𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐌𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 | 𝑺.𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒛𝒖𝒈𝒂𝒘𝒂

𝟏𝟔 | 𝐀 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

The demon king himself shared his blood, and understood her feelings. He told her she would make a powerful demon. To that end, he informed her, she must devour as many humans as she could.

Her blood red eyes flicker softly, "What do you think my first meal was?" She asks, rhetorically with a wide sadistic grin. "Sae's corpse."

Feeling my stomach churn in response, I tried to hold back my disgust. 

"Since then, I've snatched up so many, so very many children. I eat them, return them to the womb, make them my own. At last I've given this house a happy family," She turns to Masachika. "You see, it's easy to find a way into the hearts of children who have been hurt. If their parents won't love them, they'll turn to anyone who will. More than one of my little ones has clung to me, thanking me, right up to the moment I swallowed them. Truly a blessing. I've been so happy....." She pauses for a moment, glaring towards Masachika.

"......But I have no place for a child who holds his head high and meets a parents eyes without dear. I prefer someone like your friend here....." Ubume glances back at me with a blood-red smile endless warmth, "You're hurting, my child. Not just your body, but your heart as well. I can always tell when a child comes from cruel parents. I want to comfort you. I want to love you."

Masachika seemed to not utter a word, but instinctively launches an attack with every ounce of his strength. "Wind Breathing: Third Form! Clear Storm Wind tree!!!!"

For a moment Ubume tried to deflect his sudden attack, but the power of the attack he had launch overwhelmed the demon. Hearing the tearing of the flesh of her arm, tumbled along the tatami floor. Her cold ice gaze glanced back nonchalantly towards her arm, before returning back to Masachika.

The fury in his eyes sent a shiver down my spine, "Sanemi's no pitiful child! Not even close. His mom loved him. She loved her sons from the bottom of her heart," his voice surfacing with warmth and a wave of emotion. 

"Masachika....." I utter my breath.

"You don't even know the first thing about him, you wretched demon!!!!" He continues on, trembling with burning rage. "Don't drag your filth over his memories!"

"Masachika! It's okay!" placing my hand upon his shoulder with assurance, with an unusual gentleness in my touch to melt away his anger.

"Sanemi...."

With a light scoff, "What's with that look?" Giving him a crooked smile, raising a brow. "I swear, you come from a different world. I can't count how many times you have jabbered on with their pet theories about me like they had some amazing insight. That includes my own dad. You can't take it seriously," my voice softens for a moment. "I've never thought I was pitiful."

Masachika slowly comes in to consideration, that he didn't have to assume so much. 

"Anyway......" raising my Nichirin blade, I turn back and aimed the tip pointing at the one-armed Demon. "Sorry to disappoint you, but you had me wrong from the start. I don't need an angel of mercy, and I can see the stinking demon you really are."

She smiles, "I suppose this means you won't play nicely," with a subtle sigh. "It really is too bad. I think we'd make a lovely mother and son."

"Shut up!" Masachika spat.

"It's over," I told her, angling my blade in her direction. "With your illusions gone, I can hack you into bits."

"Perhaps you can," Ubume says, before swiftly grabbing her up from the floor. She pressed it lightly against the stump from where Masachika slice off. Yet within the blink an eye the flesh surged from the seam and fused the limb into place. Her regeneration was fast, to prove how much she has consumed over the days, no, years of children. Faster than any demon I've encountered.