They woke from the floor panting as Naori laugh at them heartily. The last scene they saw was Kazumi tearing down that lightning demon's limbs by hand then skinning off the skin of his face with her own nails and fingers. They unconsciously touched their faces as if feeling the skin of it.
"What? Don't act like it was you guys whose face was skinned." Naori scoffed crossing her arms. "You guys should be thankful I didn't let you feel those demons' pain. That would upset Kazumi."
"If you don't need to go back in time, then why send us at the Time Demon's palace?" Kagaya asked after finally calming his wife down.
"Because it's Kazumi who needs it." Naori answered right away.
"Kazumi's punishment is not yet settled. A hundred years walking on thorns locked up behind the Death River's doors is just the beginning of her punishment." Yoshiko explained as he look at Shinobu who seem confused. He sighed, "She may be able to control the thorns away from your path but she couldn't put it away from hers."
And realization hit Shinobu, after all the time they spent walking there, she didn't realize that 'Yurei' had been walking on thorns. They all could only imagine the pain she has to go through walking all over them for a hundred years straight. Not only is the land filled with thorns but even the boat she gets on to go to the other side is filled with it.
"Not only were the thorns used to make her suffer there, even the heat she has to endure there is a temperature that constantly burns her from within. And every time she speak, a scratching pain is inflicted in her throat, even after swallowing the red flame orb, it could only ease the pain for a bit to make her talk smoothly for a while. And add up the stench of the Blood River that constantly burns her nose and throat." Yoshiko looked at Shinobu again. "She didn't let you experience those didn't she?"
Shinobu cried shaking her head as she sob facing the floor.
"B-But why?" Genya stuttered. "Why is she being punished?"
"Because she changed your fates and those demons' fates. The ones who were suppose to die lived. The ones who were suppose to suffer went to paradise." Naori answered him sitting on her bed. "And so, she has to atone for everyone."
They could only close their eyes in disappointment to themselves and regret. Just when they thought Kazumi would be at peace after her death, only to find out she has to suffer much more for saving them all.
Yoshiko and Naori knew that Kazumi was well aware of the outcome she'll face once she changes the future she saw when she regained the memories of her first life and when she used her powers to make the upper moons go to paradise. She was well aware that she would have to atone for them for a long time before she could be at peace.
"She risked not only her life but also her soul for you guys." Naori murmured watching them all silently sob as a lone tear fall from her eye which she wiped with her hand. "Yet she died in your hands."
"The Time Demon... He said she only has... freedom of today until tomorrow, will she... go back in there?" Amane asked in between her sobs.
Naori, "Yes. But this time, she'll be spending two hundred years before she could come out again and face the second stage of her punishment."
They all looked at the couple with their tear stained faces. Yoshiko looked at his wife who remained looking at the slayers in front of her with a cold gaze. He nodded to himself.
"Her next punishment... would be the One Hundred Year Tribulation." Yoshiko said with hesitation. "Where she would be reincarnated a hundred times and all those lifetimes she would suffer unimaginably before dying in agony... For a hundred times."
Sakae and Sakaki, who could hear them outside, couldn't help but feel sorry for the father and daughter. While the father's punished to not see his child, the child is punished to go through a hundred lives of suffering. Sakae could only silently shed a tear for them before wiping it quickly with the hem of his sleeves. While Sakaki could only bite his bottom lip to stop himself from crying.
That was the last hit to the slayers as the couple watch the light go out of their eyes and stare into nothing. Even if they are to serve at the Time Demon's Palace for a hundred or thousand years, they could never repay Kazumi for all the pain and suffering she has to go through for them. Never.
With the room falling silent from sobs and cries, Naori stood up from her bed and walked past them. Sakaki and Sakae then opened the doors for her as she step foot out of the room before they close it again.
"Your Majesty." Sakae called. "If my lord is the Harbinger's father, why can't they see each other."
Naori turned around to face them. "There is an unwritten rule here in the underworld. Any titled demon who conceives the child of a mortal, the couple shall be punished. The mortal to be locked up a thousand years in the underworld never to see their spouse and children, and the titled demon to be locked up in heaven for a thousand years never to see their spouse and children."
Sakae could only take in a sharp a breath hearing Naori's answer before helplessly nodding in response. He then looked back to his husband as Sakaki could only shake his head. Naori finally turned around and left without another word.
'Yoshiko, I just hope you won't be too soft on them.' She thought walking away leaving the slayers in the hands of her husband. 'Hanare... Shimotsuki... My deepest apologies for being powerless about this punishment on you both.' Then she stopped from walking. 'Muzan... I'm sorry if I couldn't tell you what your sister will have to go through.'
"Grandmother, isn't you room the way you came from?"
She's now looking at his grandson holding back her tears. She squeezed her hands tighter under her sleeves and force out a smile.
"My dear, my room is currently being used by your grandfather and his visitors. How about you go look for your sister first?" She answered tenderly holding his hands. "Go spend time with her."
Muzan smiled from ear to ear hearing this, "Kazumi's finally out?! Then I'll leave now grandmother, thank you for telling me!" He hugged Naori before running off to see his sister who, after a hundred years, is finally out from the Death River's Door.
Muzan thought with a smile, 'I wonder how she had been after a hundred years away from me! I'm sure she was taken care of!'
YOU ARE READING
Priceless Smile 3
FanfictionAfter their final battle against her, everyone lived happily until their final breaths just as she wished them to. Everyone died of natural causes- old age. And when they thought that's the end, it was only the start of their new beginning. As they...
