#i still agree with my original tags on this post bread shaped was Real and true. (to me)

[wisteriamoons]

Pinky Promise AU

Summary: Kotoha Lives AU! This is called the Pinky Promise AU. In a oneshot I wrote called “Pinky Promise,” Kotoha managed to escape Douma’s cult and live in a Wisteria House with an older woman named Himari. Shinjuro and a group of demon slayers stay one night a month later and Kotoha is given a final push to become a demon slayer and, eventually, a Pillar. You can just refer to this summary or feel free to look up “pinky promise au” tag on my blog(Lowkey scared to link it as ya’know posts with links tend to not show up in tags) 

Also if you are not fully caught up on the manga DO NOT PRESS ON unless you don’t mind spoilers!!

-Kotoha spends five years training in an undetermined breath at first, however, she finds it hard and wants something to fit her own feelings, so she makes her own breath style; Bell Breathing

-Inspired by the one-hundred and eight rings of the nearby Buddist bell on New Years Eve, she decides to make the style. She wants to inspire people like bells do, with a balanced form set and sweet, comforting sounds 

-Kotoha took to the bell motif seriously, even making a bracelet of small suzu bells and wearing it around her dominant wrist. The balls inside that make the bells ring are removable, making stealth missions easier

-Kotoha’s Nichirin Blade is colored a sort of pastel shade of yellow, and has aesthetic-only empty bell shells tied with a red ribbon on the end of the hilt. The guard is bell-shaped, naturally. 

-Her blade forager was in fact Haganezuka, being one of the few people who stuck around even with his more rather… extreme personality. She’s one of his first clients, and they have a fairly close friendship-- she always has mitarashi dango for him when he visits or when she visits. She hasn’t broken her blade thus far

-Her uniform is the usual one but with a under-the-knee-length skirt like Kanao’s. She wears yellow tabi with zori underneath. She has a dark blue haori with yellow/white suzu bell designs all over it. She also wears her hair in a tight bun with a comb kinzashi with purple flowers and blue ribbon--she considers it a good luck charm. She also wears a bird masquerade mask and a cloth to wrap her hair in to cover her identity when on slaying missions, because,

-Kotoha is mainly into undercover and stealth missions due to her flexibility and natural beauty, making her fit in just about anywhere. She wears a kimono and more plain haori when out on such missions. No one suspects such a beautiful and gentle woman! 

-Inosuke loves the sound of bells while growing up ‘cause they remind him heavily of his mother. He starts collecting various bells at the age of seven, keeping them in his room in the Hashibira Estate. Tanjiro finds this sweet while Zenitsu laughs at him for being so rough yet has such a soft hobby. Inosuke might’ve whacked him a couple times because of this

-Kotoha is a mother first, demon slayer second. Never changes, even after she becomes a Pillar

-Speaking of which, it only takes her up to a year to become a Pillar. She kept on insisting to take jobs, so her demon count rose very quickly. She also mastered Total Concentration within weeks with Himari and her mentor’s help

-Her and Inosuke have a very very close familial bond. They tell each other almost everything with no hesitance and do many things together. They might have one argument every few months, but it’s usually over something silly and it’s resolved quickly

-Hell, Kotoha even offered to teach him Bell Breathing but he refused, having already started to develop his own technique (which would be obviously Beast Breathing)

-Kotoha is without a doubt one of if not the first Pillar to trust Nezuko. She trusts her son unwaveringly with every vein in her body, and if he trusts her, then she does too

-Because of her Pillar status, her Estate is close to the Butterfly Estate and she has a close relationship with the Kocho sisters. She cares a lot for them, and mothered them a lot, seeing them also as daughters she never had

-She also has a close relationship with the Rengoku family, Shinjuro being an older brother to her and Ruka like a sister, and Kyojuro and Senjuro being nephews. Though they also saw her a second mother on occasion. Shinjuro helps Kotoha get used to being a Pillar and gave her advice before his wife’s death and subsequent alcoholism. Their relationship becomes strained after this, for obvious reasons

-On a lighter note, this means Inosuke is much closer to Kyojuro and Senjuro, having grown up with them, he sees them as brothers--making Kyojuro’s death a little more harder :)

-Speaking upon Inosuke, Inosuke has his original personality and abilities intact, but with more… class?

-He still likes to be competitive and has a stupidly high temper, but he’s also not constantly headbutting people and has slight more consideration of others. Also doesn’t have his boar head, and wears the normal demon slaying uniform (though has a habit of discarding the upper layer, and usually doesn’t wear a haori unless it’s winter). Still dumb as rocks though

-He also still prefers his swords chipped, but his original swords being chipped was from training too much with normal swords and found that when they’re chipped they cut better to him (plus lets be real he likes how they look) When he deliberately chips his new ones Kotoha does scold him for it for disrespecting his sword and sword maker, though admittedly found it just a tiny bit amusing

-He also adored animals as a child, finding boars especially to be really cool and studied their movements a lot along with other animals, which influenced him in many, many ways

-Inosuke can’t help but perhaps sometimes feel a little inferior compared to his mother. Don’t get me wrong, he loves her with every goddamn breath and won’t hesitate to tell her, but sometimes he feels he can’t match her skill. Kotoha tries to treat him equally but sometimes her constant mothering and protectiveness can be grating

-Kotoha holds a heavy grudge against Douma for basically fucking with her, and it only grows deeper after Kanae’s death. She’s in on Shinobu’s poisoning plan, and while she’s against it she knows she can’t stop Shinobu. Makes Shinobu’s death hard on Kotoha because she knows she should’ve been more assertive, but also knows it was what Shinobu wanted

-Inosuke still has a tight platonic bond with Shinobu, though he sees her more of a sister than a mother for obvious reasons. He also has a soft spot for Kanao, and while she’s older than him he still treats her like a little sister anyway. He was probably the first person she met around her age after being adopted into the Kocho family. Inosuke wasn’t too close to Kanae, but was also saddened and angry after her passing by a demon’s hands

-Inosuke is also on pretty decent terms with the little sister trio (they like to play with his hair, he lets them while he eats usually), though has a sort of tough relationship with Aoi since they both tend to clash heads. A bit of a crumb for you AoIno(?) shippers, but the two are on decently friendly terms, finding each other tolerable enough, they’re just both stubborn

-Kotoha also never tells Inosuke, at least not at first, why they lived in a Wisteria House and why Himari wasn’t his real grandma despite thinking she was. She fears it might bring him trauma or nightmares, big plus she doesn’t want him going after Douma

-It was a slight bit of a hassle for Inosuke to make his mother agree to making him a demon slayer too; she was obviously worried for his safety, but eventually wore down, but made him promise he try to be as careful as possible. This is obviously not followed through for many reasons, but we already know them so I won’t go into too much detail

-Treats pretty much almost everyone younger than her like her children in some way, shape, or form. She’s a heavy mother figure to everyone and wears this with pride (even if she sometimes doesn’t realize it)

-In fact, Zenitsu, Kyojuro, and Mitsuri are big offenders on accidentally calling her mom. It’s less accidental for Kyojuro as he knows he sees her as a mother and has been doing it ever since they met (‘cause children do that, it’s just grown to be a habit at this point, and plus Ruka never minded so it doesn’t bother him) though he’s more likely to call her “Aunt Koto” around others by now

-She’s close to Mitsuri and they sometimes swap feminine advice and cook together, and Mitsuri isn’t as embarrassed by calling her mom now than she was the first time she did. They have a tight bond and Kotoha sees her as the daughter she never had, exchanging secrets as well

-Zenitsu has an unclear past, so I hc that his parents were probably neglectful or died by the time of his debt. So, Kotoha becomes the mother figure he hasn’t had/never had in a long time. He def didn’t realize it at first and became heavily flustered and mortified. Kotoha found it adorable. Inosuke isn’t a big fan of this btw aksjasj but he tolerates it a little more as time goes on

-Zenitsu has had such a big helping of respect women juice because of Kotoha that he is less flirtatious and weird about girls, though his love for Nezuko doesn’t waver in the slightest 

-Tanjiro also sees her as a mother, heavily reminding him of his own mother in fact. He respects her a lot, and even has platonic affection for her, especially after she so quickly accepts Nezuko despite her hate against demons

-She smells like freshly baked bread and flowers, and has a calming presence. She has a sweet sound to her, like suzu bells, as Zenitsu puts it

-Also she teaches Tanjiro how to properly take care of Nezuko’s hair and the like so Nezuko’s hair isn’t always a rat’s nest when they come back to the Estates

-Nezuko, speaking of, like Tamayo sees Kotoha as her own mother. Thus, Nezuko always feels calm around her and lets her wash her clothes and brush her hair

-Sanemi and Genya have subconscious drawings towards her, as the pattern keeps going, they see a lot of their own mom in her. While neither of them have called her mom ‘cause it’s painful to even think about, there’s no doubt they’ve had fleeting thoughts about her being a mom to them

-Muichiro also subconsciously sees her as a mother, with his memories gone he has no qualms about it but he doesn’t let it slip out loud. Likes it when she brushes his hair though. After his memories begin to return he doesn’t regret thinking of her as a mother

-Giyuu doesn’t have many maternal feelings, finding her protective nature to be a bit overwhelming, however he doesn’t hate her. In fact, Kotoha doesn’t hate him at all and loves him a lot. I think maybe he might see his sister in her a little actually

-Uzui has zero maternal feelings towards her as well, in fact he probably flirted with her a little. Nothing huge or meaningful, just harmless, it’s who he is. She never really realized it anyway, seeing him as just being nice, and cared enough but not enough to see him as a son. Saw her techniques as flamboyant, of course, and she was saddened by his departure from the Pillars

-Obanai feels a little… indifferent? Towards her? Like, he doesn’t hate her, but I don’t think he’d quite see her as a mother figure either. He does admire her drive though, and she cares about him enough to make them good partners in combat if need be

-Gyomei doesn’t have maternal feelings towards her either, since they’re extremely close in age, same for Kotoha. But he still does also admire her, tbh I can see them being more like just good friends and confidants. Being the two oldest Pillars they have much in common

-Kotoha and Ubuyashiki have a typical follower/leader relationship, considering he’s much younger than her she doesn’t see him as a father figure, but she does admire him a lot and is extremely loyal to him. She also finds his kids to be adorable and is friendly with his wife (Edit: I realize Kotoha most likely met him when he was 13-14, so yeah, def doesn’t see him as a father figure or anything. Probably thought he was adorable too aksjaksj)

-You want to face off both mother and son? Don’t.

-Seriously, don’t. 

-You’ll regret it.

-See, they’re both ferociously protective of each other, and bounce off each other so well it’s fuckin bonkers! They go hand-in-hand, easily matching their breaths and everything. They’re like a machine together in battle. When they’re on their own they do well but when they’re together they do exceptionally. It’s both amazing and downright terrifying

-Need advice? Need a shoulder to cry on? Kotoha has your back

-Also, at least once a month all Pillars and any visiting demon slayers are invited to a feast at Kotoha’s, cooked by the woman herself and occasionally with the help of Mitsuri and Shinobu. The Ubuyashiki’s are always invited, but they never really make it. It’s still one night without any worry, just bonding time and fun, and that’s what matters

-Mother and son constantly write each other letters when apart, no matter how many miles are in between them, and give them to their crow to deliver. If one party doesn’t reply after the given time, the other is instantly going to look for them no matter what

-Also, I hc that Inosuke has ADHD and social anxiety. Kotoha is very patient with him and helps him through the daily struggles they bring, and he’s so grateful for this. 

-While I don’t have any ships in mind for this au (except perhaps KanTan and ZenNezu, maybe AoIno if you squint), if anyone wants to take this au and mold it to their own ship (within reason--if I find you use this au to ship pedo/incest I will find you) I give you full permission. However, if you find yourself shipping Kotoha with anyone, I would like to note that she has a few walls put up due to the abuse she suffered, and it isn’t too easy for her to fall in love

Bell Breathing and it’s Techniques/Forms

-Bell Breathing involves a lot of speed, along with agility and grace. Kotoha became more flexible and obviously more quicker, along with some muscle. It involves many parries, quick strikes and counters.

-Kotoha developed this with her newly gained strength and her natural swiftness in mind, along with her warm personality

-There are currently six forms, three mainly defense and three offense. 

-First Form: Voided Ringing- The user steps out of range of an attack before replacing it with their sword, slashing in an upwards motion at whatever the enemy was about to attack with

-Second Form: Suzu Dance- The user advances on their opponent slashing their blade in swift, shallow motions, aiming mainly for the arms 

-Third Form: Crotal Advance- The user blocks their entire body with their blade, using all their strength, and then they twist the blade to slash whatever is attacking them

-Fourth Form: Chiming Deflection- The user deflects attacks in a circular motion with quick succession

-Fifth Form: Quiet Ringing in Winter- Much like Blessed Rain after the Drought, this move is used when an enemy surrenders, making it a swift and painless death, making a soft sound like jingle bells during Christmas--or, rather, like suzu bells during a Kagura dance

-Sixth Form: The Death Bell Tolls- The user goes as fast as possible, quite like they’re dancing around their opponent and then strike from the air, going straight for the neck in one swift round motion, making a sound like the ringing of a bell 

Extra: I made Bell Breathing without one breath in mind as I researched different sword techniques and looked at all the breathing styles, and while I’ve been leaning towards Wind, Thunder/Sound or Water, but if anyone has an idea I’m open to hearing it