My Missing Piece {Uzuren}

36

**Above image: a tiger skeleton

Ehehe- sorry for leaving you on a cliffhanger back there. Twice.

TW: mild torture

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The soft crunch of bone was just barely loud enough for Rengoku to hear. Incapable of balancing, he nearly toppled over, but Douma caught him by his shoulders and kept the fire demon on his feet. As his spine slowly started to correct itself, the ice tendril that had stabbed his spine wrapped around it, pushing tendons and muscle out of the way as it constricted around the bones like a snake, crushing them. The Uppermoon maintained a sorrowful, guilty expression as he watched Rengoku's body go limp past the break, and the small puddle of blood underneath him grow larger.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this," the stronger demon apologized. "I couldn't think of any other way to get you to calm down!" He smiled brightly as the tendril inside Rengoku's back crept higher up, winding around the vertebrae periodically. Right before he commanded it to tighten, he warned the pillar by cheerfully announcing: "This one might hurt a bit before the paralysis sets in!"

The following pain was excruciating, but no worse than when Akaza had pulverized his solar plexus. So in a complete front, Rengoku held a focused, neutral stare on something in the distance. Perhaps it was a charred building, or just the remains of a crumbled house; either way, he couldn't tell from the amount of blurring in his eyes.

Douma must have not taken into account the strain Rengoku's beaten, unfeeling body was having to endure, so when the shorter demon's vision went black and his head fell to his chest, the uppermoon blinked in confusion. "Did he fall asleep?" Retracting the thin vine, he set Rengoku down on the dusty ground. "Hellooo..?"

A deep, guttural growl rumbled behind him, accompanied by a bright yellow glow. Douma turned just in time to duck out of the way, clutching his prize to himself as the fire demon's blood demon art fought to protect him. After a little bit of being chased in circles, Douma fanned the air with one of his fans, creating a large blast of cold air. Quicker than any inanimate object should have been capable of, the flames shrunk down and burned ghost-white. It pressed itself to the ground, looking more like an unnaturally colored campfire than a tiger. As soon as the wind ceased, it sprung forward, no more than a blur in the uppermoon's vision as it shot forward. Douma attempted to move Rengoku's limp form out of its path, but was unable to stop the flames from colliding with the area over the pillar's heart, completely disappearing inside.

Staring down at the body he was carrying, Douma tensed in anticipation for what might happen. Is it trying to wake him up? Or is it over and it just wanted to be back inside Flamey? He felt Rengoku's skin warm up through the fabric of his uniform, and promptly dropped him to the ground.

Before he even made contact with the ground, however, flames licked the edges of the fire demon's haori. Similar bright yellow flickers glowed within his hair; not quite like it was on fire, but like it was becoming fire.

Thought the fighting was over? Heck nah.

Giant paws splayed across the ground, claws digging into the dusted earth. Douma dodged a swipe from the powerful five-toed weapon, jumping back to take a look at the fascinating creature. It was semi-translucent all the way through, in its chest where it's heart would be, Douma could see the fire demon floating unconsciously inside it, protected by a large rib cage. Despite having a translucent body completely compromised of flames, the flame tiger had a skeleton now. The fire covered bone, claws, and skull, all very capable of striking other objects. It was taller than Douma, standing at an impressive height of at least eight feet.

Upper Two blinked again, staring at the bright eyes boring into him. The flame tiger's gaze gave off a "stay away" type of energy, one that alone would have made any other being cringe away in fear. "A demon art that stays active even after he's passed out?" Douma clapped once. "How useful!"

Letting out a fierce snarl, the tiger containing Rengoku dashed forward, it's long limbs allowing it to cross the distance between the two in just one bound. It was acting entirely on its own; it's wielder being unable to give it commands, and all.

"You've only been able to burn me so far," Douma noted, raising his hands slightly to show his wrists. Where once had been just charred, crumbling bone and burning nerves, was now newly regenerated flesh. "I'm curious to see what else you can do!"

He stepped back just enough to avoid being tackled, receiving only a deep score down his chest and abdomen. The skin healed first, his gut closing and tissue melting back together. The heat burnt away parts of his shirt, which would take longer to regenerate. (I was today years old when I realized that Douma's clothes are actually a part of him- he can regen those.. just like Muzan did in the anime..) Two more successive paw swipes sent blood spraying across the ground, the second knocking the uppermoon down to the ground.

Another growl shook the earth. Honō no tora pinned the demon down with a forceful paw to his chest, it's claws pricking Douma's flesh.

So it fights just like a real tiger..! "This is an impressive blood demon art, Flamey!" Knowing fully well that Rengoku couldn't hear him, Douma gripped his fans tighter and in the blink of an eye, cut off both of the tiger's forepaws, sliding his fans through the bones just below the elbow joints. It made not a sound of pain, and not relying on its skeleton to be able to stand, kept its flames on his body. The smell of burning flesh once again filled the air as Douma dodged the skull, trying not to get bitten by the long, pointed fangs embedded there.

A quick glance at the sky told him that they were running out of time, so letting out a long whine-sigh, Douma shot forward, slipping to the creature's side and cutting up the bones that made up its rib cage. He then grabbed Rengoku's sleeping form, ignoring the fourth-degree burns that covered his arms as he did so. There should be more than four burn degrees, he thought, these are a five or over. It didn't hurt after his nerves were gone, but the tiger was not letting its demon user go. Only after Douma completely encased the skeleton in ice and extinguished the fires was he able to retrieve the fire demon from inside his blood demon art.

Running into the forest with his prize to go find Akaza, Douma watched as almost the entire Entertainment District went up in Gyutaro's last ditch effort at killing the demonslayers. Aw, looks like they died.. oh well! I can't wait to show Akaza-dono what I got!

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Sorry that this chapter is awful and short- at least I think it's bad. I didn't spent much time on it and kind of rushed to get it done, mainly because I'm running out of energy and haven't drunken any water yet today. It's currently 12pm where I live. I am going to get a thoroughly good rest before I come back to this..

New BDA ability unlocked: skeleton guardian!
The flame tiger can take this form on command, but in order to do so, it has to basically fuse itself with Rengoku. On a normal day, if Rengoku were awake to do this fusion, he would be able to control how the skeleton/flames move as if it was his own body. (You'll see I put a picture of a tiger's skeleton at the top of the chapter 😁) This form is extremely fast and powerful, but it cannot regenerate or heal its bones, and after a period of use (max time is about 30 mins), the flames will dissapate, the skeleton will fall apart and disintegrate, and Rengoku will be left feeling drained of energy. Honō no tora cannot manifest again for up to an hour after using this ability, but can 'recharge' faster if Rengoku eats something nutritious. It is significantly easier for the flame tiger to choose to make this transformation on its own, instead of being told to by Rengoku.