„Wait, if I am your wife, does that make you a demon king?" Ningyou tilted her head to the side in confusion. „Since I am replacing the Muzan dude as a main demon." A/N: Having enough lives to dare risking one, few years after Muzan's death, Ningyou decided to check if his curse still worked and it turned out that now it was safe to mention his name.
„I guess so."
„Crap, you are my superior, again. I am going to call you Tamio–sama from now on..."
„That is needless." Enmu shook his head, continuing to walk until he noticed that Ningyou was not following him. He stopped, looking behind, „What is wrong, hm? Trying to get a better view of my butt?"
„No, I was thinking."
„What could be more important than my butt?" He raised his eyebrows doubtfully.
„Just wondering if Ayako–chan still lives there... not sure if I can remember her address at this point, though."
„Who is that?"
„The little girl who helped me discover a lot of stuff about my blood demon art."
„Ah, the one you wanted to see before we would begin our journey?"
„Yes. I gave her a normal puppet that resembled me, instead of transformed one. I had to take the transformed poppet with me since I was unsure if there is a distance limit, when it comes to my blood demon art. Besides, even if I can resurrect very far away, it would be a pain to appear far from you, not to mention that I need my puppets close to replace them often. That was not all, I needed to say goodbye to them, too."
„Y/N. You are getting too attached to food. Humans are so fragile... They will die and you will be sad, as much as you are hot when you are suffering, if you will decide to keep bringing your human friends back to life, someone is going to notice it and question stuff." Enmu rolled his eyes. A/N: After they began traveling, Enmu lied to Y/N that he recognized her instantly when he was resurrected, so she would not get foolishly jealous of her human self. Now Y/N does not care that much whether he calls her Y/N or Ningyou so he calls her both.
„I know, I know..." Ningyou sighed in defeat, continuing to follow him.
„You have me. I will never leave your side. Is not that enough?"
„It is more than enough. I do not care about others that much."
* * *
Next day, Ningyou headed back to Satoko's place with necessary tools. Enmu followed her too, in case she would forget directions or get in trouble.
Ningyou went in Satoko's son's room, placing the puppet under a blanket to give child some privacy when he would come back to life.
„Mom! Who are these strange people? What is happening? I was combing my hair just now, what am I doing in my bed? Where are my clothes?" As Ningyou calculated, only his head was visible from the blanket.
„That is a long story, do not worry about it." Ningyou said.
„It was only a dream, actually, you went to the bathroom, but you were too tired so you fell asleep in the bathtub. Your mother carried you here and we are just... guests." Enmu added, smiling.
„We will go outside now, get dressed." Satoko smiled, trying to appear calm.
They left child's room.
„It is really him? He will stay alive, right? It is not some temporary spell, no? This is not an illusion, is it?"
„No, it is not. And I am still alive fifty years after she resurrected me." Enmu replied. „Yes, I was dead too."
„You will have to fake his identity or keep him hidden, though." Ningyou added.
„I know... I will send him abroad to his father, telling him that I had to stage his death for his safety. We are divorced and my husband moved to Thailand three years ago." Satoko easily came up with a plan. „When do you want to see all of my apartments, so you can choose one of them?"
„We will return later, I assume you will want to spend time with your child."
„That can wait, I want to do my part."
„So practical. Scary, she reminds me of Muzan." Ningyou whined quietly.
„Alright then, let us go and see them right now." Enmu shrugged, „Sooner the better. Less time to spend at our temporary shelter."
„First house was prettiest." Ningyou stated after exploring all of the apartments in the city that were owned by Satoko.
„Fine then, I will pack my belongings and move to another apartment."
„You can stay if you want, if you will not bother us with a loud music or something, house is huge, we can live in the other end of it." Ningyou offered, „But you will have to move if I will find your presence bothersome."
„Alright."
„This makes stuff easier anyway, I can access your money better if we will live together." Voodoo demon smiled cheerfully, clapping her hands.
* * *
Months passed after Ningyou resurrected Satoko's son. Three of them lived together now and Satoko's child stayed with his father. Satoko seemed to grow fond of Ningyou, after the voodoo demon brought back her son. She treated Ningyou like her daughter, even though physically she was only ten years older than the demon and chronologically she was younger than Ningyou. Satoko appeared to be very protective of her, however, she did not trust Enmu at all.
„This is the fourth bed this month, cannot you be more careful or at least do not buy most expensive furniture?" Satoko groaned. She was awakened by the noise of loaders bringing furniture in her house. Satoko hatefully glared at Enmu who stood nearby, giving instructions to the loaders.
„Why am I the only one getting scolded? My wife participated in breaking them too and most importantly, she is the one choosing furniture. Are you picking on me? What is your problem? You should be thankful I introduced you to my wife." He whined.
„I do not like you and I do not like the way you treat her. You are abusive."
„Eh? She is the abusive one. I am not the one, beating her up."
„Well, maybe she would not attack you, if you stopped giving her nightmares about insects and stuff."
„But she looks so cute when she wakes up terrified... and besides that happens very rarely... once in two weeks or so."
„What is with all the angry noises?" Ningyou complained, approaching them.
„Nothing important. I happened to notice that the two of you broke one more expensive bed... There are people in my house, bringing another bed, deemed to be destroyed, so I decided to confront your husband about treating you properly."
„Oh, that is fine, I do not mind that kind of treatment." Ningyou blushed, whispering „We are demons, so I am not really hurt or anything."
„Exactly. I always stop when she says „Dawn". I would never hurt my wife more than she allows me to." Enmu nodded.
„No need to go in details." Voodoo demon facepalmed.
„Yeah, that is true." Satoko agreed.
„Whatever, I will go, tell those people where to place that bed." Enmu shrugged, walking away.
„Why are you letting him treat you like that?"
„Like what?"
„He is toxic as hell and enjoys your suffering. He does not deserve you."
„I do not mind it." Ningyou shrugged, „Sure, he can be a piece of shit... but he does magic with his meat..."
„You associate abuse with love, because you grew up in a toxic family, but this is very wrong, Ningyou, he is not good for you and your relationship with him is very unhealthy."
„Oh, shut up! Nobody asked you to play a therapist." The voodoo demon rolled her eyes, following her husband.
„You seem tensed." Enmu whispered, hugging her, „Want to try the new bed?"
„Where are those people?"
„They left."
„Hopefully you did not eat them."
„You think I would eat them without sharing?"
„That is not it; I just do not want to grab unnecessary attention, some demon hunters may still be alive, they could have trained their descendants too, just in case."
„You are overthinking."
„And you are becoming reckless." Ningyou frowned, freeing herself from his grasp.
„Not feeling like trying the new bed yet, eh? Is it because of Satoko's drama? Want to do it somewhere else, then?"
„No, Satoko will get mad again, did not she say, we should not do that kind of stuff everywhere?"
„I think she said we should lock the door first."
„No, she said „If you have to taint every room, at least look the door first" or something like that."
„Same thing. Who cares about what she has to say, anyway? She can die mad about it. That would be fun." He kissed her neck, making her shiver.
„Satoko is a very helpful ally, that is why I accepted her to keep her hair strand and resurrect her after she will die. She promised she would fake her identity easily, so no one would suspect a thing while she would continue helping us."
„We do not need her, we can find another ally."
„Why should we bother with getting know of new, questionable people when we can keep trustworthy and useful companion?"
„Ah cute, you found a new mommy to compensate for not having proper one as a kid."
„What the fuck?! Everyone is playing my therapist this evening! You know, you all can fuck off."
„I rather fuck you."
„I do not want it."
„You want it. You are just being petty." Enmu raised his left hand, knocking her out with his spell and catching her unconscious body.
„That is what offender would say... wait am I asleep? What the hell are you planning?!" Ningyou frowned, continuing their conversation in her dream which did not differ from reality, except they were both awake in it.
„Do not compare me with pathetic humans. I can actually learn your deepest desires, thanks to my power. That is what I am doing right now, I was worried that you did not find me attractive anymore... you are lying, just as I thought. You are still into me, in fact, you want me badly. However, if you rather lie and torture me along with yourself, I will not keep insisting on having fun with you, despite being sure that it is consensual. It would not feel quite right."
„Whatever." Ningyou opened her eyes because the sleep demon cancelled his spell right after finishing his words.
„WHO?" Satoko stormed in the room furiously.
„Eh?" Enmu glared at her.
Ningyou stared at the ceiling for some reason.
„WHO DID THIS?"
„If you mean the train statue I got from the auction..." Enmu started.
„No I mean something worse! Which one of you had the brilliant idea of ordering a strapon with my name?!"
„Why are you looking at me?" Ningyou protested, glaring back at Satoko.
„Because I obviously do not need it?" Enmu glanced at the voodoo demon.
„Who knows? Maybe you are giving me a hint."
„Is that so?" He raised his eyebrow. „I thought it was the other way around."
„Maybe someone decided to prank Satoko."
„Sure." Enmu laughed.
„This is not funny! Maybe you are shameless, but I am not! This is not good for my reputation." Satoko snapped.
„I do not see how is it my fault." He shrugged.
„You two are just too much, I cannot believe you have been together over fifty years, you act like you have a honeymoon." Satoko walked out, still whining and grumbling.
„So... now that she left... do you want to say something? Or... maybe do something." Enmu smiled slyly.
„I think I will sleep."
„You want to try stuff in dreams first?"
„What? No. I feel less hungry after waking up. I noticed it when you were dead and I was trying to see you in a dream." Ningyou said, sitting down on the bed, „Maybe, if I will take a nap, I will hurt less people... all these years, I was telling to myself that I did a good job, getting rid of criminals, but what if demon hunters had a point? What if I am a monster? I have killed people for pettiest reasons too, when I was hungry. Just because they annoyed me in a way... back then I thought that it served them right but... after calming down and thinking about it... maybe I overreacted a bit. Hideo and Kenichi died because of me, I saw it in my diary... I used to think that they were being dramatic, but... I lost count how many people I ate."
„How adorable of you, trying to eat exceptionally rotten people and avoid feeling guilty." Enmu laughed, „Reminds me of old times. You have not changed at all, Y/N. You are still that pathetic demon hunter I fell for. You poor thing... too murderous to be a nice person you want to be and too nice to be a proper demon... you are such an abnormality... you do not belong anywhere, other than my arms."
„Good thing that it is my favorite place." Ningyou smiled, pulling him close and kissing his lips. Of course she wanted to escape from guilt. She did not want to become like the people she hated.
„Actually, that is something I cannot understand." Enmu mumbled.
„Hm?"
„You always hated those who harm others, yet, here I am. Why did you resurrect me? Why? Why did you fall for me?"
„I do not know. I guess you are too cute to die. I... I do not think that you are necessarily mean. Just a bit too crazy... You are a lot like a cat... sly and playfully terrifying to its prey, but also cute. Not sure. I just could not resist your cuteness, I guess." Ningyou sighed, hugging him, „You are so important to me. Way more important than the people you eat. It may be selfish, but I cannot help it. I just want you to be happy and I love you the way you are, so I will never try to change you, though it would be cool if you would not eat nice people anymore. There are plenty of shitheads to mess with, do not you think so?"
„You think there are people who are too nice to be eaten by your standards, Y/N?" Enmu rolled his eyes. „They are all same. They would do anything for their selfish desires, given the opportunity. You should not feel guilty for eating."
„I know, I know that, but..."
„You already tried to keep resurrecting the marechi after eating him and you temporarily lost your ability. Remember how scared you were when you thought that you could never come back to life again? You cannot transform puppets without killing people, you know it. That is the point of sacrificial puppets, offering two spirits for one. That is why you stay weak, while I keep getting stronger, not only your blood demon art takes the souls of your victims, it is also draining your energy with every use. Now you want to spend your life sleeping and starving yourself? Bullshit!"
„No, I just plan to take a little nap every morning so I can control hunger and kill only those who really deserve it. You should try it too. I do not see the reason to be desperate for gaining power, we do not need to fight, anymore, we can eat just enough to kill hunger. Come, cuddle with me. Let us sleep together." Ningyou unbuttoned his coat, leaving his shirt on.
She learned a lot of things about her blood demon art in five decades. One hair strand could have been used only for once. Nothing would happen after attaching hair strands from two or more people on the same puppet. It was also useless to pin two hair strands of the same person on one puppet, if they did not leave person's head at the same time or after very short delay (less than one second).
To check if her poppets were safe at their hiding spots, without visiting them, Ningyou was occasionally trying to transform a new one, failed attempt indicated that she still had four poppets transformed. Of course, she was aware that this method of checking the safety of her poppets was not perfect: They might have been moved to unsafe area without receiving any damage. If all of them were collected and stored inside of a cardboard box, placed under direct sunlight, her very first resurrection would destroy the box and she would die finally, with no chance to return.
Limit of Ningyou's transformed puppets grew from four to six. She noticed it when she was checking the condition of her poppets with an usual method. After checking all of her hideouts and finding her four puppets unharmed, she realized that now she could transform more than four of them.
„I cannot sleep," She sighed, sitting up.
„Need help?" Enmu yawned. Looks like his attempt of falling asleep was going more successfully.
„Nah, I am good." Ningyou sighed, grabbing a photo album to pass time. Before they would start journey fifty years ago, she asked Enmu where he could have saved the pictures they took together. Enmu had no memories of it, since they took pictures after he gifted Y/N his hair, however he remembered where he placed pretty train pictures usually and when he checked that shelf, he found their pictures too, as he expected. „Hah... we were pretty cute together for enemies, were not we?"
Enmu has not answered, he was already asleep.
„So cute." Ningyou mumbled, putting album back and watching him sleep. He looked so adorable and innocent when he slept. Just like he did when he was smiling sweetly, though some of his smiles were pretty deranged. Nevertheless, Ningyou loved all of his smiles without exception.
Ningyou wanted to hug him but she was afraid of waking him up, so she looked around to find something new for passing time. She could not find anything fun. She only noticed another album where Enmu glued his hair strands daily, so Ningyou could use latest one if he would die again and he would return without losing too much memories. Ningyou sighed, she was kind of envious of Enmu, he had it easy. All he needed was doing this, while she had to head for puppet's hiding spot, destroy it, store her latest memories in new one and leave it in another hideout. She had to repeat this over and over again. It was simply exhausting, not only transforming a puppet literally drained her power, but also she hated too much walking.
She sighed again, carefully snuggling up against her husband and finally falling asleep.