Little Devilish Child
Chapter 1:
The sky flared up with the colors of a scarlet flame, with dark violet clouds hazing above the ground, yet not quite like an obstructive fog. The ground was cracked, with magma flowing through them, but with bizarre lavender fades where the cracks ended. None of this fazed the man walking through the barren, volcanic scenery however, as his golden, cat-like eyes kept their perpetual tired glare and focused on what lay ahead of him. His arms remained folded behind his back as he continued to walk forward on his feet which were not only shoeless– only having cloth wrapped around the majority of the foot– but also happened to be clawed at the toes, which were a deep raven black like his long, spiked hair and hidden claws. Along the way, he encountered a youthful soul who gave him a friendly wave as he came by.
“Hello there mister Tsukare!” the young soul excitedly greeted the man.
“Still stuck in this hellhole like the rest of us?” Tsukare coldly questioned.
The person sighed in response, “Yeah… But I’m sure things will get better eventually!”
“Hmph, yeah right,” Tsukare scoffed. “There’s no way in this Hell that’s ever going to happen…”
Hell was a place filled with interesting characters, to say the least. Most of the people or demons there happened to not be the scum of the Earth, but simply people who could not measure up to that High Lord’s ridiculous standards. The fact that perfectly good people could be forced to spend an eternity amongst brimstone and hellfire simply because they made mistakes that they already regretted making disgusted Tsukare enough as it was, but it was never really his problem to begin with. He couldn’t really force the rules to be changed, and would probably get erased from existence itself if he tried to-- that’s just how it was unfortunately. The weary-eyed demon would’ve continued thinking about the various problems he was bothered by and how he really had no say or power in any of them, but a sudden noise cut into his internal monologue.
“What in the..?”, he questioned as he looked around for the source of the noise.
His eyes widened in shock as he looked down in front of him to see something he never expected to ever see-- a little infant kicking and crying all by its lonesome. Why would a mere baby be left to fend for itself in a realm it didn’t belong in? Normally, he wouldn’t care so much about a human that found themselves in Hell, but he couldn’t just leave the poor little infant by itself, especially when it was this distressed. He carefully crouched down to around the little one’s level and gently picked it up off of the ground, holding the child close to his chest as he rose back to his feet. “Sh sh, it’s going to be alright,” Tsukare assured as he gently rubbed the infant’s head. “Just hold on tight for a bit.”
He turned back towards the direction he came from, allowed his black, feathery wings to spread out, and took off towards his home with a mighty leap, keeping his gentle, yet tight hold onto the child all the while. He was not sure what he was feeling when he was holding onto the infant, but it felt warm, and rather nice. Was this familial love? He could not tell at the moment, given his unfamiliarity with said feeling.
As soon as he got to his abode, he went ahead and searched for a baby bottle and a formula container, finding them relatively quickly. The only reason he kept those and a number of other items was to be prepared in case another incident involving the infamous ‘Immortality Tonic’ occurred, but now he had a different, less embarrassing reason to keep them on hand. He gently set the infant down close by as he filled the baby bottle up with warm water and gently spooned in the recommended amount of formula powder, stirring it all until the powder fully dissolved afterwards. When that was finished, he fit the nipple back onto the bottle and gently held it up to the infant’s mouth. “Drink up, little one,” Tsukare gently requested.
The child quickly clung onto the bottle and began drinking the formula right up, Tsukare cradling the little one all the while. As soon as the bottle was emptied of formula, he set it back down on the counter and gently hoisted the infant so its little hands could grip his shoulder as he gently burped the little one. After that was all finished, Tsukare went over and sat himself down on one of the cushioned seats within his living space, setting the child down onto his lap after he took his seat. All tears of sadness and fear were replaced with wide eyes of innocent curiosity as the infant reached out for the jet black horns on top of the demon’s head, cooing all the while.
Tsukare’s face filled with confusion as he witnessed the child’s curiosity towards him, being part of a species a majority of humanity associated with evil and fear and all that. Why wasn’t the little one afraid of him? Shouldn’t it have been conditioned to be afraid of beings like him? But after thinking on it for a few seconds, he realized that not only was the child likely too little to properly retain information in general, but also that the little one was probably just happy about being fed and given attention to after being abandoned all by its lonesome earlier. Very simple things, to be perfectly blunt. In spite of all of that though, there was still something important on the demon’s mind.
‘I should probably give the kid a name,’ Tsukare thought to himself. ‘After all, it just doesn’t feel right to keep calling the child an “it” or just “little one”, especially if they have to stay with me for the time being…’
He thought about it for quite a while, considering the demon was not exactly an expert on naming things– let alone a human child he didn’t know the sex or gender of. For Hell’s sake, he only made his name ‘Tsukare’ because of how the humans in the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ described the look in his eyes in their language. Then again, he had been on and off studying said language given how intriguing and poetic it was to him, a sentiment not exactly common within his species.
He then began muttering and murmuring to himself, trying to figure out what to call the little one. “Aka– no… Sachiko..? No, that doesn’t sound right either… Vi…vi?”
Tsukare looked towards the child, who had fallen fast asleep on his lap, softly snoring all the while. Gently, he scooped the little one back into his arms, while taking care not to wake them up. He then got up from his seat and headed over to his bedroom, where he promptly sat down and then gently lowered his upper body onto the bed, allowing the child to rest on top of his chest as soon as he fully lowered himself. Seeing the little one able to rest so peacefully after what must have been a long while of being unable to was quite, heartwarming to say the least. He even couldn’t help but allow his lips to form a soft, gentle smile as the child continued to rest. It hadn’t been even an entire day, and yet the little one had already grown on him considerably.
“Rest well Vivi, you’ve earned it,” Tsukare softly whispered to the child, gently stroking their head with his claws all the while.
Honestly speaking, he could very well get used to this feeling humans call “love”.
