The Demon Queen

Manipulation

TW: dead body, child death

Tamayo's sudden shrieking of horror marked the change in her mental awareness. She had devoured enough human flesh to come to her senses and see exactly what she had done. Her screams in the other room of the house became more and more distraught, as if her voice was ripping her insides apart as it was released from her body.

The unsettling sound caused my eyes to snap their gaze to staring at the open doorway. I got the sense that Tamayo might try to attack us. Even if she did, I had no reason to be anxious about it. There wasn't anything she could do to us, two demons who had developed their powers over a little over 400 years.

"Do you want me to check on this?" Muzan asked.

"I don't think now is a good time."

"Perhaps not," Muzan said and stood up. "But do you think she'd be stupid enough to dare go find the law officer and turn herself in as a demon?"

"What could the law officer do anyway?"

Muzan looked at me. "Did she hear our names?"

"I don't think so."

He tapped his chin a couple times. "Well then, she'd only have our appearances to go by if she reported what happened."

I sighed. "If she went to the law, they'd deem her insane and say that she went mad and killed her family. She'd probably find her way into the sunlight somehow and then there'll be nothing more left of her."

"I don't want to be traced down."

"We're not going to be traced down."

Muzan looked towards the door. Tamayo's screaming hadn't taken a moment's pause at all. "I left too much human in her because I didn't want her to become deformed. My damn mistake." He looked back at me and extended his hand. "Come with me," he said. "In case some people hear her and decide to break in through the windows, I don't want them attacking you. We should get her and get out of here with no more casualties."

I took his hand and he pulled me up.

"Stay safely close behind me," Muzan said. "If she lashes out at us, I don't want you touched. A finger on you and I'll kill her immediately. Besides, my defensive skills are better than yours."

He was right about that. I was stronger in offense and he in defense. I had to trust that Muzan had a plan in mind of how to solve the problem at hand.

I followed him into the other room. Tamayo was on her knees shrieking with less force, but was still consumed by her distraught. The bodies of the two children were completely devoured with only their clothing remaining, ripped to pieces on the floor. Asato was dead, laying flat on his stomach with deep slash marks in his back, but only his legs were eaten. It was a disturbing sight, and to add to that, the smell of those humans' blood was not appealing to me at all.

Muzan stepped over so that he was standing in front of Tamayo. "Stop that," he said. "You need to pull yourself together."

Tamayo froze and immediately fell silent. It was obvious that she was unable to sense us approach, but could surely recognise us through our voices, particularly through Muzan's.

"Look at me," Muzan said.

I watched as Tamayo rose her head. On her face was an expression of hateful anger. She was sweating with tightly grit teeth and her eyebrows slanted deep into her forehead.

"You ..." she snarled. "You slaughtered my family ..."

"I?" Muzan asked with a raise of his eyebrow.

"You who dares call himself a doctor!"

Muzan, just kill her already, I thought and rolled my eyes.

Tamayo's gaze suddenly shot to me. "You! And you!"

In a smooth, swift motion, Muzan squatted down. "Don't look at her. Look at me," he said in a serious tone.

Tamayo looked at Muzan, rather fearful of what would happen to her if she didn't do as he said.

"Listen to me and listen to me well," Muzan said in the same serious tone. "Let it sink deep into that head of yours. I did nothing to your family. My wife did nothing to your family. It was all you. With your hands."

I saw Tamayo's expression turn into one of horrified distress.

"My wife and I are at no fault here," Muzan continued. "I turned you into a demon, yes. That's why your life has been extended. You are physically well, are you not?"

"You didn't tell me ... that I would do this ..."

Muzan studied her for a moment. "Do you think all demons slaughter those around them?" he asked. He shook his head. "They don't. When I became a demon, my wife was there. She was human. I didn't harm her. When I turned my wife into a demon, she didn't kill her family, nor did she kill mine."

Tamayo stared at him with shaking eyes.

"You did this because you felt the need to destroy the person you were," Muzan said. "You must had thought of how your life would have been easier without your family. You may have even blamed them for falling ill."

Tamayo's jaw dropped. "I ... I ..."

I watched her curiously. So, she did, didn't she ... I thought.

I studied her guilty expression and defeated posture in how she held her body.

Yes ... she did ...

"I didn't mean to ..."

"I told you to clear your mind," Muzan said. He stood up. "I guess it wasn't clear enough. You should have listened to me fully, Tamayo."

Tamayo looked down at her bloodied hands. "I didn't mean for this to happen ..." she said in a crushed, jittery voice.

"What you meant or did not mean is of no consequence now. The reality is what it is." Muzan stared at her. "So, what will you do now, Tamayo? Will you wait here to be found and brought into the sun to die?"

Tamayo squeezed her hands together into fists. "I deserve to die for this," she said.

"Do you?" he asked. "After your family died as a result of your misuse of your new strength?"

Tamayo looked at him.

"You have an eternal life in front of you," Muzan said. "The honourable thing to do would be to live that life so your family's sacrifice doesn't go to waste."

Tamayo paused. She looked at Muzan as if something clicked together in her mind and started to make sense to her.

Personally, I didn't think it would have been so easy to get her to comply. I was rather impressed in how Muzan handled it.

Tamayo stood up. "Then what do I do?" she asked. "How can I live when ...?"

Muzan smiled a little. "You will come with us," he said. "And we will show you how to live."