Title: Crucify.

Author: Lell.

Notes: Today's drabble is not a happy one.

Summary: Tayuya's teammates do not look too closely at her demons for fear of what they might see. Dark Tayuya introspection.

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The real difference between Tayuya's demons and, say, Kidoumaru's spiders is that she doesn't seem to have a care for their survival. She sends them in with the intent of getting the job done, with no particular regard for what they'll look like at the end of it. Kidoumaru, who coddles his spiders and even spends time with them outside of battles, made tutting noises about it once, but the barrage of abuse he received in return convinced him to keep his opinions on the subject to himself for once.

People aren't all that interested in pressing the issue anyway – her demons aren't at all appealing. In fact, they're slightly frightening and uncomfortable to be around because they seem to chill the air and send out an air of suffering that can really set your teeth on edge. Her demons are not pleasant and her teammates are actually somewhat grateful that she only summons them on their hardest missions.

In the backs of their minds, little voices whisper about how uncommon her demons are in a world where summons are of a uniformly animal nature, but, in truth, they really don't want to know.

So they do not ask as to their true nature and Tayuya doesn't talk about them in the same way as she doesn't talk about her life before she came to Oto. That's because, if they were brave enough to get close enough to look at them, past the bandages and hair and puckered scars, they would see the faces of her father, her mother and the man they tried to sell her to. They would see the agony in their faces and even understanding a fraction of their torment would be too much.

Tayuya does not forgive.

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Notes:

For all of those interested in finding Sound Four ficcage, check out Syncopation, the C2 community Racheakt and I have put together, with fun Otonin stories galore.