4 Chapter 4. Slaughter

I was walking down the road to the village with Tanjiro, knowing that it was my last time being with my mother, my younger siblings.

Only I knew how I was holding my tears back,

We were silently walking. I walked in a straight line, while Tanjiro was looking left and right time to time,enjoying the snow.Yes Today, it was snowing heavily.

"Nii-san, what are you thinking about?" Tanjiro asked.

"it's nothing" I said with a calm expression.

'Hm" Tanjiro didn't say anything else on our way to the village.

After a few hours...

It was now afternoon, and we had arrived in the village.

When we were selling charcoal, everything that happened in the canon also occurred.

A woman was beating her son, claiming that he broke something, Tanjiro went used his sense of smell to tell that it was the doing of a cat.

I was sitting under a tree after selling all our charcoal,Tanjiro requested to stay in the village for a while longer.

As I saw these scenes unfold in front of my eyes, I was, even though I didn't want to, starting to think of a way to save 'them'.

I thought, "If we don't stop at the house of the man named Saburo, then wouldn't I be able to reach home a lot more quickly?"

"But wouldn't that change everything? If my family isn't slaughtered by Muzan and Nezuko isn't turned in a demon, then why would Tanjiro even become a demon slayer?; If he doesn't become a demon slayer, there might be no way that he would master 'Fire god's breadth' and Muzan won't be killed as well"

"Wait! Why am I thinking such nonsense?

"Save my family from Muzan?! Is it a joke, demon slayers have struggled for centuries to even defeat the weaker demons, how would I, normal,person be able to even run from him?

"I'll get killed even before I know what's going on" thinking that, I felt as if everything around me had paused, I didn't know what I was doing.

Am I still selling charcoal?

Am I still standing? Or was I sitting?

Can I still talk?

What's happening to me?

*thud*

I can't feel anything, everything fades to black…

After an unknown amount of time…

I open my eyes and I find myself in front of that 'Light',

Am I dead again? Was this it? End of my story? If so, then It was a lot sooner than I expected, I thought.

"No, you aren't dead, my child" said that ball of light.

"Then why am I here?" I inquired.

"Because I made you fall unconscious, since you were trying to think of a way to save your family and change the story completely."

"Was I wrong, trying to find a way to change the story and save my family is wrong? All I ever wanted was a family…wait…then why did I even ask to be born in the kamado family?I knew how the story was going to be then why didn't I ask to be reincarnated in some other world?

Why did I even ask for something so stupid and contradictory?"

"Well, you can't blame yourself for that, at the moment you died, your thoughts were muddled,

due to which you weren't able to think properly, don't feel dejected, your family isn't dying for nothing"

"There are countless times that the demons slaughtered and ate entire families, as long as the demons exist, tragedies like that will be a common occurrence.

If most of your family doesn't die today, then Muzan will kill your descendants and never be in peace unless he kills everyone of Kamado bloodline." said the ball of light.

"I assume that you understand your current situation" It inquired.

"Yes, I get it", I said with complex emotions.

"Listen, Harada, It's okay to feel sad, it's okay to feel sorry for the loss of your loved ones, but don't let it could your judgement" It said in a monotone voice.

"So, is everything predetermined?So, whatever I do for the rest of the story is meaningless? Will you come to stop me again?"

The light said "No, this was the only once I'll ever try to stop you, and as for things being predetermined, the things that happened in the canon will happen in this timeline as well, but you change make some changes if your influence is big enough"

"Okay", As I started thinking about the things that "the ball of light" said, I gradually started feeling better.

Everything fades to black once again…

I open my eyes, I am lying in a room completely unfamiliar to me.

I still can't fully understand what's happening.

I exit the house,I see that it was evening.

I finally made peace with my inner conflict

I felt relieved,it was as if tons of weight was lifted off my chest.

"I swear that I'll avenge you all someday!".

As I was thinking that, I hear a sound, someone was calling me,

"Nii-san, you're awake, are you feeling well now, mother told you to stay home if you weren't feeling well then why didn't you listen to her?! It's a good thing that Takano-san let you rest in his house" Tanjiro scolded me for being inconsiderate of my health.

"I wasn't feeling so unwell back at the house, after coming all the way down here, I got tired and fell unconscious accidentally" I replied in a low voice,like child who was scolded by his elders.

It looked a bit weird considering that I was 16 years old this year.

Children started to come out of their homes to play,they greeted me and I greeted them as well.

"It's evening already we should hurry back to home" I said hurriedly,

"You're right,Nii-san"

After saying that we headed to the path in the forest that led to our house on in the mountain.

After walking for an hour, we reached a small house, this was the house of a man named Saburo, he was a kind, and caring person, but everyone in his family had died.

He met us and said, "Oh, Harada, you're still returning from the village"

"Yes, Saburo-san, I fell unconscious" I said with a wry smile on my face.

"Hm, don't go to the mountains, it should be night by the time you reach your house. There can be man-eating demons lurking in the woods during the night, stay at my place if you want"

Tanjiro looked at me, I looked at him, and said with a smile to Saburo-san, "We will be happy to", and entered his house.

We ate boiled rice at his place and Tanjiro and Saburo -san slept soundly, but I couldn't, I was thinking about My mother and my younger siblings at home.

On that night

In the mountains

In a house made of wood, covered with snow.

Five people were sitting in a room,4 children and 1 woman, it was the Kamado family.

"When will onii-chan return?" the children asked their mother.

"I don't know, maybe they stayed at the village since it was too late, but you don't have to worry, both of your brothers are old enough"She said with a smile but on the inside, she was just as concerned. She was their mother, after all.

"But they may arrive at any moment now, if they didn't stay there"said Nezuko to other children.

Near the house was a black silhouette, and it was slowly nearing the house.

"So this is the place" Said the black silhouette calmly.

Inside the house,

"I'll go outside for a bit, okay?" Shigeru said.

As Shigeru went outside he saw the black silhouettes standing in the woods, he got scared, but before he could even let out a voice

The black silhouette appeared in front of him, grabbed his mouth with his and…

Sounds of bones crackling could be heard,Shigeru was trying his best to let of a voice that could alert others in the house but all that struggle was in vain.

The black silhouette didn't stop even after completely crushing Shigeru's jaw, it tightened its grip even further, so much that blood was oozing out of Shigeru's eyes, ears,and nostrils.

Then it proceeded to insert its nails in Shigeru's skin,in just a second, his entire body deformed,his head started to inflate like a balloon and

*Bam*

His head exploded,brain matter,which now looked like feces,was splattered all over the ground near the gate.

This black silhouette was Muzan, Kibutsuji Muzan. Tonight he was going to exterminate the last potential users of the 'fire-god's breadth'.

After hearing the sound of a 'balloon' exploding,

The three children, except Nezuko and Kei,were now aware that there was someone out there at the front door of their house.

At first they thought that it's their brothers who have come back but after discovering that there was a nauseating smell,the smell of blood, they got scared,Takeo went to the kitchen to tell his big sister Nezuko and mother that there was someone out there.

Hanako and Rokuta were now in the room,all alone.

Suddenly,Muzan can inside the house and crused Hanako's and Rokuta's heads with his right arm,and then he rushed to the kitchen.

Kei was holding Takeo, and Nezuko in her embrace,try to delay death even by a second.

But It was all,once again,in vain.

Muzan put his hand inside of Kei's chest,crushed her ribcage,grabbed her heart,and pulled it outside.

He crushed Rokuta and he inserted his finger inside Nezuko's head and injected a huge amount of his blood.

"All of them are dead,ah humans are so weak yet I had to live in fear of the fire god's breadth reappearing till this moment"

As Muzan said that,he expressions were indifferent and his voice was monotone.

"Now then,I should leave."

To be continued….