As Things Should Be

-28- Life

Her foes were... troublesome. Nakime dedicated her entire being to containing them, she had to. Every sinew, every bone, and every drop of blood had to center on the superior demon and his human companions. Ex Upper Two could smell her, and the slayer (it had to be a hashira) could sense her; together, if she wasn't careful, they could kill her. 

They were like starved hunting dogs on the trail of a hare. It had been simpler when they were trapped animals, scratching at the walls and trying to smell out the fresh air and freedom of the exit. That she could control them with, dangling an entrance a few yards away and ripping it out of Ex-Two's claws right when he lunged.

But they were no longer cornered, or perhaps a better addition to the metaphor would be that Nakime was cornered with them.

Cornered beasts gnashed their teeth and as ordered, their cage was Nakime's home. They knew it. Her strumming condemned her, the blood in her veins snitched on her capabilities, on Muzan's favor, on her intentions.

So now she had to keep the dogs away from her and in the cage, she had to cling to the exit, holding down the lock while the hounds breathed down her back, knowing that all they had to do was rip out her throat and sever her spine and freedom would be theirs.

She wasn't a fool. She wasn't arrogant either. Not like the replacement Two and Three who celebrated their faux promotions and treated it like an inevitability. Not like the new Five and Six who mistook desperate need as a destined opportunity. She knew exactly why she was Upper Four now, and not the simple maid of Muzan's nest of hell. 

She was here because two of the strongest demons proved themselves strong enough to betray their kind. She was here not because she'd bested a demon, not by earning it or fighting for it, but because happenstance helped. Because the demon she was currently trying to keep at bay had disobeyed Muzan and lived.

Muzan did not underestimate them, she would not either. 

"You think me necessary?" Kokushibo came to her side as she intended.

"They're troublesome," she murmured and as an answer, she sent him to the front lines. Upper One knew his place... knew his power. He could eliminate the threats and if he got the credit, so be it.

Better to be useful and ignored than ambitious and dead.

Dead... someone would die tonight.

Nakime changed her finger positions and held off another strum as she tried to sense what had happened beyond her domain. 

The entrance she'd opened to the target village had been closed long ago, but a simple strum let her brush past it again. Hantengu and Gyokko, the new Two and Three surely must be nearly done finishing off that pathetic village of blacksmiths, yet they had not called for her yet. Perhaps they were taking their time, relishing their newest victory with a feast though what a human would taste like tainted with nichirin steel, Nakime couldn't guess.

Another strum informed her that Five was still beyond her reach, on a mission she was not privy to. And Six? Six was thick in enemy lines, a death sentence, really, unless she too fought like a cornered beast. 

No, surely, Upper Six would die and -

A crash interrupted all thoughts. All senses and plans were a fleeting luxury as the Ex-Upper Moon and hashira came a few levels too close for her own comfort. A strum later and she was safely removed from that treacherous place. 

Too close. The hounds were breathing down her spine and she held the doors shut for all she was worth. She could not be the reason this night failed. Still, her skin prickled at the sense of power that had consumed her for a moment, heavy as a rock and frozen as the deep winter.