Perhaps in Another Life, Ojou : A Tale of Reincarnation

Once a Weasel, Always a Weasel

"Y-You really think this will be the end!? No! I refuse! I made each every demon independent and free! Killing me won't stop them! If anything, it'll become chaos as they'll go in search of unlimited food! (Y/N)!? You really think you'll live to kill them all!? Because you won't-!"

Suddenly, I could no longer speak...Not as if I wanted to...Cursed by surviving Kibutsuji, I supposed. But...why is my final view a look of utter disgust yet, I can feel something more...or less.

"Live...or die...I promised to lob that ugly grin off your face...I held up my promise. If I die, I entrust everything and everyone to the friends and family I've made. If I live? I'll hunt down every last demon the same way I hunted you down...like the dog you are...Correction, the dog you were. Now pass on to purgatory, you mongrel..."

Your harsh words...they sting like that of a Giant Wasp mixed with disappointment from a parental figure. Then again...you will be my last sight as your flames burn me away. Poetic...

And now darkness...Guess there isn't a life after death but, it makes sense given I spent my entirety in darkness to begin with...Dammit. I am not even angry. Just disappointed...in myself...

But now, I can remember a lot of things vividly...

I was making my way back from Heian Captial after having sold numerous promises. They were just that, promises. And my home, rather I should say our home, was a simple hut home meant for singular living yet, Mother, Father and I had yet to make that much wealth yet. I had yet to make that much. Upon seeing me gently open the sliding door, my mother of forty-two would gain a large smile upon her face as she sat by the steel pot and open flame as my father sat on the mat in the center of the, what I called, family room. In reality, it was just the mat ans nothing else. Other hay bed rolls tucked away into the corner of the home. And their clothing was rather new since I had bought it for their anniversary.

In contrast? I wore a noble, clean and vibrantly brown kariginu sugata. Of course, due to my relations in the center of the Capital. Upon seeing my, Mother sprung up as I tried to ease her down to the best of my abilities with a raising of the hand as she quickly began to undo my "work attire."

"M-Mother! Calm down, please!"

"Sorry, my boy, Yuriko!"

Yuriko...Yuriko Katzitachi. My full name. Oh how I hate the irony and poeticism of it. As Mother carefully helped me out of my attire, my Father would look upon me and scoff lightly.

"Have you 'sold' today?"

I could feel the venom in those words...Instantly, our one room home turned hot without the aid of the boiling pot. I couldn't help but sigh out with my head hung low.

"Father, I-"

"This is going for too long, Yuriko! You must stop what you are doing or you will drag us all down to the pits of Hell with you!"

"Yasu!"

"Am I not correct, Shizuka!?"

As Father yelled out, I would finish what my Mother started as I changed into a more...class-accurate attire that was my single layer brown garb. I would address Father as I begin to neatly put away my work-attire via folding it nicely, placing my headpiece onto a stand and making sure my rope was without knots.

"What I am doing, I am doing for you-"

"I would rather be living in a pig pen than this! Scamming the nobles with promises of liquids able to cure a weak man's rod or herbs that give life to a woman so she can bare children without risk! What will you do when you finally fall at their feet!? What will WE do!?"