Kamado Tanjuro

Shin was sitting down on a porch watching two kids run by with smiles on their faces. Next to him was a man with hanafuda earrings and unhealthy yet energetic looking skin.

He had dark red eyes and black hair that turned red at the end, sunk in cheeks, and a scar on his forehead. His presence was unnaturally calm however Shin couldn't help but feel pressured sitting next to him.

"How did I end up here?" He mumbled to himself, turning up to the sky with a lost look.

After dealing with the demon Shin found a cave deeper within the forest, there was nothing there except small bones and blood splattered on the walls.

He would have been affected by this before, yet after the 'incident' it wasn't doing much to him.

Though after exploring the cave a bit he found a girl with black hair and green eyes who he assumed to be the daughter of the couple he was sent out by.

After confirming this he took her home and decided to leave the village to head up the mountain since he had nothing else to do.

He didn't know why but he just felt like he should, time flew by and night quickly came. That's when he met the man sitting next to him.

He was dancing, performing some type of show in the snow surrounded by torches with a wooden blade in hand. Even for someone like Shin who wasn't able to see color nor actual appearances he couldn't take his eyes away.

His movements were all varied with no certain pattern yet instead of making it seem dysfunctional it was all performed perfectly and gracefully.

Shin watched the show not knowing that hours went by until the man stopped performing.

He took out his sword and tried his best to perform the moves he had seen, each swing felt foreign to him. 

He trained in moon breathing and each slash was meant to be performed in the classic crescent moon form unlike what he was doing now.

Eventually, the man named Tanjuro Kamado discovered him and unlike what Shin imagined, Tanjuro only smiled and invited him to meet his family while asking what a kid like him was doing out there.

"I came from the village down the mountain, I ended up getting lost and roamed around."

Tanjuro scratched his cheek noticing how Shin didn't want to go any further or explain why he had a sword but he understood. "You can stay as long as you like."

Shin looked at him confused until a boy with ruffled black hair and red ends ran up to Tanjuro with a girl that had black hair and plum colored eyes following behind. The boy seemed to be a couple years younger than Shin and the girl one year younger than the boy.

They momentarily stopped when they noticed Shin. The two looked at him curiously, their small eyes scanning him over 10 times within the next second as smiles slowly formed on their faces.

Tanjuro chuckled seeing this and proceeded to walk towards them. He placed his hand on their small heads and ruffled their hair. "Meet my children."

"This is Tanjiro." Tanjiro waved towards Shin.

"And this is my daughter Nezuko." Nezuko nodded towards him with a smile.

'A small happy family, huh?' Shin looked at them indifferently before a small unnoticeable smile formed on his face as he proceeded to introduce himself.

"I'm Shin, it's nice to meet you." 

Tanjiro and Nezuko ran to shin and started started throwing questions at him while pulling him around to play. 

"Kids, can you go tell your mother to make extra for Shin here?"

""Okay!"" They both ran off towards the wooden house in the distance leaving Shin alone with Tanjuro.

"They seem nice." 

Tanjuro chuckled a bit before waving towards Shin to follow him. "I thank god for them every day." 

The two walked around picking up firewood silently, only cricket chirping being heard. Shin felt slightly uncomfortable so he decided to break the ice. "What was that dance you were doing before?"

Tanjuro smiled hearing Shin's question. "It's something my family do every new year, we perform a ritual called Hinokami Kagura where the head of the family offers a dance to the fire god starting from sunset to sunrise to ward off diseases."

Shin looked questionably at him. "But it isn't new year and the sun still hasn't come up yet?"

"Sometimes I perform it to appease my kids." Tanjuro laughed thinking of the two little rascals before looking back at Shin.

"I could teach you if you're interested, you're a Demon Slayer aren't you?" He pointed towards the sword on Shin's waist.

Shin nearly tripped hearing that, he knew Tanjuro was kind the moment they met and this is what he wanted, but isn't this happening a bit fast? "Didn't you just say that it's passed down in the family?"

Tanjuro didn't mind answering Shin's question since it wasn't that important. "Someone outside the family is able to learn if taught by a Kamado so don't worry, you might know it as breath of the sun."

Shin nodded his head, he remembered how his teacher had told him how breathing styles were all branched from sun breathing, he pondered over his words before looking Tanjuro straight in the eyes. "Why me?"

Tanjuro reciprocated the look and stared into Shin's clouded eyes. "I don't know, I just feel like I should. It's like asking why the sky is blue as a kid, you know there's a reason behind it but you don't have an answer."

"Couldn't you teach Tanjiro and Nezuko?" Shin didn't care if he taught them or not but he still wanted to know why Tanjuro would teach him instead of them all of a sudden.

"I could but the results would be the same, Tanjiro would take his time to learn them and I feel that Nezuko would barely be able to keep up. Tanjiro can already use a form but it took him a while to learn. I just don't want it to be too late." 

Shin sighed. 'Here I thought it would be difficult.'

"Alright I'll take up your offer but you should teach Nezuko as well, never know what could happen." 

"Alright."

"..."

"..."

After a moment of silence they went back to work before Tanjuro asked a question. "How did you become so mature at your age?" 

"I've been through some things." Shin simply replied.

Shin let out another sigh, he couldn't help but feel like his next couple of years were going to be quite busy.