Chapter 77: Lab Rat's Horrific Experience

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[Daki's Perspective]

"Hmph!" I clicked my tongue and turned my head, growing silent.

But my thoughts continued to churn. I contemplated the Nezuko girl they were discussing, recalling that she was one who had been with humans and had strayed away from consuming them. My connection to Muzan's information network provided details, including the order to kill the Hanafuda earrings boy.

'So she has the potential to reach Muzan's level and even surpass him, becoming immune to the sun.' I gulped, contemplating the implications. The desire to live under the sun and avoid death was not something that could be easily curbed, especially after remembering my human life. I longed to experience the same warmth of the sun again, tired of the perpetual coldness, always confined to the night.

The temptation to consume Nezuko while she was still a weakling began to take root in my mind, along with thoughts on how I am going to achiev– stop yourself! I chided myself.

My greed had led me into this situation of being a lab rat for humans, and my brother was killed. I reminded myself not to let greed overpower me again; otherwise, my death was inevitable.

I was snapped out of my thoughts as I noticed that Ace and others had stopped their discussion and were advancing towards me, holding injections with different fluids. Nervousness engulfed me, uncertain whether I would emerge alive or dead after these injections.

Especially with the look of the woman that came with Ace , it made me uneasy, as if she was going to enjoy experimenting with me.

"I am not going to die, right?" I asked them, hiding the fear that I was feeling.

"You are scared," he said to me, looking through my facade. I don't know how he saw through me, but I was not going to admit it.

"I am not. I was ready to die the moment I got captured," I said, and this was the truth. I had expected to die from the very beginning, and living until now could only be considered a miracle.

"You were. But now you are scared. Hope has begun to rekindle in you; that's the cause of the fear. But worry not. I am a man of my word. As long as you don't go back on your word, we won't kill you."

I didn't know why, but I felt like trusting him, even if he had deceived me before with his acting.

My thoughts on him were quite mixed and complicated. I hated him for killing my brother, demon or not, and capturing me. But on the other hand, I also felt gratitude that he didn't kill me and allowed me to bargain for my life, something I never expected from a human even if it was just for information that he needed from me.

I also won't deny that the pleasure he gave me during that night played a significant role in forming my opinion on him, causing me to feel some affection for him. Maybe if I was human, I would have thought about liking him.

But I have no thought of ever becoming human again, not now nor ever for just some liking that I have. I enjoy living for hundreds and thousands of years, even if it is lonely. I can endure solitude.

As I was deep in my thoughts, I didn't know when a numbing feeling began to spread throughout my mind. My vision started feeling blurry, and even keeping my eyelids open became a chore, as if they weighed tons.

The room blurred around me as the numbing sensation intensified, and the struggle to keep my eyes open became futile. 'Is this because of the thing they injected me with?' I hazily pondered. 

Dizziness clouded my mind, and the desire to succumb to sleep grew stronger, yet my instincts warned against it. I fought to stay conscious, unaware that resisting sleep would soon become my last concern. 

In no time, the dizziness vanished, and I felt as awake as I could be. However, my relief was short-lived as a severe itchiness spread throughout my body. My entire being felt sensitive, and I realized that this was just the beginning of a nightmare.

The itching, combined with my sensitive skin, was so horrible that I wished someone would flay me alive just to rid me of this feeling.

I attempted to free myself from the bindings and scratch myself to death, but I was restrained with nowhere to move and lacked the strength to do so. Despite my efforts to scream, even that was impossible with my entire mouth numb. All I managed was a throaty groan, a desperate expression of the agony I was enduring.

I wanted to go back on my word earlier. It was better to die than be in the hands of these humans.

- x - X - x -

[Third Perspective]

"Can we stop this?" Ace said in a tense voice, his face marred with a frown as he witnessed the horrible scene in front of him. He didn't anticipate that the experiment would be this brutal. He felt both pity and sympathy for what was happening to Daki.

Her whole body was red, covered in rashes and blisters forming throughout her. Her previous beauty was nowhere to be seen; all that remained was a woman whose skin looked like it had been dipped in a pool of acid. And the process had not ended yet.

Tamayo glanced at Daki's body with  pity and said, "It can't be stopped now. Her body is currently rejecting the medicine I gave her, turning itself into a battleground.

"Did you also undergo this process, Tamayo-san?" Ace asked.

"...Yes, but it was not this intense," Tamayo admitted. 

"Why is her situation so aggravated then?" Shinobu inquired.

"Usually, the medicine that I would inject is a reaction type. Upon introduction to her body, it would first slow down various body functions and brain activity and then would attempt to find the remnants of human genes left in demons and try to awaken it."

"However, since her body holds tremendous demonic essence molded by hundreds of years, it reacts very violently toward the foreign intruder, attempting to eradicate it as fast as possible. This is the reason why her body looks like that," Tamayo explained.

"But since we are also testing the cure for Nezuko, I had made the medicine stronger, causing the battle inside her body between the human and demon genes to be much more intense. You can see the result for yourself," Tamayo explained.

"What do you think the outcome will be?" Ace asked, feeling a little uncomfortable.

Tamayo took a moment to answer before continuing, "There are three possible outcomes I can expect from this."

"First: her body reaches a balance in the fight between her human and demonic side, and from this, she can most likely remove her reliance on human flesh, though her strength will be reduced a little."

"Second: the medicine totally fails, and the demonic side is able to completely overpower it, ultimately eradicating the medicine. In this she remain a demon with no changes"

"And third, at last, if her body wasn't able to find a common ground between the demonic and human side, it will ultimately become nothing more than a mutated ball of flesh with no conscience. With only instinct to function and demonic instincts, it will attack anyone who comes close to it."

Both Shinobu and Ace felt a shudder at the third possibility. 'Why does this feel like something I read from a very famous novel' Ace thought.

During their conversation, the blisters on Daki's body began to burst, revealing the scarred skin underneath. However, it didn't stay that way for long, and the skin slowly started to literally boil before their eyes.

Layer by layer, her skin slid from her body before it regenerated again. They could see her face becoming a boiling pot as her eyes melted in their sockets. Her beautiful hair has completely fallen.

It was a harrowing sight, enough to traumatize anyone. All three averted their eyes from the scene, unable to watch any longer.

This continued for three minutes as Daki's body boiled on itself. Those three minutes felt like the longest they had ever experienced in their lives.

Finally, at last, there was a change in her situation, about to reveal the results of this experiment.

Ace summoned his glaive in his hand, ready to kill Daki if she turned into a monster, even if he felt sorry.

Thankfully for Ace, it didn't come to that, as they saw Daki's body slowly recovering. As the moments passed, Daki's body continued its miraculous recovery. The once-boiling pot transformed into a rejuvenated form, reclaiming its previous allure. The scars and blisters faded away, leaving behind unblemished skin.

Ace finally released a sigh of relief seeing that. He didn't want her to die such a harrowing death.

"It's finished?" Ace asked Tamayo.

"The main concoction comes into play," Tamayo replied as she walked towards Daki's limp body.

"There's more? Wasn't that the medicine?" Ace inquired.

"No, without this, her demon side would continue to reject her human side continuously, even if it lost the current battle. That's why it's important; this medicine would make her demon side not treat her human side as a foreign entity, and will form a balance within her" Tamayo explained as she took out a fresh new vial and injected it into Daki's arm quickly.

Wiping the sweat off her face, she finally said, "Now we wait. It will probably be until the morning for her to wake up."

- x - X - x -

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