CAT || Kimetsu No Yaiba Fanfic

Cat Chapter 32

Hotaru inclined her head in thanks as their leader's wife, Ubuyashiki Amane, left her alone with the said leader.

"Oyakata-sama."

Oyakata-sama smiled, turning his head in her direction. "Hello, Hotaru-san. Thank you for accepting my invitation. Please sit down."

"Thank you," she said, doing what was told and sitting comfortably in front of him. A table was between them, with cups of tea already served. "May I ask why you want me here?" She asked formally, even though she already had a guess on why.

He took a sip his tea, Hotaru feeling a bit uncomfortable on how he even made the move comforting and elegant even with shaky hands.

"Like what Iguro had said before, you have managed to kill plenty of demons in such short time, even helping on defeating a lower moon." He started, "In order to be able to be a Hashira, you must successfully kill a respectable amount of demons or kill a memeber of the demon moons."

"Yet you don't want to become one. Why is that?"

Hotaru hummed in thought. "Like I said before, some of those demons are sadly pathetic. I know Obanai and Mitsuri were holding back, so that doesn't really count either," She responded honestly, ignoring his surprise as she raised her cup of tea. "Besides, I'm still weak to be a Hashira."

To be honest, she wanted to become a Hashira once, when she first decided on becoming a demon slayer and started training under Urokodaki. But that disappeared soon after when she saw the difference of strength of a normal slayer and an elite hunter.

Compared to a Hashira, she's still a thousand steps behind.

So she just concentrated on getting stronger and doing what she can to protect the people close to her.

'I'm undeserving of that title anyway.'

"That is understandable," Oyakata-sama said. "But you should know that being strong wasn't the only thing that makes a Hashira."

'Well of course I know that.' Hotaru thought, sipping on her tea, appreciating it's sweetness. 'Not only that they needed strength, but also the strong will as a demon slayer.'

"A demon slayer is always ready to sacrifice their own life to defeat a demon." He smiled softly. "A Hashira is ready to sacrifice their own life to defeat a demon, to save every human, to lead soldiers, and to protect their junior slayers."

She sigh, "I'm not like those."

"But you're working on getting stronger to change our fates, correct?"

"Well yeah–"

Hotaru felt everything freeze around her, her breath stopping momentarily. Slowly, she look up from the tea with her face stone blank.

His face hadn't changed a bit. He still has that soft smile and gentle glazed eyes. But just looking at them feels like they're looking right at her soul.

"What do you mean by that, Oyakata-sama?" She said, not bothering to hide how suspicious she is.

"Two years ago, a little birdie told me that I should be prepared for you to come. I've been waiting to speak with you for a long time now," He laughed. "They told me to relay you a message, something along the lines of 'the fall of de-hee-hee-mons' with only a few survivors unless we help the shifters as much as I can. Though I'm not certain about the first one, I can give you all the support that you'll need. But we need to understand the first message first to know what we'll–"

'He sure is talkative,' She deadpan. She was still stuck on his first words. Like 'what the fuck there's another one? A birdie? De-hee-hee-mons? Did that person really just told a meme as a message?? What the absolute fuck??'