Chapter 255 - My OC Stash #55 - Butterfly’s Tree by BANIX (KimetsuNoYaiba) (1/2)

-A sweet short story from BANIX~ A lost college student reincarnates into Demon Slayer, with little to no meta knowledge and 0 cheats! Shinobu best girl ofc/

Sypnosis: He is like a huge tree, unmoving and strong. She is like the butterfly, always flitting about. When she gets tired, she would seek refuge and rest in the shade of the tree. She is the butterfly, and he is her tree. (Reincarnated OC)

Rated: T

Words: 20K

Posted on: m.fanfiction.net/s/13450552/1/Butterfly-s-Tree (BANIX)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1

I never amounted to anything much in life.

Plain, normal, boring, nerd. That's what people used to describe me.

Not like I brought myself to care, I'm too lazy to. It's not that such words don't bother me, they do, but I… am just too lazy to do anything about it.

I procrastinate a lot because I don't have an interest in studying or pretty much anything. I didn't do well in university. I either fail or barely pass my exams. It's not that I'm dumb, I know I'm not dumb even if I'm definitely not the smartest. It's just… it's just…

Studying is so boring, you know?

I don't feel like I'm learning. I don't feel the excitement to learn something new whenever the lecturer goes through a new topic. I find it a drag, a chore. It's tiring. I think that I might have picked the wrong major but on hindsight, I think it would be the same no matter whatever subject I chose to major in.

I just don't find joy in learning anymore.

Maybe it's because I chose my major on the basis that it might make me rich in the future if I specialise in a certain profession? Is that why I don't find joy in learning?

I would never know. I met my end before I had the chance to change my decision.

It came as utterly no surprise that such a boring person like me who had done nothing and contributed nothing to society got reborn as a sickly child in a family stricken with disease and poverty.

The catch?

This is the period of feudal Japan.

I guess this is karma.

I don't know which period exactly, but it's not like it would have made much of a difference even if I do know. I never bothered to learn about Japan's history.

In this new body, I cough a lot as a child. My arms were weak. I caught a flu every month or so. I could barely hold a spoon without my hands trembling.

This new father of mine, if I would ever refer to him as that, is abusive. My new mother is too afraid of him to do anything. I have seven siblings, each of them older than me. Whenever my father left the house, we would all worry if he would come back drunk, for if he does, it means another round of beating for whoever earned his ire.

It doesn't help that in this new body, I have a speech impairment. My words come out slow. For example, if I want to say 'Good Morning', it comes out as ”Good…Mor…ning…”

You can imagine the number of beatings I had gotten from my new father because of this. I'm surprised I haven't died a second time.

By the time I was five, my father deemed me to be a burden to the family. My siblings could at least somewhat contribute to the family by doing odd jobs or chores. I could not.

I was sold as a slave.

Some middleclass family bought me at a cheap price due to my sickly body. Maybe they took pity on me. Maybe they wanted to see if they luck out by buying over this sickly boy, hoping that I could be useful and last at least another year or two. If I could, this alone would make their investment worthwhile.

I could care less. At that point in time, I'm just wondering why I am even fighting to stay alive in this kind of shitty situation.

It's obvious that I have no rights as a slave. I couldn't do many jobs. My trembling hands made sure that I could not even serve a proper cup of tea. There's nothing I could do. I have no worth.

I'm just going to die another miserable death. Pathetic.

In the end, the head servant of the house gave up on me and shove an axe into my hands, telling me to just cut firewood until the day I die. Telling me to at least be useful to someone by cutting some firewood that keeps them warm at night.

Of course, I could not cut a single thing. I don't have the strength. I barely managed to lift up that rusty axe. In this sickly body, I have to be smart about it if I ever want to cut a piece of wood with an axe in hand.

No one expected anything out of me. I didn't expect anything out of this either. It's just that I probably would die soon, and I have all the time in the world to figure out how to cut a piece of wood with just an axe and with a body so frail a breeze could knock me down.

I really did have all the time in the world and I have nothing to lose.

I experimented for the fun of it. The angle I want to cut the wood. The force needed. How high I needed to lift the axe. How to plant both my feet. I even experimented if the way I breathe affected my efficiency.

The last part of woodcutting was the most crucial, but I only found that out many years later when I joined the Demon Slaying Corps.

By the end of the month, I made a good enough chip on the wood that is easily visible.

By the end of the second month, I could properly split the wood into two neat pieces in one blow.

By the end of the year, I could easily finish cutting up any amount of firewood given to me.

Suddenly, woodcutting seemed so much fun. I didn't know that such a mundane task could actually be fun. I invented creative ways to use the axe. I could even sculpt with an axe if I wanted to and it would not take much time at all. Such was the expertise I have with an axe in hand because I devoted all my attention and time into knowing how to use it properly.

For whatever reasons that was unknown to me back then, my body started to have visible changes. I no longer cough that much. My body is no longer sickly. I actually started to grow some muscles. I can actually run now.

I spent the next seven(?) eight(?) years cutting wood and playing around with the axe. I could not really tell how long I spent exactly in that backyard of my owner's house. Time passed without me realising it as I cut firewood from dawn to dusk every day, trying to experiment different ways to cut wood by changing the variables. The biggest breakthrough was figuring out that the way I breathe actually has a significant impact on woodcutting during my second year as a slave.

No matter what profession, people starts to notice you if you are good in your job. I was soon asked by the neighbours to help cut their firewood. My owner didn't mind as long as I did my share for his family. I didn't really mind because I had nothing better to do and finding new ways to use an axe was the only pastime I had.

The first time I really stepped out of the house was when there was a bear lurking on the outskirts of the village and all able-bodied men were called to cull it. I was sent in replacement of my owner. I was given an axe and nothing else. That's it.

It was when I travelled with the hunters did I realise how much fitter I am as compared to them. I ran a lot faster, walked a lot longer, jumped a lot higher. I could hold my breath underwater way longer than anyone could to the point that I found it unnatural. I could even move without making a single sound.

And then we found the hulking monster of a bear. Or rather, it found us in the dead of the night. Caught us all by surprise there.

By the time we realised that the two hunters in our group who were supposed to keep watch during the night were silently killed by the crafty bear, another three had been mauled to death. The bear was going for another two nearby who didn't have time to pick up their weapons. My axe was beside me. In my desperation, I picked it up. With courage I never knew I possessed, I leapt towards the bear and swung my axe with a single arm.

I cleaved the bear into two with one single swing.

I saved the villagers, my fellow hunters. However, whatever I did was clearly unnatural. They already had suspicions of me when we were travelling. I was way too fit to be humanly possible.

Humans fear what they don't understand.

My rusted axe couldn't withstand the force of my swing. It had broken just after I killed the bear. The people who were supposed to be my fellow hunters pointed their weapons at me after witnessing my superhuman strength, asking me if I am human, if I am possessed by some evil spirit or some superstitious nonsense. I didn't want to hurt them, I tried to explain myself.

But I also had a speech impairment, remember? It didn't help my case at all.

It was when someone was about to make the first lunge that the real demon struck.

Everyone was stunned.

It came out of nowhere. I had never seen something so grotesque, so evil, so revolting in my life before. I had never believed in the supernatural despite my reincarnation status, but right then?

We were in hell.

By the time we regained our senses. Five people in our group were already dead, chunks of them being ripped out by that thing and they were being messily gobbled up. It snapped us out of it. People started to fight back in desperation, hoping to kill whatever abomination that thing is.

In just another second, everyone except me fell dead. Only I managed to react and avoid its attack in time.

Correction, that thing has buddies. There were a small group of them staring at me from above the treetops, eyeing me like some sort of caged rabbit about to be hunted.

I saw another axe nearby and I picked it up. A feral haze enveloped my mind. All I see were red. All that was in my mind back then is to fight back, to kill, to survive and not get eaten.

All I wanted was to survive this nightmare and to get out of this hell.

When I came to, I was lying on a soft bed, covered by a sheet of warm blanket. The sunrays were actually peeking through the windows. As a slave, I was never allowed to sleep in no matter how ill I felt. I needed to be awake before the rooster crows to chop firewood for everyone living in my owner's house.

Naturally, I jolted out of bed and tried to move, only for a dainty hand to stop me. With a gentle press to my c_h_e_s_t, I was pushed back down onto the bed.

To add to my surprise, it was a petite girl my age who did that. I easily towered over her, yet she had the strength to push me down as if squashing an ant.

”Don't move, you are still recovering. You nearly died back there.”

The girl with pale skin and large eyes that reminds me of those of bugs looked down at me with a scowl. And her hair… there is a purple tinge to it? Hair dyes are not a thing in feudal Japan, so I assume her hair colour is natural. Is having natural purple hair even genetically possible?

What's going on?

The girl turned around to mix some liquids on a nearby table, not really paying that much attention to me.

”Sorry that we were unable to find the demons in time. If we did, your friends need not have died. How did you kill all of them by yourself anyway? You didn't suffer any superficial wounds, at least none we could find, but it seems as if you burnt yourself out almost to the point of death. You killed them with nothing but a broken axe and your fists.”

What? Demons? Oh, yeah, that. I guess its looks combined with its supernatural abilities could qualify it as a demon.

”And where did you even learn a Breath Style from? It's nothing we ever saw before.”

Breath Style?

The girl turned back to face me, a cup in her hands.

”Drink this.”

I gulped the whole thing down despite how horrible it tasted. At the very least, I'm still alive.

”What's your name anyway?”

This girl is an impatient one. It's like her face is always etched with either a frown or a scowl, sometimes both.

As for my name? I had forgotten my given name a long time ago, both my previous life and this one. I never liked my second family. My owners and the other servants back home simply call me the woodcutter.

”No… Name…”

I really dream of the day when I could speak properly once more.

The girl's eyes widened in realisation upon hearing my words.

”Oh. Slave, right?” She pointed to the mark that was branded on me when I first became a slave. The mark that sits on my right shoulder.

I nodded.

”It's fine now. We don't keep slaves here; you are now a free man.”

It's like I struck a windfall.

Me? A free man?

I was able to get out of bed to walk and run normally by the third day. In this period of time, I learnt many new things.

Demon Slayer Corps. Ubuyashiki Kagaya. Pillars. Demon Slayer. Breath Styles. Demons. Kibutsuji Muzan.

It's like some sort of crazy fictional story come to life.

I would only know many years later that this world was indeed a fictional story in my past life. I only remembered after spotting a certain demon girl that carries a piece of bamboo in her mouth all the time.

The Demon Slayers here all claimed that I know how to use a Breath Style. They kept asking me who I learnt it from. I don't know how to answer them, and it does not help that I have a speech impairment. I was never taught how to write in Japanese either, so communicating with everyone else was difficult. Breath Style? I didn't even know such a thing existed until three days ago!

It took some time, but I managed to tell them that it may be related to my woodcutting experience. I did spend a lot of time thinking about the best ways to cut firewood after all. I had everything down to an art form.

They asked me to showcase my abilities. I simply shrugged and went with it. I had nothing better to do anyway.

I remembered that I could easily cut a bear into two with an axe that night, I tried to see if I could replicate that feat. There are no bears here, so I tried it on a few large trees with an axe I borrowed.

I fell them with ease. All I did was to casually swing my arm once at full force. Needless to say, I was taken aback. This is not supposed to be possible.

I felt bad about breaking the axe though. It could not withstand the force of the blow and broke just like what happened when I killed the bear.

The girl who I saw when I first woke up, who I now know as Kocho Shinobu, said that what I employed was definitely a Breath Style. Her older sister and also one of the nine Pillars, Kocho Kanae, said that I could already use Full Focus Breathing, and that I should join the Demon Slayer Corps with that kind of talent and strength at my disposal.

All I could manage as a reply was an unintelligible-

”…Ah?”

Not the most intelligible reply, but in my defence, I was really confused about the whole situation. My entire worldview had been turned upside down in a short span of a few days.

The leader of the Demon Slayer Corps, Ubuyashiki Kagaya, requested an audience with me. People call him ”Oyakata-sama” within the Corps. He gave me two choices. I could go a free man and live my life however I please or join his little demon slaying army.

I had heard many things about Demons during my short stay here in the Headquarters. I know what kind of atrocities Demons do on a regular basis. I saw the type of wounds the injured Slayers suffered from their battle with Demons when the Kakushi carried them into the Butterfly Estate. I never did manage to do anything worthwhile with my life in my first life. I was a waste of space. Garbage. Maybe in this life, in this crazy era where Demons run amok, I could make myself useful. Maybe I can be needed.

If I could do something useful for someone, to make a difference somehow, then my life would be worth living.

I chose the second option and went to take the Final Selection. They gave me a katana before I head to the venue. Instead, I asked if it was possible if they could give me an axe that would not break if I swing it at full force.

With a single axe by my side, I passed the Final Selection with ease.

The axe never survived the first swing though, and I felt bad for destroying another axe. I had to survive the rest of the Selection with just my fists.

That was how I officially became a member of the Demon Slayer Corps.

I'm very sure that my blacksmith hates my guts, and rightfully so.

It had been established long ago before my Final Selection that the katana simply doesn't suit me. With the force I swing a weapon, a delicate weapon like the katana will undoubtedly crack. I have been wielding an axe the entire of my second life. I live and breathe with the axe. My blacksmith took this into consideration and forged me an axe, making me one of the few rare Slayers with an unconventional weapon in the history of the Demon Slaying Corps.

However, nothing my blacksmith made for me lasts. Every axe he made for me, regardless of size, I broke it with a single swing. I could not go demon hunting like this.

I'm very used to my blacksmith shouting vulgarities at me by the time I broke the fifth axe he forged for me.

Smithing a weapon takes time. In the waiting period, I volunteered to chop all the firewood that anyone needs in the Headquarters to try and make myself useful to others. I was kindly given a bed to sleep in the Butterfly Estate because I have nowhere to go.

Naturally, I had a lot of chances to talk to the Kocho sisters. The lower ranking Kakushis seemed to be afraid of them for whatever reasons, probably due to their status. I never understood the fear. The sisters don't even bite.

”You really don't have a name, huh?”

I shrugged at Shinobu's words as I continue to chop firewood. Nothing else I can do there.

”Stop chopping. We have more than enough firewood to go around for the next three days thanks to you. If you are so free, help me to mix some medicine.”

I looked back at her, who had crossed her arms and is now impatiently tapping a foot against the ground in an impatient manner. She gestured with her head for me to follow her, which I did.

”Wisteria flowers are like poison to Demons. You do well to remember that if you want to be a Demon Slayer.”

”Sunlight are also fatal to them. If a Demon is too strong for you to take down and you could not escape, try to delay them until dawn.”

”Demons are immortal and while they used to be humans, they already lost their humanity, so there's no need to be kind to them. Kill them whenever you have the chance. If you find out anything about Kibutsuji, you inform the Pillars or Oyakata-sama immediately, understand? Don't engage him on your own.”