What, if... (DEMON SLAYER)

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, under a dense layer of snow, there was a struggle going on, where a boy was fighting a demon, in an attempt to appease it.

- Nezuko, please! - cried out the young boy.

A girl whose fate was served in a bad way had turned into a demon. Her family had been killed by an unknown demon and for the same reason she herself had become that monster.

Kamado Tanjiro tried to stop his sister, but his attempts to reach her seemed even. The demon's jaws and the boy were separated by a small axe, which prevented the demon from biting off the man's flesh.

- Nezuko, it's me, Tanjiro! Your big brother. Come on, it's all right. I helped you. I promise!

Slowly but surely, his brother's screams reached his sister. At one point, he saw tears in his sister's eyes.

- Nezuko, is that you... А? Who is it?

Tanjiro had a clear sense of smell since birth and could pick up the tiniest of odors. He smelled some sort of evil, oppressive odor that quickly began to approach.

"Could it be a demon!" - Tanjiro thought.

The silhouette appeared before Tanjiro for only a moment. Instinctively, he tried to shield his sister from the impact. But in the same instant...

Blood rushed onto the boy's face. The severed head of the demon rolled on the snow, slowly disintegrating and in a moment, there was no trace of his sister's body...

- What... no, how so?

Tanjiro saw the very humanity in his sister's eyes, if only for a moment. Meanwhile, an unknown man covered in scars, holding a katana on his belt, approached the lying Tanjiro.

- Hey, what the fuck were you doing?

With those words, he took Tanjiro by the collar, pulling him to his face.

- You tried to protect a demon now? Are you sick of living like this? Then I can cut it off for you here.

Still not understanding Tanjiro looked at the man with a blank stare, trying to realize the full extent of what was happening.

- Why the fuck aren't you saying anything? I just saved your life, you could have thanked me.... Are you listening to me?

- Why-- why. - Tanjiro mumbled to himself.

- What are you babbling about?

- What the hell are you doing?! That was my... my sister! Who asked you to interfere.... you miserable bastard!

- You...

Throwing the boy to the snow, he began to slowly kick him.

- You think too much of yourself, you stupid bastard. Be grateful to me...

- Die.

An axe flew in front of the hunter's face a few centimeters away from his face. But his reflexes were at an incredible level and instinctively he threw his head back to avoid losing his head.

- Ha...ha ha ha ha

A terrifying smile spread across the man's face. Not expecting such a reaction, he wanted to know who this boy was.

- You're not bad. Wanted to kill the pillar himself with some axe. But I'll give you credit, it almost worked.

- I'm gonna kill you for what you did.

From not understanding, the men were only more incensed by the boy's words.

- Well then, good luck to you, kid. - said the pillar, bringing the rod over the boy's head.

With one precise blow to the head, he knocked Tanjiro out.

After a while, Tanjiro woke up. Remembering everything that had happened he looked around, looking for his sister, but she was gone....

- ...

- I swear I'll kill you. You...

From the anger and hatred within himself, veins popped out all over Tanjiro's body. The anger that overwhelmed him was not commensurate with any other anger he had felt throughout his life.

After this incident, Tanjiro found out that the man in question was Sanemi Shinazugawa, who was a pillar and possessed the breath of wind. With a cold head, he began to think about what he should do now. But the answer was on the surface. Exterminate the demons and at the same time get even for his sister. After some time Tanjiro, in search of a teacher, stumbled upon a small house where according to some information the former pillar of water lived.

" I remember my father dancing for the fire god every year, from dawn to dusk, to get rid of all diseases. My father used to say that someday I too could learn this dance. I don't know much about the organization of demon hunters, but from the information I've received, I can learn one of the existing breathing styles and then recreate my father's dance into the fire god's style. This is only my theory, but still..."

This house was located at the foot of the mountain. He did not know if the former pillar, Sakonji Urokodaki, would accept him, as the man in question had long ago stopped teaching anyone. But Tanjiro's determination was unwavering.

The meeting went quite well. Urokodaki hadn't originally thought of taking on a boy whose resolve was built on anger and vengeance. But beyond that, he had determination and unwavering decision-making. His first task was to destroy the demon that had killed a family nearby. Although Tanjiro didn't have good physical stats, but he could strain his body due to bad emotional memories to the limit. The demon was very slow and weak despite the fact that it had eaten, humans and was able to become stronger due to that. After dodging a punch once, Kamado began to strike with a small cobblestone all over his body. Even so, when his head was left in shards, it began to regenerate again. Tanjiro noticed how the demon's regeneration slowed as he began to strike at the neck area, so the following blows were only aimed at the head.

"Not a bad deduction," thought Urokodaki as he watched the whole thing from the sidelines, finishing burying the family of the dead.

As the sun rose, the demon completely dissolved under the sun's rays.

"Did it burn?" - Tanjiro asked himself with a heavy puff of breath.

Urokodaki had found potential in the boy. He believed that with time, that hatred would fade away. Though Tanjiro's story itself was sad, he believed the boy would be able to come to terms with this loss.... But he was wrong, not realizing all the pain inside Tanjiro that he looked at the burnt corpse of the demon with a blank stare...