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A boy walked alone, head slightly tilted to the ground. The face of said boy bore soft baby like features, big, soft round eyes, rounded face, nose on the smaller side. His skin was a coppery tan. His hair was a silky-ish texture, his roots dark brown, the rest of it an unsightly green. Quite upsetting to look at.
He was covered in demon slayer attire except it in a green variation. The pants are more of a deep forest green esque color. The top being similar to his hair, but slightly darker in variation. Under that he wore the standard top, with the white rim around the collar and white belt around his waist.
He stumbled over his footing slightly as his sandal got caught on the edge of a rock. He caught himself before he fell, standing back up straight. He sighed and sweat dropped, glancing around to see if anyone saw the trip. He fixed his head band that held twigs in his hair.
A bird nearby snickered at him before it flew away.
His shoulders slumped forward and he frowned deeply after the bird made fun of him. This boy seemed utterly alone, other than the animals that sometimes pass by. This boy’s name was Kemushi, Ten’no Kemushi. And his supposed ‘dream’ was to become a Demon Slayer, at most a ‘good enough’ Demon Slayer.
Back when Kemushi was younger, he was lonely. Just as he is in current day. Everyone, including his parents, would pick on him for his ‘lack of friends’. He tried really hard to socialize with kids his age, but majority of the people he talked to would glare at him then run off snickering to their friends about this ‘odd boy’ they had the displeasure of meeting.
They would end up leaving him, quite literally, in the dust. He never understood why they’d treat him in such a way, after all he was just a normal boy, just like they were. Maybe a little below average in every aspect, but other than that there was no real reason to dislike him. Sure, he was slow, and barely even considerable to be attractive, but he wasn't rude, or mean.
He didn't talk back. No matter how bad the verbal abuse was, in fact, he’d let anyone pick on him, thinking it was just because they were his ‘friends’. Until he was 12, he hadn’t realized that being picked on and bullied wasn’t the act of the kindness a friend would give. This led him to growing up pretty sheltered and alone.
Not even his parents like him. And yet, they were the people who were supposed to love him for who he was. Who were supposed to nurture him, and help him grow and learn. Even though he was basically a copy of his parents. Not even they would love him, not like they were meant to.
The boy huffed and he started back up on his way, he was heading to the butterfly estate, to train with a friend. Tanjiro Kamado. He walked until stone turned to dirt, dirt turned to grass, and grass turned to wood.
He stood on the porch of the butterfly estate and headed towards the back, where Tanjiro was supposedly supposed to be training, and low and behold the maroon haired boy was there, along with a boar, and an electric blonde.
He shuffled awkwardly then jumped down from the porch and onto the patch of open wide dirt training grounds. The Maroon haired boy whipped his head over to see the green headed slayer. He smiled widely, his eyes closing, his earrings softly clinking.
“Ten’no! You’re here!” He pushed the older boy over towards their group. “Come train with me.”
“Ah… If you insist…” Kemushi awkwardly replied, casting a glance at the other two in the training grounds. He acquired a bokuto, a wooden sword, before officially joining the others in their training endeavor.
They had decided to practice one on one sparring. They had wanted to hone differences in fighting styles; Tanjiro was opposing the boar-headed boy, and Kemushi with the—notably weird—electric blonde. They were only 20 minutes into the spar before Kemushi realized that even though he was going against the seemingly weakest of the four.
He was still struggling. He couldn't possibly be losing in a simple spar against a nervous wreck, who fumbled on every other thrust. If he couldn't even beat this dumb blonde, he could only imagine how bad he’d lose against an actual demon. He barely dodged a slash, too caught up in his mind. He couldn't let this yellow freak beat him, if that happened, he could never face tanjiro.
He ducked below another slash, nearly toppling over from how fast he went down. If he got beat by a younger kid, he wouldn't ever be able to fight an actual demon. His breathing sped up as he impulsively charged forward, leaving plenty of open spots for the blondie. His hands were clammy. It slickened the bokuto, he could barely clutch the wooden sword properly, as he thrusted it forward.
The electric blonde easily jabbed his wood sword forward into Ten’no’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him. As he felt the impact to his gut he curled in on himself, slightly coughing up spit. He stumbled backwards, falling into the dirt and dropping the sword. He couldn't breathe, his throat tightened, and felt sore from the strain.
His ears burned, face burned, he felt hot, sweating, it felt like the sun was beating him personally. He’d never felt so embarrassed before. He panted heavily. He couldn't beat a clumsy teenager for crying out loud. His eyes started to well up with tears as his eyes stung,
God he hated this, his breathing patterned stuttered as his stomach began to churn from the pain of being hit, and the feeling of wanting to cry. God how pathetic was he. He’d never make it as a Demon Slayer, hell he could hardly handle a fucking kid.
The blonde started to freak out and dropped his sword, panicking on what he should do. He ran over to Tanjitro jumping on him pulling him out of his focus from fighting inosuke. “TAAAANJIIIROOO! YOUR FRIEND I THINK HE’S DEAD!” He sobbed loudly, shaking the boy back and forth.
Tanjiro yelped when the Blonde jumped on him. “ZENITSU! STOP THIS!” He scolded and pulled the boy off of him. “Calm down and tell me what happened.”
The blonde's tears welled up again, this time he tried to hold them back as he pointed to the twitching body of Kemushi. “I-I Hit him. He has-hasn’t moved.” There was genuine concern in the boy's voice.
The Maroon haired boy sighed and went over to Kemushi, his calloused hands were gently placed on the green haired boy's shoulders. “Ten’no!” He spoke soft but firm. Brown eyes shoot to him instantly, they were shrunk and small, tears brimming in them. Kemushi’s ears rung loudly.
Tanjiro’s voice was severely muffled by the ringing. His head hurt like crazy, mostly from being shook by the blonde. However, it all seemed to ebb slowly away as Tanjiro spoke to him, he barely heard what was being said, but it calmed him until the ringing went away. He still felt hot and sweaty, but that would probably go away once he cooled down.
He blinked rapidly, feeling his heartbeat in his ears, his head aching. “Are you alright now, Ten’no?” Tanjiro asked, taking his hands off of the green hair’s shoulders when he nodded.
“Thank you Tanjiro…” He spoke quietly, almost solemnly as he looked down at the dirt, wanting to avoid everyone’s eye contact.
Maybe he really wasn't cut out for being a demon slayer. His teacher must be disappointed in him, knowing his only student couldn't even handle a spar against a weaker demon slayer.