launch herself at him, both clawed hands out and ready to strike across his face. Almost as if everything is in slow motion, the red headed demon slayer feels two hands shove him to the side. He turns his head as he falls to the side, watching as Genya takes those claws to his right cheek.
Genya grunts at the pain blossoming across his face, feeling the body of the demon rocket into him, the momentum propelling them both to the floor. The wind is knocked out of him when his back collides with the cold grassy floor of the forest. The back of his head collides with a large rock that was hidden beneath the foliage, black dots swarming his vision as he verges on passing out.
“Kitty ! I want my kitty !”
She screeches in his face, both of her clawed hands are digging into his cheeks, the weight of her small body pressing onto his chest. Blearily he could make out the glow of her eyes, the girl’s pupils slitted as she cried and screamed over his face. Genya can’t seem to get a full breath of air in and his last thoughts are one’s filled with shame.
There’s no way I just got defeated by a little girl. What would Sanemi think? He would be even more ashamed of me than he already is for not being able to use Breathing Techniques. What a pathetic , useless Demon Slayer I am.
The glowing tears coming from the young demon girl drip down her cheeks, falling onto his face, mixing with the blood from his scratch wounds she had previously given him. It stings, a sharp burning pain lancing across his face similar to when his face was slashed by the glass shattering when his mother attacked them. Genya tries to reach for where his gun was knocked out of his hands but its just out of his grasp, and the last thing he hears before he blacks out completely is the wails of the young demon girl.
Tanjirou lets out a yell when Genya goes down, bouncing back to his feet and lunging at the demon. He raises his sword, Hinokami Kagura breathing from his lips as he aims to bring his sword down to slice through the girl’s pale neck. Its Inosuke who unintentionally interrupts him mid strike. The beast-breather shouting as he leaps through the brush, his own jagged swords slicing down. His loudness draws her attention to him from where she had been crying over Genya’s face.
Hissing and diving out of the way of both of the demon slayers, whose swords unintentionally clash together, the girl lets out another shrill screech of furiousness. “How dare you take my kitty away from me?! You stupid, mean bullies, I WANT MY KITTY!”
She must realize this is a losing game and there is no way she can win this fight because she takes off into the dark forest, hissing about getting revenge on them for stealing her kitty from her. Inosuke is about to run after her and give chase but Tanjirou holds him back.
“We have more important matters right now, Inosuke. Genya needs our help!” Tanjirou turns back to where Genya was previously laying and hesitates at the sight before him. Where once the taller boy’s body had lain, it was now a mostly crumpled heap of his clothing. The sun/water breather knelt down, shakily reaching for the pile of clothes, afraid of what he might find. Or what he might not find.
Pulling back the purple yukata, Tanjirou lets out a gasp with Inosuke leaning to look over his shoulder. There, lying amidst the discarded uniform was Genya, that was for sure. His body had shrunk significantly down to the size of a standard house cat and he was bare as the day he was born. The clothes that were previously fitting him were now too big. But the thing, er things, that stood out the most was the pair of fluffy black ears now protruding from his head and the sleek black tail sprouting from just above his backside. Unexpectedly, the scratches that were previously marking his face had healed up completely fine and were gone, not even scars left behind.
“Inosuke! Tanjirou!” Zenitsu called, huffing and puffing as he ran back into the clearing.
When they had heard the girl let out her original screech Zenitsu and Inosuke both started running back towards the other demon slayers. But since Inosuke was quicker than the yellow-haired boy he very quickly left him in the dust. He was panting, attempting to catch his breath and shuffled closer to where the other two boys were hovering over Genya’s clothes. Zenitsu’s eyes practically bulged out of his head at the sight before him.
“Is that Genya?!”
Tanjirou nodded his head and wrapped Genya’s purple yukata around his smaller form, covering him and giving him some semblance of modesty. He lifted the swaddled form into his arms, smiling slightly at the way Genya snuggled closer to his chest. It seemed that the younger Shinazugawa, even in his unconscious state, couldn’t deny the feeling of being cradled in arms that felt warm and safe to him. Just like how his older brother, Sanemi Shinazugawa used to carry him when he was a baby.
“Zenitsu, can you carry his clothes? Inosuke, can you grab his weapons? We need to bring him to Shinobu-San immediately,” Tanjirou instructed, never removing his eyes from Genya.
Zenitsu immediately did as he was asked, grabbing the discarded uniform and bundling it up in his arms. The board-headed demon slayer groaned but grabbed the shotgun and Wakizashi, eyeing them both curiously.
“W-what about our original mission?” Zenitsu questioned.
“It’s gonna have to wait, now there’s a more urgent matter on our hands. I’m sure the Master would understand,” Tanjirou answered.
He turned and headed back toward the path they had originally been on, his two companions following behind until Inosuke shoved his way to the front, not wanting to follow behind anyone since he considered himself the leader. Not much was spoken between the three young demon slayers on the way towards the Butterfly Estate, even the loud-mouthed Hashibira unusually quiet.
The new situation at hand seemed too bizarre and compelling for normal small talk to occur. It was about a days walk from their current location to Shinobu Kocho’s estate and the young Kamado boy could only hope that she had the answers as to how to fix this blood demon art that had been cast onto Genya Shinazugawa.