cryptic | giyuu tomioka x reader

XV

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YOU DON'T STARE into the devil in the eyes and come out without some of his sin. You can’t beat the devil without becoming like him. Paying the price, I became him. Feeling fiercer, stronger than ever before.

"I guess you chose the wrong girl, shit hat." I find it rather comical --- barging in human territory metamorphosized into an utter demon queen, transformed after almost a year, who apparently can keep her skin intact under the blazing sun. Running free as if nothing happened. 

Fueled with purpose, I left Tamayo's place with a hint of resolve, her farewell words still resonating in my head for a multitude of chances.

"You're you. You are [Name]. Nothing has changed. You're still the woman he was whipped for. Show him."

A perfect hype woman.

Marching upon my way to town, heart jabbing drastically. The whisper, the brush, the gentle nudge. It appears the autumnal air awakens me, and wraps me in its arms. Was it really one of my magics? Seeing the sunset, even on those darkest days?

The evening regal lanterns flashed on everyone's houses. The placating scene felt like life on a fairy tale. Deemed timeless and placeless, any time any place, from long ago to days pass present. Never a conundrum but it felt dreamy. Naturalistically fantasized.

Fixing my hood, tidying my clothes, I fastened up my pace prancing off to suit myself some steamy ramen before plotting a show. "I'm happy that they feel safe at night." I mumbled. "They looked secured even when our numbers are decreasing. So that's how hope and trust bind together."

I affixed myself on the marmalade shaded seat whilst battling both my eyelashes together in worry. "Oh! You seem new here! What do you want...miss?" The place I've been frequent on visiting had never changed. It's like home. Soothing, warm, welcoming --- home.

"The usua---sorry, can I have thick tonkotsu broth?"

"Tonkotsu broth, huh? You know, someone very important usually ordered that, same as you. She regularly comes with her daring boyfriend. They're just the cutest!" The old lady rambled. Well, wouldn't you know it. She had a faint but supercilious smile tainted on her lips, one which was delivered proudly. She looked happy, giving how she lit and all. But then it changed to a weary lopsided expression --- gloomy feels engulfing her surroundings. "But then they stopped coming for a very long time. My ramen place was always so mellow and homely. Still, it didn't feel the same without the love birds around."

The knack of emptiness. Yes, verily. For almost a year I've been attempting to hover down the empty null in my system. Now that I'm back, doubt invades, making it worse. Will they even accept the bane of us all? Would this world of fear and revulsion live a day hand in hand with a demon like me?

"Pardon me." The old lady snuck a hand up her back neck, giggling anxiously. "My rambling might've annoyed you. Here!"

Shock crossed my face while my eyebrows rose in surprise. "No, no. It's fine." I flashed a smile, straining to continue the conversation. "It makes me feel better actually. You see, I had it rough these past few months. Too much that...I think my mental age reversed to 10 years past. I've been searching for something I don't even know what exactly is." Thus I tailed with a chuckle at the end.

"Your aura resembled someone I know so well who frequented this ramen house. No wonder why I felt like you were somewhat nostalgic."

"Don't you say?"

So I still feel like my old self again?

"I know you're strong. I just know it." Her smiles were blindingly healing my soul. The scars encrypted on my memories like an emblem faded slowly. "No matter how big it is, stay strong until the very end. Damn the belief that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is unlikely to get. Heave your will strong. You can do it."

Hot tears began cascading down my cheek. I slurped the bowl of ramen down to the very last drop and stood in haste. "Thank you for the food!"

"Uh, it's in the house, dear! Good luck on finding whatever what it may be!"

I ran and ran sparing no flow of oxygen. I clutched down my hood, my [hair color] locks gushing through the wind in sync. "I wonder...if he's there. Of course he's there! He's always there at this time of the day."

The brilliantly eternal red but orange sunset event echoed that very moment of peace I've always felt whenever he's around. I laughed softly amid my running session, passing through humans after humans, standees of vegetables and merchants. "So the gods are finally siding with me, yes?"

I, at last, reached the very peak of the wee yet also stunted cliff. The chirps of the birds waning from a distance. The sun unhurriedly dwindling gone.

No one was there.

Tears kept falling from my swelled eyes, feet all weak from months of scarcity in training. Heart beating swiftly in immense confusion.

"Who...are you?"

That voice.

I turned around, being met with the same man who swatted the wind pillar's hand away when the latter tried landing a hit on me. The same man who followed me all across the neighborhood street to thank me for something so trivial.

The same man who made my heart swoon and throb like never before.

"[Name]? [Name]!" He closed the distance keeping us away from each other, clutching on my cheek with his ever so soft hands, caressing my face with ease.

"Giyuu... it's me."

"Please say that this is a dream, baby. Tell me. I can't seem to wake myself up if that's the case."

Whimpers and laughs hoarded over each other as we smiled onto in elation and contentment. My forehead over his as we immersed in one another's presences. The feeling of longing gone to oblivion.

"It's really you. It's really you." Giyuu kept rambling, his arms dangling over my waist, not seeming to let go.

"I'm no human anymore, Giyuu." Chuckling in between my hasty breaths, I confessed, straining to pull out some sort of reaction out of his usual stoic facade.

"I don't care. As long as you're here. I don't care anymore."

Maybe I'm stuck in the past. Now I'm willing to let it all go.

"You make me feel alive, [Name]. I waited. You're here. I don't care what you are. You're here and that what matters."

Hinting one last giggle, "I love you. So much that it hurts."

It didn't feel like a mystery anymore. It was a salient treasure piece stolen from the null, now retrieved and it felt whole again. A mislaid, prime puzzle piece gone astray huddled from the depths of a box full of unorganized pieces now back to its rightful place.

Never foreign. Never cryptic.

This...is home.