Free Me

The Mother Demon glared at this particular Demon Slayer, his eyes showing some kind of remorse to her, she was confused by the look of this boy. He kept staring at her, filled with sadness and empathy.

'Is he feeling empathetic for me?' The Mother Demon thought.

The Mother Demon could not understand how this boy could just be feeling empathetic for her when she had murdered countless innocent people, including children. Yet the aroma of his blood was pure, too pure. It was captivating once she caught its scent from his sliced palm, it dripped continuously to the earth. The Mother Demon visibly displayed wonder.

'Could he be… the one? His blood, it smells so perfect, pure…. powerful?' The Mother Demon drew herself towards him.

"Who are you?" The Mother Demon asked, pointing at Faolan.

He had no reply, but he still looked empathetic.

It now shocked her, a Demon Slayer, acting this way, it was impossible.

"Who did this to you?" Faolan asked.

The Mother Demon, still stunned by his empathetic look, could not understand why he would ask such a thing, he's a Demon Slayer.

"You appear to be a warrior meant to kill something as atrocious as me, yet you gaze upon me with teary eyes." The Mother Demon scoffs his question away in search of her own.

"Why do I need to desire to kill you?" Faolan replied.

The Mother Demon shook in its deformed self, "HAHAHA, YOU'RE NO DEMON SLAYER! A DEMON SLAYER IS OOZING WITH THE DESIRE TO END THINGS LIKE ME." The Mother Demon attempts to draw Faolan, she knew that he could not be swayed by such remarks, but she was curious to see how he would respond.

"You were once human, right?" Faolan asked.

The Mother Demon doesn't respond, looking at the bleeding palm of the boy, keeping her silence.

"Justice and Vengeance are two different spectrums, I have no desire to kill you, but I… have to—." Faolan stuttered between his words before being interrupted.

The Mother Demon lifts her demented state of being and tilts herself with curiosity, yet the pain of confession brews from her lips, "We were all humans once, boy, there's just… things in life we cannot control. That is the way of things." The Mother Demon elongates her atrocious fingers into massively disgusting claws.

"I agree. Life goes on without our control, but how do you take control of yours?" Faolan responded, his eyes still empathetic.

The Mother Demon grunts, "Listen, sometimes you just cannot change what's already been dealt, all of the lives I've taken, the fathers, mothers... children. There's no changing for me, only the consequences. I have no control over my life, don't you know? My entire existence is subjugated to… others. I only do what I can to live because that's all I've ever known," The Mother looks scornfully in the direction of the Industrial District, then looks to the boy, that same boy who approached her a week ago.

"You're no Dem—." The Mother Demon stops herself.

Faolan, saddened by the reality of the situation, his eyes break, 'The World is so cruel, Mom. What could she have done? As a demon, did she actually have any control over her situation? She had to force herself to do things because she had nothing else… to help her.' He gently glances over to Ketsueki's unconscious body, saddened for the both of them.

'The Demon Slayer standing right in front of me is crying. The tears of sadness run through his dirty cheeks and across his lips..he is supposed to be a warrior, wanting to end me, to put a stop to me. Is this who you've been looking for? You atrocious man.' The Mother Demon raises her razor-sharp claws with the look of someone she used to be before.

"Your blood is special, boy, very powerful, you seem to hold something that the ones controlling the strings may be keen to learn." The Mother Demon raises its deformed chin.

"You still allow yourself to be controlled?" Faolan asked.

"What else can I do? Die? I don't have a choice, the bastard of all demons made me this way, and I can't act the way you want me to act, it isn't possible." The Mother Demon replies.

"I was in a period where something dark controlled me for a long time. I didn't let it control me forever." Faolan wipes his soaked eyes with his sleeve.

"Boy, the difference between you and me, is that I have no control, I'm just a puppet suffering from the tragedy of this world. What else can I tell you? Oh, you can save me for sure. As long as I don't eat humans, I can change, right? Impossible." The Mother Demon reminds him again of what reality is.

"Then I'll cut off those strings." A burst of electricity struck Faolan.

The Mother Demon gazed at the boy, who still looked empathetic for her. 'Simple words do not change the atrocity of the situation. In this cruel world, I chose to survive!'

The Mother Demon recognizes that no one has ever done anything for her. She's always had to survive. The glimpses of her past describe to her the suffering and beatings she had to endure. A time when her endless suffering would be met with the man with red eyes injecting her with his blood. She remembers the agonizing pain fuming her insides and the image of something precious fogged in front of her. Something she held dear. Hungry and deprived, she took to murdering those who had mistreated her and beaten her, the blood splattering against the alleys and walls of Sattokotta.

Then, something worse came, the image of a tall man presented himself to her,

The Eclipse, she called him, with his demons surrounding her, their hold on her paralyzed her. This Man would inject his index finger into her forehead, small bleeding dripping from the crevice he made, engraving a mission within her.

"Find the one, the Pure One."

It constantly repeated within her mind. "Those words, those words!"

Flashing images of women, and men, cut, slashed, to then abducting children.

"FIND THE ONE, THE PURE ONE."

She took people to an undisclosed location, within the city, to men, humans in masks, and she never saw them ever again.

She did not want to die, so she did what she could, but the pain of abducting even children to be sent off somewhere was a fate that she saw as worse than what she had. So she decided to eat them in the most painless manner.

After eating them, she stared blankly, unable to shed a tear.

With Demon Slayers coming to Sattokotta, she had to prepare to slaughter them, playing the persona of a crazed, angry Mother with the last bit of orphaned children, so she should keep on living and spare them because those Demons show no mercy by taking them away.

"The Demon Slayers would never understand me."

The feeling of something precious fogged right in front of her again.

'This Demon Slayer, no, he's no Demon Slayer, he can't be! I have to live! I have to live! The others will come. They want to kill me, without a doubt! But you…you want to.. free me.'

The Mother Demon now raised both of her palms, shriveled with her claws. Blood oozed from the tips of the sharp edges, her disastrous dark hair flung back, and her saddened eyes met with his. The boy's eyes flashed still in its empathy, determined to set her free from the life that had controlled her for so long.

"I understand now that you have no control over whether to survive or not. The life you've gotten is the life you don't deserve, and you deserve so much better. I'm sorry that you never found someone that could help you." A bolt of lightning flashed across Faolan again, burning the tears as well as slamming against the earthly ground, frying the rest of the particles of snow that surrounded him.

"BLOOD DEMON ART: RIPPING BLOOD" The Mother Demon rumbled the earth, the blood caused some sort of earthquake around Faolan creating crevices seeping with blood.

Faolan breathes;

"Breath of Thunder: First Form: Thunderclap and Flash," his legs spark with electricity as blood exposes right from under him, burning away from the bloody explosions covering the field of view of the Mother Demon.

Through the bloody fountains of explosions, The Mother Demon's elongated claws swiped through the blood toward the chest of Faolan. Yet he quickly countered with an electrifying whip from his sheathe, his eyes focused, filled with the resolve to bring justice.

'Justice to her.'

Her massive claws rocked upwards. Faolan takes a swipe for her abdomen, stretching his shoulders much more horizontally to get a deeper cut into her nimble body. However, She kicks his blade upwards, breaking his form and completely flipping backward onto her claws.

Faolan breathes in again, recovering his form dangled by the Mother Demon. He places his blade close to his chest and inwards towards the Mother Demon for a thrusting attack or some deflection.

The Mother claws into the earth, nearly engulfing invisibly into the earth,

'That's how she retreats!' Faolan rushed her before she could get completely under the ground, but she stopped halfway and pounced on Faolan with her talon-like feet, cutting him and launching him into a nearby building.

Crashing into a wooden structure, broken planks, and home accessories fall over Faolan; as he tries to recover, the Mother Demon rushes aerially to him with more blood oozing from her claws, but Faolan blocks, his bloodied palm floods the hilt of his blade.

"AGHHHHHH!" Faolan slips from her claws and slices a bit of her right mangled arm. Yet she quickly slashes his leg. He lets out a grunt and punts him through another wooden building that is now damaged, dusty particles causing him to cough as he gets to his feet.

Faolan gasps, seeing the relentlessness of the Mother Demon as she continues to attack, with her talon-like feet, with him rolling away back into the earth,

He quickly tried to Breathe;

"Breath Of Thunder: Third—," interrupted by a rapid head-first swipe from the Mother Demon's left claw, he stumbles forward. With her right claw, she slashes the back, barely smacking against the metallic surface of his mother's blade, pushing his face first across the dirt-ridden earth. She looks upon his Mother's blade.

'Boy, you are much more than just any Demon Slayer. Help me take control of my life!' The Mother Demon laughs, but not in agony or any kind of persona, but in crying out for a helping hand.

Faolan places himself hands and knees, dirt smudging over his face.

"I will bring you justice." Faolan faced the Mother Demon, one knee to the earth, one foot planted first, ready to get back up, his palms held the bloodied hilt.