What did I even do?
Hello there. It's me, the friend of Kibutsuji-san's Muzan-kun.
My memories from my previous life only go up to being attacked by my mom, who had turned into a demon when I returned from going outside. I think it's certain I died since I see I've been reincarnated anew.
No, seriously… why did Mom become a demon?? No, well, I know the reason. I know too. The only one who can create new demons is Kibutsuji Muzan, because I received demon-slaying lectures from Michikatsu-san in the Warring States period.
Namely, the one who turned Mom into a demon is my friend Muzan-kun.
Are you kidding me?
Muzan-kun, do you know the saying that manners are needed even among close friends?
No matter how much the medicine worsened your personality, this is unforgivable, this cannot be forgiven. Turning such a gentle, mild, slightly scatterbrained, cute mom who didn't know how to chase away the sparrows that came in and had tears in her eyes into a demon—what were you really thinking, Muzan-kun?
Of course, she was scary like a demon when angry, but you didn't need to actually make her a demon. Making a world-heritage-level cute mom into a scary demon is a loss for the world, you know? I'll get angry? Even if you're a friend, I'll really get angry over this? I won't break off our friendship, but next time we meet, I'll hit you once, so be prepared.
Really… Muzan-kun is a stupid idiot! Next life, I'll become a Demon Slayer Corps member and definitely find you and go hit you, so be ready! Reconciliation comes after!!
If you ask why the next life and not this current life, it's because my current living environment is harsh, shall I say.
Following my previous-previous life and previous life, I was born with white hair and red eyes again, and I'm being terribly mistreated by my parents in this life. Being treated as a monster and not getting food is basic; I get yelled at and slapped by my mother, hit and kicked by my father—honestly, I think I'll die soon.
Dying at the tender age of 5 isn't even funny. It's shorter than my previous life. I don't want to break this short-lived record.
It's amazing I've survived this far even now. If they had abandoned me right after birth, it might have been better, so why don't they abandon me and keep me around?
Actually, I know the reason. Because my appearance is unusual, they're thinking they might be able to sell me somewhere for a high price.
But contrary to expectations, I didn't sell for a high price easily, and because of that, my parents' irritation increased day by day. My body was weak from not eating properly, and while that was happening, my face kept getting hit and swelling up, and combined with my hair and eye color, I truly looked like a monster.
I missed my previous life's mom and cried every day. Afraid I'd get hit again for making noise, I cried while hugging my knees under the floor, gritting my teeth.
Despite how I look, my mental age is quite adult, but perhaps because of the unstable situation, my mind is dragged around by my body and I can't handle it well. Pathetic.
Remembering how my previous life's mom taught me various medicine-making methods, my days were spent treating my wounds somehow with herbs I could gather nearby.
The day that life came to an end was on a certain winter day.
On a snowy night just like when Mom became a demon, I was walking almost being dragged by my father. It was on the way back from a buyer. That buyer had offered the highest price for me so far, but my greedy father wasn't satisfied with that amount and, after yelling at the buyer, brought me back.
I hadn't eaten anything for two days. The ground was covered in snow, not even weeds visible. My consciousness was hazy, and I couldn't even feel the cold of the snow touching my bare feet. I couldn't stand anymore and collapsed on the snow.
Angry at the situation where the load couldn't move on its own, my father didn't even try to lift me up, but poured out beatings and verbal abuse while kicking me. In the end, he even spat and left me behind, going back alone.
How stupid. If you're going to abandon me like this, you should have just sold me to that buyer earlier and gotten some money at least. I'm telling you, you're really stupid. The reason my price is low is because I'm all injured.
Thinking of it like someone else's business, I closed my eyes as if buried in a snow blanket.
I hope next life I get a bit more proper family environment. Thinking like that.
"Huh?"
"My oh my, collapsing in snow like this!"
"An abandoned child? How pitiful."
"Anyway, the wounds are severe, if left like this you'll die."
"I'm kind, so I can't just leave you!"
＊
When I opened my eyes, I saw a beautiful ceiling polished to a shine. I thought I might have been reincarnated into a new place, but that wasn't it.
"What a relief. You opened your eyes!"
An unfamiliar face looked down at me. My gaze met rainbow-colored eyes that sparkled like a kaleidoscope.
"You must be hungry, let's eat first. I just had some brought over. Can you sit up?"
Who is this person? Where is this place? Unable to say anything, I sat up with support. Where I was lying was a pure white, clean, fluffy futon. My filthy body had been cleaned, and seeing that the treatment had been done on my bruised arms, did this person do it?
"I'll feed you. Here, open your mouth."
Steam rose from the spoon extended to my mouth. The white, cloudy broth was probably rice porridge. It's an incredible feast. In this life, I haven't even had rice water in my mouth. Though I've drunk muddy water several times.
Opening my mouth as urged, the spoon touched my lips. It was too hot, and I reflexively jerked my head back, and from the recoil, what spilled from the spoon dirtied the futon.
──I messed up.
My body stiffened even before the color drained from my face. It was natural that a fist would fly when I made a mistake. I tightly closed my eyes and braced for impact, but no matter how long I waited, what should have flown didn't come. Not even curses.
Wondering, I cautiously opened my eyes, and there was a dazed, round rainbow.
"…Ah, I see! You thought you'd get hit for spilling? It's okay, I don't get angry over such things. You were surprised because it was hot, right? I'll cool it properly this time. Here, blow~, blow~"
The person with rainbow-colored eyes smiled gently again, blew on the spoonful of porridge, and lightly touched it to my lips when the steam had faintly subsided. When I swallowed, my chest to stomach instantly warmed. It was so delicious I could cry.
My previous life's mom also fed me porridge like this when I had a fever and was sick. The memory of her blowing on hot porridge on a spoon to cool it and feeding me came to mind like it was yesterday.
I swallowed the second spoonful extended to me, overlaying it with the memory of Mom. The kind, sometimes strict Mom. The Mom who always fed me delicious meals. The Mom who became a demon and ate me.
Is Mom still wandering somewhere as a demon? Or has someone already cut off her head? If she's still alive, if she survived as a demon, I wanted to give it back. Mom, back to being human.
Until now, I had thought of demons as someone else's business somewhere.
I gave special treatment only to Muzan-kun, and treated other demons just like monsters.
'They eat people.'
'They're enemies of humans.'
'Then we just have to cut them down.'
I held a sword with that kind of thinking.
But now, after experiencing my family member, my mom, suddenly becoming a demon, I can't think the same. Demons were people. They had families. Then rather than killing them, it's better to look for a way to return them to how they were.
Since my special ones are only Mom and Muzan-kun, I have no choice but to cut down demons who eat and attack people, but I don't want to if possible.
It's not just Mom. If Muzan-kun also returns to being human, he won't turn people into demons or attack them anymore.
Muzan-kun became a demon because of a doctor's medicine. It's the same that he became the personality he is now. If it's something caused by medicine, it can't be impossible to fix with medicine.
I swallow the porridge that entered my mouth. I have to live. I have to eat this and live. I have to find a way to return those two to being human. I have to become a Demon Slayer Corps member and find Mom and Muzan-kun. It's not the time to give up on life, me!
With my resolution, as I drank the porridge, tears plopped down. The boy with rainbow-colored eyes said "There there, it was tough," kindly and fed me.
By the way, who is this person really? And where is this place.
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This place is a new religious organization, the Eternal Paradise Cult.
The boy is its Leader. At first glance he looks about high school age, but being a leader is impressive.
It's a religious organization… scary… be honest and raise your hand if you thought that. Yes, me!
I'm an ungrateful guy receiving help and not knowing gratitude, but when I learned this place was a religious organization, I shrunk back thinking 'It's a place that sells strange pots and stuff, scary… I should run away as soon as I regain my energy…'
I have no good memories with religion. When I was in a hurry and someone at the station entrance suddenly gave me a handshake and prayer saying "I'll pray for your happiness," I wanted to pray for the safety of your own head, and when the person who moved in next door to my apartment distributed religious propaganda flyers asking "Do you believe in God?" I wanted them to give me a return towel instead.
In middle school, when an incredibly cute classmate called me saying "Let's meet after so long♡" and I went to the meeting place with a pounding heart, she showed me a natural stone bracelet and subjected me to a five-hour religious propaganda race going 'Exorcism barrier! Luck! Money! Fortune! Your life will also advance triumphantly with this!' I cried.
"You recovered cleanly without major aftereffects. However, there are signs of malnutrition, so please feed them nutritious food."
"There there, thank you. Nothing hurts now, right, little one?"
But this Eternal Paradise Cult doesn't seem to be as scary as I thought. Looking back and forth between the Leader who smiled and asked me and the doctor the Leader called, I revised my perception like that.
"No. Thank you."
"Wow! Even says thank you properly, how splendid!"
The Leader smiled brightly and stroked me, avoiding the swollen parts. I don't know this person's real name. Since everyone calls him Leader, I'm also calling him Leader for now.
This person called the Leader is always smiling brightly as if something is so enjoyable, to the extent that even the manager of a fast-food restaurant with 'Smile 0 yen' wouldn't smile this brightly—a smiling-brightly alien of smiling brightly.
But it's not a malicious smile. Since he had believers take care of me for the 2 weeks my wounds healed and called a doctor, it was certain he wasn't a dangerous person. Of course, he might be thinking of cleaning me up to sell me!
"Ah, right right. What's your name?"
After sending the doctor back, the Leader looked at me and asked that. But I didn't have a name to answer with.
"Why aren't you saying anything? Your name, n.a.m.e. What did your father and mother call you?"
"Useless thing, insect eater, monster."
"Oh dear, those are too harsh names."
They weren't good enough parents to give a name to a child they planned to sell from the start. 'Hey' or 'you' would have been better, and those were usually what they called me.
The wounds healed and the swelling on my face subsided. My body, which showed signs of malnutrition, still staggered but not to the point I couldn't walk.
My will to live also surged, and when I tried to bow saying "Thank you for everything until now~" and leave, the Leader looked bewildered for a moment, then with an expression of looking at something a bit hard to understand, a wondering expression, held me back.
"Hmm, are you being modest? Don't worry about it, you can stay here. You're still young so you can't work, and anyway, with that hair and eye color, it would be hard to live. Since you were abandoned by your parents, you don't have a place to return to, right?"
Extremely correct argument.
For that reason, I decided to stay here for a while.
Still feeling guilty about eating free meals, I helped with tasks even a child's hands could do, and spent my days secretly training in the wide garden at night.
The medicine research to return demons to humans had too little knowledge, so I haven't started yet. If I at least had the formulation of the medicine used on Muzan-kun, I could try to some extent.
And what I realized while living here is that the Eternal Paradise Cult isn't a religion that aims for money. I had a strong negative image that new religions were for money-making by fraudulent leaders, but at least the Leader didn't seem to be doing it aiming for money.
When the Leader receives a large donation, rather than being happy, he makes a slightly troubled expression. Looking back and forth between the believers prostrating saying 'Please lead us to paradise~' and the piled donations, he makes a 'what to do' expression. He soon returns to his Smile 0 yen expression though.
"Why does Leader do being the Leader?"
"Why? Because that's my mission."
So it's volunteer work, I see. Even though he's only about high school age, that's impressive perseverance.
The Leader always acts kindly and cheerfully, listening to the worries or complaints of adults who have lived several times longer than him, sometimes even crying with them—this isn't something that can be done with ordinary mental strength. I've never seen this person yell at someone or make weak complaints.
When I asked, he said he had continued volunteer activities since he was younger than me in this life. If it were me, I'd get depression. When I was a high school student in the Heisei era, I went "Vroooom..." playing Star Wars with a school broom. I also practiced Energy Wave.
No, more than that, believers, I think clinging to a Leader younger than you going "Leader, Leader!" is a bit no good. This person is still a teenager. Saying "Please take me to paradise!" to a kid about high school age—paradise isn't Koshien Stadium. You can't get to paradise by Hanshin Railway. The Leader isn't a high school baseball player either. Use common sense?
First of all, I've died several times until now and haven't been to paradise or hell, so there probably isn't any, hell paradise 3-chome. Surely there are no gods or buddhas. If there were, Mom wouldn't have died and Muzan-kun wouldn't have taken medicine or anything. Nietzsche also said God is dead.
High school baseball players also struggle to go to Koshien, but anyway, these adults. Though I think that, I don't say it out loud. Because I know. People who fall into religion are usually mentally cornered.
Cornered believers are overwhelmed just by their own affairs.
So that day, I was the only one who noticed the Leader's physical condition wasn't good.
My intuition from having seen a sickly patient like Muzan-kun shouted 'Today the Leader is a bit off!' so I poked him to make him bend over and tried a headbutt, and sure enough. It was such a high fever that I thought 'With that body, you managed to act like such a bright, fresh Leader?' The Leader's patience is diamond-level durability?
Since he said to keep it secret from others with a shh~, I kept my mouth shut to the believers, but he showed no sign of calling a doctor, so I had no choice but to step up.
Specifically speaking, I went outside at midnight and gathered grass or earthworms from the nearby mountain to make a fever reducer.
Hee hee hoon. Medicine I learned from Mom. But I didn't have a mortar, so I borrowed one from the kitchen. I washed it clean and returned it, so I won't get caught, it's fine! The color of the grass soaked in a bit, but, well. The kitchen duty believer is quite elderly, so I won't get caught. I won't get caught, right? That grandmother is really scary so it's a bit difficult.
In the bedroom I visited with the medicine, the Leader was coughing as if suppressing it with the futon pulled over him. See, you are sick, just obediently call a doctor.
Leader, do you maybe dislike doctors? Or could it be you dislike medicine because it's bitter? Thinking that, when I offered my special Mom-style fever reducer, the Leader drank it normally. Even though it's quite bitter medicine, with an expression like it was nothing. He doesn't seem to dislike medicine, so why not call a doctor?
Imitating Mom, I did a simple examination and he said he had chills. Thinking I should make a hot water bottle, I realized I didn't know where that bag you put hot water in was, so as a substitute I went into the futon.
I often did this for Mom in cold seasons too. Because a child's body temperature is high. Dad came in too. They slept with me in the middle so I ended up being the warmest. Ugh, remembering makes me tear up.
By the next morning, the Leader had completely recovered. The power of youth is amazing. But since this cold seems to be caused by fatigue, don't let your guard down and rest well.
Learning that I could make medicine, the Leader started relying on me from that day.
If he whispered to me that his throat condition was bad or his stomach hurt, I would slip out of the religious building at night to procure ingredients. And then deliver the made medicine to the Leader.
Honestly, there are limits to ingredients that can be gathered from the mountains, so seeing a proper doctor would get you medicine several times more effective, but the Leader seems to dislike it. Why?
"Hey, don't you want a name? It's getting inconvenient with just 'kid' or 'little one,' right? Here, I'll decide one for you."
"No, you don't need to worry about it."
"Hmm… Your hair is white and eyes are red, how about Rabbit?"
"...,...,..."
"Wow, what an expression."
I don't want to say this to my life's benefactor, but you should be glad this isn't a bamboo grove.
Respecting my face that had wrinkled up sourly like pickled plums, the Leader gave me the name Yukiji instead of Rabbit.
Snow (雪) path (路) because I collapsed on a snowy path.
It's on a similar level of carelessness as Rabbit, but a hundred billion times better than Rabbit. A Leader with better naming sense than the Myouju of the Warring States period. You saved my life (butt).
"It seems cold again tonight, please take care of me, Yukiji."
Perhaps liking the human hot pack of child body temperature, after that, on cold nights I ended up sleeping together in the Leader's futon. A five-year-old child with stunted growth gets hugged without a chance to resist, and that's the good night course into the futon. Since I'm a child, I can't properly cook, clean, or do garden maintenance, so I'm only helpful at times like this.
Moreover, the Leader's futon is a fluffy, high-quality futon so I like it too. Since I do Breathing practice when sleeping and raise my body temperature, the Leader must be really, really toasty warm.
One day, before falling asleep, the Leader said.
"I always think this, but Yukiji's snoring is unique."
No, that's Total Concentration Breathing, this.