chapter 1

Hello dear readers! there is a short prelude to this story which you can read here. s/13917103/1/Why-was-I-born-Prelude-to-a-larger-story (unless you don't wanna which is also fine)

This is the first chapter of this work, but there will be more. Enjoy!

Shu Yong was a rather large man, from a wealthy family in Peking, and well acclimated to the new modernized lifestyle brought to Shanghai by the colonial powers. However, the stresses of having so many different clients had frazzled his nerves. It was a lucrative lifestyle, but a busy and stressful one as well, so when he returned to his apartment one night after a long days work to find one of his clients had somehow managed to sneak in and was waiting for him there; an angry or panicked reaction would have been understandable.

But this particular client was a special case.

"I know you can only meet me at night, and I understand that, but call me next time! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"My apologies Yong" said the man, his features obscured in the shadows of the dimly lit apartment, "but when I heard of this, I simply could not wait, do you remember me telling you of Kibutsuji Muzan? The man who turned me into a Demon?"

"Yes I remember, you told me that he was 1,000 years old and likely to live forever because there was just no one strong enough to defeat him, a scary guy, but what of him?"

"He's dead." Said the client seriously.

"Well then..." said Yong as he lit a cigarette, "That doesn't mean much to me, I never met the man, I only knew about him from your accounts, so why are you still here? Go home Let me go to sleep."

The man rose from his seat and tossed a letter to Yong. "This is a transcription," he explained, "of a report from Japan, I wrote it down after it was relayed to me by my crow."Yong read the note out loud and then got to the ending, "In the aftermath of the defeat of Kibutsuji Muzan the Demon Slayer Corps have officially disbanded, in the aftermath of the battle, two Corps members, Kamado Tanjiro and Tokito Muichiro were temporarily turned into demons, but transformed back into humans via a miracle drug created by the Corps, Kamado had lost his left arm and right eye before his transformation, but regained them afterward, and is currently expected to regain use of his arm, and sight in his eye, after they heal on their own. Tokito's mortal wounds were healed by his transformation, and is also expected to make a full recovery, in addition, the younger sister of Kamado Tanjiro, Kamado Nezuko, has also been successfully turned back into a human, after spending 4-5 years as a Demon..."

Yong huffed, he was tired, and never had to concern himself with any nonsense like this before.

"If that is all," he began as he looked up from the letter, "then I ask that you take care of it without~" he trailed off upon noticing the look in his client's eyes, those demonic unnaturally blue eyes, serious and fixated on the situation.

"Do you understand what this means Yong!? There is an elixir that turns demons back into humans! And you and I must go to Japan to get it"

"Go yourself!" Retorted Yong, "What would you even do with such an elixir? So long as I have known you, you enjoy being a demon."

"Don't concern yourself with that" the demon spoke, "All I need you to do is to go with me to Japan as my interpreter, that's what I have always hired you for, you do speak Japanese right? I'll even pay double for this trip."

Yong shook his head. "It's impossible," he said, "I cannot abandon my obligations to my other clients here in Shanghai, besides, I hate the Japanese, so if you don't mind~"

Before he could finish; before he even realized that the demon standing in the shadows before him had vanished; he felt his presence behind him, and the demon's sharp claws at his throat. Yong froze in fear; a bead of sweat trickled down from his brow."I don't want to hear about you Asians and your boring grudges against one another, as far as I am concerned, I don't care, and we are going to Japan! I've offered you double your regular salary, and If I were you, I'd take it while that offer is still good..."

Shu Yong took a deep breath and regained his composure. "Very well," he began, sounding braver than he felt. "I'll go to Japan with you, we will plan a trip to Japan tomorrow"

"That's good," said the demon, lowering his claws, "I want to take one of those new airplanes, it will get us there faster!"

"I don't know if there are yet flights from Shanghai to Japan," said Yong as he felt his heart start to beat again, "let me figure it out in the morning, Im already tired, so can you please..." he took a deep breath "please get the fuck out of my apartment?"...

It had been a slow recovery, but a steady one, Tokito Muichiro gazed out of the window of Sanemi's Mitsubishi PX33, the two of them had a lot on their minds as Sanemi drove, so much had happened since their final battle against Muzan and the upper moons, Sanemi had stayed by Muichiro's side after he had been turned into a demon, and waited with him until the miracle drug could be administered. Muichiro stayed in the hospital for some time after that, his wounds were serious.

Sanemi's were as well, his physical wounds were serious, but not life-threatening, yet the wounds of having lost his last remaining family; would never fully close.

Finally, Muichiro broke the silence; "It feels a bit strange for me since I was only just discharged from the hospital, but I'm still very excited about this! I haven't seen Tanjiro in so long!"

The two of them were driving towards the Japanese Alps near Kyoto, their colleagues were all already there, there was to be a reunion held at a village at the foot of these mountains, it was the same village where Kamado Tanjiro used to sell charcoal, so many years ago…

"You've already been with the Others, how is Tanjiro? Is he doing okay? And Nezuko."They are fine, Tokito" Sanemi assured him, "Tanjiro's arm and eye still hurt him, but he's doing better, So is Giyuu, we managed fully to save his arm, that man is goddamn lucky!" he paused for a moment, "Tanjiro also has Nezuko… shes definitely helped him through this, she's a good kid"

Muichiro beamed, "I'm glad to hear it, I can't wait to finally meet her"

The Japanese countryside looked beautiful as they drove by it, passing farms and fields with the Japanese Alps just on the horizon.

The two former Pillars made one last stop at a Cafe, Muichiro had gone out first, and ran ahead on ahead. As Sanemi got out and closed his side of the car door, something brought his attention to the vehicle parked next to them… something was drawing him to the back seat of that car, his eyes widened with familiar anger, and for a moment, he felt his hand reaching for his Katana, then then the owner of the vehicle who had just now come out of the Cafe had returned, a large man wearing western clothing, and with the scowl of an annoyed businessman who was not satisfied with his meal just now. not out of the ordinary. He got into his car and went on his way down the road.

"It couldn't be..." thought Sanemi, "it must have been my imagination." He then noticed that his hand was about to grab nothing but empty air… his sword wasn't even on his belt, it was in the car packed away with Tokito's sword! "I really am imagining things," he thought and shuddered that it could even happen to him.

"Sanemi!" Muichiro called from the Cafe, "aren't you going to come and get something to eat? The Dango here smells really good!"

"Yeah, coming" He called a bit shakily.

"Huh? Sanemi, what's wrong?" Muichiro asked, noticing immediately.

"Nothing kid, don't worry about it," Sanemi said more harshly than he had meant to.

This just made Muichiro look even more concerned, but Sanemi ignored it.

"Is it still the effects of battle fatigue?" he thought to himself again, he held his hand up to his forehead, for a moment, He knew that Muzan and the upper moons were all dead, there was no way there would still be demons lurking around, and yet he was sure he had sensed the presence of a Demon in the backseat of that car.

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