Curse of Muzan

Burdens Lifted

3rd person POV:

As Ochako and Momo were in the middle of Final Selection, Izuku tried to find a way to control his unsettled nerves. His own memories of Final Selection came to him with it not helping his concerns. "C'mon, kid. It's your turn." Tengen laid on his side as him and Izuku decided to play shoki after Iguro's utter defeat as a way to quell them. "You've been thinking for almost an hour. Do something already." Izuku went for a piece to grab it before stopping as he felt as if something notable happened. "What? Cat got your tongue?"

Izuku looked up as if he reached a sudden realization. "I don't know what happened, but I feel as if a great burden has finally been lifted from my soul."

Izuku placed his piece down for Tengen to raise his eyebrow. "Weirdo. At least you do your job to avoid that unflashy thing about you." He moved his piece with Izuku making a move immediately after.

"At least I'm not some kind of weakling. Checkmate."

"Dammit!"

With Momo and Ochako

The three stood up and watched the large hand demon start turning to ash. As they did, Tanjiro began to smell a sad aroma to him. He glanced at the demon with empathy as it began remembering it's past. "That's right. I had a brother when I was a human." He came to the realization and how the demon's older brother would regularly comment on how much of a crybaby he was and how he needed to always be protected by him. Though the brother said this, he never denied his younger sibling's fear and kept with him as a way to avoid troubles.

Tanjiro walked to the hand demon's hand which was held out. "What a sad smell." He held the hand with it slowly curling. The demon crying as his memories came back at him. Tearing up from the act.

"*hic* Thank you." The demon turned entirely to ash with the young boy looking up at the sky with grief.

"Please god. If this man ever gets reborn, please don't let him turn into a demon again."

Ochako felt a bit of empathy for the demon. Even though he was a monster, it seemed as if his evil was expunged and he was able to reflect on his life to actually feel bad for what he did. "Hey, Momo. Do you think demons can see their past lives if they die?"

"Possibly. I think Midoriya said some demons he's faced, he was able to see them ascend to heaven after being decapitated. So for one to see their soul as is, it might be probable." As the demon was no longer present, Tanjiro glanced over at Momo and Ochako with a smile.

"Thank you very much for what you've done. If it was not for the both of you, I may have died."

"It's not a problem. We just wanted to help. It also wasn't fun hearing that demon bash our teacher. He did a lot for us and neither of us wanted to stand for the insults." Tanjiro smiled at Ochako before praising Izuku.

"Your master sounds like a very nice man." Realizing they haven't formally introduced one another yet, Tanjiro cleared his throat. "My apologies for not introducing myself sooner. My name is Tanjiro Kamado. I was taught by master Urokodaki in swordsmanship."

"Nice to meet you. My name is Momo Yaoyorozu."

"And mine's Ochako Uraraka."

"We both were trained by the Hashira Izuku Midoriya."

"Hashira? What's that?" Tanjiro tilted his head in confusion as Momo explained what the Hashira were. Once she did, the boy began to smile. "So you both were trained by an amazing man. I'm so happy to have met you then. I hope we can become good friends." He smiled with it making both girls happy.

They started walking down the path wary of whatever would move. As they went on, Momo glanced at Tanjrio with some confusion. "Pardon my asking, but what made you become a Demon Slayer, Kamado? You don't seem to be the type to have a grudge nor do I think it suits you overall."