I have returned. Praise me, mortals.
-More info at end.
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"Make sure you're back soon, Y/N!" Carl, the early-thirties demon guard waved after me as I turned to exit through the gate, properly equipped with my mask, cloak, and pack, my smell properly concealed by a herbal ointment Mujika helped me remake, to last longer and conceal my... "delicious"... smell better than the one that the others used to use.
I simply nodded in response, for fear that my voice would fail if I tried to speak. The air outside was warm and humid, this area of the demon world being rather warm in August. My heavily-clothed outfit was suffocating in this heat, but I was far too distracted by my own thoughts to notice.
Sonju was right when he accused me of not thinking of anyone since being left behind. Since the first month, at least. But I hated the feeling it would give me- the ache that spread through my body and the squeezing in my heart. It was disgusting and painful.... so I pushed it aside.
I found other things to focus on. Doing my best to please X. Researching about demon culture. I tried to forget about everything related to them. The half-assed plan I left behind... and the feelings that came with remembering everyone. 'But...' My pace began to slow, many demons flitting around me in the midsummer heat, the marketplace always alive. 'I don't think missing them was the only reason I pushed it aside.'
I stared at the ground, my heart picking up speed as I uncovered the thoughts I'd held concealed. 'I'm not thinking about them... because if I think about them... then I have to consider the possibility that that... was the last time...'
My thoughts were cut off by a figure slamming into me, and I stumbled backwards from the sudden hit momentarily before steadying myself. The demon who ran into me fell roughy onto the ground, apples spilling all over the street, the bustling demons kicking them about.
I knelt to the ground without thinking, and began scooping the bright red fruits up and placing them in the basket as I set it upright, before any more demons could kick them about.
"Thank you." The voice of a young girl spoke frantically as she took the basket from me. "You didn't need to go so far-" She apologized profusely.
"Oh, it's fine." I waved her worries away absent-midedly, grateful for the distraction from my thoughts- and guilty for that.
Although I say "young girl" the demon looked to be around my age- easily older in human years- although she'd certainly lived a lot longer than any normal human's lifespan. "It was my fault too, I wasn't paying attention." I responded quickly, pursing my lips as another demon bumped into my shoulder in their rush.
"Here, I'll buy you lunch in thanks-" They offered up, brushing off her long yellow skirt that swayed around her ankles, and pulling her long blue-haired ponytail off of her shoulder.
"No, I'm okay-" I sweatdropped, but was quickly cut off by the eager demon grabbing hold of my hands.
"I insist!" She exclaimed, releasing one of my hands and dragging me away with the other, her grip showing no sign of loosening as she walked briskly. "Let's go somewhere less busy."
"O-okay??"
I followed the demon as she dragged me through several alleyways, until we arrived at a small beige-bricked- much like all the buildings in demon civilization- fairly-new café, with outdoor seating. "I'll pay." The girl grinned. "you go pick a seat."
I nodded hesitantly before wandering over to a seat on the front of the building, tapping the table with a sigh. "What have I gotten myself into..." I mumbled, quiet enough that none of the demons overheard me. "X did tell me to make friends- or find people to do a sleepover with..., though..."
"Sorry, do you have somewhere to be?" The demon asked at the sight of my impatiently tapping finger. She stood beside me, a platter of sandwiches in her hand.
"Oh, no." I ceased my tapping. "I'm completely free." I stared at the girl in better lighting, taking notice of her purple skin and blue-hair that was almost a shade of green, pulled back into a ponytail. Her outfit was a long-yellow skirt under a black cloak, the hood pulled down from her face and resting on her shoulders.
The demon smiled gratefully and set down a sandwich platter. "That's good. Oh!" She exclaimed suddenly and I recoiled in shock. "I haven't asked your name!"
I blinked before rubbing the back of my nape. "Yeah..."
"I should introduce myself first." The girl offered. "I'm Cozbi, nice to meet you!" Cozbi stuck out her six-fingered hand, and I shook hers in response, my human hands concealed by fabric sewn into the sleeve.
"Yeah. Likewise." I shifted uncomfortably under the girl's expectant gaze, wondering what I could say to her. "I'm-"
"Oh, your hair-!!" Cozbi exclaimed, gesturing to a strand of my white hair that came unconcealed by my hood. I quickly recovered it, tucking it into my hood tightly. "Sorry, I interrupted you-" The girl apologized again.
"No, it's okay." I reassured her once again with a cheesy grin- although under my full-face mask it lay covered. "I'm Y/N. Nice to meet you."
"...You're...Y/N?!?" Cozbi exclaimed after a moment's pause, slamming her hands on the table as she stood up from her seat. "With the hair and name- are you the Y/N?!" She asked. "The daughter of the queen, Y/N?!"
I froze in momentary shock. "I mean- yeah-" I chuckled nervously before noticing what I'd unintentionally confirmed. "Wait, but I'm not the daughter of Mujika-"
"I RAN INTO A PRINCESS-?!!?" Cozbi was too far gone to listen to me as she exclaimed in shock. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry-"
"I'm not a princess-" I tried again. "And it was my fault for standing in the middle of the road like a dumb*ss." I finished, standing up as well.
"I see." Cozbi sighed, sitting back down, myself following suit. I shifted uncomfortably under the nearby demon's gaze, attention drawn to me by Cozbi's outburst. 'If any of them find out I'm human, I'm dead. Is my disguise secured properly? Is the ointment working well?-' "But if you're not the princess, what are you?" The sweet demon girl inquired curiously, with a tilt of her head.
"Oh, just a distant relative." I explained quickly, waving my hand, appearing nonchalant despite my sweaty palms. It was far too hot outside to be wearing a thick cloak.
"A relative?" Cozbi asked. "Wasn't anyone related to the evil blooded exterminated?"
'Did the demon mass know about that?'
"I'm a relative of Sonju, not Mujika. And I'm such a distant one that I'm not even considered royalty. My family were workers at a human farm, and were killed during the recent attacks, so I moved in with Sonju." I quickly made up an explanation.
Lying came easier to me with each passing day.
"That makes sense." Cozbi accepted my fable with a nod, leaning backwards in her chair to look at the sky. I caught sight of a small line of black just around her collarbone, but she sat up quickly, and it was re-concealed under her robe collar. "But you may as well be a princess anyway, considering you'll be the next queen." She finished with an excited giggle.
I laughed nervously, rubbing the back of my neck and tearing my gaze away from the strange marking I'd seen, which reminded me of Sonju's. 'I should ask him about that. Is it a tattoo?' "Yeah, I guess..." I murmured, although I was well aware both Mujika and Sonju would long outlive me, with the lifespan of a demon being what it is. "Well then, I guess I should get back to the castle..." I muttered, pushing back my seat from the table.
"Oh!" Cozbi exclaimed once again, her constant happy energy reminding me of- My stomach suddenly sank again, as I unintentionally thought of one of those I'd been working so hard to push away from my thoughts 'After all that time... why am I failing to do so now? Just a little longer, Y/N. You'll find a way. So wait until then to start thinking about them again.' "Do you think I could come visit the castle sometime?" Cozbi asked, practically buzzing with excitement across from me.
I paused, preparing to decline as I turned to her, before remembering my "promise" with X. "...Yeah, sure." I answered tiredly, trying for a small smile.
"HOORAY-!!" The demon cheered, pumping her fists into the air.
I thought for a second, tilting my head. 'If I'm going to be bringing strangers to the castle anyway, I may as well just-' "Bring any female...ish?... friends around your age when you do, if you'd like, and you can all stay the night." I smiled. 'I'm sure a sunshine girl like her has a good friend-group anyway.'
"I can't wait!" Cozbi grinned. "See you then, Y/N-!! I'll show up after a month or two!" I nodded to myself, considering once again about how a month or so for demons is a short period of time, like a day for humans. They live for thousands of years, after all.
I turned away and walked back through the busy city, leaning against a wall of an alleyway after some time, under the beating sun. "I wonder if there's some other way I can disguise myself without this incredibly-warm outfit..." I hummed to myself tiredly.
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"A... sleepover?" Mujika asked curiously, while I leaned back in my chair, staring up to the high ceiling as I rocked on the back legs.
"Yeah." I grumbled, throwing another piece of popcorn in the air and catching it in my mouth. Of course, upon learning about the corn-like plant in the demon world, I introduced the snack to the chefs, who immediately started producing them, and over the past year "popped-corn" has become a revolutionary and popular snack among the capital city.
"Will they not find out you're a human?" Sonju asked nervously. "Or do you have some plan to keep that from happening."
I raised my eyebrows. "I do not have any plan regarding that matter, in fact. I'll be asking X about it soon, because they have a plan. They better, this time, or I might just wrangle that skinny little neck of theirs-" I hissed, before tossing and catching another piece of popcorn in my mouth.
"You do realize that's a...god... you're making fun of, right?" Sonju asked.
"Yeah, what of it?" I responded curtly with a raise of my eyebrows, continuing to munch on my popcorn in the most haphazard and obnoxious way possible, as one does.
"Nothing. Just checking." The demon then stood up from his chair, reaching to grab his cloak from the hanger.
"Going somewhere?" I asked simply, although I didn't particularly care for his answer.
Sonju turned around for a moment. "Just some business. Then I'm going to bed. You should too-" The demon began to grin evilly. "Because you're going to have one hell of a day tomorrow, as promised."
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"Okay, Okay I'm done, I'm done-" I wheezed, raising my hands in defeat, my weapon clattering down to the ground.
"Awh. Already?" Sonju frowned, setting down his spear butt on the ground and leaning on it.
"Dude." I raised my eyebrows, staring at my companion. "Do I look like I still have any energy to continue?"
Sonju looked me up and down before giving me his signature sh*t-eating grin. "Yeah. On your feet."
"Sonju, I know you're still butthurt I managed to get a hit in, but I can't move-" The demon responded with a straightforward lunge, which I barely managed to slip out of the way of and still remain on my feet.
"See?" The demon grinned. "You dodged another one."
"You f*cker-" After a quick pause he sent another jab at my head, in response to which I simply sat on the ground, showing no intent of moving.
"...fine. We'll take a quick break." Sonju frowned like a hurt child- which is ironic, because that's exactly what I was, quite literally- and slumped to the ground.
I took a long swig of my water bottle and groaned, convinced I was bruised in several places. And that several internal organs may be f*cked. "As promised", Sonju had dragged me out of bed bright and early- although considering the sun had yet to rise, it couldn't even be called that.
We then- after stretching- which was torture for my still-sore muscles- had to run throughout the empty capital- with this douchebag of a demon calling insults and laughing maniacally the whole time. Then, once we were done that, we did what he called a "warm up", which consisted of things not even Yuugo ever made me do,- like planks with the massive f*cking demon on my back as he munched on my secret chip stash. Followed by push ups with Mujika sitting on me, who at least fretted about being too heavy, the sweet and adorable queen.
But wait, there's more. Handstands. And walking on my hands. Then, Sonju would knock me down repeatedly, sweeping my legs out from underneath me before I could fully regain my balance.
And then, the *sshole thought it would be fun to toss me into the air like a sack of potatoes to "increase my ability to right myself from any position". Considering the gleeful grin on his face, I'm not convinced it wasn't just for the hell of "Forget pigs, let's see if humans can fly!!"
Following that, we did hand-to-hand combat. And now, weapons sparring.
And it was only like 2:00 pm. "Alright. 10 minutes seems like a long enough break. Get your *ss up, and we're going to work on flexibility." Sonju brushed his hands while standing up.
"On...what?" I stared at him, wide-eyed, as I pushed myself to my feet.
"Well, we've done balance, strength, and aerobic workouts." Sonju counted on his fingers. "So naturally, now we need to do flexibility." The demon stared at me for a moment. "Oh, don't give me that look. If you want to be able to worm your way out of whatever situation Leuvis' attacks will force you into, it's important."
"But like- how flexible. Touch-your-toes flexible, splits flexible, or like-?"
Sonju paused, tapping his chin. "Well I mean- can you do this?" The demon bent down and placed his forearms on the ground, before lifting his lower body from the ground, and placing his feet on either side of his head, his butt brushing against his red hair.
"What-" I stuttered as Sonju made his legs go cross-legged and rested them on top of his head. "I don't- where did your bones even go??"
"Your turn." Sonju quickly righted himself onto his feet.
"Oh no. Nonono n o. Unlike demons, I have bones that apparently can't bend 360 degrees, like you've just demonstrated. There's no way-"
-"Okay, then instead of flexibility we can completely cut sweets out of your diet."
"...I hate you."
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Sheesh, it's been awhile, besties. Anyhow, No, I am not done the book. But my anxieties have been mostly weeded out, so I'm going to be going back to usual. No, I will not be going back to my hellish schedule of updating daily. Yes, that used to be a thing. I don't know how.
I will be updating a bare minimum of once a month, but we'll see how it goes, LOL.
Also, 199K reads???? Jesus Christ. Maybe I'll consider some celebratory art. Here are your options:
-New cover
-drawings of all the upcoming demon oc's
-other (Leave suggestions here, I'll probably choose my own though)
2,600~ words.
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