The Inu no Taishou had really wanted this child.
In fact, that was the only thing he ever wanted: A quiet, peaceful life with a lovely wife and numerous smiling children that would come running to him and euphorically welcome him back when he returned home on a hard day's eve, ready to relieve him of the worries of this world with their tiny arms and sweet little voices.
A simple dream, then, but one he was never meant to have.
He still recalled the anger and frustration he had felt when he had been forced to face this realization, the very moment, eons ago, when he had become aware of all of its implications, grasped every harsh, merciless nook and cranny of the truth; He was not young in human years then, nonetheless, all that his fellow dog-demons, including his own parents were capable of seeing when they glanced at him was a sullen teenager.
They thought that it would go away, his disappointment and dissatisfaction, but they had made the mistake of confusing deep insights, as well as personal maturation, choices and priorities with mere mood swings; His discontentment with his fate wasn't temporary and before long, he had become thoroughly disillusioned, if not outright disgusted with every aspect of his life as a demon prince.
Everything he did was because someone else decided that he should do so, and all the people that swarmed around him and filled his ears with their voices only did so because of their personal gain, out of fear, or to profit by basking in the light of the powerful ones.
The society of demons was filled with falsehood and selfishness, all in the name of this abstract concepts they called power and strength, no one trusted anyone and everyone might be plotting behind your back or scheming to overthrow you even as they pretended to be on your side; At a young age, he had already survived various attempts on his life, many of them by enemies of his parents looking for revenge, but shockingly, even more by people with the same blood in their veins, who seemed willing to tear a simple youth apart to ascend a little further in the hierarchy of dog demons; Not that they had all too much to take; they were noblemen yes, but not exactly high ranking ones.
At first, in his childish innocence, he saw his nuclear family as the victims of a cruel world, but as he had to concede that his family wasn't any different, that his parents were deeply involved in fierce power struggles and political strife that was settled with tooth and claw as, if not more often as it was dealt with at negotiation tables, and even then, it was almost part of the etiquette to intimidate the other parties; The degree of paranoia was unbelievable, and power and pride were placed above anything else, disregarding any honor, any reason, or any compassion.
He would never forget the stern looks he was given when he dared to ask why power was so important; And even after they scolded him, he did not understand. They kept talking about how he was the heir to their long legacy, their crown prince, and how he wasn't allowed to let himself fall to "weakness" like his failure of an elder brother.
Said brother was several centuries his senior and he had barely seen his face; his name wasn't to be as much as breathed in his parents' presence and when they had him assassinated so that he, their younger son, could be the sole beneficiary of the family heirlooms, they expected him to be grateful.
Needless to say, he wasn't.
He wasn't grateful for the cruel spilling of innocent blood for such a ludicrous reason, and he was even less grateful to have the awful realization that had been dawning on him for quite some time proven in the most horrible manner; He wasn't grateful to have his small, cherished little dream thoroughly shattered and replaced by cold certainty: The seemingly insignificant little wish he had harbored was thoroughly impossible: He would never know anything remotely close to peace and quiet, for even if he tried to avoid violence, others would not; Power like his could not be ignored. He was damned to spend all his life fighting in self-defense, and he could forget the wife and the children as well.
The only wife he would ever have would most likely be some poor soul that had been sold to him or his parents, like a common object for political reasons, a young girl or an old widow, or in any case, someone who'd give him the feeling of having to apologize profusely for even thinking of touching her, and as for his children, he would be forced to watch as they killed each other over the right to pluck his belongings from his cold dead hands when his time came.
He was told that he was blessed, that he had been born for great things, but he could not see how what these empty words referred to was any good to him; For it was the reason why his parents had picked him as their heir; That was the worst of it all, that he was actually good at fighting, that his power passed any test all those who sought his life put it through; If it wasn't for that power of his, he, being the second son anyway, would have been left alone and might have hidden away to some quiet place to escape the single, long battle his life had turned into, like that, he might have had a chance to fulfill his wish, but the reality of the situation was that such a chance never existed, so that the strength that made others fear and admire him felt like a hot and heavy burden that every part of him just wanted to let go of.
Even without his parents' involvement, his rise through the ranks happened almost by itself; He would end up defeating a big cheese from some highly influential clan who happened to be annoyed about his existence in one way or another, just to save his own life, only for their cowardly henchmen to pledge allegiance to him, leading to more and more challenges as the leaders amongst the local demons increasingly felt the need to prove who's boss, and much more often than not, that was him; Before long, every demon worth their salt knew him as a force to be reckoned with, and then, just like his parents had always wanted, he caught the eye of the grim, harsh man who held the title of the "Inu no Taisho" before him; They called him Hiroshi the Impaler, after his favorite way to give his foes the finishing stroke after he had thoroughly broken their bodies; He was paranoid, merciless and enjoyed nothing more than subjecting his opponents – or even his less successful underlings, if he was in a particularly foul mood that day, to needless, spectacular overkill; Whenever he started a fight with a rivaling group of demons, he would first do that to two or three of the opposing faction's warriors to decorate his follower's weapons with their corpses, to demoralize the enemy, so he said. The many scars that covered the middle-aged-looking man told a long story of desperate individuals who had tried to stop his terror and failed miserably, presumably to watch him pull their loved ones apart before meeting a painful demise, if the death of said loved ones wasn't what had caused them to try and fight that feral beast that hardly deserved to be called a man.
After witnessing his prowess in battle, the monster immediately took a liking to the younger dog-demon and made him his right-hand-man, much to the chagrin of countless other demons that had been loyally serving him for years, hoping to claim that position.
Had they asked him with words instead of weapons, he would not have hesitated to leave his position to them – whatever appreciation had earned him his position, it was entirely one-sided; He deeply despised that blood-thirsty abomination with all of his being, and having to try and please the killing machine that was his lord left him in despair.
He could only envy the humans that most of his kin looked down at at best and occasionally had for breakfast at worst; They were frail, transient beings, but most of them save for the most despicable ones, stood together; compassion, trust, kindness for its own sake… he would not go as far as thinking that his kind wasn't capable of such emotions, but they didn't seem to value them either, regarding their gentle tugs as sighs weakness that needed to be squashed.
Soon, he had grudgingly resigned himself to his fate, silently resenting it as he walked the path marked by the red carpet that had been laid out for him before he was born, trying and failing to keep the bloodshed at a minimum, almost as a futile gesture of rebellion.
Before he knew it, he was fully immersed in a life he absolutely did not want.
And then, just like that, she saved him.
From the first time he saw her, he could tell that she was different; She did not hesitate to speak out against them; The thought of sweet-talking him to win his support did not seem to have as much as crossed her mind. She always called things what they were, be it the state of the skirmishes at the border of their territory, or his hesitation, and if she disagreed with him, she would tell him to his face.
She was the first in a long time not to be intimidated when she first heard who he was, for she had a similar reputation to back it up and a standard to hold up; After all, she was the heiress of the half-moon-clan. Their relationship was antagonistic at first; At first glance, he had mistaken her for another of these vain, stuck-up nobles who thought their power gave them the right to do everything; In fact, he spent quite some time thinking that she was the most arrogant of them all. She irritated him – Death, Decay, Destruction, there wasn't a thing that she seemed to take seriously at all. Apparently, nothing in her surroundings merited more than the half-hearted melodrama she seemed to play more for her own amusement than for anything else.
Regal and proud as she was, he could not help but notice that childishness she had about her, her girlish pigtails that mirrored those long ears she had in her true form, her insincere smiles of playful amusement and the small gestures that came with it, her pouts of indignation, her sharp, deadly, demonic claws painted bright red.
It made it easier to put up with her, to just try to see her as one big, spoiled child, an annoyance that he, as the more mature person, was supposed to ignore, but as she was one of the few who could fight at his side without slowing him down, they were often sent out together and soon, he began to see that despite the cold, indifferent exterior that a demonic noblewoman's education had created, her heart was on the right spot and she knew very well where her limits were; Her claims were not the product of vanity or arrogance, but unembellished truth. Unlike the rest of the Inu no Taisho's deceitful decadent followers, this particular woman did not lie. She didn't have to.
She would never be needlessly cruel, either, and while she did not understand his fascination towards them, she did not hate humans, either. She seemed mostly indifferent towards them, would let them be if they didn't provoke her, and disdained those who would attack beings that could barely fight back.
Soon, he learned to appreciate her, and she learned that he thought she didn't respect him because his family wasn't as prominent as hers. She didn't waste a second to tell him that this was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. "You wound me." She lamented theatrically. "Do you really think I, Princess Eka of the half-moon-clan, would display such foolishness?"
Somehow, he thought it was cute.
Fighting side by side, they got to know each other better, to understand why they were the way they were; Apparently, she had often felt lonely in the huge castle in the sky; Even before her parents fell in battle, they were always away on one quest or the other. She said that she did not resent them for fulfilling their duty as demon lords, which was probably the truth since she got quite furious when he even suggested the possibility, but that she could understand and accept it with her mind did not mean that it wouldn't hurt her heart.
He told her his story, as well.
Of course, she immediately started lecturing him. That, in itself, wasn't much of a surprise, she did that all the time, and many a demon would have disagreed with his opinion there. Her criticism, however, wasn't anything close to what he had expected.
While most demons would have ridiculed him for his so called weakness, in her eyes, the problem was entirely different: "Oh, stop it, your whining is getting boring!" she yelled from one moment to the other, stopping him in mid-sentence. "Don't expect me to feel sorry for the Inu no Taisho's Lieutenant!"
"As if I wanted to serve that mad butcher!" he reiterated, momentarily forgetting that this exclamation, had the right people heard it, could have cost him his head.
But Eka, as it turned out, had never held such fears to begin with: "If you hate him so much, and think what he's doing is so wrong, why don't you get rid of him, take his place, and do it better?"
It took him a while to realize that he had really meant every single of those words she had spat back at him. The mere thought of that would never have crossed his mind.
But that, exactly, is how Eka changed his view of the world; It was because of her that he stopped seeing himself as a victim and really began to think of how he could use his own two hands to fix the wrongs that he could see.
It was only when he met her that it occurred to him that the power he had so often cursed could be used for good.
"You're an adult man. Do what you want." The cold truth of her words hit as hard as a rock to the head; all this time, the very things that he thought were shackling him to a life he did not want were the keys to change it all; It was true, there were things that he could not do because he was a powerful demon. But it was also true that there were things that only a powerful demon could do – and ending the current Inu no Taisho's reign of terror was one of them.
"But… Eka-dono, would you betray Hiroshi-sama just like that…?"
"Don't get me wrong, I don't really care for your sentimental little ideals, but if you're the Lord of the Western Lands, you get to decide… There is quite a lot you could do in that position…And I certainly hold no love for that "mad butcher", as you aptly dubbed him. You see, many of those to call themselves rulers of the Western Lands came from the half-moon-clan. The most recent one to hold that title was my mother. Hiroshi…" she made a pause to accentuate the sudden dropping of the honorific. "…deposed her."
His eyes widened at the realization of just what the woman in front of him must have witnessed, probably as an impressionable little girl.
His state of shock lasted several seconds, but quickly dissipated when further implications made the clockwork of his mind start ticking again. "…But wait, does that mean you only associated yourself with me because you wanted to use me to have Hiroshi-sama killed? And how do you know that I won't just go and tell him that you're plotting against him?"
He had just started to believe that she was different from all these insidious schemers… he did not want her to be like that, too. The days of his life had just started to become… bearable since he had a comrade to care for, talk to and compete with… Yes, it was only now, when it all threatened to reveal itself as a lie that he understood that he had begun to see her as his lone ally in this mess of a world. It was not fair of her to show him that hope just to snatch it away from him, and besides, he thought that she had been starting to enjoy his company as well, because of him, not because of some revenge plan.
Eka, true to herself, just smirked. "I must admit, that was one of the reasons, but it's me who's telling you right now, so don't act like I've been keeping something behind your back… But rest assured that I wouldn't offer just anyone to support him in becoming the ruler of us dog demons… I do have my pride. I would fight Hiroshi on my own but if I lost and died, there would be no one left who could hold a candle to him. Even if I defeated him, but died of my battle wounds, there's no telling what unworthy wench would seize his title. My mother's title. I think I owe both my ancestors and those I rule something better than that, don't you think? If we both fight him, we are sure to win, and at least one of us would certainly live. And for the second thing, I've known you long enough to know that you wouldn't tell. You're silly like that."
"You… you think I… I'm "worthy" of that? Of being… the Inu no Taisho?"
After hearing just how much it all meant to her, how what she called "Pride" was very different from what all the others meant by that word, he suddenly realized just what sort of opinion she must have of him.
He didn't dare to think that this could be true; certainly, he must have been reading too much into it… but she just smirked at his ridiculous expression and explained exactly why she had chosen him: "…oh, my dear friend, there is no one amongst this decadent pack who could be worthier than you are."
And then, she started to praise his strength. Real, honest praise, not shallow flattery that was somehow meant to benefit herself. It was the first time that he could really enjoy being complimented, that he could hear such words without feeling shame.
Actually, he found himself enjoying the words that sprung from her lips, struggling not to blush.
She said that he was different from anyone else, that he was in his position because of his very own power, not because he'd inherited it; He had truly earned it worked his way upwards. She said that he wasn't vain and didn't care much for false politeness, that he really fought when he was on the battlefield instead of using it as an opportunity to show off unlike all these other, polished-up noblemen she'd met before; That he was wild, true, unkempt, muscular, fierce, manly, maybe even a little feral, someone who directly stood on the front lines instead of letting others do it all for him while barking out orders from a safe distance.
She said she liked how he preferred to fight in his true form and didn't mind getting himself dirty and sweaty, that he was still a real warrior.
And he just stood there, overwhelmed, a centuries-old demon prince reduced to a red-faced boy, incapable of any reply besides an eager nod of his head.
He would finally have it after all, his wife and his kids, his love and his trust, his little, peaceful place to return to. He was going to create it with his own two hands.
Yes, he was certain.
In that moment, he felt a surge of determination washing through his form like he had never known it before. He felt like he stood on the top of the world and had all of it within his grasp. Yes, together, they would usurp Hiroshi and make this world a better place.
It seemed feasible… after all, said world had already begun to look much, much brighter to him.
From that day on, he and Eka conspired to overthrow the current Lord of the West. The first stepping stone on their quest was to amass more power. They were already strong enough as they were, but better safe than sorry. All this talk of Eka's of the possibility of her dying… the silver-haired man did not like it one bit.
Their plan was to acquire a powerful weapon, and it had been his own idea, one of the first things he thought of after her words had inspired him. They went to take possession of Sounga, the legendary sword of world conquest.
The stories were something the higher demons would chat about to pass the time, like they were some sort of jokes; As long as he could remember, he had never found any of them funny in the least. A cursed sword with the soul of a dragon from hell sealed within, which grants their owner – usually a human or a lesser demon – horrifying powers in exchange for their souls, possessing and corrupting them to turn them into nigh-unstoppable killing machines who would then proceed to scar the landscape with a trail of destruction until someone even stronger wrested the cursed weapon from their grasp, just to start the cycle anew. By now, it was widely known that it was cursed and only pursued its own interests, using its wielder as a mere puppet, but people never stopped seeking it because they were so goddamned crazy for power.
Those stories were one of the many things that convinced him that there was no point in seeking strength for its own sake.
But now, with her at his side, he saw things differently. Now that he was a man, and not a boy, he thought further. He thought of what could be done, of what he could do.
If someone strong enough owned the sword, people would stop seeking it if only out of petty fear for their own lives. If someone took possession of it without being possessed, many innocents could be saved… He had a strong, firm will and a demonic aura that could subdue any ever so truculent sword, no doubt of that. A pair of dog-demons with blood from the underworld in their veins seemed like just the right opponents for an artifact from hell.
Yes, this was something he, as a demon lord, could do. This was a way in which he could use his power to end a long chain of bloodshed. And on top of that, he would get a powerful weapon to defeat Hiroshi with. To fight fire with fire, so to speak.
It was his first major legendary deed; Aided by his trusty friend, whose dark sorcery wasn't to be taken lightly either, he took the cursed blade from its demented owner, just in time to stop him from slaughtering a village.
The battle was long and tiring, but it helped that it was two against one. After a brief struggle of wills, the sword was under his control.
The woman at his side was surprised, stating that she had never seen him fight like that, and that he seemed even stronger than usual. "Have you been holding back all this time, even when we were sparring together? Hmpf, I wonder what I did to deserve that very low opinion you seem to have of me."
"It's not like that…"
And it really wasn't. Until recently, he'd been aimlessly doing what he'd been told, hating every single second of it. But now, he had something to fight for, he had a reason to want to win, to need to win, besides saving his own life.
He had found what would always remain the source of his strength for the eons and centuries that were to follow, for every little moment up to his last breath beneath the burning remains of that collapsed castle.
That… little family, and all its future additions. The ones he wanted to protect, the people he wanted to keep safe… at first, only Eka, then, after he defeated the tyrant of the west and put himself in his place, all the humans and demons who lived in his realm, next, her son, and much, much later, Izayoi and her child.
Yes, it was them that he learned what he considered the most important lesson of his life, and the one he considered the most important thing that he would have to teach his own children. That caring for others is not a weakness, but a strength, and that power is meaningless without someone to use it for.
After they had taken out Hiroshi, Eka wasted no time in asking to become his bride. He had planned to do it himself, unsure if she really returned his feelings that way, but she didn't even leave him a chance to try and stutter it out, and took the matters into her own hands.
When she did, he couldn't believe his happiness. He didn't care that much about the fact that he was now the lord of the western lands, the Inu no Taisho, the ruler of countless numbers of demons; Any other demon would have considered that the accomplishments of their life, but in his heart, any feelings that achievement had caused him were eclipsed by the boundless happiness brought by the privilege of calling Eka his own.
He had given up on it, the dream of having a wife he chose himself, a wife that chose him herself, and on top of that, someone like her, someone who was wise, honest and honorable, despite her idiosyncrasies.