False Prophet

Chapter 2

Her sobs were as harsh as the storm outside. Inosuke was coughing again, soft whimpers that show just how weak he was.

All this noise was the only reason she didn't notice the one who appears before her.

—
She would have been a woman slaughtered so easily by his claws. Her skull kept in a pot made by Gyokko.

But divine rules told him in order for him to do such a thing he must first learn a lesson about being human as a demon. To know what suffering is.

"Don't worry. Your son will live." Douma can see the tears of the young mother when she looks up at him, a lightning strike illuminating his features. Emerald eyes that go with her blue hair go with a face that had a bruise.

Douma blinks, not expecting her to look so beautiful even when she was clearly abused.

"Thank you." The young mother speaks, her eyes closing and falling to her side. He is kneeling, catching her before she could break her skull open on the stone floor after getting this far. The bundle in her arms cries out and finally, Douma gets a look at the baby.

Inosuke looked just like his mother, neglected but alive.

The infant cries out and Douma shifts the woman to one arm to move his hand in front of the baby.

The baby sniffs, taking hold of the finger, skin just as chilled as his and that won't do.

Colorful eyes watch as the child coughs and whimpers.

"Suffering comes naturally. But let me ease it for now." Buddha had given him a few gifts for his lessons along with challenges.

One gift was of healing, only in small amounts and he gains the damage. An exchange if you will.

His hair flares as he has to hold back the feverish heat that runs through him like venom. The demon moves back, coughing into his sleeve, a simple black kimono to make him humble and not nearly as luxurious as he would like. He can smell blood and his hunger comes forth.

His eyes glow and he looks down at the unconscious woman.

He has been imprisoned and suffered in isolation.

"What's one bite?" His fangs are exposed when he is leaning over wanting to sink them into the soft flesh of the woman. If he were truly human, his hunger would have long since killed him and he would have been nothing but skin hanging off of bones.

The crown on his head tightens as a warning and he pulls back.

Fine.

If that is how Buddha wants to play, so be it.

Rainbow eyes find the child cooing up at him, reaching up to his locks that had fallen. His eyes were void of pain.

Douma sets the child's mother down, laying her flat against the stone of his temple before picking up the child.

"You're welcome." The infant ignores his words, taking hold of the hair in reach and tugging on it. Douma doesn't pay much mind when the child starts taking some of his hair into his mouth for a little bit. Soon the storm lulls the baby to sleep, in the arms of a demon that sits there, once again waiting.
—
Inosuke is dreaming, laying in the arms of another, watching the environment around him.

"Little one, I need you to tame the demon for me." He looks back at the one who holds him. A man in simple clothing looked down at him with a small smile.

"He'll try to surrender to his desires and you must show him the way.' His finger raises and Inosuke's baby mind makes him grab it. It begins to glow as Inosuke sucks on it. 'I'll give you this gift. A power that will activate when you speak to the demon."

Buddha is amused by the small actions of the child and lets him continue his suckling. He knows the child doesn't understand the power he is given. Luckily the power will only be as powerful as the universe believes it needs to be.

—
Inosuke would wake, his mother waving goodbye to the one on the porch, hiding in the shadows and he reaches out to him, cooing.

The man made him feel better than his own father who left him to the elements.

—
Kotoha would come back, leaving her husband for a time and hoping he wouldn't find her as she recovers.

"Now what kind of husband would harm his wife? Especially one so beautiful and lovely as you Kotoha-chan?"

Douma was a strange monk, smiling and then spending his time meditating, losing his grin and going neutral in the face.

Inosuke has taken a liking to him and that's all that mattered to Kotoha as her son continues to get better and better as the days go by.

"I can't blame him-" Douma shakes his head and goes to correct her.
"He brought young Inosuke into the world as much as you did. You should share in the hardship of raising him. A proper father would. Isn't that right, Inosuke-chibi?" Douma looks down at his lap where Inosuke has curled up, once again having tuckered himself out for the day.

—
That evening, Douma had a hunger spike and he was tempted to go hunt.

But alas a challenge appeared when his crown glowed when he attempts to leave the area of the temple. If he loses sight, it tightens.

So here he was hovering over the young mother and her child.

The child is watching him and his fangs are exposed in a smile, holding up his finger to shush the baby.

But the baby reaches out to him in a smile, his mouth wide open as a phrase comes forth.

"Dada!"

Douma feels his whole form lose balance as his face meets the ground in a smack. The stone cracks and when he lifts his head, he sees young Inosuke clapping and saying the word again.

"Dada!" Again his crown forces him to meet the floor.