Revamped: April/13/22;
Author Notes: 5/20/22: So I am currently writing out Chapter 4, but at the same time, after rereading thw chapter, I'm planning on revamping/rewriting Chapter 3 because it doesn't feel as detailed and well-written like this chapter as I thought it was. Honestly it felt premature and rushed to me, and I did not like it. So I'm planning to work on CH3 to work on it in my sparetime. But to make sure I don't get carried away, I'm just focusing on typing out Chapter 4 for June update.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. :)
The next thing Daki knew was that she was in a world of eternal darkness. She was scared. "What is this place?" She squinted and swiveled her head around, looking for anything recognizable, but her eyes had not yet adjusted. In all directions, it was pitch black. She reached out a grasping hand into the darkness, but there was nothing to touch or see.
"Gyutaro!" Her voice came out as a helpless squeak of a mouse, no longer did she sound like the powerful demon she once was. A crippling pain surged in her chest as she became overwhelmed with panic. "Gyutaro! Gyutaro! Where are you?" She took off full speed, but she never reached a wall or her brother. She never reached anything. Her knees buckled under her and she collapsed on the floor, but there was no floor to see, just feel. No matter where she looked or how hard she flailed, her surroundings had been replaced with an empty abyss.
"You look..."
Gyutaro's calm voice broke through the darkness and Daki shot up her head. He stared at her, pale green eyes studying her.
"Gyutaro!" She gasped loudly and bounced to her feet. Streams of tears coursed down her cheeks and down her chin.
There were so many things that Daki had thought of to say to Gyutaro when she finally saw him again. But just now, she could not think of any of them. All she could do was say Gyutaro's name, over and over, and wrap her arms around him. She pressed her face into the tattered kimono over his deformed waist, half-expecting the pain to come flaring back to life inside her body—whether it would be from the immolation or from the Demon Slayer's beheading—she didn't know. Yet she felt nothing but warmth. She looked down at her chest to see that not only was she unharmed, but she was barefoot and wearing her scratchy, pale pink kimono that she'd worn when she was a human.
"I'm….Ume…again…" The girl realized. Daki is not my name. It never was. It is just Ume. Small-looking, scrawny thirteen year old Ume with disheveled white hair and lime-green eyes that framed her lovely face.
Ume released Gyutaro from her hug and looked up at him with anticipation.
" I don't like this place! Do something!"
Gyutaro was silent, he didn't seem to acknowledge her presence at all. He seemed to be staring off into space mouth-agape.
Ume began to shake his arm to draw his attention. "Gyutaro! Are you listening to me? Hello!" She demanded. Her eyes fixated ahead of Gyutaro with high hope. "Is that the way out?"
Gyutaro responded by yanking his arm from Ume's grasp and turning his back to her. "Stop it! Don't follow me!" He exclaimed.
But Ume responded by reaching out to him and grabbing his arm once again. "Why? What's…hold on for a second."
"I'm going this way. Go walk that way. It looks brighter."
Ume quickly glanced over her shoulder to squint into the blackness and saw the small glimmer of a white light glowing in the far distance. It was something that she swore wasn't there before. Nevertheless, she dismissed it with a shrug before turning back to her brother.
"So," she said, trying for an air of nonchalance, "Do you think that way is the exit?"
For a moment, Gyutaro said nothing and just stared down at Ume contemplatively.
And then without so much as a warning, Gyutaro gave her a push that sent her staggering backwards and he began walking in the opposite direction. "Don't follow me. We're not siblings anymore."
"We're not siblings….?" Ume froze, unable to fully register what Gyutaro was saying. Vivid fear crippled her speech and her mind went blank as she watched her brother walk further away. "Are…are… you still mad about earlier? I'm sorry! I was just upset that we lost, I said I'm sorry. So just forgive me, okay!"
"Stop it, don't follow me!" Gyutaro growled, throwing a glare at her that could rival icicles.
"No. Gyutaro, w…wait up!" Tears were pouring down her face again, but she hardly felt them this time. The girl chased him down, shouting after him. "Did I make you mad? Please forgive me! I was just mad that we lost. Frustrated that we lost. I don't think you're ugly, I swear I don't. I didn't want to admit we lost because of me! I'm sorry about always holding you back. Don't leave me!"
Gyutaro stopped mid-way and stared at her. His face was stoic as it always was, but she could sense his pain regardless. She knew what he was thinking. "Shut up, Ume, just go the other way. Alright, just do that for me." He spoke softly, his voice still stern and firm, but she could detect the underlying sorrow.
Ume ignored his pleas and picked up speed, disregarding what could happen next. It didn't matter if he pushed her away or yelled at her again. As long as they were together, she didn't care. With a shrill sob, she rushed at him, colliding with him while she was still at what was nearly a full-on run and leapt on her brother's back.
Gyutaro let out a cry and gave a violent tremor.
"Hey…stop…!"
Ume clenched her arms around his neck as tight as she could. "No!" Her voice came out awfully shrill. "No…No! No! No! You can't leave me! You mustn't leave me! We have to stay together! No matter how many times I might be reborn, I'll always be your little sister!"
A raw, tense silence hung in the world as both siblings stood there.
Ume could sense Gyutaro's shock from his apprehensive silence, but she couldn't discern what exactly he was thinking.
Suddenly he spoke. "Ume, look."
No sooner did those words leave his mouth, there was a change within the darkness.
"Oh no…" thought Ume, her eyes wide with terror as she watched the darkness before them unveil a pathway of orange-red flames rising from nothing, hardly penetrating the darkness outside of it. Ume felt miles of heat and pulsing infernal light flow into them. She could see the field of roaring crimson, surrounded by pools of lava, sprawling spires of brimstone reaching towards a ceiling that seemed limitless. The unbridled flames roared as if it was a living, breathing creature, carrying out a heavy stench of rotten flesh that overwhelmed Ume so much it made her gag. There were screams amongst the flames, sharp, penetrating screams of millions of people in great anguish pierced the air.
It was Hell.
"Ume,"
"Yeah.."
"I don't want you to come in here with me." Gyutaro spoke firmly, his features intertwining with each other. He looked vulnerable and despaired for a second, his fearless facade cracking before he hurriedly sealed them back together.
Ume grimaced, something about his expression made her chest constrict uncomfortably. In a response, she reached out and pulled his ear hard until he hissed with pain. "No…I don't care. What part of that do you not understand! You are my brother—"
"And as your big brother, I can't let you follow me in here." As he said this, she detected something in his voice–something solemn and saddening. There was a pang of hurt in her chest, and it struck deep.
Ume gulped, trying to keep the words from choking her on their way out. "But…but…I just want to be with you. We have to be together. Remember…..!"
"On that day, you were dying. You had no other options. And I thought that I was doing what was best for you. I wanted you to have the world and become what you could never be." Gyutaro heaved a sigh. "But in the end I just turned…you into Daki."
His words were like icy shards in her heart. Ume clenched her teeth. "I would have…have died that day…if you did something different. I had to become a demon to live."
"And here we are. Somewhere between hell and heaven." There was so much conviction in his low voice that Ume tried to reply, but her jaw trembled and she felt stinging tears rising to her eyes. It was like a splash of icy cool water on her skin, and she couldn't exactly pinpoint this strange influx of emotions. It was only seconds later did she finally have a name for this odd feeling.
Remorse.
Her thoughts cast on Tanjiro, recalling their brief talk on the rooftop that triggered those flashes of deep-seated memories of Muzan-sama's cells.
"Why would you trample over their lives?"
"They can never come back."
"Those lost lives will never return."
"You were human once, weren't you?"
Ume remembered that she actually froze at the chilling tone of his voice when he uttered those words, causing her to be too distracted to listen to the meaning. He had just snuck behind her at such a jarring speed and managed to tear off her foot with his bare hands. The seemingly pathetic prey she was overpowering moments before just transformed into a ruthless predator in the blink of an eye. She could tell he was mad. Hell, mad was an understatement. Enraged, livid, infuriated beyond words was a far better description. He looked so monstrous, so inhuman that Ume couldn't help but to feel intimidated. His eyes were bloodied, framed with a bloodlust-filled contencance. His lips were twitching, even his hair seemed to be rising like spikes on his head, and Ume knew he was hell-bent on ending her for slaughtering that neighborhood.
At the time she dismissed his words as ignorance. His questions genuinely sounded like a humorless joke to her ears. She was a demon, an eternal, powerful creature of the night that had the means to do whatever she pleases with no scruples. Why should she bear any woes over the loss of meaningless human life? What did he even expect to accomplish with his questions at that point? To make her apologize? To make her bear tears? To have some form of redemption? What did it matter? It was all pointless. She had already done the horrible deeds, and much more even before that. Cruel and vicious things, void of any compassion. All of Tanjiro's words made no sense to her.
Until now….
She understood him. About the remorse, the inner turmoil of her own humanity, the accountability that he was trying to remind her of. She could understand it all. Now she felt these myriad of images weighing on her—from the glistening blood painting the devastated buildings and ground, the screeching old man clutching his severed hand, Tanjiro writhing in agony from his deep wound in his shoulder, the blood curdling screams of those who survived to see their loved ones or friends killed right before their very eyes. All of which Ume initially turned a blind eye to. She understood now.
"I know that." said Ume in a broken whisper. Then the sudden memory of Tanjiro flashed to her mind. The sight of that desperate boy running away from Gyutaro, clutching his little sister's box in his arms through the blazing battlefield. It reminded her of her brother's unbounding love towards her, further solidifying her resolve to stay at his side. "But just like Tanjiro said, there is no one else in this world for us, other than ourselves. We need each other.."
Gyutaro let out another sigh, his somber gaze took her in before sliding back to the red flames.
"Please listen to me. You can go to heaven, Ume. I can't."
Ume gritted her teeth, a stubborn glint in her lime-green eyes, a distinct obstinance in the set of her jaw. "So, what's your point? I am still going with you!"
"No," Gyutaro said in a muted tone. "I was wrong for turning you into a demon.…"
Ume gasped at his words before jabbing her knee as hard as she could into his back, making his flinch. "Don't say that! Never say that! Big Brother, listen to yourself!" She kneed him again. "I do not regret turning into a demon, I am grateful that I was. You saved me, Big Brother. The fact that we lived for centuries proves that you were right. You and I were always together because we're stronger that way, you idiot! Obviously, me and you are stronger than people gave us credit for. And you know this, so stop playing dumb!"
"Enough..." He tried to say more, probably to protest, but Ume did not allow him to finish.
"No!" Ume's throat constricted and unshed tears stung her eyes. "Shut up! Not another word! I don't care where we go, as long as it's just us! We're stronger together."
"Ume…" Her name died on his lips. Ume's eyes twinkled with hope as she heard Gyutaro heave out a sigh. She watched Gyutaro's face in bated silence. It was definitely there in his ragged features and in his low voice: resignation.
Ume took a glance to Hell, feeling a terrible shudder run down her spine. Though she was not that close to the flames, the boiling heat felt so intense against her skin that it was on the verge of knocking her to the ground in absolute agony. Yet Ume swallowed hard and tightened her grip on her brother. Her mind was written in stone and Gyutaro knew well that there was no way of changing it.
She sucked in a deep breath and braced herself. "Now let's g—"
Ume let out an involuntary squeak of panic as a hard jolt sent her little body flying through the air like a pebble. She groaned in agony when she crashed into the ground, the impact leaving her dizzy and breathless. Her mind was still whirling in shock, but she was still able to shot up to see the sight of Gyutaro striding into Hell, allowing the flames to engulf him whole.
"No! Please!" The tiny, flailing form of Ume came crashing down after him with a shrill scream, made up of sheer terror. "Nooo! Big brother! Gyutaro!"
Then as suddenly as Hell had appeared, it just disappeared.
And Ume was left alone with the one single ray of light in a world of neverending blackness.
Before she knew why, she was running again, running from the light and running after Gyutaro, hoping that eventually she would run into the pathway of hellfire and they would reunite.
But as she ran, the white light just grew brighter, flooding light through the darkness like a lit lantern in a dark room.
Ume ran further into the blackness, fleeing from the spreading light like a small child running from a monster. However it seems that no matter how far she ran, the light grew thicker than before as if it was directly behind her. It was gaining on her and she was not making it far.
She opened her mouth to scream. But no sound came from her mouth but she could feel her vocal chords burning and vibrating. She continued to scream, emptying her lungs several times over as the pain reached an unbearable pitch. Her face was wet with tears and her throat felt torn open, but still no sound. Her breaths came in short bursts as her tears coursed freely down her cheeks. Ume couldn't tell if it was her overbearing terror or if the void was closing in on her. She could feel herself physically being crushed by the darkness, suffocating as the abyss closed in on her. Quickly Ume began to lose track of her body, lost track of time, lost track of how long she spent in this cruel world like this.
The only thing she did know with absolute certanity was that Gyutaro was deep within Hell and she was all alone, fleeing from her fate of being reborn without him by her side.
Ume squeezed her eyes shut, accepting her inevitable fate as her legs grew slow and the white light drew closer. She was exhausted, both mentally and physically. After all the tragedy that she had been through, Ume wanted nothing more than to rest. But as she thought of this, a singular thought bubbled out from her subconscious.
A selfish, desparate thought that was so hopeless, yet so profound, Ume had never allowed herself to say it out loud or even think of it under any other circumstances.
"Please, please, I wish to be with my brother. What must I do to be with him again? Atonement? Repent? Anything! Please, tell me! Show me! I killed people too, I should be with him in Hell as well! I'll…I'll do anything. Anything! I'll give anything. I will give anything to see my big brother again! My heart, my soul, my body. Anything. Take it! I'll do anything!"
As soon as those words left her mouth, a spasm of burning pain transfixed itself in her temples. It was a pain so intense that she doubled over and shrieked in agony. Ume shut her eyes and breathed, trying to alleviate the pain, but to no avail. Her pained screams quickly faded into the blankness.
Pink flames.
Bright pink flames engulfed her entire body, filling her vision. But this time, the flames weren't burning her in the slightest bit, she didn't even feel heat coming from them. The light of the flames chased away the blankness and a succession of images from someone else's point of view played around her like a picture book. Strange images that did not belong to her. Shards of memories that weren't her own.
A small, wooden house in a land of snow.
A clouded sky hung like a gray sheet over the white landscape filled with snow-capped peaks.
The smiling face of a bright-eyed toddler tucked in a thick white sheet on someone's back.
A young boy carrying a basket of wood on his back, dressed black-and-sea-foam-green haori over a white robe and black pants. His reddish-black ponytail flaked with white, his distinct pair of hanafuda earrings flowing in the gentle wind—Tanjiro.
A cramped room full of four boisterous children running about the house. A woman washing plates in the sink.
Master Muzan standing in the doorway, besuited in a simple outfit consisting of a dull gray suit and matching dress pants.
Masses of dark flesh expelling from him and towards the owner.
The bodies of four small children all bloody and broken, strewn about on the glowing red floor. The shrill, desperate scream of the memory's owner reaching out to them with outstretched bloodied hands.
The stark red of blood against white snow filling her vision.
A tearful Tanjiro pinned down on the ground, clutching what appeared to be the wooden handle of an ax, fear embedded in his expanded eyes.
A towering black-haired man swinging his sword, about to cut the memory's owner down.
And finally...the last image appeared...
Callused hands clutching the memory's owner tight to their chest, the voice of Tanjiro echoing a passionate promise into the ear of the owner. "I swear your big brother will save you no matter what…."
Ume heaved in a strangled gasp when she returned to reality. Thin breaths of dusty, cold air filled her aching lungs through her nostrils. Fear and confusion elevated her heartbeat, and her body shook uncontrollably from everything. She was feeling so incredibly weak, the throbbing migraine in her head felt like jackhammers pounding on her brain and it was hard to even breathe. Her trembling hand clenched a clump of her soft kimono, her nails digging into the smooth fabric as she tried to make sense of what she saw. What the fuck was all that? This could not be Master Muzan's cells. It couldn't be, she was dead. Even when she was alive, she never had a vision like this before. So why? Why was she getting these memories? What did it mean—
"Nezuko…what's the matter?"
When she heard the voice, heard that name, Ume felt a great fear take hold, her body straightening like a pole. It was so distinctive that she had no doubt it was him.
Tanjiro.
CHAPTER 3 COMING UP VERY SOON. REVIEWS AND THOUGHTS.
