Sinner

Sitting at the chabudai of the Kamado household, with Kanao clinging to me while still shaking, I stare the Kamado family who were still trying to calm down from that incident.

"What was that?"

Being the first to ask a question, I answer Kie. "That was we consider to be a demon."

"Aren't those just fairytales?" Hanako blurts out.

"Unfortunately, they're not." I smile sadly whilst shaking my head. "Demons are something very real and very dangerous. They are beings that, under the guise of the leader, kill humans and drink their blood to get stronger. However, the one that I faced today just so happened to be the leader of the Demons, Muzan Kibutsuji."

"Does that mean that you can beat any of those Demons than nii-san?" Looking at Shigeru, I scratch my head.

"No, it doesn't. Unlike normal Demons, Muzan can be considered the absolute peak, and when I was fighting with him, he wasn't at full strength. If I were to fight him again, on his territory, under his rules, then I would no doubt lose. He was only caught by surprise because he didn't expect such a strong Demon Slayer to be here."

"What are you exactly?" Nezuko asks.

"I work for an organization called the Demon Slayer Corps that serves to fight and kill these so-called Demons. Among my own ranks, I am a Hashira, one of the strongest of the Demon Slayer Corps, who can fight against the Upper Kizuki and Muzan himself. My mission was to find something that Muzan had been looking for and protect it, even with my life."

"Then why are you here?"

Only answering with silence, Kie steps in to answer Takeo's question. "Because we're what you're protecting, right?"

Nodding my head, I explain. "Normally in these situations, I would be travelling the world and removing demons, but your family came first."

"What's so special about us?"

Looking to Nezuko I ask, "You know the dance your father did every winter?" Nodding her head, I continue, "That is what I call Hinokami Kagura, also known as the Dance of the Fire God, it's one of the only known techniques to have true capabilities to eliminate Muzan. Your family possesses a breathing style that allows for Demon Slayers to go well beyond their limits and reach the pinnacle. However, as I've watched over this family, the only one who could possibly execute this form properly would be Tanjiro. Even if that's true though, Hinokami Kagura still exists in your blood. So, say if Muzan were to transform one of you into a demon, there's a possibility that you could develop a resistance to the sun which Muzan has spent centuries trying to discover."

"He'll come back then, won't he?" Being the only one who wasn't as stunned by the information I provided, Kie asks me.

I nod my head.

"What should we do then?"

"Since Muzan is now aware of your existence and knows for sure that you are of utmost importance for someone as strong as me to defend you, Muzan will attack this place, looking to kill me and capture you all. To prevent Muzan from laying his hands on you, I have no choice but to lead you to the Demon Slayer Corps Headquarters and protect you there. Even if that brings the location of the Demon Slayer Headquarters to light, protecting your lives is far more important. Firstly, as the friend of the Kamado Family and secondly as my duty as a Demon Slayer Hashira, I ask you to comply with me." Completing it with a dogeza, Kie stands up.

Returning my dogeza with a bow, Kie speaks. "We will gladly follow you. If it means that my children will live, I'll do anything."

Starting our preparations to leave, Kie talks with me with private. "What will happen with to the villagers down in the town below?"

"I'll send a message and have the Kakushi, our helpers, start to evacuate them."

"Thank you." Kie hugs me. "For protecting us."

---

Now on the road, I walk a few meters ahead of the Kamado family with Shinobu and Kanao by my side.

"Shiro, what are you?" Breaking the silence with her question, I don't even turn to Shinobu to answer her question.

"I am what you see before you. A friend and a lover. A human and a demon."

"But what does that mean?"

"It means that while I was fighting against Muzan, I became a demon. However, I could change from human to demon and vice versa. And like I had said before after Muzan had retreat, I am not a demon created by Muzan, so I don't follow the same rules. Muzan might be the progenitor to all demons, but my existence shatters such."

"Change you?" Looking at Kanao who asked such, I give a small smile.

"Other than a change in general appearance, I stay the exact same."

"Why didn't you reveal this to us sooner?"

Looking away in shame under Shinobu's stare, I reluctantly answer back. "The Demon Slayers are built on the principle of killing demons, and since you've been exposed to such ideals your entire lives, I thought you'd have grown prejudice to Demons and would look at me with disgust before fighting me yourselves."

"Illogical."

"I know, I know, but that irrational fear of losing the two people I love the most because of my own choices makes me hide things such as this."

Hugging me from the side, Shinobu sighs. "Shiro, you know we l-love you more than anything else, and something like that would never be enough to turn us away." Grabbing me by the face, Shinobu makes me lock eyes with her. "But you need to tell us these kinds of secrets. You have no idea how scared I was when you became I demon. I thought you'd join the ranks of Muzan. It felt like my heart was being torn straight from my body. So, please, talk with us."

"I'll try."

Ending our interaction with a kiss, we continued our way to the Demon Slayer Headquarters.

---

(Mini Time Skip)

"Ubuyashiki calls you to meet with him."

Receiving said message from Salvia, the doors of the Demon Slayer Headquarters swing open and reveal a Kakushi, waiting to escort us. Arriving in front of Ubuyashiki's premise, the Kakushi prepares to take my other companions with him, but I stop him from doing so.

"Ubuyashiki will want to meet with them."

Unable to go against the words of a Hashira, the Kakushi bows and then stalks away. The second that I enter the actual area, I see the Hashiras gathered. Every single one of them.

"It's unlike Master to call an emergency meeting like this!" I hear Rengoku's loud voice after a multitude of years. "I wonder why?!"

"It seems the reason itself has arrived." Muichiro states while staring directly at me, a slight smile adorning his usually emotionless face.

Seeing that Muichiro was staring at something other than the clouds for once, the Hashiras all turn in our direction, each having a different variety of reactions. The first to make any sort of move towards us was Mitsuri who ran towards me at high speeds before than trying to punch me. Sidestepping her punch, I grab her arm and fling her back around, sending her tumbling back to the Hashiras.

Raising an eyebrow, Mitsuri has a dumbfounded look on her face.

"Eh, you were supposed to let me hit you."

Staring at the pouting Mitsuri, I ask, "And why would I do that?"

Before even getting to utter a word, she is rocketed off to the side when Gyomei "lightly" bumps into her.

"Such a blessed day for my previous disciple to show himself again. I reverently pray that you stay in good health."

Returning Gyomei's greeting with a pat on his arm as tears streamed from his eyes, I feel two rather toxic looks prickling my skin. Looking past Gyomei's hulking figure, I can see both Obanai and Shinazugawa staring at me with hostility. Hinaki Ubuyashiki and Nichika Ubuyashiki voices then sound out.

"The Master is here."

Still a bit put off from their mixed voices, I kneel myself towards the building. The Kamado family, who were watching our interactions were immediately confused when each of us lined up and kneeled towards the house entrance.

"I'm glad to see that everyone was able to come to this emergency meeting that I had called. We have much to talk of this time."

"Well, it was close to our semi-annual Hashira meeting anyway, so it's not really a bother." Muichiro inputs thoughtlessly, earning the glares of a few Hashiras.

"That it was." Ubuyashiki continues, "Our first order of business is to hear news from our Kōri to Kokū Hashira and the reasoning behind our guests here."

Finishing while motioning off to the Kamado family, I begin to speak.

"It is as I have said before when I first contacted you near four years ago. The existence that Muzan has been searching for might as well have been the Kamado family. In the letter that I sent; I disclosed no information about what it was that I held just in case we have a traitor in our midst."

"Preposterous" Shinazugawa buts in.

Not minding it, I continue, "But the thing that I had been protecting this entire time are the people just behind me."

"And what's so flamboyant about them, they seem rather… drab to me?" Uzui asks.

"Hinokami Kagura, a dance that's been handed down the Kamado family for centuries, serves to be the most dangerous technique towards demons."

"I've never heard of it!"

"Of course, you haven't. If you had, then it wouldn't be all that well protected of a Breathing Art."

Taken aback by my statement, Muichiro goes to speak, "It's…?" but is cut off my Ubuyashiki raising a finger to his mouth.

"So, the reason you're protecting them is because of their Hinokami Kagura?" Nodding my head, Ubuyashiki expresses a question. "Then why have you suddenly returned to us? The message I got by bird only told me that you'd be coming back."

"Well, when I said that the existence that Muzan had been searching for might as well be them wasn't an incorrect statement." I begin. "Before I had left my quant little hovel, Muzan had shown up at the Kamado Residence. Muzan, after years of searching, finally managed to locate the Kamado Family who he knows are users of Sun Breathing. He was hoping that if he could transform at least one of them into a Demon, then he could gain an immunity to the sun when he consumes them."

"There's no way that you fought with Muzan. He's like an eel that can never be caught. Why would he walk into a place where a Demon Slayer is staying?"

Under the venomous gaze of Iguro, I snipe back. "And how many Demon Slayers have fought with Muzan and lived to tell the tale? Muzan is the strongest Demon that there is, why would he be afraid of three Demon Slayers of measly strength?"

"You fought with Muzan?" Instead of answering my questions, Uzui's had leaned forward towards me with stars in his eyes. "What did he look like? What kind of techniques did he use? How strong is he exactly? Is he more flamboyant than we are?"

Looking to Ubuyashiki for consent, I began to explain what had occurred, point by point, on what had happened during my fight with Muzan, leaving out when I had turned into a demon. By the end of it, the expression of all the Hashiras was grave.

"Wait, but you were able to hold him off yourself, so doesn't that mean that if we add in the addition of say one or two more Hashiras, the tide of the battle will change?"

Staring straight into the eyes of Kanae, serving as an honorary Flower Hashira, I mumble, "Well, I didn't really fight Muzan on equal grounds."

Raising an eyebrow at my sentence, I decide to reveal the actual truth to the people that I knew I could trust with such information.

"You see, on my first fight with Muzan, when I was using Wind Breathing, Muzan utterly demolished me, tearing my right arm from my body and plunging his hand directly through my heart."

Hearing a hearty chuckle, I turn toward Mitsuri who was wiping a small tear from her eyes. "Well, that's obviously a lie. If that had happened, then you wouldn't be here with us now, right?"

Keeping my serious expression, I chasten my lips.

"Right?" Mitsuri asks again, a little more hesitantly this time.

"Muzan in no ways can be handled by a single Demon Slayer, it is simply impossible, so I resorted to much more extreme methods that would be looked down upon."

"And what would those be?!"

"It's easier just to show you, but in return, I ask that all of you try not to instantly kill me."

Standing up, I walk away from the kneeling Hashiras, standing in the shade of a tree. Closing my eyes, I focus on the feeling of changing into a Demon, feeling as my muscles expand slightly before becoming denser and more reformed.

Feeling as two of the Hashiras shoot up from their positions and draw their katanas, I open my eyes sluggishly, blocking the strikes, that would have cut me through the neck, with my forearms.

"I had asked you to not try and kill me."

Staring at me with his eyes near bulging from his head, Shinazugawa lets out a creepy chuckle. "Our mission as Demon Slayers is to eliminate such vermin like you. You made a grave mistake by revealing yourself here you vile demon."

"It is unbecoming and a heinous act to think that I had trained with someone like you." Iguro spits. "You deserve to die."

Activating my Demon Slayer Mark, I instantaneously remove my arms from their blades and punch them in their solar plexus, sending them rocketing backwards towards the edges of Ubuyashiki's confines. However, this act causes all Hashiras to cautiously place their hands on their katanas, ready to use their Breathing Art if need be. Stepping out of the shade of the tree, I earn a gasp of unfeasibility.

"You-You're in the sun." Mitsuri breaths.

"Let me say this first before you act like the two others, I am NOT Muzan's Demon. The rules that Muzan created could never apply to me."

"And how can we trust your words?" Giyu raises.

"By knowing that one, I am immune to the sun and if I had been Muzan's demon, he wouldn't wait a second to consume me. Two, because I was clearly a human before this, and the aura of the demon was only exuded when I actually became one."

Wearily staring at me, I sigh and begin my de-transformation, finding my muscles expanding from their overly dense state. After doing so, I give a strained smile. "See, I'm a human again."

"This is the technique that is so unbecoming of a Demon Slayer yet was so necessary against Him?" Speaking for the first time in a while, I find Ubuyashiki showing me an unprejudiced smile.

Nodding my head, I add, "It's also how I regenerate my arm and heart."

Feeling a thump on the ground, I look to find Gyomei on his knees, crying relentlessly while staring to the sky. "Thank you, heavens, for not turning my own precious disciple into something that I must kill. And I thank you for giving us such a strong warrior who can fight against the chaos that we might not stand a chance against."

Gyomei's statement causes everyone to untense their bodies, earning a grateful stare from me.

"Even if you are still yourself, I unfortunately cannot trust you now!"

Smiling sadly since I knew this might happen, I answer back, "That's perfectly fine, I just wanted to show that Muzan can never be underestimated when our Corps is to fight him. At best, it would take a minimum of Eight Hashira-Level Demon Slayers to kill him."

"So many." Kanae utters while rubbing her forehead.

Feeling as something starts moving towards me, I unsheathe my katana, blocking a strike by Iguro who had recovered. Having forgotten to release my Demon Slayer Mark, my katana glows a violent light blue. Before either of us can make our next move, a rush of a domineering aura comes over us.

"Obanai Iguro," Hearing the cold, dead voice of Ubuyashiki, a cold sweat runs down my neck. "You are not to fight against Shiro Urokodaki. Any further actions that come from you will result in punishments ensuing."

Both of us sheathe our katanas in the next instant, with Iguro then kneeling towards Ubuyashiki, offering his apologies. The atmosphere return to normal and Ubuyashiki shows a kind smile to me.

"I think it's only right that we continue this meeting."

Nodding my head, all Hashiras return to their original positions, allowing for the meeting to continue.

With the meeting finally ending and I having to deal with the suspicious stares of the other Hashiras, I make my way to the Butterfly Mansion, Kamado family in tow. The second that I enter the garden of the Butterfly Mansion that kept its beauty the entire time, I was rocketed into by Kanae who begun to cry.

Wiping her tears from her eyes, Kanae sniffles, "Welcome back."