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She is awoken to a severe pain under her arms, so she starts to jump up, before recognizing pulling on her arm, she manages to grab her sword, laying beside her unbound hand. She swings the sword above her, and hears a shriek above, “LOVE, WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME! I TURNED YOU TO A DEMON TO BE MY ETERNAL BRIDE, STAY HERE WITH ME!”
She starts flinging the sword around wildly, gasping at the unexpected feeling of having new limbs bursting through her shirt, below and slightly behind her arms, hearing the sound of a head hitting the grass, she turns to look, where a demon is now disintegrating, tears running down its face as it mutters “why, whywhywhywhywhywhywhy” she can feel her breathing picking up, pulling her now four arms around her, feeling the tears slide down her cheek. “I just wanted to help people…” she hiccups, trying desperately not to full on sob, not wanting to alert nearby swordsmen, or demons.
She can hear the crunching of leaves behind her as someone tentatively calls out, “Hello? Anyone over here? I can hear crying?”
She tries to back up, but hisses as her wrist goes into the sunlight now streaming through the trees. A louder crunching, and a swordsman in a blue and white haori is in the spot the previous demon had been in, she’s holding out all of her (4) arms now, trying to plead with him “please, I’m a demon slayer! I was sleeping! a demon turned me! I’m a demon slayer! I’m a slayer! please!” She’s babbling, and she knows it. Not feeling the expected slice of a blade, she moves her hands to wipe away the tears, trying to see more than a blue and white haori.
The swordsman before her kneels down and she freezes as he moves his hand forward.. and? pats her head? “Don’t worry, I can smell your sincerity, and I also have a sister who was turned unwillingly, though she couldn’t talk so that is a difference…” she leans into the hand on her head, liking the pressure.. it’s calming, “oh! Right, I should introduce myself! I am Tanjirou Kamado.”
“Imari Karai”
The boy stills for a moment, sticking his nose in the air before standing up. He moves back, giving her his hand. “I smell a demon this way, follow me.” He starts to go through the sunlight, but she stops.
“I- I can’t follow, I’ll die.. and- my stuff”
She looks at the area, a couple of feet into the sunlight, wanting to grab it, but knowing that at this point, she was lucky that she wasn't in the sunlight earlier, now? She would be as good as dead.
“Then take my haori, and I’ll grab your stuff, we can wait until the night, we still have a couple of days until we have to meet at the center of the trees.”
She startles, realizing something “I won’t be able to go” she sobs out, not noticing the same look on his face.
“I will come back for you after, I’ll let someone know, I promise. You deserve to become a slayer after all your work!”
She feels a sob catch in her throat, and nods. “I’ll still follow you, alright? I can be an extra set of eyes.” He nods at that, and leads them both away.
As they walk, he hands her his haori to put over her head, hopefully keeping her from any risk of burning. They walk, with her following him until she starts to hear the sounds of lumbering footsteps, and then.. screaming?
“That's the demon!” (Tanjirou)
Tanjirou dashes forward, and in a second is hidden from view, where the sound of a giant thing falling occurs. She spots another demon slayer as they run away, barely making it away from- is that a massive hand?
She sprints into the trees, spotting Tanjiro as he flies through the air, and hacks off the demon's head, the battle over before she can help. She watches as Tanjiro holds its massive hand, leaving it to go to the afterlife in peace. The next couple of days go by in relative peace with the duo easily dispatching the demons that try to eat them.
The day of the gathering arrives, and as Tanjiro promised he tells the girls finishing the test about Imari, at which they send a Hashira to get her. Instead of calmly getting her, the hashira, Lady Shinobu throws a wisteria laced bag over her head and throws her into a cart before promptly transporting her to the fortress.
Once they get to the fortress, lady shinobu dumps her out of the cart and pulls the bag off of her head, leaving her on the platform barely under any shade, beginning to hyperventilate. Shinobu walks off with a light pat on the head as all of the other hashira eye her in distaste. She tries desperately to ball up, right as another hashira sprints up, and starts kicking her around. “ATTACK ME DEMON!” is all he shouts, he slices his arm and grabs her by the hair, putting his bloodied arm up to her nose as she desperately tries to escape, putting all of her fists to his stomach, trying to push him away while multiple other hashira start to stand, swords drawn.
At this point Imari is sobbing, shoving as hard as she can, but the hashira has too tight a grip on her hair, with it hurting her to continue pushing against him. She can hear screaming, but doesn't know why, until she realizes it's herself screaming for help as the rest of the Hashira do nothing, the only one even trying to help being held back by another as she yells for the Hashira holding her to let go. All of the sudden, all of the Hashira back down, and kneel, even the one holding her hair. “My, what has been happening out here? I came to speak about our friend here, and all I hear is screaming, what is going on?” Someone whispers into the man’s ear, seemingly explaining the situation as he nods to the new knowledge.
With a final nod, the woman moves backwards before sitting just a bit behind him. He turns toward Imari, and asks the question she never expected, “Do you still wish to be a demon slayer?”
She looks up, and nods fervently, saying “yes! I want to protect those who can’t protect themselves!”