I'm not Muzan Kibutsuji!

Chapter one: A meeting

Masaru was a very strange child, by all accounts. By no means was he rude or particularly rowdy, but he was apparently quite unsettling to be around. He had been born with red eyes, and many assumed because of this that he was born of terrible means, and cursed to be evil. Of course, Masaru didn't turn out that way; in fact, he was civil, polite even. He never rose to bait, and always seemed calm. For some, this unsettled them further.

As he grew older, the people in the village became more and more cold towards him, but he grew kinder. His demeanor became more open as he aged, though he still felt unnerving to those around him. When he turned 14, the people in his village threw him out, calling him a demon out to kill them all. He didn't really understand why, but he just shrugged as they shamed him, because clearly they didn't know better.

Masaru only knew one path away from the village, so he traveled down a small dirt road as the moon rose from behind a hill. After a while of traveling, he came upon a small house, where a samurai presided. The man, gray and wrinkled from time, was sharpening a strange mint-colored blade. The man looked up, and his eyes widened. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. He raised his sword, yelling out "wind breathing, first form!"

The man had missed Masaru's neck by an inch, and he was a little freaked out. What had he done to this man? Was this also because of his appearance? A million other questions filled his brain, but he pushed them away as the man got ready for another attack.

He didn't know what else to do, so Masaru called out to the man. "Excuse me, sir, but.. what did I do to you?" He dodged another attack of the weird wind-like slashes coming from the man's blade, as the man seemed to stop when he said that.

"You... dare to try and trick me, Muzan Kibutsuji ?!?" The man attacked in a fury, calling up another attack, but the man's old age caught up to him, and he fell to the ground. Masaru didn't know what else to do, so he walked over to the man, looking at him with thinly veiled worry. "Sir, I hate to disappoint you, but I'm not Muzan." Masaru scratched the back of his head, smiling wryly, as he offered the man a hand.

The man took it, though clearly untrusting. The two of them got to the house, and one Masaru got the man and himself into chairs and poured some tea, they got to talking. "I've honestly got a lot of questions for you Sir, but perhaps we should exchange names first? My name is Masaru."

The man looked at him for a moment, before taking a sip of tea and sighing. "My name is Hayato Yurei. In my youth, I was a demon slayer, a user of wind breathing." Masaru became confused at the man's apparent career, but didn't comment, trying not to be rude. The man suddenly grabbed his face, pulling it close and examining it, letting it go after a few moments. "You, boy, have a striking resemblance to Muzan Kibutsuji, the king of demons."

Masaru's eyes widened at that proclamation. He had been told many times that he looked like a demon, but he had assumed the villagers just didn't like him much. "Wait, who is that..and.. demons?"

The man sighed. "Well, Demons are real. They crawl the world at night, seeking flesh, but demon slayers kill them. Demons used to be human, but Muzan, the king of demons, transformed them." Masaru felt sick at the realization that he was likely hated because of this man. "So.. I look like him?" The man nodded, looking at the boy with something akin to pity.

"You look just like him. I met the man only once. We didn't speak, he didn't even know I was still alive. All I remember was his black hair and Red eyes, the same ones you possess, Masaru." He didn't know how to feel, realizing that, "If I had left the village earlier.. a demon or a demon slayer probably would have killed me." He looked to man, who nodded back. "Most people wouldn't have given you the time of day with your eyes anyways, right?"

Masaru nodded. He was used to being ignored by the townsfolk, though the occasional stall owner was nice enough. "So.. what should I do, Yurei? I can't go back to where I came.. and if demons and slayers will kill me anyways.."

The man thought for a few moments, before getting up, and going to his closet, before pulling out some clothes, then a sleeping mat, laying it out.

The man walked back over, looking Masaru over yet again. "Well, I guess I'll have to teach you how to kill demons. If you want to survive, you'll at least need to know how to use a sword, yes?", the man passed him the clothes, before continuing. "You'll want to grow out your hair too, yes? It's shoulder length now, and Muzan kept it short, so you'll want it longer."

Masaru decided that learning a sword was better than being defenseless, so he nodded, thanking the man several times before being told to go to bed. This was his new beginning, he supposed.