Exploding Through Dimensions

Chapter 16: Understanding

Barely having time to blink as Tomioka walked pass him, Ruis visions began to blur and change to a time he remembered all too well...to a time he longed to forget.

'Growing up and watching the rest of the kids in the neighborhood playing out in the snow as they threw snowballs at each other was something I could never do. How I envied them and their chance to do normal things kids did when I couldn't. There were times I tried playing with them, but all I ended up doing was trip over my own two feet as I landed on the snow.

I remember coughing and staring up at the sky. A sick kid like me had no business coming out...I knew that. But yet...'

"Rui! Rui! What are you doing? You know you're not supposed to be outside!" My mother would say.

'Since the day I was born I was always frail and sick. I couldn't run, even walking was a struggle for me. Until Master Muzan appeared...'

"You poor thing. I'll save you from this harsh life." The man had said to me. A mere kid.

'I wasn't sure what he meant by that since there seemed to be no cure for my condition. My parents weren't happy about it, since now that I acquired a strong body I could never be exposed to the sunlight and of course I had to devour humans in return.'

Despite that, the horrified look on my fathers' face as he saw me taking the life of another had him look at me as if I was no longer his own son but a monster. And my mother... my mother remained crying behind him.'

"What have you done? Rui! What on earth have you done?! Answer me!" his terrified voice trembled as he looked at me.

Long ago I heard a wonderful story. About a father who died trying to save his drowning child. I was deeply moved, knowing such astounding parental love. This father had drowned in the river fullfilling his role as a guardian wonderfully. And yet my own parents...'

'My mother remained crying, never lifting a finger to protect me as my father one night raised his knife while I lay asleep in an attempt to kill me. My own parents tried to...kill me.'

'They must've been imposters. Their bond wasn't as genuine as I thought.'

"Rui...I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry." My mother weakly said as she lay there on the floor dying in her own blood in front of me after I awoke. "...for not giving you a strong, healthy body. I'm sorry."

'Those were my mother's last words she ever spoke to me as she died by my hands. I was so enraged that my father tried to kill me that his own words didn't sink in until after. But I came to realize that they meant to take their own life after killing me to atone for my sin of having murdered another.

It was a genuine bond...which I severed with my own two hands.

Master Muzan tried to give me words of encouragement. That it was all their fault for refusing to accept me. To pride myself in my own strength. I had no choice but to believe that since I couldn't bear the weight of what I'd done.

Only knowing I had myself to blame. Everyday I cried. And everyday I missed my parents so much that I couldn't stand it. Even after creating my own family...the emptiness never went away. And the more powerful I became... the less I remembered about being human. Forgetting what it was I truly wanted. Always seeking a bond... I could never really claim for myself.'

Blinking the dizziness away Bakugo could see Rui's tear-filled gaze glued to Tanjiro and Nezuko huddled together in embrace. Ruis body weakly began stumbling towards the two with his hands outstretched still hoping to find what he desperately longed for.