It's the Little Things
Iruma took a break from his work helping to clean up the mess made when the cherry tree he'd grown burst through the Diobotony Lab. He looked up into the canopy, which was pink with blossoms.
Several demons were hanging out in it, darting between the gigantic limbs like bats, running along limbs or resting in the crooks of branches. Iruma couldn't help but smile at the sight of them enjoying it so much.
In the short time since Iruma had first come to the demon world, he had been tangling with the thought of whether he wanted to go back to the human world or not.
Whenever he thought about the aspects of his life, such as family and friends, he always found himself preferring what he had here to what he had—or more accurately, didn't have—in the human world.
Even if he was to think more selfishly, he couldn't remember the last time before coming here that he'd had a dependable access to any of his basic needs. Always struggling to find good food and drinking water. Always ready to move on from his shelter, even to drop everything he had and be forced to start over. Always worried about what would happen if he got hurt or sick.
Now, he could have anything he wanted.
Iruma knew that the demon world was dangerous. Although was that really anything new to him? After all, there was a reason he had even boarded the fishing vessel that Sullivan had pulled him off of in the middle of a storm. Despite his oldest memories, where his father used him as fishing bait, the boy had joined the crew in desperation. He'd accidentally crossed the Yakuza in a job he'd misjudging as 'safe enough.' And that was just the latest in a long line of ever-present threats that constantly hung over him.
What did it matter if the death threat came in the form of predation rather than bullets? And, in all honesty, with that as the main danger, versus the many that existed in Iruma's old world, where he had both to take care of himself and provide for his parents, could it ever outweigh actually having people who cared about him?
But Iruma still missed things. Little things. Like the cherry trees and other plants and animals that were familiar to him. And the glowing warmth of the sun in its lighter blue sky with colorful sunrises and sunsets compared to this world's usual colors only more vibrant. Not enough to outweigh everything else but…it was there.
Iruma bit his lip as he realized this was the first time he'd considered this without just burying the thought as quickly as possible. Still, it made his heart clench as he contemplated it.
Shouldn't he want to go back more? Was it supposed to be this hard to choose what he wanted? Didn't he belong in the human world where he had grown up?
Suddenly, his thoughts were broken as he heard the Diabotony Professor call out to him. With more than a little relief, he buried such thoughts once again and smiled when she thanked him for the work he'd done.
