Raised

Chapter six

There was a sense of peace as Piper sat in the room. A lot of the area she'd been in so far had so many new things that it left her head spinning. This room, however, was bordering on familiar territory. There weren't a lot of things in which she was unfamiliar with. For that the young woman was thankful. After all, it was exhausting to see so many new things all at once. And to her everything about this world seemed new. From simple things such as the doors to the complex things of how the rooms were lit up had all changed in the last five hundred years, even in Demon World.

At least in this room, right now, there was nothing too new. The low table and cushions thrown about were the same even if they had different designs on them. Notably it was the table which lacked designs. The smoothness of the wood was an indication of how well Yomi, well Yomi's servants really, took care of it. Despite the fact that it lacked the intricate carvings or paintings, the room really did have a rich feel to it.

The lodgings to which Yomi and his son Shura inhabited were not that large. The rectangular house was nestled in the middle of one of the main Demon World woods. There was a total of four different rooms. The largest room was the one she was currently in, it served as the main room as far as she could tell. Then to one side was the cooking room. There was a device or two that Piper still wasn't sure of but Yomi had proven their uses even in the "traditional" setting. On the other side was the singular bedroom which Yomi and his son shared. Their individual bedding rolled up to be placed in the closet every morning and taken down every night. The last room was something she was still getting the hang of. Yomi had called it a toilet. It was the only room with a hinge based door and could only be accessed from the outside. As the structure was surrounded on all four sides by the traditional walkway, that still meant that she didn't have to put her shoes back on to get to it. Which was nice at night...though the idea of how the waste was removed by water still took some getting used to. Piper was a quick study and had learned her way around each of the new things enough to cope with them. Too bad none of that helped her with the latest endeavor.

Before her were a lot of small cards with symbols placed upon them. Those symbols happened to be modern kanji. There were about fifty or so that she needed to familiarize herself with today. All of which had some basis in the old mainland Kanji which she was used to. Of course, nothing was unified when she'd been alive as it seemingly was now. Which was what made all of this very hard. Not only was she having to reacquaint herself with how they were written now but she also had to relearn their sounds and meanings.

Thankfully Piper had at least a starting basis for them. It was funny; for a guy who couldn't see anymore he was sure a hard ass when it came to learning the written language. And the only reason she was putting up with it was the fact that, as he sat there reminding her to pay attention, he reminded her so much of him that the pains in her chest stopped her rebellious spirit from lashing out.

"You're doing well."

See, it was these comments that really confused her. Piper knew that Yomi was blind. She also knew that demons (and spirit animals) had senses that were better than humans. But back to the idea that he was blind and that she was working with paper. Heck, she wasn't even flipping anything back and forth right now. The young woman was just trying to prep her mind to take in all the subtle changes. And sure, she was doing better now than when she had started yesterday but how did he know that?

"You're wondering how I know," he pointed out.

...did he read minds now?

The brunette heard him laugh. The sound was somehow soothing more than mocking. The richness of his voice was surprising. Why was it that everyone in Demon World seemed to gain such attractive voices the longer they stayed alive? It really was unfair.

"It's really quite simple. Over the years I have trained my remaining senses to such an acute level that they more than make up for my lack of sight," Yomi filled her in.

It was obvious when she thought about it. She had seen many people rely on only one sense in a battle which was usually their eyesight. And it was always their fatal flaw in the end. Likewise Piper had seen people, humans mostly, who were born blind whom had their other senses more sensitive than her own. She figured out a while ago that it should probably have been the same for Demons. Though with their healing you never figured any of them would be able to permanently lose one of their senses. Yomi's very existence as it was now decided to prove her way of thinking wrong. Apparently demons could sustain such damage that some things never repaired themselves.

"That much is obvious. It is just the degree which has me baffled," she mumbled under her breath.

He was going to hear it anyways, he would have even before losing his sight. So she might as well convey all the emotions she could. Apparently even when she tried to hide something he discovered it anyways. In that way he reminded her so much of him that it was scary. Especially since she never remembered Yomi being that perspective. Must have been another one of those age things.

"You should get back to concentrating. You have a lot left to learn."

"I do," Piper agreed. "I want to move on to something else, however. If I focus on these slips of paper any longer I am afraid I will start to rip them up."

The woman heard and felt Yomi rising up from his spot beside her. He had been tall before but the years had only made him more so. Really, that was another thing unfair in the world. Though she supposed her lack of height could be used advantageously in one way or another. It was just hard to see what when he stood taller about a head and a half above her.

"Very well. At least your spoken language has improved in the last few days."

"Speaking a language and writing a language are two very different things. I have never succeeded in the written language as much as I have the spoken," Piper remarked lightly.

Yomi nodded. Even she could hear the ever so quiet his as his long black hair slipped around his shoulder, moving across the maroon silk of his shirt. She wondered how loud such things were for him if his hearing was as strong as she was starting to believe. How could he go about life with such strong senses and not become overwhelmed by them? She supposed the same could be asked of anyone and for most cases she never wondered. With him though it was his hearing which astonished her. He heard things from miles upon miles away like they were nearby, or so she had seen him demonstrate. That was a level which Piper could only fathom at.

Though Piper knew very well that wasn't what was making her feel so dizzy. Though she would never admit such a weakness out loud until she absolutely had to. She wasn't at that stage just yet as Yomi lead her outside. Near by even she could hear the younger demon training. He was always training it seemed. It was like he'd missed the whole point of being a child. Or, perhaps, he was the most free to be a child that she had ever seen. Shura was allowed to follow what he wanted to do for the majority of the day and at the same time received the needed structure from someone more experience when the time called for it.

"What do you think of Shura?"

Without missing a moment Piper said, "He confuses me."

"Oh?"

"You say he is your son, yet he has no mother. As far as I was aware demons still have to have a male and female to reproduce. Yet according to you he has never had a mother. This anomaly does not show up in him however. And I am torn between the idea that he is doing what he wants to, thus experiencing what childhood should be about, and the idea that a child should not have to train to fight all day," she told him honestly.

"I see. So you do admit that it is his choice."

"Yes. Yet what if it is because he knows of nothing else to do?"

"Have you asked him?"

This question mildly surprised her. Piper looked up towards Yomi's face for a better indication, the very motion of it was not that easy. Darn that head and a half height difference!

"You would find that he trains because he is driven to," Yomi said in a quiet, hushed voice.

He seemed to peer out into the distance as his son continued to train himself. There was a pride in the recesses of his face that she couldn't help but marvel over. Admittedly, the idea that Yomi was a father was strange. Especially considering that he had not seemed the type a thousand years ago. But she still had a hard time believing that the Yomi who stood in front of her and the one that she had known all those centuries ago were the same demon. He was so very different. Piper slightly clutched at the necklace around her neck as she wondered how different Kuronue would be, if any.

"I take responsibility for his drive," the tall man spoke out as he tilted his head down towards the human woman with the smallest of smiles. "His creation was purely selfish. I originally meant for him to be just another route to power. I never expected to care for him as I do. So I have allowed him the freedom to follow his own desires."

Bluntly she pointed out, "You're being very direct."

That smile stayed on his face as he responded, "I find that even if I now have the time, I no longer have the patience to be anything but direct."

Piper had the feeling that he was going to continue. After everything that had happened she wasn't quite sure she was ready for more truths than what had already been spoken. After all, up till now the idea of Yomi being a father was something she could have laughed at. The fact that he just openly admitted to caring for his son was quite the revelation. Though she had to admit it did fall in line with the Yomi that she had known. Not that part about him caring but the part of him liking to be direct with someone. Five hundred...no, a thousand years ago by this point, that was one of the many differences between the two partners. When she had known him, Yomi had been nothing but direct. If he saw something that he wanted he went after it - damning all those who followed him to suffer the consequences. Yet despite the fact that it was said in a very young Yomi like fashion, which was to say direct, Piper was still nervous over the content. Which was why she decided to interrupt before he could continue.

"Please tell me you have something to eat," she whispered.

"I was waiting for you to ask," Yomi responded.

Slightly Piper pushed at his arm with her shoulder. Her stomach had given up growling sometime that morning after the last few days of neglecting to eat a proper meal. That definitely wasn't the healthiest thing for her to do but...well, she was a human in demon world. The lack of a hardy meal was the least of her concern.

"Should we call him in?" She asked as she lingered near the edge of the traditional walkway.

Yomi shook his head ever so slightly. "Shura will find us when he is hungry. For now it's best to let him have his fun."

"As you say," was her dismissive response.

It wasn't very long after that till she was sitting down in front of the same low table she'd been studying on. Piper had to admit the new ways in which people had in which to cook sped up the process quite a bit. By Yomi's own explanation the oil coated pans and gas sustained fire which he employed were still considered archaic by much of the three worlds. As far as she was concerned it was still something to be marveled over and to master. Unfortunately the longer she stayed in demon world the harder it was to pay attention. The last day had started to prove that to her more than anything else. Humans were not meant to live in Demon World and even she had her limits. Funny how they became the hardest thing to ignore around the end when it had been so easy to ignore at the beginning.

As Piper picked up another piece of meat and vegetable, she spoke up, "You should eat too, Yomi."

It wasn't like she could hear his stomach growl or anything. It was just that she hadn't seen him even take so much as a bite since the reunion. The most he seemed to partake in was tea. And Piper had a feeling she knew why as well. Demons had a natural preference to eat humans. It wasn't a hidden fact by any means but it seemed to be less discussed among the ones whose shape resembled the human species more. It was just that she had been around enough demons to have figured out their diet a long time ago.

"As long as I do not hear them scream, I am fine," the brunette woman continued to talk without raising her head.

Piper might not have been all overflowing with absolute love for her own species but hearing them scream did get to her. She supposed that everyone had their breaking point. Hers was hearing possibly innocent people scream in pain and fear. It was different knowing what someone was eating to survive and seeing the slaughter of people which she couldn't help but empathise with.

"I didn't realize that you were so comfortable with the consumption of your own kind," he spoke out in a mildly surprised tone.

"I admit, as a human it is a difficult position to first contemplate. This is not the first meal I have shared with a demon and I doubt it will be the last. I would be a hypocrite if I condemned a demon such as yourself for eating your natural food source when I enjoy my own," was her response before she took a bite to prove her point. "For all I know this animal was a great individual to their own species yet here I am eating them. And as your prefered food is humans I expect it is much the same for you…"

"That's very understanding of you."

"It is the natural order of things," Piper said.

Though really the consumption of human flesh was taught to be anything but natural in most of the human world places she'd been to. That's not to say it was a universal truth around the world but she hadn't been to all places around even one world. In fact, her travels might have been considered extensive at the time but from what she'd seen so far she hadn't covered even half the globe. The fact that the world was a globe had been quite an interesting thing to contemplate all on its own.

"As long as I do not meet them or hear them scream," the medium whispered after a moment. "It is the natural order of things for you to eat a human but it is unnatural for me to witness the slaughter and feel nothing."

Yomi nodded, "Very well. Though you'll be relieved to know that I have no plans on slaughtering your fellow man today."

"...please tell me I am not eating from the last slaughter."

Suddenly that sick feeling in her stomach only got worse. Piper sat down the chopsticks and tried her best not to imagine what part of a human the meat she was eating could have been. His laughter did very little to sooth the ill feeling inside of her at that point even if it denied the darker pits of her thoughts.

"That would be tactless of me," he spoke out. "Rest assured, I have not turned you into a cannibal."

The general feeling of sickness still wasn't letting up. She''d imagined the meat as chunks of human flesh far too vividly to immediately start back in. Instead she ate from the rice and vegetables that came with the meal and sipped on the herbal tea in an attempt to calm her stomach. Sadly the nausea only subsided a little and it was still noticeable from within. As the time went on she started to try and focus on other things than her body which was, compared to the last few days, rapidly reminding her of where she was. Tolerance was a funny thing once it was reached. Even the smallest of breeches started to make the progression seem so much quicker than the time before.

"What's wrong?" Yomi asked midway through the end of the meal.

"I am only human," she commented as she started to get up with her dishes in hand.

As Piper started to move past him towards the next room where there was a small bucket with water, she hoped he took that to meant that the conversation about eating her own kind had upset her. It would only be logical to assume that. After all, it was the truth. It just wasn't the thing that had continued to bother he. That was was reserved for the fact that she was a human in Demon World and no matter how unique of a human she was, the environment was still toxic to her. Her body wasn't like a demon's or apparition's which could handle all the different components. It was slowly eating at her and breaking her down, making her sick to her stomach and dizzy.

She had reached her threshold yesterday and the only thing keeping her standing now was her ability to channel demonic energy to add to her own spirit energy. Without that her body would not have had enough energy to fight off the ill effects. As it was this channeling ability was only a temporary measure and she knew that. Piper also knew that once she got to the point where she couldn't stay without risking death, which would be soon, she'd be saying goodbye to Yomi for a while as she recovered. Yomi might have looked quite human until someone calculated in his height and the multitude of horns on his head. No matter the country there was no way he could blend into the human world. Or at least the human world she remembered. Which means that Piper would be alone in a very strange land. That was what she was worried about more than the diet of her companion.

Unfortunately Yomi had gotten quite perceptive in his old (young) age. As she passed him he reached out for her wrist and held her in place.

"I believe I made myself clear the first time. I do not have the patience for anything but the direct route," he said as though reminding the young woman.

"I am only a human and I am currently in the Demon World. It is killing me."

"I see," his voice was a mere rumble as he let go of her wrist.

"I have exhausted my current options and have calculated that I will start to deteriorate within twenty more hours."

"You have lasted longer than any other human I have heard of. I can expect no more than that. So if it is the atmosphere which is killing you then we shall just find you a route to human world in the morning."

"And then we will part ways," Piper continued the thought.

Yomi nodded. With that bitter understanding she went into the next room to clean up the mess that had been made to feed her.