'Huh? Wait—there was another person breathing!'

Ren turned his head, noticing a grown woman, also still alive… and also turning into a demon.

'Kie?' This must be Kie Kamado, Nezuko's mother. 'She was demonizing, too?'

In this world, the story had changed.

A thought crossed Ren's mind. 'I can dominate their sanity—right?'

His golden irises flickered.

"Dominator."

His Zanpakuto once again transformed into starry brilliance in his eyes.

"Control sanity!"

Nezuko and Kie's eyes snapped open. He could see crimson irises, sharp canines in their cherry lips, and elongated nails forming claws. Both had become demons. Rising unsteadily, Nezuko and Kie stared at Ren, drooling.

But the instant their eyes met his…

"Urgh!"

They clutched their heads in pain. The fury in their gazes warred with a trace of rationality.

"What… are your names?" Ren asked gently.

"…"

Their faces contorted further, as if they were suffering migraines, pounding their own heads.

"If you don't answer, you'll remain mindless. Answer me—your names?"

Their frantic self-blows paused.

"Ne…Nezuko. My name's Nezuko."

Sweat beaded on her brow, her breath shallow, but she managed to speak.

"Kie…I'm Kie!"

Kie's shaky voice followed, evidently straining to force out words.

That was their sanity at work.

"Good."

The glow faded from Ren's eyes. He'd succeeded in dominating them.

"Master."

That was how Nezuko and Kie addressed Ren—their dominator.

He had only dominated their reason, not their thoughts or free will. By forcing their rational minds to overshadow the demon's destructive impulses, they became demons still possessing their own intellect.

Nezuko stared sadly at the carnage around her. "Mother… Takeo… Shigeru… Rokuta… Hanako, they're all…"

Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Nezuko…" Kie gently embraced her, sorrow etched in her expression.

They had lost their family.

"Who's there?"

A grief-stricken cry sounded at the doorway—a young man who had rushed up but stopped, aghast.

It was Tanjiro Kamado. He gazed inside the house in utter disbelief, 'Everyone…dead?'

"Mom! Nezuko!" He realized they were still alive.

"Onii-chan!"

Nezuko darted forward, clinging to him, both of them in tears. Kie gently clasped them both, all that remained of their family.

Ren refrained from interrupting them. Once their sobbing subsided, they focused on giving their relatives a decent burial.

Ever the considerate one, Ren helped them dig graves. After the burial, Kie knelt before the newly covered mounds, weeping:

"Takeo, Shigeru, Rokuta, Hanako… Even though I only adopted you, I always cherished you as my real children. I'll always be your mother. Please be at peace in heaven…"

"Adopted?"

That piece of information startled Ren, and the words slipped out.

Nezuko, sorrowful, replied quietly. "Yes, we're all adopted. Ever since their wedding day, Father and Mother suffered an incurable illness—he was bedridden."

"In order to continue our family line, Mother adopted orphans like us. But she truly was our mother!"

"…"

Ren was stunned. This was clearly not the usual scenario. Even if someone told him Kie was actually still… well, a certain sort of virgin bride, he might believe it now. So much for canon storylines—reality could differ wildly.

After a final, mournful prayer, the three survivors approached Ren. Tanjiro had noticed him before, saw how he'd stood by Nezuko and Kie at the corpses. His keen sense of smell told him Ren was definitely not the killer; he smelled more like someone who wanted to help.

"Excuse me, who are you? Do you know what happened here?"

Tanjiro asked, a hint of pleading in his voice, desperate for any explanation.

Ren looked upon this kindhearted boy and answered succinctly.

"You may call me Ren. A cannibal demon named Muzan, who happens to be the Demon King, killed your family."

"Master! Where can we find Muzan?!"

"Please tell us, Master…"

"?"

Nezuko and Kie's voices brimmed with hatred, shocking both Ren and Tanjiro. Tanjiro was confused by how they addressed Ren, while Ren himself was surprised they could utter Muzan's name with no repercussions.

He recalled that normally demons created by Muzan risked his dreaded curse if they so much as spoke his name. Without plot progression to resist it, Nezuko shouldn't yet be able to defy that curse. Let alone Kie, who didn't exist in canon as a demon at all.

'Could it be that through dominating them, they've become entirely independent new demons, no longer under Muzan's curse?'