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Deep in the woods, there is a shrine. Located nearly at the top of the mountain, it is desolate. The wood is weathered, the wind blows through it and the paint on its little red gate is peeling off. There lives a god there, though. A god of family and protection.
It is but one of the many shrines, these days. But this was the first. The very first shrine for this god. The first and only god whose shrines demons did not dare to enter.
The fire burns high in the Hinokami shrines these days. It is ever-warm and ever-burning, just like the god’s heart.
Tanjiro, the demon slayers call him lovingly. There is a reason for that.
During Giyuu’s final selection, he thought he was going to die. He didn’t, because by some grace of god, Sabito came and rescued him. He didn’t, because by some grace of god, Giyuu managed to stay by Sabito’s side. And when Sabito seemed to be losing against a monster that had killed all his master’s previous disciples, Giyuu prayed for some more grace of god.
The Hinokami answers his call. It starts with a spark falling off Sabito’s sword. Instead of dying out as it falls, it strikes the ground still burning. It hasn’t rained in a couple of days, and the autumn leaves are dry, dry, dry. They catch fire like nobody’s business. A forest fire.
As black spots appear in his field of sight- damn it, he’s losing far too much blood- Giyuu curses his luck. He can’t protect Sabito, can’t even help him in his injured state, and now he’s about to become a burden because he can’t even flee the fire with his leg broken like this.
That’s when his luck turns. The fire… takes form. It changes into a man, not very tall but definitely broad. He wears a fox mask with a sun in the upper right corner. Hanafuda earrings dangle in his ears, and his kagura robes blow in the wind.
He takes on the demon, the abomination, and slays it with one slash of his sword. The movement is divine grace personified, and yet there is something so alive about it. Giyuu’s breath catches in his throat. Something begins to grow inside of him.
He doesn’t know it yet, but that day planted the seed of a devotion that would last a lifetime.
Sabito survives the final selection. So does Giyuu.
Giyuu creates new shrines wherever he goes. There is a reason for that.
If there is one thing peculiar about Kibutsuji Muzan, it would probably be his fear of fire, Nakime is sure. Kibutsuji dares not light the fires of the hearth, no matter how cold it gets. As his constant companion, she’s not very happy about it. A demon she may be, but she likes her creature comforts. She knows better than to voice that, though- she rather likes her head where it is.
Kibutsuji never gets near the flames, avoiding them like the plague. He treats them as if they were sunlight, as if he would disintegrate the minute he came near them.
She doesn’t understand until one day she sees him stray too close to a fire while in disguise in human company. The fire reaches out as if it has hands, roaring as it wraps around Kibutsuji’s foot. The fire wants to pull him in, wants to drag him into the embers and burn him forevermore as he regenerates, unable to die. Nakime can feel it in her bones. The fire wants him to pay for ripping all those families apart. It is fat with prayers, full of the power of his believers.
It frightens her, this fevor, as Kibutsuji cuts off his own leg and scrambles away from the roaring flames as the humans around him scream at the sight.
Nakime shivers.
Muzan is afraid of fire. There is a reason for that.
Everything about Rengoku Kyojuro has always been loud. His voice, his footsteps, some even say his heartbeat is audible in a silent room. It is no wonder, then, that even his prayers are loud enough to reach a god.
Please, he prays, hands wrung together, eyes closed so tight it’s painful, Please make my family a real family again.
He doesn’t really know what he means by that. Perhaps he wants his mother back. Or maybe he just wants his father to act like a real father again. It’s not even that his father has to be nice to him, but… Senjuro needs him.
Kyojuro is seventeen and just became a pillar. His mother is dead, his father a drunk, and he is about to leave his brother alone in the estate. It hurts. He prays to the only god that will help demon slayers. The Hinokami.
The crackling of the fire intensifies. A little startled- and more than a little hopeful- Kyojuro opens his eyes. A child, no more than a toddler, scampers out of the fire. It’s a little boy, dressed in kagura robes, a red bandana around his head, his wine hair pulled out of his face in a ponytail. His face is hidden by a ceremonial mask made of cloth. There’s a character written on it in decisive penmanship.
The sleeves are a little too long, covering his hands and dragging over the floor as the boy approaches. He trips, practically falling onto Kyojuro’s lap. Once there, though, he latches on to the young man tightly.
‘’’m sorry,’’ the little boy mumbles as he buries his head into Kyojuro’s chest. ‘’I can’t create that kind of miracle. Ask for me in battle, ask me for protection. But I can’t undo what is in the heart, nor in the mind.’’
Kyojuro doesn’t know what to think. Is this the Hinokami? The Tanjiro he has worshipped for many a year? Do they pray for a child to fight their battles? Then again, he thinks as he eyes the fireplace. There’s not much more room for an adult to get out of this particular hearth.
And maybe, just maybe, sitting here, with a warm child in his lap soothes his soul. Kyojuro folds his arms around the child, the god, the saviour that cannot save his family, and breathes in. Breathes out. Lets his tears go.
Whenever Kyojuro and Senjuro Rengoku come close to a fire, it reaches for them lovingly, as if trying to soothe them. There is a reason for that.
The night he sells the lives of the other children at the temple for a chance at saving his own, Kaigaku flees to a shrine. It is familiar if nothing else, but he is filled with guilt and tears and shock. He’s sorry, but not sorry enough that he wouldn’t do it again, and he’s afraid and he’ll never sleep again because demons exist. He enters the shrine and it is as if he can breathe again. The room isn’t that large, but it is certainly big enough for a child to sleep in. Kaigaku is used to sleeping on hard wooden floors. This is no hardship, certainly not next to the fire that burns here.
The shrine is silent but for the crackling of the fire, and though he can see the night outside, Kaigaku feels safe. It is as if the entire shrine has reached to embrace him in its warmth. It’s almost a religious experience, and Kaigaku cannot help but look with wide eyes at the way the flames cast strange shadows upon the divine statue of the Hinokami.
Even if the world outside falls apart, this place will still be safe. Kaigaku knows this in his bones.
He has no home anymore, and the world is suddenly so large and frightening, but the Hinokami shrines are safe. Kaigaku travels on, from shrine to shrine, until one day he comes upon a peach orchard. There’s an old man in the shrine when he’s about to leave the next day. ‘’You alone here, kid?’’
Kaigaku eyes him with suspicion, but he’s never met bad folk in the shrine before. He’ll trust the Hinokami once more. ‘’Yes.’’
‘’Got a destination?’’
‘’None but the next Hinokami shrine.’’
The old man tuts. ‘’His name’s Tanjiro. Hinokami Tanjiro, the fire god of family and protection.’’
The hour is getting later and Kaigaku should really be looking for work, but the old man clearly knows more about the god. If he filches some peaches later today he won’t go hungry. Tomorrow there will be a new day to look for work. ‘’Tell me about him?’’
The old man nods.
After that, Kaigaku learns a hell of a lot more than just the stories of the Hinokami from him. He ends up calling him Gramps and becoming a demon slayer. He still prays daily at the shrine in the orchard.
Then he meets upper moon one, a demon swordsman, and history repeats. He sells all his morals in exchange for his life. He becomes a demon.
He becomes a demon, and the doors of the shrine are barred to him forever, harsh and final. Gramps commits suicide in his grief and shame. There is no family among demons, and Kaigaku, in particular, betrayed his own. There is no place for him in the safe arms of the fire god anymore.
Kaigaku hates the Hinokami shrines with passion. There is a reason for that.
Murata has known worship from a young age. Rarely has he seen such fanaticism as the Demon Slayer Corps has for their gods, though. His family, before the demons got to them, went to the shrine on special occasions to pray for good luck. Not more, not less. Nothing special, really, much like his life was back then.
He used to wonder were the fanaticism comes from, but here and now, on Natagumo mountain, he gets it.
Shaking, he raises his katana, towards Rui as the demon approaches him. Oh, why had Murata been so stupid? This demon is the lower moon five. Lower moon five! He’s done for!
He’s about to beg for his life, but he can’t because he’s also angry. Angry at this boy, who thinks hurting his sister to control her is part of being a family. Murata’s five sisters are all dead, and he knows the worth of sisters very well. Sisters are to be cherished. Sisters are to be teased. Sisters are meant to be teasing. Sisters are meant to be mean and nice and everything in between, because that’s what sisters do.
Family is not supposed to hurt family, and Murata spoke up, and now he’s going to die. His breath comes quick, he’s getting dizzy from the influx of oxygen. All he can do is pray for salvation. Pray to his hometown god, pray to Lady Nezuko, pray to the Hinokami to burn the demon alive.
This is an abomination against family and Murata won’t stand for it.
The Hinokami answers his call.
The Demon Slayer Corps are devoted followers. There is a reason for that.