The Demon Queen

Douma's Confession

"Mm, Sakura-chan?" Douma asked as he used his Blood Demon Art to create a thin, cooling layer of ice over my scars.

"What?"

"Are you thinking a lot today? You're quiet. Is it because I shut Gyokko in that room in the back? He really was talking too much."

I snickered a little.

"So, what are you thinking about?"

My snickering stopped. "Nothing much."

"Oh, but it is something much." He traced a layer of ice over the scar cutting diagonally across my nose. "You have such a pensive expression. It's not what you usually look like. Usually, you sigh like this --" He sighed. "And say, ohhh it's so refreshing!" He paused and looked at me. "Not today, though. What's going on?"

I said nothing. I stared at Douma as he traced some ice over the scar on my cheek.

"Is it because I still haven't been able to get someone to find the Blue Spider Lily?" he asked with a disappointed expression on his face. "I know it's been over fifty years and maybe there's no excuse but I've been trying really hard to remember more information." He sighed, pouting a little. "I've sent my followers on pilgrimages to all the locations we gathered from my father's logs, but no one's found it. It's such a tricky flower. It probably blooms in a very particular spot for only a couple weeks per year. I'm really trying my best, Sakura-chan!"

"No, it's not that," I said.

Though it did make Muzan moody, and that is a bother.

"Then, what is it?" Douma asked. "Oh, you'll need to close your eyes. I'll be going over there now."

I closed my eyes. Douma started to trace his ice over the scar across my left eye.

"I hope it doesn't hurt," he said. "You know, that cut really did go all the way through your eyeball. You're lucky it healed. The eyeball, I mean."

"Thanks for mentioning it, Douma. I really didn't know that at all," I said flatly.

It was silent for a bit. The cooling sensation from the ice was incredibly soothing, even though I had been experiencing it for several decades and knew exactly what to expect.

"Sakura-chan ..."

"What am I thinking about?"

Douma laughed. "Yeah."

I took a deep breath and felt the coldness shoot through the middle of my eyeball along the line Yoriichi had cut me at. "I don't care if I die, Douma. What do you think of that?"

"Hm?" he asked. "Isn't Muzan afraid to die? I think you told me that once."

"He is."

"Hm ... well, that must be interesting. His biggest fear is something of no concern to you!" He laughed. "You can open your eyes now. I'm done over there."

I opened my eyes and watched as he brought his hand to my neck to treat the scars there. "If I died ... you would eat me, wouldn't you?"

Douma paused.

"And I'd just become another skull in your collection."

He looked at me. "No," he said in a serious tone.

"No?" I asked.

He stared at me for a moment. "How could I eat you? You're my friend."

His friend, I thought.

Douma activated his hands with his Blood Demon Art and started to apply the ice to my neck.

Well, it was true. We had become friends. Whatever a friend was.