Chapter Text
“What is the meaning of this?” The elder asked, tired and fretting over the smallest of things at that point. The younger man shivered, worried written all over his features as he thought about it, he could lie or tell the elder the truth but he knew well that if he lied then things wouldn’t go well for him. To be fair, it wasn’t even his fault that this happened yet he was the one who was tasked with reporting this to a jittery elder.
“The one who was selected was the sister of the one who is currently volunteering himself to take her place. He insists that he can do it instead, he’d never struck me before as the kind of boy who would do something like this but I guess people change over time,” he noted only for him to cower in fear when the elder glared at him.
“Have you thought about the consequences? What if that… that monster notices our slip-up? How could you have just accepted this? Do you know what could happen to our village if that happened? I have spent all of my life trying to protect this village and you come to me telling me you can’t even drag a girl out of her house? Does she not know that this could bring ruin to our village?” The elder seethed and ended up having to sit down on one of the available chairs, despair slowly consuming him.
“I wasn’t the one who approved of it,” he answered immediately. The elder glared at him, ready to give him a piece of his mind so he quickly rectified himself, “Tsumiki, the chosen one has made it clear that she doesn’t mind. It’s just that the brother does not wish for her to go. The thing is, he doesn’t look bad either, he could probably pass for a girl. I remember someone saying that our protector has a penchant for boys too so wouldn’t this be a nice change?” The elder glanced away, at the table, the painting on the wall, the knife on the kitchen table before he sighed.
“I guess that is acceptable too. It’s… Let them decide how they want to do this. Seeing another one of these children getting sacrificed away, I can’t stand it. Now, leave me,” the elder sighed and he did with a respectful bow. The second he was out of there, he ran to the estate of the chosen one, knowing that if he didn’t hurry then he would likely be the one to suffer the consequences of something that wasn’t even happening because of him.
Just as he arrived, the boy came out, a small bag with him, it was almost as if he knew that this would go his way. From inside of the house, he could hear sobs, he guessed it must have been the cries of the girl as someone must have held her back. The boy glanced up at him from underneath his eyelashes, he really was a beauty, long eyelashes with a pretty face to look at, the monster… their protector would definitely like him.
“Aren’t you a little bit young?” He asked and the boy glared up at him as if to tell him to mind his own business, however, his real age bled through in his actions, when he raised his hand in what was most likely an attempt to grab his. His surprise must have alerted the child seeing as his hand went to latch onto his backpack’s straps.
He ended up leading the child to where he would reside until the time would come for him to be taken away. Usually, they had the choice between staying at home or leaving their home in favour of a place that would take care of them well for the last few days but this child didn’t seem to have the chance to choose.
“Your room will be here,” he showed the boy to his room and asked him to settle in there and treat it as his home for the next few days, a custom that he knew didn’t do much. He had seen the previous bride being chosen, a girl that was a little older than the boy here but he had also heard her cries every night as she had cried herself to sleep.
“Thank you,” the boy nodded as he assessed his room. Without so much of a care for whether the other man would stay or not, the boy got to work, unpacking his meagre belongings. The older man felt pity for him, he might not have known but none of what he had brought would be allowed to be taken away with him where he was going.
“If you ever need me, just call for someone. There are various people who will tend to your needs so please relax as much as you can,” it was unreasonable but the boy nodded nonetheless as if this situation made perfect sense to him. He thanked him again and then the door was closed with a little goodbye and a little wave.
The second the door closed, Fushiguro Megumi’s whole body kind of deflated. He let himself sink down to his knees and hugged himself, aware that he was still staring at the door. Should he have turned around? Would he have looked more composed had he turned his back to the door and slid down it instead?
He wasn’t afraid and he knew that there was a hint of truth in it but still, he shook. The room was cold, colder than the one back home. He shivered as he crawled back to his backpack, taking out one of the jackets that his sister had packed into his bag with tears in her eyes. Even now, he could still hear her as she asked him to let her do it instead, but in the end, he had won and here he was.
He shivered as he stared at the other stuff he had brought. A change of clothing and various other daily objects that Tsumiki must have shoved into his bag before he had left the house. Perhaps he would always regret leaving her without having properly having said goodbye but he hadn’t dared to. Hadn’t wanted to see her tears as she would inevitably throw her life away for something like this.
“Has he already arrived? It’s one of the first boys in what, a hundred, two hundred years? I’ve never been good at our village’s history,” a female’s voice said from the other side of the door as another one giggled and answered something of the lines of this being the first time in 200 hundred years a boy would be chosen instead of the second one.
“You might look forward to meeting him but don’t forget that if our protector hates us then it’s definitely this boy’s fault. Can you imagine what he would do to us? Our village?” Someone else answered and then they got shushed as the other two bickered with the third one that they would definitely be heard if they spoke any louder, unknown to them that he had heard everything. He understood their concern, how some of them would resent him but he had his own reasons and truly, what did it matter to him if others didn’t like his choice?
“Leave him alone, he’ll call us when he needs us,” the girls whispered and would do so for the next few days until it was the last day of his confinement. He was well-fed, brought everything he wanted no matter how ridiculous it sounded and had been treated with the same reverence as a god might have but he could see through their intentions.
They were counting on him to please their protector. He was expected to keep him happy as all those had before him, he had read on it before but he had never understood why every now and then there would be a new sacrifice. Did the monster, apologies, the protector truly eat those he was sent?
“Are you ready?” One of the girls asked and he nodded. He was about to grab the jacket his sister had left him when the girl asked him to leave it behind and that they would have the time to come back to get it later. He nodded, trusting them without causing any issues even if he knew that most likely than not he would never see it ever again.
“Your sister has insisted on coming to see you off. She also insisted that she wanted to help, both of you siblings are surprisingly insistent despite everything that has been said,” it was the same one who had blamed him, not that he minded or anything but sometimes it truly could be tiring.
He did not acknowledge her, knowing that even if he did he would ultimately have her huffing at him or making another rude comment for his ignorance or whatever reason she would come up with to annoy him. Even if he did keep his silence, she would still call him an ungrateful brat for not listening to her but he had grown used to it.
Those who brought his meals, the ones who pretended to show him pity and then turned their backs on him, none of them truly bothered him. He wondered if they would be willing to take their place and who they would have acted if they were in his spot with everyone pretending to be nice to him. He supposed the girl currently leading him would have probably found this to be one of the best things she could’ve done with her life.
He was asked to sit down, given clothes to change into. A white kimono that he changed into without too many issues. Once he was done, the girls came back this time with a box filled with tolls that he did not recognize and finally, Tsumiki walked in, hesitating to hug him as if she was afraid that he might have hated her so instead, he went up to her.
She hugged him and not long after that, tears starting to flow down as she hugged him tight to her. There was a slight cough that disturbed them and then it got louder when Tsumiki started sobbing. She swallowed everything down, nodding with a pained look on her face when Megumi asked her if she was alright.
He sat down once more and closed his eyes, ignoring the brush that painted his lips, the powder and all the other feelings that he couldn’t explain. Somewhere in the middle of all that, something was slipped under his kimono but he did not dare open his eyes, afraid that someone might have noticed the gesture.
Once they were done, he was asked to look at himself. He opened his eyes, curious yet dreading what he would see. Green eyes stare back at him, an additional blush to his features, various things that he could not properly describe. The red hints on his eyelids, the way his lips looked glossy, he was tempted to just lick them but doubted that it would taste good. He could feel the object shift against his rib, held tight by an obi of the same colour as the kimono.
It was kind of heavy but he did not complain as the other three left the room, wishing to give them a last moment of privacy but the elder was quick to interrupt. Megumi was asked to get up, time was running out the elder insisted and Tsumiki protested, tried to keep Megumi by her side but was stopped by the other girls who knew better than to disobey.
Megumi waved a curt nod to his head and mouthed at his sister goodbye before he followed the elder. He was not given shoes but instead, he walked barefooted. It hurt, various rocks and under things prickling the soles of his feet but still, he did not complain as he followed behind the elder until they reached the woods.
The villagers stood there, some hollering at him that the elder was making a mistake for offering him up. Some sneered him, some pitied him, some thanked him. None of their words truly reached him as the only thing he could hear echoing in his head was Tsumiki’s pleas for him to not go.
“Poor child, he is going to be offered up at such a young age,” one of the villagers whispered. They were aligned the entire way until their destination. He couldn’t help but hear snippets of their conversations as he walked past and the more he walked, the worst the path got. His feet stung more than anything and he was pretty sure tha the was bleeding but still he walked behind the elder.
“I heard he has four arms.”
“Four arms? I heard he had 8 of them and had just as many eyes.”
“He’s 5 meters tall!”
“He devours those that are offered to him after toying with him but still, he is the protector of our village.”
“Thank you for your sacrifice,” the last one caught his attention. A woman with a young girl clinging onto her dress. Megumi nodded before he resumed his walk, soon enough, the torches that the villagers held dimmed as they got closer and closer to their destination, a clearing in the dark.
“You will have to walk the rest of the way on your own, it’s one of the rules. Do not fear, you will be safe until you reach the clearing. Do not under any circumstances turn around, do you understand? It pains me to say this but you will be putting all of our lives in danger if you do,” the elder gave him a small pat on the shoulder.
Fushiguro Megumi nodded solemnly, the dagger was still pressing against his rib and he distantly wondered if someone had wanted for him to kill the elder and to escape or if it was there to serve another purpose. He walked towards the clearing, determined and never looking back, leaving a trail of darkness as he walked, a trail of blood followed as he walked.
“I will be safe until I reach the clearing,” his lip curled upwards as he waited. Something cracked to his left and when he turned, he was met with something shapeless that he couldn’t properly see in the dark, he almost screamed when he was picked up and just like that, Fushiguro Megumi was taken away as one of the multiple sacrificla brides of the village.