Through Time She Returns

Chapter 9

What in the hell was this bastard doing?!

An Uppermoon has just been murdered and he thinks it is wise to bring a human in this scarce place of their master, Muzan.

Akaza wouldn't tolerate this idiot, especially with how the woman was squirming in his hold, wanting to flee. Not that she would get far with Gyokko. Between Gyokko and Douma, Douma should be the better option to end the woman's life. However with how he was pouting, his grip only tightening on the woman like a child not wanting to let go of a squirrel, Douma was sure to extend the misery of the woman.

Gyokko it is.

So a kick to Douma's left arm and his head, bits exploding everywhere and the woman was collapsing out of his hold before she scrambled to her feet.

There was Gyokko, slithering a pudgy hand to the petrified human, ready to torture her and laugh at her cries.

A strum later and all were still.

Akaza is immediately on his knees and Gyokko looking upwards. Distantly he can finally detect Kokushibo as he spoke shortly after Hantengu cries out at the presence of their leader.

Douma reforms, looking around for his lost toy before looking up to where his lord was.

"Muzan-sama! Kotoha-chan was-" Douma gets his body cut down the middle as their master went about his lab table.

Gyokko would describe what he needed to know about the whereabouts of the human.

"Muzan-sama, let me take that human off your hands-" Gyokko's vase explodes, and he appears on another platform.

Above, Muzan was mixing ingredients and only briefly looking to at a sniffling human. She was startled but he handed her a notebook in English. He can read print just fine. Cursive however is a bit too intricate for him sometimes.

"Can you read this?" Kotoha wipes the last of her disgusting tears, letting her clothes take the waste and she touches the notebook with cleaner hands.

She flips through the book before nodding.

"Good. Read and then tell me what it's asking for on the thirteenth entry." He then goes back to his task, gesturing to a cushion she can sit on in the meantime. Kotoha would gradually make her way over, not wanting to get caught up in the violence he was about to unleash.

Douma forms back, a pout and a whimper about to start when Muzan begins to speak about the events that had unfolded.

"Gyutaro is dead."

Douma's ears aren't registering at all what his master is saying, just white noise as he focuses on Kotoha who sits on what he knows as Muzan's favored chair.

AWWW HIS KOTOHA-CHAN IS LIKED BY MUZAN!
.
.
.

Eh?!

Douma snaps out of his thoughts when those crimson eyes focus on him. His own eyes are slashed for a moment, his brain crushed for thinking such a thing.

His lord found Kotoha useful. That's all that is.

Douma purses his mouth a bit, letting his hands bill into fists on his knees as he looks to the floor. Already distracted from the conversation to make any comments about it.

It's not fair, Muzan-sama had given Kotoha back to him. Why should he take her from him, especially when he needed to explain himself?

Douma would shoot his gaze up in interest when he heard something about Gyokko having some information. Then Muzan drops Gyokko's head to their platform.

Hmmmmm he could join Gyokko and Hantengu but that would mean leaving Kotoha with his cult. Oh, what to do, what to do. It would be a victory for them, something that would make Muzan more pleased than agitated.

But then there's a chance that Kotoha would remain mad at him if he doesn't explain himself.

Douma doesn't like the moment when the fortress shifts and Kotoha is taken from his sight.

—
"You are trying to become a botanist? Trying to find a substitute for eating humans?" Kotoha asked as Muzan goes about his business. He was cleaning off the shattered glass and getting new test tubes.

" To achieve greatness, I must conquer the sun. To do that, I need to either consume a demon that has done that or find myself a more natural solution."

Kotoha speaks before she knows it.

"So sunscreen."

Muzan looks to her. A bit baffled at the idea of having a screen that blocks the sun.

"What?"

Kotoha starts waving her hands, gesturing to the common places.

"Sunscreen is like a lotion we use in more recent decades because of the rise in skin cancer. Mostly the face. To block UV rays."

Muzan turns fully to her.

"Ultraviolet rays...hmmm. What else?"

"Well, I could go on and tell how we use UV lights to grow plants inside." Child's play but can prove useful when the time comes to get to this age.

Kotoha then begins to flip back into the notebook.

"My advice is hybridization of flowers to find what you are looking for. We did it with animals and plants to get more food into the world."

Muzan thinks for a moment, turning back to his desk.

Yes, he could try that instead of this useless experimentation of these counterfeit alternatives.

"You have my gratitude for giving suggestions." Kotoha nods, not wanting to push her luck any more than she has. Though she does this by walking forward to hand back the notebook.

A glance from crimson eyes before he takes the notebook.

"Enjoy your life while you still have it."

She hears the Biwa strum once more.

Kotoha squeaks as she feels the shift and has to close her eyes as she falls.

Then she is landing-

"KOTOHA!!" She is yelping, her previous stress coming back to the surface as she pushes upon Douma's face, having once again landed in his lap.

He was smiling as he held her close.

"Good to have you back Kotoha-chan!"