Wisteria Eyed

13

Okay, this is ridiculous.

Let me start from the beginning— I'd always hated fanfictions, especially since they just butchered up the plot or made the characters so OOC that it was nothing but cringe by the end. Not to mention half of those so-called writers didn't even knew how to adapt an OC into the series.

But that didn't mean my little sister had stopped suggesting me the fanfics she found to be good. To appease her, (and my own curiosity) I read them. Some were cringe-y but some were indeed good.

The first time I watched Demon Slayer with my sister, it was still on-going; not even the first season was completed. Of course we turned to the Manga after that. (More like I did and my sister made me recite the whole of it to her later.)

And after we (read: I ) finished all the chapters of the still on-going Manga, my sister turned to the fanfics and the old ritual started again.

And strangely enough, every fanfic that she suggested me had an OC who was either an ice pillar or a demon.

Like, why?
Did all the elements disappear or was your imagination too small to make a pillar of earth or some metals or anything else? I mean, love or snakes ain't much of an element either— make a pillar out of anything! Why only ice?!

And the same, I wanted to ask to the so-called God of this world.

I remember feeling that my life as Miyasha was more ironic than anything. And now, I could say that again.

Shigeno-sensei was the retired snow pillar.

It's not exactly ice per say, I agree, but it's almost the same and I just can't take it seriously.

Being in Kimetsu no yaiba was a thing, but being in this fanfiction-ish part of it was absolutely different.

And why wasn't he mentioned in the manga if he was a previous pillar? Or why weren't Hitoshi or Hiroshi either? Were they not significant characters? Or were they just... dead?

Maybe the real Miyasha wasn't supposed to be alive either. Maybe she was to be killed by those demons and that's that. Maybe I'm altering the plot by just being here.

And that thought is somehow terrifying in itself.

(~<>~)

"Miya-chan! You shouldn't be loitering around here!"

I turned to the elderly voice scolding me, "I will be fine, ojisan!" I stressed my words with a slight huff at the end— as expected by a five year old, such as myself.

There was a small yet beautiful village down the hill— the people here were really kind and somewhat superstitious. But, then again, we were in the olden times.

The old man turned towards me to smack me upside the head and would have landed another smack if I wouldn't have ducked out.

"Itai!" I exclaimed, more for expressing my so-called pain than the actual pain— he didn't even hit me that hard and I know it was intentionally done as such.

"Tamaki-kun!" Obasan suddenly appeared out of nowhere, making the both of us jump in surprise, "don't hit poor Miya-chan! She was just helping me with the pots.  And you shouldn't hit her like that— she's still a child, a girl at that!"

And that was what infuriated me the most; people here treated me as some kind of fragile vase just because I was a child— and girl at that.

"So?" Ojisan shot back, "She's intelligent enough to get what we say to her, isn't she? Then, she should follow it too. I don't care if she's a girl or a boy or a child— no one is safe when the Sun goes down."

And that's what I love about Tamaki-san. He was a good and kind man— just lacked the emotional output of his actual feelings. He worried too much about me but still respected my decisions and treated me like any other human— not just a glass doll.

Obasan sighed and patted my head. "As much as I want to disagree with him, he is right though, Miya-chan. You really should return now." She looked at the darkening sky, covered with coral colours of the fading sunlight.

"But- were there not many other pots left? I can help you load them into the cart!"

"Yes, you can." Ojisan cut obasan off before she could reply, "But tomorrow. You help us old people a little too much."

"What he meant to say is that we are very thankful for your help dear! You have no idea how much you have helped us today— half the cart is already loaded because of you! We can do the other half tomorrow, okay?" Obasan said sweetly as she smiled down at me.

"But-" I tried to pursue them to let me help but ojisan interrupted me.

"The delivery is due for the next week." He said sternly, his brown eyes staring holes into mine. "You can help with it later. Now return back to the temple."

Tamaki-san was a tough cookie, and he looked every inch of it. From his white hair and greyish moustache to every wrinkle on his face— he looked very much like the fierce soldier he was in his younger days.

"Uh, okay sir." I bowed and tried to bid my farewell quietly—

"Be safe." Ojisan spoke up suddenly, making me look up at him. "I want you here back tomorrow when the Sun is up our heads, am I clear?"

"Yes, sir."

He went inside as soon as I replied, making obasan smile at our interaction. "Don't mind him, okay? He's—"

"—bad at showing emotions?" I completed her sentence, making her nod her head in agreement.

"Anyway, you can come here any time tomorrow, okay? And if you don't want to help or are tired, do tell us! We will never force you into doing anything! Now go, the Sun is almost down, go!"

"Yes, ma'am." I smiled and gave her a quick hug, before departing for the temple.

It's been almost half a year since I started staying here.

My concentrated breath practice was going very well— I still found performing it during my sleep a bit challenging, but otherwise it had proved to be very beneficial for my body.

My mind was clearer and wider as well as my senses could detect auras quicker than before. My body felt very clean and somehow strong. Though, I'm yet to see any prove for the strength part.

And with too much free time on my little hands, I focused myself on learning the basics of survival. Like cooking or treating the wounded. Even though I knew first aid, there weren't any actual medicines available in this era to use my skills with.

So, the only skill I had at this point, was running away. And that was unacceptable.

I had nagged Shigeno-sensei into teaching me how to make some basic medicines from some specific plants. He was very surprised when he got to know that I knew how to stitch wounds or even stop the bleeding. The only issue was that I couldn't exactly show him, since I had little to no stability in my little and still chubby hands.

Though, knowing how to do it still counted, right?
That's a different thing I couldn't say that about cooking.

I had to learn almost everything from scratch due to the lack of actual utensils I was familiar with (from the future, remember?). And most of the food being Japanese didn't help either, as I was very much unfamiliar with the process of making them, even if I knew some of their names.

So for that, I took help from the villagers and they even gladly helped.

In exchange for their teaching, I helped them with anything I could- watering their plants, helping them in the field (though it wasn't much), carrying things and many such odd jobs which were easy to do and kept me on their good side.

Though there was something strange about this village— there weren't any children here; most of the residents were either elderly people or people who were in their early thirties.

I had tried asking them before, but unfortunately that had only ended up either being ignored, or simply answered in circles. And even though my brain didn't found this fact too bothering- my gut sure did.

And that made me wonder if I even really wanted the answer to my question.