Disclaimer: Demon Slayer is not mine. This fanfic is a translation.
Enjoy Reading!
---
The rain outside the house continues its symphony and is not stopping anytime soon.
The candles were lit again after they were blown out by the cold wind. Soichiro sighed in relief as he prepared the flowers he brought to boil, and he extended his hands to warm up in the stove.
Yuichiro and Muichiro were taking turns at changing their mother's towels as they worked beside her.
Several times the brothers looked to the unsuspecting Kokushibo, who still chose to stand at the door.
Kokushibo touched his face as he observed the people in this house.
On the way here, he used the Transparent World to judge Soichiro thoroughly. He concluded that the man was very talented in the way of the sword.
'As expected of my descendants.'
Although he is nearly 30 years old, he seems to have been practicing 'suburi' by swinging... something for many years.
The body foundation for swordsmanship is great.
With a little practice, he will surely rank his way up to the Hashira in a short period of time.
Then after they arrived at home, Kokushibo was surprised even more.
Soichiro has a 10-year-old pair of twin boys.
The eldest is the smarter child and knew danger the moment Kokushibo walked through the door.
The kid panicked but quickly calmed down during the encounter.
'Good temperament.' Kokushibo was pleased.
Not only that, but Yuichiro's body and talent were more excellent than any other boy's, even his own, at his age.
'As expected of my descendants.' (nod)
He was better than his father in terms of intelligence.
Kokushibo was looking forward to how far the boy will succeed, which is rare for him these days.
After analyzing Yuichiro, Kokushibo's gaze turned to Muichiro, who was still diligently tending to his mother.
Kokushibo's Transparent World washed over the youngest twins.
And what he found simply shocked him. To call his talent prodigious is an insult to prodigy.
The older brother is stronger in body than Muichiro. It can be proven during the flashback of Muichiro that we see Yuichiro easily lifting a tree many times his size.
In terms of talent, however, Muichiro eclipsed his older brother by far.
In the original timeline, Muichiro was driven by the death of his family and constantly pushed himself to break his limits. Every single day he woke up was spent perfecting his swordsmanship and maximizing his potential.
Becoming a Hashira after training with a sword for just two months!
A true genius and hard worker!
Kokushibo was trembling with excitement and pride but quickly regained control of his emotion.
"Umu."
'As expected of MY descendants.' ¬‿¬
Kokushibo looked down at his muddy socks.
He casually used flesh manipulation to absorb the socks inside himself and regenerate new socks and then stepped into the porch of the entrance of the house.
Yuichiro sat straight up, his pupils trembling at the sight he was seeing.
He fixed his gaze on Kokushibo's legs and didn't dare to breathe.
'What was that?! Red flesh? Turned into... socks?!'
He 'calmly' turned his gaze to his father, who was still cooking the flowers to make medicine.
Yuichiro sighed in his heart once again.
'Dad, you doomed us.'
He was feeling anguished, not because of Kokushibo's presence itself.
Rather, his instinct told him from the bottom of his heart that this six-eyed guy was definitely NOT human!
Kokushibo walked and settled beside the sickly wife of Soichiro.
"Cough cough..."
The woman with a flushed face and scattered hair was coughing incessantly.
"...Soichiro, is—is that you?"
She said in a weak and hoarse voice as she opened her eyes in a daze. Her hand reached out in the direction of what appeared to be her husband.
"…Soichiro…"
Hearing his wife call, Soichiro turned around from his cooking and closed the distance to hold her hand and wipe her sweat with a towel.
"Yes, I'm here, Kaoru."
His voice was gentle, and his mouth curled into a smile every time he talked to his wife, giving people who saw it the feeling of being blanketed in the spring breeze.
The woman's name is Tokito Kaoru, the mother of Muichiro and Yuichiro.
"You'll be fine soon; just get some rest."
Soichiro forced himself to stay awake despite his exhaustion, smiling at Kaoru and constantly wiping the sweat from her face with a washed and wrung-out towel.
"Hmm~"
Kaoru slowly closed her eyes again and gradually fell asleep. Her expression seems more relieved and relaxed compared to before.
Kokushibo was silent, lost in his thoughts, seeing the displayed affection between the married couple.
He once had a wife and children of his own.
It's just...
He seems to recall that his wife's hair seemed to have a hint of blue, and he has two children with her.
However, her face and his children's faces in his memory had long been blurred. He couldn't even remember what their voices sounded like.
'I... know nothing else.'
'It's been 400 years. Even before joining the Demon Slayer Corps, I had already stopped seeing them.' Kokushibo thought melancholically.
"It's only natural that you don't remember..."
Kokushibo stiffened in his place. He froze so subtly that the other occupants in the room didn't notice it. His head was throbbing from a memory brought to the forefront of his mind.
"How sad, brother..."
Yoriichi's old and hoarse voice sounded so clear in his mind.
That vivid face and dark-red haori billowing in the wind. That old face with its expressions of grief and unshed tears.
Kokushibo was dazed in his place. Even after all this time, the memories regarding Yoriichi were still so clear in his mind.
His thousand-yard stare was gazed directly at Kaoru as he tries to keep his emotions in control.
The dam that holds back all of his emotions seems to be cracking itself little by little.
'No.'
'Yoriichi, you are different.'
He couldn't believe he got flustered just from remembering a memory of his younger brother. However, it seems that compassionate feelings have turned stoic in his memory.
Stretch...
Kokushibo's fist clenched itself, creating the sound of rubber being rubbed by human skin.
"?"
Yuichiro heard the sound, and he quickly looked up to see Kokushibo's gaze staring intently at his mother.
—"危" (Danger!)
Yuichiro stood up and placed himself between Kokushibo and his mother.
His pupils contracted with fear as he clenched his teeth. He refused to be cowed right at this moment, for he held his gaze with the creature in front of him.
Yuichiro took a deep breath, his whole body already soaking his clothes in cold sweat as they trembled unnaturally.
"Hoo—Cough!"
...he couldn't breathe!
His body wants to run away!
But his mother is being targeted by this monster; he couldn't let his mother be eaten. He couldn't let that happen!
"...Nii-san?" Muichiro noticed his brother's strange behavior. Doubt laced his voice when he asked, "What are you doing..."
But when he followed Yuichiro's gaze to look at Kokushibo...
"!!"
His expression turned as terrified as Yuichiro's, and his face turned pale.
He was far away when he noticed Kokushibo, but now that he was closer, Muichiro could see Kokushibo for what he really was.
The brothers thought that this was it. This is the end of their happy little family.
Soichiro looked over to glance at his sons.
"Ah, Sir..." His voice gently addresses Kokushibo as he smiles. He was back brewing the flowers into medicine when he noticed that Kokushibo had closed the two pairs of eyes that were above and below the middle pair.
'Are you, perhaps, afraid of scaring the children?'
While it was hurtful for a guy with an anomaly to be discriminated against, but...
"You are very kind, sir."
Soichiro was grateful for meeting this man in the forest.