Warnings: Bullying
It's been a couple months now and Vespera was still trying to train her powers, which seemed to be faltering as the days went by without any assistance. It didn't make sense, she's been training for a long time… perhaps the Demon Moons were more powerful than she presumed. Still, she refused to go to any of them for help as she didn't want to embarrass herself further. That didn't change the fact that she had still been a self-centered brat around the Demon Moons, mainly the main three. It seemed she really did want to become part of their trio, even if she didn't like them very much, because she was that stubborn and that determined. Each day, she would pretend she was one of them, which annoyed them a lot. Dõma was the only one who tolerated this because he knew just how much she still wanted to become an Upper Moon, and he was still planning to take her innocence as payment for her desires. It wasn't even a secret- Kokushibo and Akaza knew about this, but left Vespera to deal with it herself to see if she was truly worthy of the position, because if they had to put up with Dõma every day, then so do the other Demon Moons. Regardless of sleeping with him or not, Vespera was hellbent on becoming part of the main Upper Moons. Her plan wasn't going so well though, as midnight missions were constant and she wasn't allowed to go on them because Muzan didn't include her. She felt left out and upset because she really did want to prove herself worthy to the others, but it seems that even Muzan didn't think she was strong enough. She did give an oath, and that oath mentioned that she will go on every mission that Muzan gives her. If they don't seem to think she deserved her position, then why did they even let her be part of their clan? To torment her? Akaza was right, an oath meant nothing if it was just words, and the only thing she's been doing around the Castle was practicing. On the nights of missions, she wouldn't just sit around and cry, she would practice her abilities- and fail- and then she would sit around and cry. Even with this, she's been trying to hide her true feelings with arrogance and pride, and she's been doing a good job because nobody suspected her of being insecure about herself. One night though, she knew that practicing her abilities further would just lead to another mess in her room, and as usual, she was forbidden from going on the mission with the Upper and Lower Moons, so she just laid in bed and softly cried herself to sleep. It wasn't only because she was failing at practice, but she didn't want to be teased like this constantly by the Demon Moons. In the mornings, she would quickly get rid of any evidence that she was crying, like red eyes, quivering lips, and cracking voice, and go out to the lobby to the Demon Moons who would bring home a couple humans to feast upon. They at least let her eat the corpses alongside them, so that at least made her feel better.
The nightly routine would go on like this until one day, the main trio were tired of just doing the same thing every night because the humans would barely defend themselves, so the Kizuki wanted an actual challenge. They sat together in the meeting room with big sheets of paper as they tried to brainstorm together some plans to take down the strongest Hashira. All of a sudden, Vespera walked by and noticed them. She thought this would be a great chance to butt in, so she went in the room and interrupted them. "Oooh, are we talking about the Hashira?" she chuckled. Kokushibo and Akaza groaned as they turned to her. "Yes, Vespera. What do you want now?" Kokushibo asked. "Well, I want to join in on this!" she said. Akaza raised an eyebrow. "After all the Hashira you failed to defeat in the past?" he asked sarcastically. Dõma patted the seat beside himself. "Don't mind them. You can sit next to me." he said with his usual creepy grin. Kokushibo and Akaza were disgusted by this, especially seeing Vespera thinking it was the usual innocent "You can join us" and going to sit right beside Dõma. "Thank you, Dõma," she said with a smile. He could feel himself getting a little erect as she said his name. "Oh, no need to thank me," he replied smugly. Kokushibo sighed. "Okay, now that you're here, what is your plan?" he asked, looking Vespera directly in the eyes. She took a moment to think as she read their sheet of paper and their suggestions before coming up with a suggestion herself. "Well, how about we pick out the Hashira we think is the strongest, and we all go together against them, using all our Blood Demon Arts at once?" she suggested with a confident smile. Dõma quickly jumped on the chance to try to impress her. "Why, that sounds like a great idea," he said, trying to sound genuinely interested in her idea. Meanwhile, Kokushibo and Akaza thought of this for a while, to which they seemed displeased. "Are you kidding? That could easily backfire. I think it would be better if we all each fought a Hashira one by one," Kokushibo replied. Akaza nodded. "I agree. It would be easier too," he said. Vespera looked down a little as they didn't like her idea. Dõma tried to comfort her as he put his arm around her. "Oh, don't listen to them, dear. I think your idea is great," he said with a small smile. She looked up at him and as it seemed the two were having a moment, Kokushibo interrupted. "Dõma, if we do this, we could all get exhausted after the first hit, and then what if the Hashira is still up?" he raised an eyebrow, expecting the demon to agree with him. Dõma chuckled. "Okay, so it may not be the best idea right now, but at least she tried, no?" he replied, gesturing to her slightly saddened face. Vespera softly chuckled. "It's okay, Dõma, I can just use my BDA on my own," she said. Akaza raised an eyebrow. "And what is your BDA, might I ask?" he asked, curious to hear what Vespera had to say. She grinned with determination as she started to explain. "Well, since you asked so nicely, my BDA is a series of vines that can grab and restrain opponents," she said. Kokushibo and Akaza snickered and broke into laughter. "That's it? Vines that can grab people?" Akaza laughed. "That's not as powerful as our BDAs," Kokushibo said, agreeing with Akaza. Vespera was getting flustered and tried standing up to herself. "Hey, it's powerful too! I get to bash my opponents into the ground!" she snapped, only causing the two to laugh even harder. "So what? They get injured by mere vines? Sorry to break it to you, but that won't do much damage to the Hashira," Akaza said. Kokushibo nodded. "You trained for centuries, thinking you really had a chance at taking down the Hashira with that? Maybe you should let someone take your place." Kokushibo said. His words… they pierced through Vespera like a stake through a vampire. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. All that hard work… just to get mocked by a Higher Rank? She didn't sign up for this! Without saying another word, she immediately got up and ran out of the meeting room in tears. The three Upper Moons fell silent and looked at each other, pondering if their words had gone too far. "Was that a little extreme…?" Kokushibo asked, starting to regret what he had said. Dõma and Akaza nodded, giving him a concerned look. "She did have it coming for being too arrogant though," Akaza said. Kokushibo nodded. "I can't argue with that," he replied. Dõma was concerned about Vespera and ran after her.
She teleported out of the Infinity Realm and sat upon a tree branch, looking up to the full moon. It shined down on her as she stared into it, almost as if she were in a trance.
Dõma teleported after her and sat on the branch beside her. He leaned in to her face. "Are you okay?" he asked, feigning sympathy. Vespera turned her attention to him, and her eyes widened. "W-Why are you here?" she asked, a little afraid that he would try to make a move on her again. Dõma scooted closer to her and attempted to wrap his arm around her. "Oh, I just couldn't find it in myself to make fun of you. If I must be honest, your BDA sounds very unique. We need a demon associated with nature in our clan," he said, trying to sound interested in her abilities. She bought it as she seemed surprised. "You do?" she asked. He nodded. "Don't listen to those other two, they're just jealous that they'll never see such greatness you have," he said with a slightly creepy grin, one that she saw as a regular grin. She smiled back. "Oh, thank you. I didn't think you would understand and instead only thought you would want me for sex, considering what you tried doing with me on day one," she replied. Dõma chuckled. "No, of course not," he said. She sighed and looked down to the ground. "Well, I guess I need to learn far more than just controlling vines. There's so much to nature than just that," she muttered. Dõma nodded. "Well, you have a point there," he replied. She sighed. "I've been exercising my powers for months, but they haven't been getting better at all. I've tried and tried, but I still can't be taken seriously around here," she said with a frown. Dõma nearly had her wrapped around his finger now, he just needed to make another move. "I know you have a lot of potential, just don't be an arrogant jerk, okay?" he said. Vespera looked over to him and raised an eyebrow. "Why?" she asked, like she genuinely didn't see what was wrong with being an dick. Dõma chuckled. "Well, you can take your position in stride, but don't flaunt it, that way, the others will treat you the way you want," he said. Vespera still didn't seem to understand. "Don't flaunt? But others love it when I flaunt, I've been doing it since I was a little girl," she replied. Dõma chuckled. "Ah, so you were a spoiled girl?" he asked in a creepy tone. She was confused. "Is that a bad thing?" she asked. Dõma was a little surprised at her naivety. "Well, a lot of people seem to think it is," he said. "but as long as you stay humble, you'll be one of us soon," he said as he slowly embraced her- not in a genuine way, but in a creepy way. She didn't react as she was too distracted with the haunting memory of the Upper Moons gawking at her.
As he teleported back to the Infinity Realm, Vespera was left with her own thoughts. She looked back at where he vanished and thought about what he said. Considering what he tried to do with her on day one, she pondered about what would happen if she actually went through with it…
