Chapter Text
“It's dangerous to stay here, you all have to leave,” the swordsman said as he sheathed his katana, already half-a-step outside the door.
“But we have nowhere else to go,” Tanjiro replied, finishing up the bamboo muzzle for his siblings while his mother tended to their wounds.
Luckily, Rokuta and Kie's were all shallow cuts to the chests that had already stopped bleeding a while ago—but it was still unbearably painful for a young four-year-old child. As for his other siblings, the swordsman said they've already healed it up as they have become demons and it probably won't pose any problems in the future.
“Move for Mount Sagiri and look for the man named Sakonji Urokodaki. Say you were sent by Tomioka Giyuu, he'll take care of you all.” The swordsman, Giyuu, said nothing more as he turned to leave.
“Ah, mister!” Tanjiro called out and Giyuu stopped in his steps. “Thank you so much for your help!”
Giyuu hesitated but he did turn and what he saw was Tanjiro bowed down before him, followed by Tanjuro and Kie with an apology.
“We're sorry about what happened. But we owe you our lives. Thank you, Tomioka-san.”
A flash of something swept by Giyuu's face and he nodded in response, disappearing with the winds.
Kie winced at the harsh gust of wind that blew from the broken entrance covered with a pathetic excuse of some wood tied together haphazardly.
“I think we need to get down and get a doctor for now,” Kie suggested, cradling little Rokuta who was dozing off from the painkillers Tomioka gave them.
Tanjiro nodded.
“You and Dad should walk down the mountain, I can take care of Nezuko and the rest.”
“Are you sure you're alright, boy?” Tanjuro asked, but Tanjiro only smiled as warm as he could in response, and he nodded.
They could see their son's hands still shaking and how his brows were furrowed ever so slightly. But there wasn't much to help their family right now. The priority was keeping them safe.
“But do we leave the house as it is? I don't want to leave it broken and bloody. And we still have to think of a way to get the children safe during travels by day.” Kie looked at Tanjuro, swadling Rokuta in the last clean sheet of cloth they could find.
“Let's try and think about that later, for now, let's go see a doctor.”
It took the Kamado family an entire week to move out. Partly to tend to their injuries and partly to fix up their home before they leave.
Tanjiro's entire family seemed to be falling more and more often asleep, Tanjuro thinks this may be how the children regain their energy instead of eating humans. But even Tanjuro and Kie and his youngest brother spend more time asleep than not. Only Tanjiro was ever awake most of the time.
Tanjiro and Tanjuro had also stopped making coals halfway through the week and bid farewell to their village friends with some vague excuse and they'd already scooped their savings up for the travels. They were supposed to use that to buy some baskets to carry Hanako, Takeo and Shigeru.
Though it seemed they didn't really need it.
“Didn't Tomioka-san say sunlight wasn't good for them? And- and the snow's already thawed…” Tanjiro asks nervously, watching Takeo, Hanako and Nezuko play with Rokuta while Tanjuro was working on their roof.
Tanjiro and Kie could only look at each other in confusion and worry, but also relief as it meant more money would be spent on food.
But not blood, somehow. It made the family think that the children might not really demons in the first place. Neither of Takeo, Hanako, nor Shigero could stomach regular food, not raw fish or venison. And whenever they hunger for human flesh—in the times when it was harder to supress—Hanako was the honest one who tied themselves down while they slept.
The day they left, the Kamado family bid their farewell to Old Man Saburo and returned everything they borrowed with a solemn farewell. And they made sure to take a different route away from the village, just in case.
Tanjiro and Tanjuro both pulled at the cart as the children and Kie all sleep in the day. While at night, Takeo and Kie take on the role.
They pass by the blue flower grove right on the sole single day they were blooming that year as Kie sang the children a lullaby.
And they reach Mount Sagiri before long.
Tanjiro knocked on the door of the little hut as the children all jump one by one off the cart.
“Excuse me! Is anyone home?”
“Maybe they aren't home, nii-chan,” Takeo had Rokuta in his hold, while Hanako and Shigero held their mother's hands.
“Should we wait then?” Tanjiro turned to his sibling just as a voice came from behind him.
“There's no need,” the gruff voice threw Tanjiro off. And the Kamado family hesitated not one second to introduce themselves.
“So you're the demon family Giyuu mentioned.” The old man with a tengu masked eyed them so obviously. “Took you long enough. Place the cart over there and whoever's to be tested, follow me,” the old man, Sakonji Urokodaki, said as he placed the stack of wood he had carried.
“As for the rest, please make yourself at home.”
“Sorry for the intrusion.” Kie watched as his husband and eldest sun both run to follow the older man and immediately ushers her children inside to sleep. It's been a long journey and it's only half-an-hour past sunset but the sun had taken its toll on Hanako and Takeo.
“Mama, what's the test for?” Hanako asks as Kie leads all of the children—Tanjiro aside—inside the hut.
It was relatively small, probably too small for an entire 8-member family. But they could make do.
“It's a test to become a demon slayer. Your father and your big brother are going to be tested to see if they're fit to train.”
“Isn't that the job of that Toniogagaoka Giyuu-san?” Takeo eagerly adds in. “I wanna train too! Can I, Mama?”
"Yeah, the one that tried to kill us," Hanako shudders but the smile kept to her face. “Do you think Urokodaki-san would also let me join?” Hanako asks and both children then engage in a lively conversation with the spare futons already in their hands.
It's quite the relief to see that her children had kept their optimism despite the everything that happened to them. They still manage to be her cheerful little angels.
Hanako was the most open-minded about the topic, opting to move on to accepting their new normal with enthusiasm; and Takeo was distraught, of course, but the fact that he was inhumanly stronger and tougher might have distracted him.
If only she could say the same for Shigeru and Nezuko. The boy has become reserved ever since the incident. Kie and Tanjuro have tried consoling him but he only ever takes off his muzzle with Tanjiro—the muzzle he kept insisting on wearing.
Nezuko, on the other hand, seemed to have lost her own volition and voice. She doesn't speak and rarely makes any noise aside from occasional grunts and whines. She only ever does what she is told, but she is thankfully still as playful as ever. They worry about her the most.
“Yeah, like you can beat me,” Takeo taunts Hanako while Kie arranges the five extra futons to fit all of them.
“Sure I can! I already have!” Hanako retorts.
“That was one time! Plus, you had Nezuko-neechan's help!”
“Shut up, you're just a sore loser,” Hanako blew raspberries at Takeo even as Nezuko held them up by the collar to lay them perpendicular to the futon, still picking on each other.
“Thank you, Nezuko.” Nezuko nuzzles on her mother's lap and she lets her take the muzzle off her mouth.
It must be so uncomfortable to wear, Kie thinks.
Shigeru scooches closer while Takeo and Hanako both start to doze off beside Rokuta, still silently and ever so subtly picking on each other. And Kie waits.
She waits as the night grows deeper and the winds blow colder from the little open window inside the little room.