The Demon Queen

The Decision

"What have I done?" he repeated again in the same lost tone of voice.

The knife I held started to shake a bit in my grasp.

"What have I ...?" He looked down to his bloody hands, unable to finish his sentence.

I hesitated to speak. "You're eating a man," I finally said.

He looked at me.

"And you killed him."

Muzan inched forwards to that the tip of the knife was barely making contact with his chest. "I want you to understand me, but I don't even understand myself." He raised one of his hands and pointed his finger at me. His fingernail was long and sharp, and held a faint bluish tint to it. "Something is telling me that if I touch you here --" He lightly touched the tip of his fingernail to the middle of my forehead. "You'll understand me."

I held the knife firmer against his chest.

"Will you trust me?" he asked.

I didn't know what to say. I didn't trust him.

"I killed the doctor," Muzan said. "I killed him because I tried his blue spider lily medicine, and I started to feel like I was poisoned. Like when you arrived. You saw. You were there."

I said nothing. I only stared into his eyes, able to sense how pained and confused he was.

"And now, I've started to eat him," Muzan continued. His face fell a little. "You'd taste very good, Sakura." He started to salivate at the corners of his mouth. "I want to ... but I can't. I won't. If I eat you, it means you would die. If I eat you, it means there would be nothing left of you for me. I never want to spend a day when you aren't here with me ..."

I held the knife tighter. "That's right. You aren't eating me," I said sternly.

"I've become a criminal, haven't I ..." he said. His fingernail started to jitter against my forehead. "When they find out that I killed the doctor and started to eat him, they'll put me to death. I --" A panic fell across his face. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die!"

"Quiet," I said sharply.

Muzan froze. His finger was still shaking against my forehead.

I let the knife fall from my grasp.

Muzan quickly glanced down at the knife on the floor between our feet. He then looked back at me.

"No one's taking you. I won't let them." I put my hand on his hand that was at my forehead. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I -- I feel I need to do something," he said.

"Do what?"

"Share my blood with you."

My eyes widened. "What ...?"

"I don't understand it myself," Muzan said. "Something deep inside of me, like an instinct, is telling me that if I share my blood with you, you'll know more about what condition I'm in right now. And I ... I want to give you my blood. If I give you my blood, then I'll become a part of you."

Uncertain in my decision, I looked at Muzan with strong eyes. I stood with my feet rooted against the floor. "Then do it."

"Do you mean ...?"

"Give me your blood."

Muzan hesitated, freezing in place.

"If I die from it, then you'd have killed two people, Muzan," I said. "You'll certainly be executed. But, I'll wait for you in the afterlife, and I'll go with you, wherever you go."

"They won't get here in time to execute me," Muzan said and looked at me with determined eyes. "If I kill you, I'll take that knife and kill myself. I promise. And if you survive, then we'll leave here together, you and me. We'll run far, far away where no one will ever find us." He paused. "Is that a deal?"

I nodded. "Deal."

Muzan's eyes looked to my forehead. He stared at it, as if focusing on a target, and stabbed his sharp fingernail deep into my skull.