It had never occurred to Akashi that he would follow in his grandfather's footsteps. By the time Akashi was born, the older man, Hideki, had begun his slow descent into madness from the pain of knowing his time on Earth was more fleeting than ever. While Akashi grew, Hideki often stayed tucked away in his bedroom, contemplating details of the mission every son of the Akashi family had been given and how to relay the importance to his grandson.
When Akashi would pass Hideki's door he would often stop to stare, wondering why his grandfather chose to be isolated. After all, as the eldest Akashi in the home, the man should have duties above even that of his father's. He simply did not understand how his parents could accept and respect an Akashi who refused to stand to the standards of the family name. When he was young, Akashi had learned that the Akashi family was rooted in assured victory and responsibility, and that it was each member's job to uphold the legacy of the family by winning and completing every task given to them with perfection. How could his grandfather, a man he heard was brilliant in combat and strategy, a man who gave so much to his name, forsake it all by becoming isolated and refusing to continue his legacy until his last breath.
It wasn't until Akashi's teenage years that he and his grandfather had their first meeting. The young Akashi learned of the reason behind his grandfather's self-imposed isolation; learned that it was a norm for the eldest male member of the Akashi family to hide himself away until his grandson was old enough for him to explain the mission to them. Of course if Hideki, or any elder member of the Akashi family passed away before that time, the responsibility would fall down to the grandchild's father, but Hideki gripped onto the tradition tightly, waiting for Seijūrō to finally grow to hear the words from his own lips.
Hideki depicted the mission to be simple. All Akashi had to do was hunt down the fabled demon that had cursed their family and kill it. His grandfather would proceed to tell him some of the demon's known abilities, such as his ability to lower his presence and fade into the shadows, or that he could change his form and could control a powerful blue fire. He would also describe the demon's beauty. The light blue hair that always seemed to be tangled together, his pale skin, snow white horns… His grandfather had a way of describing the demon that entranced Akashi in wonder.
Akashi particularly enjoyed listening to his grandfather's stories of the demon. They would often go to the family library and discuss the demon over a game of shogi. Despite the elder's decaying eyes, he had long since memorized the board, the strategies to win, the way each individual piece felt. Akashi was concerned at first that Hideki would be unable to play, or at the very least wouldn't be able to tell stories while the game was played.
However, it was during these long games of strategy, the old man would begin to lose his surroundings and find himself back in the forest with the demon. The game would go on as an afterthought, and sometimes Akashi would disappear as his grandfather muttered words of the despicable creature that had escaped his grasp so often. As if his body acted through repetition only, Hideki would move his board pieces, but would be lost in his memories.
He would tell Akashi of all the tricks Shadow would play on him in order to escape. Akashi had on multiple occasions questioned if Shadow was the true name of the demon, only to reveal that each Akashi tasked with hunting the demon down gave him their own name. It was a way to make the demon even more real and to keep his image in their memories. Hideki would often ramble on about how Shadow would often smile at him, singing a song about red and gold, as he ran along the tops of the trees. Often times the demon would camouflage itself amongst his surroundings, or would set of little spells meant to distract Hideki.
Akashi would watch the memories his grandfather told replay in the man's eyes. His cloudy red eyes had become a center where greed and lust danced in one another's arms as he spoke. Hideki often fantasized about the glory in bringing the demon down to the ground, spilling its blood and ruining its seemingly perfect, pale skin. His blood lust for the creature struck an interest within Akashi. He had seen the times in which his grandfather was calm, collected, and composed. He had witnessed how strong of an Akashi Hideki was, and for him to want to destroy a creature to the point where nothing else mattered but the demise of the demon, frightened Akashi.
What kind of atrocities did the demon place upon his family enough to keep generations of blood lust flowing for the creature? Akashi understood that the demon had in some way disrespected his family when one of his ancestors predicted an act of betrayal from the demon. However, he did not understand the proclaimed curse that the demon had charmed the family with. While his ancestors may not have had the ability to stop the demon from acting upon his betrayal, there still had to be record of what the curse did. It was obvious to Akashi that there was nothing truly wrong with his family. The overbearing strictness and countless responsibilities had spawned into the Akashi bloodline way before the demon had ever entered their lives, and as far as Akashi knew there had been no misfortune or loss amongst the family after the demon had committed his sins. The curse and betrayal that Akashi always heard whispers about never fit together.
Despite all of this, Akashi listened to his grandfather and father, taking in his words of the demon and his tricks. Learning his family's history and ways that the demon could have defiled their name over the many years. He listened, gathering and categorizing the information in his mind. Akashi knew that one-day fate could lead him to an encounter with the evil demon. That fate could also decide that the demon's life was in his hands and that he would have to strike the final blow in order to end the mission.
However, despite knowing his destiny, Akashi did not anticipate that he too would be playing little games with the demon. He did not expect to cradle his grandfather's desire to catch the creature and watch it grow inside himself. He did not expect to walk the line of being smitten with the demon and wanting to punish him for the sins he had committed against Akashi's family. Akashi did not expect to be captured by the demon's beauty, his calm words, his small smile…
So when Akashi finally had the boy pinned beneath him, staring at the demon, he let himself enjoy the moment, and reveled in the unknown. He and the demon had fallen into a comfortable silence, studying the way the other looked. Akashi ran his fingers through the demon's hair, noting the absence of the white horns he had heard so much about. He couldn't hide his disappointment. Akashi had looked forward to seeing the demon's horns. Hideki had described them to be the most beautiful feature of the demon; though looking at the demon now, Akashi had to question if his grandfather seen how beautiful the boy was without the horns. After all, how could silly horns be more beautiful than those teal eyes? Still Akashi couldn't keep the question from brushing against his lips.
"Before my grandfather died he used to tell me many stories about you," Akashi began, "He always talked about how beautiful you were. Though in his descriptions he used to be fixated on your horns… How is it that they have seemingly disappeared?"
The demon laughed softly beneath him. It took the demon a few moments retain his composure to answer Akashi's question. Akashi couldn't understand the humor in the question, but let the demon take his pleasure from it.
"Hideki was always a lustful man focused on the features that made a beast a monster. Forgive me My Lord for laughing at your question, but your grandfather was pitiful in the way he let avarice guide him. However, to answer your curiosity, I took the liberty of casting away my horns to avoid any suspicion of my identity if I were to be seen… Would you like to see them My Lord? Will you too become obsessed and perhaps cut them off and keep them as your prize?"
Before Akashi had time to respond to the demon's questioning, he had already began altering his from. White horns, engraved with delicate patterns into the bone, cutting into the natural curves of the long horns, curved up until they nestled themselves close to the demon's face. The demon smiled sadly as he watched Akashi's eyes look over the horns with curiosity and love. He let the young lord touch them and gently follow the patterns with his fingers until finally he questioned if Akashi was going to actually take him prisoner or not. The young lord quickly moved away, in the process making the demon giggle quietly, gripping the demon's arm tightly as he pulled them to their feet.
Akashi let out a whistle and Kuroko watched in fascination as Yukimaru returned to Akashi's side. With Yukimaru's return, Akashi walked with one hand holding his reins and one tightly guarding the demon, ignoring the demon's mocking grin. Akashi didn't have any charms to make the transportation safer or easier; he hadn't planned on demon hunting when he had gone out to ride that morning, and was now forced to take in the demon's happiness in his misery as they walked. Though, a tiny feeling of dread hung in Akashi's mind, coupled with something warm, when he realized that holding the demon's hand wasn't so bad.
Thank you everyone for all the comments/reviews, follows, faves/kudos! It's nice to see what you all think of the story and to have your feedback; it also encourages me to write more.
Author's Note
Thank you everyone for all the comments/reviews, follows, faves/kudos! It's nice to see what you all think of the story and to have your feedback; it also encourages me to write more stories and to continue this one.
On another note there are a few updates I wanted to put out there for people who are interested:
- I want to update either weekly or every two weeks. I am in the middle of moving with my family and doing summer
homework so I can't guarantee a set update schedule but I will try to put a new, quality chapter out there as fast as I
can around this time frame.
- I am messing with the lengths of the chapters in order to see how I should continue with it. I would appreciate if you
guys let me know if you like the longer or shorter chapters. Depending on the response I will try to alter the structure
of the chapters. I want to try doing more detail and longer chapters so that you guys have more if I don't update as
quick as I want and so on.
Again thank you guys so much for everything! I can't wait to write for you again!