All Kotoha did was fall through a pond and now she was here.
In the Taisho era filled with slayers and demons.
One such demon becomes interested in her when he discovers she lives again. Especially after he had killed her.
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Inuyasha inspired.
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Ra...
Inosuke tenses at seeing the demon begin to claw his head, distressed at whatever.
"Ah? What did you say, bastard?!" Those blasted colorful eyes glance at him, kanji orbs that are watery with tears and blood that had dipped into them.
"Kotoha, your son grew up to look just like you. He's beautiful!" The demon bangs his head against the wooden platform and with his neck exposed, Kanao is the better slayer than Inosuke, striking while she can. The Kizuki raises his fan and slashes at the slayer before summoning another wave of ice clones.
Inosuke raises his sword and begins to point at the demon who still has his mask.
"OI, Kotoha isn't my mother-!" The demon had appeared before him and had slashed him across his chest. Inosuke steps back, pain crossing his mind like lightning. Falling into the water of the platform.
Those eyes dried of tears as the demon looked down at him. —
"Yes, your mother is...was Kotoha. A young girl of seventeen who had come to my cult to save you from a cruel father." Douma digs his claws into his head once more, letting go of the boar mask. The mask sank into the water as more fighting began.
"Lovely voice your mother had." Reminiscing in his memories of times long ago. Of times when Kotoha remembered why she had come to him in the first place. To escape her husband who had wanted to permanently quiet Inosuke.
He twirls on the wooden path as the slayers go to destroy his clones. The splashing water echoed in his ears much like the water had when Inosuke landed in the river.
"Why, Why Kotoha?" Douma calls out to the ceiling, hoping for an answer. "You came to me for solace, asylum! From the bastard of a husband. For your baby boy!"
Douma twirls once more to block an attack from Kanao before summoning more clones.
"But then you had to come that night, see me eating one of my followers who wanted paradise."
Tears began to stream down his face once more.
"Kotoha, why did you run? Why did you make me kill you?" Douma feels his lips stretch into a grin as his vision begins to get blurry and his heart thunders.
Why were emotions so confusing?
"Kotoha...lovely Kotoha, even when I was devouring you, I wanted to hear one last lullaby." — Devouring.
Her heart shattered as all the new information came running through her mind.
She doesn't want to believe it.
But all the signs were there. Why he had been overly affectionate and how he knew her name. It's because he had known her before eating her.
Devastation of trust was thick as she watches the demon stumble around, a screw loose in his head as something had shattered with the reveal of Inosuke.
Her 'son' from another life.
Why did everything have to be this way?
— Kotoha.
Douma remembers a lotus flower being put in his hair and the soft lullabies of her singing.
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Kotoha...
A different memory comes to him, a recent one. Seeing her sing a different song. Lyrics with more meaning than the rhythms she used to sing. So much more knowledge than before.
Charming...Makes him feel dumb sometimes.
But she sometimes laughed at how stupid he was. She was concerned with what he ran and how he ran it.
How others felt over herself.
Kotoha-chan.
Kotoha of the past and Kotoha of the future weren't so different in his eyes.
But....
Douma coughs his lungs feeling like Akaza had punched through them. His blood art faulters as his creations melt at their sharp edges. The slayers shatter them, taking note of what was going on.
Kanao is the swiftest of the slayers, not hesitating to charge the demon.
Douma can't help but look at Kotoha as a smile comes to his lips. Even though the scream he can't bring himself to hear, Douma accepts his fate. Purple dripping from his smile as a blade reaches his neck.
That Butterfly hashira had poisoned him, weakening him right as he realizes many things so quickly.
His body and head don't land as one as he tries to think of what he will say to Kotoha who has gotten to her feet. Racing to his side his body was the first to fade away.
He's not wanting to go like this.
He had wanted to wait till the Reiwa era to explore it with Kotoha.
But...The thing about losing Kotoha of the past and knowing that she lives in the future means that in the present, the Taisho era....he can never have her. — "DOUMA!!!" The Kizuki demon of many decades falls with a thud as his pale skin that hasn't already been covered by purple begins to slowly decay away.
Scrambling to him, Kotoha picks up his head, his hair short without that signature long ponytail.
That smile doesn't have as much strength behind it as those colorful eyes look up at her.
She tries to clear the tears but she can't.
"Sorry, Kotoha-chan..." His fangs were stained purple and crimson as the base of his neck was the first to begin to go.
"Douma! Please, stay with me!" She had just gotten used to having him around, now why was he leaving her?!
Douma seems to gain a bit more strength at her outburst to chuckle.
"Kotoha, don't worry. I know I will see you again." Before she could question what he meant by that, his mouth was gone. His glorious hair was falling away to dust and the only thing she thought of was to press her forehead to what was left of his.
Douma takes one last look at Kotoha of the Reiwa era before fading away.
— Douma knew where he would end up, he's not surprised.
He stands in a sea of flames and all can do is begin to walk.
He'll serve his punishment for his life as a demon, hoping to burn away all his sins so he is clean for the next life.
— Inosuke though injured was able to lift his head to look to Kotoha.
No wonder she had been familiar to him, she was the spitting image of his mother!
Little relief came to his heart.
At least he had a chance to spend time with her.
— Kotoha reaches for Douma's fans as Kanao began to walk back to Inosuke. Her fingers were soon wrapped around gold and she couldn't help the tears that came down in streams.
He was gone.
Before her grief can truly engulf her, destiny decides to.
She could hear the bending of wood beneath her, the water of the lotus palace coming rushing under her platform.
Before either slayer could help, the boards below her broke and soon she was once again falling into the void of the infinity castle.
Yea....Douma's dead.
It was hard and it was bound to happen.
But the story isn't finished yet. -- Thoughts?
What do you think will happen as are story begins to come to a close?
