Chapter 70: I Swear, I Will Never Eat Humans Again
Night.
Inside an ordinary Japanese-style bungalow on the edge of this small town.
Six-year-old Yukina curled up in the deepest corner of the room, her back pressed tightly against the cold wooden wall.
Her pupils were dilated and trembling violently.
Tears, like a burst dam, flowed out silently and frantically, sliding down her pale cheeks and dripping onto the tatami mat beneath her, which was already soaked in blood.
Yukina had never felt so desperate.
This despair was not because she had broken a beloved toy, nor because she was lost in the dark, but a fear belonging to biological instinct.
Directly in front of her, a blue monster was squatting by the low table where the family of three had originally been having dinner.
That was a Blue-skinned Demon.
He had an extremely thin and small build, his body hunched, and his spine protruded high.
On top of his head grew two horns stained with dark red blood.
At this very moment, this Blue-skinned Demon was eating.
And his food was none other than Yukina's father and mother.
"Crack... squelch..."
The demon's hands, covered in blue scales, were gripping an arm tightly.
That was Father's arm.
Yukina clearly remembered that just a few hours ago, this large hand was still gently stroking her head, smiling and saying to her: "Yukina, when it gets bright tomorrow, Daddy will take you to town to buy candied apples."
But now, that arm had been violently torn off by the Blue-skinned Demon.
The jagged bone fragments at the break were exposed pale in the air, and blood sprayed onto the demon's face like a fountain.
The demon let out a low, beast-like growl from his throat, opened his large mouth, and bit fiercely into the muscle of the arm.
Accompanied by tearing sounds, large chunks of flesh were ripped off by him, mixed with shattered bone fragments, and swallowed whole into his belly.
"No... don't..."
Yukina's lips trembled violently, and an extremely faint whimper, like that of a kitten, came from her throat.
Her hands were pressed tightly over her mouth, but her gaze uncontrollably shifted to the other side.
Mother's beautiful kimono, embroidered with purple bellflowers, was now torn into rags, completely soaked in dark red blood.
Mother's head was tilted to one side in a grotesque manner.
The demon's other foot was stepping on Mother's chest cavity, and accompanied by the sound of ribs breaking, he greedily reached his hand into that bloody mess.
In Yukina's world, monsters only existed in the stories Mother told before bed, phantoms that would disappear as long as one closed their eyes and slept obediently.
But now, the monster from the stories was standing right in front of her, alive, carrying a nauseating, thick, fishy stench, chewing on the person she loved most.
Yukina dared not close her eyes, because as soon as she did, her mind was filled with images of her parents being torn apart.
She also dared not look ahead, because that hellish scene was happening in real-time.
She could only stare fixedly at a crack on the tatami mat stained red with blood, her brain left with only one thought:
"Don't look at me... please, don't look at me..."
Time seemed to be infinitely stretched.
She didn't know how long had passed before the chewing sound finally slowed down, and eventually stopped completely.
The Blue-skinned Demon discarded the last piece of remains in his hand into the pool of blood, making a "pat" sound.
He slowly straightened his hunched body, and the red glow of extreme hunger in his vertical pupils began to gradually fade.
As the long-lost, heavy feeling of fullness came from his abdomen, reason returned to this shell.
The Blue-skinned Demon lowered his head, looked at his hands covered in minced meat and organ fragments, and then looked at the mess all over the floor.
"Drip... drip..."
Blood dripped from his fingertips onto the tatami mat.
The Blue-skinned Demon's body began to tremble violently.
On his ugly, blood-stained face, muscles twitched uncontrollably, and his eyes revealed a pain and self-reproach that were completely inconsistent with his ferocious appearance.
"I... I lost control again..."
The demon suddenly clutched his head, his sharp nails digging deep into his scalp.
He knew what he had become.
After being forcibly fed blood by That Man and turned into this neither-human-nor-demon form, he had been struggling against that hunger which was enough to devour his reason.
He had sworn to only eat those who were dying, or to go to mass graves to find corpses; he didn't want to kill people, he still retained the last shred of his bottom line from when he was human.
But, the hunger.
That feeling of hunger, burning from the depths of his bone marrow, as if it were going to dissolve his entire soul, had broken his defenses once again.
When he passed by this house and smelled the sweet scent of living life inside, his brain had completely shut down.
"What have I done... What have I done again!"
The Blue-skinned Demon roared in pain, he suddenly fell to his knees in the pool of blood, his knees slamming heavily onto the shattered floorboards.
He looked at the torn bellflower kimono belonging to the woman at his feet, and a huge sense of guilt drowned him like a tsunami.
Just at this moment, he heard an extremely faint sound of teeth chattering coming from the corner.
The Blue-skinned Demon turned his head sharply.
In the flickering, dim light, he saw Yukina.
That small girl in white pajamas was huddled in the corner, trembling like a young rabbit driven to a dead end.
Her hands were clutching a broken wooden table leg beside her.
The Blue-skinned Demon slowly stood up and took a small step forward.
"Don't... don't come over!!!"
Yukina let out a scream.
She swung the broken wooden table leg in her hand frantically, even though that could not possibly cause any harm to the monster in front of her.
"Mon... monster! Demon! Don't you come over!"
Yukina's body squeezed desperately into the corner of the wall.
Her tears mixed with snot flowed all over her face,
"Now... are you going to eat me now? You ate Daddy and Mommy, is it my turn now? No... I don't want to be eaten! It hurts... it must hurt so much!"
Yukina screamed incoherently.
Being eaten would be very painful, she would become torn apart like Daddy and Mommy.
Watching Yukina's breakdown, the Blue-skinned Demon's heart felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand.
He stopped his steps, slowly and clumsily putting his blood-stained hands behind his back, as if that could cover up his crimes.
"I'm sorry..."
The demon's voice trembled violently, his tone filled with self-reproach,
"I'm sorry... I really didn't want to... I couldn't control myself. I was too hungry... that voice kept ringing in my head... that feeling was like ten thousand insects biting my brain... I ate your Daddy and Mommy... I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
As he spoke, he bowed his ugly, horned head deeply toward Yukina.
Turbid tears seeped from his eye sockets.
However, to Yukina, the demon's apology was meaningless.
She didn't understand what "couldn't control" meant; she only saw this monster that was tearing apart her parents a second ago, and was now crying here.
"Liar! Monsters all lie!"
Yukina cried hoarsely, the wooden table leg in her hand swinging wildly in the air.
"Don't be hypocritical! You murderer! Monster!"
The Blue-skinned Demon looked into the girl's eyes filled with hatred and fear; he knew that no matter what he said, he could not make up for this monstrous sin.
He was a demon; this was a curse carved into his bones and blood.
He slowly raised his head, a trace of sorrow flashing in his vertical pupils.
"No."
The Blue-skinned Demon looked at Yukina,
"I will not eat you."
He paused, seemingly suppressing the faint, demon-like craving for flesh that still existed within him.
"I am already... full. And, I swear, I will never eat humans again."
After saying this, the Blue-skinned Demon did not look at Yukina again.
He turned around, took steps, and walked toward the door.
Just as the Blue-skinned Demon's hand was about to touch the doorframe, his footsteps suddenly stopped abruptly.
His ears, which had been drooping, twitched slightly.
He heard the little girl's uncontrollable sobbing, caused by excessive grief and fear.
He turned his head, his vertical pupils piercing through the dim light, and fell upon Yukina in the corner once again.
The little girl was hugging her knees tightly, burying her face in her knees, her shoulders heaving violently.
Around her were her parents' remains, and she was the only living person left here.
An extremely complex emotion spread in the Blue-skinned Demon's eyes.
He looked at Yukina, and a blurred image suddenly appeared in his mind: a long, long time ago, before he had turned into this demonic state, there seemed to have been a small figure who would always tug at his clothes and sweetly call his name.
He turned around, walked slowly back to the center of the room, and looking down at Yukina from above across the pool of blood.
"What... what is your name?" the Blue-skinned Demon asked softly,
"Do you have... any other family? Besides them..."
He pointed to the remains on the ground.
Hearing the demon's voice as he returned, Yukina lifted her head sharply.
Her red, swollen eyes were filled with fear.
Had this monster changed his mind and was coming to eat her again?
"I... my name is Yukina!"
The girl bit her bloodless lips and shouted with all her might, as if this could give her courage,
"I have no family left! You ate them all! You demon! Why don't you just die!!"
Fear, under extreme pressure, finally transformed into anger.
Yukina threw the broken wooden table leg in her hand fiercely at the demon.
With a "pat" sound, the table leg hit the demon's blue skin and instantly bounced off, not even leaving a white mark.
But this ignited all of Yukina's emotions.
She began to curse the monster in front of her frantically, using all the vicious vocabulary she could think of in her six-year-old life.
"You ugly monster! Murderer! Piece of trash! Die! Why wasn't it you who died! Give me back my Daddy and Mommy! Give them back!!"
As Yukina cried and shouted, she grabbed everything she could reach.
Broken porcelain bowls, blood-stained wooden blocks, she threw them desperately at the demon.
Facing Yukina's attacks, the Blue-skinned Demon did not dodge.
Those things hit his hard skin, as meaningless as raindrops hitting a rock.
He just stood there quietly, letting those blood-stained debris hit him, and in his turbid eyes, a trace of pity emerged.
"Yukina..." the demon murmured, repeating the name,
"What a beautiful name."
"Since you have no family left..." the Blue-skinned Demon took a step forward and reached out his blood-stained hand toward Yukina,
"Then from now on, I will be your family."
Yukina was stunned; she even forgot to cry, just looking at the monster in front of her with the eyes one would use to look at a madman.
"I will protect you." The demon's voice became gentle.
The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, pulling into a terrifying smile that he thought was gentle, but was uglier than crying,
"Look, I am very strong. I can defeat those who want to bully you, I can find food for you. Let's live together, okay? Yukina, from now on, I am your family."
"You're crazy!!"
After a brief moment of stagnation, Yukina burst into an even sharper scream than before.
She shrank back in terror, looking at the demon as if she were looking at an unspeakable filth.
"Who wants you as family! You murderer! You ate my Daddy and Mommy!"
Yukina pointed at the demon, her fingers trembling violently due to extreme anger and fear,
"I know what you're thinking! You must want to keep me as your backup food! You're full now and can't eat, so you're raising me, and when you're hungry next time, you'll eat me! Just like... just like the pigs raised by Old Man Wang next door!"
"I won't be fooled! Get out! Get out! Die! Die!!"
Yukina grabbed the last blood-stained wooden board on the ground and held it tightly in front of her chest.
The gentle expression on the Blue-skinned Demon's face froze.
Yes, Yukina was right.
This was the true purpose of his return.
Although he had regained his reason at this moment, and although he felt incomparable self-reproach and guilt for eating Yukina's parents, but... he was a demon.
Demons get hungry.
When the hunger returned, he knew he would lose his reason again, and would again frantically crave human flesh.
Therefore, when he heard Yukina say she had no other family, a thought took root and sprouted in his mind.
Take her away and use her as mobile "emergency rations."
When rational and clear-headed, he could be the "family" to confide his loneliness to.
When hunger lost control, she would be the "food" that could save him from the fire.
What a perfect plan.
"Yukina..." the demon lowered his eyelids, his voice becoming cold.
He slowly stood up, his originally hunched body now casting a long shadow under the moonlight, enveloping Yukina entirely.
"You are too noisy."
Before the words had even finished falling, the Blue-skinned Demon's figure flashed like a ghost.
"Bang!"
The demon's right hand struck precisely on the back of Yukina's neck.
Yukina's body stiffened suddenly, and her eyes rolled back instantly.
Her small, thin body fell forward softly like a puppet with cut strings.
The Blue-skinned Demon reached out the hand that had just knocked her unconscious and steadily caught Yukina's falling body.
He looked down at the unconscious Yukina in his arms.
There were still undried tear stains on the little girl's face, her brows were tightly locked in pain, and even in her coma, her body was still twitching slightly.
The demon reached out a blood-stained fingertip and gently brushed aside the hair that had fallen onto the girl's forehead.
A trace of extremely complex emotion revealed itself in his eyes — it was a kind of madness mixed with sympathy, cruelty, and guilt.
"I'm sorry, Yukina." The demon lowered his head and pressed his lips against the girl's cold forehead.
"You're right, I really did want to keep you as backup food. I am a demon, a Blue-skinned Demon who cannot control his own desires."
The demon raised his head, looked around, and his gaze swept over the two horrific corpses.
"But... I just want to live. What is wrong with that? Even if I have to become a monster, even if I have to bear the curses of all of you, I still want to live."
He hugged Yukina tightly, as if clutching his last straw of survival in this world.
"Since your Daddy and Mommy are all dead, how lonely and pitiful you must be, left alone in this world. When I'm hungry again and lose my reason once more, you should go down and keep them company too. A family should be together in one piece, don't you think?"
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