My Missing Piece {Uzuren}

30

Heheh.. bye bye, Rengokuuu~ 😈

Well, what was once meant to be a sweet and fun-to-read fanfic has become the testing ground for Mira's angst-writing abilities. Buckle up, demons, I plan to take you all on a rollercoaster ride.

This chapter is a mess of POVs, so take my preemptive apology.

"Mountain kid! Go search the Ogimoto house top to bottom. Assume the demon can disguise itself as a human!" Uzui called. The boy peeled away with a nod, dashing down the next street. "I'll find Kamado and the yellow haired idiot," the pillar thought aloud, racing time to get to wherever they might be. The demon should be contained by the sun for now, but it likely has a way to get around during the day if it attacked Rengoku and wasn't there. Grinning, Uzui turned a corner and kept running. "This'll be a fun challenge!"

Suddenly, Tanjiro came barreling out of an alley, nearly crashing into the sound hashira. Uzui skidded to a stop, looking down at him. Jumping back, the kid's eyes were wide and confused. "Uzui-san! I can't find Zenitsu. I've checked everywhere, but no one's seen him since he got back to the Kyogoku house this morning!"

"Shit." His maroon eyes narrowed as a rainfall of negative thoughts and scenarios cascaded through his head. With a quiet sigh, he assumed a calm aura. "Focus on finding the demon. Look everywhere, no matter how impossible it might be for a demon to fit there." He held back expressing his worry that Kyojuro wouldn't be able to hold the obi demon off forever. If for nothing else, just to keep the slayer's spirits high.

Tanjiro nodded, continuing the search with a new target in mind. Hang in there for a little while longer, Zenitsu. I promise everything will be okay.

Uzui didn't spare the youth another glance, leaping into action as he and the younger two slayers raced the sun to find their elusive foe. He checked every alley and store he passed, keeping his hypersensitive ears open for any suspicious noises. Every time, he came up empty-handed. This demon knows what it's doing.. hiding until the sun sets. Infuriating, but not to the point of quitting!

One of his goals was still to find Agatsuma. It was a lower priority, but Uzui couldn't shake the feeling that something bad had happened to the cowardly little slayer.

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Daki, shrouded in the darkest shadows of her room, grinned evilly in the flickering candlelight. Scents of smoke and flowers rose around her as the waxen wicks burned down to the liquid pooling at their bases. Any minute now, they'd go out and cast the room in complete darkness, but the demon didn't mind. She'd done her part helping Douma, and now all that was left to do was send the letter and deal with the gnats flitting around her city. Pesky demonslayers, meddling in my business. What right do they have, anyways, to mess with me in my own town? Well, I've already got four of them, and that fiery demon that Akaza wants. Ugly brats.

Setting her inkwell and pen to the side, Daki held the paper close to the fire to dry the ink. A young girl sat terrified in the corner of the room by the door. When the black liquid had sealed a nice dark gray, the oiran folded the letter and slipped it into a brown paper envelope, pinching it closed and sealing it with her lips. Her head turned sharply to the little human, and she held out the written message. "See that that letter gets delivered to the edge of town, dingbat. Leave it in the shade by the treeline, and don't let anyone see you do it."

Cautiously, the girl quickly took the paper, bowed low, and scrambled out of the room. The child's ear was red and stained with dried blood from where Daki had pinched her, a permanent scar sure to form.

That troublesome yellow haired boy.. Uppermoon Six recalled the child's 'heroic' actions trying to defend the girl, and how she herself had backhanded him when the boy put his hand on her wrist. I'll kill him soon. He's too ugly to eat, so I'll just dump his body in the river or something.

I can't believe all this is happening so early in the morning..! She let out a shrill, quiet whine to compliment her silent complaint. This is a dangerous game. I have to stay hidden until the sun sets, at least. At most, until Douma gets here to claim his prize. Daki straightened her back, narrowing her eyes as the last of the candles died out.

If anything goes wrong, Onii-chan can protect me.

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Timeskip til late midday- Daki is still winning at hide and seek

Douma ran his fingers through his blonde hair, loose strands pulling away from the rest and tangling between the digits. His half-lidded eyes gazed upon the lady before him in false sorrow as he listened to her tale. Life in the Eternal Paradise Faith cult wasn't bad, it provided him with a steady source of food, but it was so, so boring. He held back a yawn, sitting up when the girl began to wrap up. She'd been lamenting about her dead husband for the past ten minutes, and it seemed she was finally done.

Did I kill him? I don't remember killing any males recently..!

Gracing her with soothing words of comfort, Douma placed the metaphorical seeds of manipulation in her mind. The women here always fell for it, hanging uselessly off of every word that came out of the rainbow-eyed demon's mouth. Except they didn't know he was a demon. To all his followers, he was Lord Founder, religious leader of the Paradise Faith Cult, and a voice of the gods. There was nothing even remotely demonesque about him. The girl left with a bow, her bright smile slowly returning.

Pitiful worms, he thought. How foolish to believe the lie that is paradise. Shaking off the mental damper, he raised a hand, tracing the lines on the decorated ceiling in the air with his finger. But that's why I'm here, to help them live happily forever!

As soon as he was alone in the room, a loud twang saw him being transported directly to the infinity castle. He blinked, still sitting cross-legged with his cult-getup on. His eyes dragged upwards, landing on a demon girl with long black hair that covered her face. A biwa sat in her lap, a wooden pick in her hand.

"Hello~!" he called, waving a hand in greeting as he returned the other to rest on his leg. She gave him no response, instead plucking one of the instrument's strings with her pick. A small paper envelope appeared before Douma. It was already opened, the writing face up on top of the envelope. He reached for it, fingers brushing the edge, but froze when a voice spoke behind him.

"What is the letter for, Uppermoon Two?" Muzan tilted his head, looking down upon the charismatic demon with a steely glare.

"Ah, it must be from Daki!" he turned his head, making dangerous eye contact with the demon king. "I asked for her help running a little errand for Akaza-dono!"

By the look on his face and his next words, Douma could tell Kibutsuji had already read every word on the paper. "Upper Three is becoming obsessed," he growled. "Whoever this demon is, it's distracting Akaza from looking for the blue spider lily."

"But Muzan-sama-"

Kibutsuji cut him off. "You as well. The only reason I tolerate your cult nonsense is because of your raw skill in battle. If you were any weaker, I'd rip your head off without hesitation."

Douma gave a bright, closed-eye smile. "Akaza-dono often does that for you, don't worry!"

"Bold of you to assume I would ever be worried about anything concerning you."

The ranked demon's expression was dumb, the same smile still plastered there like a ceramic mask. Pristine and perfect, but oh so very fake. Inside, he didn't feel anything in response to the jab. It was like nothing had been said.

"Do what you will with the troublesome demon. After everything's taken care of, make sure the spider lily is your top priority." Muzan instructed, his voice harsh and cold.

"Mmmmhm!"

With a tiny nod from the demon king, Nakime struck her biwa, sending Douma back.

Laying back against his oversized bean-bag chair, the demon stared listlessly at the ceiling. I'll go collect him tonight. He gasped happily, clapping his hands together in child-like excitement. Akaza-dono will be so pleased!

Chapter 30 already? Wow this is gonna be a long one

Sorry for the wait, exams and SOLs are coming up so I've been busy :')