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.

---

25. Terror

He knows Muzan. Kaigaku doesn’t need to see red eyes to know Muzan. He doesn’t need teeth and a sneer and a low voice that makes his knees quake to not recognize Muzan in his teacher.

He almost wants to drop his classes right here and now, and avoid him forever. But no, he’s an accomplished scientist. He’s smart. He has made his own accomplishments. He will not need Muzan or Daimon or whatever his stupid name is now.

And yet he does. He hates it. He’s saved with the smell of fire (nothing like lightning but everything like lightning.) and pounding fists and overpowering might and he. Seethes.

It should be enough. He should be pleased because he lives another day to succeed and he is not weak.

But he’s not strong either and so he seethes.

26. Ease

Being lonely bothers Gyomei less now. He can see and that makes his life louder and quieter all at the same time. There is more sensation, more to learn, more to unlearn. He is no one’s big brother this time around, no one to support and no one to support him.

He misses the family head.

He misses the man’s wife, his children. He misses the other hashira. He misses everyone. It stings, not quite like tears or salted wounds or anything similar, but it stings and aches a bit regardless.

There is no one to protect, nothing to fight. The demons are legends in stories. The world is peaceful.

And he can do magic tricks and he can make people laugh. This world is not so bad.

27. Fleeting

Tengen misses his wives.

That’s really all he misses from before… before. Everything else was pretty shit. He has a family now and they’re… alive. Not very exciting, his brother is often a brat, but like, what’s new? There aren’t demons coming, having style is overrated for boys (modernity has its uses but this one is stupid).

There’s not much else.

The parents are useless in this world, coddling a child who should at least be able to hold a sword. Not even Zenitsu had been this bad, and he was facing demons.

Maybe he should teach Tomoki how to be a bit flashier. Pass on the plot, you know?

28. Stubborness

Life takes many forms.

It sounds stupidly poetic to Yushiro, and also pathetically obvious to anyone with sense. But when you lived, unaging for over a few centuries, the most obvious things do come out that way.

These days, he spends a lot of time with paint. It’s hard. He paints her so he doesn’t forget her face. He paints her because she brought meaning to his life. And finding new meaning is so very, very difficult.

He knows she would want him to, but he’s an immortal being. Why break habit now?

29. Accolades

He shouldn’t be here, Murata knows, not all-powerful or with super-powered monsters. He shouldn’t be considered a hero, a legendary human off to save the world.

The suffering and pain, the being used for a greater future, or even a future at all that had glory behind it, was for actual heroes. Like Tanjiro. He was just an ordinary self-preserving individual who had trained to not die and that was all. It hadn’t been out of love or devotion or goodwill, but because he’d been in the right place at the right time.

Murata supposes, from looking at the growling, overpowered dragon monster at his side, that he doesn’t have much of a choice now on that front.

He wonders if the heroes felt this way, or if they just looked on towards the future and smiled.

Murata knows the title Legendary Tamer is just a moniker.

30. Repetition

Shinjuro has two children again.

He has two boys and one is distant from him and one barely seems him. They’re two different things now, in this life. It’s his own fault really. In this life, he has to work. He smokes instead of drinks. He drives and works late hours and sleeps at a desk and sometimes his son makes him dinner.

Yamato is not a bad kid. He’s a broody kid, makes him think of that Water kid a few times. But neither of his children are bad kids. They’re good kids. They deserve better.

Too bad, again, they’re stuck with him.

31. Uplifting

Tanjuro does not remember being human very well. He knows he was, once, and that’s why he is in this world now. His presence, his calm, his memories of his family, all of those people, all of his years, the dance of the fire… these things are present.

But they are also far away, burning through him with the power of being alive.

He wishes he could feel more, stronger, fluidly. He calls out for his family, his loved ones, everything.

No one answers.

Well no, people answer. They suffer. They hurt.

He is sorry. He is so very sorry.

Someday, maybe, as the tiny god of this vast world, he can be more than sorry.

← previous