LORE
TIMELINE1898: • Midori is born to parents Kousei (father) and Satori (mother) Tomioka. Tsutako is 12yrs old and Giyu is 4yrs old. Due to complications at birth coupled with an ongoing illness, Satori passed away a few weeks after giving birth to Midori.
• Midori is initially born with the same dark blue eyes as her older siblings.1899: • Kousei succumbs to the same illness as his wife, Satori, leaving Tsutako, 13yrs old, Giyu, 5yrs old, and Midori, 1yr old, orphans.
• Tsutako begins working immediately to support Giyu and Midori, while Giyu worked within home to care for their youngest sister.1903: • The night before Tsutako’s wedding, a demon attacks, having broken into their hut. She places herself between the demon and her younger siblings, telling Giyu to take Midori and run.
• Giyu fled their hut, carrying Midori on his back, and ran into the woods. Within a follow tree, he hides Midori, telling her to stay quiet and to stay hidden. Giyu heads back to help Tsutako.
Giyu’s Memory: Giyu returns to the hut only to find the demon has already begun devouring Tsutako while she is still alive. Stricken with fear, he freezes, while Tsutako pleads with him to run. The demon, alerted to his presence, swipes at him, knocking Giyu back violently, causing him to crash into a table where a lit candle still burned.Giyu is knocked unconscious, and the candle fell to the floor, within minutes, half of the hut is burning in the flames. The demon runs, taking Tsutako with it, leaving unconscious Giyu behind.The hut is engulfed in flames and the rising smoke alerts the villagers and Tsutako’s finance and his family members to the alarm. They rush to the hut to find it in ruin and still burning. Giyu is rescued by the villagers who pull him from the wreckage.He is taken immediately for medical care, but he does not wake up for days. When he does, he is asked by fellow villagers what happened. Giyu tells them it was a demon attack, and the demon killed his sister. The more disbelief he faced, the more adamant he became, leading the villager’s to believe he is mentally ill.They never found Tsutako’s body, or Midori’s. It was believed that Tsutako may have run away, taking Midori with her, leaving Giyu behind due to his mental state. It was rumoured that Tsutako didn’t know how to care for an unstable child, or that she may have been pressured by her fiancée into abandoning Giyu. This lead to harsh judgement upon the fiancée and his family and further speculation that Giyu himself set fire to their hut.Giyu is adamant that Tsutako was taken by the demon, and that Midori is in the woods, waiting for him. Unfortunately, given his injuries and perceived mental instability, they refuse to let him leave the infirmary, informing him a relative from the North is on the way to claim him. A doctor they hoped who could treat his fractured mind.A day later, his estranged relative comes to collect Giyu, and on the return journey, he escapes.Giyu runs back to the village, keeping out of sight while making his way back to the old hut. It deviates him to see it burned. Refusing to linger, he runs into the woods back to the hollow tree, only to find it empty.In a panic he screams Midori’s name, trying to find her. Noticing a scrap of fabric sticking out from the snow, he pulls at it. It was a piece of Midori’s haori.Digging frantically through the snow in the tree hollow, he discovers frozen blood hidden beneath.Believing Midori to be dead, stricken with grief and immense trauma, Giyu’s mind shatters. Under the extreme trauma and sudden loss, as an attempt at self preservation, all memory of Midori is suppressed. Her demise is one tragedy too many for his young mind to handle.Dazed and broken, Giyu flees into the woods, heading up the mountain. His journey will span for several days, nearly claiming his life before he is found and rescued by Sakonji Urokodaki.
Midori’s Memory: Midori waits, but Giyu never returns. Throughout the night she stays hidden and quiet. An hour before dawn, Midori risks leaving the tree hollow, trying to follow her brother’s footprints in the snow. With heavy snowfall however, she looses his tracks.Hearing someone approaching, she looks to see what appears to be the silhouette of an adult carrying a child. Overjoyed, thinking it’s Tsutako and Giyu, Midori calls out, only to realise the figure approaching is the demon, holding a half eaten body in its claws. Midori runs with the Demon giving chase, narrowly escaping the same fate. Moments before daybreak, a faint beam of light catches the demons skin, causing it to howl in pain. The demon abruptly abandoned the pursuit, vanishing back into the woods.It found shelter in the hollow tree Midori was originally hidden in, and finishes devouring the human carcass.Eventually, later that night, Midori manages to find her way back to the tree hollow. Upon entering, she stumbles upon a massive amount of blood and the gory remains of the demons last meal staining the ground. In the centre, half frozen in that blood, is her sister’s hair pin.It is then she realises that she is truly alone. Both of her siblings are gone. A cold anger settles in, and Midori vows to end the demon, or join her sister and brother trying.Remembering the demon fled from daylight, she knew that was her only chance to defeat the it. She would lure the demon out into the open right before day break, and pray the sun would catch it before it caught her.The following morning, Midori ventures out, looking to find a break in the trees, an opening to a clearing somewhere nearby. When she finds what she’s looking for, she pulls out Tsutako’s hairpin, using it to cut the palm of her hand. The girl then marks a path for herself to follow, so that when the time came, she would be able to find the clearing quickly, knowing the scent of her blood would attract the demon.As planned, the demon gave chase and Midori ran, leading it to the clearing. Before she could break through the line of trees, the demon struck her across the back, sending her tumbling into the edge of the clearing.It’s next attack, a bite over her shoulder, narrowly missing her neck. The demon shook her violently, throwing her through the air to the centre of the clearing, and in a frenzied bloodlust, the demon ignored the dawn creeping over the horizon.The Demon lunged at Midori, and in a last desperate attempt, she stabs the demons eyes with Tsutako’s hairpin. Demon blood gushed from the wounds, hitting Midori’s face, getting into her eyes. Daybreak broke the horizon line, sending light streaming across the clearing. The demon burned to ash, as did the demon’s blood in Midori’s eyes, causing searing pain.When the last remnants of demon’s blood turned to ash beneath the rising sun, it left Midori’s deep blue eyes, a burning crimson. It would take some time before she would be able to tolerate sunlight again.Tucking Tsutako’s hairpin away, Midori slowly returns to the hollow tree, unaware that she and her brother had narrowly missed crossing paths. Here, she says her final farewell to the life she knew.
1903 to 1904: After The Demon. • Midori, now 6yrs old, survives relying on theft, and small game for sustenance. She stays warm at night by sleeping in stables, with other livestock, hiding in hay, and various places until the winter months end.
• In late spring, she is spotted by an older couple living on the outskirts of one of the villages located farther south. It would be several months of chance encounters and small peace offerings from the elderly couple before Midori formed any kind of kinship with them. By late autumn, Midori is taken in by the couple, Daizō Tominaga and his wife, Yasashii Tominaga.
• Having suffered severe grief and loss, and being on her own for over a year, has led to Midori becoming somewhat feral. But after the Tominagas take her in as their granddaughter, she begins to accept societal norms again, if only just.1905: •Midori is 7yrs old when she begins training with Daizō, a former Shinobi. He trains her in the use of multiple weapons, tactical strategies, and critical thinking. Midori continues to grow, thriving in the environment the Tominagas provide her. However she struggles at night, with dreams of losing Tsutako and Giyu, crying their names in her sleep.1908:
• People begin to go missing in the village. At first, it was a couple of villagers a month, then it was one person a week. Soon, someone went missing every night. From the first missing persons case, the disappearances have been going on for 6 months, drawing the attention of two strangers who come to the village, offering aid.
• On the second night of the arrival of the two strangers, something breaks into the Tomoinaga household, attacking them while they slept.
• Midori, in a panicked, blind rage triggered from the grief and loss of her past, took up Daizō’s sword, fighting the demon head on. In her rage induced state, she screams over and over, “You took them from me! You took them from me!”
• 10yr old Midori and the demon come tumbling out of the home with the girl hacking the demon to pieces. The two strangers arrive, drawing swords of strange colour, and behead the demon. They reveal themselves to be Demon Slayers.
• Recognising Midori’s untapped potential, they try to recruit her to the demon slayer Corp, saying that with proper training, she could be ready for final selection in a year’s time, two at most.
• The Tominagas are hesitant, thinking she is far too young. Speaking up, Midori tells the Tomioga’s for the first time, where she came from, and what happened to her family, and about the demon she killed when she was 5yrs old, insisting that she is ready.
• With the promise that she will be taken care of, and a final farewell, Midori leaves with the two slayers, who agree to train her in breathing techniques and what to expect in the demon slayer Corp over the next year, to prepare her for final selection.1909 to 1910 • Midori begins training to be a demon slayer, to prepare for Final Selection. She learns about the history and nature of Demons, Nichirin Swords, the Demon Slayer Corp and its rankings. She also learns of the Hashira, and who they are, which is when she learns that Giyu is still alive.
• Now, struggling with feelings of anger and abandonment towards her older brother, having believed Giyu to be dead all these years, Midori’s drive and ambition in her training drastically increase.
• She passes Final Selection in 1910 at 12yrs old.1911-1913: • Midori rises quickly through the ranks, having trained with Daizō and then the Demon Slayers since she was seven years old. Her tactical mind and critical thinking along with the internal rage she harbours and her drive to push herself and rise through the ranks, gives her an edge when facing demons.
• Unable to find a breathing style that resonates with her, Midori makes the choice to develop her own breathing style; Storm Breathing. A breathing technique that draws its power from the emotional state of its user.
• Midori rises to the rank of Kinoto.1913 -1914 / Present KNY timeline: • Flexible dependant on storyline’s and interactions.
• Midori reaches the rank of Hashira.