The Demon Queen

Stay With Me

I started practising with Kokushibou every night instead of only a few nights per week. It seemed that he was determined to shake awake any further Sun Breathing potential in me. I made progress rather quickly, but still, my technique was "very mediocre", as Kokushibou would tell me. Despite his harshness, I enjoyed seeing a new side of him. As a teacher, he stepped up into a position with some power over me. This allowed him to loosen up more and become more fun to be around. He also began to smile more, both during our training and during the walks we took after. I was honestly amazed that Kokushibou was capable of smiling so much.

And whenever I called him "Michikatsu", he would smile with his entire body, not just with his lips and eyes. The sound of that name pierced him gently into his heart.

"I'll need to meet with Muzan-sama now," Kokushibou said with a bow after we had finished one night. "But tomorrow, I'd like to continue our tour of the human city. You promised to tell me about those ghastly clothing stores."

"They're not ghastly." I thought for a second. "All right, some of the styles are, but most of them aren't."

"I much rather you in this." He gestured to my training clothes.

"I'll remember to come in my suit tomorrow."

Kokushibou stared at me flatly. He took his sheathed sword from his obi and tapped me on the head with it.

I smirked.

"If you do, I'll cut them off of you."

"Oh, really?" I laughed.

He tapped me on the head again. "Don't be a child."

"Aw, lighten up, Michi --"

"SCARFAAAAACE!!"

Gyutaro appeared out of nowhere at high speed and tackled me to the ground.

"Huh!?" I exclaimed as a shirtless and massively grinning Gyutaro ended up on top of me. "Hey, Gyutaro, this really isn't a good time for --"

Suddenly, the back of his pants were grabbed by Kokushibou. He was roughly hoisted off of me. Kokushibou handled him as if he were a mere insect that he could have flicked across the grounds.

"Eh?" Gyutaro uttered in shock. He turned his head to see Kokushibou's eyes glaring at him.

"Say again what you called her," Kokushibou said with a threatening, chilly voice.

I got up. "Let him go, Kokushibou. It's not a big deal."

"How dare you come over here without proper clothing and then push your Master to the ground," Kokushibou continued.

"You know Kokushibou, you've knocked me to the ground quite often these days."

One of his middle eyes looked at me. "That was part of your training."

I sighed. "Let him go. Don't you have to meet Muzan, anyway? Don't wanna be late, do you? Hm?"

The eye that was looking at me widened. He dropped Gyutaro to the ground.

"Do you mind not looking at me with just one eye?" I asked. "It's too weird, even for me."

One of his top eyes joined the middle one. He stared at me, as if a sarcastic "Is this better?" was passing through his head. He then left without another word.

Gyutaro remained in a state of shock on the ground until all remnants of Kokushibou's energy left the area.

I stepped over so that I hovered over him. "Oi. Get up, Fleabag."

"He's gone, right?"

"Yeah. He's gone."

Gyutaro stood up. He pulled up his pants that were almost falling off his hips and started to scratch the back of his neck. "I hate that guy ..." he grumbled.