Chapter Text
Yaku lived a normal life. A completely normal life. Sure, he saw things that other people didn’t, but he never let that affect his life in any way, so it didn’t matter.
So what if he saw demons? Contrary to popular belief, the creatures weren’t constantly plaguing mankind or anything like that. No, they usually keep to themselves, or followed around specific people.
So Yaku followed a simple policy: He didn’t interact with them, they didn’t interact with him, and everyone went their separate ways. That was that.
Except, sometimes the demons looked human. So human, in fact, that Yaku didn’t always realize until after he’d spoken with someone, that they weren’t actually human. Now, a human talking to a demon always went one of three ways.
1) The demons scoff at him, call him a dirty name and move on (usually with smoke coming out of their mouths or some suitably demonic sign that they, despite their looks, were not human like he’d assumed.
2) They completely ignored him. Honestly, some of those might have been humans, too, but Yaku felt better if he just assumed everyone that ignored his existence was a demon. It was better for his internal narrative about his life.
3) They beat him up.
Needless to say, Yaku liked option three the least. It was bad enough getting beaten up, but getting beaten up and having no one to blame it on, or to have a passerby think you were falling down for no reason and just being melodramatic—that was the worst.
Now, however, there was an option four.
Because this one demon wouldn’t leave him alone.
It had all started that morning, when Yaku had tapped on the guy’s shoulder. It wasn't that cold, but the demon had been wearing a jacket with his hood up and had looked perfectly human. But he didn’t move when the pedestrian light had turned green, and the path was too narrow for Yaku to move around him. “Excuse me?”
Silence.
Well, darn it. He didn’t have a lot of options; class would start soon. So even with the warning flag of silence, Yaku steeled his nerves and reached up, tapping the guy’s shoulder.
And then he’d met startled eyes. Startled eyes that were far too cat-like to be human. And there were two curling horns nestled in his bizarre black hair.
Shit.
Yaku took a step back.
The demon grinned, revealing a mouth filled with sharp fangs. “Well aren’t you interesting.”
Please let this not be a #3.
Yaku turned around. He’d go down another street. Being on time to class wasn’t worth this.
“Hey, wait!” There were hurried footsteps, and then that tall head was peeking over Yaku’s shoulder. “You can see me, right? That’s really cool! I’ve heard of humans like you, but I’ve never actually met one. Can you hear me, too?”
Yaku refused to respond. No matter the circumstances, he wouldn’t engage. Leaving demons alone was what had gotten him this far in life, it only made sense to continue that tactic.
Except the demon started telling this horrendously lewd story and Yaku couldn’t help but blush at all the innuendo. And then that sharp grin was back, peeking back around Yaku’s shoulder. “Knew it. You can hear me.”
Yaku crossed the street. If you ignored people, they would eventually stop bugging you, so that should work with demons, too, right?
Wrong.
Definitely wrong.
Yaku had gone to his history lecture (arriving only two minutes late, though the prof still gave him a dirty look for that), and the demon entered the class right behind him, much to Yaku’s dismay.
Halfway through the lecture, Yaku gave up on notes entirely. Even though the professor was incredibly boring and regularly put the class to sleep, the demon stayed the entire time. He strolled between the rows of students, whistling some eerie tune, occasionally knocking things onto the floor for bewildered students to pick up, and even drawing a stick figure mocking the professor onto the chalk board.
(Yaku had never figured out what other people thought happened when demons did things like this—they noticed the papers move as the demon pushed them onto the ground, but didn’t see the chalk drawing for a few seconds until after he’d finished. Did the demons somehow control what people could see??)
When the lecture ended, Yaku was one of the first students out of the room. He tried to lose the demon in the crowd, and he even thought he had! But then there he was, sauntering into Yaku’s next class a few minutes late and laying down on top of the table at the front of the room. At least he slept through that class, though, and Yaku was able to take some notes.
Of course, the bustle of students leaving the classroom woke him up, and the demon once again began trailing him.
So now here Yaku was, ordering fast food with a demon leaning against his shoulder. “The number one meal, please.”
“Booooring. At least get a milkshake or something.”
Yaku ignored him, fishing out his wallet to pay. He hated eating out—it was a terrible waste of money—but Yaku wasn’t sure what else to do. It’s not like he could go home. The last thing he wanted was for the demon to know where he lived.
He leaned against the wall, ignoring the demon as it caused some businessman’s computer to short-circuit.
Yaku needed to get rid of this guy somehow, he refused to be haunted by him for the rest of his life.
As he got his food and slid into a booth, however, the demon slid in behind him.
Yaku refused to acknowledge this. Ok, so his eye may have twitched when it began stealing his fries, but he refused to acknowledge the demon in any other way.
“So.” The demon twirled a fry in the air. “This is nice. You, me, sharing a meal together. Kind of like a date, don’t you think?”
Yaku almost spat out his drink, but he managed to swallow. After coughing a bit, he glared at the demon. “I’m not sharing, you’re stealing, and it is not a date.”
“Oh! You can speak in full sentences!” The demon set up straighter, grinning. “I was beginning to wonder. I mean, all day and you haven’t said a word to me or a single other person. Well, besides to order your food.”
“I was hoping you’d leave.” Yaku glanced around at the other tables, but thankfully they seemed to be ignoring him and the fact that, for all they knew, he was talking to himself.
“Nah.” The demon shrugged, “I’ve got nothing better to do, and you’re interesting.”
Yaku gave him a blank stare.
“You are!” The demon pointed a fry at him. “You can see us. You can talk with us. You could do anything with that ability! But instead you decide to sit and listen to lectures on history? It’s weird. And boring. You want history, ask me some questions. I can give you far more accurate facts than those losers could.”
That made Yaku pause. He’d never thought about the fact that the demons around him might have actually seen the eras he studied. “How old are you?”
“Ahh…. Let’s see.” The demon hummed, “Last time I counted back to my death day I was like…”
“Death day?”
He blinked, tilting his head a little to the side. “You really don’t know anything about us, do you?”
Yaku scowled. “I’ve made a point of avoiding your kind, actually. If I interact with you I usually get beat up or ignored.”
“Well,” the demon shrugged, “some of us, like myself, were human once, but became demons because of the way we died.” He grinned, his lips stretching back to reveal his sharp teeth as his eyes flashed. “Like my best friend betraying me and our daimyo and murdering both us and our entire families in an attempt to gain the territory for himself.” Yaku swore the room became colder as the demon spoke, and the people in the tables next to them were actually starting to rub their arms.
Note to self: do not mention death days around demons. Yaku hurried to move past it. “So… you’re what? Haunting his descendants?”
“Basically.” The demon chomped down on a fry, and Yaku winced. He’d never thought eating a fry of all things could be done violently. “I make sure their lives are miserable and any chances they have at happiness are ruined. Well, at least I did that for the first hundred years or so, but then I got bored. Now I mostly cause mischief and keep people from betraying their friends, or condemn anyone who has betrayed a friend to a living hell courtesy of yours truly.” The demon gave him a cheerful smile, and suddenly the air was warmer again. “Now where was I? Right. My death day. That happened in 1685, so I’m… 330 years old or so.”
“Huh.” Yaku had honestly never imagined that. He was sitting across from a being that was over three hundred years old. And said 300 years old being was still stealing his fries.
“Could you stop doing that?!” Yaku grabbed the last few fries and shoved them into his mouth, glaring at the demon.
He promptly burst out laughing. “You…. Oh gosh.” The demon wiped at his eye, acting as if there was a tear there. “Talking to you is so much better than dealing with other demons! You act like there are morals and boundaries and things!” He laughed some more.
Yaku swallowed the fries. “That’s because there are.”
“Not for demons, kiddo. It’s a dog eat dog world, and only the strong survive.”
Kiddo?! He supposed he couldn’t argue with it, even if it was demeaning. Yaku scowled. Didn’t mean he liked the name, though. And another thing… “You’re saying you’re strong?” He raised one eyebrow skeptically. Yaku’d seen plenty of demons, and this guy didn’t look like he could take on many of them.
“I go by Kuro. Call for me, next time those demons you mentioned try to beat you up.” With that, the demon finally stood up, winking at him before tossing a “see you around” over his shoulder as he left the restaurant.
Call him?
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Whatever. At least he’d finally left.