『 whaaat?? double update?? well, it kinda is since I updated yesterday too lol
I guess I finally got a bit inspired after dissapearing for like a month!
hope you enjoy the chapter, and as always, thanks for not leaving despite the updates not being as frequent as before <33 』
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“Okay Y/N, don't freak out, don't freak out-”
Y/N was aware that Douma was the type who liked to play mind-games with her, if she panicked over everything he said she would probably be dead a long time ago.
So, she took a deep breath and started to organize her thoughts after calming down enough.
'If he wants me to go to Daki, then there are two possibilities :
One : He hurt her in the same way he most likely hurt Akaza and wants me to see it.
Or..
Two : Daki lied to me.
Yeah… both sound completely awful.' She shuddered.
Even so, this was not the time to just think! She will worry about Daki betraying her or not later, now she needs to confirm that she's okay!
With this in mind, she immediately ran off to Daki's room.
Her breathing was frantic as she stood in front of the place, carefully opening the door…
It was empty.
Even so, she went inside, exasperatedly looking around in hopes that she just didn't see the demon at first.
But she wasn't there.
'This can't be happening- this can't be-' It was getting harder to breathe, it felt like the walls were closing around her and the room was getting smaller and smaller-
“Y/N?”
Her voice made Y/N snap-out of her panic.
Daki was standing there, carrying flowers in her hands. “Sorry, I didn't know you were coming- Eek!” Y/N tackled her into a hug.
“Daki! You're okay!” She cried. “I thought you were- I-”
“I-I'm sorry?” She confusedly apologized, patting Y/N's back. “Since I'm not like Nezuko, I can only walk around during night- I generally spend time with older brother in the garden, I thought you knew about it-”
“You don't need to- sniff- explain it to meee-”
“Why are you still crying, then?”
“It's just-”
'Wait.' Y/N froze. 'If Daki is fine, then that means…'
“There there, are you better now? Jeez, I won't know what to do if my clothes get stained with your snot-” Daki mumbled, still gently patting her back.
“Daki…” Y/N whispered, letting go of her and instead delicately resting her hands on the demon's shoulders. “In that day when Akaza got missing… what really happened?”
“…!!” She jolted, and then started to babble while awkwardly avoiding eye-contact : “W-what do you mean? I already told you what happened, r-right?”
“… I already know that your version of the facts wasn't exactly what happened, I promise I won't be mad at you, so can you please tell me?” Y/N pleaded.
“.....” Daki's expression quickly gloomed. “I'm truly sorry, Y/N. What happened is….
.
.
.
Y/N left Douma with Daki and went to the training.
After they were alone, he still had this creepy smile that made her shudder.
“…why are you here for?” She asked, quizzically staring at him as she hugged herself from fear.
“Don't worry! I came in peace!” His face quickly changed to a confused one. “Wait, did I? I guess I came in peace!”
“Decide yourself!” Daki exclaimed back, irritated.
“Whoa! Calm down here!” He raised his hands like he was admitting defeat. “I'm not here for you anyway.”
“Huh?”
Just as the demon was about to question what he meant, Akaza entered the room.
Daki still didn't trust him completely, so she couldn't but feel wary with both of them inside her room, knowing that they could get rid of her at any second.
However, a fight didn't happen, what happened was that Douma approached Akaza and started to quietly say something to him.
She wanted to approach them more, she wanted to hear what they were saying, but when the girl tried to move, her body didn't budge.
She exasperatedly looked down, her legs were trembling like her feet were frozen in the ground
Oh. She was too scared to move.
Daki looked up at them again, the demon saw Akaza's eyes widen in surprise for a split-second, before his expression dropped to a cold one.
'What are they talking about…?'
“... Understood.” Akaza mumbled, clenching his first while coldly looking down.
“Glad we had this conversation!” Douma cheerfully responded, trying to pat his shoulder in a friendly way only to receive a slap. “Oh my, still aggressive?”
He didn't respond, only turning away and walking past Daki, opening the window of the room and seeming to be about to get outside.
'Y/N… you're such an idiot… I told you that you shouldn't trust him…' she blankly watched him leave.
'But…'
Everything seemed to progress in slow-motion to her.
'Even after all I did, she still believed in me…
So…
If there's any chance that he might be good, then-'
Her legs finally moved, as she ran up to the demon and grabbed his arm to stop him from leaving. “W-… Why?! Why are you leaving?!”
Akaza looked back at her, dumbfounded at the girl's actions. “Can't you see? I'm going back to where I came from.” He coldly responded.
“This- This isn't right! If you do this- sniff- You're going to make her hate you!” Daki wanted to be strong, she really wanted to be able to say the rights things at this moment, but she couldn't.
“That's just how things are.” If Akaza was hurt by the thought of Y/N hating him, he didn't let it show, since he started to turn away again.
“This can't be!” Daki cried, tightening her grip on him. “She brought you here with her because she trusted you! It's true that I don't believe, and probably nobody else from the corps believe that you're a good person, but she DOES! Why are you leaving?! You can't simply go away like thi-”
He didn't let her finish, pushing Daki away so harshly that she fell down on the floor, she stared in shock at him, she couldn't read his expression as he once again turned away and left through the window.
Her surprised expression turned to an angry one, as she ran to the window and screamed, not even knowing whether he was close enough to hear it or not : “I'M NOT FORGIVING YOU FOR THIS!! YOU- YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT-!”
Daki couldn't stop crying, and it's not like she cared about Akaza, but she just couldn't bear with the thought of how Y/N's expression would be when she discovered this.
She didn't want her to face how dark someone's nature could be, she didn't want the kind person who saved her and her brother to experience what betrayal feels like.
“I'M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR THAT! I… really… am…” Her legs weakened as she silently fell down to her knees.
'How… I am going to tell this to her…?' Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to think about this, since a hand gently rested on her shoulder.
She could feel all the hairs on her neck stand up, and her body tremble like she was prey.
“You should keep quiet about what happened here.” Douma said, still smiling like nothing happened. “It's the best option for all of us, right? We wouldn't want someone to get hurt because some people talk too much, isn't that so?”
'… He…he doesn't want her to know Akaza left…? Why…?' Daki frowned, but still nodded. It's not like she had many options when he was threatening to hurt Y/N if she talked.
What she didn't know from this interaction was that Daki had inadvertently awakened some curiosity about Y/N in Douma's side.
Since Daki was an old-coworker of sorts in the past, he was used to seeing her always in that smug, confident attitude, he never thought he would see such an emotional side of her.
Did all of that happen just because she was around that Y/N girl?
After the weird knight's principle trick Y/N used with him, he only considered her to be a funny human, but now she has finally gotten beyond that.
So, he left the room deciding that he would keep her alive just for a little longer to see what was so important about that human, and well, you already know what happened next.
Daki just blankly stared at him leave, feeling like something fell apart about her world.
Akaza left, but she was too weak to do anything.
Douma threatened her to not say what happened, but she was too weak to do anything.
Why was she so weak even though she's a demon?
She thought that helping Shinobu around with her research and sometimes learning medical knowledge to help treat humans was enough, but what was the point of all that if she couldn't do anything when she needed to fight?
And now the only thing she could do to help the person she loved was lie to her… she couldn't even describe how upsetting this was.
“I really… won't forgive him for this…” She whispered to herself as she felt the tears once again start to form in her eyes, hugging her legs and sitting alone in her room.
.
.
.
“… That's what really happened that day Y/N. I apologize for lying to you.”
Y/N trembled while she looked down, Daki couldn't see her expression.
“… Y/N…? I- I know you're sad that he left, but-”
“So… so he left, huh?” Y/N finally looked up at her, smiling brightly. “I guess I should have expected something like this would happen, haha!”
'S-she's smiling?!' Daki froze, but quickly saddened when she looked more closely at Y/N's expression. The small frown in between her eyebrows, the way the corners of her mouth trembled… she was just forcing herself to be fine.
'I… I already knew there was a chance of something like this happening when I brought him with me… I knew… I really knew, but…'
Despite how much she tried to convince herself that she should know something like this was coming, she couldn't help but feel awful as she silently sat down on Daki's bed.
“…Daki… I'm really stupid, aren't I?” She looked up at her, despite her smile still being there, tears started to seep out from her eyes.
“You were- You were just trying to do the right thing!” Daki sat down beside her, gently grasping her hand. “You see good in the people that nobody else does! You saw it in me! You saw it on Gyutaro! I don't- Look, in the short time me and Akaza interacted, he seemed to really care about you! Maybe there's a reason-”
“Why does it matter whether he cared about me or not if in the end he's going back to that guy!? I think… I think I made a mistake, Daki...” Y/N cried.
“No you didn't!” She started to cry together with her. “I know there's a reason for what he did! You never made this type of mistake before, there's no way you would now!”
“You don't understand Daki!” Y/N removed her hand from Daki's grasp to grab her head, looking down while breathing heavily. 'If he kills someone- if someone dies because of him, I will have to restart all of this- I will go crazy if someone dies in front of me again- I CAN'T DO THIS AGAIN-'.
“Y/N?” Someone new entered the room.
She looked up, seeing Nezuko staring at her with a frown.
Nezuko's expression got worried when she saw Y/N crying's face, hurriedly running over to her. “… Y/N… not well? Why sad?”
She still couldn't talk properly, but what she meant was clear. “Y/N… okay… okay…” Nezuko hugged her, patting her head.
“…Nezuko…?” The tears kept running down her cheeks as she confusedly asked.
The demon's human memories were still hazy, but… Nezuko remembered that when she felt sad, there was someone who was always there… gently patting her head and signing a song...
“Baby bunny on the hill…”
Y/N's eyes widened. She recognized that lullaby.
“Tell me why your eyes are so very red…” Nezuko was singing her mother's lullaby to her, gently patting her head. “Because when my mother was expecting me, she dined on red berries from a tree…”
Daki looked at her in awe, she has been trying to help Nezuko improve her speech all this time, but it's the first time she sees her speaking so clearly.
“… And that is why my eyes are so very red…" She finished the song, letting Y/N go to take a better look at her face.
“Y/N… Y/N better now…?”
“… Yes… I feel better. Thank you.” She smiled weakly at her in response.
“I'm… glad…!” Nezuko smiled back at her, her face beaming.
Y/N turned over to look at Daki. “I'm sorry for freaking out on you. And I don't blame you for what happened, I know you tried to help me the best you could.”
“No…” Daki shook her head, looking down while crying. “I didn't… do anything… I'm sorry…"
“Daki… sad?” Nezuko ran over to her. “Nezuko sing for Daki too?”
“I'm fine, thank you, Nezuko.” She shook her head. “Y/N… what are we going to do now?”
Nezuko quickly sat beside Y/N, resting her head on her lap and humming happily when she started to pat her head.
'I panicked and stop thinking clearly, but Daki is right, I don't want to believe that all my interactions with Akaza up to this point were just him faking it. She said that Douma told something to him, right? I have to know what it was…
But…
Why does this bad feeling doesn't go away…?'