The Demon Queen

Tamayo's Transformation

I was so numbly desensitised to the sight before me. The violent shaking, the popping and throbbing veins, the paling or bluing of the skin -- all of it was something I've seen so often that it became a completely normal phenomenon. I was unmoved by Tamayo's physical suffering, even though she was a human with a name and a specific purpose, unlike all the others that were just experiments.

Tamayo screamed from the pain she was in. Although the scream itself was nothing shocking, and was to be expected, I was a bit surprised to hear such energy come out of the petite woman.

"She'll survive it," I said to Muzan as Tamayo's scream turned into a monstrous growl.

"I won't pump more blood into her," he said and pulled his finger out of her skull. He nodded as the wound immediately closed up, smiling with satisfaction at his work.

The door to the room roughly slid open, slamming into the wall. I looked to see a terrified Asato standing in the threshold.

"Tamayo!" he exclaimed. He looked to Muzan and I. "What are you doing? What's happening to her? Those screams --!"

I saw Tamayo's eyes become very bloodshot. She stared wildly up at me, growling and starting to flail her arms and legs in her position. However, with my honed demon strength, it was a simple task for me to keep holding her down at her shoulders and extend my energy over her entire body. This would prevent her from moving from the space I wanted her to stay in.

"What a bother," Muzan said as he stared dully at Asato. His voice turned sterner. "Didn't I tell you not to enter this room?"

Asato's children ran to him, frightened, and pressed themselves against his legs.

"Mum ..." the boy said in a wide-eyed terror. "Why is Mum ...?"

"Get back and hide!" Asato commanded to them. As the two obeyed him, he glared furiously at Muzan and I. "Tell me now what you have done!" he yelled and stormed into the room.

Smirking, Muzan stood up. "I saved your wife," he said. "She's no longer ill and she survived the treatment."

Asato stopped in his tracks and stared at Tamayo, who was still successfully held down by me.

"She's stronger now," Muzan said. "However, her head isn't quite with her. We'll have to fix that."

Asato continued to stare, speechless and jittering in his body.

"Or rather, you can fix that," Muzan said. He then turned to me. "Release her, Sakura."

I looked to Asato and then to Muzan. I didn't want to do as he said. Honestly, I just wanted to behead Tamayo and end it all. She was unnerving as a human and downright repulsive as a demon.

But without too much thought, I did as Muzan asked, and I let her go.

The moment I released her, I knew that her instinct would bring her to catch for herself the first bearer of human meat that she found. And that was exactly what she did.

Both Asato and her children were too weak, too slow to escape her. The house became filled with terrified screams and bloodshed as Tamayo killed, and proceeded to eat, her entire family.

I regretted it for them. I didn't feel guilty, but I regretted it for them. A man desperate not to lose his wife to illness was now slain by her and becoming her first "food" as a demon. All because Muzan had the obsession in his mind to find a servant for us, and like a natural disaster, we just happened to have been passing through the area and noticed Asato.

But still, I didn't care.

Even though I found it unfortunate for them.

Muzan sat next to me by the futon. "We'll just wait this out," he said. He started to run his fingers through my hair. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"This massacre in a home is starting to remind me of when my parents tried to kill us," I said flatly.

Even to that day, I would sometimes have flashbacks of seeing the skin of my hands starting to rot on my bones. It was a horrendous way to die, having your body decay before your very eyes. Demons kill humans often, but they tend to make it quick. It's when humans kill that they like to see their victim suffer, and to stretch out the process of death as long as they can. All for the sake of punishing their victim.

Muzan froze in his position, his fingers still in my hair. He then took a breath, sliding his fingers out of my hair and placing his arm securely around my shoulders. "Don't speak of being killed," he said and held me closer to him. "We can't be killed. Wait this out with me. Everything will be fine."