Kimetsu No Yaiba AU - Butterfly Of Change

Chapter 3 - Acceptance

Airi stand up and takes her handbag before heading out of the house. Naoto see her off from the front door before he heads back to the living room. Right now Naoto is sitting face to face with Kanae, between them, two babies are still playing with each other. Kanae keep smiling like always while Naoto didn't have any expression. There is an awkward silence.

"Naoto-kun, you like book right? I brought some of my book here, do you want to read it together?"

"..."

Kanae open her satchel bag and take out a few books. She sits right beside Naoto before opening one picture book.

"I just got this one yesterday, I haven't read it yet. It's a story about ugly duckling..."

Although Naoto didn't have any interest in children's picture books, at least he can listen to it. Kanae is pretty good at telling a story, her cheerful and warm voice made Naoto feel he got entranced by the story. He keeps listening to Kanae story while keeping an eye on the two babies playing.

The story is about a duckling that born ugly, his mother promise to love all of her children equally. But the other duck keeps mocking her child, making her feel embarrassed. The mother told her ugly son to wait at the corner. Didn't want her mother to feel that embarrassment, the ugly duckling left the pond where his family live.

He keeps searching from pond to pond, however, none of the duck family want him because he's ugly. Finally, he found a family of brown goose that loves him and accepts him as his own family. But suddenly a hunter came and try to shoot the goose, all of the goose run away except for the ugly duckling. The duck looks very ugly that even the hunter didn't want to kill him.

The ugly duck continues to find another family where he got captured by a farmer, he's put in a cage with the hope he can lay an egg. However after a year passes by, he still can't lay a single egg. The farmer let him go because he's not useful. He continues to walk through frozen marsh until his feather becomes white. A swan flies down and say that he looks very beautiful.

Feeling weird by what the swan said, the ugly duckling stand on the edge of the water to see his own reflection. He can see that he's not an ugly duck anymore, but a beautiful white swan. Finally, he joins a family of swan and live happily ever after.

Kanae closes the book and ask Naoto with a smile.

"What do you think?"

Without looking at Kanae, Naoto answers her question.

"...It's stupid..."

"Eh?"

Kanae feel dumbfounded by Naoto's reply, she didn't expect this kind of answer.

"It's stupid."

"Why?"

"Why do you ask? The ugly duckling mother said that she'll love all of her children equally, but she didn't. Just because other people look down on her son, she immediately shoves him away. His mother is just a hypocrite who prefers her own comfort than her son. Can she be called a mother in the first place?"

Kanae keep listening to what Naoto said quietly.

"Why he really want to get accepted by the other that much? Why did he change himself so he can please others? He's just lying and fooling himself, there is no real happiness in that. True love is when someone loves you for what you have and what you are. The swan only love him because he turned into a beautiful swan, if they knew that the swan they praise is once an ugly duckling, I'm very sure that they will see him differently."

"..."

"In the end... it's all about the cover and looks. Living in a false love like that is just living a lie, there is no meaning to that kind of life. He's foolish if he's seeking acceptance from the others. Acceptance is not sought, people who want to accept you will come to you by himself no matter how bad or good you are. Whoever wrote that book is just someone stupid that thinks everything will go his way. Life is not some kind of fairy tale. That kind-"