The Demon Queen

My Demon

"Douma --" I walked over to him, followed by Muzan, who kept a bit of a distance behind me.

His eyes lit up. "Yes, Sakura?" With a slight smirk on his face, he leered his eyes towards Muzan. "-sama."

"How long can we borrow those records for?" I asked, stopping to stand in front of him. I eyed the boxes of scrolls in his arms. "That's a lot of scrolls."

"It is, isn't it?" Douma said. He lifted them up and down a couple times in his arms. "I can't give them to you to take with you, of course, but you can stay at the temple as long as you need to, and if you keep your heart open, you might even find Paradise!"

I laughed with a big, wide smile on my face. Douma started to laugh as well. I noticed how his broad chest shook a little as he laughed, and I found myself watching him fondly.

"You can get to the point, Sakura," Muzan said from behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. "We have a deal to make with this qua--" He cleared his throat. "-- this individual -- in exchange for his assistance in finding the Blue Spider Lily."

"Ah! An offer!" Douma exclaimed. "Ooooh, Sakura-sama, tell me!"

I ran a hand through my hair, laughing a little. "Well," I began, feeling Muzan's hand tighten on my shoulder. "What do you think of becoming a demon, Douma?"

A more serious expression formed on Douma's face. "A demon, huh?" he commented. "I'll need to think about it."

"You need to think about it?" Muzan sneered.

Douma looked to the boxes of scrolls in his arms. "Oh, I should put these down," he said. He turned around and stepped over to the chair in the flower shrine and set the boxes down on top of it. He then turned back to Muzan and I. "Sakura-sama?" he asked. "If I become a demon, that means I won't be able to go out in the sun, doesn't it?"

"Yes. That's right."

"And, it means I'll have to eat people, doesn't it?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Hm ..." Douma said and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, I don't have windows in the temple here, so even if I can't go outside during the day, it won't get in the way of my being here and listening to people's problems." He looked at me. "You know, to guide them to Paradise." He tilted his head to one side. "And eating people ..." He looked at me and smiled. "I guess that's fine. It's easy for me to find people to eat and just say they disappeared on a pilgrimage." He laughed. "You know, Sakura-sama, I already make people disappear."

I laughed. "Oh? You do?"

Not like I didn't already guess from what Kokushibou told us, I thought.

I smirked teasingly at Douma. "What if I told someone that you're making people disappear, Douma? What then?"

Douma laughed. "Who are you going to tell? You're a demon, and you just offered to make me one!" He looked at me with somewhat-leering, flirtatious eyes. "You're a tease. I like that."

I heard Muzan growl under his breath.

"Oh, tell him to hush-hush! I'm only kidding!" 

Veins started to pop on Muzan's hand on my shoulder.

Douma sighed. "I don't get it." He looked to Muzan. "If you make me a demon, then I'm subject to you. I thought it was obvious. I wouldn't make a go on your wife, if that's what you're thinking, Muzan-sama."

Muzan stared at Doma with fierce eyes. "And if you do, you will die and painfully," he said in spitting words. "Remember that."

Douma looked at Muzan, his face serious. "I said earlier, my mother killed my father for having affairs. I know exactly how ruthless a betrayed spouse can be."

Muzan said nothing. It was as if he was caught by surprise. The hold he held on my shoulder loosened and his hand became less tense.

Douma's focus remained on Muzan. "I've killed young girls. Ones I've taken interest in, who seemed to be impossible to reach through my teachings. They remained in a state of suffering, so I blessed them with salvation from this world, and kept their skulls in my catacombs, so their souls would reach their Paradise. I confess that to you, Muzan-sama, but I suspect you and Sakura-sama knew that when you came into my temple. Do you think I would harm Sakura-sama?" He paused. 

Muzan didn't answer. 

"I wouldn't," Douma continued. "Sakura-sama, as all demons, can never reach any Paradise. At the same time, I have my doubts that such a place even exists. It's a tool to help those that believe in it. And Sakura-sama? I know in what I can sense with my gift that she has reached a similar epiphany as I. She reached it long ago, before you made her a demon. And I know better than to get on the wrong side of such a person. Being their enemy would curse me into oblivion. I may not believe in Paradise, but I do wish for my own inner peace."

Muzan was left speechless. He let go of my shoulder.

"And Douma?" I asked once my shoulder was free. "What is your inner peace?"

Douma looked at me. His expression remained serious and sincere, the complete opposite of how he had been since we began talking. "I want to feel something. Something. That's all. Maybe over the eternal lifespan of a demon, I might be able to reach that peace."

Feel something? I thought. He's already very expressive, but ... I studied him for a moment. Maybe he's too expressive ... as if he only copies what he thinks the right emotion would be depending on the time and place.

As if able to glimpse into my thoughts through reading my energy, Douma smiled. But despite all he had said, and all the conclusions I made, his smile was sincere and truthful.

"Sakura-sama, please, make me a demon," he said.

Muzan's shoulder bumped against mine as he stepped in front of me. "My wife doesn't make the demons. I do," he said and pointed to himself. "So, if you want this done, it's me you ask and me you bow your head to."

Douma stared at Muzan. His smile faded away. He seemed suspicious of Muzan, as if he didn't quite trust him.

Yeah. I don't blame you for that with his attitude, I thought.

"Do you want me to make you a demon or not?" Muzan asked in an impatient, rather harsh tone. "Answer and prostate yourself."

"Muzan," I said and put my hand on his shoulder. "Let me do this." I pulled on his shoulder so that he was facing me. He looked at me with an angry -- but not furious -- expression. "Muzan, let me take some of your blood. I'll pass it on to Douma and then add my own. Like we've experimented with."

We had experimented in the past with making demons using a combination of both of our blood. Muzan would give the human a small cup of his blood to drink and then I would inject my own blood into their arm.

Muzan raised an eyebrow. "You propose we do that?" he asked. Before I could answer, he continued, "Fine. Have that Douma fetch a cup."

Smirking, I stared at Muzan. "I know a better idea." I slid my hand up from his shoulder to his neck and moved his hair out of the way. "Stay still, Muzan," I said as I leant into him.

"What do you think you're doing!?" he whispered. "Not in front of --"

I sunk my fangs into his neck and gulped down some of his blood.

Muzan started to puff out breaths. He grabbed onto my head, as if ready to pull me off of him. "Saku--"

I sucked up a mouthful of his blood and held it in my mouth. I moved myself away from Muzan's neck and saw him staring at me with a red, flustered face and petrified eyes.

"You won't ... give it to him like that ..." Muzan uttered.

I went over to Douma, ignoring Muzan's comments.

"Sakura! I'll get a cup!"

I put my hand on Douma's forehead and brought my lips to his neck.

"Wait! Don't do that!"

While applying a cooling, calming sensation to Douma's forehead, I bit deep into his neck and deposited Muzan's blood into the puncture wounds.