Blossoming Fissure | Tanjirou Kamado

8. I love you, do you love me?

«Sleep» the demon had said. And that was what Ayaka did.

Claws tried to get on her head, rummaging and scratching everything in search of something to clutch to.

«What are...?» Enmu's voice echoed on her mind. «Your greatest fears?»

«My greatest fears» Ayaka thought. «My... my greatest fears?»

She felt him toy with parts of her mind, every memory that built who she was and the blood on her veins.

«Ah, there they are» Enmu muttered in satisfaction.

Ayaka's nightmares were many and diverse.

In the first one, she was on top of a little kid, with her hands around their throat.

She sat, buckling their hips, and the kid, without a face or an expression, looked up at nothingness.

A lot of people surrounded them, other little and yelling kids that had formed a circle around them. Their hungry eyes looked at Ayaka's hands around the throat of the kid, she didn't remember setting them there in the first place.

The rest cheered for her to squeeze, to press against the kid's throat, much smaller than her, in order to kill them.

They deserved it, everyone said, they deserved it like the bastard they were.

The kids were vicious, eager, encouraging her to squeeze. She could do it, she was much bigger and the kid wouldn't resist too much. Simple, just press for a few seconds and it would all be over.

For some reason, Ayaka knew she hated them. She hated them, she hated them, she hated them.

The shine of the sword told her it was there, by her side, and that she could take it if she wanted, but she wouldn't be able to. She knew.

When Ayaka started to lean her weight against them, the kid, quiet before, started to squirm.

They hit her arms, chest and face. They tried to fight against her but she didn't move, even if they scratched her cheek, her arms or sank their nails on her skin, Ayaka, for once holding an unwavering determination, continued.

She soon saw how, with ears muffled by the kids yelling around her (Nanami, Ryu, Yumiko), the face of the creature against her knees started to turn red.

Their ears turned scarlet and later, slowly, of a sick purple. From the corners of the lips started to drip saliva, their eyes popped out and the cheeks turned purple too, along with their face.

The kids around them continued cheering. Kill them, kill them, kill them. She joined them. Kill them, kill them, kill them.

In the end they stopped struggling, Ayaka still on their hips. Their arms, that had been trying to reach her face, turned slower and slower with time, lazy and reluctant movements replacing the energetic thrusts of something fighting to live. Whines stopped coming from their throat and they sighed one last time, finally becoming limp under her. A hand slowly slid down, caressing her cheek on the way (lovingly, with affection) until it reached the floor and it didn't move anymore. The saliva stopped falling down their chin.

Ayaka let go of their neck with trembling hands and weakly whimpered.

They were still looking up, at the sky that started to turn orange, as their corpse slowly faded away in dust.

What had she done? What had she done?

Suddenly all the air in the world didn't feel like enough and she grew and grew and grew at the same time as she tried to breathe, breathe and breathe. With every gasp she grew more, so she turned huge. She grew over the kids, over the roofs, over the trees and over mount Fuji.