The King's Queen

Chapter 21

Another village burnt to ash as the screams of the poor men, women and children echoed through out the area as smoke bellowed in large quantities into the air. Contrast to the surrounding chaos of fire ice sheets creeped up on the ground and spread on unsuspecting survivors who managed to hide from the demonic force that had come for their souls, their fearful expressions became frozen in time as they became like the ice of the lakes during Winter. Accompanying the ice was the shadows that seemed joyful in the fact they were free to do as they pleased, ones with multiple hands would grab at innocent people and crush them, hounds ripped and teared through flesh and bone and some without shape would just absorb people and toss out the boney remains.

Only a select few who willing fought against these people were tied up with a man hovering over them with a grin twisted with sick intentions. Cold sweat dropped from your forehead as you watched as these people cried for a God or Goddess to save them from their torture, you felt indifferent as you watched the scene play out in front of you. The floor of the once pristine walkway was now flooded with blood and human guts but you still felt nothing, something bumped into your leg. It was one of the hounds in its mouth was the head of a child, it had brought you a present with the way it wagged its shadowy tail. You knelt down dirtying your favourite kimono as you smiled at the vicious hound before patting its head, your hands seemly sinking into its form but it seemed to appreciate it since it let go of the head allowing it to roll to the side as it attacked you with licks.

As you giggled at your shadow shikigami's antics, looking back at the child's head your breath seemed to get stuck in your throat along with everything else. There on the floor laid a young boy's head, no older than 6, his bright ruby eyes shifted to look at your e/c eyes, his skin beautifully pale and his pink hair marred with a liquid rivalling his own eyes in colour. "...Mama..." the head called out and your body reacted to his call and abandoned the hound______ which took the opportunity to go back to hunting its prey_____ and lifted the head and hugged it with your dainty arms keeping him safe from the cruel reality around him, in return you felt tiny arms trying to hug you back but failing since they were too small. Opening your tearful eyes you saw that the boy had a body and donned a black and red yukata, his eyes turned sad looking at your depressed façade and lifted his tiny hands to wipe away stray tears and cupped your cheeks with his chubby fingers before placing a sloppy kiss on your forehead. "Mama should never be sad, she should smile and be happy along with Papa and Onii-chan!" The toddler gave you a bright smile showing all his baby teeth.

You woke up with a start as you jumped out of the futon, your breath was fast and shallow but slowly it calmed down to slow and deeper breaths. You could still hear your heart beating profusely in your ears and feel the cold sweat stuck to your skin. The sky was still dark and starry indicating that it was still night, Hamako laid comfortable beside you in a position you don't really think would be comfortable for sleeping but that didn't really matter anyway.

You squeezed your eyes shut as you pinched the bridge of you nose in frustration, this dream has haunted you for the last month since Uraume gave you a vague explanation to your father's involvement with Sukuna. It took sometime to actually let the information sink in however, the information didn't help with anything but make you feel betrayed. Back to the dream, it seemed to alternate between two visions one with the boy who looked eerily identical to Sukuna except seemed energetic, joyful and just the purest child ever.

The second version is the same with the only difference is the boy and how he is brought to you, the shikigami that brings him is fully manifested and brings the boy's mutilated corpse that only seems to go back together when he is placed in your hands by the humanoid shikigami. The boy's appearance is also different as instead of messy pink hair and crimson eyes, he has somewhat spikey h/c hair and a darker shade of e/c eyes with long eyelashes and the same pale skin as the boy before.