This is a forgetten story I wrote around 2018. I wasn't originally going to publish this but after watching the anime, I decided to revise and see what happens. Just so you know, I really, really like Daki. She was my favorite character throughout the Red Light District Arc. I think I wrote this because I was actually frustrated with her and Gyutaro's loss because it felt too forced for my taste.
(Revision.)
It all seemed to happen in such a flash, that Daki was still thinking about what had just so suddenly occurred. Her head had been cut off for the fourth time, plunging to the ground. For a moment all Daki knew was that she was in pain. She was paralyzed by the pain that seemed to be everywhere now: in her scalp, her throat, her neck, her skull, her brain. Everything was agony and she couldn't even scream.
Then her head hit the ground and all she knew was her big brother, Gyutaro's head lying in front of her. With their faces inches apart, the two siblings stared at each other in stunned silence.
The world went still. The only sound came from the wind rushing through the broken husks of the devastated buildings around them, like one enormous sigh. It took a moment before Daki's head was clear enough to make sense of what had just occurred, and another before her gaze fixed on her elder brother again.
He has been beheaded. She's been beheaded. Their flesh was slowly crumbling away. They have both lost the battle and the Demon Slayers won.
It all felt so wrong, unfair. It didn't make sense. No. Gyutaro couldn't be beheaded. He couldn't lose. He promised her he would kill everyone who dared to lay a finger on her! Gyutaro was supposed to be her trump card, but yet he lost. All because he foolishly didn't kill that petulant brat when he had the chance. He ruined everything! She was supposed to achieve Master Muzan's task. She was supposed to kill that accidental demon. She was supposed to kill that Hashira. She was supposed to win!
So how did it come to this?
Then without warning, Daki felt a spark of rage toward her brother. No, it was more than a tiny spark; it was a discharge, an explosion, and any reservations she may have had were suddenly washed away. She began to yell at him, so incensed that she didn't even know what she was saying. But it didn't matter because both siblings began arguing, demeaning one another with every manner of foul language.
At one point Daki heard herself shrieking out the harshest insult she could muster. "I bet you're not blood-related to me at all! I mean we don't even look alike!" She shrieked.
Her sharp words seemed to cut him deep as he fell silent with wide eyes. His face twitched noticeably, a look almost resembling physical pain.
But Daki didn't care at that point; she was too blinded from her raging emotions, too despaired over her loss, too angry at the unfair world. The wrathful fury inside her bubbled and all she could care about was executing her frustration.
"You are so stupid! So ugly! So worthless! I…"
"You know what?" The sudden harshness in his voice froze Daki's words into pause. Then she watched his face contorting with absolute rage, his pupils dilating and his bulging veins protruding from his flesh.
"Now I'm truly regretting all the times I've protected a sucker like you!"
His words stung hard, and any further argument died on her lips.
"You're the one who's a deadbeat failure!" His voice was not just frustrated any longer. It was serious, resentful and hateful. "YOU'RE weak and you've got no good points!"
Daki opened her mouth to protest and heard her own words ask, "But brot..." Then the words sunk down into her chest when Gyutaro shouted over her. "Why am I the one who has to clean up your damn messes!? If you weren't there, I would've had a different life!"
"If…I wasn't there? What is he talking about?" thought Daki. She flinched as the left side of her face completely disintegrated. Even though her lower body was disattached from her, Daki swore she felt the agonizing stinging in her heart and a nauseating churning in her stomach.
Her last eye; her right eye was blinking hard to keep her vision clear, but more tears kept surfacing the moment she banished the others away.
Gyutaro's following words choked her breath and made the tears streamed down her cheeks faster.
"If only you weren't there…! Things would've been great if you weren't even….bor…"
A calloused hand cupped over his mouth. Daki slowly lifted her head to face the sudden presence in the vicinity and met with the gentle red eyes of the young Demon Slayer crouched over him. "That's a lie…" The boy spoke in a soft, breathless voice. "It's all a lie…you honestly don't think that…"
Tanjiro….she believed it was his name. She didn't even know much about the boy, but what she did know flitted through her mind now. The human boy that she first encountered on her quest to seek out the Hashira. The one had been sparring moments before. From first glance, the boy seemed no different from the numerous forgettable Demon Slayers she fought throughout the centuries. A puny boy with wide eyes, visibly nervous with a flimsy Nichirin sword shaking in his trembling hands. Another candle with too short a wick destined to be snuffed out by the powerful prowess of an Upper Moon.
But Tanjiro was different; the boy proved himself to be a legitimate challenge to her. He was surprisingly nimble and skilled, and therefore formidable compared to the others.
And now, here he was; bloody and victorious, covering Gyutaro's mouth to stifle his words. For a moment, Daki wondered when Tanjiro would exact his revenge on them for their past battle. Pushing Gyutaro's severed head away, gouging their eyes out with a piece of shrapnel in arm's reach, or just laughing and mocking their pitiful predicament. Why not? He could practically do whatever he pleased to them at this point after all.
But all he did was speak. "All you siblings have left in this world are each other. You mustn't turn on each other. Stick...together till the end..."
For some reason, the calm, gentle tone of the boy's voice made Daki's anger and sorrow subside, and that hazy, latent terror within her was reawakened. "This sucks…this sucks….I don't want to…die…!" She cried out. A paroxysm of pain stung her throat and left her huffing for air. Her last eye wide with terror as she felt herself leaving this world faster now.
"Mmmph." Daki heard someone mumble beside her. Through a curtain of disheveled and dirty white hair, Ume found herself meeting the eyes of another familiar face; a pink-eyed black-haired girl donned in a pink kimono and a muzzle over her mouth.
The Accidental Demon. The brat that set her ablaze a few moments ago. She had returned to her petite form, no longer the towering, intimidating demon she fought before.
Damn it. How dare this brat approach me…after all the agony she put me through… Daki clenched her jaw in silent rage.
"Mmmph…Mmmph…" The girl continued to ramble on, her words inaudible.
"How…dare you…" She muttered through gritted teeth, every syllable sounding like a curse. She cast one murderous gaze with her single eye. The bitter resentment that pooled in her green eye leveled at the sparkling pools of delicate pink.
Her immaculate beauty, the simple sense of innocence just radiating off of her skin, her immense powers…
Everything about this demon made Daki's blood seethed to a pitch.
But before she could even conjure up her curses, she choked, panting and winched from her dissipation, but her face was one of deep hatred. Daki truly didn't understand why the girl was sitting next to her. What was her intention? Malice? Spite? Mockery? Or was she attempting to copy her human brother?
Daki could not tell from her simple expression. If the girl did have good intentions, it did not work. She definitely didn't provide her any source of comfort or peace. All the Accidental Demon's presence did was draw back all of the terrible memories of their previous battle.
The blood, the gruesome entrails, and her own bloodcurdling screams as the excruciating flames torched her flesh. Everything was still fresh in her memory.
A sharp wheeze stole Daki's attention, and she gladly tore her eye away from the Accidental Demon and back to her shouting brother and the heaving Demon Slayer bent over him.
"Go away, you shitty brat! Go somewhere else! Don't lecture us!" Gyutaro glared up at the boy, his muffled voice pierced through the air.
In the midst of her pain, Daki couldn't comprehend what was happening, she was totally dumbstruck that she could only stare into Tanjiro in complete silence.Why does he care so much? Why is he intervening after all that happened? It didn't make sense. We are dying anyway.
She was certain that the great injuries inflicted on him must be taking a heavy toll on him. His face was drawn up into a pained expression. His dark auburn curls were plastered to his forehead with sweat now, his features were full of agony, and they squeezed momentarily shut as a great shudder wracked his body.
Heaving a breath, the boy lifted up his head slightly to look at both siblings. Daki caught a glimpse of the boy's gleaming eyes. There was something special in his dark red eyes, a certain type of warmth that had her throat closing up. She couldn't help but to be fascinated by them. Never before had she seen a pair of human's eyes that were so expressive, articulating kindness and trust on their own, even after all she had done.
It was strange really. Daki was certain that she would be more repulsed by the thought of being lectured by some stranger. But instead she was just struck with this surreal sense of confusion. After all, this boy knew nothing of her and her brother's misfortune. They had lived a cursed life with only the emotions of anxiety, rage, hatred—emotions that they could never hold in and just embraced it.
What right does this boy have to advise them when he was ignorant of our past life? It's not his place to condemn us.
Then what Tanjiro said next struck her hard. "Just try to get along. Nobody's going to forgive you for what you've done. You're hated and despised by all those you've killed, and now they're disparaging you…" The boy let out a long, shaky breath that sounded like it caused him far too much pain. "No person will be your ally. That's why…the two of you shouldn't be cursing at each other right now."
His words were so overpowering and meaningful that it rendered both siblings speechless.
Daki blinked in an effort to clear away the brain fog that descended over her. Faces and names and events seemed to blur together in her mind in the heat of the moment. Gyutaro…Mother….the countless women and men she consumed during her first decades as a demon… her clients from the past and present….all of the beautiful women she had kidnapped and killed over the years to maintain her own beauty and status…All of their faces held that familiar look of horror in their eyes. The phantom pain-wrought screams of people… The glass-like eyes framed on their faces… The blood and unrecognizable corpses that rained down on the grounds… The memory of everything was still so palpable in her mind.
Instead of feeling that familiar pride, all Daki felt was a tidal wave of remorse washing over her.
Even as a demon, Daki always retained semblances of her human emotions, but she lacked most of her human memories. That was only internally though, a part of her that she had to master to repress her emotions that she shouldn't even have as a demon towards humans. She always knew the error of her ways but always refused to acknowledge them. There never seemed to be a point of it. It wasn't supposed to be in a demon's nature to feel so much regret; it was a weakness, Master Muzan would say. Demons do not have empathy or sympathy. Demons are supposed to be the primal predator, the best of the best, powerful and efficient and utterly ruthless.
And yet for what seemed like the first time ever, there was a blooming sense of guilt and regret started to fill up her heart. All of the actions she committed over the past few centuries all seemed to be a surreal dream to her now.
Daki flinched when a symphony of memories cut through the white noise of her mind. She remembered the tumbledown brothel where she once served her clients. She remembered her new client, a renowned Samurai, who had paid a hefty price for her services. He insulted her elder brother, whispering into her ear that her brother's twisted face disgusted him and she should be grateful that he found her so lovely. That a pretty girl as herself should be ashamed to be related to a whore's filth. For a long time, Daki had to remind herself to heed her elder brother's warnings of holding her sharp tongue and just listen. The Samurai had paid a great price for her, higher than any of her clients and this money could finally allow the two siblings to leave the gutter.
But the longer the Samurai spoke, the crueler his words became. He kept threatening that he would refuse his payment and take her after this appointment. Take her far away from the dirty district of prostitution and famine, and make her a beautiful, dutiful wife. And that she should be delighted that she would be free from that hideous monster of a brother.
Daki remembered how quickly she tried to crawl out from beneath him. The man tried to rise up and reach out to grab her, but not before Daki plucked out her little hairpin and jabbed the end of it into the Samurai's eye. Writhing in agony, the man fell to the floor with a strangled scream, right into a kneeling position before her. Daki yanked the tip of the pin out and the man started screaming. Blood had gushed from the man's eye as he collapsed to his side.
Daki stood over him, shaking and wrathful, the red hairpin tight in her hand. She backed away slowly to the door, not daring to take her eyes off the man for a second.
"Never speak of Oni-chan like that, you ugly bastard! I will never marry filth like you! I hope you die!" Daki heard her own squeaky voice screeching throughout the tiny room. "My brother is better than you! He is better than all of you combined. Never—"
Before Daki could react, the bleeding man was on top of her, choking the life right out of her. She was kicking and thrashing as hard as she could, but it was to no avail. The Samurai was far more stronger and bigger than her, and spared her no mercy as he proceeded to beat her senselessly. Slamming her head repeatedly into the floor and wall, kicking her in the ribs and calling her every sort of horrible name you can call a person. The beating finally ended when the man kicked her in the head and knocked her unconscious.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw the sight of the two towering figures of the Samurai and the Manager standing over the ditch that she'd had thrown in. The Samurai who had beaten her black and blue, was screaming out obscenities and curses as he tied thick gauze around his bleeding eye. He called her by her real name, Ume, over and over.
Ume was in unbearable pain, her skin raw and bleeding, her hands and legs were bound together by thick cloth, her mouth gagged. Yet she struggled, the adrenaline seemed to be burning through her veins like liquid fire. She was screaming as hard as she could through her restraints. Even though Gyutaro was out collecting debts, she hoped that he would hear her screams somehow.
But in the end, her screams and struggles were proven to be meaningless when the men set her on fire. The golden wind-kissed fire ravaged her world, as if the leaping flames had a terrible anger toward her. Everything was hot with agony. The air smelt and tasted like smoke as her whole world was darkened by the shadow of death.
Ume always heard the strong belief that there was a heaven and a hell. It was said that the kind, the innocent, the good people went to a blissful paradise, relishing in an eternal, peaceful afterlife. It was the condemned, the sinful, and the corrupted that went to the depths of hell.
But Ume knew with iron certainty however that there was hell in this world. She was born into it, witnessed it, lived it, raised in it, caused it even.
Why? She had asked herself many times throughout her life. Many times she wanted to damn whoever or whatever caused her and her brother's despair, screaming and cursing the high heavens above for condemning her to live like this.
It was so utterly unfair; everything. She never wanted to be like this. To be forced to fight tooth and nail to survive in a district of poverty and prostitution. To harbor such strong rage, resentment, and time-binding agony against those who were blessed with the happiness that she and her brother were never given a chance to grasp.
Throughout her life, she never wanted to kill, she never wanted to hate, and she never wanted to live in hell. All she had asked for was peace, happiness, and that sense of belonging. A peaceful, idyllic future for her and her brother to thrive in. However, it seemed that all those wishes were far beyond her reach.
All she knew now was the unforgivable frigid weight of death crushing her.
Charred beyond recognition, blinded, paraylzed with the painful fear of death, Ume clung to the thinning thread of life. There was a persistent acidic burn in her stomach. She could hear her drumming heart in her ears, could feel the hot, wet tears trailing down her cheeks. All her senses had been intensified, and her tears seemed to be searing into her skin as if to constantly remind her of her miserable fate.
She was helpless against death. Completely and utterly helpless.
Beaten, broken, dying…when will this ever end?
"Um..Ume..stay with me!"
The familiar sound of a male voice screeched in her eardrums. It was the raspy, hard voice of her elder brother. He was carrying her and running. His trembling arms were wrapped around her like a vice, tucked close to his chest. She could hear him gasping and puffing, shouting and screaming. He sounded so differently that she couldn't believe it was him. Her fearless, hard-boiled brother sounded as scared as a small child. He was pleading for help, desperate, terrified and hysterical. He was trying to save her life, save his little sister.
Tanjiro…is right….it was a lie….Gyutaro would never abandon me… That simple realization was enough to put her mind at ease, the tender memories of her protective older brother coming back to her and filling her with a gentle warmth.
And now all she wanted was her big brother to save her one last time.
"Save me!" Ume's pleas fell silent as she dissipated into nothing.
Next chapter is coming in mid-April. Reviews and thoughts.