the 4th preview for ETCHED is here!! <33 click here to see the others by the talented cc1985_!
**slight correction on the second slide, it’s early bird sales benefits and not pre-orders you’ll get it immediately upon purchase hehe. i’m really so excited for this & i hope you guys will like it too!!!
☆ demon slayer!au pillar!mingi x demon! you (insp. by the kny series) this is a holiday gift for a secret santa, hope you and they enjoy! tw: blood, death, violence central themes, angst
the most terrifying thing about being reborn is the confusion
when your eyes open again, nothing around you is familiar - you don’t even have a vague sensation of direction.
everything seems bleak and foreign and before you can try to ask yourself - what is my name?
the gnashing, red hunger flames up and through every vein in your body to distract you
your tongue runs over the top of your teeth on instinct. your canines have turned into big glossy fangs.
“theyhave to die.”
the voice isn’t in the room with you, but it sounds like it is.
you turn your head and the four walls made of wood stare back at you with cold indifference
the reply comes out with a pained, pleading sound
“please, what if i can save-”
“a demon doesn’t get saved. you are a constant reminder of that very fact - what would any of the other pillars say if you had called them instead?”
silence follows and then in the sudden stillness a door is shoved to the side so hard that it splinters at the edges
light spills out and into your darkness, you feel yourself squirm to get up, but something hard and cold holds down your wrists
“if you can’t do it, i will.”
instinct tells you to fight a little harder, that if you really put in the effort you can easily snap out of these restraints because a new kind of power engulfs you
aninhumanpower
the edge of a long sword, engraved with a mantra that seems so familiar, appears
“san don-”
“it’ll be a fast death.”
the steel shatters around your wrists and you open your mouth to scream - but it doesn’t sound like that when the noise escapes you
the resonance of your voice shakes the house
it causes san to step back in the aftermath and you take the second to get up onto your feet and jump past him and toward the open window
the winter wind and chill slides off your skin like it’s nothing, something splits your mind between running straight and never looking back or turning back because in that house
in what was your house
are two living, breathing, full-blooded humans.
one is san and the other is -
the snow under your feet suddenly feels wet, every step whips it against your ankles and you don’t remember his name
flashes of memories appear like ripped up photographs
smiling faces, the sound of mass laughter, a man dressed in wedding garb, a man holding his hand out to you, a man with his hand on the hilt of a sword, a man among the faces of other men turned toward you and bright like the sun
the small flutter of a birds wing somewhere makes your head turn
who is it that i can’t remember?
a branch creaks under an effortless weight and you crane your neck to the other side
what’s his name? who was the other man in the room?
a gust of something flies past you
who was it that didn’t want to kill me?
you feel your body meet the front of a strong force, it propels you back and you skid down into the ground so hard it breaks through and you sink a little into the earth
“what-”
the word sound crooked coming out of your mouth, hunger twists in your abdomen as a scent you have never smelled before in your life engulfs you
sweetly sick iron, it’s delicious and the aftertaste of metal makes you salivate
it’s the smell of human blood
syllables that sound like something you should know fall from the mouth of the creature whose blood coursing through their veins is loud in your ears
you can’t think straight enough to string them together and figure out what its saying
as you lurch forward toward the smell, your big sharp fangs bare to match the sharp, razor like end of your nails
you spear forward with the intent to kill
and then are trapped in a mass of white feathers that appear from nowhere
when you reach out to punch through, they harden in response and tighten up to keep you where you are
“let me out!”
you sound desperate and angry, your voice doesn’t seem like your own, and softly from behind the coffin of white you can hear it speak again
“you’re conscious - do you know who i am?”
it’s the man from the house
“let me out!”
you repeat and thrash forward, but the feathers don’t part or fall apart like they ought to
“it’s me, it’s mingi.”
letting out another roar you claw and slash until the feathers can’t hold against your strength anymore and you are able to push through only to see nothing but blank forest up ahead
you turn your head to see where this one called mingi has gone
letting these new animal like senses guide your gaze up to the trees
a dove spears up from beside your feet in the snow holding what looks like twine in its beak as it wraps around your calf and forces you to tip backward
you catch yourself before you can fall and jump up to twist back into a new position
suddenly a face appears in front of you - a cloak of white and fading pink covers the bottom half of their face and a large bird that looks as if it’s made out of mist and clouds perches over their left shoulder
you can only see the top part of his face - his eyes are full of pain
and in the reflection of the deep, miserable brown you see yourself - your face - and you remember who you are, who you were
under the summer moonlight you are glowing, just married and still decorated in all the heirlooms and presents your family and friends could find
your husband, wearing his uniform, looks as shy as the day you two met - when he was just starting his training and hadn’t put on all the slim muscle barely visible under the cloth
“for the pillar of love - you sure are bashful even at your own wedding.”
you giggle into your palm and your husband scrunches his nose up in response
“i just….i feel like it’s too much of a performance! marriage ceremonies! i mean, is it really about the overwhelming cavern of my heart that is full of you o- or is it about watching wooyoung make a fool of himself when asking you to dance!”
your giggle turns to a laugh, “mingi-”
you step closer to him and you can see, even under the faint light, that his cheeks are pink enough to match the cape he always wears
“-are you just jealous that i accepted wooyoung’s offer to dance……honey, you know im going to be here to dance with you forever right?”
his hands are big when they reach out to cup your cheeks
your skin is warm against his own.
“i know, i know. will you dance with me now?”
like a rubber band that snaps back into its place - you realize everything about your situation
the person in front of you, who kept you from being slaughtered back in your home, who is a pillar, a high ranking demon slayer, is your husband
song mingi
and you are his partner, who was once the keeper of the song family home, the home of the current generation of the love pillar and who now - who is now - a demon
you lose the strength when the horror sets in, somehow it is stronger even than the gnawing hunger that is making itself more pronounced with every second that goes by
but you don’t hit the floor or feel the edge of a blade
instead, you are pulled in close
close to the body of a man you have been in love with for so long and who now you want nothing more than to devour and to destroy
mingi, who is aware better than most, of the new craving you possess risks ever life-threatening possibility that circles you two to hold you against him
“tear me to shreds, put your hand through my stomach, affix your teeth to my neck - you won’t do any of that.”
his voice is deep, a lullaby tone as if he is speaking the truth of the world to a child
“i know you won’t. you must be in so much pain - but you’ve done this for me so many times before, you’ve always protected me from my pain and just because you’re …….”
he pauses and you convulse slightly in his hold because the smell of his blood makes you lightheaded with need
and he is giving you an opportunity….he is inviting you to act on your impulse
but you don’t, you use everything you can about you that is still human - that you have to dig deep inside of yourself to find, not to
not even fully aware of why - just that you cannot do it. you cannot hurt him.
“just because you’re a little sick…..that doesn’t change anything. you would never kill me, my love you would never kill me.”
kill him - i want to. i want to taste his blood so bad.
your shoulders shake a little harder and you open your mouth - mingi must feel your breathing on his chest but he doesn’t move
kill him. i want to kill him. i want to kill my husband. i want to hurt my husband. i want to-
the syllables he’d been saying before, they were your name. you remember your name.
another memory finds itself into the crevices of your mind overrun by malice
from behind the open door, a group of girls are giggling and poking each other with their elbows to get a better look
you ask one of them what’s going on and they tell you that their are new demon slayers training out across the yard
you look and for a moment all you see is a rowdy group of eight boys all scrambling among each other with their new swords and uniforms
but in the middle of all of them is one who catches your eye
taller than most, with red hair that falls into his eyes with sweaty bangs
a baby bird is seated on his shoulder as he lets it peck at his finger curiously
he sees you looking and a shiver of embarrassment runs up through his body as he gives a shaky wave
you uncurl your hand to wave back and you see him mouth something
“whats your name? my name is song mingi”
your mind seems to jumble, tangle, and fill with static as the words kill him, hurt him, let me feed just crash and burn against each other
you chant his name instead - let it circle through your mind until it is the only thing you can think of
mingi is still holding you as he sinks down into the snow and his sword clatters to the ground beside you two
the dove made of clouds disintegrates into the air - his guard comes completely down
and you just feel tired, you ache everywhere, you just want to sleep
mingi’s hand comes up into your hair, he whispers against the strands
“i’ll make sure you get better soon - i will spend my whole life waiting for you to come back to me.”
you want to believe him, you want to believe you won’t ever give into the nightmare that could be a reality if you listen to the growling in your stomach
you just wish you and mingi could stay here - immortalized in the frigid weather like lovers made of nothing but marble
for a second you think you can really just fade back into sleep
when suddenly mingi lifts you up into his arms and your eyes widen as your ears pick up the distinct sound of seven pairs of feet
“san has alerted the others, i have to get us out of here.”
as he jumps up into the air and toward the trees, you watch the cape fall from his shoulders and abandon itself in the snow
he’s never taken it off - not since he became a -
when the other pillars find it minutes later, it is still warm with mingi’s body heat
san clutches it when he turns to the other pillars
yeosang, hongjoong, seonghwa, yunho, jongho, and wooyoung all swallow the uncomfortable feeling in their throat when san says through gritted teeth
“we have to get mingi back before that thing kills him.”
KOCHO SISTERS AU: After all the drama Sanemi remained a close friend to Kanae and he became the best uncle for Kanae and Kyojuro’s triplets, he would take them to fishing, tell them stories about his past, teach them sword techniques and he also make the triplets call him “great lord of the winds”
