Muzan massacres the family

"Nezuko! What's wrong... wh-what happened? What happened to you?!"

A boy in a green checkered coat knelt on one knee outside a dilapidated wooden house. Beside him lay a girl drenched in blood.

When he turned to look inside the house, his eyes trembled as though an earthquake had struck. Every member of his family was covered in blood, their bodies riddled with visible wounds.

After breaking down, he discovered that the girl beside him-his younger sister, Nezuko-still had a faint trace of warmth in her body.

He hurriedly wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, hoisted his sister onto his back, and ran down the mountain, gasping for breath. He wanted to find a doctor to save the only sister he had left.

Only a few seconds after he left, another girl inside the wooden house, also drenched in blood and covered in wounds, suddenly opened her eyes and began gasping for breath.

It hurts! It hurts so much! What's going on? Is that blood on me? It's so hard to breathe. I feel like I'm suffocating...

The girl tilted her head back, gulping down air while doing everything she could to steady herself. As her thoughts gradually calmed, fragmented memories and powerful emotions came surging in all at once.

Chinatsu... Kamado?!

The world of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba?!

Huh? Wait, was there even a character like this in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba? Wasn't Tanjiro the eldest son and Nezuko the eldest daughter? Where did this "character account" come from?

Chinatsu tilted her head back and stared at the ceiling, which felt both familiar and unfamiliar. Her bloodstained cheeks twitched slightly.

How could she not know the plot of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba? It was one of the most wildly popular anime of recent years. Even people with active social lives who weren't into anime had more or less heard of it.

Chinatsu swept her hazy gaze around the room. Beside her lay her mother, Kie Kamado, and her younger brothers, Takeo Kamado, Shigeru Kamado, and Rokuta Kamado.

None of them showed any signs of life. The smell of blood revolted Chinatsu. Enduring the pain, she struggled to move this unfamiliar body. Every movement was awkward, her limbs stiff and her reactions sluggish. Her entire body felt like a puppet.

Strangely, though, the pain was gradually fading, even as her wounds continued to bleed. Was it only the pain that had disappeared?

Chinatsu was puzzled, but this clearly wasn't the time to dwell on it. She did her best to walk through the wooden house, each step an immense struggle.

With unsteady steps, she made her way into the kitchen. She had hoped to find a mirror and see what she looked like now, but there was no intact mirror there, only broken shards.

The memories surfacing in her mind were blurry. What came through most strongly were the original owner's intense emotions. Holding her head with one hand, Chinatsu turned to leave the kitchen, hoping to see whether she could make it out of the house. But this body simply refused to cooperate. The moment she stepped outside, she tripped over flat ground and fell into the snow.

Damn it! God, fine, you sent me to another world, but couldn't you at least have given me a better body? I'm not asking for ridiculously powerful muscles like Mitsuri's, but couldn't I have some special ability or something? At least let me walk normally... Wasn't this a little too slapdash?!

Chinatsu lay in the snow. Though she could barely speak, her inner world was still plenty lively. With the same sharp tongue that had once infuriated a scammer pretending to be injured until he spat blood, she furiously cursed the god who had sent her here. None of her words were vulgar, yet every jab struck deep and hit where it hurt.

Unfortunately, "God" wasn't about to answer her. In the real world, Chinatsu remained lying idle in the snow until Tanjiro finished playing out the first part of the story with Giyu Tomioka and returned to the wooden house with Nezuko, who had regained her awareness despite becoming a demon.

Tanjiro had intended to return and tend to his family's bodies before paying his respects. But when he saw Chinatsu, who should have been inside, lying outside the house instead, his eyes widened in alarm, and he hurried over.

"Wh-what?! Chinatsu!!!"

Tanjiro ran to Chinatsu's side, and Nezuko, now a demon, quickly followed. Her eyes shrank into tiny dots as she anxiously stamped her feet beside them.

Tanjiro was frantic too. He held a finger beneath Chinatsu's nose. Her breathing was faint, but she was definitely still breathing.

"She's alive! If we find a doctor down the mountain now, we might still be able to save her!" Tanjiro's hands trembled with excitement, and bean-sized tears rolled from his eyes.

Now isn't the time to cry!

Tanjiro hurriedly wiped his flowing tears with his arm. Though he was already exhausted, he pulled Chinatsu out of the snow and onto his back, then rushed down the mountain with Nezuko.

Before long, the two of them reached the foot of the mountain and found a village doctor. One look at Chinatsu on Tanjiro's back left the doctor dumbfounded. Her injuries were far too severe.

"Doctor! Please, you have to save my sister!"

Tanjiro pleaded desperately with the doctor. Beside him, Nezuko nodded so frantically that her head looked as though it were powered by a little electric motor.

But the doctor fell silent. A single glance was enough to tell him how badly Chinatsu was injured. He was only a village doctor, not some miracle-working immortal. How was he supposed to save her?

"I'm sorry. I can't help her."

At the doctor's words, even Tanjiro's composure began to crumble. Pure despair often wasn't the most devastating thing. What hurt most was being given hope, only to have it immediately replaced with despair.

"How could this be..."

Tanjiro pressed his lips together and lowered his head, murmuring under his breath. Nezuko couldn't hold herself together either, and bean-sized tears spilled from her brimming eyes.

Just then, Chinatsu suddenly opened her eyes on Tanjiro's back.

In contrast to her battered body, her eyes were full of life.

"Stop crying. I'm not dead yet."

The moment Chinatsu spoke, everyone froze. The most shocked of all was the doctor standing before them.

All the words he might have said ultimately condensed into a single profanity, while Chinatsu, supported on Tanjiro's back, stared with dead-fish eyes.

Honestly, she was puzzled about why she wasn't dead herself. But since she hadn't died yet, these injuries probably wouldn't kill her now... right?

Let's just call it a perk of traveling to another world. The most urgent thing now should be getting used to this body.

"Tanjiro, put me down."

Chinatsu had only meant to have Tanjiro set her down first. Who could have guessed that both his and Nezuko's expressions would change so drastically?

Nezuko crossed her arms into an X and shook her head furiously. Tanjiro was even more adamant. "Absolutely not!"

Seeing their expressions, Chinatsu more or less understood why they were reacting that way.

Put me down = don't worry about me anymore.

Well, would you look at that. Full marks in reading comprehension for both of them.