Resolution

"You fool!" The man shouts, as he turns his katana backward with the hilt facing Hiroto, and slams it into Hiroto's stomach.

*THUMP* "GACKK!" Hiroto spits out as the force is driven into his gut. Before falling over Hiroto see's Tanjiro approaching ready to tackle the man to the ground, throwing the snow he has in his hand towards the man's face. Before passing out himself.

The man's eyebrow raised slightly seeing Hiroto's actions, 'Similar to what I did to you.' he thought to himself.

"Brother!" Tanjiro shouts.

"Idiot, don't just shout out when you're trying to attack someone from behind." The man said turning around and kicking towards Tanjiro's stomach. Before the kick lands on him, Tanjiro quickly drops his head towards the man's feet and headbutts it.

*THWACK* "Huh?" The man's eyes widened as he thought, 'what the hell is this kid's head made of? Stone? That numbed my foot.'

As the man's foot was pushed towards the ground, before Tanjiro could look up the man thrust the hilt of the katana straight into Tanjiro's back, forcing him onto the ground.

*THUMP* "Ughh…" Tanjiro falls next to Hiroto, unconscious.

Nezuko, seeing the sight of her two older brothers unconscious in front of her, starts to shake in disbelief.

The man looks down towards the two boys back laying on the ground and thought to himself. 'Wait, where's the axe the older one dropped?'

Sensing something about him, the man looks up to see axe falling straight down towards him, gathering more and more speed.

*Clanggg* Using instinct alone, the man parries the axe away into the side of a tree as it was about to fall onto him. 'He threw it after throwing the snow at me. Not just him, his younger brother's hands.' He looks towards Tanjiro's hand to see the sharp edge of a broken piece of stone in it, sharp enough to cut someone. 'These two were ready to face me with whatever they had. These kids…'

"AGhhh!! ARGH!" Nezuko screams out, struggling out of the man's grasp as she sees the two boys in front of her.

She frees herself from the man's grip before turning around and kicking his towards his stomach. 'Crap!' the man thought, not having enough time to dodge.

*THUB* The kick sounds out as the pressure released from the kick causes the snow to shift from the pure shockwave. The man, taking the full brunt of the kick, is launched a short distance away, recovering himself and stopping himself by planting his feet down.

Nezuko runs towards the two brothers on the ground with her hands out reaching for them. 'Damn! She'll devour them!' But just before her hands reached them, the man was caught in disbelief. His eyes widening at what he saw in front of him.

'I know that it wasn't her! I could still see the Nezuko I know of in her eyes! Nezuko, who's my younger sister!' The words of Hiroto sound out in his head, as he looks towards Nezuko.

Only to see her sliding and crouching in front of the two, with her hands spread out to shield them.

"Grrrrr" Nezuko does a small warning growl towards the man, bearing her fangs towards him as if to warn him not to get closer.

Nezuko then launches herself towards the man, "Graaahhh!" Veins bulging on her forehead and her pupils dilated running towards him.

'Long ago, someone once said the same thing.' The man thought as he dodges and backs off from Nezuko's attack. 'Only to be devoured by a demon. When a demon is starving, it will kill and devour even its parents or siblings. Because they're nutrient-rich. I've seen it happen more times than I can count.'

Dodging a kick launched from Nezuko the man backs off to put some distance between himself and her. 'This girl has been wounded, and she's expending energy to heal those injuries.' Nezuko slashes at the man with her nails towards the man's face, only to have him duck out of the way and strafing to the sides, kicking up a trail of snow.

'She must've drained vast amounts of her strength as she transformed into a demon.' As Nezuko claws towards the man he dodges to her left while turning, and in mid-turn shoves the hilt of his katana into her midriff before facing her and using his left palm to push her back.

'That means she's severely starved at his moment, without a doubt.' Nezuko stops and recovers from the attack. "Grrrrr. ARGGG" Nezuko yells before charging him, her hair fluttering behind her, once again.

'She must've wanted to feast on a human right away, even if it's her own two brothers… Yet, she protected him instead, and she even intimidated me…' The man back off, as Nezuko launches herself up to a tree. As she hangs onto the tree, the man sheaths his katana back into his sheath and a *click* sounds out as it is stored.

'I wonder, these siblings might be…' Nezuko launches herself towards the man once more with her right hand raised, aiming to maim the man. The man rests his left hand onto the sheath of the katana with his right hand on the hilt, ready to draw and strike. '... different from others.'

As Nezuko closes in on the man, only inches away, the man quickly raises his right hand towards her neck and then *THWACK* chops the side of her neck, knocking her out to the side.

"Ughh…" Nezuko mutters out, before falling over to the side closing her eyes.

[Unknown POV]

It was dark all around, only the unconscious bodies of Hiroto and Tanjiro lay on the nonexistent ground. The rest of the Kamado family could be seen surrounding the two figures, having a light aura around them. They look down towards the two boys in worry.

Kie Kamado, their mothers kneels down next to them, whispering softly. "I'm sorry to leave you two behind, Hiroto, Tanjiro." Leaning in closer towards the ears of the two boys, she mutters, "Take care of Nezuko for me, all right boys?"

Kie then turns over to Hiroto, before whispering to him, "Please, watch over your younger siblings Hiroto. Take care of them in my stead. Be the pillar that supports them." Kie then reaches over to Hiroto's bracelet and lightly touches it. "I'll always be with you, we all will…"

[Hiroto's POV]

Waking up, I immediately grasped onto what was in my left hand. Feeling a piece of cloth, I look over to my left to see Nezuko laying beside me.

Relief hits me, as tears start to cloud my eyes. 'Thank god, she's safe." I thought. Looking towards her face, I can see her sleeping with a piece of bamboo covering her mouth, tied with a cloth on each end of it going behind her head.

Reaching over to her face, I lightly stroke it muttering, "I'll cure you, no matter what it takes Nezuko…"

"So, you finally woke up?" The man's voice from before sounds out from in front of me. I quickly looked up to see him leaning onto the side of a tree. One thing that I noticed from him, is that his eyes aren't as emotionless as before. It was a bit softer, not too much, but still softer as he gazes towards the siblings.

Afraid that he might attack us again, I quickly sit up and pull Nezuko into my embrace, and pull Tanjiro's body close to mine.

Tanjiro from the movement woke up, and groggily sat up.

"Go see an old man named Sakonji Urokodaki who lives at the foot of Mt. Sagiri." The man says with his arms crossed.

"Tell him that Giyu Tomioka sent you." The man, who calls himself Giyu, gets off of the tree with his arm hanging by his sides. "She seems to be alright since it's cloudy right now, but never let her be exposed to the sunlight, okay?" Giyu says, before disappearing from our sights.

"What, where did he go?" Tanjiro asks as the man disappears from in front of us.

"I don't know what he did, but it doesn't matter for now Tanjiro. We have to go back to our home and…" I mutter the last parts of the words, not having the strength to say the words I need to.

Tanjiro catches on to what I was saying and nods sadly as he looks down. "Brother, is Nezuko fine?" He asks me looking towards her in my arms.

I look down at her and see her eyes twitching a bit. I look to where the wound was when the man stabbed her with his katana, but she doesn't seem to be hurt.

"She's alright. Just tired I'm guessing. Come on, let's go. We have to go back to our home." I said while standing up with Nezuko in my arms. I put her back on my back as I wait for Tanjiro to follow me.

"Do you think we can trust that man? About going to see this Urokodaki person?" Tanjiro asks me, as we walk back up to the path we fell from.

"I don't know, but he's our best bet right now. The person, Giyu wouldn't lie to us if he was making us walk into a trap. He could've killed Nezuko when he had the chance but he didn't." I told him as we continued on towards our home.

[1 Hour later]

I'm kneeling down in a grave that we dug with 5 different mounds in it of various sizes. This was where we buried our family.

Tanjiro is kneeling beside me as we give our last respects and prayers to our family with Nezuko standing behind us.

After finishing we stood back up. I walk over to Nezuko and hold her hand to guide her. Tanjiro has the basket that we used to carry the charcoal, filled with a bit of food from inside of the house that I told him to grab.

"Let's go," I said walking off while pulling Nezuko with me. Her hair seems to have changed. Just past her elbows, the color of her hair turned into a vermilion color, as it appears to be crimped into large, and straight ridges.

'It must have been from turning into a Demon.' I thought to myself, as we walk away from our empty and quiet house, leaving the graves of our mother and siblings behind.