Chapter Text
Blood dripped down her numb, clumsy fingers as she weakly grabbed at Urokodaki’s sleeve. She couldn’t feel the fabric beneath her fingertips, nor the warmth of Urokodaki’s body as he cradled her. She couldn’t even feel the hole stabbed through her chest anymore, though she was aware of the blood still steadily oozing from the gaping wound.
Still, she smiled up at Urokodaki, unable to help it. “Your ears…” she muttered as she reached up a trembling hand. “You never show your ears.” She could count the times she’d seen Urokodaki’s ears and tails on one hand. He always insisted upon looking human, as well as hiding his face beneath his kitsune mask.
Not now. His mask had cracked and broken, and the ironclad control he normally had over his shapeshifting must have begun to slip.
She knew she was dying, but Makomo couldn’t help but smile over the little delight.
It was unfortunate that his ears were pinned back in panic and anger. She’d have liked to see them when he was more relaxed.
“Thank you, for taking care of me,” Makomo rasped. She tried to tighten her grip on his sleeve, but her fingers slipped. She no longer had the strength to hold onto anything.
She’d have died long, long ago if Urokodaki had not taken her in all those years ago. She couldn’t even be upset over dying at sixteen when the alternative had been dying as a child, barely old enough to process the world around her. What would she have done, without the kind demon who had taken pity on her? Who took her in? Fed her? Kept her safe? She’d have starved or frozen or died of sickness.
A sword to the chest was a small price to pay for ten years of care.
Urokodaki shouted something as her eyes slipped closed, but she didn’t know what it was. She didn’t have good ears like him. All she could hear was dull ringing, and even that was beginning to fade.
Something hot poured onto her chest.
Makomo shrieked with joy as she and Senjuro chased each other down the twisting, winding halls of the Infinity Palace. Her deep brown tails wagged, her ears perked up and twitching towards the other demon. Senjuro turned to glance over his shoulder at her, tripping over his feet as he did, causing him to stumble a few paces, and sharpened fangs glinted in the dim lighting as Makomo laughed.
It was difficult to believe that mere hours ago, she had been blood stained and ravenous, desperate to sink those teeth into any human she could get a hold of. Now she played as if she didn't have a care in the world.
“I’m sorry,” Tamayo said, her voice infuriatingly soft. “This never should have happened this way.”
“It never should have happened at all,” Sakonji snapped. “She should have lived her whole life as a human.”
Tamayo shook her head. “That was never going to happen so long as she was close with you. The Corps was always going to find out. They always do.”
Sakonji glanced at the Demon King out of the corner of his eye. “Do what you really found me to do,” he said. “Blame me. Tell me this wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t so stubborn and just brought her here to begin with.”
“I don’t need to do that when you’re already telling yourself that,” Tamayo said with a sigh. “You know what my thoughts on the matter were. There’s no need to rub salt in an open wound. But look at her.” She smiled and nodded towards where the two demons played on the floor below them. “Look at how happy she is.”
Sakonji grit his teeth. “You can’t frame it that way. You know better than anyone the rush of euphoria that comes with a transformation. Especially with someone so young. She’s not actually processed what happened, what she became. That she died.”
There was no doubt in his mind that her heart was not going to beat again when he had broken and dripped his blood into her wounds. It had stuttered to a stop, and had he let nature take its course, it never would have beat again.
“And she’s alive. She’s alive, and playing with another child. She’ll have so many demons to care for her now. Not just you. This is a good thing, Sakonji. The circumstances were awful, but the result is nothing to mourn. She’s a bit young, but… it could be worse. She could be Senjuro’s age,” Tamayo said.
“Don’t do this,” he murmured. “Don’t tell me it’s a good thing.”
“It is.”
Sakonji grit his teeth in a desperate attempt to keep from arguing. It was a useless fight. Tamayo would never understand. Or if she did, she’d delude herself into thinking otherwise.
Makomo never should have been a demon. It was why he never brought her to the Infinity Palace, why he never introduced her to any of the other Kizuki. He would provide for her, and take care of her, until she was old enough to support herself, and then she would have a good, human life, far away from the death and carnage of demons.
But now she had a stomach full of human flesh, tails growing from her spine, and the tips of Tamayo’s claws beginning to sink into her.
This was never what he wanted.
Sabito yawned and rubbed at his eyes, before attempting to pull his threadbare clothes a little tighter, as if that would stave off the freezing air. His fingers and toes had gotten so cold they ached, and no matter how tightly he huddled himself up in this ally, he wasn’t getting any warmer.
He really, really hoped he didn’t freeze to death. What an awful way to die. He should have figured something out for winter, should have found somewhere he could go.
Instead, all he had were too-thin clothes and…
Well, that was it. That was all he had.
Yeah.
He was going to freeze to death.
He was less upset by that than he thought he should be.
Maybe his brain was already frozen or something.
He let his head slump forward to rest on his knees that he’d pulled to his chest and closed his eyes. If he was going to freeze to death just a few months later, why couldn’t he just die with his family? Seemed like the easier option, in the grand scheme of things.
“Do you smell that?”
Sabito cracked an eye open.
“It smells like a human!” Frantic footsteps pattered down the alleyway.
Smells like a human…? What the hell did that mean?
A clawed hand gripped the edge of the discarded, wooden crates that Sabito had huddled up behind.
A tingle dripped down his spine, something akin to fear. The claws scraped against the wood, and the presence that washed over Sabito, it was nothing like he had ever experienced before.
He was practically already frozen stiff, so it was rather easy to keep from moving.
That didn’t stop the owner of the clawed hand from coming closer, however.
“Makomo! Be careful!” another voice scolded, this one a bit rougher, older. “If it’s a human, leave them alone. Don’t eat them.”
Sabito’s eyes blew wide, and he sucked in a shuddering, panicked breath as he held his knees even tighter to his chest.
“I won’t!” the first voice, Makomo, promised.
And her head popped around the edge of the crates.
Sabito yelped and squeezed his eyes shut, preparing himself to get ripped to shreds by the massive fangs he’d caught a glimpse of.
“Makomo.”
“He’s so little!” she exclaimed. “Urokodaki-san! Urokodaki-san, come look!”
Sabito pressed himself further against the wall and crates, as if that would do anything to keep him from being dragged out.
“Makomo, you’re scaring them,” Urokodaki said. “Sniff the air. Smell it?”
Makomo took a long, exaggerated sniff of the air, before whining, like a dog. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Urokodaki-san! They do smell really scared.”
“Don’t apologize to me.”
“Oh! Right, right!” The clawed hand landed on Sabito’s head, and he gasped, but the touch was so, so gentle, even when the claws snagged on his tangled hair. “I’m sorry I scared you. I know I look a bit weird, but I’m not going to hurt you. Or eat you. How come you’re out here all alone?”
Finally, Sabito forced his eyes open once more to actually get a good look at the monster’s face.
She actually… looked less like a monster than he first thought. There were her big, scary teeth, of course. And the ears of a wolf—or maybe a fox? It didn’t matter, some kind of animal, sprouted from the sides of her head. They tilted in Sabito’s direction, giving him her full attention. But other than that, her face looked… normal. She was older than him, but probably still a kid, too. Despite her friendly smile, her face held a deep melancholy in its features, making her appear almost sad, even though she clearly wasn’t. Her blue-green eyes shined in the moonlight, crinkling with her smile. Behind her, a bundle of tails wagged in time with each other. There were four? Or perhaps five… It did not matter. What mattered was that Sabito finally realized what he was looking at.
“A kitsune…” he breathed, voice filled with utter awe.
Makomo pressed a hand to her mouth and giggled. “Not quite, but I understand the confusion!”
Embolden, the fear beginning to ebb away, Sabito leaned forward. He didn’t even feel so cold anymore! “Then what are you?”
Makomo glanced over her shoulder, her brows pinching as she tilted her head, like she was asking for permission.
The second voice sighed, clearly a bit exasperated. “You already showed yourself to them. You can tell them the truth.”
Makomo nodded vigorously and turned back to him. “We’re demons!”
And just like that, the fear returned. The ice in his bones thickened, and his stomach clenched with anxiety as his heart raced. “O-Oh.” Should he try and push her away so he could run? Would there be a point? He wouldn’t make it very far, even if he wasn’t freezing and trying to run on numbed toes and feet.
But… trying to run was better than just resigning himself to being torn to shreds.
Quick as he could manage, he threw his whole body weight towards the demon, intending to push her over and get past her to run, but her body did not budge whatsoever—it was like slamming his body against a solid wall. “Oof!” She tilted her head further, giving him an utterly bewildered look. “What was that for?”
Urokodaki sighed, and leaned over her shoulder so Sabito could finally see what he looked like. Or at least, he thought he would. But his face was covered entirely by a fox mask. At the most, he could discern the dark color of his hair, as well as the fact that he did not have fox ears or tails like the girl. “Makomo, they're terrified.”
“But I promised I wasn’t going to eat them!” she protested.
“The fact that you had to promise that is often enough to scare people,” he said, as if this were something he had explained countless times before. “Apologies, dear—”
“Don’t call me that,” Sabito hissed.
“Apologies for that as well, then.” Urokodaki sighed once more. “Makomo is having a bit of trouble remembering what being human is like. She’s trying to relearn. She didn’t mean to scare you, and neither of us intend to harm you.”
Sabito narrowed his eyes, doing his damnedest not to let the fear show on his face (as if it mattered, they’d said time and time again that they knew how afraid he was), but he couldn’t deny that the man’s voice was soothing, sincere.
It was easy to believe he meant Sabito no harm.
“You’re not exactly dressed for the weather,” he continued.
“S’all I got,” Sabito mumbled. “What do you care?” No one else did.
Makomo stared up at Urokodaki, something pleading in her wide eyes, and the older demon bowed his head.
“His parents died of illness? How tragic!” Kanae exclaimed. “And no other family would take him in? No one else?”
“If there was anyone else, he was rather tight-lipped about it,” Sakonji said as he delicately picked up a portion of kidney with his chopsticks. Tamayo wished he could impart his table manners on some of the rest of the family, but she supposed she should just be grateful that the severed limbs had been placed on the table and no one was ripping meat directly from a corpse. Using chopsticks might be something they could work on. “But he’s a difficult little thing. Rather stubborn. Not that that excuses any potential relatives for abandoning him, but…”
“Can I meet him?” Senjuro asked as he leaned forward, and Kyojuro hurried to nudge him back into his seat to keep his hair from getting soaked with blood. It was a touch too long for someone his age… Perhaps they should cut it soon. She’d talk to Kyojuro about it.
“Maybe later,” Sakonji said. “He’s still getting used to Makomo. Introducing him to a whole slew of demons at once may not be the best course of action. He’s only eight.”
“Whoa…” Senjuro breathed. “He’s even younger than me!”
“Yes, he is,” Sakonji confirmed. “So everyone needs to be very careful around him.”
“You think we would hurt him?” Obanai demanded, though perhaps the question seemed more aggressive than it was meant to be due to his mouth being uncovered, as it so rarely was in anyone’s presence.
Sakonji leveled him with a heavy glare, his face also completely uncovered, as was almost as rare as Obanai's being uncovered. “I simply believe it is not good for children to spend so much time in the company of demons.”
“He doesn’t mean you,” Kyojuro rushed to assure Senjuro, though going by the confused look on Senjuro’s face, the younger demon had not thought Sakonji meant him at all.
Tamayo sighed. Despite how she tried, things were still so dysfunctional between them.
Sakonji did not help matters with his rigid beliefs about demons. Tamayo had hoped he would see things her way eventually, but…
Maybe this little boy was just what he needed for that to finally happen. Everything had gone wrong with Makomo due to Sakonji so stubbornly keeping her from the Infinity Palace and everyone within it, including her. She’d nearly been killed by slayers for it. But Sabito… already Sakonji seemed reluctant to leave him alone at all, even to come to dinner (though Tamayo had been very clear that he was invited. He might not eat humans, but human food could be provided for him to eat. Sakonji had resolutely refused though).
It would be so nice having a child growing up within the Infinity Palace! Shinobu had spent her teenage years here, of course, as had Kyojuro, but it wasn’t quite the same as a child growing up within the halls. There was Senjuro, but he was not exactly growing up; he would remain as he was for centuries to come.
Sabito could grow up with them, Tamayo could help raise him and guide him, and when he was old enough, he could become a demon to join them in earnest.
Surely Sakonji would see that that was clearly the best course of action when it came to children they cared for. Observing that version of it in comparison to what happened with Makomo, it would convince him of it.
She was certain.
“Demons aren’t what’s detrimental to children,” Shinobu said. “It’s slayers. Slayers have killed numerous children. I mean, look at Senjuro—”
“Shinobu!” Kyojuro snarled.
“Look at what happened to Himejima-san’s children, Makomo-san.” Shinobu narrowed her four eyes in Sakonji’s direction. “Don’t you agree?”
Gyomei, one of the few others actually using chopsticks, gripped them so tightly they snapped.
“If it weren’t for proximity to demons, slayers wouldn’t have killed those children,” Sakonji argued.
“That’s not true of Senjuro,” Shinobu said.
“Shinobu, this is getting insensitive,” Kanae said with an apologetic glance towards Gyomei, as well as the Rengoku brothers.
Shinobu utterly ignored her sister. “Even if it wasn’t, you’re saying it’s our fault that the Corps murdered children?”
“Of course not,” Sakonji growled. “Do not put words into my mouth, Shinobu. Remember your place and who you’re speaking to.”
“Then what are you saying?” Shionbu demanded.
“Can we not just eat in peace?” Obanai muttered under his breath, though that was a useless thing where demons were involved. Everyone heard him.
Yushiro leaned over to whisper in Tamayo’s ear, “You better get involved and say something before this gets ugly.”
Tamayo grimaced, knowing her friend was right. Neither Shinobu nor Sakonji were the type of person to back down, but she wished that nearly every one of these dinners didn’t end in some sort of spat these days. They had been so nice when it was just the Rengokus and Kochos. Gyomei added little discord as well. But now that Sakonji had finally started coming to the dinners at her behest, and Obanai…
Things were tense.
Her Kizuki were not getting along as she wished they would, and she hated that she had to command them to do so.
“I’m saying that, whether anyone here wants to believe it, demons are violent creatures. Look at what is resting on all our dinner plates and tell me I am wrong,” Sakonji said.
Uncomfortable, smothering silence settled over the table as everyone glanced down at their plates, at the hunks of flesh and cuts of organ and blood pooling on them. There was scarlet smeared on nearly everyone’s lips, globs of flesh stuck beneath claws as meat was rent from bone.
“It’s not good for children,” he finished.
Tamayo cleared her throat, and everyone’s attention snapped towards her. “I don’t believe it is wrong for children to be exposed to demons. We merely live a different lifestyle. While I have forbidden turning them unless absolutely necessary, that is so they can grow up, not because I believe children should never be demons,” she said with a fond glance towards Senjuro, whose posture began to relax with the gesture. “Or that it is wrong for them to be around us. I do believe we should give Sabito plenty of time to adjust and get used to things, but there is nothing wrong with everyone introducing themselves and being friendly with him.” She smiled, making sure to make eye contact with everyone at the table at least once, even Sakonji’s fearsome glower. “Okay?”
Slowly, everyone except Sakonji nodded.
Though she refused to show it, frustration and worry gnawed at Tamayo over it.
She hoped that this did not become an even larger problem…