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Rating:
Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning:
Graphic Depictions Of Violence
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Gen
Fandoms:
鬼滅の刃 | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Anime)鬼滅の刃 | Kimetsu no Yaiba (Manga)
Characters:
Tsuyuri KanaoDouma (Kimetsu no Yaiba)Hashibira InosukeKotoha (Kimetsu no Yaiba)Kimetsu no Yaiba EnsembleTwelve Demon Moons Ensemble (Kimetsu no Yaiba)Original CharactersDaki | Ume (Kimetsu no Yaiba)Gyutaro (Kimetsu no Yaiba)Kochou KanaeAkaza | Hakuji (Kimetsu no Yaiba)Kokushibou | Tsugikuni Michikatsu
Additional Tags:
Alternate UniverseFluff and AngstCanon-Typical ViolenceCannibalismDouma is a Little Shit (Kimetsu no Yaiba)BAMF Tsuyuri KanaoDysfunctional FamilyBad ParentingDouma grabs Kanao instead of the Kochou siblingsAnd grabs Inosuke before Kotoha can chuck him off a cliffDouma: I'm not like a regular dad I'm a cool dadSwordfightingDubious MoralityConditioningKanao and Inosuke as siblingsBlood and GoreLoyaltyFamily Bondingno beta we die like the KamadosCultsTsuyuri Kanao-centricCanonical Character DeathHashibira Inosuke Being Hashibira InosukeTsuyuri 'if anything happens to my family I'll kill everyone in this room and then myself' KanaoPast Child AbuseMorally Neutral KanaoProtective KanaoVivisectionAnimal Abuse
Language:
English
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Published:2021-11-21Updated:2026-04-06Words:154,514Chapters:39/?Comments:1,970Kudos:3,614Bookmarks:794Hits:129,331
Iron and Ice
SkilledWarriorKiwi
Chapter 5: Little pig
Summary:
🎉 Happy new year! 🎉
Notes:
Douma mentions Kotoha's 'pinky promise' song changed each time she did it, mainly just her singing random stuff to Inosuke so in this she's using Japanese nursery rhymes. Also how many times can I misspell Kotoha's name as Kotaha in a single chapter? A surprising amount
Chapter Text
"Pinky promise, pinky promise. Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, blanketing the countryside as far as you can see. Is it a mist, or clouds? Fragrant in the morning sun. Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, flowers in full bloom."
Kotoha's singing was soft and light as she led Kanao through the cluster of cherry blossom trees, her grip gentle while her other arm cradled Inosuke against her chest. Her pale green kimono was patterned in petals, while Kanao's own violet one had delicate stitchings of snowflakes.
The cluster of cherry blossom trees bracketed one of the wide stone paths leading out towards the rice fields, thick branches heavy with pink petals that filled the air with sweetness. The roots of the trees spread through the ground in churning tendrils, Kotoha's steps careful as she maneuvered over the roots with a firm grip on both Inosuke and Kanao. The shade helped with the high mountain sun, Kanao eyeing the thick branches above her. She tried to count the petals, her eyes roaming over the blanket of blossoms above but she hit a dead end as she realized she hadn't learned enough numbers yet to count them all.
"These are kwanzan cherry trees," Kotoha said. "You can tell because they have such thick petals, and how the trees are wider and more stout than other cherry blossom trees."
They had been doing one of the customary trips around the commune. Kanao tried to keep a mental map of all the places she was being shown, trying to understand just how large Paradise Faith was. A large portion of the area around her master's temple was the gardens. Lotus gardens being in the majority, even indoors there were several throughout the lavish building. But Kotoha had taken her further down the slope of the mountain, past the ponds and nearing the field. There the cherry blossom trees bloomed, cultivated over the long decades that the commune had existed.
Kanao thought that if her master had planted a cherry blossom seed in that pot instead of that skull it would be more willing to grow.
They settled down upon the raised roots of one of the trees, resting against the wide trunk. Occasionally someone would walk down the path, either heading up towards the temple or down towards the fields. Kanao did not know any of them, though she recognized a few from her previous walks through the lotus gardens even if she did not know their names. She did not see Yoko or Misaki.
"It's so nice to just be able to sit and relax," Kotoha smiled at her, wayward strands of dark hair falling over her temple. "I remember before- before I came here, I never really could just stop and appreciate things. I always felt nervous, ready to run. But here you can just sit and breathe in the air. It's peaceful, it's safe."
Kotoha's smile faded as she sucked in a deep breath, her delicate features shifting into something troubled and unsure. She hugged the baby against her chest, mumbling nonsensical words against his hair. Kanao could see that the woman with green eyes was not quite frightened, but clearly thinking of something that made her unhappy and anxious.
Kanao wasn't quite sure what to do so she remained sitting upon the snake-like roots of the tree, watching Kotoha as the woman's body language slowly unwound. Hugged tight against her, Inosuke let out a series of gurgles as he waved his chubby arms. Kanao watched the baby, who was always so wiggling. Kotoha had joked before that she mostly had to keep him bound in a sling to avoid him scurrying off the moment he got the chance.
She was broken from her thoughts when Kotoha leaned forward, shifting the sling over her shoulder as she asked, "Do you want to hold him?"
Kanao was unsure. How was she supposed to hold a baby? She never held any of her siblings.
"It's alright. You won't hurt him. You just have to hold him tight, he's very squirmy. Here."
It took some maneuvering, especially as Kanao was still skinny and undersized due to prolonged starvation. She'd only just begun to put on weight, the gauntness to her cheeks and limbs beginning to ease, but Inosuke was a large baby just over a year of age. But with Kotoha's gentle help, Inosuke was soon tucked in Kanao's arms with his head cradled in her elbow and her hands carefully supporting his back and legs.
Inosuke blinked up at her, his eyes as bright and green as Kotoha's. Kanao stared back at him, the pearls of her hairpin swaying as she dipped her head slightly to eye him more closely. Little hands started to poke and grope at her chin, Inosuke's confused expression shifting as he started to let out enthused little noises at her.
"Oh, he really does like you. Usually he cries when anyone else tries to hold him but not you. See? You'll be friends, I just know it," Kotoha's smile was so wide it crinkled the corner of her eyes.
He was heavy, but with Kanao sitting it wasn't overbearing. He was also very warm, even with the blanket bundled around him. His pudgy fingers were still digging into her chin with determination, a big goofy smile on his round face. He was so strange, so wiggly and Kanao felt her arms tighten around him.
"I know you're still unsure," Kotoha shifted, still pressed against Kanao's side from when she'd carefully maneuvered Inosuke into her lap. Her fingers tucked a wayward strand of Kanao's hair behind an ear, her voice gentle as she spoke, "I know that it can...it can take some time to realize your safe. I remembered when I first came here, it seemed like a lifetime ago. I kept waiting for something terrible to happen, to hear...to hear that voice again. Or things being slammed. Or to be yelled at. It was this horrible tension, sometimes I couldn't sleep. Just sat there in the corner of the room, thinking my door will be thrown open. Clinging to Inosuke, to keep him safe."
Kanao blinked at Kotoha, who was looking from Inosuke to her. Her expression was strained but she gave Kanao a comforting squeeze around the shoulders.
"But you're safe here. We're safe. You, me, Inosuke...Douma-sama will protect us. He healed me when I showed up here. I had been...I had been hurt terribly by someone and he protected me. Let me into Paradise Faith. He even fixed my injured eye, I thought I would be partially blind forever. And I know you still don't speak, but you won't be hurt here if you talk. Douma-sama already seems very fond of you," Kotoha's fingertips lightly brushed the bira-bira pin in Kanao's hair.
She nodded. She liked her master. Even when he ate those other people like her previous master or all those skulls in that room he didn't hurt her, even when she spilled the ink. Even after several days from the incident she hadn't been punished, she had not been denied food, a futon or hot baths. The pin he had given her was pretty and she made sure to keep it right next to her futon when she slept, so she would not lose it.
Kanao had not owned anything before so she kept the pin close, even when not wearing it.
"Well, I'm sure you'll understand that soon enough," Kotoha said. Above, wind rustle the branches of the blossom tree even as Kotoha continued to speak, "I'll be here, if you ever want to talk. Or just to hold Inosuke, he's being so good with you."
Kotoha hooked her pinky finger through Inosuke's own and his pudgy fingers grabbed onto it as he gurgled. His weight over Kanao's lap was warm and heavy.
"Pinky promise, pinky promise. Little elephant, little elephant, you have a long long nose. Yes sir, my mother has a long nose, too," Kotoha poked Inosuke on the nose with her free hand before playfully doing the same to Kanao who blinked. " Little elephant, little elephant, who do you like best in the world? Well, I like my mother best in the world."
Inosuke let out a series of enthused gurgles. Kanao wondered when he would start to read and write like herself. Maybe she could teach him.
Kotoha suddenly hugged Kanao, making her start as the woman's arms wrapped around her and Inosuke to give them both a gentle squeeze.
"Inosuke means everything to me," she said softly, resting her head against Kanao's as Inosuke giggled. "If it wasn't for him, I never would've been strong enough to run. I'll protect him with everything, even my life. One day, you'll know what that feels like. To have that strength. Maybe your original family didn't have that, since you were taken here. But now you can. Maybe...maybe Inosuke and I can be your family."
She looked down at the baby in her arms, thinking about that. Kotoha was certainly a lot different than Kanao's mother, who had hit and screamed at her just as much as her father did. Kotoha didn't scream or hit. Her touch was always gentle and her smiles sweet. Inosuke was also quite different from Kanao's siblings. He was a lot more wiggly for one, and even now he'd started flailing at the line of pearls trailing from her hairpin like a kitten.
"There you two are!"
Both looked up to see Yoko at the edge of the trees, waving at them from the path with a basket tucked into the crook of an elbow. Inosuke meanwhile continued to try and grasp the pearls, the determined pout on his face.
"Is something wrong?" Kotoha asked, her grip briefly tightening around them.
"No, not at all. Douma-sama just wanted me to go fetch Kanao for him for her lessons since I'm heading down to the fields anyway to get some of that goat cheese Shime-chan was making. So if you can take her up to the temple-"
Kotoha was already moving, carefully taking Inosuke from Kanao's arms. She already missed his weight and warmth on her lap as Kotoha arranged the sling back over her shoulder. Inosuke meanwhile seemed displeased to be taken away from the pearls, still grasping at them while letting out plaintive whines.
Kanao was led back up the stone path, with Yoko going the opposite way. Kotoha's grip was firm but gentle as she guided her back up through the gardens. Kanao thought there was an increase of people bustling to and fro, banners of silk and woven flowers being draped over branches and railings and edges of buildings. She could also see stalls being set up, the bustle of people loud and busy. Kotoha was occasionally called to, usually by other young women who passed, but she waved them off with quick apologies as she quickly led Kanao back to her master's temple.
He was already speaking to someone when they made it up the steps and into the great shaded interior of the stone building but he dismissed them with a shoo of his hand, turning to the trio with a wide toothy smile.
"Douma-sama! My apologies, I would've brought her back earlier but I thought you wouldn't take Kanao for her writing lesson until it was nearly dusk," Kotoha looked flustered, her hand sweaty around Kanao's own.
"Oh I'm thinking of getting Kanao's lessons done before noon," her master said. "That way she won't miss out on the festival this evening."
"Good idea!" Kotoha's face lit up and she bounced on her heels, Inosuke in her arms as she looked to Kanao with a bright smile. "You'll like the festivals here, there's a lot of food, dancing, music and singing-"
"Especially your singing, Kotoha," her master cut in. "You have such a wondrous voice, I just do love to hear you sing."
Kotoha flushed a deep crimson at that, letting out a high-pitched giggle that made Inosuke look up at her in confusion before the woman let out a flustered goodbye to them both and all but fleeing out the doorway.
With increasingly familiar movements, her master picked her up to tuck her in the crook of his arm. She was pressed against his chest as he walked further into the temple, glancing around the inside lotus garden as he walked over the wooden catwalks.
"Kotoha is quite pretty, isn't she?" her master smiled. "Usually, women like her go to paradise quite early. She's beautiful, but a bit dumb. But that's okay. Sometimes it's nice to simply have something beautiful around. Not just because of her looks but also because of her beautiful heart. She's just so naïve and pure, even after getting beat senseless by her husband for so long she is so earnest and sweet. So I think I'll keep her, until she's old and dies that way. And that way you can have Inosuke around! Do you like him?"
After a moment of thought Kanao nodded. Inosuke hadn't really done much but he was sweet and seemed to like her as well. Especially since Kotoha said he cried whenever anyone else tried to hold him. She hoped they could be friends when he grew older as Kotoha said. She had no friends and had been lonely for as long as she could remember.
"That's good. Maybe he can even be your otouto? Oh well, something to ponder later. For now, we have to start preparing for the Harvest Moon Festival."
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