I casually sipped tea as Daki sat in a traditional Japanese fashion across from me. She wasn't bound up like Akuza since I practically had put her under Kotoamatsukami. Aka Shisui's broken ass genjutsu that rewrote an entire person's existence through their mind.
Tengens wives had been freed after Daki let them out of her trap. I had also cheated and used a bit of my divine powers to cleanse Daki of the demonic taint.
She still had all her powers, only now she was human. I had let Tamayo extract some of her blood when she was still a demon of course. The medic demon was currently hidden away underneath my house studying Akuza.
She had a theory that Muzan could be weakened through the use of powerful demon blood or something. I didn't really care, my time in this world was running short. I was planning on ending the self proclaimed 'demon king' in a few weeks.
"Oni-chan? Would you like more tea?"
Daki still saw me as her brother, I had grown accustomed to it in the days that she had been here. She relegated herself to being my personal maid.
Kushina had Kaguya, and I had Daki. The girls were definitely going to be asking questions once I returned. The Tanjiro, Inoko, and Zenitsu trio had left a few days ago. Their training session with me over, they had their own patrols to do.
Ubuyashiki had informed me that he had originally planned on using the village where all the nichirin blades were forged as bait to try and lure Muzan out.
Muzan had gone into hiding since losing two Upper Moons in less than a few months. I had also heard rumours of a powerful demon lurking near my area. I was going to go hunt it down once the sun set.
[Scene Break]
I whistled the theme music from Black Sails as I walked through the forest not too far from my manor. Rumors of a cult erecting a base there had been circulating recently.
I could also sense the darkness that demons radiated. This one was strong, much stronger than Daki had been, and twice as strong as Akuza's.
Slowly a temple-like building emerged as I entered a clearing. I felt a large number of humans inside the building and several demonic signatures. So far the stronger demon hadn't shown up.
Either the demon was hiding or he was off doing whatever demons did, likely tormenting humans.
I didn't know how a bunch of humans could willingly serve a demon, then again humans in general were strange.
I entered the temple and looked around, a few cultists looked at me curiously. A woman approached me with a smile on her face.
It made me feel dirty for some reason.
"Greetings traveler, have you come to gain wisdom from our Lord and Saviour?"
'Yup these people are all gonna die.'
The divine power within me was seething with rage and I understood it, I had seen myself as the 'One True God' for countless millennia. Someone using a title that was synonymous with me was an insult.
"Take me to your master." I replied flatly.
The woman's smile didn't falter, "I'm sorry but I cannot do that, you must prove yourself before meeting our great and powerful Lord."
I ignored the woman, my senses already scanning the entire place. I felt the demonic presence further in the 'mansion'. Shoving past the woman I made my way towards where I felt the presence.
"Sir! You ca-
"Silence worm." I growled at the woman, my Sharingan spinning ominously in the reflection of my face in her eyes.
The woman's mouth snapped shut. I continued to walk towards the demon, shoving cultists out of my way. I wouldn't kill them unless they attacked me. They were all still human, and I was sure that a lot of them had been indoctrinated.
As I reached a corner to a hallway with a singular door a commotion rose from where I had just come from. A figure wreathed in butterfly patterned robes appeared next to me in a blur of movement.
"Shinobu… why are you here?"
"Ara… Akimitsu-kun, Ubuyashiki-sama has sent me in as back up. The Kakushi have informed him that you were investigating this place."
I hummed to myself, "Very well, let's go then. The demon is beyond that door."
The Insect Hashira nodded, her face impassive. Side by side we stepped up to the door and slid it open.
[Scene Break]
Shinobu and I stepped through the open door, the demon was sitting on a throne looking smugly at us. Something about his face irritated me for some reason.
"Ah… demon slayers, welcome to my humble home." The demon opened a fan and hid the lower half of his face behind it.
I could see a flicker of familiarity behind his eyes when he looked at Shinobu. Shinobu put a hand on the hilt of her sword.
"I've waited years for this… I will avenge my sister today." Shinobu proclaimed with confidence.
I maintained my calm and continued to observe the demon. His eyes had the tell tale engravings of an upper moon demon. Particularly 'Upper Rank Two'.
"So you two aren't here to join the Paradise Faith?" The demon feigned indifference to what Shinobu just said.
'Yup… definitely one of those types that you just really want to punch in the face.' I thought to myself.
"Akimitsu-kun, leave him to me." Shinobu barely turned to me before rushing forward.
I didn't try to stop her, I crossed my arms and watched as she attacked the high ranking demon. I would step in if she was in danger, but otherwise, I would respect her wishes to avenge her sister on her own.
I watched her fight the demon, her blade fluttering like the wings of a butterfly. Poetic, considering the whole theme to her style.
The demon seemed frustrated that he couldn't land a hit, his frustration only grew when Shinobu proceeded to land multiple little cuts on him. His healing factor closed the wounds quickly but I could see that he knew something was wrong.
"What have you done to me wench!"
Shinobu smiled at him, "Ara… you've finally noticed? I poisoned you demon-san. Your demise will be slow and painful."
"I feel no pain!" The demon growled before lunging forward.
Shinobu masterfully dodged with a spin while simultaneously slashing the demon across the back. The demon roared in anger, wildly clawing at Shinobu who continued to nimbly weave through all his attacks.
'Maybe training most of the Hashira to fight like shinobi from Naruto may have been a bit overkill…' I silently mused in my head.
In that moment that I was distracted by my own thoughts I had missed when the Insect Hashira stabbed the demon through the throat.
The demon gurgled as blood gushed from his pierced throat. A hateful glare in his eyes as he watched Shinobu smile at him.
"Reflect on your actions in the afterlife demon." Shinobu said without emotion.
With a flick of her blade the demon's head was separated from his shoulders. The demon continued to glare at us hatefully up until his body and severed head disintegrated into ash.
Shinobu was silent for a few minutes, she was clearly processing what she had just done. Getting revenge for her sister, how far she had come, and what she would do now.
She was thinking so hard that it wasn't hard for me to pick up her surface thoughts even with most my power sealed.
Masked Kakushi arrived soon after, they helped relocate a lot of the remaining cultists. Many had been brainwashed and needed rehabilitation. Shinobu gave me a soft smile before walking away without a word.
She clearly needed more time to process, I didn't mind that she 'stole my kill'. I was getting a bit bored with this particular world. After supervising the Kakushi for a few more moments I flashed back to my home and made my way down to the basement where Akaza was chained to a wall.
The demon looked up slowly, his eyes filled with defeat and resignation.
"Come to gloat?"
"We killed another one of your friends, Upper Two."
"Doma is dead then… good, I never like him."
"How cold, no sympathy for your fellow demon?"
Akaza didn't respond, I drew my sword making the demon eye it for a moment before looking down.
"So my time has come?" He asked.
"Do you seek death?" I asked in response.
"I- I don't know."
"Hopefully you'll live a better life in your next life." I muttered while raising my blade.
Akaza didn't acknowledge my statement, he kept his head bowed. I slowly slashed my sword down and incinerated his body. He didn't put up a fight, he didn't even scream as he was vaporised in seconds.
Tamayo came down to my basement a few moments later followed by Daki and Yushiro. She had a serene look on her face but I could sense the tension in her body.
"So it's almost time then?" She glanced at me.
"With the death of another of his 'generals' I doubt Muzan will stay hidden for long. I suspect we will be confronting this so called demon king soon." I replied.
"I see." She nodded.
"Did you get your concoction to weaken him prepared?"
"I have," she confirmed, "with the blood of several powerful demons and help from Kamado Nezuko, I was able to synthesise a poison strong enough to help defeat if not outright kill Kibutsuji Muzan."
"Good, what do you plan to do afterwards?"
"What?" She looked at me in surprise.
"After we kill him, what do you plan to do?" I reiterated.
"I- I had planned on dying with him."
"What about Yushiro."
The white haired demon looked at me in shock as he hadn't been expecting me to mention him at all.
"I-
"I'll give you space to speak with him privately, Daki and I have business to attend to."
Daki followed me out of the basement, she looked at me curiously.
"What do you need Oni-sama?" She asked.
"Daki, when Muzan is killed I will be leaving this world."
"You're leaving me?" She looked at me sadly but with a hint on anger in her eyes.
"No, I want you to come with me."
"You promise?"
"Yes I promise…" I wondered if I was making a mistake bringing back a clingy demon, she wasn't really a danger, and I couldn't exactly abandon her, "I'll introduce you to everyone else in my home."
"Oni-chan has another home?"
"Another world Daki, we'll talk about this some more after we deal with Muzan."
Daki nodded, her personality had changed drastically since I had forcibly got her to follow me instead of Muzan. From a loud violent demon to a reserved and calm woman.
She still clearly had serious anger issues but she was much better at controlling it now. I felt as if I had massively underestimated her bro-con proclivities. She didn't exactly know I was a god, but her yes always held a scary amount of reverence.
Time passed, the amount of demon activity dropped. My instincts told me that the remaining demons were planning something. I could practically feel the shift in the air.
I wanted to leave this world soon, I had come to the realisation that a world war was looming in the horizon. I didn't want to get dragged into the war so I hastened my pace at hunting down the remaining demons.
Wearing my 'traveler outfit' I wandered from village to city, unfortunately I couldn't find any demons. It seemed that killing so many upper moons had scared them off.
My raven called to me making me look up, it sent out a series of caws that I deciphered as a message from HQ. Frowning I listened closely, my raven informed me that Ubuyashiki had taken it upon himself to draw out Muzan by exposing his location.
I activated the Hiraishin mark I had left in the Ubuyashiki mansion and disappeared in a flash of light.
[Scene Break]
I arrived just in time to see Muzan lunging at the Ubuyashiki family who seemed to have accepted death. Muzan froze and spun around to block my kick, only to be sent flying through a wall and out into the courtyard.
Discarding my straw hat I unsealed Ryujin Jakka from its staff form and drew the blade. Muzan recovered quickly from my blow and jumped at me. The air cracked as a figure blurred in front of me.
Tengen arrived in a twirl of his blades. The other Hashira quickly followed some of them out of breath after clearly having run as fast as they could from where they were stationed.
"You- everyone, please do not take this lightly." Kaguya sighed.
It seemed like he had told everyone to keep their distance but the Hashira had disobeyed his order. They had come to help him.
"Tch…" Muzan hissed, "good you're all here, now I can kill you all in one blow."
"Attack him together!" Kyojuro shouted as he drew his nichirin blade.
Tamayo arrived just as all the Hashira rushed into battle. She was carrying a vial of viscous liquid. She glanced at me briefly before handing me the vial and disappearing again. No one seemed to have noticed her.
Just then there was a loud twang, the ground beneath us opened up and we all fell. I caught Shinobu and hovered midair. Around us I could see multiple doorways opening up as more people began to fall.
I didn't like surprises, much less being forcibly summoned. I prepared to unshackle my full power when the world shifted around us again.
I set Shinobu down as more of our allies appeared, the Hashira, Tanjiro and his crew, a handful of nameless slayers I had never seen before. In a blink of an eye several demons appeared across from us. At the head of the demons was Muzan in a tacky suit with white pants.
'Who the fuck wears white pants?'
"Muzan!" A few of the Hashira shouted while drawing their blades.
"So this is the fabled King of Demons?" I said out loud.
"Know your place human trash." The Michael Jackson wannabe hissed at me with what I assumed was supposed to be an intimidating glare.
A sharp grin formed on my face, I snapped my fingers and my allies were teleported behind me. I could feel everyone's shock at my casual display of power.
"Good, I've missed my wives and I was getting a bit homesick… you've saved me the trouble of having to chase you and hunt you down."
"You have power, no matter. You will die here with all the other pesky Demon Slayers."
Still grinning at Muzan I unshackled my power, pure divine might washed over everyone. With a wave of my hand a barrier formed behind me protecting the Hashira and other Slayers.
"Akimitsu-san, you can't mean to fight all of them on your own."
"Kyojuro relax… this won't be a fight."
"Truer words have never been spoken. I will not let you take a step forward." A demon with six eyes stepped in front of Muzan.
"You lot think you have a choice in the matter. Let me show you how wrong you are."
I slowly drew my sword as heat began to rise around me. The demons tried to move from their spot but I locked them in place much to their shock.
"Bankai: Zanka no Tachi."
Flames first erupted around me in violent tornadoes before disappearing as if they hadn't even existed in the first place. The demons shifted uncomfortably across from me.
"Time to end this…"
I could see the demons anticipation, they expected me to swing my sword or make a move. I lifted Ryujin Jakka slightly and tapped the ground lightly. A sound like a clap of thunder tore through the space.
Everything in front of me vanished, demons, ground, air. Just as quickly as I tapped the ground I sheath my sword. The world slowly shifts back to normal and we all appear in the middle of a clearing.
"NANIIIII!!!!" Came the cries of sheer confusion behind me.
[Scene Break]
"So you're really a god visiting our world?"
I hummed in response, after I had dealt with all the demons in a rather anticlimactic way I had transported everyone back to my manor. Naturally they all had questions and I strived to answer most of them.
"Then why not tell us from the start?" Mitsuri asked.
I thought about it for a moment before answering the big breasted Hashira. I didn't really know at first either, why does anyone do anything.
"It's rare that I travel to a world where everything is new to me. Arriving here, it was all unfamiliar so I chose to act as someone native to this world."
Giyu seemed to be the only one to understand, everyone else looked a bit confused.
"I see…" the stoic Hashira hummed, "what are your plans now?"
"I ended the fight for a few reasons, I wasn't joking when I said I was getting homesick. I've been away from my own world for longer than I anticipated."
"You plan on returning to your world." Giyu stated plainly.
I nodded, "Yeah, with demons dealt with I have no doubt that things will be better now. All that's left is for everyone else to rebuild."
"But what about my sister? And that demon you and Tengen-san captured?" Tanjiro suddenly spoke up.
I smiled at the boy, "Your sister is safe, I took it upon myself to cure her fully. Just before I landed the finishing blow on Muzan I fixed certain things."
"So you're leaving us with a mess to clean up?" Sanemi frowned.
"Not really, I've taken liberties in ensuring that all you will have to do is help maintain order as things return to normal."
"That still leaves the demon we captured." Tengen glanced at Daki who was silently sitting behind me.
"She will be coming with me, no need to worry about her."
Before things could devolve into a full on interrogation/Q&A I warped Daki into my personal dimension. She didn't make so much as a peep. I glanced at the gathered Hashira one more time before giving them all a smile.
"Its been a long journey for all of you, I'm proud to call some of you my students," I looked at Kyojuro, Shinobu, and Tanjiro with his two friends, "don't worry, I'll return someday, this isn't good bye. See you all soon."
With a casual wave I disappeared in a flash of light, I saw some of them flinch and chuckled.
'Get flash banged noobs.'
[Scene Brea]
I appeared on top of the Hokage monument and took a deep breath of the clean refreshing Konoha air.
"I'm home." I muttered to myself.
Daki appeared next to me in a swirl. She glanced around at the village below us and huffed.
"This place looks primitive Nii-sama."
I hummed, "It'll progress further in the future. In reference to your previous world, this world is would be comparable to the Sengoku era."
She looked at me a bit confused. I realised that she probably had no idea on the Japanese era's names.
"While your world was already in the age of industrialisation, this world is still in its feudal era."
She nodded in understanding, "What is our goal here?"
"We find my family first, then we return to my true home. Scout ahead, but remain unseen, I wish to check on certain things."
Daki nodded again before she disappeared in a flicker of movement. I crossed my arms and activated my Dojutsu. Something felt off from the moment we had arrived. Kushina and the others should have sensed me.
My powers told me that hardly a few seconds had passed since I had originally been summoned to the Demon Slayer's world.
I teleported to a Hiraishin marking I left on my home in the Uchiha compound. The home was suspiciously empty. The entire Uchiha compound looked abandoned, as if no one had lived there for years.
My eyes narrowed further, I couldn't feel any other Uchiha's chakra. There was a single chakra signature. Weak and flickering as if it belonged to an injured child.
I followed the signature with a series of shunshins. Eventually I found myself standing in a hospital room. Laying in a bed was a kid, no older than 12. Hair styled like a ducks ass, pale and looking more like a twink than a proper Uchiha.
'Sasuke? What the fuck is going on here… last I remembered, Itachi hadn't even been born yet. My appearance had shaken things up with canon.'
My arrival had ensured that canon would have been derailed the moment I had saved Kushina all those years ago. The Uchiha clan hadn't been wiped out, Uzushio had been saved, I had crushed the four other villages, and Minato was still Hokage.
'Something is very wrong here.'
Daki appeared next to me moments later. I raised an eyebrow at her.
"What is it?"
"I saw no woman fitting the description you gave me of your wife."
"What about the central tower, who was sitting in the office at the top?"
Daki sneered at this, "Some old man smoking a pipe, he has funny looking robes and was peeking on the bathhouse."
"Fuck." I cursed.
'Time travel bullshit, that still doesn't explain where Thalia, Natasha, Yelena, and Kaguya went. Kaguya herself had been assigned by me to watch over Kushina and Himari. Together, no amount of time fuckery should have affected them.'
My heart was racing, this smelled like outside interference to me. I was literally God. Nothing in this multiverse should be able to pull something like this on me.
I warped Daki into my personal dimension again and glared at the Hokage building outside the window. Sasuke stirred in his hospital bed and weakly opened his eyes.
I vanished in a flash of lightning before he could spot me.
[Scene Break]
Tap tap tap tap
'And cliffhanger… haha, wonder if he'll blow this world up like he did with that world full of Harry Potter furries.'
I let out a yawn and turned towards my audience… YOU.
The reader
This story hasn't ended, not yet. It won't fade either, not when you exist.
Through hearts and headcanons, through angry comments and midnight rereads. Maybe even fan art since I know some of you are cultured like that.
You— yes, you— my readers, my friends in spirit lol, people lurking behind every chapter.
You will be the reason this story will live on, even after this final chapter is written and published.
You gave life to Henry/Akimitsu, my MC, as well as every character in this story. You rode the chaos. You commented on the trashy tropes, and borderline NSFW character art.
You laughed with the funny bits, screamed at the frustrating parts, and even with the long absence and shitty writing, you stayed.
And so:
Even when I, the author to this fanfic, can't write anymore—
Even when I eventually succumb to this illness and vanish into the next life—
You.
Will.
Remember.
You'll reread Chapter One. You'll revisit Henry's botched ritual and ascension to godhood. You'll picture his family laugh at him for being dumb, or Kushina punch him out for being a perv.
And that?
That's what will make this story, as poorly written as it was, IMMORTAL.
So let this be the closing line of this chapter, but not the end;
"Because even when the last chapter, the last page, is turned, the story lives on…
In you.
Always."
Thank you, my dear reader, my shadowy fans. From the bottom of this tired author's heart: Thank you for giving me forever.
💙
Title: Epilogue: 'Always'