A Cowardly Demon 7 - or 'How a Craven Girl ends up married, wife'd up and becomes the center of the plot' (Kimetsu no Yaiba, SIxMukago)

"This is surprisingly... nice."

I offered a smile as I took Yuki out for an evening walk. As much as things had been quite 'peaceful' at home in the last few days, it was clear that the newly-arrived demon wasn't keen to be at ease around others and, in response, the two other demon girls were keen to treat her with a degree of distancing.

Usually I would let this work out on its own since it had done miracles with both Mukago and Susamaru, but I could tell Yuki's situation was a bit more complicated that theirs.

First, she seemed really hate the word 'family' as any mention of it tended to have her tense up and try to walk away from conversations and people. Second, she was also very negative over the 'status quo' within the house, expecting either of the girls to ultimately kill me because 'a demon can have so much fun before they get bored'.

I could ignore it if those were rare occurrences, but it was clear the girl made her position firmly clear on the matter: she thought we were lying to her and that nowhere was safe for her. I may not be a therapist or someone of the kind, but I could see a traumatized individual when I was interacting with them. Yuki had some deep issues that had taken a hold over her mind, constantly giving her paranoia and a sense of loneliness that was scary to handle.

Hence why I decided to take her out for a walk. It was just me and her, no guns and no protections for me. Why? Well, I trusted her to behave (and know that hurting me without reason would only warrant a potential death for her too), and I wanted her to feel 'in charge' in case the topics entertained could get too close to the 'harsh truth'.

"It can be quite pleasant when it comes to think in private, without having to escalate in anything too awkward or too unpleasant," I mentioned, the young woman looking around, almost expecting an ambush to soon spring all around her. As moments of silence and general peace disproved her expectation, the girl seemed to think there was more to that stroll.

"So, what did you wish to speak about?"

"Not much. I just wanted to know simple stuff about you?"

A frown adorned Yuki's face. "'Simple stuff'?"

"By that I mean stuff that isn't... it isn't bad for you to talk about," I explained, trying to be cautious with my phrasing. "May I be a bit blunt?"

Her frown deepened but she nodded. "Sure."

"You are not opening with others. I don't mean just 'dropping the full truth' of your story, but you could at least give out some surface stuff."

"Such as?"

"Your favorite color?"

She rolled her eyes. "Blue."

"Your favorite dish?"

"If it's cooked well enough, anything," Yuki dryly elaborated and I sighed. "What?"

"The only reason you are not telling me is because you think I will poison you or something."

"...Are you?"

I narrowed my eyes at her and Yuki huffed.

"Fine, I guess I just can't... I can't believe it that you three are just that fine with everything and everyone," The girl ranted flatly. "Like, there are places and people that are... more 'normal' about how humans and demons should behave. Hate, battling, killing and... and hurting."

There was a lengthy pause after this and then Yuki stopped walking.

"Can I ask you something, John?"

I shrugged at her. "Sure."

"...Are you afraid of me?"

She slowly turned, her eyes suddenly cold as I saw something flash around and... I felt uneasy at the sight of various sharp like webs forming over our heads by the trees' branches.

"Yup."

"So, why would you care of 'getting to know me' or 'try to get close to me' if you are truly afraid?"

I hummed. "I fear what you could be or do, not what you truly are."

My words seemed to ring a bell as Yuki blinked at this.

"What?"

"I don't know you. I don't know who you are beyond a name and some surface behavior. I know who Mukago is, I know who Susamaru is- I know what they can do and how deadly they can be. But do I fear for knowing? No. I, as many other smart living beings, fear what we don't know and what could possibly kill us by ignorance."

Her body was stiff, but Yuki didn't utter a word, so I took this to continue on my thought.

"I know that Mugako is a coward. She is deeply embarrassed of this since she thinks that she is worthless in battle, when in truth she just is more keen to listen to her paranoia but also know when to listen to it and when not to," I pointed out. "Susamaru is a bit the opposite: she is a musclehead that loves to face the battle. She wants to play, she thinks herself above many others, but she is also very aware that some of that boast can't be kept up by her own skills. She will fall short if put in a bad spot."

...

"W-What about me?"

"I can't say much since I don't know much about you, but I can't really fault you since- and trust me when I say I am not here to pity you but... you clearly have been through a lot of bad things. You hardly had a chance to feel at ease because now you can hardly feel safe anywhere. You look as if you are expecting to be hurt again and that is both disheartening and saddening. I just hope you will find a way to find that peace you got stolen and... that's all I can say, really."

After saying this, I just wandered back home and I thought that Yuki could have left as the next few hours saw her not coming back. She would return about dinnertime, she was quiet, but I think she had gotten some peace from walking on her own.

She took a seat and ate without appearing too lost in her thoughts, and actually threw a jab at Mukago's cooking much to the chagrin of my 'first wife'. To my relief, there wasn't much sex today as Susamaru was 'spent' after playing with the kids and Mukago wanted to 'get a day off from being a dutiful wife'.

All in all, I would say that things were going well and... I had yet to butt heads with the local builders to create a bigger home with how easily my 'man cave' was turning too small to take care of the current occupants.

AN

Next time, a certain Demon Slayer's POV, the house gets upgraded and Yuki has some thoughts on her more peaceful life with the rest of the family.