"Aaah!"
Suddenly, I woke up clutching at my throat , the last thing I remembered was standing in the middle of the busy London streets on my phone. Reading Demon Slayer manga.
I was sitting on a red bench, under the cover of the bus stop, rain pattered and the gloomy skies slightly obscured my vision.
I went to slide to the next page on my phone but a distant yet increasingly ominous thrumming engine could be heard rapidly encroaching me.
I looked up instinctively, what greeted me was a masked man on a moped, whizzing towards me.
I firmly gripped my phone, knowing phone thieves like this are commonplace.
The front wheel of his moped lunked skidding onto the pavement.
That's when I knew something was amiss.
He accelerated towards me, stretched out his hand and grabbed my phone.
"What are you doing!"
"Give your phone you wasteman!"
There was a short scuffle involving me and the masked man, as I tried to tug at my phone.
Eventually I won the tug of war, finally managing to pull back with force.
Unfortunately, the momentum of the man caused him to fall off the moped and crash into me.
We fell with a splatter onto the rain puddle.
"Get off!"
I tried to push him off me but before I could regain control, he reached into his pocket and struck towards my neck ruthlessly with a shimmering blade.
Perhaps it was the adrenaline but time seemed to move in slow motion.
The sheen of a pocket knife glistened briefly, before losing its lustre as it rapidly became enveloped by my velvet red blood, sinking into my jugular.
"Someone help!" I tried to mutter but all I could utter out was a few gargled noises.
My blood was spurting out and my consciousness was slowly fading away.
My vision became enveloped in black and my arm that was raised to my neck lost its strength, falling limp to the ground.
…
And here I am now, lying on a tatami mat in an unfamiliar surrounding.
I observed my surroundings, it looks like I'm in a slightly decrepit wooden house.
Light beamed through the wooden
shutters, there seemed to be no glass windows.
The roof was thatch and the wooden beams in the house were slightly damp and beginning to breakdown.
Why am I here? When I regained consciousness, I was initially relieved thinking I miraculously survived and ended up in the hospital but when I opened my eyes, I quickly realised that wasn't the case.
The harsh chirps of cicadas pierced my ears, the sun shimmered onto my skin through the small gaps of the straw roof and my hands which are subconsciously still clutching at my throat, felt uncannily small.
I unfurled the blanket on top of me but when I tried to reach out, my arms stopped short of what I expected.
"What the…"
"Why are my hands are so small?!"
I frantically flipped my hands back and forth, observing them intensely.
"Yep… these definitely aren't mine."
Then I looked down… it wasn't just my hands that was shrunk down it was my entire body.
I was in the body of a toddler…
How the hell have I suddenly ended up thrust into this unfamiliar environment, in a body that's completely unfamiliar!
Suddenly, a piercing pain radiated across my skull. I grab my head as an influx of unfamiliar memories surge into my brain.
After writhing in pain for a while it finally settled.
"No way…"
This time when I spoke aloud, I naturally spoke in fluent Japanese.
It seems that when I had died in my previous world, my soul had transmigrated into the past, more specifically in Japan, where my memories had laid dormant in this body until now — unlocked when my brain was finally capable of handling all of these memories.
I guess I forgot this bodies memory out of shock of regaining my past life's one?
Kousei Hayashi, that's my name in this world.
As I was still getting accustomed to this absurd situation, the door to my room slid open.
"Kousei, you finally woke up" a woman with silky verdant green hair entered. Her hair was tied up, she had both youthful vibrant look to her and the wear that comes with living a rural domestic life was reflected on her face and body.
She wore a floral kimono and walked gracefully in my direction kneeling down and patting my head.
"I know you wanted to play outside with your father today but he's still out farming, so stay a little patient."
"Is that you Mother?"
She tapped my forehead and said with a smile, "Who else would it be silly, are you still tired from your nap?"
"I guess…"
"Well, why don't you go outside and play on you're own for now until your father comes back."
This still feels so surreal and I want to take some more time to settle
down but I need to continue behaving in accordance to this memory to not worry my new parents.
"Okay mother."
I waddled away into the front of the wooden house.
I put on my tiny wooden sandals and stepped off the wooden veranda.
I feet landed on the soft grass and then tilting my head up I peered out into the distance, the serene view left me frozen momentarily.
Having lived in a bustling city my entire life and had never gone travelling, made this a sight to behold.
I was greeted by the rural countryside of a Japan, mostly untouched by modernisation.
I inhaled the refreshing air and observed my surroundings.
Our house stood alone, the thatched roofing's clearly indicated that we weren't that well off.
A curvy raised trail meandered out across the expansive fields and on each side of the trail, the land was shallow ground where blades of rice grass stood tall growing in paddies, swaying in the wind.
I continued walking down the path and saw muddied men holding small sickles harvesting rice, they had a tanned complexion from working in the harsh sun their whole lives.
After a while of taking in the scenery I walked back.
I couldn't spot my father on the walk back. He must be working further out, with the sun setting I quickened my pace back home, I don't want to worry my new mother as strange as that sounds.
Dusk approached and behind the setting sun was the silhouette of a fickle old man with a walking stick slowly ambling his way towards me.
"Oh is that you little Kousei! You should go home now, if you stay out too late the man-eating demons will come and get you."
What is this crazy old man talking about? Demons?
"I'm just waiting for my dad, I'm not stupid enough to believe in demons old man." I scoffed at him
"Haha, you're a funny one kid but there really are demons, they can only come out during the night and the feast on your flesh and blo—"
"That's enough old man, are you trying to scare my son with those folktales."
"It's really true, I knew families who died to demons."
"Sure…"
The man who just cut the old man off mid sentence had short hair and a brawny figure, he ruffled my hair with his calloused hands which was roughened by his labour intensive job.
"Did you miss me Kousei", he said with a huge smile plastered on his face.
"Uhh, yeah I did."
"You seem a lot less enthusiastic than usual son?"
"Oh uhh… I'm tired after waiting so long"
After hearing my excuse, he picked me up with ease.
"Haha, how about I make it up to you by letting you come on the paddy with me?"
"I don't want to work in the mud."
"Hey! Well you're going to have to eventually, anyways let's get you to home for now. "
My father took me home in a rather emasculating manner, carrying me like a baby.
"Hey Kousei stop moving so much!"
I had no choice but to accept this, my resistance proved futile as I tried to wriggle away from his hold.
Unable to break free of his grasp I began to grow tired, I guess a young body like this requires a lot of sleep.
My eyes closed involuntarily and I drifted away into sleep.
As I slept, I had a dream where I recalled the old man's words about demons.
Then something in my mind suddenly clicked.
The strange coloured hair in this world, transported to a Japan that's a century younger in development,demons coming out at night…
Is this the Demon Slayer World?
No it can't be right? Surely not…
Demon Slayer was set in Taishō Era, as I recall.
Wait. On the off chance the Taishō era is already over then it might not be the case.
I got up in a cold sweat, running to my parents room.
It seems that my nap drew late into the night, so they were fast asleep but I wouldn't be able to bear not knowing whether or not I was in the demon slayer world.
"Mum! Dad!"
I tugged on their clothes waking them up.
My father turned his body towards me.
"What era are we in?!"
"Kousei? Why are you asking such a random question in the middle of the night?" My father woke up, rubbed his eyes and said groggily.
"Please just answer my question."
"Huh… okay? We're in Meiji era now go back to sleep already."
"What year of the Meiji era?"
"It's the Meiji 29 now get to bed already!"
As I left, I could hear the faint murmuring of my mother.
"Don't you think Kousei has been acting strange lately?"
"It must be that old man Toji who scared him earlier today, with talk of demons again."
*
Walking back to my room with listless eyes and clearly shaken up, I lied back down on my tatami mat and stared at the thatch roof.
So I'm in late Meiji era… Meiji Era comes before Taishō era, which is when the story takes place.
This means that the events of Demon Slayer will likely take place when I'm an adult.
I'm cooked…
I slapped my face with my tiny hands, reinvigorating my spirit.
I can't just get depressed over this, there must be something to increase my chance of survival!
First off, I need a contingency plan to survive on the off chance a demon attacks me in the future.
Even though my body is young, It would be beneficial to start training and working on learning how to increase my breathing efficiency as soon as possible.
Whilst I most likely won't be able to figure out how to do the breathing techniques on my own, there's still a possibility that I'm a generational talent like Yoorichi? Okay, maybe that's a bit ambitious but it doesn't hurt to try.
Somehow in the Demon Slayer world, learning how to inhale and absorb more oxygen is like a supernatural enhancement.
In hindsight, worrying this much may seem abit excessive, after all countless people have lived their entire lives not ever seeing a demon but the chances of me coming across a demon is low but definitely not zero, especially when I live in such a rural area.
So my first course of action is learning the breathing techniques and strengthening my body.
It would be more efficient to do this by working on the paddy with my father , maybe some additional body weight training and also running to improve my stamina.
I should work on my swordsmanship also, I don't have a sword, so a stick should work just fine. Swinging with basic forms should help me somewhat right?
Fortunately I transmigrated as a young kid, so strengthening my neuromuscular connection and building muscle for swordsmanship should be somewhat easier with my younger age.
I've already resigned myself to the fact I've reincarnated into the demon slayer world, so I sat down on the tatami mat and crossed my legs and closed my eyes.
I began to take deep breaths, contracting my diaphragm as much as I feasibly could, exhaling sharply.
And after a while something amazing happened!
Just kidding… I realised that nothing was changing.
"This is some bullshit!"
Well it does make sense, If the breathing techniques was as simple as taking deep breaths in and out, then everyone would've figured it out by now.
Learning how to use breathing techniques on my own will take a long time, it may not even be possible.
So I should just focus on increasing my lung capacity for now.
I continued doing breathing exercises for a while, then I went onto doing push ups.
I don't know how capable a young body is in terms of hypertrophic potential but I may as well implement it into my routine.
I went into a plank position and tried doing a push up but I collapsed, inevitably failing as expected.
Eventually, I got too tired of doing a few sets of goofing around and fell asleep.