ALL NOVEL Time skip (5)
[Seiji's POV]
You know, I had been focusing on demons too much. I deemed them to be the vilest creatures in the world, the source of all evil.
In the process, I had forgotten that humans could be just as evil if not more than demons. After all, every demon was once a human. So would it not be more correct to say...
That humans were the source of evil?
...
I was in a town located in the east. It was the place where people from rural villages came to trade. It was the boiling point of the economy in this region.
I watched as a little girl was dragged on a leash like a dog by a bald man. Her eyes were devoid of life. There was no sparkle of youth in her eyes although she was but a child.
Her hair was messy and unkept, her body was small and malnutrition - she looked like she was seven even though my eyes told me she was eleven years old.
My eyes saw everything. I saw all of the abuse the little child had endured till now. There were fractured bones that never fully healed and bruises that were still purple.
Fuck, I did not want to describe it any more.
I ran up to the man.
"Hey, what do you think you are doing to the little girl." I asked, nicely. Not because of a lack of anger but due to an overwhelming amount of it.
Maybe it was something in my eyes that forced the truth out of him, or maybe it was because the drunk man couldn't care less. But the man said.
"She's my slave, her parents sold her."
A slave huh? At this age, there was still the practice of slaves in the rural areas.
"She's not reacting to anything anymore, you see..." he said and his hand went across the child's face with a loud smack.
The girl's head turned and her lips immediately started bleeding. But she did not even release the tiniest scream of pain.
"She's broken. I am going to sell her to the prostitution house."
I did not move a single muscle and simply stared at the little girl. When he mentioned prostitution, I used my X-ray on the little girl again.
The absence of her hymen made my already cold blood colder.
I knelt down in front of the little girl. I stared at her light purple eyes which were eerily similar to mine.
My eyes failed to read her. I could even read Giyu's stoic face so that meant the girl was truly not feeling anything anymore. Like the guy said, she was broken.
I untied the leash on her body and pushed her aside.
"Hey!! What do you think you're doing!!"
...and finally, something snaps.
My sheathed sword found its way to the man's jaw, disorienting him and dropping him to the ground. And then I started beating him in the most painful way possible.
For the first time in my life, my eyes searched for the most painful ways I could harm a human. It was something I often did with demons but never on a human.
I searched for soft tissues, places where there were most nerves. I started destroying his body. I hit his thighs, I hit the soles of his foot, I crushed his testicles and beat at every possible place where he wouldn't pass out or die.
The people around quickly formed a crowd around us as people who never bat an eye seeing an abused child started telling me to stop.
But no one walked forward to stop me. I think its something about my eyes that made them freeze whenever they tried to approach.
I looked at the humans around me as I would demons because, at that moment, I couldn't tell the difference.
Blood splattered, pieces of flesh flew off and bones cracked and protruded out of the skin. Yet the man was still conscious because I forced him to be.
He squealed like a pig, incoherent because I had long since broken his jaw. I tortured him for as long as I could before I stopped.
...there was no longer a way I could torture him. If I continued, he would either no longer feel it or it would only free the man of his pain by killing him.
I turned my head to look at the small girl who watched everything happen. I searched for an emotion, at least a small satisfaction or fear on her face but I found none. She was simply void.
Then I looked around me, by now there were many people crowing around me, whispering to themselves. Were these really the people we were protecting against the demon? I don't want to protect them.
When I promised to take the title of Hashira and promised to protect the weak from demons, I did not mean to protect these people.
I finally rest my eyes on the man grovelling on the ground again and I drew my blade.
"....."
"....."
I sheathed my blade again. I took money from my pocket and threw most of it at his disfigured form.
"Get well soon." I said.
Because I'm going to come again. Death was too good for him.
I grabbed the child by her hand and dragged her away from the town.
...
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[2 months later]
For the next few days after I found her, I took care of the child. I dropped every mission I had and only focused on her.
I cleaned her body, I tended to her wounds from the medical knowledge I'd learned from Shinobu and I fed her with all the foods she could eat.
But even after days passed, the girl still remained broken. She was like a soulless flesh in the form of a girl. It would take time for her to heal from all that she'd been through.
She also never did things without a command. She was moulded to act like a slave. Even if she was starving she wouldn't eat until I said so. The same goes for sleeping, talking, going to the toilet etc. Unless I told her to, she wouldn't do anything.
She couldn't decide anything for herself.
I also learned many things about the girl in the past few days. Like for example, her name was Kanao and her parents sold her when she was only four years old.
I made her retell everything that had happened to her so far. Luckily, she was not raped or sexually sold like I initially thought, her hymen probably broke during many of the beatings she had to endure.
After caring for her for a few weeks and helping her in any way I could, I brought her to the Flower Mansion - the place she rightfully belonged.
If you didn't know, she was Kanao, the student under Shinobu which we saw in the anime of Demon Salyer. She was also the love interest of the main character Tanjiro.
She was meant to be found by Kanae but it seemed I encountered her first.
I brought her to the Flower Mansion and entrusted her into the hands of the Kocho sisters. I was by no means someone who could take care of a child. I was constantly travelling and had no home, but the Flower Mansion always had either of the sisters due to thier job so they would be better at taking care of a child.
So I decided to follow the canon and let her be raised by the Kocho sisters. It was for her own good.
But when I was about to leave her, she ran up to me and grabbed my haori - just like she had done during the weeks I had been taking care of her.
I looked at her and I saw that she did not want me to leave. It was the first emotion I saw on her face, the first thought I read off her, and it completely melted me.
So in the end, I stayed with her in the Flower Mansion for two months. I stayed with her until she was comfortable amongst the Kocho sisters.
I was also able to teach her many things from then on. The progress was slow but the girl was healing, both in mind, spirit and body.
Her small stature was slowly filled with healthy fats and muscle and after two months, she looked like a normal child.
But after two months passed, I had to leave again. But this time, she had gotten along with the sisters and she felt safe with them.
So I bid her farewell.
And also, I ended up giving her my last name when we were creating documents for her.
So she was Kanao Shigan.
She ended up being my little sister I guess.
(Consider it a small change. In the canon, Kanae gave her the name Kanao Kocho as the girl had no name)
...
...
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[4 months later]
The next four months were filled with constant training as I increased my mastery over every single breathing style.
Not only that, but I also started creating new forms of breathing by mixing the breathing styles.
Although some breathing styles could not be mixed due to their polar opposite nature, I was successful in most of them.
Technically, I was creating a new breathing style by combining them but I did not count it as such. I would develop my own breathing style later on.
I spent the months training, visiting the Flower Mansion and doing missions. A Hashira meeting was also called again and other than the fact that I was assigned a new territory, nothing significant happened.
In the blink of an eye, time passed. And it had been a total of two years since I became a Hashira.
Today, I turned 16 years old.
At 16, I stood at 6 feet tall with a new air of maturity. Two years was a long time and I had grown in both body and character.
Also, after developing new breathing forms which were a mix of two breathing styles, I was now the strongest among the Hashiras.
It was not official yet but if my eyes were to be truthful, I was indeed the strongest.
I think I grew well during these past two years.
...
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Author: Finally, that's the end of the time skip.
I really wanted to explore the Kanao arc for a few chapters but it would've just added useless content as her character would not have much significance in the plot. If you like to know more, I can add her POV that recounts what happened in a little detail.
We will dive into mixed breathing later on.
Also, note that the information given during the time skips is not complete. I may refer to something that happened in the past two years which are not mentioned in these time skip chapters but know that just because they are not mentioned, doesn't mean it did not happen.
Thanks for reading.