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Squeezing her eyes shut and gritting her teeth, Aoi sliced the knife across the palm of her hand, and allowed her blood to drip onto the freshly clipped wisteria. She was no stranger to pain, but that didn’t mean she liked it, and she wished Shinobu would come up with a better method of communication between them.
Especially since Kanae died… Even though she wasn’t a demon herself, Aoi thought it would be best for them to be better connected with the loss of their eldest sister. Kanae had saved her life, Kanae had practically raised her, and she… She still couldn’t quite believe she was gone. Demons were so timeless, so ethereal, so other. It had felt impossible for Tamayo and any of her demons to die, but…
Aoi shook her head, and pulled her hand back from the flowers to bandage the cut on her palm. That should be enough blood and wisteria to draw the attention of whichever of her sisters were lurking in the area this new moon. Likely not Shinobu, ever since she became Upper Moon Four, she was always busy, and Kanao often shadowed her. So it would probably be one of the triplets. Checking in on her was pretty much their only duty.
After her cut was cleaned and bandaged, she threw open the shutters, and placed the bloodied wisteria in the window sill.
Now all she had to do was wait for one of her sisters to arrive.
“Aoi!” Two tiny, clawed hands scrabbled at the window sill. “Aoi! It’s me! It’s Sumi!”
Aoi chuckled and hurried to the open window, peering outside to see her little sister, forever too small to see inside the window, even on her tiptoes. “Hello, Sumi! Shinobu’s got you out running errands by yourself tonight, hm?”
Sumi’s smile stretched so wide all four of her eyes crinkled. “Mmhm! She had to go take care of something for Tamayo-sama, and Kanao went with her.”
Aoi crossed her arms and rested them in the window as she leaned out. “No Naho or Kiyo?”
Sumi shook her head. “Kiyo is watching some boring flower drip in the lab for Shinobu, and Naho had plans with Senjuro tonight! Rengoku-san is taking them out to a little festival. He wanted to take all three of us, but me and Kiyo can’t hide our extra eyes yet…” she pouted.
Aoi reached out to ruffle her hair. “Well, maybe you can’t be around other humans yet, but we can have a fun night together. C’mere.” She leaned over, hooked her arms in Sumi’s armpits, and heaved her through the open window.
Sumi giggled and went limp in her hold, letting herself be hauled inside.
As a teenager living in the Infinity Palace, Aoi had never been very strong, always spindly and scrawny, but living out here alone, gathering and farming her own food, she’d eventually packed on enough muscle to easily pick up her little sisters.
“Why’d you leave out wisteria, though?” Sumi asked. “You only do that when you need something!”
“It’s nothing too serious,” Aoi said as she set her down and ushered her to the table, where she’d already made tea, laced with blood and her sisters’ favorite flavors. “Just something I thought was a little odd. I thought Tamayo-sama might want to know about it.”
Sumi squealed as she was handed her tea cup. “No one ever keeps tea back home!” she said. “It’s just blood. Which is good! But it’s not the same as your tea.”
“Well…” Aoi lifted her own, non-blood laced, tea to her lips and took a sip. “You’re always welcome to come for tea any time you want. You don’t only have to come when I leave out the wisteria and blood.”
Sumi shook her head. “Everyone says it’s too dangerous… Especially after—” Her eyes glossed over with tears and she sniffled. “Especially after Kanae… Shinobu doesn’t want to risk any slayers hurting you because they found out you were friendly with demons. We can’t lose another sister. Oh, won’t you just become a demon, Aoi?”
Aoi sighed. That question was the one thing she hated about the younger girls coming by. They just never understood why she refused to turn. Honestly, Shinobu and Kanao didn’t either, but they knew better than to press. Kanae was the only one who had ever seemed to get it. “Oh, you know, Sumi!” she laughed with a wave of her hand. “I’m just not interested. And I’ve been dodging slayers for a decade now. There’s a reason I live out here in the middle of nowhere.”
Sumi’s shoulders slumped, but she didn’t argue; by now, she seemed to have learned better. “Okay then… What was the odd thing? To tell Tamayo-sama about?”
“Ah…” Aoi straightened up, and pointed in a vague direction to her left. “There’s a mountain several miles that way. Recently, slayers have started investigating it, but none of them ever come back down. I thought there might be a demon there worth looking into, if they’re killing slayers. Either they’re someone Tamayo-sama might be interested in, or they need to be dealt with before they start killing innocent people.”
“There’s slayers in the area and you didn’t tell anyone before now!?” Sumi demanded with wide eyes. “What if they hurt you!? What if they—!?”
Aoi hushed her with a soft smile. “I’m human, Sumi. They have no reason to suspect me. I’m just an antisocial hermit living in the woods. If I was in any sort of danger, I would tell you. I’m just suspicious of what’s going on on that mountain. So, do tell Tamayo-sama for me when you go home, please?”
“Okay…”
“Hey, think of it this way.” Aoi set her teacup down. “Once whatever is on that mountain is taken care of, slayers will have no reason to come here anymore. So you’ll be making me safer, okay?”
Slowly, Sumi’s smile returned, and she eagerly returned to her tea, as easily distracted as any child, demon or human. “Okay!”
“So…” Aoi fiddled with the hems of her sleeves. “You’re the new Kizuki…?”
Sanemi Shinazugawa narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “And you’re the little human bitch who can summon Kizuki.”
Aoi worried her lip, and did her best not to let her nerves get the better of her. She’d hoped Tamayo would have sent someone she was close with, even if she couldn’t send Shinobu, or at least someone she knew.
She also couldn’t believe someone so… menacing had taken Rengoku’s place as Upper Moon Two. Rengoku might have been overwhelming, but she’d never been scared of him. But this demon already made her skin crawl. “I don’t think—I wasn’t trying to summon you, I just thought Tamayo-sama should know about all the slayers around here!”
Shinazugawa shrugged. “Whatever. I’ll kill ‘em and that’ll be the end of it. Tamayo said there wasn’t a demon on that mountain.”
Aoi grimaced. “But then… Why would there be so many slayers going there? And why are none of them coming back?”
“How the fuck should I know?” he demanded. “Point me in the direction of this mountain, and I’ll figure it out.”
Aoi’s nose scrunched up in displeasure. How old was this man when he’d been turned? His early-twenties? Mid-twenties at the absolute latest. She was older than him. It had been strange, aging and suddenly being older than the people who raised her. Catching up to Shinobu and Kanae’s ages, before surpassing them as she approached her thirtieth birthday. Despite the fact that she was mentally and emotionally older than all of Tamayo’s demons now, it was strange to wrap her head around.
But she’d never met Shinazugawa before now, and didn’t take well to young men being disrespectful for no reason!
“You really should watch your language,” she scolded. “I’m just trying to be helpful, and even if this wasn’t something you wanted to deal with, you shouldn’t take it out on me. Didn’t your mother ever teach you to treat people kindly?”
Shinazugawa blinked, before he bared monstrous fangs and a murderous snarl rumbled from his chest. “Shut the fuck up! Gods above, you’re definitely one of Shinobu’s goddamn brats.”
Aoi took a deep breath and forced out the tension in her shoulders. “Can you please just do as Tamayo-sama asked, and deal with whatever is causing this? Considering how violent you all are, I figured you’d be chomping at the bit to kill some demon slayers.”
Shinazugawa rolled his eyes and turned on his heel. “You gonna help?”
“Absolutely not!” Aoi shook her head. “I refused to become a demon to avoid being involved in mass murdering. And the cannibalism. And being immortal. And dying in the sunlight. Oh, a lot of things really! But the point is, no, I’m not helping you murder people.”
“What, too damn good for murder?” he drawled over his shoulder.
“Obviously not. I’m pointing you in the direction of people to murder. I just never had the stomach for the act itself, which I don’t think is a bad thing.” She turned her palms up. “And you’re about to start walking towards the wrong mountain, by the way.” She turned and pointed north. “It’s that one. Few miles that way.”
Shinazugawa’s snarl rumbled louder, but he turned and marched off in that direction.
“Have fun!” Aoi called after him. “If you don’t want to come tell me what it was, at least have someone else do it! I’m curious!”
Shinazugawa twisted around to throw up a vulgar gesture, and continued on his way.
Aoi huffed. Where did Tamayo find these people? And hadn’t her sisters told her that the new Upper Moon had gotten romantically involved with Kanroji? Oh, she was sure Shinobu adored having him around and sharing her wife with him.
Every time she interacted with someone other than her sisters, Aoi grew more and more relieved that she jumped Tamayo’s ship years ago.
Oh well. Considering it was Upper Moon Two who had been sent, the little slayer problem in her patch of woods would be dealt with quickly.
Sanemi grumbled a harsh string of swears beneath his breath as he marched up the damned mountain. Why Tamayo had sent him to deal with this, he didn’t understand. Sure, if he stumbled across any of the slayers that had been cropping up here, that would be wonderful, but if something here was already killing them, he wasn’t sure if he’d actually get the damn chance.
And why Yushiro had sent him to that goddamn Aoi Kanzaki’s stupid-ass garden instead of the damn mountain where the problem was he didn’t fucking understand. Some bullshit about keeping her involved and in the loop because she was important to the Kocho sisters, and oh what-fucking-ever! If she wanted to be involved, she could become a demon and actually live with them.
He didn’t get that woman. When he hadn’t wanted to become a demon, he’d had some actual reasons. Why didn’t Aoi want to be a demon? Just for the sake of being human? Why? She lived alone in the woods, it wasn’t like she was engaged with human society in any meaningful way. He just didn’t fucking get it.
Whatever. It wasn’t a demon on that mountain, but whatever it was, it was killing slayers. So long as Sanemi found something to kill here, he supposed it was worth it. He needed to get back to Mitsuri so they could finish planning the giant wedding she’d insisted upon.
He really should have known better than to say he “didn’t care” about what kind of wedding they had when she asked… Now she and Tengen were putting together something horrifyingly elaborate.
Maybe that was why Tamayo sent him to do this. Maybe she realized he needed a break from it all. Killing someone always helped calm him down, settled his jittering nerves. Maybe he could even bring back something for Mitsuri and Obanai to eat… It might help ease the feeling that he wasn’t doing a well enough job providing for them because he just didn’t know how to help with things like fucking weddings.
A sword rammed its way through his chest.
A nichirin sword rammed its way through his chest.
Sanemi’s eyes blew wide, more from shock than pain. While this blow would kill a human, it was superficial to him. But he should have noticed the slayer approaching. He hadn’t smelled a damn thing, hadn’t heard anything, hadn’t sensed an enemy at all.
And what fucking slayer didn’t go for a decapitation with the element of surprise? Fuck, if they had, Sanemi might have—
No, no, his body was too durable for that. A slayer decapitating him in a single stroke was practically goddamn impossible.
He gasped and whirled around, his clawed fingers wrapping around the throat of the person with the sword and slamming them against the nearest tree trunk.
The person— girl, Sanemi realized, as she wasn’t wearing a fucking shirt, choked as she was smashed against the tree bark and the breath was wrenched out of her.
Sanemi fully intended to snap her damn neck then and there. Something nice and quick but that would still leave the body mostly intact for him to bring home to his fiance. Most slayers he liked dragging it out for, but this one… spooked him, and that couldn’t be allowed.
But he halted, putting just enough pressure on her neck to cut off her airflow and keep her subdued.
There was no way in hell this was a slayer. Never mind that a slayer would have gone for a decapitation, this girl was half fucking feral. The only thing she wore were tattered animal pelts haphazardly wrapped around her hips and waist. Nothing above, leaving her chest completely exposed, and nothing on her lower legs, not even shoes. The only other thing she wore was a goddamn boar’s head.
What the fuck!?
Sanemi loosened his grip, just enough for her to suck in a deep gasp. “Who the fuck are you?” he demanded. “Where’d you get nichirin? ‘Cause you’re sure as hell not a slayer.”
She hissed. Hissed. The bitch goddamn hissed at him! A grating noise, mangled, in only the way a human throat could attempt to hiss, but that had clearly been the noise she was going for.
“Hey!” Sanemi gave her throat another threatening squeeze before loosening it again. “I could kill your dumbass right fucking now. Answer me. Who the fuck are you?”
Demented giggles escaped her next. “Name’s Inosuke Hashibira. And I’m King of the Mountain!” she declared.
What? What!?
“...Fucking what…?”
The girl’s hands flew to Sanemi’s wrist, and she sank jagged nails into the skin, ripping and tearing with a fervor befitting an animal rather than a human. When the flesh easily healed, she growled in frustration. Frantic kicks joined the clawing, and she twisted her whole body, going so far as snapping bones out of place in an attempt to escape the grip.
Sanemi narrowed his eyes, and let curiosity get the better of him. He wrenched the boar mask off.
“Hey!” she shrieked.
Oh she was a young girl. Tangled, knotted blue-tipped black hair tumbled around her shoulders, and her face was smeared with dirt and… possibly some dried blood, but that couldn’t distract from how young she appeared. She was probably about Genya’s age.
Sanemi’s hand slipped away from her throat.
Inosuke lunged, sword abandoned as it had slipped out of her grasp while being choked, and attempted to drive her fist into Sanemi’s jaw. He easily sidestepped the blow, and slammed his open palm between her shoulder blades with enough force she crumpled with a pained huff.
“Alright, kiddo.” Sanemi sat down on her back, using his body weight to keep her in place despite her angry squirming. “I just gotta few questions, alright? I don’t hurt kids, and Tamayo would be pissed if I hurt them anyway. So answer me, and we can all get on with our own bullshit, m’kay?”
Inosuke snarled and twisted to claw at Sanemi’s thigh.
He rolled his eyes, and thumped the back of her head. “This isn’t a fight you’re gonna fucking win. Can’t you tell what I am? Or are you just fucking stupid?”
“‘Course I know what you are!” Inosuke shouted, and fuck, did she always yell? “Demon! You’re a demon!”
“Sure am.” Sanemi grabbed a handful of her matted hair. “I’m a Kizuki.”
“The fuck’s that bullshit mean!?”
Great. She didn't even know that much. “It means I’m a powerful demon. The third most powerful demon.” He bared his fangs, and let his smothering, demonic presence wash over the girl. He smothered it more often than not, even out in the wilderness like this, but if she was going to be difficult, he’d show her, exactly, who the fuck she was dealing with.
Inosuke went still, her body going limp as she twisted her neck to stare at Sanemi with wide eyes.
He leaned down, and snapped his jaws.
Inosuke’s nose scrunched up in indignation, but she couldn’t completely disguise the fear in her eyes.
“Right.” Sanemi sat up straight, and stretched his arms above his head. “Just so we’re aware of what’s going on. Now, spill it, kiddo. The fuck is going on? Where’d you get that sword?”
“Some bastard in weird black clothes,” she said, voice sullen. “Killed him and took his sword.”
“You… killed a demon slayer?” Sanemi said, unable to keep the shock out of his voice.
“I’ve killed a lot of ‘em!” Inosuke declared, her previous bravado returning. “They’re in my territory, and Mama said not to trust anyone in uniforms like that!”
“You’re the thing killing all these demon slayers?”
“Yeah! ‘Cause I’m just that damn good!” she said with a grin.
Sanemi’s frown deepened. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe the kid. (After all, he’d been killing slayers himself at a similar age. It’d been hard, but he managed it). But…
“Where is your mom?” he asked, though considering the sorry state of her ‘clothes’ and the fact that she was alone on a mountain, he thought he already knew the answer.
“Dead,” she said, like it was no big deal. “But she still told me.”
Right. So she was crazy. That was fine. Sanemi had already come to that conclusion anyway. But that didn’t mean that he could leave her out on this mountain killing slayers in good conscience. Eventually, the Corps would send those of higher rank, or more than she could handle at a time, and she’d get herself killed.
And fuck, as heartless as he was, Sanemi couldn’t handle any more dead kids on his conscience. Definitely not dead kids because of slayers.
“They’re gonna send more of them and then you’re gonna get your stupid-ass killed,” Sanemi said. “Stop killing them. Hell, leave this mountain.”
“Nuh uh!” Inosuke vehemently shook her head. “I’ve lived on this mountain my whole life! It’s my territory! They can leave!”
“Kid—”
“Fuck you! I’m not leaving!”
“Kid—”
“Mama brought me here! She said this would be a good place for me! I’m not leaving!” she shrieked. “I’m not! I’ll kill all the stupid—Whatever they were! Demon slayers! I’ll kill them all!”
Sanemi groaned and pressed his hands to his face. Was this what he had sounded like as a teenager just after his family had died? Shit, probably.
“I’m not leaving my mountain!” she continued. “She said to stay here! She said it was safe from them! She said to never let them get me!”
Sanemi grimaced. Had her mother been killed by slayers? That seemed the most likely scenario. “They kill her? Your mom?”
“I don’t—I dunno…” Inosuke admitted as her head thumped against the ground. “It was forever ago. But sometimes I hear her voice! And she tells me things!”
Not just crazy. Fucking insane.
But she certainly believed her dead mom was telling her shit about demon slayers and dropped her off on this mountain.
None of that changed that she needed to get the fuck out of here or she was going to get herself killed.
“Alright.” Sanemi reached his hand down, preparing to grab her and just have Yushiro send them somewhere far away from this mountain and she could figure her own shit out after that (after all, if she’d really been living out here her whole life, survival clearly wasn’t a problem) when she sank her teeth into his hand.
“Hey, hey, hey!” He ripped his hand out of her teeth, leaving blood smeared on her lips. “Shit! Fuck! Do not swallow that! Spit it out! Spit it out!”
Inosuke made a grand show of swallowing the blood in her mouth, throwing her head back and gulping it down. Then she cackled, “Fuck you! Don’t tell me what to do!”
Sanemi’s mouth dropped open.
Tamayo was going to kill him.
He considered punching Inosuke hard enough in the stomach that she vomited, but did that matter? Demon blood took effect immediately, didn’t it? Fuck, he really should have paid more attention to Shinobu’s annoying-ass rambling!
He scrambled off of Inosuke, and pulled her to her feet—
She convulsed, crying out as she practically collapsed into Sanemi’s chest.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
“Hey, hey! Kiddo!” Sanemi jostled her as she clung onto him, nails sinking into his skin as she fought for something to hold onto.
He knew this was painful. His own transformation hadn’t been that long ago, and he’d been
braced
for it, and guided through it by Tamayo. What the fuck was he supposed to
do!?
This was a kid who accidentally drank his blood! Not anyone prepared for this!
“Don’t touch me!” she growled, as if she wasn't the one clinging onto Sanemi. “It hurts!”
“Fuck, Yushiro!” Sanemi shouted. “Get me home! Now!”
Tamayo stared down at the writhing, convulsing child, crying out in pain as her body twisted and remolded itself. As she went through something no child should ever go through.
“Sanemi…” she began, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice.
“I didn’t mean to!” Sanemi began as he held his hands out. It was strange. Tamayo did not think she’d ever seen Sanemi sorry for anything before, seen him worried and upset and fearing being reprimanded. “She fucking bit me! And I—I—”
“You should have been more careful,” Tamayo said gently. “But, there’s nothing that can be done about this now. You turned her, so she is your responsibility.”
“What!?” Sanemi demanded, the usual anger creeping back to his expression. “But I—I don’t know dick about this! Give her to Kyojuro! He likes this kinda shit!”
Tamayo narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t a request, Sanemi. You made a mistake, therefore, you deal with it. You’re not pawning her off onto Kyojuro.”
“But I’ve already got enough shit to deal with with the wedding coming up!” he argued. “You can’t—You can’t saddle me with a fuckin’ kid!”
“I can, and I will,” Tamayo said, letting a growl creep into her words. She didn’t like using her power over her Kizuki, not in this way, but sometimes it became necessary. “You made a mistake. Now you will deal with it. Don’t let her go through this alone. Help her, and then make sure you feed her properly.”
Sanemi turned to stare at Inosuke’s twitching body with wide eyes, and twinges of his fear and uncertainty filtered through their blood link.
“She’s about the same age as your little brother would be, isn’t she?” Tamayo asked as she laid a calming hand on Sanemi’s shoulder.
Wordlessly, he nodded.
“Help her,” Tamayo insisted as she gave him a light nudge. “You know how to do this. You were a big brother for years. You’ll be okay.”
Sanemi took a deep breath, stepped forward, kneeled down, and took Inosuke’s hand.
Though she could admit she wasn’t thrilled about this, especially when they had a new demon settling in already with Nezuko’s arrival, she couldn’t help but smile as Sanemi muttered awkward and stilted encouragement.
Maybe this would be good for him.
At the least, it would distract from his stress about the wedding.
“Oh, he’s so cute!” Mitsuri squealed as she tossed Inosuke another hunk of flesh, that he tore into with just as much fervor as the other meat he’d been fed. “Once we get him cleaned up, he’ll be absolutely adorable! Oh! Oh my gods! Maybe he’ll grow his hair out and we can have matching braids!”
“I thought… he was a girl,” Sanemi said. “She—He—They? I don’t fuckin’ know, whatever, had… you know, lady tits when we met.”
“Well he doesn’t right now,” Mitsuri said as she passed over another strip of muscle, which Inosuke hungrily tore from her fingers, his newfound fangs shearing through it with ease. “And Inosuke does seem a bit more like a boy’s name.”
“Kinda still has a girl’s face though,” Sanemi said. “That didn’t change.”
Mitsuri shrugged. “Sometimes demons just switch that stuff around when they transform. Kanao decided to be a girl when she transformed. And I think Sabito decided to switch some things around. And Tengen switches back and forth all the time! He’s probably like them. We can ask, when he’s less hungry.”
“I think… he grew up in the woods,” Sanemi said.
“Oh, well then, I’m going to spoil him,” Mitsuri said as she patted Inosuke’s head, eliciting a pleased purr out of him.
He really was lovely! She understood why Sanemi was so twitchy about him, given how unprepared he was to take in a new demon when he was still adjusting to this life himself, but she got the feeling Inosuke would be good for him! He’d do well to have a little brother he could take care of and dote on again.
“I’m going to get him the best clothes,” Mitsuri said as she fed him a kidney, nearly having the tips of her fingers bitten off as she did so. “Maybe some stuff made from furs, like he’s used to! And I’m going to comb the tangles out of his beautiful hair. We can take him hunting with us. Oh! It’ll be just like having a kid!”
The blood drained from Sanemi’s face.
“Oh, dear, not like that!” Mitsuri said with a wild wave of her hand. “You know what I meant!”
Sometimes she wished any of her three partners were interested in children, but she understood why they weren’t. Sure, there were the butterfly triplets, but those were Shinobu’s little sisters, and were largely self-sufficient despite their age. Then again… perhaps it was for the best that none of them wanted kids, considering demons couldn’t exactly have kids and Mitsuri wasn’t quite sure how she would deal with the disappointment of such a thing.
Watching the Uzuis go through it had been difficult enough… she couldn’t imagine living through that herself…
But! That did mean she would take every opportunity she could to spoil any children she came across! And sure, while Inosuke was well into his teens, he was Sanemi’s responsibility, and that made him her responsibility as well! Their wedding might still be months away, and they didn’t plan to initiate their mating bond until then as well, but it was all semantics. Sanemi was her husband already in every sense of the word, they just needed the ceremony to make things official.
So! Inosuke was hers as well! And she would treat him as such!
“I cannot believe I fucked up this badly…” Sanemi moaned as he held his face in his hands. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with him? He’s a fucking batshit feral kid! Am I supposed to take him with me to go mass murdering?”
Mitsuri tilted her head. “Why can’t you?”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to do that kinda shit with kids. I mean, I know my bonding time with Mom was a lot of serial killing, but look how I turned out. Not fucking great,” he said, before waving vaguely in Inosuke’s direction. “I’m gonna fuck him up!”
Mitsuri held her index finger to her chin. “You know… He was already killing slayers, and like you said, grew up on a mountain. I don’t think there’s really anything for you to ruin. This is probably a good place for you to start! Isn’t it, Inosuke?” She leaned down to trail her fingers through the fur crawling down his spine. “You would probably enjoy hunts!”
Inosuke’s head jerked up, the hazy hunger in his eyes finally beginning to fade.
Mitsuri nudged a severed leg towards him, and stood up to press against Sanemi and lace their fingers together. “Dear… I know you’re stressed, but it will be okay. If he really was living all alone on a mountain, honestly, you probably helped him out in the long run. He can have a family here. With us. And he can meet Sen, and Mui, and Shinobu’s sisters, and that new Nezuko girl! So he can have friends his age, too! And I’ll always be here to help out with him. Obanai and Shinobu will, too. And if we really are just having a hard time helping him adjust, we can ask Kyojuro and Tamayo for help. You’re not alone in this.” She stood on her tiptoes to press a sweet kiss to his cheek.
Slowly, the tension began to bleed out of Sanemi’s body.
And well, if Mitsuri used her Blood Demon Art on him to help him calm down, who was going to point that out?
“You know, I thought you were gonna fight me a lot more on this shit,” Sanemi said as he marched down the halls of the Infinity Palace, with Inosuke hot on his heels. “You don’t wanna go back to your mountain?”
Inosuke cackled and shoved his shoulder into Sanemi’s, like they’d known each other for years, like Sanemi hadn’t just accidentally turned him into a demon.
Like Genya used to do when they walked together.
“Mama says you’re good, so I’m gonna listen to her,” Inosuke said. “She’s never said someone’s good before.”
Sanemi squeezed his eyes shut. He still didn’t know what the fuck to do about the voices Inosuke supposedly heard. Would it be better to point out they weren’t real? Should he go along with it? How the fuck should he know?
But considering the voice of Inosuke’s dead mother supposedly liked Sanemi was making this easier for everyone, he should just go along with it, at least for now.
Maybe he could ask Tamayo about it later.
“And I like that Mimiko lady!”
“Mitsuri,” Sanemi grumbled. “Her fucking name is Mitsuri.”
“Tinsumi!”
“How the fuck did you get further away fro—You know what, never fucking mind.” One battle at a time. Inosuke’s complete inability to remember anyone’s name wasn’t a priority, and as far as how fucked up demons could get mentally, Sanemi supposed he should take this weird version of memory loss with little complaints.
“Don’t worry, Sanemi!” Inosuke said as he slapped him on the back with enough force Sanemi’s spine cracked, and it seemed teaching him to reign in the demonic strength was first on the docket. “I’ll take care of ya!”
“Take care of me?” he demanded. “This is the other way around!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Inosuke said as he crossed his arms and turned his nose up. “I always take care of my underlings!”
“You are literally under me in the goddamn hierarchy!”
“No I’m not!”
“Yes you are!” Sanemi hooked his arm around Inosuke’s shoulders and yanked him close, ruffling his hair as he did so, thinking very little about the old actions that came so easily to him. “You stubborn little brat!”
“I’m not a brat!” Inosuke grabbed a fistful of Sanemi’s hair and yanked.
Sanemi snorted with laughter and shoved him away. “Whatever you say, kid. I’ll kick your ass.”
“You can try!”
“I already did!”
“We didn’t finish! I woulda won!”
“What-fucking-ever!”