With Muzan's death, the Demon Slaying Corps disbanded. There's no longer a need for Demon Slayers now that there are no more Demons to slay.

They lost many good men and women that night, but their long war with Demons had finally drawn to a close.

Shinobu sighed as she sat on a chair beside Daiki's bed. It has been more than two months, yet Daiki showed no signs of waking up. After they defeated Doma, she was forced to use the poison in her sword to forcefully restart Daiki's heart and keep it beating, just long enough for Kanao and members of the Kakushi to find them. They managed to stabilise his condition and since she could still move, Shinobu joined the front lines with Kanao despite her injuries.

She wasn't suited for fighting upfront face-to-face with Muzan with her injuries. Instead, she provided support and tried her best to aid her fellow Demon Slayers. It was a long and arduous battle, but they won. After generations of sacrifice from brave warriors of the Demon Slaying Corps, they finally won the battle against Muzan and his Demons.

If only Daiki would wake up, then things would be perfect.

They are both still alive. They could now reciprocate each other's feelings that she knew they both have for each other.

So, please, wake up. Let us make amends and start anew.

Upon further diagnosis, Shinobu now knows for certain that Daiki's Eighth Form is an attack that gains power from burning his lifeforce. Using a special way of breathing, he forced his heart and lungs to go beyond their limit, forcing his body to surpass its limit and temporarily gaining power even greater than an Upper Moon One.

She really wants to reprimand him when he wakes up. Who was the one that was angry at her for coming up with a suicidal technique?

But he needs to first wake up for her to reprimand him.

She held up his large hand in her small ones, closing her eyes and resting her forehead against it, praying that he will wake up. She had already lost her older sister. She's lucky that her younger sister is still alive. If she lost him too, she-

"Shi…no…bu…"

Her eyes shot wide open and she looked up. Daiki's eyes are partially open, his breathing still weak and shallow, but he's awake.

He's awake.

There are a lot of things she wanted to say to him, but all of that is lost on her at that moment. The only thing she managed to do was to hug him close and bury her head into his shoulders, trying to keep her tears from flowing out.

She allows a genuine smile to form on her face, a smile from her heart. She no longer feels any form of anger. Like he promised her, he had freed her from her hatred.

He's awake. They are both alive. They can finally put down their weapons and settle down somewhere far away where no one will know them. They can start their lives anew.

With her arms still hugging him close to her, she tried her best to blink her tears away and whispered into his ear.

"Welcome back, Daiki."

Her name is Kocho Kiyo. She is seven years old this year. She has two younger siblings. Her brother, Kishita, is five this year while her youngest brother, Kahei, is only a year old.

Her father's name is Daiki. He had discarded his family name, so their family uses her mother's family name instead. Her father doesn't speak much. Her mother said that this is because her father is born with a damaged voice box. Her mother said that a person's voice box is what allows them to produce sound to speak. Even if her father cannot speak much, Kiyo knows that her father loves her very much. Her father is also very strong, easily the strongest man in the village they are in, but he rarely flaunts his strength. Instead, most of the time he is helping her mother with her work in treating the sick and injured.

Her mother is Kocho Shinobu. She is the most beautiful woman Kiyo had ever seen. She is always smiling no matter what. Her mother is also a very skilled doctor. There is nothing Kiyo knows that her mother cannot cure. Whenever someone in their village gets sick or is injured, they come to her mother for help. Her mother would help them with a smile on her face no matter how rich or poor they are. If they could not afford the treatment, she would waive it off or simply tell them to pay her at a later date. There's nothing stopping the villagers from not paying her mother at all, but her mother's kindness is infectious. They all ended up paying her back somehow, be it in the form of favours or money. Her mother is also always wearing a white haori with a butterfly wing pattern, something which her mother said used to belong to her deceased Aunt Kanae.

What she and her siblings love is the story telling sessions they would have before their parents put them to bed. Their mother will often tell them about the story of Demons and Demon Slayers, a story of how generations of Demon Slayers fought against Demons to make the world a safer place for everyone to live in. Her mother told the story so well that Kiyo almost thought that her mother had experienced the real thing herself.

But that is not possible. Demons are nothing but fiction. They are not real.

Even with her mother's good reputation and easy-going nature, there will always bound to be people who will try to take advantage of her kindness. Usually, these people came from outside their village. Most of the time, they had heard of her mother's skill in the medical field and they would travel here in search of her. Sometimes, these people are less than savoury creatures.

Kiyo remembered that there was one time a group of thugs who came knocking on their doors. Their leader was bleeding from head to toe, he was probably involved in some sort of fight before coming here. The winter season would be coming soon, and their mother had sent their father out to buy some new clothing for the entire family to keep everyone warm during winter. Kishita was excited at the idea of going out to see new places and things, so her father brought him along, leaving mother, her, and the then new-born Kahei who had just joined their family.

Their family lived in a slightly bigger house as compared to the villagers. Mother called it the Butterfly Estate. The medical wing and their house are joined to each other side by side, so that it is easier for her and father to take care of any sick patients. Kiyo faintly remembered her mother saying that this Butterfly Estate is a lot smaller than the real thing which they had moved out from. There is another Butterfly Estate?

The thugs who knocked on their doors that fateful day were rude, loud, crass, and violent. Kiyo has a feeling that they may be bandits. Kiyo was scared, but she held her baby brother close to her protectively as she stood behind her mother. Her mother seemed unaffected at whatever is going on in front of her, still talking to the group of thugs in front of them with a smile on her face, telling them to keep it down and not destroy her favourite vase that one of the potters in the village had made for her as payment for curing his sickness. Kiyo vaguely remembered about the potter. He lives about three streets down if her memory serves her right.

The leader of the thugs who was bleeding from one side of his body seemingly forgot about his injuries when he spotted her mother. He was obviously enthralled by her mother's beauty. Kiyo felt a sense of raging anger surging through her at that moment. They wouldn't have dared to do this if her father was around. Usually, people like these scums cowed the moment her father so much as glared at them.

The leader of the thugs reached out a hand to try and touch her mother's face. Kiyo had never felt so angry before. She was about to shout something at that man when her mother did something unbelievable.

She stopped the man's hand with simply a pair of chopsticks. Chopsticks she got from… somewhere.

Where and how did her mother get the chopsticks from?! She didn't even see her mother move!

"Ara ara, do you mind not touching me with your filthy hands? The thought of it makes me want to vomit."

Her mother is still smiling with that usual smile on her face, which is a stark contrast to the words she just spoke. That vile man tried to draw his hand back, but for some reason he cannot release his outstretched hand from the grip of her mother's chopsticks.

Kiyo was simply baffled at what was going on. Since when did her mother possess such strength?

"Kiyo, would you be a sweetie and turn around? Cover your ears and your brother's. No matter what you hear later, don't turn back until I say so, okay?"

Kiyo blinked her eyes in confusion, but still did as she was told. She gently stuffed small pieces of cloths into her brother's ears and covered hers with her hands and turned around. What is her mother planning to do?

It didn't take long. In the short moment where her ears are covered and she is facing the wall, she thought that she might have heard some screaming that were undoubtedly from the thugs, but it may be her imagination. She knows her mother is far from helpless, she had seen her easily flip a grown man over her shoulders once before, but against a group of thugs? Will her mother be alright?

She felt a light tap on her shoulders and her mother's smiling face coming into view as her mother peered from above, that usual kind smile on her face. Her mother seems to be in a good mood, seeing as how she is smiling to the point that her eyes appeared to be closed and is doing some sort of eye smile that only her mother could do.

"Everything is alright now, Kiyo!"

Kiyo turned back and was shocked at how every single thug is now prostrating themselves on the floor, shivering in fright.

Just what did her mother do?!

At that moment, her father walked through their front door with Kishita sitting on his broad shoulders. His father had a stunned look on his face for a brief moment when he saw the sight of those men grovelling on the floor before looking back up at their mother. The expression on his face looks as though he was asking their mother 'Do I want to know about this?'

"Welcome back! Did the both of you have fun outside?"

Their mother dodged the topic as she feigned oblivious to the scene in front of them, catching the excitable Kishita in her arms as he bolted to her and caught her in a hug. Their father gave another look at the group of grovelling men trembling in their places on the floor and gave a shrug before walking over to their mother and gave a light kiss on her forehead. Kiyo walked up to her father, still carrying Kahei in her arms when their mother started ordering the thugs around like they are her servants. The thugs are now surprisingly obedient.

Guess her mother is more than capable of looking after herself even without their father around.

"Mother is scary." Kiyo whispered to her father when they are both out of earshot and helping him out with grounding some medicinal herbs in the room where they mix and prepare all their medicine.

Her father chuckled at her words and ruffled her hair with a hand, mirth clear in his eyes.

"She stopped the man's hand with a pair of chopsticks! Chopsticks!"

Her father nodded along, but he shows no surprise on his face. Maybe her mother did something similar before? Enough for it to be considered normal by her father? Maybe she should ask her Aunt Kanao when she comes over for her regular visits sometime in the future? Her mother is definitely avoiding her questions and her father's inability to speak properly isn't helping things.

Come to think about it, how did her parents meet? What did they do before they settled down here in this village?

Maybe she should ask them about it some other day.

It was during the winter that same year when she accidentally found two sets of clothes in her parents' drawer which she had never seen before.

It was hidden beneath a false bottom of a drawer in her parents' cabinet which they keep their clothes in. The sets of clothes she found was very neatly folded, as though someone had taken great care in doing so. These clothes look almost like uniforms and they are made of a material Kiyo had never seen or felt before. It is so light yet felt so durable. It is easily the best type of cloth she had seen. There is also a huge kanji for "Destroy" stitched on the back of each uniform.

She carefully picked a set of the uniforms up. The size of the one in her hands looks as though it would fit her mother perfectly. It definitely belongs to her mother. Does that mean that the much bigger uniform belongs to her father? And what is written in the book that is titled "Breath of Tree" that lays in that same drawer?

"That is not something you are supposed to find, Kiyo."

Kiyo jumped up a little in fright and turned around, finding her mother looking down at her with a smile on her face. Her mother took the uniform from her hands and folded it back neatly before putting it back where it was found. Her mother closed the drawer and gently ushered her out of the room.

"Mother? What was that? What did you and father used to do before you had us?"

Her mother playfully tapped a finger on Kiyo's nose.

"Why, your father and I used to hunt Demons for a living!"

Kiyo puffed up her cheeks.

"Fine, keep your secrets."

Her mother merely laughed and patted her head.

It was only another two weeks later when Kiyo found out something even more unusual about their parents. She didn't know why she didn't find out about it earlier, but maybe she was too young back then to pick up on the signs.

The Butterfly Estate is at the edge of the village. Her father had strung long lines of bells across the perimeter of their Estate that faced the surrounding forest as some sort of warning system to warn them of beasts that prowled too close to the Estate, similar to what other villagers did for their homes.

It was snowing and Kiyo wanted to go out and play in the snow. Kishita had exhausted himself and had fell asleep, so did Kahei. Her mother didn't really like the cold outside, so Kiyo's father brought her out to play instead.

She was having fun building a snowman with her father at the back of the Estate when her father suddenly tensed and faced a certain direction. A few seconds later, Kiyo heard the howling of wolves. From the sound of it, the wolves are quickly circling them in, still hidden within the shadw of the trees.

The bells jingled. The pack of wolves had entered the safety perimeter that her father had set up around the Estate.

Her father immediately picked her up with a hand and easily carried her with a single arm. He jumped across the backyard in a single leap just as wolves started rushing towards them.

There's no way any ordinary human could clear such a distance with just a single jump.

The wolves are still hot on their heels. Her father entered a nearby wooden shack which he usually stores his tools. It is a storeroom which Kiyo had only entered once before, there's nothing fun in here so she never came back to visit.

Her father gently let her down on the floor before lifting up a floorboard, revealing a hidden compartment. What's with her parents' fondness for hidden compartments?!

Her father picked up a gigantic double blade axe with just one hand from the compartment. His other hand ruffled her hair as he headed out and told her a single word.

"Stay."

Kiyo is scared. This is different from the usual riff-raffs her father put into place. These wolves must be starving for them to be willing to come close to any human establishment. They will be vicious.

She doesn't want her father to die.

Her father had already walked out and closed the door to the shack behind him. Kiyo quickly shifted herself to peek through the gaps of the wooden wall of the shack. She saw her father standing straight and tall with that gigantic jet black axe in hand, totally unafraid of the pack of wolves that is circling him.

One of the wolves pounced from behind and Kiyo let out a shocked gasp as her hands instinctively went to cover her mouth.

What's amazing was that her father simply shifted his axe and gave a powerful swing. She didn't even see how his arms moved. One moment the wolves were around him, still alive. The next moment, they all lay dead on the ground, each of them cleaved into two pieces. The blood of the wolves painted a scarlet red against the white of the snowy ground.

Her father returned back to the shack, sending her a reassuring smile as he placed that gigantic weapon back into the hidden compartment. There isn't even a drop of blood on her father's axe. Upon closer inspection, Kiyo saw that part of the axe had already rusted. Some part of the blade had already cracked, but that is definitely not from her father's fight with the wolves since the cracks looked old.

It looked as if her father had done battle with something even more fearsome than wolves with that axe a long time ago.

Her eyes caught sight of a sheathed sword within the hidden compartment when her father went to put that heavy looking axe back into it. She instinctively reached out a hand to touch the sword, only for her father to grab onto her wrist and prevented her from doing so.

"Poi…son…"

That sword is poisonous? The only one who actively mixes poison for fun in their family is her eccentric mother. There are only two weapons here in the hidden compartment as far as she could see, the gigantic axe which probably weighs more than their entire family combined, and that sheathed sword. If the axe belongs to their father, then…

"Is the sword mother's?"

Her father nodded as he placed the dusty floorboard back to where it is supposed to be, hiding the two weapons from view.

Her father let her sit on his broad shoulders as they walked back to their house, which isn't far from the shack. The moment they entered, their mother was already there with cups of steaming hot tea for them to drink and warm themselves.

"I assume we will be having wolf meat for dinner tonight? Maybe a few new fur pelts to make something for Kishita? He doesn't seem to do too well in the cold."

Now that Kiyo knows what to look for, she noticed it.

Her parents never made a single sound when they moved. Her parents' footsteps are always silent. It's like they don't even notice that they are actively doing it. It's how her mother always managed to sneak up to her undetected, like how she surprised her the other day when she found her parents' weird uniform-like clothes.

One thing is for certain. Her parents are definitely not normal people.

It was two years later when she realised how powerful her parents are.

A large group of bandits had decided to attack and pillage their village. The villagers are fighting back. Since their village is located in a remote area, they cannot count on the government's troops to arrive anytime soon. They have to defend themselves until then.

There were too many bandits. At this rate, the entire village will be razed to the ground.

Her mother ushered the three of them into that wooden shack that Kiyo's father hid her from the wolves two years ago. Her father lifted up that same floorboard once more, revealing the hidden compartment.

"Ara ara, how long is it since I last picked up my blade?" Her mother mused as she unsheathed her sword and did some fancy twirling before holding it in front of her eyes. Kiyo can tell that her mother is no stranger to using a blade from that alone, even if her mother's blade is shaped weirdly.

"Huh, it had rusted a little. Can't be helped, I guess. We didn't exactly go about maintaining our weapons after that last battle."

Her father shrugged as he picked up that heavy looking axe. Kishita and Kahei only had looks of awe on their face upon seeing what their father did, the severity of the bandit situation not sinking into their heads just yet.

"Look after your siblings, okay?" Her mother said to her with a smile as she hugged all three of them close. "Your father and I won't take too long. We will just be out there scaring these bandits away."

"Come back safe." Kiyo whispered into her mother's ear. Her mother let out a soft laugh at those words.

"Oh, your father and I had dealt with worse before on a daily basis." Her mother waved a hand in front of her flippantly before turning back to their father, who still has that amused expression on his face. "Right, anata?"

Their father merely nodded in agreement.

Kiyo doesn't know what happened between the time period the parents left them in the shack and when they returned. All she knew was that the villagers held them in very high regard after that. According to some of the villagers, their father is like a god of war, none could stand in his way. Their mother is like a flitting butterfly, moving at speeds too fast for anyone to properly see. Her parents did not kill a single bandit as far as she knew, only knocking them out for the rest of the villagers to tie them up and hand them to the government when their troops arrived.

Kiyo only knew that her parents decided to move out of the village two days later right after the bandit attack. According to her mother, they don't want any meddlesome government officials to come around and poke their noses in things they shouldn't have business knowing after their showy display.

Thus, the five of them are now trekking to where their Aunt Kanao is living. They will be living with their Aunt Kanao until her parents had decided where to settle down next. The entire family is sitting on a cart that is being pulled along by a mule together with their belongings. Her father is walking beside the cart, carrying the large axe which is wrapped in cloth from top to bottom to hide it from view. Mother had said that only her father could carry such a heavy thing, the poor mule wouldn't have been able to pull it along if he put it on the cart.

Their mother is holding a sleeping Kahei in her arms, her sword attached to her belt. Kishita is lazily playing with a wooden top their father had made for him while she is sitting on her father's broad shoulders. She had always enjoy sitting on her father's shoulders and seeing what he could see.

Every time Kiyo found out more about their parents, she only got more questions than answers. She decided to ask her mother one more time.

"Mother? What did you and father really used to do before you had us?"

Her mother clapped her hands once happily, her usual large smile still on her face and her closed eyes curved upwards into an eye smile.

"Why, I'm glad you asked, Kiyo! Your father and I used to be Demon Slayers! In fact, your Aunt Kanao and Uncle Tanjiro was one too!"

Kishita simply scoffed at the ridiculous answer, but for some reason, Kiyo knows that her mother is telling the truth no matter how unbelievable it sounded.

Furthermore, her father didn't give any indications that indicated that her mother is lying. He is simply humming a tune under his breath as he held her with a hand so that she doesn't accidentally fall off his shoulders.

"Then why aren't you and father not Demon Slayers anymore?"

Her mother simply gave her another one of her gentle smiles.

"There's no point in being a Demon Slayer if there are no Demons to slay, right?"

"You and father killed all the Demons?" Kishita asked sarcastically, obviously not believing anything their mother just said. Their mother has a track record for saying funny things to mess with everyone's heads for the fun of it, so the distrust is understandable.

Their parents shared a brief look at each other, as if sharing a secret that only the two of them knew about.

"Well, not us per say, but yup! All the Demons are dead! And then the Demon Slaying Corps was disbanded since its purpose is done, and your father and I decided to settle down and have the three of you! End of story!"

"Yeah, right." Kishita rolled his eyes, which only incited a laugh from their mother before she starts poking at his cheeks with a finger to tease him for being cute.

Kiyo smiled at her father, who smiled back at her in return. Kishita won't get it now, but he will in the future. There are no other explanations for all the oddities she found out about their parents and to explain the superhuman feats her parents could do.

"The two of you must have been really cool Demon Slayers."

Her father ruffled her hair fondly with his large hand as reply. Her mother continues to laugh happily, who somehow heard the soft words Kiyo whispered to her father.

"That's right!"

~END~

AN: It's been officially a year since I started out as a writer on FFnet, and I decided to commemorate it by doing something I always wanted to try and keep failing to do, which is to write a SHORT story. I had binged read the manga within two days and started writing this story immediately, breaking my own conventions since I never read any of the fanfics for this fandom before I post this. I would usually read a fanfic or two about a fandom I wanted to write about before I write a fanfic myself, so such an arrangement is a first.

If there are any facts about Kimetsu no Yaiba that I got wrong, do bear with it since I only had two days worth of knowledge about it (LOL). Hopefully this story is enjoyable for you and will be a refreshing read from the fanfics on this site.

In any case, hoped you enjoyed this story.

Cheers,

Banix