aiko's otter den

scent of smoke - They are kept together by the thread of the fire god. Or maybe its will. Whatever it is, they will not be separated again. Digimon!AU Reincarnation.

13. Ash

There’s nothing beautiful about the smell of things burning. Even if it’s just bread or spices or anything, Senjuro trembles as if in a dream.

He knows, however, that it’s not a dream. He can open his eyes and not imagine the smell of death, but rather the smell of failed bread and the sound of his mother chiding him for not watching carefully, even though he had not looked away.

Despite a new life, it really did seem as if nothing had changed. But! His brother is out there somewhere and he wants to meet him, to smile at him, to show him.

Show him he’s not just weak anymore, he’s all sorts of things to be proud of.

Of course, Kyoujiro would be proud anyway. He always had been.

14. Overgrown

Aoi makes do. Aoi is given everything in this life. Everything and more. Parents that aren’t eaten. A nice home that she can decorate. Friends that are interested in her words. Power. Authority, safety.

She is allowed to be afraid.

Yet it is incomplete. There is no purpose to it. She is just existing, just living. And despite having three friends who follow her around (her friends before, she hopes she hopes), and a world of exciting things, Aoi cannot help but dislike herself.

Or dislike this missing piece of her life. It needs to be filled. Somehow. Someday. She will find out.

15. Legend

Yoriichi was a calmer man before, and being one again only aches something deep in him. It’s fine to be calm, to strategize, to think, to be strong, to be so many things, for so many people. It had been a curse once, it is not now.

He had been calm and failed before. He had been empty and failed before. He had been willing to sacrifice everything before and still failed. He had held something in his hands and failed before.

He did not want that to happen so easily this time.

Sometimes, yes, everything would slip through his fingers. He did not have as strong a grip as necessary.

But.

He would do his best and hold on tightly, to the dance and to the song.

16. Medicinal

Growing old had never been in her future.

Growing old had never been her plan.

But here she is, living again.

Tamayo wonders when hell got so full it called her back out to make up for it. But here she is, with her dear friend, the boy she’d turned, a small thing at her side, a crybaby to counteract his coldheartedness.

Ah well. This is all she can do now, grow up again. It’s not lonely this time. It’s better. This time he won’t be able to turn her into a monster. No one can be a monster ever again.

17. Airborne

Her name was like the sky.

In this world she’s supposed to be free, have choices, to soar overhead. She does not have multiple children to feed. She does not have to watch them work their fingers to the bone and yet and yet —

Her mother dictates her choices like before. Or well, she certainly tries. She defies in every little way she can and it hurts, it stings, her own children would never — but they were good and dutiful. She could never imagine them doing such in a world where every wrong choice meant death.

That just wasn’t the case here.

Her mother just didn’t understand, Kie mused.

18. Flurry

There is someone he wants to protect.

Mother yes, the girl he loves yes, his sister yes. He can do that with these fists. He can make something with these fists. He make a safer world with these fists.

Akaza has much to repent for, he knows, but the thrill of combat, the chase of life is still boiling within him.

So admittedly, he does use this opportunity to go out and fight. It lets his sister walk to school safely, his mother sleep easier. There is no Father here.

He is behind by his own making.