I'd like this story to reach more tanezu shipper out there, so I attempted to translate this fiction into english. I'm sorry if you find any mistakes or it kinda awkward to read. English is my third language and its been years since I last wrote something in English. Any kind of constructive criticism regarding grammars, structure etc will be very appreciated! I hope you enjoy it.

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in your embrace where time doesn't exist

a tanezu fanfiction by lucemiran

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As far as I could remember ..., that day, the snow fell down so heavily as well...

The high-ponytailed girl shifted her sakura colored eyes' gaze at the wide glass windows, staring hollowly at the petite figure reflection on the hazy surface, before she finally stunned to the scenery of people passing by outside. The pen between her digits trembled from the minus five degree celsius temperature, along with an ice-cold memory long frozen inside her mind.

She decided to continue writing. Creating every strokes as gently as the billowy smokes from a cup of coffee she'd ordered, yet she'll never bother to even touch. Her pink colored fingernails once again painted line of letters using the black inked pen on her favorite broken white paper. Hoping that those written memories someday would disappear, vanish into thin air like those puddles of melting snow once the sunlight comes up.

I fell down at that mountain. She felt a slight pang of pain on her back as she wrote, as if experiencing a very vivid flashbacks. Just like those snowflakes. And so he was, saved by the mound of snows as he hit the ground. The me right now definitely can remember what happened that day chronologically, but of course there were things that wasn't inside my memory. I want to ask him what was in his mind when I was unconscious. But, I know the tragedy wasn't something so worth to cherish, so I decided to stay in the dark.

She closed it. The black covered diary. On top of the cover written her name in letters of kanji and kana. Spelling the name 'Tomioka Mariko'.

Around her was a cafe filled by flocks of teenagers and seemingly lovers here and there. Because today was exactly Sunday, and it was the second day of the university entrance exam she'd took nearby. She could hear all those fresh high school graduates like her complaining about how hard the test was, while wondering how the result would turn out.

She sighed, leaning on the chair she sat on while tugging at her geometric patterned muffler around her neck, face almost entirely covered. Once again, she felt cold inside and out.

"He's late," she grumbled.

It had been one hour since she sat alone in this cafe, and she hadn't catch any glimpse of the person she waited for. Time moved awfully slow until she just had to write those random words on her precious diary. Don't get her wrong. She wasn't the type who constantly write everything comes to mind. Anything she'd wrote there is the only thing mattered the most to her. But, those new paragraphs she'd wrote just now ..., it was something that she was supposed to forget. Yet, the more she tried to do so, the more those memories chokes her till she had no option but to pour what she felt on pieces of papers.

Whatever. I'm gonna burn those papers again once I get home anyway, she thought acting as if she didn't care. The long haired girl took her pen once more, flicking the pages of her diary until she reached the very end of it. She started to doodle a cartoonized face of a boy. A young boy with a flame-shaped scar on the side of his forehead. Then, she went to a full blast decking him up with a pair of big teeth, ribbons and straight lines on his eyes representing mascara. At the right side, she emphasized the word 'baka' by writing it over and over.

Stupid stupid stupid, she secretly chanted the mockery. Because in reality, she respects him so much that she didn't dare to act too harsh around him.

The girl giggled at her own doodles.

She only fill her diary with things that matter the most, right?

"Sorry to make you wait, Mariko."

Mariko looked up, closing her diary right away before the middle aged man had the chance to take a glance to her newest masterpiece.

"Yeah, took you long enough, Tou-san," she sulked, her voice slightly loud. The man she addresses as her father gave her a regretful smile.

"I'm truly sorry. Professor Hiroki suddenly ordered me to come the research center. There's an urgent meeting regarding---"

"Yes, yes, Tou-san. Could you come with me for a bit?" Mariko rose up dan dragged her father outside the cafe, causing some people to stare concernedly and some even giggled at the scene. Rather than thinking her as impudent, the father looked more reluctant and embarassed when his daughter pulling his green-black checkered muffler like a sheperd forcefully dragging her livestock.

"O-oi, Mariko! I'm your father you know!" He warned her once they finally outside. Mariko kept on dragging the estimatedly forty years old man nonchalantly, taking him to an alleyways between a bakery and a convenience store.

"Change your looks." She demanded. The man blinked.

"H-Huh?"

"I said change your looks."

"But..."

"Onii-chan, you must be kidding me, right?" She folded her arms over her chest, pouting her pink lip balmed lips. "What would people think if they saw a young girl like me go out with an old man like you? Geez, can't you please think of my position right now?" she continued, getting a bitter smile as a respond from her 'father'.

"I see. I guess you're right ..., haha." The dark green coated man scratched his head. And in a seconds, the wrinkles on his face misteriously faded, followed by the streak of grey hairs that turned burgundy and his body shrinked a bit, making his layered outfits kind of oversized. Something that wasn't really a problem in such cold weather. Besides, adjusting his body size was something he could do anytime without any difficulties.

Mariko turned her gaze once again to her 'father, seeing the man had transformed entirely into a young boy just around her age. The boy that looked identical to her doodle just now, with the flame shaped pattern etched his temple. Minus the big teeth, ridiculous ribbons and mascara, of course. The man---boy raked his hair backward, hoping this will satisfy her enough.

"Sorry, Nezu ..., Mariko. I never think about it. Maybe it's because I have been a parent for so long. I started to ignore how youngsters act nowadays."

Maybe the word 'baka' is indeed suitable for him.

Stupid. She hates every seconds where he acts as if he's a real parent. Unfortunately, being a spoiled brat let alone mad at something so 'trivial' was considered so out of her character. So, she just smiled half-heartedly, because to tell the truth there was actually nothing to forgive. The girl took her father-brother-'s hand, taking him out of the alleyway where they hurrily ran to the electronic center inside a mall nearby. An agenda they'd scheduled since a week ago.

"Mariko, slow down!" Her brother shouted out, feeling how the snow made the pedestrian road kind of slippery.

"Just call me Nezuko, Onii-chan! Today you aren't my father!" She responded, looked more cheerful than before.

"Sssh, don't say that too loud!"

Tomioka Mariko and Tomioka Akira.

The father and daughter identity used by Kamado Nezuko and Kamado Tanjirou at Yokohama City ever since 2013. That time, 'Tomioka Akira' was a single parent whose wife had passed away, leaving him with his daughter, a ten year old 'Tomioka Mariko'.

Now, time has passed and the calendars showed the date of middle January in 2020. The winter was harsh lately in this city, which bordered with Tokyo Bay at the east. And both of them, who was born far long ago from the Taisho era, still survived. Changing from one identity to another, living different lives as they saw how the world slowly changed, yet as the same time, it felt like in a blink of an eye.

But, there was one thing that would never change.

The fact about their true identity. The fact that both of them was the last remaining oni still alive and kicking after the great battle against Kibutsuji Muzan more than one hundred years ago.

So many lives comes to be sacrificed at the moment Kibutsuji Muzan's demon blood backfired him.

The day where her brother was reborn as the second oni with an aptitude to stay intact under the sun rays, just like her, as well as the strongest oni who put the demon's race progenitor's reign to an end.

Nezuko will never forget.

That day, I saw him changed into someone I didn't know.

"Hey, Onii-chan, what brand of water heater you're gonna buy?"

My dear brother, whose heart as vast as the universe. One of a few Demon Slayers who could felt sorry for their enemies.

"Hmmm... Of course we should buy the one with good quality. But it shouldn't be too pricey as well, Nezuko."

The day where he became an oni, is the first time I saw Onii-chan's eyes full of rage and hatred. I still remember...

"Hmph. You're such a cheapskate!"

There were no mercy nor symphaty the moment his nichirin blade finally decapitated Kibutsuji's head. Not even a glimpse.

"I don't mean to be stingy. Besides, we should save for your expense at the art department later, right?"

But...

"So it's all my fault?"

Once he snapped out of his berserk state and came to hug me ..., smiling just like the loving big brother I know...

"I told you that's not what I meant."

Somehow, I felt like...

"Then, can I buy another aromatherapy candles this time?"

...it's okay if things go this way. That me and Onii-chan became oni, together.

"If it's just candles, I don't mind. But still, don't go crazy, okay?"

I've always been wondering...

"Okay!"

...Do you think the same, Onii-chan?

to be continued

Am I the only one here who hopes Tanjirou really becomes oni, beat the crap out of Muzan's butt and live happily ever after with Nezuko for centuries? Lol

Kimetsu no yaiba is Gotouge Koyoharu's