A High Ranking Meeting

                                    

                                          

Countless years went by; the world around you changed. Wars came and went; the sengoku period had passed, and Japan had unified. Yet a sliver of the world seemed to be in stasis, a thin slice of a preserved past; your shrine stayed the same. 
 
The same wood, the same cloth. Though it had clearly seen better days, it had not changed or been updated. If not for the maintenance of the community and shrine workers, it may have become a relic of the past. 
 
However, it was too important for them. 
 
Because it was your shrine. 
 
It's where you stayed. 
 
Alone.
 
Avoiding seeing others. Avoiding getting close to anyone. Avoiding the light that you aren't allowed to bask in. 
 
Your glowing eyes lost their luminescence once the floating astrolabe, spinning and shinning before you, lost its light and slowed in movement before coming to a halt. 
 
You grabbed a piece of paper and a brush before writing all the contents of your prediction. You pulled a tasselled robe that sounded a small bell. 
 
A few moments later, a knock came from behind your curtains on the wooden folding screen. Folding the piece of paper in your hands, you slipped the paper through the slot in the screen, and someone from the other side took it from you. 
 
"Send that to the Lord as always, and I wish for blood." You whispered. 
 
"Yes Mistress." A voice spoke out before the footsteps could be heard. 
 
- - - - - - -
 
"Mistress... I don't have long left." An old voice called out. You stared at the old woman who lay in bed as you held her hand. 
 
"I know Asuka." 
 
Asuka turned her frail head slowly towards you. Just one look at her, and you could tell her eyesight was gone. 
 
"Mistress Y/N... do you know why I joined you despite knowing what you were?"
 
"To repay me?" You answered. 
 
"Yes. You saved my life, but more importantly, you avenged my dear Renji." She explained. "Renji was such a sweet man who shouldn't have been caught up with me. We had to elope to that village where you found us. Yet that man found me and killed my love."
 
You understood all this just from clues about Asuka herself. You could tell she had a similar upbringing to you, except her family was much more restrictive. 
 
"Renji didn't have to be with me yet; he did so much and lost his life due to me. I can never forgive myself. I thought I could atone by helping my Saviour and by helping save others from demons. 
 
Yet you were a demon but so human. Much more human than that murderer. So much like Renji, your silliness at times, or how you'd talk about stuff I never heard of. All of it was like him, but you were also too much like me. Your eyes felt hollow, empty but filled with regret and shame. My thoughts shifted from atonement to wishing the best for. Though I must ask..."
 
"Yes Asuka." You said as tears poured from your eyes.
 
"Do you think Renji resents me for his death? For his misfortune?" 
 
You paused for a moment. You slowly placed her hand on her chest with yours on top. 
 
"No."
 
"Do you think I can apologise to him?"
 
"Yes."
 
"Did I ever aid you in any meaningful way?"
 
You stared at your clothes; each layer of cloth was expertly woven. The pleasant perfume that permeated the air of the town. The general wisteria poison that was used against demons. Even the high quality of the sheets that Asuka laid on. All of it was from her influence. 
 
"Yes"
 
"Good... I can... Rest easy." And right as the morning sun trickled from the window, Asuka's beating heart eventually remained still. 
 
A ray had shone on your hand as you held Asuka's. The feeling of your skin burning intensified as your red flesh was revealed. Yet you kept holding on. 
 
"Asuka... you have done very well."
 
- - - - - - -
 
A knock at the door woke you up from your thoughts. 
 
"Hand it in." Was all you said, and the servants obeyed, cracking a large enough opening to place a gourd that could roughly hold a litre. 
 
You eventually lessened your consumption of humans over the many years. Though truly heinous beings were instantly killed by you, those put in prison were occasionally bled to fill the 100 gourds in your storage room. 
 
These then had yeast and sugar added to them so it could ferment into the blood wine that was in front of your kneeling figure. 
 
"How much longer must I-" 
 
You were interrupted by the strum of a Biwa and the appearance of a door beneath your legs.
 
"For the love of-" 
 
Another strum travelled through the air, and the doors slid open. You quickly grabbed the alcohol before you were plunged into a world that was like all those stairwell optical illusions.
 
'Why the fuck am I being summoned?' You pondered as you passed connecting corridors, rooms, and the like, eventually landing on a platform. 
 
Looking around for a place to rest, you soon leap into one of the upside-down rooms. Lying on your side, your astrolabe in an enlarged form floats behind you as you open the gourd of blood wine and take a swig. 
 
Wiping your lips of the blood, you open your mouth. "Kokushibo, I know you are there. Nakime always summons you first." 
 
You hear a 'hmph' from somewhere within what you affectionately called an 'LSD trip of a base'. 
 
"It's nice to see you again." He said trying to keep whatever was left of your sibling bond as cordial as possible. 
 
"It's... something to see you too." You replied. Your relationship with your remaining sibling was complicated, and you couldn't exactly say you were happy to see him. Your anger towards him hadn't subsided in all these years, but it wasn't the same. It was mixed with deep sadness along with the familial love you still held in your heart. 
 
"An Upper Rank has died." Kokushibo uttered that, though you couldn't see him, you could feel his stare at you. 
 
"I wish it was Douma." You muttered before keeping quiet, as in a few seconds, according to your prediction, one of them should come in. 
 
Right as you counted down from one, a strum of a biwa caused a door to open, and it shot out a small snivelling demon and what seemed to be a pot. 
 
"HAH! Oh no! I can't believe I just embarrassed myself. What will I do? What will I do?" The demon called out, his old face buried behind his palms as he oddly quickly made his way into a corner. 
 
"Oh my! To be summoned here means someone must have perished! It brings such plea—I mean anguish to my heart!" Out slithered a demon with misplaced facial features from the ornate pot, its face mildly upsetting you to look at. 
 
"Someone has died?! How terrifying, just terrifying, Gyokko!" The trembling demon in the corner shouted as it shivered in nervousness. 
 
With two more strums of her Biwa, Nakime opened two more doors somewhere in the infinity castle. 
 
You merely watched as a pink-haired, blue-tattood demon fell from the sky and landed perfectly on one of the platforms. 
 
"Hey Biwa woman! Where's lord Muzan?" He shouted, but an arm wrapped around his neck and ready to... hug him. 
 
"Akaza~ How I missed you, my friend! How's it going? Have you started eating women yet? I recently started killing-"
 
"Get them off." Akaza spoke, the veins in his head popping out in anger. Without giving the person holding him a chance, he ripped off the arms of the demon. "Don't touch me, Douma!"
 
The rainbow-eyed demon kept smiling as he looked at his (now lacking) arms. 
 
"Akaza Why are you so mean to me?" Douma said in a weepy voice as he instantly regenerated his limbs. "You make it seem like you don't like me?"
 
"I don't."
 
"If we weren't such good friends, I'd think you're serious." 
 
"I am." Akaza bluntly said before turning to Nakime. "I'm wondering if Lord Muzan is here yet. Which upper rank got themselves killed?"
 
The demon holding the instrument remained silent for a moment before speaking. "Lord Muzan won't be here for a while. Upper Moon three had challenged Upper Moon one to a fight and lost."
 
"Hmm... and Kokushibo absorbed him, meaning he had a vacant seat." Gyokko concluded with the other moons agreeing. 
 
"How stupid? If I couldn't beat him, why would he?" Akaza complained yet was cut off by a deep voice. 
 
"It wasn't me who killed and absorbed the previous Upper Moon three." Kokushibo stated much to everyone's amazement, as he wasn't necessarily one to talk. 
 
The other demons seemed surprised at this before remembering you exist. 
 
"You mean to tell me that that girl was the one who killed them? I truthfully thought she was just a fortuneteller Muzan kept around for her usefulness." Douma spoke, ignoring the growing pressure that your brother was releasing. 
 
You weren't surprised by the fact that they thought you weren't strong, as you only used your ability to predict the future for Muzan to avoid capture and such. You never actually battled your fellow upper moons or even interacted with them outside the few times you met when you were with Muzan.
 
Though you could sense your brother's annoyance, before Douma could spout more nonsense, you got up from your resting place and suddenly appeared on his shoulders in a crouching position. 
 
Silently, you grabbed his head with both hands and ripped it from his body, blood spurting from his neck stump. Before a single drop of blood could touch you, you leapt off into the air with his severed head. 
 
"Nakime." You ordered her without even saying the command itself. With a single strum of her Biwa, a door opened wide in a lower section of the infinity castle. 
 
You released Douma's head and kicked it, as hard as you could without breaking his skull with your foot, and towards the door, which immediately shut. 
 
"Goal!" You pumped your fist. "God, what was that one show again? Green latch? Blue lock, that's it! Damn, wish I watched it. Could have used a cool quote." You muttered to yourself while periodically taking swigs of alcohol as you casually walked to a corner to sit in. 
 
"Hmm, damn it, he's still alive?" You whispered before drinking again as you saw the man's head regenerate. "Hey Nakime, where did that door lead to?"
 
"A snowy mountain."
 
"Good." You commented. 
 
"That's so mean!" Douma's newly regenerated head shouted, but you could see that none of the emotion reached his eyes. "What if-"
 
"Be quiet!" Akaza's voice shouted. 
 
You looked upwards to see a man dressed in ornate robes sitting, holding what seemed to be a western medical test. His shiny black hair was long, trailing down his frame, and his red eyes focused on his book. 
 
"Greetings, Lord Muzan!" Each and every one of you exclaimed. 
 
"Y/N, we need to talk." The demon king spoke menacingly. Despite the tone of his thought, you couldn't be bothered to feel threatened, as you were too valuable to him. Only two things were on your mind.
 
'Japan's in the Sakoku Decree. How the fuck did he get a western book? Moreover, what product is he using for his hair for that shine?'
[A/N: Let me just clarify this, this is before Daki and Gyutaro become Upper Moon 6. So at this point, Akaza is still Upper moon 2 and Douma hasn't challenged him so he is still Upper moon 6.]