1st POV

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So much for not changing the timeline. Remember when I said I wanted to experiment with my blood and all the jazz? Well, I kinda did and what I concluded was that my blood was hella weird.

You see, I stumbled upon several demons on my journey, well by 'stumble' I mean me actively chasing the nearest nasty aura in the vicinity to experiment on. Y'know, the usual. Anyway, what bugged me the most was that every time I encountered one, it was always the same spiel as "strange human blah blah blah, you're weird yadda yadda yadda, DON'T FUCK WITH ME-" same routine. This made me conclude that,

One: my scent was still puzzling them, which was well known- by me.

And two: they don't go crazy even if I have an open wound despite being labeled as marechi which I could not comprehend for the love of Allah above!

Trust me, it was a bit awkward when I deliberately cut my hand off, expecting a bamboozled demon only to have the bastard stare at me in disbelief with an underlying tone of...concern for my mental health. That motherfu-

In short, nothing hinted at the possibility of me being a marechi and I was about to let go of that issue, apologize to the demon and go on my merry way when I remembered what happened to the meleoron-looking ass dude and immediately whipped my bloody arm like a wet towel, resulting in blood spreading on the demon's face. The target being his mouth.

I can only say one thing.

It went south real fast.

That bitch immediately tried to chomp me down with a speed that would've put the flash to shame, eyes crazed over in bloodlust and hunger while drool flowed out of his mouth like a rabid animal. And that, ladies and gentlemen, cemented my suspicions on being a marechi ight. Satisfied, I punted him to oblivion, glad that my theories were right, and continued on my way.

This, well that was the experiment part. It was all fun and game until I crossed paths with Kokushibo. Again. Yeah. I'm sure anyone with enough brain cells already had caught up on that earlier.

This happened approximately two months after the onsen incident-


'At this point, I'm wondering if fate isn't just messing with me or if the higher-ups had a hand in this-which I'm convinced it's the case at this point but anyway-'

Thankfully this time I was wearing the cloak, so there was no way he could recognize me, right. Right? Well, I was mistaken. The demon stared at me for a good long time which kinda creeped me out, to be honest, and when I tried to take my leave, you know, like a normal person would when meeting a demon, he followed me. Like, really.

At first, I was like "Sir do you need help?" playing the oblivious card, you know? But that six-eyed motherfucker just kept watching me like I was some snack or something-which I am alright-that is until he muttered one thing that made me pause in my tracks.

"Lith."

'Ah crap'-

That, yes, that was less than ideal. Least to say, I did not like the fact that he easily recognized me, though I still tried to salvage the situation the best I could.

"me? Lith? Who's Lith? You must be mistaken, mister demon! Haha!"

I never said I was good at it.

"...Your...scent is still the same."

My laughter died down in my throat as I tripped. Ah yes, that. Who was I fooling? My dumbass forgot to conceal my presence which ended up being a big mistake since I was confident in not meeting anyone of importance tonight and I somehow forgot how keen their senses were. Figures.

Eventually, I dropped the act since it was, well useless at this point and decided to ask him why he was here, why he wasn't attacking me or doing any demon-related stuff that is, you know trying to eat me since he was literally an upper moon and nothing could stop him from it, That is until he blurted out a:

"I wish...to serve you."

Alright, I was not expecting that one and I'm sure he knew it because there was a silence as I stared at him for a good amount of time before I walked to a conveniently placed boulder-with him still following me-, sat on it, and pondered. Hard. Kokushibo just watched me all the long.

"I'm not sure if I heard you correctly, could you repeat that?" I had asked, my mask still on my face.

The fact that he didn't even hesitate baffled me honestly. "I wish to serve you."

"Oh my god, he's serious." I murmured in disbelief. "Why? Why all of a sudden? We've seen each other, like, once? So where is this coming from?"

The demon frowned and answered that he did not know which of course didn't make sense! Why was he following me? Why was he so...docile all of a sudden? That wasn't normal!

Suspicious, because who wouldn't be, I squinted, not that he could see and searched his aura for any hidden motives and color me surprised when I found nothing that could hint at deception! His aura was sincere if not patient which stunned me. Truly confused at this point, I asked if something strange happened. To my surprise, the male frowned as if recalling something then said that I had something to do with it. Well first, rude, I'm an angel, and second What on earth was he implying with this?! I pressed for more answers but the male didn't elaborate further to my growing frustration.

"Alright, I don't know what's going on but imma, y'know, go that way." I pointed in a random direction. He followed the way I was pointing at then his eyes shifted back to me. "You, well, you go wherever you...came from, ight? So huh...See ya?" with that said, I went to resume my walk, still musing over what the hell just happened only to look behind me and see the male following me.

I paused, he mimicked me. "...Why are you still following me?"

He didn't respond and just stood there, staring. Not wanting to deal with this any longer, I started running to nowhere in particular and sent a brief look behind only to choke in fright when his resting b face greeted me. HE WAS CHASING ME!

Naturally, I upped the speed, thinking that I'll easily outrun him whatsoever, but that was underestimating upper moon one's speed. He effortlessly kept up! Dang! This lasted for a good two hours, a game of cat and mouse began with me running around in order to escape him which kinda reminded me of Haganezuka chasing Tanjiro minus the whole "I'LL KILL YOU!!" thing which was like, unsettling as fuck! I'd rather be chased by someone cursing me to no end than the silent type! At least I knew how far they were from me!

Halfway through the chase, I had an idea and cursed myself for not using it earlier and promptly concealed everything that could lead to detecting my presence, and scent and immediately found a hiding spot in a cave. After a while, I poked my head out, sure that he wouldn't find me for a while as I didn't hear nor felt anything in the vicinity. I sighed in relief and somehow lowered my guard, happy but a bit overwhelmed by what just occurred only to turn around and be met with six glowing dead fish eyes staring right back at me in boredom. Least to say, the undignified screech that ensued wasn't one of my proudest moments.

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Turns out the guy could no longer eat humans. How did I get this information? I begged him of course, but he wouldn't speak, let alone leave me alone so I had to do something about it. Figures. In short, it was actually my fault. How? I didn't know until that bishonen revealed having consumed some of my blood by accident which, once again didn't make fucking sense!

I had asked how that was possible since I couldn't for the love of Allah remember how the fuck that happened at the time. The demon's cheeks slightly flushed as he stared at me, though it was almost unnoticeable as he opened his mouth and said the following:

"When...you kissed me."

Hm. Yep. The avalanche of embarrassment I immediately felt was inevitable and I stuttered for a whole minute before apologizing for the inconvenience.

We were still in the cave with me trying to wrap up the situation around my head while the demon sat in a seiza, patiently waiting for my decision. I didn't know what to do at this point but looking back at the situation, I had started comparing the pros and cons of actually having an upper moon at my side.

Cons: disturbance of the timeline, knowledge of future events in jeopardy, different endings either good or bad.

Yet

Pros: lesser deaths, survival of certain key characters, lesser deaths, Kaigaku remains human therefore Jigoro survives, still lesser deaths, probably pissing Muzan off in the process, and more importantly, having my very own demon companion.

...

I will not lie, but the idea of having my very own demon was really tempting but no! I shouldn't let cute things get the better of me! Though...

"if you can fit in this box, I'll think about it...!"

I had made a box, similar to Nezuko's but with darker colored wood, appear in a poof of smoke. The display didn't seem to have surprised the demon though his eyes had shifted between me and the box in silence.

Now, with his stern and strict attitude, there was absolutely no way for Kokushibo to indulge in my request! Ha! What was he gonna do? Disregard his pride for me? There was no wa-

He shrank with no hesitation whatsoever and waddled inside before blinking up at me with six big gleaming eyes.

"..."

WELP, that was settled-


Yes, I'm a sucker for cute things! Also, the fact that Kokushibo wouldn't leave my side was pretty unnerving! Before the whole box incident that settled our...companionship, I had tried once again to dip once the sun rose since demons and sun...you get the memo and promptly jogged out of the cave at the first ray of sunshine. Sure I could teleport somewhere, but I'd have to locate Seppen first otherwise she'll panic-yes it happened once and it made me feel so bad that I wept and repeatedly apologized to the bird- regardless I was out of the cave, confident that I would get rid of the guy and turned to look toward him only to nearly have a heart attack as I saw him get up to follow me. I quickly slammed into him before his foot could meet the sunlight and unceremoniously crashed further into the cave with me straddling him while wildly scolding the demon! crazy guy almost killed himself just to follow me!

Otherwise yeah, ever since that day we've been traveling together and it was pretty peaceful, to be frank. Of course, I learned more about his situation and discovered that after tasting my blood once and going through the, well, berserk process, he could no longer eat humans. Not that their tastes disgusted him, no, he just couldn't after tasting my blood which had confused me at the time. Turns out turning demons berserk wasn't its only purpose, I could tame them sometimes after ingestion.

How long after? I dunno, perhaps it depends on the amount of blood, I had theorized. If it's just a drop, they'll take two or three weeks before trying to seek me out. Although I heavily based myself on Kokushibo's case since he was the only demon that survived after any encounter with me. He was the only unintentional subject I got to observe so far so I couldn't be sure. Well, that was...fantastic I guess?

Either way, I had Kokushibo with me so that's that.

Regardless, the Kanjis in his eyes were present so he was still an upper moon. Either Muzan wasn't aware that his strongest demon changed sides or he maybe knows and wants to keep face to not attract the demon slayer corps' attention.

Huh.

Gotta tell Kagaya someday. Dunno how he'll take the news but there's no way imma kill Kokushibo any soon. I guess it's better to have him with me than let him continue on his killing spree, though I kept the time to feed him using vials of my blood and he seemed to greatly appreciate it if the crease of his eyes each time I gave him some was any indication. I had taken the idea from Tamayo who didn't need to devour innocents to prevail. Also, it was to keep him awake most of the time. Yeh, starving demons will automatically fall asleep to recuperate after a long time without food, and I loath the idea of watching someone starve when I know I have food at my disposal, be it humans or in this case demons. Plus, he seemed to get stronger each time I gave him some though it wasn't every day. I learned that Kokushibo could go around a month without food since he's been accustomed to being a demon for four centuries and didn't react to hunger the same way weaker demons did. Well, that was good to know.

I wondered about doing the same with Nezuko once she woke up. I wasn't human so that wouldn't count as Nezuko eating humans, right? Also, it'll immediately stop her from losing control, at least that's what I hoped huh... Gotta wait and bring that idea to Tanjiro first. Speaking of which, the boy had sent me a letter a month ago to let me know that Tengu gramps had basically left him to his own devices and with a...boulder to cut in half. So he was at this point in the story...

It was funny since I could feel his confusion through the letter, though I did nothing to help except tell him to, well, breathe. Better let Sabito and Makomo do their job, it went well in the anime, hopefully, I'll get a glance of them. Yet before that would happen since it wouldn't be for another five months, I had shown up with heights he could use in the meantime and redo his training with the additional difficulty before the ghosts' appearance. The box I was carrying had been a surprise to the boy, yet he couldn't pinpoint what was inside and thought it was just a normal box.

Heh.

Now allow me to explain how nose wasn't able to find out about a litteral Upper moon.

The box in which I've been carrying Kokushibo for the past 7 months was kind of like a pocket dimension leading to a traditional-looking room made only for him to access so he didn't have to come out that often. See it as my room. I need to spawn a door to access my house, so I thought about making the same thing for the demon so he wouldn't feel cramped inside and experience any wild shit I might do while running around.

Also, to let him know when his presence is needed, we established a knocking pattern that will signify for him to come out. This basically was so he wouldn't be detected by demon slayers let alone those with good senses will never know I'm carrying an upper moon until I summon him. So yeah, it was for safety purposes and because I didn't want them to know about us yet because they could potentially inform Muzan even if it might be unintentional. Needed that surprise effect you see!

So yeah, I still had 11 months before the beginning of canon while we kept traveling around. I can certainly say that during those months, my relationship with Kokushibo strangely improved. Aside from the kissing incident in the beginning, nothing weird happened between us ever since and I even got to introduce Seppen to him who kept her distance from him in the beginning for obvious reasons. Regardless, she'd land on his shoulder now and then since he would give her mice if he found some, so he was good in her books. They would even team up since the Demon's been around for a while and therefore knew almost every regions of the country. If that wasn't useful!

Occasionally through my stroll, he'd even get out of the box and stride next to me for no reason and would adopt his human appearance every time we reach a random village. Still, around those times I would change my mask and cloak and even shape shift into a child, elderly or even some random animal so people wouldn't be able to identify me and therefore report my presence. I wasn't dumb. After all the bullshit I've been doing lately, I knew they came to acknowledge my presence at some point. Not that it bothered me, twas fun trolling people while helping around.

This only happens when Kokushibo's out though, which didn't happen that often since the guy wasn't that fond of humans. I mean I can relate. Speaking of him, he didn't show that much surprise to my powers and I had debated whether or not to tell him before deciding against it. The manga said that Muzan could read their minds, that is unless they no longer have the curse like Tamayo. Though, that didn't stop me from putting a mental block-with his permission- just in case.

Otherwise, everything was fine and dandy during these past few months.

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This occurred during a random night where in his rare moments of socialization, Kokushibo was out of the box. We were strolling through the forest as usual while exchanging small talks, though that reassembled more a one-sided conversation since Kokushibo was a man of few words, therefore would simply nod or grunt in response. Not that it bothered me in the first place. It had been a while since I had someone to talk to! Moving on, I was on a spiel about some random Manga I read ages ago which I took the time to explain the plot to the demon who seemed mildly interested in it when, in the middle of the talk, a shoji door suddenly appeared out of nowhere underneath him, causing Kokushibo to fall through it once it slid open. It was followed by the echoes of the buzz of what I think was a biwa as it disappeared, which left a flabbergasted moi alone in the middle of the woods, gaping at his previous spot like an idiot.

"Holy Crap."

That had been soooo close, man. Thank god I didn't grasp his hand this time as I began doing so for no reason months ago, because I would've surely dropped with him since it looked like he just got summoned by Muzan. Least to say, I was shook. Frazzled by the situation, I decided to wait by sitting on the box while dangling my feet in boredom. I could distinctly feel his aura which meant that I could have followed him if I wished, though I refrained from it since I wasn't an idiot. Plus, who knows what they're on about? Approximatively an hour later, the same Shoji door popped up in the air from which Kokushibo fell out and gracefully landed on the ground before it disappeared, all still followed by the same buzz.

A small silence took place as the demon frowned then looked around before his gazes all fell on me sitting at the side of the road and promptly approached me with what looked like relief adorning his features. I had raised an eyebrow at this before brushing it off and getting off of the box.

"So, what's going on?" I had asked lightly, not expecting an answer from him until he shocked me as he recounted everything about how he was in a meeting with all the upper moons and that man. Not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting him to actually tell me, still doubting his sudden shift of loyalty but that...that definitely convinced me that he was genuine. A fuzzy and warm feeling swelled in me at that thought and I surprised him with a hug. Kokushibo had stiffened, still not used to physical contact even after all these months of companionship, though he didn't push me away until I was done. After that, we resumed our stroll to nowhere in particular with me now in a good mood while the demon remained silent.

"Taiyo-shin huh...?" he said after a long moment of silence.

"uh, yeah, dunno where they found that nickname but I kinda like it." I nodded.

"Are...you not aware...that they've mistaken you as a male...?"

He was greeted by my mask as I turned to glance at him while securing the box on my back like a backpack.

"So? It's not like it's the first time that it happened. Not that I mind it in the first place." I shrugged, waiting for further comments.

When none came, I focused back on the road while humming little tunes. Minutes passed as I was on my 4th song when I heard the demon's voice again.

"...You have...a beautiful...voice." Kokushibo uttered quietly.

I froze, my heart almost missing a beat before a bashful feeling took over me as I waved a hand while squealing a "Oh you!" and decided to grasp his hand. He stiffened a bit but let me do as I pleased as I carried on with the humming while swinging our hands back and forth like children. Though I'm pretty sure Kokushibo just rolled with it.

It's funny because that's supposedly one of the reasons why Kokushibo stumbled upon me in the Onsen. Heard me sing from the bottom of the mountain like damn. Good ears I see. Then again, demon. Great senses. Heh. I ain't planning on becoming a singer, yet, it's still an ego booster to hear compliments about my singing skills!

Kokushibo ended up returning in his box at the break of dawn while I called for Seppen to lead me to a nearby town.