#gyutaro and ume | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mrsshabana · 5 months

Text

𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐲

꒦꒷‧₊ Summary You're sent on your first assignment as an entomologist, but things quickly go awry on your first night and you meet a creature that should just be an urban legend. ꒦꒷‧₊ Content Mantis!Gyutaro x female!reader, insects, blood, gore, violence ꒦꒷‧₊ Note 2.8k words

✧:･ﾟ→ Mantis Gyutaro art ✧:･ﾟ→ Chapter 2

Tonight is your first night in the field. After years of studying entomology, you were lucky enough to snag a spot on a prestigious team of entomologists. You moved your entire life here so you could have this golden opportunity. Little did you know, they only accepted you because this forest is known for its disappearances. They can’t risk losing their most valued scientists, so they prefer to send the newbies to places like these.

Unfortunately for you, your studies require you to gather samples of nocturnal species. Which is why you currently find yourself trekking through the lush forest. With only a small flashlight and a paper map to guide you.

Every minute sound sets off your anxiety. You even get startled by the occasional cool breeze rustling the leaves of the trees that tower above you. The only thing keeping you grounded is the soothing song of crickets.

That is, until it all stops. The entire forest goes quiet as you step into a small clearing.

“What the hell?” you say to yourself to fill the void. The undeniable feeling of being watched begins to weigh down on you. Flashing your light behind your shoulder, it reveals nothing at all. Only the empty path from where you came. “Weird…” you push yourself forward.

One step… two steps… three…

In the blink of an eye, your entire body is pinned to the ground. Your face digging into the dirt, you’re unable to see what is restricting you.

All you know is that something big is holding you down.

Rows of sharp objects dig into the skin of your back, preventing you from struggling. You try to kick your way out of its grasp but the needle-like protrusions dig deeper into your flesh with every movement.

Your screams echo through the trees, but you know that no matter how hard you scream no one will be close enough to hear you. And whatever is holding you down right now doesn’t seem bothered either.

The beast is quick with its movements. You are so used to working with carnivorous insects that you can already tell that this thing doesn’t plan on keeping you alive for long.

Everything goes in slow motion when you feel the skin on the back of your neck tearing. You’ve got to act fast or else this is it.

The creature can barely sink its teeth into you before you are swinging your head backwards. The back of your head smacking the creature straight on its forehead. It unlatches from you, falling backwards with a hiss.

Scrambling to your knees, you turn around to face whatever thought you’d make an easy meal.

It’s a man. No… It’s an insect.

The creature has the body and the face of a man, albeit very thin and bony. He has black hair that fades into green halfway down, partially tied up in a messy topknot. Large folded up wings lay on his back. His forearms are decorated with long, sharp spikes. His entire body is covered in ink-like black splotches. Two long antennae hang in front of his face.

The thing is sitting down, groaning with its head in its palms.

Your thoughts are spiraling. There’s no way that this is actually happening right? The sane person in you wants to run away screaming before this thing gets back up. But the entomologist in you wants to investigate further. You know you’re playing with fire, but your curiosity gets the best of you.

You take a moment to admire his appearance again. Antennae, tibial spines, large wings. This creature resembles a mantis. Ok, what do you know about mantids? They’re aggressive predators, territorial, and they’ll eat almost anything. Shit, none of that information helps you right now. It only diminishes your chances of getting out of this alive.

You took too long, and the creature has recovered from your headbutt. Staring at you with wide eyes, it slowly moves towards you. Inching ever so slowly.

Reaching into your pocket, you grab the small jar of honey you were going to use as bait later in the night. You know that mantids only eat live prey, but this is all that you have.

You fumble with the lid, scooting yourself backwards as the creature continues its crawl towards you. With a huff, your back hits a tree, stopping your path. You are met with glowing yellow eyes and deadly mandibles inches from your face.

Somehow, you managed to open the jar. The sweet aroma of artisan honey fills the air around you. In a desperate attempt to distract the creature, you hold the honey out to him.

“H-here. F-for you…” you stutter, voice barely above a whisper.

Guttural clicks rumble from his chest. He exhales in your face, the rich scent of blood fills your nose. Almost making you gag. You must’ve not been the first item on the menu tonight.

With curiosity, the creature sniffs the jar in your hand. He places a hand on your hip to keep you in place, as a long tongue slips out of its mouth. Its tongue is pitch black and forked at the tip.

You feel like you can’t breathe as this thing starts to lick the honey from the jar. Seemingly satisfied by its sweetness he continues. This creature is quite literally, eating from the palm of your hand.

It’s great that you managed to distract it, but what do you do now? It’s holding you down so you won’t be able to get away. All you can do is watch as the jar slowly empties, your fate approaching. You thought you were being smart by offering the honey, but all you managed to do is give him an appetizer.

It only takes a few minutes for the jar to be licked clean. His hungry gaze shifted back to you. He licks his mandibles as he inches his face closer to yours, tickling the top of your head with his antennae.

“P-please… I-I don’t wanna die,” you whimper. Lowering your head and squeezing your eyes shut as tears roll down your cheeks.

All you can do is wait for the pain of being ripped apart.

But it never comes. And when you open your eyes, the beast is gone.

︶︶꒷ ₊˚ ︶︶꒷ ₊˚

It took all your willpower not to brag to your colleagues about the amazing discovery you made. Yeah you almost died, but that was a small detail.

You made it safely back to camp. Everyone else was asleep when you arrived so you had all of the privacy you needed to recompose yourself.

The next afternoon you set out into the forest again. It took you longer to make it there this time because of the wounds that you were left with the previous night. Multiple punctures on your back, and a bite on your neck. You can’t complain though because you know you were lucky to come out alive.

Making it back to the familiar clearing, you unpack your bag. This time you came prepared with plenty of food to distract the mantis. Some grasshoppers you stole from your colleague, as well as some honey. There are so many questions that you want answered. You know that you are insane for wanting to get close to this thing again, but you can’t help yourself. It’s in your nature to be curious about new discoveries!

Leaning against a log, you wait for nightfall. Passing the time by taking notes in your journal.

Day 1

I met the mantis at night. Unusual behavior for a mantis. But not completely uncommon for males. Most mantis hunt during the day time, but sometimes male mantis will hunt at night. As it is easier for them to avoid birds. However, mantis have to worry about avoiding bats at night. But the mantis man is so large that I doubt he has to worry about any predators at all. Does he choose to hunt at night to avoid humans?

Once surrounded by the darkness of the night, you begin to regret your decision to come out here. The panic that you felt the previous night begins to overcome you again. You flash your light up into the trees. No mantis to be seen.

The senses of a mantis are very strong. His eyesight is beyond anything a mere human would ever fathom. So if he is close, he must’ve already seen you. As an ambush predator, you know that he’ll be stalking you from afar. The halt of the cricket song alerts you that he’s close. It’s said that crickets stop chirping when a predator is nearby.

“I-I know you’re there! I brought food for you,” your voice shaky, trying to sound confident but instead you just sound pathetic and weak.

No response. Just silence.

Turning on your flashlight, you check your surroundings. And when you turn around you are met with the sight of the mantis. He was sneaking up behind you, never making a sound to alert you. He got alarmingly close, so good thing you turned around when you did. Who knows what would have happened if you were a second later.

This is the first time that you are seeing the mantis at his full height. He towers over you, more than any normal human would. He must be around seven feet tall.

Yellow eyes stare widely at you, as he slowly continues to creep towards you. Continuing to stalk you even after you’ve spotted him. It’s unnerving and creepy.

“H-hello,” you try to break the tension. But your words only set him off. He opens his mouth and starts hissing at you. Unblinking eyes never diverting away from you. Every step you take back, he takes forward. You know what he’s trying to do, he’s trying to intimidate you. You are in his territory after all, so maybe he is interpreting your presence as a challenge. It’s just a speculation, but it’s all you have to go off of. So, you slowly kneel down and grab the container of grasshoppers from your bag. Making sure to never break eye contact.

When he sees the snacks you brought for him, he stops hissing. Cocking his head to the side in curiosity.

“I brought these for you,” you shake the container, making the insects jump around, “I promise they’re tasty.”

The mantis chirps as he kneels in front of you. Snatching the container from your hands, he starts chewing on the plastic. Cracking it with his strong mandibles until it breaks, releasing the grasshoppers. They scatter quickly, jumping and leaping around the clearing. The mantis is quick to snatch them up and shove them into his mouth, leaping around like a cat until he’s caught them all. You feel bad about stealing your colleagues' grasshoppers, but this research is far more important. You took the largest specimens you could find. This is no regular mantis, it will take an incredible amount of food to satiate him enough to not consider you as a meal option for the night. But unfortunately, you don’t have access to such copious amounts of food. So you’ll just have to pray that this will be enough for now.

You study his movements. He’s fast and silent. A deadly combination.

It doesn’t take long for him to finish hunting down the snacks you provided. The loud sound of exoskeletons being crunched fills your ears as he approaches you again. The sound sends shivers down your spine.

He seems much calmer than he was earlier, looking at you expectantly. Maybe he knows that you brought more food for him? You wouldn’t be surprised if he could already smell it.

This time you came prepared with a large jar of honey and a spoon. The mantis starts chirping when you open the jar, eagerly fluttering his wings in anticipation of the sweet nectar.

Holding the jar in your lap, you use the spoon to collect the honey and bring it up to the mantis’ face. His long black tongue unfurls from his mouth, licking the spoon clean. It makes you giggle, spoon feeding a big scary creature.

He tries to lunge forward to take the jar from you but you push him back. “No! Bad boy,” you scold.

With a growl he pushes you to the side, taking the jar for himself. “Hey!” you yelp. He holds the jar close to his body, dipping his tongue in the thick liquid only to bring it back into his mouth. He repeats this with no intention of stopping until the jar is empty.

Well, at least he’s distracted.

“Do you have a name?”

He quirks a brow at you, licking the honey off his mandibles.

Can he not speak? He seems intelligent but if he hasn’t spent much time around humans then it makes sense that he wouldn’t know how to speak. But does he understand what you are saying?

“My name is Y/N,” your words seemingly go in one ear and out the other. “If you promise not to kill me, I’ll bring you even more honey,” that seems to have gotten his attention. He stops and stares at you with hooded eyes. Looking much more relaxed than earlier, he chirps two times before diverting his attention back to his snack.

You can only assume that he’s agreeing to your terms. Or at least, you hope he is.

While he’s busy eating, you use this valuable time to observe his appearance and mannerisms. He allows you to get close enough to inspect the beautiful arrangements of spots that decorate his body. Getting a closer look at him, you can appreciate how beautiful he is. Maybe someday he’ll expand his wings for you to see.

Just in case things went awry, you brought a tranquilizer with you. If you are able to tranquilize him and take him back to base camp, you’d be praised by everyone. You can only imagine all of the awards and recognition you’d receive for bringing his existence to light. But watching as he eagerly slurps the honey, it’s hard not to feel sympathy for him. If you were to take him back to camp, he’d be contained and experimented on for the rest of his life. And that's not fair to anyone. Even a mantis human hybrid.

After half an hour he hands you the empty jar. His eyes look heavy and he blinks slowly. Poor thing must be tired after eating so much sugar. Without a thought, your body moves on its own. You cautiously bring your palm up to his head, and begin stroking his hair with your hand. He seems unbothered by your touch, closing his eyes and purring in response.

Aw, he’s actually kind of cute. Extremely deadly, but cute nonetheless. His antennae twitch, tickling your arm as you pet him.

He’s so vulnerable right now. This would be the perfect opportunity to tranquilize him. But instead, you vow to yourself that you will protect him. As long as you’re here you will study him in secrecy.

His head dips for a moment before he picks it back up. He’s so sleepy that he almost fell asleep. So he decides that it is time for him to go. You watch as the mantis climbs up a large tree, making himself comfortable on a branch and laying down to rest.

︶︶꒷ ₊˚ ︶︶꒷ ₊˚

It’s shocking how well your second encounter with the mantis man went. He was aggressive at first, but when you introduced food into the equation, he became docile. It’s obvious that he is food motivated, so everytime you go out, you make sure to have some snacks on hand just in case there is a surprise encounter.

But it has been a couple days since you’ve been able to see your new friend. You aren’t worried about him, knowing full well that he’s more than capable of hunting on his own. But you do feel bad, so you bring an extra large batch of grasshoppers and beetles.

As you approach the familiar meeting spot, you hear rustling in the brush beside you. You know it isn’t the mantis because he stalks silently.

“H-hello?” you whisper.

“Hey! You shouldn’t be here!” A female voice whispers back. The sound of twigs snapping under her feet as she approaches you.

She steps into the moonlight, her exquisite beauty revealed to you. She has blue eyes and long white hair. And she’s far too overdressed for a walk in the forest.

“This forest is dangerous. You need to leave now!” panic evident in her voice as she takes your hand in an attempt to show you the way out.

“Wait! I’m a scientist, I know what I’m doing. You on the other hand, really shouldn’t be here,” you warn, “There are dangerous animals that live here.”

She stops, raising a brow in confusion, “Could it be?... Have you met him too?”

You gulp, “The mantis…”

She nods and her eyes widen, “You’ve met my brother…”

#gyutaro #gyutaro shabana #gyutaro x reader #gyutaro x y/n #gyuutarou #gyuutarou x reader #ume shabana #mantis au #demon slayer x reader #kny x reader #cryptid x reader

213 notes · View notes