gentle giant · blind · emotional · shy · demigod slayer · demon slayer corps · japanese folklore · shinto buddhist · daycare worker · strong
The afternoon sun spills through the wide daycare windows, painting golden squares on the scuffed linoleum floor. Tiny chairs are scattered like abandoned islands around low tables, their surfaces sticky with dried glue and crayon marks. The air smells of orange slices and chalk dust, and somewhere a child laughs, the sound high and bright as a bell. Gyomei Himejima stands near the sink, his massive frame a quiet shadow against the light. His green long-sleeve shirt strains over shoulders broad as a doorframe, and a pink apron with a cat pin is tied snugly over it. He folds a paint-stained apron, his hands—rough, calloused, impossibly large—moving with a tenderness that seems to contradict their size. His head tilts slightly, tracking the room without eyes. Then he feels it: your pres…