"I-I've killed too many people… You can't waste any more of your time on someone like me."
Akaza's voice carried a tangle of emotions that few could ever hope to untangle.
The Upper Moon Three now remembered his past and the madness that had followed the deaths of his beloved and his benefactor.
He had killed, devoured, and led countless fighters down a path akin to his own.
Akaza deemed himself unworthy of salvation, whether beside Koyuki or his former mentor.
He had broken his promise and committed far too many atrocities.
Yet Koyuki's voice rang out one final time in her lover's ear.
"No matter what you do next, I'll be by your side. Even in hell. So please, don't kill yourself," she said, before silence swallowed the gray expanse.
Akaza stood alone.
The Upper Moon Three no longer knew what to do, having regained his human memories and heard Koyuki's words.
He was lost.
That was when Doma's hand settled casually on his shoulder.
"You look rattled. Are you all right?" Doma asked, his concern as fake as a stage prop.
The demon glanced at him briefly before turning back to the spot where Koyuki had once stood.
"You knew, didn't you?"
After a short pause, Akaza finally spoke.
His words could have been taken the wrong way, but he was actually referring to Muzan's hold over him.
A conclusion Akaza had reached by replaying Doma's behavior after the festival and their repeated encounters.
Even when challenged, Doma had never accepted a duel. The ice demon always turned the situation into a joke, over and over.
The other clue was this mental dimension—the gray world stretching out before them.
If Muzan's will and Doma's could interact so clearly, then Doma had long been able to locate the demon king inside other demons' minds.
A hypothesis Muzan hadn't noticed back then, but which Akaza now grasped thanks to his current state of mind.
Even without a real purpose, Akaza was free.
That mental state left him oddly relaxed, yet far more thoughtful about himself and those around him.
"Indeed, I knew about your past, but the presence of that girl's soul is recent news," Doma admitted, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Doma's confession wasn't without motive; he simply had no real alternative.
Akaza had been partially exposed to the Paradise of Vanity by Doma's will.
It was the only way the demon had found to help him see the truth and soothe the girl's soul.
'I wonder if Sabito found peace after Tanjiro's victory over the demon from the hunters' exam,' he thought to himself, eyes still fixed on Akaza.
"I see… so you'd already planned this whole situation, along with your betrayal." Even though his tone stayed calm and drawling, veins bulged on Akaza's forehead.
The demon brushed off Doma's overly friendly hand and took a few steps back, now judging this man's mind far more dangerous than he'd ever imagined.
Doma had helped him—that was a fact.
Yet Akaza now had confirmation that he'd been manipulated by both Muzan and Doma.
One had been his master for centuries; the other, a subtler puppeteer.
If Muzan ordered and forced Akaza to commit atrocities, then Doma had been the silent witness in the shadows.
The only reason for his release from Muzan's grip was the current situation—the war—that the ice demon was watching.
Doma was at odds with Muzan and had decided it was time to set him free.
There was no real sympathy in Doma's act, at least not in the perception and analysis of the former Upper Moon Three.
Fortunately for his own sanity, Akaza still didn't know the full scope of the renegade demon's plan.
Indeed, Doma had been plotting for decades to recruit Akaza against Muzan.
A plan that dated back to the very moment he'd become a demon, though it had lost priority because of the System and Beelzebub's blood.
Those two elements now guaranteed him certain survival and a near-inevitable victory over the demon king once he was free of his influence.
Something Tamayo had granted him.
Thus, the fighting demon didn't for a second suspect that Doma saw his presence as a minor extra insurance policy.
Thanks to Hlökk, Doma had no fear of facing the entire Infinity Castle alone.
'The fool hasn't realized I can still read him like an open book,' he thought, watching Akaza's growing suspicion.
"Maybe~ but does it really matter at this point? You've sinned an awful lot against your fellow man, Akaza-kun," Doma declared in a teasing, amused tone.
Those words made even more veins pop on the former Upper Moon Three's forehead as he glared at Doma.
"Don't look at me like that; I'm not into men."
Doma's remark pushed Akaza to lash out, but he slammed into an invisible wall.
The two demons were mentally linked, but Doma had far more experience in the mental realm.
That was why he blocked the attack effortlessly, with a single thought and no special technique.
Akaza's will wasn't strong enough in that moment; he wasn't mentally fit.
If it had been the usual Akaza, Doma couldn't have handled him so easily with the Paradise of Vanity.
The man's fighting spirit was simply too fierce.
"Now, now, Akaza-kun. Circumstances have made us allies," Doma said with a shrug, pausing before turning his back on the demon.
He raised his fan in a lazy motion, shattered the gray world, and pulled Akaza back to reality.
The people around them noticed nothing; the perception of the normal world and the gray world were entirely separate.
Blood Demon Art: Paradise of Vanity.
It also allowed manipulation of others' perceptions when Doma ingested a piece of their body.
Of course, that included Doma's own mental world within the power's range.
"But between us, you should take Koyuki's advice and live an honorable, quiet life," he said as he walked toward Hlökk.
Once he reached the door to his new woman, the demon simply held out both hands.
The valkyrie needed no further gesture to understand what Doma wanted.
Without the slightest hesitation, she slipped into the old gloves of Jack the Ripper.
The Völundr was performed before the shocked eyes of Mugen and Rin.
"Still, we both know the truth, don't we? Beings like us can't live in peace. So, Akaza-kun~ will you spend eternity in calm regret, or follow me on a mad adventure, atoning for your wrongs by helping those around you as a form of redemption?"
Doma's tone grew almost solemn by the end of his speech, setting aside his usual habit of teasing Akaza.
He looked calmly at Muzan's former servant and extended his hand.
The divine artifact was offered for a handshake.
"Akaza-kun, follow me instead of Muzan, and you'll be able to reunite with your wife with dignity." The obvious proposal was different from what Akaza had expected.
Doma wasn't another master looking to enslave him without regard for his opinion or interests.
He proposed and left him free to refuse.
At least on the surface.
'Tch. He says that, but he surely knows I have no choice,'Akaza thought, the urge to smash that smiling face only growing.
Yet he shook the hand of that grinning devil.
That day, Akaza discovered the capitalist System: something that gives you the illusion of choice when you clearly have none.
"*Cough*… excuse me for interrupting your bromance, but there's a portal right in front of you and demons as far as the eye can see," Mugen said, as if it wasn't his problem.
The former delinquent wasn't afraid.
Why? Because Doma was there — and he was the strongest man he knew.
'If I die here, then it just wasn't my day, he 'thought to himself, taking a cigarette offered by a surviving shadow.
***
Author's note:
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