Blossoming Fissure | Tanjirou Kamado

26. The Spider's Thread

'Every time I look at demons,' Ayaka had told Tanjirou a few months back, 'I only see a black void.'

Those were the words that rumbled on her head when walking around the main street of the Red Light District.

She hadn't told him that it was the black of hell nor that it was the black of sinners, ambition and hunger for something they wanted to achieve by stepping on others.

It was a very ugly black. She, at the very least, hated it.

The entire place was full of that black; men that wandered around the place with money on their wallets that they would spend on fleeting distractions, women who, furious (would it be at themselves or at the world) made up for what they lacked with arrogance. The children stole, the babies cried, she tried to avoid looking at the corpses that piled up on the corners, but it was hard to do so.

The Red Light District was perfect for demons to thrive, like Uzui had guessed, but not because of what he believed.

How many of them would have accepted turning into demons just to escape from all that suffering? Ayaka knew that it would be many, and she didn't like the idea.

Suddenly she felt a pair of eyes on her back and Ayaka stopped on her track. When looking at the corner of an alleyway, she found two dirty faces that belonged to a pair of children dressed in rags; an older boy and a little girl, holding each other's hands.

The oiran of her house, Warabihime, was as capricious and impatient as she was beautiful. Until then. the chores assigned to Ayaka, who, contrasting with Zenitsu, was very bad at playing the shamisen, were about running around the district looking for a very long list of presents and other luxurious items that the oiran asked for everyday.

Carefully looking at the kids, Ayaka hugged the bag with shiny clothes she had just bought and walked up to them.

"Um... where are your parents? Isn't it a little too late for you to be out here?" She asked, kneeling before the boy who only looked at her in silence. However, the girl hid behind her brother's back. Ayaka raised her hand, in an attempt to brush away the dirty hair from the boy's face, but his big, watery eyes filled with fear and he walked back a few steps, so Ayaka didn't try to touch him again.

In the silence of the boy a small, weak grumble was heard. A moment later the cheeks of the boy were tinted of a light red, as the girl sniffed, Ayaka was sure she had pushed down a sob and thought about the sweets that rested on her pocket, destined for the oiran.

Even if she went back to the store to buy more, it would be closed and she'd be accused of stealing the money that was gone.

'Maybe the oiran won't care.' She gave the children a smile and unwrapped the packet to show them the brilliant sugary sweets.

The girl was the only one to react, tiptoeing so she could look at the sweets that Ayaka was leaving on the floor in front of them, hugging her brother's arm.

At seeing the smile that started to appear on the face of the girl, suddenly Ayaka stopped caring about the consequences. She was stretching out her little hand, ready to touch the frosting on the sweets, but the boy tugged her hand back, looking at Ayaka with a suspicious glare, and the girl was forced to go back again.

"You can eat it if you want," Ayaka said, thinking about Oyakata-sama's smile and how to imitate it. "There's no danger."

And even if she distanced herself from them, walking away from the children, they made no attempt to take the sweets from the floor.

Ayaka frowned, walking up to them again. This time, they didn't flinch away from her. She kneeled before them and took some coins from her pocket that she offered them on her open palm.