The fact that I'm publishing this when I have my exams in a week . . . anyways there will be spoilers throughout the fic, but sometimes it's just small things and I won't be able to put up a notice, so be careful. Updates would be whenever I can, as you can tell from me publishing before my exams. As for the love interests, I have my own plans and I'm pretty sure where I want this to go plot-wise, but, keeping in mind that your character is under 18, who would you want as love interests?

This story is also on Quotev under the same name.

Thanks for being interested in my fic, now let's continue!

———

Not gonna lie, the way you died was pretty embarrassing. If this was a 'Dumb Ways To Die' video, this would be in it.

You were fucking around in a convenience store, challenging yourself to see how many pencil top erasers you could steal without anyone noticing. So far, the count was at twenty.

Twenty-one.

You blew air through your nose as you walked around the aisles (because you were a dumbass who couldn't whistle), picking up things and putting them back. It was a quiet Wednesday right around the time school ended and it seemed like the cashier was just as bored as you. They were literally scrolling through their phone while you committed a felony.

"Hey," You said to yourself, picking up some instant noodles. "This is pretty cheap."

Pay and let capitalism rule or steal and let them suffer? lOl, i'M So qUiRkY.

You snickered to yourself, tucking the instant noodles under your shirt. You started humming to yourself, tucking your hands in your pockets (and feeling up the twenty-three pencil top erasers), and glancing at the items for like the tenth time in the last five minutes.

Checking the clock, it was already around four in the afternoon, so you started to head out.

"You didn't steal anything, did you?" A voice drawled. You glanced back at the cashier who now seemed a bit more attentive, looking at you with half-lidded eyes.

"Well — " You started.

"If you did, run outside and don't tell anyone," They finished. You blinked. "I'm bored and maybe I'll get fired this time around."

" . . . Right," You awkwardly stated, edging to the door. "Thanks. Um, I'm gonna dip."

They hummed, going back to their phone. You walked away from the store, letting out a breath. Getting caught stealing was not something you wanted to put your parents through. You already figured that they figured that you had a screw loose but you didn't need them to know how many.

You took out the instant noodle pack from your shirt, examining it. It seemed like a normal noodle pack but your instincts were telling you that something was off about it, and you never ignored your instincts. Ninety-nine percent of the time, they were spot-on. For example, you had a feeling that your best friend was going to tell you something serious the night before they came out to you as asexual.

You sat on the side of the road and opened the packet. Inside were the standard dried noodles and flavor packet, but there was also something else inside. You stuck your hand in and pulled out a small clear Ziploc baggie. It was light and inside was some sort of white powder. Your eyes widened.

Hang on. Is that coke???

You opened it and took a sniff before scrunching your nose and closing the bag again.

I mean, I was always joking about doing drugs, I don't actually plan on it. Plus, that shit's nasty as fuck.

You put the baggie back inside the pack, standing up and making your way to the garbage can. Just before you dumped it, a hand tapped your shoulder.

"Did you recently buy that instant noodles pack from a convenience store around here?" A deep voice asked. When you turned around, you saw a fairly ordinary-looking guy (although a tall ordinary-looking guy) looking down at you. You glanced down at your hand holding the noodles before looking back up, slowly hiding your hand behind your back.

"No?" You replied, making it sound more like a question. He raised an eyebrow, grabbing your wrist and pulling it out so he could see it. You frowned, yanking your wrist back. "This is my noodle packet. You can go there and buy your own."

He blinked, then smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "So you've realized what's in it. I'm willing to let you go with it if you give me a little bit of moolah."

"Moolah?" You asked and he nodded. "Who even says that anymore?" He frowned, a tic mark appearing on his forehead.

"Just give me the snow, kid."

You shook your head, hugging the packet to your chest. "No. It's mine now. I paid good money for it." He let out a sarcastic laugh.

"Yeah, right! I bet you just stole it from the shop!"

I mean, yeah, but that's not the point you crusty dusty motherfucker.

He grabbed your wrist again, trying to pull it out of your hands. "Give it to me!"

"Sir, I am a minor so this is labeled as child abuse and harassment!" You yelled, planting your feet and using your strength to stop yourself from being dragged along.

"Stop being such a bitch!"

"Bro, change your life and I wouldn't have to be!"

As the guy loomed over you, one of many last resort thoughts filtered its way into your mind. You glanced at the ongoing traffic on the road right next to you and got a wicked plan.

You wound your hand back like the best baseball pitcher you knew (you didn't know any), and yelled, "YEET!"

Farewell, oh courageous crack-filled noodles. I have only known you for fifteen minutes, but you have served your duty well. May you be at peace on the highway.

The guy let out a disturbing shriek as the two of you watched the noodles fall onto the road before being driven over by a car. The sound made you wince and the guy looked ready to leap for the drug. He rounded to you, a — quite frankly — insane look in his eye.

"You threw it, you get it." He gripped your collar and hauled you to the edge of the sidewalk before you had time to react.

Hang on, that doesn't even make sense!

With a grunt, the guy fucking tossed you onto the highway, and you landed on the middle of the road, rolling until you came to a stop beside your noodles. You looked at it sadly, sighing before sitting up, rubbing your head.

You were about to lay on some harsh words on the guy when his smug look faded, replaced with slight panic. He gestured wildly to your side and you turned your head, beyond confused.

Then, you were not confused.

I've discovered a new dumb way to die. Antagonize a druggie and throw his supply onto the highway. Oop, there I go —

~~~

When you woke up, the first thing you muttered was, "My last words were 'yeet'. What a disgrace." Then, just as you were going to go on a contradicting rant about how you were living up to the expectations set by fellow Gen-Z, you stopped, noticing your breath coming out as steam, an abnormal amount of snow falling on your face.

Eh? Snow? In summer? Is this reverse global warming? Is this global freezing?

You tried to get up, but you couldn't feel your feet, not even your legs. You tried moving your head up so you could see what was wrong (maybe you lost them or something, you didn't know), but your neck refused to move as well. In fact, none of your muscles were working.

"That's unfortunate," You whispered, your mouth drying quickly in the cold air. Judging by the snow and the loss of feeling in your limbs, the exhaustion creeping up on you, and slipping in and out of consciousness, you guessed that you had hypothermia, or were nearing it anyway. Sighing, you closed your eyes, waiting for the inevitable.

Slow death sucks.

~~~

Kamado Tanjiro had just gotten Urokodaki Sakonji to train him, the memories from the night before making his legs already feel exhausted. But, he had to push on. For Nezuko, for avenging his family, he would become a demon slayer who would find the one who turned her into a demon and killed his family.

It was the dawn of his second day of training and he had already gotten himself lost in the mountains. Additionally, it was snowing, making it hard to see and hard to concentrate, his mind always wandering to the last moments he had with his family.

No, stop it. Tanjiro shut his eyes tightly. Don't think about that right now. You have to keep moving forward. For Nezuko.

"AARRGHH!" He yelled, running down where he thought was the way back to Urokodaki's house. Only, he found himself even more lost, all the areas looking similar with the bare trees, snow powdered ground, and dull grey skies.

"I'm getting nowhere," He panted as he tried to regain his breath from the high altitude.

Let's try and sniff out the path. He closed his eyes, covered his ears, and took a deep breath through his nose. At first, he didn't detect anything other than snow and trees, but then he found the faintest traces of Urokodaki. He turned to the direction he smelt it strongest, figuring that it would get stronger the more he traveled.

"Alright, let's do this!" Just as he was about to leave, he picked up another scent. A human scent.

Huh? Why is there someone here?

Tanjiro followed the smell, crawling over fallen logs and boulders, getting closer to water, based on the growing sound of a river. He grunted as he jumped down from another boulder, the smell stronger than ever now.

"Where are you?" He muttered, turning around, trying to find the person here. He walked along the shore of the river, following the smell as it guided him downstream. When he rounded the riverbed, he saw a girl laying on the ground, snow almost completely covering her, and even from a distance, he could see the blue tinge of her skin. His heart sank.

Tanjiro didn't know how she came here, as most villages were quite a ways from the mountain, but even journeying that much, she ended up in the middle of nowhere with no one to help her.

He went closer, aiming to pray for her soul in the afterlife when a gust of wind blew her scent to his way again, and his eyes widened.

This scent, it's not one of a corpse! She's not dead yet!

Tanjiro sprinted towards her, already slipping off his haori to wrap her with. Skidding on the ground, he wrapped the cloth around her as tightly as he could, before putting his hand under her neck and knees, and picking her up. She was a little heavy, but it was nothing that he couldn't handle.

I have to get her to Urokodaki! He can help!

So, with a newfound determination, Tanjiro sprinted through the forest faster than before. Luckily, since he had strayed from the path his mentor had set, it didn't seem that there were any traps laid, making his journey all the easier. As he ran, he hugged the girl closer to him, hoping that his body heat would also bring some warmth to her.

A small shiver escaped the girl as her head turned to Tanjiro, huddling closer to his body. Even though he blushed at her actions, he thought that it was a good thing that she could feel the heat and was responding, unlike how . . . dead she seemed when he first found her.

We're almost there, miss. Just hold on for a few moments.

Just as the scent of Urokodaki became overwhelmingly strong, Tanjiro stumbled into the clearing, his chest burning and heaving, trying to call out for his mentor. Then, the door of the house slammed open, Urokodaki already coming out and taking the girl from his arms. Tanjiro didn't question it, knowing that he probably smelled the girl near-death and made preparations before he came.

Tanjiro followed him inside, watching as Urokodaki put her on a futon by the fire, replacing his soaked haori with a much thicker covering. He felt the heat from the fire seep under his skin, warming him up from the time he had spent in the snow.

As he was adjusting the girl, he said, "Close the door." Tanjiro jumped, looking behind him and seeing a few snowflakes falling in, a gust of cold air following.

"S-sorry!"

As Urokodaki made sure that the girl was warm enough, he spoke, not even turning to Tanjiro as he said, "Go back and resume your training."

"Eh?" He asked, "But I came down from the mountain!"

"You took an alternate route. Go back up and climb back down."

Tanjiro sighed, not opposing his mentor as he grabbed his haori and left the warmth of Urokodaki's house. Even though he didn't want to admit it, he was concerned for the girl. He wasn't sure how long she had been in the snow, but it had been rather cold these past few days, even without the snow. Today's weather probably made it a whole lot worse for her.

I hope she gets better soon.

~~~

Being dead is so boring. I didn't have to wait this long last time for the afterlife.

Wait, I can think! I mean, I can think meaning I'm not dead, not that I'm dumb. Who am I justifying myself to? I don't even know.

Anyway, I'm not dead. How do we deal with this now? I suppose someone came by while I was dying and kidnapped me. All I have to do is open my eyes and figure out where I am.

. . . My eyes aren't opening. Am I that tired? Oh well, might as well rest up for now and figure things out later. I'm tired from dying and almost dying.

Your eyes slowly opened, adjusting to the dark room you were in.

Huh, I'm alive. Nice.

You tested out your limbs and were surprised to feel them move, albeit a bit weakly. Beside you was a pit with some glowing embers that radiated a bit of heat and a small lantern providing light. A thick blanket insulating you so much that you thought you'd start sweating. There was even some warm cloth on your head and chest that slipped off when you sat up.

A heavenly smell reached your nose and you turned your head to the side, seeing a mug of some sort of warm broth resting on the wooden floor. Before you considered poison or trickery involved, you grabbed it and started sipping. The warmth from the broth spread to the tips of your fingers, making you shiver in a good way.

Oh wait, this could be poisoned.

But you didn't care. Food was food and this tasted nice. If it was poisoned, you'd deal with it later. Plus, you didn't even get that vibe from it, so it should be fine

As you sipped (man, that shit was good as fuck), your eyes scanned the room around you, noting the Japanese-inspired interior design, with the futons, tatami mats, and those bamboo-looking wall things you'd seen in a Japanese restaurant once. You weren't sure what they were called though.

I've been kidnapped by people who like Japanese interior design.

You finished the broth, placing the empty mug by your side. Then, as you tried moving around to see if you had the strength to, the door to the room slammed open and a gust of cold wind followed, and you shivered in a bad way.

"You woke up!" Whoever came in exclaimed. Noticing your shivers, they closed the door behind them. "Are you alright?"

" . . . huh?" You intelligently replied, not understanding what they were saying. Well, you understood the latter part, being an avid anime watcher ("Are you alright?" was a common phrase you'd find in any anime, regardless of what it was about).

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

Then they sighed, approaching where you were sitting. As they came closer, the yellow light illuminated short. dark red hair, soft maroon eyes, and long earrings that gently moved as the person slowly walked closer. Your eyes widened.

No fucking way.

No, wait, let's not assume anything. If we manage to get over the language barrier and get to introductions, I'll find out then. It's probably unlikely anyway.

"Can you understand what I'm saying?" They (you said you weren't going to assume) said softly and you scooted back a bit, making them halt their motions and put their hand up. "I'm not going to hurt you, don't worry. I just want to make sure you're okay and see if we can communicate somehow."

You hugged the edges of the blanket to your chest.

"I don't know what you're saying."

"Do you speak Japanese?"

Bruh.

You stayed silent, frankly quite confused as to why they were still asking questions when you already established that you couldn't understand them and they couldn't understand you.

It seemed that they reached the same conclusion, face-palming.

"What am I doing?" They muttered, "They don't understand me." Then they sat down, smiling gently at you. They pointed to themselves as they said, "I am Kamado Tanjiro."

Oh, it really is him.

They weren't kidding about those eyes though, damn.

"(L/N) (Y/N)," You whispered, your voice a little strained as you pointed to yourself. Kamado (you were going to call him that until he permitted you to call him by his given name, like the knowledgeable weeb you are) smiled, nodding.

"It's nice to meet you, (L/N)." Hearing your last name instead of your first name was a little strange and you decided that you didn't like it.

You scrunched your nose and shook your head. "(Y/N)." At this, he furrowed his eyebrows.

"You want me to call you by your given name?"

"What?" Blinking, he sighed before shaking his head.

"No, never mind, (Y-Y/N)." You smiled at hearing your first name, nodding in thanks. "Y-You can call me Tanjiro if you want."

"Tanjiro?" You said questioningly and he nodded enthusiastically, pointing to himself.

"Yes! I'm Tanjiro!"

Man, he's so cute. I'm going to end up falling in love with him if he keeps this up.

▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂

Taisho Secrets:

— The druggie immediately called the cops when he saw you get hit by the car and told them the whole story on how you tried to stop him from taking the drugs before getting hit by a car, knowing that he would get arrested for it. He felt like it was well-deserved for what he did and vowed that once he got out and got clean, he'd pay his respects to your family and apologize for everything

— You were surprised to learn that death did not bother you as much as you thought it would

— Tanjiro thought you were cute

— The author will say that Tanjiro continues to be this cute, so take that however you want to

— Urokodaki was listening in on the conversation and he thought that he was going to be watching a blossoming romance if you decide to stay.

———

Edit: I would like to make a clarification on something I've seen a lot of people comment about. When Tanjiro finds you in the snow and picks you up, it mentions 'you were a little heavy, but nothing he couldn't handle.'

Guys.

I meant that since our honey boy has only been training with Urokodaki for about a day or so, he does not — I repeat— not have the strength to pick up a whole ass human being without some strain on him. He'd only been carrying charcoal on his back so his arm muscles are not that strong.

He is not commenting about your weight. This has no relation to your physical body. This whole-ass thirteen-year-old was struggling to carry Nezuko away from his house when his family died and that was on his back. He was carrying you bridal style so he'd find it harder to carry since he doesn't have the muscles.

I'll repeat it again, Tanjiro commenting that you were a little heavy was not because of your weight. It was because he didn't have the muscles to pick you up bridal style without feeling some strain.

I'm sorry if it came across that he was commenting on your weight because that was not my intention whatsoever, but please stop commenting about how he called you fat or whatever. It's getting on my nerves and there may be people who didn't think of it like that until they saw the comments, so please refrain from it.

Question of the day: What was the very first anime you watched?