Archive of Our Own ^beta

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This first chapter is a major note.

This is a series of snippets and will be disconjointed. I want to share but I for some reason can’t write more than 300 word sections at a time. So this is a bunch of snap fics that all connect.

This will be edited to be in chronological timeline order. Updates will include the date of chapter upload in the beginning note. 

I hope you all enjoy the story despite the hiccups I’m going through!

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His mother used to tell him that even gods got lonely. That he’d find his angel eventually, his precious being to protect. 

He met her when he was barely 17. She was a new member, her face bruised, a small infant tucked in her arm, a new mother who ran away from her abusive husband. Not even a year into marriage. 

He tried his best to treat her with the same grace as all his other followers. His followers encouraged his happiness the way he encouraged their own, and when Kotoha told him her feelings, he accepted her to his side with the approval of many of his followers. She was a beacon of hope to many of them. Strong enough to make such a bold decision, but gentle and loving. 

They planned to marry in the spring.

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“Kotoha! Inosuke! Where are you?!” He tan through the forest, keeping an eye on his surroundings. He didn’t dare let that bastard catch him off guard. 

He had the audacity, the fucking audacity, to target Kotoha. He would make that thing pay. Demon or not, he would crush it with his bare hands if necessary, and if that didn’t work he’d tie it up to burn in the sun. 

He’d sent Kotoha right to him. Thinking his wife to be should introduce herself to the teachers. The ones he was supposed to trust most. That thing targeted her. She was smart and called those demon slayers, but they were too late. That thing took his fiancée.

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He set a soft hand on Tomioka’s shoulder. He had snatched up Urokodaki’s newest pupils as fast as he had the last one once they’d passed the final selection. He’d seen the boys as his annoying little brothers for a few months now.

Tomioka tucked himself into a ball on the Engawa of Douma’s Estate. “We fought. I just want to prove myself, but Sabito thinks that we should stick together. Now he’s mad at me,” the teenager sounded close to tears, “He said he doesn’t want to be my friend if I’m going to go off and be suicidal on my own.” Well shit. Douma knew that the peach haired boy had a temper, but he hadn’t realized it was that bad. 

“Let me talk to him. He’s probably just worried and having a hard time showing it. Like how you have a hard time explaining when you’re upset,” he patted the boys head. He had an angry teen to talk to.

Sabito was wailing on a set of practice dummies when he found the boy.

“So I heard you and Tomioka aren’t friends anymore,” he called casually. “I mean it’s not surprising. He’s a very soft soul and you’re so abrasive. Hard to get along with someone like him hm?” Sabito shook as Douma egged him on. “You just like playing the hero? Having him clinging to your every word? I’d imagine it’d be a blow to your ego, him deciding to branch out?”

Sabito attacked him, “Shut up! Just shut up already!” Tears rolled down the boys face as he slumped to the ground. “I never had parents, I don’t have anyone rooting for me. Even in the afterlife. Giyuu’s sister wants him to be happy. He said it himself! This just makes you hurt. He almost died! I almost watched him die! I can’t—”

“You love him right?” Douma squated down in front of the boy, “I get it Sabito. I really do. You should go apologize. I will admit I agree you two should stick together, but I will separate you if you get in Tomioka’s way. He’s a big boy, he can make his own decisions.” He patted Sabito’s hair and walked away from him. Leaving him to think about what Douma’d told him. He hoped the boy listened. 

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“Nee-chan!” Shinobu did her best to put pressure on Kanae’s wounds as Douma ran off the Upper Moon. 

He couldn’t defeat the thing, but saving Kanae would be for the best anyway. “Shinobu-Chan I need you to focus and tell me what she needs.”

Shinobu blundered for a moment but regained her composure, “Blood transfusions, and surgery, her right lung got impaled she can’t breath properly and can’t slow the bleeding, and—”

“Shinobu…” Kanae tried interrupting her.

“To stop talking!” Shinobu snapped.

Douma looked to his old crow, “Get to the butterfly estate and relay what Shinobu-chan said.”

“How are we even going to get her there! She won’t survive the trip like this!” Shinobu was crying again. 

“Do you trust me to chill her?” He’d done somet similar before at Kanae’s request. It slowed the body’s functions enough to transport and operate on them. It’d just barely be enough to get them to the butterfly estate. 

She looked skeptical but hopeful, “You can do that?” He nodded. “Do it. Then we have to hurry.” So he got to work. 

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“Oh! The list of new recruits!” Kanae grinned as Shinobu handed her the list. 

He blocked Shinazugawa’s latest attempt at his life and turned to them. Just as he was about to open his mouth when Kanae said a name he’d thought long dead, “Hashibira Inosuke? Hey Dou-chan didn’t you say you knew a Hashibira?” 

He couldn’t even blink. His mind was reeling. Could Inosuke have really survived that fall? Did he remember Douma? He was a slayer now?!

Shinazugawa landing a kick to his face hard enough to make his nose bleed knocked him out of it. “What the fuck was that old man! You losin’ your touch?”

“I, I was just shocked,” Kanae looked at him concerned, whether for his stutter or his possibly broken nose he wasn’t sure. 

“Who’s Hashibira then huh?” Shinazugawa walked over to sit by the girls, seemingly content in his successful hit.

Douma swallowed hard, “My dead Fiancée had that surname. She threw her son over the edge of a cliff to keep a demon from eating him.”

“Oh Dou-chan!” Kanae gasped.

“It was, it was a long time ago. I’ve come to terms with her death, but I assumed Inosuke had died. We searched for weeks . Even long after a normal infant would have passed.” Kanae finally stood and ushered him over to sit down. 

“You mean you and Urokodaki-San right?” Shinobu asked, smart as ever. He just nodded. 

His son was alive. His son was a slayer! He hoped he’d get to meet the boy again.

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“ Inosuke .” The boys eyes widened and he stopped dead. “Put Agatsuma Down now.” The boy hesitantly listened. He looked like a scolded toddler, and Douma felt like he was scolding the boy away from eating his old robes when he was a toddler. 

“You still want to go through training with me yes?” He knew the answer, but he’d give the boys one last chance to back out. Inosuke nodded eagerly and rushed to his side. Agatsuma looked out off, but reluctantly shuffled to follow him. Kamado seemed the most eager to learn despite being Rengoku’s Tsugoku and already having a teacher.

That eagerness would be gone by the end of the day if Douma had anything to say about it. The boys would learn how hard it was to breath in the cold.