4 The Stranger

"Tanjiro!!" I yell out, as I turn my sights back to Nezuko, who jumps towards me again.

'Crap, he's knocked out. What do I do?! Aghh why is she so strong?' I thought as she pounces onto me, knocking me down with her. As she grips my shoulders her nails bite into my skins through my clothes causing them to bleed. "NNnn" I grunt in pain as I shove the wooden handle into her mouth as she tries to force herself past it. Her saliva drips down the handle as she looks at me, I could see in her eyes.

Pain. Frustration. Anger. Confusion. So many emotions in her pinks eyes. What happened to her? What caused her to become like this? Wait… Why is there no blood on her hands or mouth? She was covering her body on top of Rokuta's. There was a footprint. That's right. A footprint that I didn't recognize in the blood.

*Crack Grck* Sounds came fro Nezuko's body in between her growls, as her body started increasing in size visibly in front of me. I widen my eyes in shock.

"Nezuko, what's wrong. Agghh, Nezuko! Stop!" I yell out, as she is growing in size bigger and bigger. 'Crap, what the hell is going on?! I know it's rude to say this, but she's getting heavier now' I gritted my teeth as she starts pushing and biting down harder onto the axe.

The veins on her head start bulging even more as she grew, and the pain on my shoulder grows. I need to do something, I need to get her to recognize me.

"Nezuko! Listen to me! You need to stop! I can see you're in pain, but you need to hang in there, please! I know it hurts, but hold on! We'll get you help! Don't turn into a Demon, please! Nezuko! You need to stay strong!" I yell out, as the pain starts increasing, and tears start to form in my eyes.

"Please, Nezuko, you need to hold on. Hang in there!" After I yelled that out, I could feel water dripping onto my face. Snow? No. It was Nezuko's tears.

I look up at her face as the pressure on my body is relieved a bit, I could see her eyes full of tears. I could see her normal eyes, the soft pink eyes of my little sister Nezuko.

"Nezuko?" At this moment, I could see the wind above me changing erratically, coming from a certain direction. Someone's coming...

[Third person perspective]

As Hiroto is wrestling against Nezuko, A man wearing a black Uniform and a haori with two different patterns; one solid red and one geometrically patterned with green, orange, and yellow, was seen running through the snow towards the sibling's location.

Running through the snow, the man has his Katana unsheathed in his in the right hand while resting his left on his sheathe to the left side of his body. His eyes, deep blue and devoid of emotions scan the two on top of each other. Seeing the top being a Demon he doesn't hesitate and jumps towards the girls back.

Midair, as he falls raising his katana over his head preparing to strike, Hiroto moves, grabbing Nezuko's neck as she looked away and pushed her to the side. As the man swung his sword down it misses and cuts off the boy's ponytail and the middle section of his haori, but missing and physical contact as the man redirects the blade at the last second.

"Huh?" The man muttered, confused by what happened. As the Katana lands onto the ground, the wind pressure created from it blew all of the snow towards the direction that the two rolled it. The gleam of the katana shines as the snow reflects off of it, creating a white luster.

As the snow settles, the two could be seen rolling away together as the boy Hiroto hugs Nezuko to avoid her from being harmed.

*THUD* "Gack" Hiroto coughs out, as his back is slammed against a tree. As he lies there, Nezuko starts to shrink in size as Hiroto shields her body from the man.

The stranger then turns around to face the two, his deep blue eyes devoid of emotion staring Hiroto down. As Hiroto looks into his eyes, he can't sense anything. Just a feeling of nothingness. It gives him shivers. 'Why are his eyes like that' Hiroto mutters as he sits up and hugs onto Nezuko's body.

"Grnnn" Tanjiro mutters as he opens his eyes. Smelling the air, he could tell there was another person here. As he looked up he could see Hitoro with Nezuko in his arms backed up to a tree sitting on it while shielding Nezuko's body. Then he saw the man standing there with a katana that has a blue blade.

"Destroy Demons…" Tanjiro mutters softly, as he looks at the Kanji inscribed onto the flat side of the katana blade.

"Why are you trying to protect it." The man's gruff voice sounded out, as he stood there watching the two.

"She's my younger sister! I won't let you harm her!" Hiroto shouts out at the man in front of him. For a second Hiroto could see the man's pupils flicker for a split second as his eyes narrow. Hiroto caught this and could tell it was a look of pity.

"gggrrraAAAA" Nezuko started screaming in Hiroto's arms as she tries to get out of his grasp and run away.

"Nezuko!" Hiroto yells towards the struggling Nezuko as he tries to get her under control.

The man then looked over towards Tanjiro and said, "What about him, who is he?"

"He's my younger brother! Why are you asking me this?" Hiroto shouts towards him.

The man ignored what he said and shifted his sight back to the two. "You call that thing your sister?" his voice again void of emotion and with added disdain.

"She's not a thing! She's a living being! A Human! She's my younger sister!" Hiroto yells out towards the man.

The man just stands and then launches himself towards the two.

"Brother! Nezuko!!" Tanjiro yells as he sees the man launching towards the two.

Hiroto quickly sees this and struggles on what to do. 'I need to protect Nezuko, but how?!' Hiroto thought. At this moment when the man closes in on them, Hiroto concentrates his eyes for a second and could see a vague blur. However, through the blur, he could see an outstretched hand reaching towards them. Seeings this, Hiroto immediately kicked up towards the hand to redirect the path and wanted to roll away.

The man's eyes widen as he was caught surprised by this, by the fact that a kid like him could see his fast movement. Although for only a moment, as he still manages to grab Nezuko out of Hiroto's arms by kicking snow into Hiroto's eyes.

"Aghh" Hiroto exclaimed as he wipes the snow away, only then to realize that he lost Nezuko.

"Nezuko!!" Hiroto and Tanjiro yell as they look towards the man 30ft away. He is holding Nezuko by her arms behind her back forcing her to crouch down, as Nezuko herself is yelling and growling trying to break free from his grasp. Tanjiro picks up the axe dropped by Hiroto and stood beside him.

"Don't move." The man's voice said, a second after he said so Hiroto could see the wind picking up as the wind pressure suddenly builds up and pushes the snow off to the side. 'It can't be… the wind was created by him?' Hiroto thought to himself.

"My job is to slay Demons. Needless to say, I'm going to decapitate your sister here." The man says tightening his grasp on Nezuko's hands behind her back.

*GraAA* Nezuko tries to struggle out but to no avail.

"But why! Nezuko hasn't killed anyone!" Hiroto yells out.

"It's like my brother said!" Tanjiro yells out. "Back at the house, there was another scent that I'd never smelled before! It didn't belong to any of us. My big brother also probably noticed something else wrong there."

Hiroto nodded adding, "I saw a footprint that didn't belong to any of my family there too in the blood, but it doesn't lead to anywhere else."

"Blood?" The man said. "Then your family?"

"They were ki…. Killed by someone when we returned, that was probably the one that killed our family! It couldn't have been Nezuko! I don't know what's wrong with her or how she became like this, but… I know that it wasn't her! I could still see the Nezuko I know of in her eyes! The Nezuko who's my younger sister!" Hiroto shouts out towards the man trying to reason with him.

"No. It's quite simple since her wounds were exposed to demon blood, she was turned into a Demon." The man said, as his voice gets deeper in tone. "That's how man-eating Demons multiply, by infecting others. That's what happened to this thing here."