Honor x Inhumanity

The demon descends from atop his mountain keep to destroy mankind. 

Sekozawa Hideo, man-eating yakuza demon with a god complex. Indie fandomless OC. Trigger warnings include blood, gore, violence, and cannibalism. Unaffiliated with Yakuza/Ryu ga Gotoku but more than happy to interact with anyone. 18+

   Atieno just maintains their cunning little smile, especially in response to Hideo’s very false laugh. It was just as entertaining as any other response he could have given. “Agenda? I didn’t quite have one - was passing through for a moment and figured I’d stop by for a moment. My drive … my long term thing allows me for excursions and visits. Might as well have something to pass the time.“

Still, they survey the desk, the office - there doesn’t seem to be much on his plate at all. But they are glad to leave him to his …’business’.

“Although you being so busy, I suppose I could leave you be just as suddenly. I’m sure you have quite the day ahead of you.

It’s hard enough to explain herself to humans. Why was it hard for a demon to understand, too? (Or was it?) Shi sets her hands on his chest, folded as a perch for her chin. Her pine-needle eyes firm on his gaze as the inferno of his touch creeps up a cold arm. 

Hideo makes her feel warm, a fleeting fever to the skin that she longs to remain. It’s not just demonflesh that has him burning, she knows. She knows by the rigid furrow in his brow, the tension in his belly. He’s angry. Not at her, but for her. 

Her fingertips brush his hair back from his forehead, mussed by their carnal delights.

“I don’t mind talking about it. About him.”

Shi says, half convinced it’s true. Telling her story is one ounce of agency, a sliver of control, over the events the drove her to become a deathless ghost, a demon in her own right.

Shi sits up from the oni, twisting away so that he can see her back. Jagged scars rest there, one above the shoulderblade and the other between them, nestled beside her spine.

“He tricked me. Hunted me down when I tried to run. Threw me into my grave and murdered me. It was a long time coming, you know? He did worse before that. Shit that hurt a lot more. Dying doesn’t hurt so much.” A breath. That’s not what Hideo asked.

“I got my revenge eventually. If he’s still around, he’s like me and not supposed to be.”

Shi looks over her shoulder, back to Hideo. A soft, sad smirk curves her mouth. She twists to fit her body beside his, her head nestled in the crook of his neck. Her breath is like a breeze to his skin.

“Don’t feel sorry for me.”

    He’s met onryo with less heinous afterlives. The thing about ghosts is that they--usually--only die once. Manner of death aside, even the most vengeful of them might still balk at the sight of a man eaten whole.      So what fucking gives.      Maybe it’s the faux sense of chivalry threading through his clan and through his kind that has him laying there with rapt attention -- the side of him written paltry next to endless tales of abducting maidens. ‘Just look past the body count, I promise.’      Hideo commits her scars to memory. Blood on the peonies. It’s not as if her story is far from their salaryman’s -- but this is different, he reasons, because Shi... Because he says so.      Beast-like, he huffs to steady his nerves. Hideo nestles against her like a wolf steeling for winter as she folds into him.      “Too late,” he goes. I’m sorry feels like the easy way out. “Shame we couldn’t’ve met earlier, boss. Revenge fantasies are kinda my thing.” He forces his own smile, his fangs a little too bare, his eyes a little too moon-crazed.      He had refrained from doing so, but he runs a palm over the scar on his neck partly out of solidarity and partly out of habit. It’s the near-perfect mark of a cleave that almost did him in with tragic, folkloric flair. It’s a cut so clean that he feels as if he’s had a ‘cut here to kill’ sign on him ever since.       “Well, these ain’t the feelin’s I was expectin’ at the love hotel.” 

❝I put all of my feelings behind a paywall. That’ll be $3.99, please.❞

“Vi-chan?!”