so, after updating my KHR marriage fic (Holy Macaroni--Er, Matrimony) and looking at the doc manager, i found that the KnY fic i was agonizing and complaining about editing was still there. and that idea has morphed into a different AU, so that first chapter is never getting a second chapter. which is a shame because i worked hard on that and editing it (actually, i think that was the mostly non-edited version).
also hi, i’m not dead despite the long absence
anyway, i said most things that i’m not going to be able to write, but i forget the most important part. the part where muzan gives tanjirou his blood and then laughs at the idea of the boy eating his family. because muzan hates those earrings, hates who they remind him off, and he wants this child to suffer.
but tanjirou is nezuko’s brother. the one demon who refused to eat out of pure stubbornness. except nezuko had tanjirou with her. tanjirou has no one to stop him, and while he avoids his family, he still eats someone. and then another. and another. once you taste human meat, that’s it. you’re a demon. you start craving it, your human reason erodes away, you can’t stop.
tanjirou is the demon higan for more than a year before his stubbornness finally kicks in, and he’s disgusted with himself. he’s so disgusted that he lets a man sneak up behind him and cave his skull in with an axe (an axe, the irony. he used an axe once). he plays dead long enough for them (his food, no not food) to run away (come back) before he sits up. that wouldn’t be enough to kill him. sunlight. a demon slayer’s sword.
dawn is still too far, so he searches for the nearest demon slayer. he finds a group in the next town over, battling a pair of demons, formerly a mother and her daughter. he saves a demon slayer from losing an arm to the daughter. they mistake him for a regular person for a moment, telling him to run away, until they see the daughter claws break against his arm. his blood demon arts turn his skin black, and the slayer screams, emanating fear.
just an hour ago, the scent of fear was tantalizing to him, promising a delightful meal. now, he hates it. another slayer goes for his neck, but his blood demon art is still active, and it barely makes a scratch. he’d undo it, but he has to defend from the daughter, who’s screeching at him for stealing her prey, she found them first, she’s the one who’ll eat them, not some midget appearing late.
and higan may have a human mind again, but he’s been a demon for a year. there’s some things he does from muscle memory. he’s used to food disputes. when demons keep demanding to give them his prey, he headbutts them. to be more specific, he pulls them down to eye level and headbutts them in the mouth to break their teeth. the daughter screams, more in indignation than in pain, and attempts to claw out his eyes, the demon slayers the furthest thing from her mind right now.
he sees the mother die from the corner of his eyes, and the daughter does not notice, her back to her mother, her fury drowning out her dying cries. The daughter roars, catching the pity in his eyes. Some words don’t come out right as she spits curses at him, clawing uselessly at his neck, never noticing as a sword cuts through her neck. She’s still cursing in her last moments.
How pitiful.
He lets his skin return to normal. The demon slayers back away, as if expecting an attack.
“What’s wrong? Just do it like you did before.” He smiles as he points at his neck.
