I Found You [Shinazugawa Sanemi x Reader]

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    Dead and overgrown rice fields, a soft road, dense trees where the sunlight just barely comes between the leaves. Houses with creaking, deteriorating, and molding wood. Broken door screens, snapped and rusted farming tools, and dark splattered stains across everything with the faint metallic smell lingering in the air. It was the usual sight, it hadn't changed in years, about 4 to be exact. What was it like before?

    I remember this area was an incredibly small farming village, with a population of maybe 20, 30 tops. The children were either homeschooled, uneducated, or walked 2 hours every morning to the nearest village to an old man who offered free schooling. No one could afford schooling, new clothes, or much food so we were forced to make and sell our own. Illness was common and medication was impossible to afford. Homemade medicines were somewhat effective, but the supplies were scarce, and you would be lucky if you found an opening with the people that made them.

           I can never remember any names, faces, or direct roles of people. I could only vaguely remember two people. A woman, a very kind and gentle feeling when I think of her, I assume she was my mother due to how fondly I feel for her. The couple memories I have of her are of her cutting my hair and tying her hair into a high bun while clad in typical farmer's wear. I also remember a man with shoulder-length hair falling into his face as he taught me to grind down herb and sap into a medicinal paste, possibly he was my father teaching me how to help myself and others seeing as I know how to make various medicines without effort as if I've practiced a thousand times over and over.

    Nonetheless, this village was quite peaceful. That is until one night the starving demons in the surrounding forests finally snapped and went on a rampage, slaughtering and consuming every resident insight who attempted to flee. The kids who were arriving back with me dashed back in the direction we had come. I was dragged along but not for long as I had tripped and a branch fell on me after a demon had jumped off of it. Next thing I know I'm in a bed of a destroyed, blood-soaked, house. A strange man with curled black hair and wearing city wear, clearly no one I've met before, was walking back into the dead of the night, muttering away to himself with an ominous feeling. I've never seen him again though I had searched for him as I can only conclude he saved me and he is the only lead to knowing what happened that night for certain.

    Yet, ever since then I have suffered from mild amnesia so finding any more detail on the people and that man is near impossible. I believe I've grown accustomed to it by now but anytime I walk through the village I can't help but grow curious about my memories and if they truly match what happened. Any other knowledge once held by the residents whose remains are now in the blood-stained wood or behind the locked door of memories I possessed has been lost to time.

    I suppose that lack of memories and information is what makes me resent this place, and what compelled me to go ahead with the task at hand. See, far from this place is a test called the Final Selection. I recognized the name though, I never knew what it was when someone mentioned it to me while buying medicine. I jumped for the chance to ask the boy about it and to my luck this boy was energetic and quite enthusiastic, he saw my interest and told me everything about it. The Final Selection is what qualifies individuals to become a Demon Slayer, the people dedicated to slaying every last one of those monsters. A wonderful cause if you ask me, so I thanked the boy for the information as he left my stall for the exam.

    A month later he had returned much to my surprise. His bright yellow and red locks matching his bright smile made his way to my stall once more. He was no longer wearing simple travel wear, but this time in a neat, dark, uniform with a white belt that held the seeth to a blade. Across his shoulders lay a haori, a white one that had a flame design trailing the bottom to the middle with a matching yellow and red to his hair. It was obvious by his uniform alone that he had passed and become a Demon Slayer, but his glow just made it much more obvious.