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I want to create an AU (Alternate Universe) for Kimetsu no Yaiba. It will focus on the Kamaboko Squad (Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, Nezuko, Kanao, and Genya), and possibly add other characters like the Tokitou twins. Genre: Comedy, Sweet, Family Found, Healing, etc. The main character is Shinazugawa Genya, my baby.
Setting: Taisho era, Japan
Lore:
• The incident where the Shinazugawa siblings are killed by their mother Shizu after she transforms into a demon occurs 4 years earlier than in the original storyline (meaning Genya is 6 years old and Sanemi is 11 years old when the incident happens). After Genya wrongly accused Sanemi of murdering their mother (who had turned into a demon) without fully understanding the situation, Genya realized how terrible his words were and chased after Sanemi as he was about to leave, apologizing. Sanemi didn't blame Genya because he knew Genya was young and didn't understand what was happening—Sanemi himself didn't fully understand either (because they didn't know about demons yet). He personally carried the bodies of his two younger siblings to be buried, Genya followed to help but didn't dare speak up because he felt guilty.
• After the funeral, Sanemi took Genya to the Watanabe house (where only an elderly couple remained) and asked them to take care of Genya, then left. The Watanabe couple were the only honest people in the village—the other families were involved in gambling, theft, and fighting (social vices). Genya stayed with the elderly couple and was well cared for, as they knew Genya was weak due to illness. Unfortunately, after five months, the Watanabe family's grandson came demanding money. So, they packed up their meager remaining food and money, along with Genya's only two sets of clothes, and urged the boy to flee.
• Due to his weak physical condition, coupled with the cold early winter weather, Genya collapsed. Uppermoon Three, Akaza, happened to find him unconscious in the snow and took him to an abandoned temple for shelter. Akaza doesn't kill women, and he mistook Genya for a girl, so he didn't kill him.
• Genya only found Akaza strange (he still didn't know anything about demons yet). Akaza realized Genya was male but still didn't kill him, noticing that Genya was sick (this triggered his lost memories of Koyuki and his sick father; he instinctively cared for the sick).
• Akaza cared for Genya and taught him to read and write. After Genya learns that Akaza is a demon and about the existence of demons, he only begs Akaza to let him live long enough to see his brother again, after which Akaza can eat him – Akaza doesn't object. Therefore, Akaza begins to pretend to be human and finds work to earn money to care for Genya, because Genya doesn't want Akaza to eat human (Akaza begins to restrain his violent instincts to care for Genya, just as he previously restrained his bad habits to care for Koyuki).
• Later, Genya meets other characters (not yet written).
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Information about Genya in this au:
• If Genya meets Himejima and receives training, he will develop a hot temper and undergo a strong puberty like in the original story. But here, because he lives with the elderly Watanabe couple (a poor but loving couple), Genya is still mildly malnourished and frail, so he is quite short and weak.
• Unlike the main storyline, Genya has long hair so that his younger siblings can play with him and tie his hair for him. The ends of Genya's hair are slightly white, inherited from Sanemi.
• Genya is mildly malnourished, suffers from asthma(my headcanon because Genya can’t use breathing style), and has slightly cloudy eyes (he often closes his eyes due to poor eyesight).
• Genya in this au is very intelligent(only suck at math, if you know you know). Although he has never received formal education, he learns from his surroundings, so he knows basic letters and numbers. He is curious about the kanji representing the number "3" in Akaza's eyes, and Akaza tells him about demons and that he is an Upper Rank demon.
• Appearance: Genya has snow-white eyelashes and lavender-purple eyes like Sanemi(i love snow-white eyelashes Shinazugawa brothers), but unlike Sanemi's gloomy appearance, Genya's eyes are brighter. His hair is black, reaching the nape of his neck (at the time of the incident) and down to his hips when he encountered Akaza, with white streaks. He wears a purple kimono bought by Mrs. Watanabe (she's a bit forgetful and forgot that Genya is a boy) because his old yukata was torn while he was on the run.
• Personality: He retains the gentle, innocent personality of his childhood. Because he wasn't trained to be a demon slayer as in the original story, his body is weak, but he is quite intelligent and quick-witted. Intelligent, quite interested in medicine. He enjoys butterfly watching (Mr. and Mrs. Watanabe grew flowers and taught him about plants and butterflies, which is how Genya developed this hobby) and still enjoys bonsai trees(i love his love towards trees in canon).
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Additional information in this alternate universe:
• Akaza is not discovered by Muzan because he begins to regain his human instincts and avoids Muzan's surveillance. He also evades Nakime's watchful eyes because Akaza can sense murderous intent from living beings (according to the main storyline). Also, i’m too lazy too deal with this stuff
• In this au, Kotoha still tries to escape from Douma after discovering he eats his followers, but instead of pushing Inosuke off a cliff to save her son, she begs Douma to spare her life, not daring to risk dropping her son. Douma agrees and keeps both mother and son. He begins to sense emotions through closer contact with Kotoha and stops eating people (meaning Kanae doesn't die in this au — she only suffers minor injuries from trying to decapitate Douma, but he only lightly slashes her to escape).
• Before meeting the Kochou sisters, Kanao ran away from home on her own and met Genya. Kanao still have the butterfly hairclip because Genya makes it, it’s not monarch butterfly like original, Genya give a luna butterfly hairclip instead because i think luna butterfly suits him.
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I created this au spontaneously after seeing fan art of Inosuke wearing the Eternal Heaven Cult leader's outfit and maps of the characters' hometowns. Some characters don't live near each other, so I'll be correcting that.
I just wanted to create a fun AU where everyone is alive(not all because some of them still need to go so the lore won’t change too much), so I won't be updating it frequently.
I'm still sketching designs for the Kamaboko Squad; they need more attention.