Chapter Text
Muzan looked down his nose at the freshly turned demon. “You have been given a generous portion of my blood. You will be even more powerful as a demon than you’d ever dreamed of as a human. I will call you Akaza.”
Pale skin suited him, covered in the same tattoos that marked him as a criminal when human, and then some. The new demon stared up at Muzan, bewildered, while Kokushibo watched with at least two of his eyes from nearby. Muzan continued, “You will become strong, serving me within the ranks of the Kizuki.” Muzan reached down to assist the blood-covered demon to his feet. “You will be my serv—” Muzan paused. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
As soon as Muzan’s hand moved closer again, the new demon, wide-eyed and growling, bit down on his hand like a wild animal.
Veins of anger erupted across the demon lord’s face. Kokushibo was surprised when Muzan didn’t kick the creature halfway to the sea. “Well. This is disappointing,” Muzan stated, before blowing the new demon’s head apart into dust from around his hand. He straightened as Akaza’s body thumped to the ground. “I suppose we can’t win them all. Oh well.” He wiped the blood from his hand onto Kokushibo’s kimono. “This one’s too feral. Get rid of him.” Muzan walked away.
Kokushibo sighed and picked the headless demon up by his belt. He considered absorbing him, but the new demon was very covered in very old blood and honestly smelled terrible. Kokushibo resolved to find somewhere to tie him up so the sun could kill him off.
By the time he found some rope, he’d had to remove the thing’s head (what had Muzan named the guy?) two more times just to stop his growling. He regenerated quickly, for a newborn demon. Kokushibo found a suitable tree, one that would get ample morning sun, and started securing one end of the rope around it. Sooner than he was ready, he heard growling again. Kokushibo held the demon with one hand and struggled to finish tying the rope with the other. This would go faster if he had six hands to actually do shit with instead of six eyes with which to observe his struggle.
A flurry of growling and anger erupted from the creature as it became fully healed, and several hard bites chomped up and down Kokushibo’s arm. Teeth sank into Upper One’s thigh, and he swung the rest of himself to face the brat, his full monstrous form erupting in a blink. The baby demon’s eyes widened. He hissed at Kokushibo’s new and larger form, sinking his teeth this time into the hand holding his haori. Kokushibo snatched him up from the ground to deliver a bite of his own. He could bite this demon in half! He— Before he could do anything, the lower half of the new demon’s haori tore, and the striped creature fell from his grasp.
The moment he hit the ground, the thing darted like lightning into the trees.
Kokushibo watched the half-naked baby demon disappear into the woods. He definitely could have caught him. Hell, he probably could’ve just thrown his sword and cut the thing in half. But. Daylight was coming soon and technically, Lord Muzan hadn’t specified any preferred way to ‘get rid of’ him.
He was gone. This was good enough.
*****
… Somewhere between 100-200 years later…
There was a sound behind him, just the smallest noise. Kyojuro whirled around, hand grasping his sword by rote. He found nothing but an empty moonlit path.
This had been happening often recently, for the past couple weeks at least … faint sounds in the woods, or a shadow moving out of place. It had him on highest alert, sure that a demon must be stalking him. The idea made little sense. Demons didn’t stalk people, certainly not for long periods of time. The dumb ones charged headlong at humans. The smart ones laid low and only pounced at the best of opportunities. Kyojuro suspiciously studied the darkness a moment longer, before facing forward again and continuing on his way.
The following night, after a successful mission in which he’d slain two weak demons, Kyojuro found himself again on a quiet pathway. Leaves above him in the tree shuffled out of place from the breeze.
And again, two nights later.
Every time, Kyojuro grasped his sword, ready for a fight. And every time, his eyes scoured the darkness and found nothing. “Perhaps my imagination is getting the better of me,” he admitted one night, after rushing toward a shadow in the woods. None of the scenarios in his mind made sense. He shouldn’t ignore the sounds and strangeness that followed him in the dark, that would be a dangerous habit to fall into and yet, he was starting to question his own perceptions. So many signs and yet … now that he was thinking about it, he realized it had been unusually long since he’d actually encountered a tangible demon along his path.
He was glad when a rustling one night turned out to be an actual creature, happier still when it was only Kaname. “Ca-caw!” The crow belted out loudly, landing on a branch several feet away. “Message, message!” The crow flapped his wings with his usual enthusiasm. “Your next mission is to—!”
A figure leapt from the shadows above them. It cleared the branch within its single bound, clamped its jaws around the bird mid-leap, and landed in a graceful roll across the dirt path.
It was a demon, Kyojuro realized, before the creature even hit the ground. Blade singing as he yanked it from its sheath, Kyojuro prepared to launch a defense against the surprise attack.
Only, the demon didn’t leap for him. It kept the crow in its mouth, remaining low, crouched on all fours, staring at him with eyes that shone like full moons burning in the night.
The demon was shaped like a normal, human man, although, with the way he was positioned, it looked more feline than human. Dark stripes decorated the pale skin, beneath a short mane of dusty pink hair. Kaname shrieked a muffled sound of alarm. He was still alive, somehow, within the creature’s jaws. Large puffs of feathers protruded from the demon’s mouth as he stared up at Kyojuro. “Hey!” Kyojuro yelled, steadying his footing and readying himself. “Unhand my messenger!”
Glowing yellow eyes glanced down to the sword and then back to Kyojuro’s face. Another muffled squawk accompanied a flapping of one of Kaname’s wings against the side of the demon's face, and the creature winced one eye shut against the repeated, rhythmic assault. The demon flexed his jaw, bringing out more and angrier bird noises.
The demon made no move to further its attack. If Kyojuro leapt forward, he feared that the demon would crush Kaname before he could behead it. Instead, he pointed the sword at the demon and yelled, “Drop him!”
There was a pause. Hard eye contact. Another jaw flex. More flapping.
How bizarre that this demon had aimed for Kaname, and not Kyojuro. “Drop! Him!” Kyojuro repeated with a booming authority.
To his amazement, without breaking eye contact, the demon spit the crow out onto the path. Kaname rolled and flopped a short ways, covered in spit, several feathers bent out of place. The moment Kyojuro moved to retrieve the bird from out of harm’s way, the demon leapt away, and vanished into the forest.
Shockingly, the bird was fine. Angry — flinging insults after the demon until long after it was gone — but fine.
Kaname eventually stopped swearing, and was able to deliver Kyojuro’s next mission. It happened to be close by the Rengoku estate, within a half-day’s walk, and after Kyojuro completed the mission, he returned home the following day.
His first night home, a rustle in the grass caught his attention. He rushed forward, expecting to find a demon, but there was nothing.
On his third night home, he wasn’t fully asleep yet, and there was a soft thud on the engawa directly outside of his room. It was a sound unlike anything the breeze would cause. Kyojuro sat up from his futon, brows gathered in suspicion. No more noises came, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something that should be investigated. Silently, he retrieved his sword, and tip-toed out onto the wooden porch.
A foot stood.. (sat? laid?) on the engawa. A human foot. ONLY a foot. There was no person attached, only a small amount of lower leg, below where it had been crudely chewed away from its previous owner. It had been recently severed, and a small pool of fresh blood surrounded it. Kyojuro studied it in silence, and then scanned the surrounding yard. There were no other body parts, and no suspect. No logical explanation of how a foot had come to rest on his engawa presented itself. Maybe some wild animal had dropped it? Stray dogs? Something like that. That had to be the explanation. Kyojuro chucked the foot over the wall surrounding their property, used an old rag to wipe the blood from the engawa, and went back to bed. He kept his sword at his bedside, just in case.
Three more days passed by, and Kyojuro still had no explanation for the discarded foot. He was beginning to think it must’ve been dropped by a bird of prey.
On the third night, another soft thud came from his engawa, late into the night. Kyojuro flew out of bed, kitana in hand, and yanked the shoji door aside, just in time to see a man-shaped figure dart beneath the opposite end of the house. Ignoring the fact that he was dressed only in a thin yukata, Kyojuro immediately gave chase. He dove under the engawa, and even in the dark of night, quickly found a large hole in the dirt, right at the edge of the porch. There definitely had been no hole there before. It looked like a den some large animal had dug.
No other route seemed to make sense, so Kyojuro dove head-first into the den.
Growling and clacking filled the space as soon as he entered, and Kyojuro came face to face with a pair of distantly familiar bright yellow eyes. “You!” Kyojuro shouted, “you’re the one who tried to eat my bird!”
The demon coiled against the back of the den, and continued to grow an entirely animalistic noise, baring its fangs.
The small space didn’t allow Kyojuro to swing his sword, but he should still be able to slice the demon's neck. He shoved the sword forward. The demon made a hissing sound that turned into another loud growl, and shoved the blade aside with its hands. Kyojuro wriggled further forward, forcing the creature into a tighter position and as the sword jabbed for his neck, the demon grabbed onto the blade with his teeth. The creature locked eyes with Kyojuro, furious and wild. Kyojuro rammed the sword hard, cutting into the demon’s jaws. Blood spilled from around the blade. “Ha!” Kyojuro said triumphantly, “I’ll just cut your teeth out first if I have to!”
The look the demon gave him was unlike any look any demon had ever given Kyojuro before. He looked… hurt? But not in the a sword just cut through his jaw muscles sort of hurt. He looked sad. Heartbroken, even.
Kyojuro hesitated. He had this creature right where he wanted him. He’d killed hundreds of demons before, without any second thoughts. But… this one… the expression on his face. Kyojuro asked angrily, “Why are you looking at me like that?” He shoved the sword harder. The demon made a wounded, frightened sound.
“That’s…” Kyojuro’s grip on his sword faltered. “Stop that.” The creature looked like he was going to cry. “I…”
For the first time in his career, Kyojuro willingly removed his sword from a demon's flesh. “What the hell is happening here,” he asked, mostly to himself, as the creature quickly healed.
Kyojuro backed a ways out of the hole, out into the night air where he could more easily breathe and think. He lay there a moment, blocking the hole so the demon couldn’t escape. When he looked inside of it again, yellow eyes blinked back at him. No growling this time. The demon appeared tense and apprehensive, but made no attempt to attack him.
It was late. Kyojuro was tired.
There was something abnormal here, and Kyojuro needed time to consider it. He frowned at the demon. “Was it you who left the foot outside my door?”
Expression unchanged, the demon blinked at Kyojuro, glanced beyond him, and then made eye contact again. Kyojuro narrowed his eyes before looking over his own shoulder, following the demon’s glance.
A fresh chunk of something that resembled an upper arm sat on the engawa, silhouetted by the moonlight.
Kyojuro looked back at the demon in the hole. “Whose arm is that?”
The demon’s expression kind of blanked. He just stared at Kyojuro for a moment, and then offered a small shrug.
“Yeah, that…” Kyojuro shook his head. “You cannot just leave body parts on people’s porches.” One side of the demon’s mouth twitched into a brief, stiff frown. Kyojuro demanded next, “Have you been following me?” The demon’s shoulders dropped a bit, and he looked down at the dirt surrounding him. Kyojuro was so torn as to what to do. This demon didn’t seem like a threat. Also, Kyojuro really wanted to go back to sleep. “Look. I don't know if you’re just lost, or confused, or what. But you can’t be here. I need you to… go home, or whatever.”
Eyes still focused on the dirt, the demon’s shoulders sank even further. Kyojuro shook his head again, and backed the rest of the way out from under the engawa. He shook the dirt from his hair and clothes, chucked the arm over the fence, and went back to bed.
The next morning, when Kyojuro crawled underneath the house to assess the demon situation, he was glad to find the den empty. Well, good, he thought to himself. Hopefully that’s dealt with.
As he returned to his side of the courtyard, however, he halted. Out from beneath the engawa where his own room was located, fresh dirt sprinkled the rocks. Sighing, Kyojuro ducked to peer under this part of the crawlspace. There was a fresh, new hole in the ground, and when Kyojuro crawled further, sure enough, a pair of glowing eyes greeted him from from within it. They appeared happy to see him. “I didn’t mean you had to leave that den,” Kyojuro clarified, “I meant you needed to leave the property entirely.”
The demon made a small sound that seemed to be equal parts sadness and fear, and he looked beyond Kyojuro nervously. The sun was well into the sky. “Not… not right now,” Kyojuro granted, to which the demon looked relieved. “Tonight, though. You cannot live under our house.”
The creature frowned, looking sad again. He was admittedly kind of cute, for a demon. And he hadn’t tried to hurt any of them. Kyojuro groaned at his own internal conflict.
Kyojuro shimmied out from under the porch. He had a busy day, and couldn’t afford to waste time on a demon that seemed to be harmless anyway.
When he checked again that evening, the demon was gone. Kyojuro grabbed a shovel, and filled both dens in as best as he could. Hopefully that would be the end of it.
Two nights passed peacefully, and Kyojuro hoped these odd demon encounters were behind him.
He was wrong.
Late the following night, he was awoken by the discomforting sensation of being watched. This instinct had never steered him wrong, and he stayed still, silently peeking his eyes open to assess the room around him. Right beside him, literally at the edge of his futon, the now-familiar demon lay awake, staring right into his eyes expectantly. Kyojuro jumped at the close proximity, and the demon skittered a short ways back, meeting and halting at the closest wall. He stared at Kyojuro, wide-eyed. “WHAT—!” Kyojuro gathered himself and lowered his voice, so he wouldn’t wake the whole house. He whisper-growled at the creature, “Why are you in my bedroom?!”
Hurriedly, the demon grabbed something beside him, and presented it to Kyojuro with pride. It was precisely what a demon would offer as a gift: A large, bloody chunk of something that looked like most of a human thigh.
Kyojuro ran a calloused palm roughly up and down his own face. He’d spent the day training hard with Uzui. He was sore and exhausted. “Ok, look. No more body parts, ok? I’m not gonna eat that.”
The demon lowered his offering slowly. He held it in his lap like something he’d worked really hard to acquire was being rejected.
“Humans don’t eat humans,” Kyojuro explained. “I’m sure it’s perfectly… fresh, and… well selected..?” (What the actual hell was he even saying??) “But I can’t eat that, I’m pretty sure, even if I wanted to, so it’s wasted on me. Sorry.”
Seemingly unsure of what he should do with this news, the demon remained seated against the wall, gripping the chunk of someone’s leg. His bare, blue toes flexed. He did the stiff mouth twitch again, stared down at the leg for a moment, and then brought the raw meat to his own teeth and bit off a large mouthful. “Nope,” Kyojuro said, suppressing an audible gag. “You may not sit in my room and eat someone.” It took him another whole couple of seconds to add, “Why are you even in my room to begin with?!” He pointed out the door. “Out. Go. Go home!”
Offended, more petulant than hurt this time, the demon bit off another large chunk of meat as he rose to his feet and sulked out of the room. He paused in the doorway, regarded the door, and then pointedly did not close it behind himself. He was nowhere to be seen when Kyojuro reached the door and closed it himself. This time, he locked it.
About an hour later, quiet scratching at the door woke Kyojuro. He took a deep inhale, and released a heavy sigh. “Go away,” he groaned.
Five minutes later, there was more scratching.
Kyojuro was so tired, he didn’t even fight it. He got up, opened the door, and wasn’t at all surprised to see the hopeful smile that greeted him in the dark. It was an awkward grin, one that exposed his fangs but not in any manner that was frightening.
Admittedly, it was endearingly cute.
“Fine,” Kyojuro relented. “I have to sleep though, ok? You have to stay quiet.” He added, “And you cannot, under any circumstances, hurt anyone in this house. Understood? They can’t be allowed to even see you.” The demon walked past him, and settled in the corner of the room. He smiled up at Kyojuro, like he was perfectly content to stay right there. “And you have to be gone by morning, ok?” The demon gave a stiff nod of understanding.
Kyojuro went back to bed. It took a little less than another hour before he felt something settling directly against him, curled up at his side, on the futon. The demon froze when Kyojuro shifted, but settled in further when Kyojuro made no attempt to kick him out of the bed. Kyojuro huffed a heavy sigh, and fell asleep.