At Nightfall, An Akaza x Reader

40. Book 3: Unravel

The silence loomed for a breath too long. You finally managed to work up the courage to break it. "Why should we follow you? We don't even know if you're a threat or not."

The male scoffed, "Of course you don't listen. If you don't want an explanation of what those journals are and a lead to the last one, so be it." He began to walk off.

"Wait!"

You wrung your wrist, "we'll follow you."

"Y/N," your companion gave you a look, which you answered with your own.

The man before you looked between you and Hakuji before he sighed and continued to walk. "Follow me, I won't slow down."

He was a man of his word, he did not look back once to see if you were still there. He and Chachamaru walked underneath a black umbrella, despite it being a rainless day and close to sun down. He lead you both to a secluded studio with black out curtains. The inside was an organized mess of a maze. Canvas sat in every corner, blank and painted. He notably only painted a dark haired woman.

You slowly recognized just who he was. "You're Yamamoto Yushiro," you gasped quietly.

Hakuji leaned in to quietly ask, "Who is that?"

"Nevermind that," Yushiro huffed as he walked to his desk and pulled out a drawer. "I never thought I'd find either of you. I didn't know if you'd reincarnate together, but here you are," he pulled out a small velvet sachet. "You've read the journals, haven't you?"

You nodded, "yes, we're almost through with the second one-"

He cut you off, "you're aware of what demons are. Good."

"Why are you doing this? It's very bizarre that an artist such as yourself would go looking for two random people to see if they reincarnated," Hakuji muttered.

Yushiro rolled his eyes, "it would be weird if I didn't watch you die," he pointed at you, making you stiffen in place.

"What? But that was... You're a demon?"

"Ding, ding, ding. So is Chachamaru. And no, I was not made by Muzan, and I was not on his side," he sneered, jutting the sachet towards you.

You cautiously took it from him, "if Muzan didn't make you, who did?"

At that, he longingly looked to one of his paintings. "The most beautiful woman in the world," he murmured. It took a moment for him to snap out of his somber daze. "I have the third journal, but there's more out there than that" his eyes fell back on the sachet that he gave to you.

You promptly began to open it up. Inside was a set of beads, all engraved with snowflakes. When you pulled them out, you realized they were all connected. "What is this?"

"Your past anklets, obviously," the demon scoffed as if it were clear. "Here," he pulled a book out from the drawer and handed it over to you.

Hakuji leaned in when you cracked it open to see what was written.

"Flip to the last entry."

You did so, reading what was written at the end in silence. "So there's a box somewhere? How are we supposed to find it? They didn't leave any clues."

"Didn't they?" Hakuji murmured. "They were always talking about flowers,"

You thought about it, "what better place to look than a hidden meadow Akaza had shown them?"

"But we still don't know where that is."

"Hey!" Yushiro snapped, pissed that he was excluded from the conversation. "If you would stop yabbering you'd find out I already found the spot, you just have to go and break the protection."