After I gave the blind girl my blood, I stood watching her. Her body twisted on the floor. The transformation was starting. I began thinking about what might happen.
I remembered from my old life, from watching Demon Slayer, how Muzan's blood worked. Turning someone into a demon wasn't simple. It depended on several things: how much blood they received, their natural potential, and their will to survive. Most humans died when given demon blood. Their bodies couldn't handle the change. But some survived and became powerful demons.
This girl looked weak. She was blind, lying in her own blood, half-eaten by a zombie. But she was still breathing. She had survived the zombie attack, and she had called for help even while dying. That showed strength. Maybe she had hidden potential.
I watched her struggling. Her back arched painfully, her fingers clawed at the carpet. The transformation was clearly agonizing. If she couldn't endure this pain, she would die permanently.
Then I considered the noise factor. Her screams and moans would carry through the quiet city. Zombies would hear. They would ofcourse run to this place. In her current state, she was completely vulnerable. If zombies found her during transformation, they would eat her before she could complete the change.
I decided to wait and watch her. I wanted to see if she would survive. And if she did, what kind of demon she would become.
I moved to the apartment doorway. From here I could watch both her and the hallway.
As her screams echoed through the apartment, I took a moment to check my system.
The familiar blue screen appeared in my vision.
[KOKUSHIBO TEMPLATE: 100% SYNCHRONIZATION]
[NEW TEMPLATE DOWNLOADING: 48.2%]
[MUZAN'S BLOOD: 4.4%]
The numbers hadn't changed since I last checked. The new template was still downloading, My Muzan's Blood percentage remained at 4.4%. I had hoped that creating a new demon might affect these numbers, but apparently it didn't.
I dismissed the screen and focused on the girl again.
The girl's body continued changing. Her skin grew paler.
---
The Girl's POV
Pain. That's all I've ever known.
My first memory is darkness and my mother's voice: "This is God's punishment." I didn't understand the words then, but I felt the rejection in her voice.
My childhood was spent in rooms they locked me in. "So you don't embarrass us," my mother would say before closing the door. I'd listen to my brothers playing outside, their laughter fading as they walked away from my room. They never included me. Never even acknowledged me as their sister.
"Don't touch her," I heard my oldest brother tell the others once. "She's cursed. That's why she can't see."
The hospital was supposed to be different. My parents brought me there saying I would get "special care." That was the last time I heard their voices. The nurses were kind at first. They'd guide my hands, help me eat, talk to me. But gradually their visits became less frequent. Then one day, nobody came at all.
Days blurred together. The hunger pains came first. Then the thirst. I called for help until my voice grew hoarse. Nobody ever came. They'd abandoned me, just like my family.
When the man stumbled into my room, I thought finally, someone came! But his breathing sounded wrong—ragged and wet. His smell was foul, like rotting meat.
"Help me," I begged as he grabbed me. "Please, I'm blind. I need help."
Then the pain exploded in my stomach. He was biting me! Tearing at my flesh! I screamed and pushed at him, but he was too strong.
The pain was unbearable.
"Why?" I cried as he kept chewing. "Why is this happening to me? Why does my life have to be nothing but suffering?"
I wished for death, a painless end to this miserable existence. But in my final moments, one thought remained: If only, just once, I could see the world. See what light looks like. See what colors are. Just once before I die.
Then I heard footsteps. Someone was coming.
"Help..." I whispered. My mouth tasted like blood. "Please... help me..."
The footsteps came closer. The thing kept biting me. The pain was horrible.
Then suddenly, the biting stopped. I heard a strange sound, like something cutting through air. The thing on top of me went still.
Then something strange happened.
"Drink."
Something warm and metallic touched my lips. I swallowed reflexively.
Now a new kind of pain consumes me. It feels like my blood is boiling, my bones are breaking and reforming. But through the agony, I feel something wrapping around my eyes.
The pain becomes too much. I feel myself slipping away...
---
Kokushibo's POV
I watched as something remarkable happened. A white cloth-like material began wrapping around the girl's eyes, covering them completely. Intricate black markings appeared on the fabric, forming a strange pattern. Simultaneously, her dark hair began losing its color, turning pure white from the roots downward.
She screamed through the process, her body convulsing. The wounds on her stomach were healing rapidly, but the transformation seemed to be causing her tremendous suffering.
"Make it stop!" she screamed, though I knew she wasn't speaking to me. She was lost in her pain. "Mother, please! Don't lock me away again! I'm sorry I was born this way!"
Her cries echoed through the apartment. I positioned myself more strategically in the doorway, listening for approaching threats.
"Why do my brothers hate me?" she sobbed between screams. "I never asked to be blind! I never asked to be born!"
As expected, I heard shuffling footsteps in the hallway. Three zombies appeared, drawn by the noise. I dispatched them quickly and silently, dragging their bodies away from the door.
When I returned, the girl was still crying out. "The nurses stopped coming... just like everyone else..."
Her transformation was nearly complete. The white blindfold now covered her eyes completely, the markings clearly visible. Her hair had turned completely white. Her skin was pale as moonlight.
"It hurts so much..." she whimpered. "Why does everything have to hurt? Why was I even born? I just want to die... but if I could see... just once..."
Her voice faded as she lost consciousness. The transformation was complete. She lay still on the floor, her chest rising and falling steadily. The white-haired demon girl with the marked blindfold looked peaceful in her rest.
I maintained my watch as hours passed. The sun traveled across the sky outside. Occasionally, zombies would approach, drawn by the scent of blood but i eliminated them all efficiently.
As dusk began to fall, the girl stirred. Her fingers twitched first, then she moaned softly. She brought a hand up to touch the blindfold covering her eyes, her expression confused.
Slowly, she pushed herself into a sitting position. Her head turned, as if she were looking around the room despite the covered eyes.
A look of wonder spread across her face. Her lips parted, and she whispered words that hung in the quiet apartment:
"I can... see...?"
Her voice was filled with awe and disbelief. She turned her head slowly, taking in the room that she had only known through touch and sound.
Her hands reached out, not uncertainly as a blind person would, but with purpose, as if she could actually see what she was reaching for. She touched the wall beside her, her fingers tracing patterns on the surface as if seeing them for the first time.
She looked down at her own body, at her pale hands and white hair. She touched her face, her fingers brushing against the strange blindfold that covered her eyes. A small smile touched her lips.
Then she looked toward me. Her head tilted slightly, and though I knew she couldn't possibly see through that blindfold in the normal sense, I could tell she was looking directly at me. Her expression was one of curiosity rather than fear.
I watched her for a moment longer. I let her have this moment—the first time in her life she had ever truly seen the world around her.