Bab 102: The ugly side of the night
[3rd POV]
Seiji butchered the deer like an expert hunter, cutting off the best part of the meat to make for dinner while also making sure to preserve the rest of the parts so that the family could enjoy it even in his absence.
With the help of his eyes, such things as slicing the skin off the meat, gutting the intestines or slicing meat off the bone was an easy skill to mimic.
After that was done, Kie and Nezuko took the meat back to the kitchen to make a stew out of it. From the small smiles Seiji saw on their faces, the girls really appreciated his effort.
The delicious smell of food soon permeated the house, making the children grow hungry while Seiji entertained them with a made-up story of how he caught the deer.
The other dishes were already done and after another half an hour, the deer stew was also done. Everyone gathered at the table in the living room and enjoyed dinner together.
Much to his surprise, Seiji was sat in the place where Tanjuro used to sit. That was a great show of appreciation for him.
The family were quite lively even during meals, the children were young so even though well-mannered, they couldn't help speaking and playing while they had food. The children seemed to already accept him as a part of their family, there was no awkward atmosphere.
Seiji was smart and with his ability to read people, he was quite adept in social interaction even though he was unaware. So the children got along with him easily.
By the time the eventful ordeal of having dinner was over, the sun had already sunk into the horizon.
There was nothing much to do after the sun had fallen so the younger kids quickly fell asleep after dinner with full bellies.
Seiji and Kie stayed up for a few more hours before they too decided to rest. Seiji was given a futon and was told he could sleep anywhere he liked, whether that be in the living room, the guest room, or - since it was summer - outside on the balcony in the cool air.
In the end, Seiji laid his futon in the corner of the living room where he had a clear view of both the family and the entrance door.
Still, Seiji did not sleep just yet. He was used to staying up the whole night, fighting demons so his body had adapted throughout the years. He found it difficult to fall asleep.
So he went outside and sat on the balcony. He allowed the cool breeze of summer night to caress his skin while deep in thought.
That was until a young boy around the age of 13 came out of the balcony. It was Tanjiro, he peeked out from the door and looked at the back of Seiji who was sitting peacefully while gazing at the stars.
Tanjiro couldn't sleep. Well, how could he, after the thing he witnessed just that afternoon?
The scene of Seiji throwing the dagger and killing a deer kilometres away played vividly in his mind while his words also lingered in his ears, like a catchy song that wouldn't leave.
'Your father could do it, and so can you,'
That sentence in specific, left the young boy with endless questions. He was introduced to a world of the supernatural now, with what Seiji had shown and what he said to him.
There was this one question in particular that he just couldn't get out of his head.
His father once told him, 'Where there is strength, there is also an adversary. One cannot rise without the other.'
So if Seiji had all that strength, he wondered...what was the adversary?
"Seiji-san," he called out from behind yet the man did not heed to his voice. It was like he did not hear him at all.
"Seiji-san," he called again, yet still no response.
"Seiji-san?" he slowly sneaked up to Seiji from behind and that was when the man finally noticed his presence.
Seiji felt the vibration in the wooden floor and he could vividly smell Tanjiro with the breeze. He turned around to look at the young boy with a smile.
"Tanjiro, please don't sneak up on me next time, or else I might slice off your head on accident," he said in his uneven tone and smile that made the statement extremely unnerving.
Tanjrio froze on his spot before gulping loudly, "Okay."
The instincts of a trained warrior were not to be tested. Tanjiro could feel that it was true.
"Can't sleep?" Seiji asked.
"No, not after what I saw today," he answered.
"Oh? So it is that surprising, haha," Seiji laughed.
"Come, sit with me," Seiji said and pat the floor beside him. Tanjiro cautiously came up to him and sat down on the floor.
"Look at that.." Seiji started and pointed towards the stars, "...aren't they beautiful?"
Tanjiro did not have special eyes that worked like a telescope so he could not comprehend the true beauty of the galaxies. But what he could see with normal eyes was also breathtakingly beautiful.
In a world that was still not destroyed by air pollution or light pollution, the starry night sky was a beauty like no other. It made one feel both small and big to be living in such a gigantic existence.
"They are almost equally as beautiful as the day, or the rising sun. It's just that there are still some things tainting this wonderful time of the day, after I wipe those away, the night will be perfectly beautiful." Seiji said, more to himself than the boy next to him.
"Yes, they are indeed beautiful," Tanjiro said with a sigh. His heavy mind plagued with questions, felt relief for a moment.
"You know, my father told me that our ancestors turned into stars so that they can look down at us - their descendants - and guide us," Tanjiro said. It was not actually a real belief but a story his father used to tell him when he was young.
"Pftt-hahahaha," Seiji laughed out loud much to Tanjiro's embarrassment. "Whatever you say Simba, but it seems like your father obviously doesn't know his stars,"
He then pointed towards the western sky and Tanjiro followed the direction of his finger.
"Those two giant stars are; Arcturs the orange star and Spica the white star," Seiji named them with a smile before moving his finger elsewhere.
He points towards the eastern part of the sky.
"There, that is the red star Antares," he said. He moved his hand once more and showed the centre of the sky. Tanjiro followed the movement and saw three stars making a triangle shape.
"Those are the Summer Triangle, Vega, Altair and Deneb," he said and finally opened his hand.
"Then we have the the galaxy, Milky Way,"
The two of them spent some time like that in peace. Seiji was happy to name each of the beautiful stars he knew. Stars were beautiful, especially with eyes that had an inbuilt telescope so he knew a lot of them.
Tanjiro sat beside him, listening very carefully as if to memorize them, one by one.
After a while of stargazing, the two sat in silence once more and that was when Tanjiro finally asked his question.
"Seiji-san, why are you so strong?"
"Hmmm," Seiji raised an eyebrow, "Why? You are not asking me how?"
"Is that strange?" Tanjiro said. He was more curious about why Seiji needed to be so strong instead of how he got that strong. An obvious hint that Tanjiro was not a power-hungry person.
"I figured you wouldn't be that strong for no reason, so there must be a reason why you need to be so strong," Tanjiro said, "It's kind of scary, to be honest,"
It was like seeing a giant wall, at first you marvelled at its might and magnificence but at the same time, you wondered what the wall was keeping away.
"I see, you really something huh" Seiji said with a curve of his lips but not a smile.
"Come, I will show you something," Seiji said and suddenly lept off the balcony.
Tanjiro gulped, the last time he followed him, he saw something that completely broke his worldview. he wondered what it would be this time.
"I've shown you the beauty of the night, now let me show you the ugly side," Seiji said ominously while his eyes glowed purple, a sign that he was looking at everything and more.
Searching for demons.
Or a more fitting word...Victims.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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