Chapter Text
Kanae woke up to the sound of jingling bells and footsteps outside. She sat up, her hair pooling around her and gently resting on the pale skin on the back of her arms. She glanced around the wooden house, trying to decipher what the sound could possibly be. Shinobu was still fast asleep, the sound of the house was still, not even the smell of food or the sound of boiling water flooded her senses. She saw Kyamu standing in front of the, for some reason opened, door. The sun rays were shining into the house, the tree’s attempting to block it casting shadows onto the wooden floor.
Tsujimatsu and Hanametsuma were long gone by now, they’d long since left to continue their missions as demon slayers. It was just Kanae, Shinobu, and Kyamu left. So what could possibly be–
“Welcome, welcome. Come in, please.” Kyamu waved to someone outside, likely the source of the bells, Kanae inferred from the jingling getting closer. He sounded taken aback by the person and his eyes widened just slightly, “I didn’t expect you to look like this. Well, you’re looking for Kanae Kochou, right? She's right in here.” He gestured his rough hands towards where Kanae had sat up on her futon.
“Present.” Kanae called out to whoever was outside the little home. A rush of excitement jolted through her body, perhaps it was her swordsmith? She would begin as a demon slayer tomorrow if it was, and perhaps he had her uniform as well.
Her hopes had come true, a man stepped into the house and looked dead at Kanae. He had a mask covering his face. It was a white with small but thick brown eyebrows that were raised in delight, faint pink blush on the cheeks and red coloring on small but thick smiling lips. Kanae’s pale lavender eyes widened at seeing it. “A Otafuku mask.” She mumbled, she could see hazel iris’ from the small holes in the squinty eyes of the mask. He was wearing a black yukata that had little bells attached to the sash. Over it, he had a dark sage green leaf patterned haori and light grey hakama pants. Behind the mask, Kanae could see long black hair that seemed to reach his chest, in all honesty it looked a little girly. Kanae stared for a moment at the dark locks and pondered, tapping her chin with a pale finger. ‘Perhaps he’s a homose–”
“My name is Tachibana Matsuko. I come bearing your sword, Kanae Kochou. I forged it by hand. It’s a nichirin sword, do you know what that means?”
Kanae tilted her head at the voice. The “man" was a woman.
Her voice was soft and low, it held the warmth of a young woman. Kanae blinked, she’d expected a boy, but she supposed it made sense that this was a girl. Why would a boy wear an Otafuku mask?
Recovering from her earlier shock, Kanae shook her head and moved over to where the woman had taken a seat in the middle of the room. “No, I don’t.”
“As expected,” She didn’t sound judgmental in her tone, just like she’d expected this. She spoke as if she were teaching something to a young child, raising a pale hand and lifting up a finger as she spoke. “A nichirin sword is a sword made from special materials, scarlet iron sand and scarlet ore. These materials can only be harvested from a mountain closest to the sun called Mt. Yoko.”
“Mt. Yoko?”
“It’s a mountain that is sounded by sunlight at all angles all year.” She then bowed down, her mask almost touching her knees, and held the sheathed sword out on its side with two hands. “This sword will change color depending on your breathing style, blue is for water, red is for flame, yellow is for lightning, and green is for wind. Please unsheath the sword and hold the handle.” She gently commanded the younger girl as she sat back upright.
It was a beautiful sword. The cotton covering the handle of the sword was a dark leafy green and the handguard was in the shape of a flower. It was orange on the inside with dark green lining, and there were four thin long petals extending out, one petal for each side of the sword. She took off the white sheath and held the sword in her hands, the whole blade was a light grey color. As she loosely gripped the hilt of the sword, the blade slowly turned a light pastel pink color in her hands.
She let out a light gasp at the sight, it was like magic. She saw Matsuko lean in at the sight of it and Kyamu just stared at the sword. “Pink.” Matsuko murmured in confusion. “Hm, that’s unusual. A demon slayer’s blade typically doesn’t turn a color other than the usual four.” She made a curious sound akin to a hum and turned her attention to Kanae. “Unless.. Is it possible that you’ve created your own breathing style, perhaps?” Her voice that had previously held a maternal calm had now risen to have a young, girlish curiosity and excitement. “It’s rare, but not unheard of. Although it's usually found in hashira, some slayers have breathing styles they made by themselves, like the Wilderness Hashira.”
Kanae gasped, a sweat dropping from her cheek as she nervously watched Matsuko lunged towards her and grab at her shoulders, giving a firm squeeze through the fabric of the light blue yukata Kanae was wearing. “Please, won’t you show me your breathing forms?” The swordsmith asked.
Kyamu had remained silent all this time, a cat watching cautiously to examine the scene before it. Then, he gave a small, sheepish chuckle and clapped a hand on Kanae’s back. “I’m afraid we won’t have the time. Her uniform seems to have arrived.” His gaze had flickered to the open door just as a dark black bird that she recognized as the Kasugai crow that had landed on her shoulder after she’d finished Final Selection. This time though, the crow had a tan bag in its mouth, the bag sagging from the uniform bundled up in it.
“Yes, you’re correct.” Matsuko cleared her throat and leaned back, releasing her grip on Kanae’s shoulders. “Please be careful with your sword, it took a plethora of labor to forge. However, please don’t be afraid to ask for another if something happens to this one.” WIth that, Matsuko bowed and stood up. Turning on her heel, she put on her sandals that she had taken off when she entered. She seemed ready to leave the house before Kyamu stopped her.
“I have a question for you, Tachibana-san.” He called out, outstretching a hand towards her. “You are a lady, which I take no issue with. However, I am curious as to when they started to employ women as swordsmiths.”
She turned, her face still covered by the white otafuku mask. “I figured you’d ask that,” She hummed. She continued in a lovely, light voice that almost made Kanae want to fall asleep on the spot. “It’s a simple reason, really. Some swordsmiths, who were men, had found out their slayers were women and began to craft faulty swords so the female slayers would continue to come back to visit. So, now there are female swordsmiths.”
Kanae took the words in with awe, it was a simple solution, but one that likely worked wonders. “Thank you for forging my sword, Tachibana-san.”
The older woman just nodded and turned again, making her way out of the house as she said, “You are very welcome, young Kochou.”
The bird was silent as it dropped the bag on the floor between them and perched itself on the floor beside Kanae.
Kanae looked at the sword she was still holding in her hands and then looked back to Kyamu who was staring intently at her. Then she realized he must be wondering about why her blade was pink and swallowed, deciding to fess up. “I.. I did end up making my own breathing style. I’m sorry, Ojii-san.” She bowed her head and then looked up, a passion in her eyes. “But you have to understand, Water Breathing just wasn’t efficient enough for me, something wasn’t working, it felt wrong for my body so–”
“I know.” Kyamu cut her off coolly, raising a fair-skinned hand to silence her. “I’ve no qualms about it. I knew, even before Kōrimaru and Tsujimatsu told me,”
Her pale eyes widened and she opened her mouth, then shut it. She didn’t know what to say, if he knew and didn’t care, then she supposed it truly didn’t matter at all. Finally, she settled on what to respond with. “They told you?” Her voice sounded small, even to her own ears. Like a child testing the waters to check if their parents were mad at them.
He chuckled and waved his hand, “Well, yes. After you left for Final Selection, they’d both tried to hold an intervention about how I’d supposedly taught you a new breathing style that you used against them that day that you cut the boulders. And even before that, I could tell from the way your movements had changed whenever I trained you, like you were holding back from using whatever new form you’d developed.” He looked at the bag that the bird had dropped on the floor and picked it up, he lifted out a dark off-black plum purple uniform.
He handed it to her and spoke with a calm tone, “Now, go change into your uniform, you’ll be sent on mission soon.”
She took the dark clothes and then stared at him in awe, “A-Already?”
“I didn’t train you in stamina for nothing, ojo-san.”
Only when she finished putting on her plum colored uniform and butterfly haori, and had begun putting her hair up again with the hair stick Kyamu had given her did he begin to speak again. “How does it feel?”
“It fits perfectly! And I can barely even feel it, it’s so light.” She checked the buttons of the uniform, they were silver and bright. This uniform.. It looked like a gakuran uniform. She looked down at the long sleeves off it, her long sleeved plain white undershirt was poking out from underneath the sleeves by just about a centimeter. The pants were baggy, more baggy than she was used to, the fabric didn’t even touch her skin for the most part and it felt like she was floating. The weight of her sword, which was seated in a well designed hostler in her white belt, felt like only a small rock in her pocket.
As she tested out moving her limbs, Kyamu spoke. “Good. These uniforms are unbelievable, they’ll prepare you for most things. The fibres of the fabric are special, they’re water-resistant and non-flammable, but still light and breathable on you. And tears are unlikely for you as long as the demons you run into aren’t too strong. Low-level demons shouldn’t be able to penetrate the fabric with their fangs or claws.” He stroked his chin that had begun to grow the light fuzz of a beard. “If a demon can.. I’d recommend you run away or call for help immediately.” While she’d been changing, he’d brought out a dark, oaky brown box.
It was medium sized and rectangular as it sat on its base. She stared at it, it was beautiful. The edges of it were reinforced with a deep, black metal that was kept in place by small grey nails. On its front, there was a small, thin, black metal handle. The front was what was the most beautiful, the corners of the front had black metal to keep them in place, but the metal was shaped like butterflies. And in the very middle of the front of the box there was an ume flower drawn in the middle with vibrant pink paint. On the back of it, she could see pale purple straps.
“What is this?” She asked, her mouth agape as she stared in wide-eyed awe at the box. “It’s gorgeous.” She mumbled.
Kyamu spoke with pride in her voice, it was obvious that he’d made the box himself. His kind brown eyes were bright with passion and he let a grin bloom on his pale face. “I made this box for you, entirely by hand. It’s for you to carry the littler Kochou in.” He had a boyish enthusiasm in his voice that Kanae hadn’t ever truly seen before.
She couldn’t help but smile herself at the sight of him being so happy. “Really? That’s amazing, Ojii-san.”
“Isn’t it? It’s made from an extremely light wood called cloudy cedar wood, that's what the box is mostly made of. The metal is there to reinforce the edges and corners of the box, it’s simply iron that I painted black for style points. However, I realized wood wouldn’t be durable enough, so I coated it in rock lacquer to make it extra durable and able to withstand some thrashing.” His hands moved in wild, ecstatic gestures as he spoke in a fast, clipped tone.
“Do you enjoy wood work, ojii-san?” She couldn’t help but notice his excitement for it. If he was this excited then why had he never started any carpentry projects over the two years she’d stayed with him?
“Oh, yes, very much! I–” He was cut off by her crow suddenly speaking.
It had a high pitched feminine voice, like that of a scrawny young girl. “Kochou Kanae, I bring you orders.” Both of their heads snapped towards the bird and Shinobu, who had still been lying on the futon, sat up at the sound, her eyes snapping open. “You must go to a town southeast of here!”
‘Oh my! It talks?’ Kanae thought to herself as she zeroed in on the talking crow.
The crow spoke to her again. “This is your first assignment as a member of the Demon Slayer Corps! Prepare yourself well!”
“My first assignment.” She echoed out loud.
“Listen closely, in that town to the southeast, there are young women going missing. Every night, at least one disappears.”
That made Kanae tense, a frown taking over her face as she furrowed her eyebrows. This demon was targeting specifically young women, she tried to not feel the intense sting of fear in her chest. She was close to the target age of this demon. From where she had sat up on her futon, Shinobu gave a displeased grunt from behind the bamboo she had on her mouth.
She stood up and grabbed the box, “I’ll take my leave now, ojii-san.” She hesitantly spoke, putting on her sandals and gripping the straps of the box. She wished she could hug him and beg for him to come with her, to kill this demon for her and just let her take the next one. She wished she could ask anyone else to take this joke, because now it felt real. Now, playtime was over and she was truly going to be in a life or death situation.
“Please take care, little butterfly.” He softly said as she watched Kanae gently put Shinobu in the box and then holster it over her back, putting the straps around her shoulders to keep it steady.
“You too.” She took a breath and made her way out the door.
Her descent down the mountain was the same as last time, the air became less thin the farther down she went and her ears popped from the change in pressure. She ran down the mountain this time, passing by the flowers and the signs of spring that were now more obvious than before. The sun felt brighter, the air was more moist than before as if it could rain at any second. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she made her way southeast to the town of disappearing young girls.
“Shinobu, are you awake in there?” Kanae called out as she ran, in response she got a sleepy grunt. A small smile stretched onto her face, “Ojii-san told me, when I first got back from the Final Selection, that you sleep and eat raw meat to regain your strength. Is that right?”
There was a long beat of silence, the only noises now the sound of her light footsteps padding through the vibrant grass. Her steps almost faltered at the sudden silence, she glanced back at the box on her back with worry in her gaze. “Shinobu?” She gave a quiet yelp as she felt her younger sister give a violent shuffle in the wooden box, it was obviously meant to send a message. The shuffle, along with the irritated warning growl, got the message across to Kanae that perhaps her sister just wanted to sleep right now. With a sheepish chuckle, Kanae murmured a soothing, “Okay, sorry, ‘Nobu. Go to bed.”
She’d run for who knows how long, then grown tired and had begun to walk. By the time she made it to the village, it was the afternoon. “You’ve arrived! You’ve–Arrived–in–the–town!” Her crow squawked from above her, spacing out each word. She gave a quiet, irritated groan but nodded politely. Was this thing trying to irritate her? “You’ve arrived! Kochou Kanae has arrived!”
“Yes, yes, so you’ve been telling me–”
“You’ve arrived!”
“Yes, I thank you for your repeated assurance, but–”
“YOU’VE ARRIVED–”
“That’s enough!” Kanae finally shouted at the crow that had landed on her shoulder as it yelled right in her now ringing ear. “I’ve had it with this, I understand that I’ve arrived, thank you for telling me, but I would appreciate it if you didn’t continue to scream at me, okay?” She chided the black bird, glaring ever so slightly at it. She could see its feathers, every minor detail of them down to the small fibres of the fur on them. And she could see exactly where the looser, easier to pluck feathers were.
The bird fell silent when she finally snapped at it, it opened its mouth, and then promptly flew off to who-knows-where. She lifted a pale hand and rubbed at her temples, already feeling a headache come in.
She was standing just in front of the entrance to the town, it was large and there were far too many houses and stores for her to count. Which she had already realized would be a probably, because then you got conflicting stories, and gossip. She’d know, she once had to try and solve who’d stolen a dog from an elderly woman at the village that she’d grown up near. Long story short, there were multiple witnesses, all of which told different varying stories, and she’d only found out who stole the dog because she’d seen a small tuft of fur mixed in with a little boy’s hair.
Long story short, such a big town would be a nuisance. Or at least it would’ve been, if it weren’t for the fact that she’d immediately found someone who had supposedly been at the scene. It was a young man, he looked only around his early twenties. He wore a muted red kimono and a black haori. His hair was a light dusty brown and he had dark red eyes.
Kanae only knew he had been there from the whispers of the people around.
“I hear he was with Kiyomi when she was taken by that demon.. Poor Mori-san.” A woman whispered.
“Yet another waste of a man, not even able to protect his soon to be wife.” An elderly man grumbled.
“Cut him some slack, the boy said whatever it was, its eyes were deadly bright. He was blinded for half of it, he couldn’t even see her!” An elderly woman said in a hushed tone.
Kanae listened intently as she paused on the dirt road, people were moving around her, bumping her shoulder and giving annoyed glances at her being in their path. “Oh! Sorry,” She said to a kid who’d been running too fast and hit his head on her knee. She gave a small guilty smile and then turned to the man who was walking past her, his pace was quick and he kept his head bowed down.
Giving chase, she briskly jogged over to him and stopped at his side, “Excuse me,” She called. She’d assumed he would stop to talk to her, or at least spare a glance in her direction. But he just kept walking with his head hung like she wasn’t even there, continuing his brisk pace towards wherever he was headed.
The only form of acknowledgement he’d given her was his quiet, clipped apology. “I have somewhere to be, if you’ll excuse me.”
She felt sorry, he obviously didn’t want to talk to her and she understood why. Being with someone as they disappeared and being blamed for their supposed death didn’t sound like a very fun experience in her opinion, but she really did need to talk to him about this. “Y-Yes, please forgive me, but I really do need to talk with you. I promise I’ll try to be as swift as I can.”
This time, his eye twitched and he swiveled around angrily, turning to face her with narrowed, frustrated eyes. He looked exhausted, he had dark black circles under his eyes and his lips were pulled into a frown. “What?” He demanded impatiently, “What do you want? Is this about Kiyomi? I already told everyone, I DON’T KNOW WHERE SHE IS!” Kanae couldn't help but notice the way he kept rubbing at his eyes. They were tinged just slightly red and looked irritated.
‘Right, they said there was a bright light.’ Kanae reminded herself, though she was sure the rubbing also added onto the irritation. She couldn’t help but notice the way his eyes seemed to be close to watering, they were glassy and his pupils had dilated just slightly in that way that most people’s did when they were near tears. She nodded and put her hands up to try and calm him, her gaze softening on the man.
She understood, to some degree. Understood the feeling of losing someone when you were so close to them. Understood the feeling of wondering why you couldn’t have moved faster to get to them.
“I understand,” Her voice quivered as it came out. She cleared her throat and moved her hand to grip the straps of the box she was carrying her sister. “It’s okay, you don’t have to know where she is. Can you at least show me where she was when this happened?”
“What?”
“Could you perhaps show me where this disappearance occurred? I’m here to investigate, I’m going to help you find your fiancée, but I need you to work with me.” She spoke as slowly and as gently as she could, provoking someone who’d just suffered a tragedy wasn’t a bright idea. Especially provoking a man. She felt the box on her back shake violently, ‘Shinobu must be awake,’ Kanae mused. Maybe she could help find the missing girl, Shinobu had always had a good sense of smell and being a demon likely only enhanced that. “Good afternoon, Shinobu.” She whispered softly to her younger sister before schooling her gaze back on the man in front of her.
For a fraction of a second, his gaze softened at her words and his shoulders relaxed. Then, his eyes narrowed and she could see him clench his jaw. His sweaty hands curled up into loose fists. Kanae’s eyes widened as she watched in almost slow motion as she saw his shaky fist twitch upwards as if he was getting ready to throw a punch. In a split second, she jumped backwards, he lazily swung towards where she had been standing, his lips curled up into a snarl. “You’re one of those angsty kids, huh? One of those kids who wanna use disappearance spots as little hangouts? It’s disgusting, so disgusting!”
A shiver went down her spine as she stared at the man, looking at his shaking fist. She had prepared to fight demons, to take attacks from monsters who she could fight back against. But this? She couldn’t put her hands on an innocent, she wouldn’t. She was here to protect him and everyone who lived in this town. His words made her heart almost stop, ‘Kids who hangout in the disappearance spots? Why..’ Her mind was racing as she tried to make sense of his words. So people enjoyed meeting up there? What, was it some kind of horror attraction to them?
He continued, his words bitter. “What an idiotic cover, a young girl like you investigating? All of you just love thinking this is some game where you get to be the hero. Get lost. You disgust me.” He spat venomously and stomped away furiously, leaving imprints in the dirt as she stood there, wide-eyed and mouth agape.
She slowly shut her slack jaw before anything could dribble out and swallowed nervously. Okay, so he didn’t believe she was here to help, nice to know. She turned around and her gaze settled on one of the women she’d heard speaking about the man earlier, the woman who’d mentioned that he had been with Kiyomi at the time of her disappearance. The black haired girl took a breath to steady herself and put her hands on the straps of the box Shinobu was in as she swiftly made her way to the woman.
The woman was shorter than Kanae by about an inch and had dark brown eyes, pale skin, and shoulder length black hair that were tied into two small braids. She was talking to that elderly man from earlier, whose wispy grey was short and wild. Kanae waited patiently but awkwardly as she waited for them to finish speaking about whatever they were talking about until eventually the woman turned to Kanae, “And who might you be, young lady?”
Kanae bowed her head respectfully, feeling the bangs that typically sat framing her face lift off her cheeks as her head went down. She lifted her head up, hair hitting skin as she did. “Good afternoon, ma’am. My name is Kochou Kanae.” The young girl furrowed her brows and gave an apologetic smile and she continued, “I’m terribly sorry to bother you, but I was hoping to know more about the disappearance of Kiyomi? Or maybe you could direct me to where she was last seen?”
The woman smiled delightfully, putting a hand to her pale cheek and with a soft gaze. “Oh, such a well mannered girl you are! And well kept too, you’re beautiful.” She removed her hand from her cheek and reached out, gently petting Kanae’s black curtain bangs. “You’re not from this town, are you?”
Kanae blinked at the sudden change of subject, her cheeks heating up in embarrassment from the sudden compliments. That had always been her weak spot, she was acutely aware of how easily she fell for flattery. And honestly? She couldn’t help it! She was just a girl. “Oh thank you very much! N-No, I’m from out of town. I was.. Visiting and heard about the girl, and I was hoping you could perhaps let me know more about Kiyomi’s disappearance? I’m here to help find her.”
The old man the lady had been standing next to scoffed and mumbled something about how idiotic her intentions were, though she brushed it off quickly. The lady clicked her tongue, her eyes scanning the dark haired girl, her eyes clouded with a swirl of emotions. “Come with me sweetheart, you need a place to stay for the night. My name is Okaguchi Fumiko.” She loosely grabbed Kanae’s wrist.
The demon slayer jumped in place as she felt warm hands envelope the skin just below her hand, “No, it’s really okay. I don’t need anywhere to stay at the moment,” Her voice was soft but had a firm edge to it, slowly becoming impatient. The man from before, Mori, trying to hit her had already ticked her off a little. But now this lady was trying to guide her off track, and she seriously wanted to get this mission over with. The longer this took, the longer that poor girl had to wait for rescue. Soon, there might not even be a girl to rescue. She’d be dead. Okaguchi gently tugged Kanae along down the dirt road, swerving though people.
Finally, Kanae’s brows furrowed with annoyance and she dug her feet into the ground, leaving a trail as she slowly dragged to a stop. She ripped her hand out of the woman’s grasp, “I need to find out where that girl is immediately. If you can’t help me, I kindly ask that you just leave me be.” Kanae firmly spoke to the woman.
Okaguchi paused for a moment, staring at the young girl. “Are you a demon slayer?”
“I– W-What?”
“That's why you really came here, correct? Because you’re a demon slayer.” She had a soft, knowing smile on her face as she whispered to the young girl. She pointed a thin finger to acknowledge the dark plum colored gakuran uniform Kanae was wearing. “You’re wearing a uniform,” Then her finger moved down and she rested her hand on the hilt of the demon slayer’s sword. “And you have a sword on you. A demon slayer came to try and kill this demon months ago, unfortunately she was killed in the battle. But she was an incredible sight! She died with honor.” The young woman’s eyes sparkled with awe as she spoke.
She must’ve seen a breathing style for the first time, Kanae thought to herself with an amused smile, though it quickly dropped when she thought about the fact that the poor girl had died. Her jaw clenched at the thought, her mind immediately visualizing the sight of a young girl her age, bleeding out on the ground after a fight with a demon.
Then she visualized it as herself. Her body lay limply in her younger sister’s arms, blood trickling from her mouth and her once piercing lavender eyes dead and barely staying open in her final moments. A long diagonal gash going from the top of one side of her chest, to the bottom of the other side.
With a shiver, she closed her eyes and took a breath. That wouldn’t happen, that couldn’t happen. Not when she had people to save and a sister to find a cure for. “I’ll get justice for all the girls this demon has hurt.” Kanae whispered fiercely, a blazing passion burning bright in her usually calming eyes.
For a moment, Ms. Okaguchi remained silent and scanned Kanae’s face blankly, her glossy lips pulled downwards at the edges into a deep, worried frown. Though after a moment, she sighed and put a hand on Kanae’s shoulder, “I hope you’re right.” She grimly said. “You can stay with me for the morning. Please allow it, you need to be fed, I don’t want you to fight on an empty stomach.”
Kanae sighed and shook her head, black locks swaying as she did so. She needed to investigate the area and see if she could find any hints about where the demon tends to come from, maybe then she could try hiding to guard the area. But in the box, Shinobu groaned and clawed at the wood. Her younger sister let out muffled grumbling noises. Knowing Shinobu, she was probably tired of being in this box. A small smile slipped onto her face, she took the box off of her back and watched it still in her hands. “Okay. I need to explore the area first, but after that I’ll come to eat immediately. Where is your home?”
The lady sighed and shook her head. “Just like that other girl. Fine, my house.. Well, my house is just right there.” She pointed to a humbly sized home that was only about two shops down. Kanae nodded, marking the spot in her mind. Lady Okaguchi had already begun walking to her home, “I expect to see you back here before nightfall or else I’ll come drag you back myself.” Was the last thing she said before she left her to her own devices.
Kanae just smiled sweetly at the older woman, ‘Ahah.. I doubt she’d be able to catch me, but it’s a caring thought.’
It turns out, there were multiple disappearance spots. That was bad for two reasons: 1). it meant multiple young girls had disappeared, and 2). Each spot was miles away from each other. The demon didn’t really seem to have any kind of specific spot, it appears that they would just go for anybody as long as it was a girl.
And then there was the mess of finding real information.
“I hear the thing was massive with glowing eyes and fangs that reached its ankles! Like.. Like some sort of ancient beat!” One young teen boy said, his hands moving and flailing around wildly as he attempted to describe the demon. Kanae nodded slowly, though something about the manic smile on the tan boy’s face and the way his pulse was going wild under his skin made her believe his words weren’t entirely true.
“Fangs? No, no, I hear it just looks like a regular guy with wings and shining eyes.” A different girl said.
“One of the fiancee’s of the missing girls said it had crazy pale skin! Like, white as rice.” A little boy told her.
“White skin? Yeah, that’s what everyone has been saying.” A man said, trying to hurry past her and be on his way.
“Noo, well, everyone’s been saying that but I think it was more tan. No animals around here are white. But there are tons of weird lookin’ wolves and such around here, and those are tan.” A different young man said.
“Do you happen to have a piece of fabric or anything that one of the girls was wearing at the time?” Kanae politely asked the fiance of one of the girls. She had a theory that maybe if she could get the scent of one of the missing girls, perhaps Shinobu, with her good sense of smell, could try and track down at least the general area of where the girls could be.
The man was tall, about half a foot taller than Kanae, and he had kind muted red eyes. He had freckles speckled on his tan skin and was wearing a black kimono and a worried look on his face as he crossed his arms. “I have.. This old hair pin of hers," He reached into his pocket and took out a silver hair pin that had a simple pink ball on the end of it. He placed it in Kanae’s hand and gave a worried but hopeful smile, “Please.. Get her back.”
It was evening when Kanae finally managed to find helpful info that seemed to make sense. It was from an older lady who seemed to be in her fifties or sixties. The lady had dark brown hair that was very clearly beginning to grey at the ends. “Don’t you notice? Every time a girl disappears, she’s engaged.” The lady told her in a hushed, secretive whisper. Kanae paused for a moment, now that she thought about it, it seemed to be true. The woman’s amber eyes narrowed, “But, of course, no one believes an old lady.”
Kanae hummed, taking in the info. From what she knew, all the girls who’d disappeared were either with their fiance’s or were at least engaged to somebody. ‘So this demon targets couples? Weird.’ She heard Shinobu give a disgusted whine from in the box and chuckled, “Yes, I feel the same, ‘Nobu.” She whispered. She bowed her head to the elderly woman, mustering a pleasant smile on her face despite the sinking feeling of dread in her stomach. This would be an interesting mission. “Thank you for the information, Ma’am.” She politely said.
The woman nodded and let a pleased smile slip onto her wrinkled face. “Ah, so alas, someone takes me seriously. Stay safe, dear.”
“Of course. You too,” Kanae said before turning on her feet and walking away.
“Are you any closer to finding the demon?” Ms. Okaguchi inquired in an impatient voice, though Kanae understood the rush. Of course the woman wanted this whole thing to be over, girls were going missing, after all. Who wouldn’t want this to be dealt with?
“I’ll be able to finally hunt it down at night, demons don’t come out in the day.” Kanae told the lady, slipping off her sandals as she entered the woman’s home. She kneeled down and arranged them neatly by the door, her parents would’ve scolded her well if she left them sprawled out.
The home smelled.. Cozy. The light aroma of lightly seasoned meat and soup filled the home, and though Kanae came from a rich family, after two years with Kyamu she’d grown accustomed to the middle class food. Plus, even before that, when her father fell ill they’d had to begin eating more scarcely to budget money.
Looking around, she could see a bookshelf lining the wall next to a window, though there weren’t many books in it. A shame. There was a coat hanger next to the entrance of the home and Kanae took that as her sign to take off her butterfly haori and put it on the hanger next to a brown minicoat. The home was decorated well for a middle classed home: a small desk and a stool with a sewing machine on it, a clock sitting around, plants, shelves and cabinets, and plenty more.
She shrugged the straps of the wooden box off of her shoulders and held it in her hands for a moment. “I’m going to let you out now, Shinobu. We’re in a very kind ladies house, so behave.” She set the wooden box onto the light brown wooden floor of the home. The moment she put her hand on the small hand to open it, the small door opened itself from the inside and Shinobu limply rolled out. Kanae peered inside the empty box as Shinobu stood up and dusted herself off, though the demon slayer sighed when she saw that nothing else was inside besides the old money box her parents had owned. “I wish I’d brought an extra change of clothes.” She mused to herself under her breath. She gave a sigh, though she wasn’t too bothered by this. “I suppose I’ll just have to buy more before I leave the town.”
Shinobu tugged on the plum colored sleeve of Kanae’s uniform, waiting for her sister to look down at her before pointing a tan finger to the bamboo muzzle still around her mouth. Dribble was coming from it and dripping down her chin. Kanae blinked and quickly moved to undo the muzzle, watching her sister wipe the clear spit from her face. “Please be respectful to Okaguchi-san, ‘Nobu.” Kanae softly told her sister.
Shinobu didn’t respond and turned to walk farther into the home before pausing and looking down at the sandals she was wearing. Something flashed in her purple eyes and she shook her head, bending down to tug them off and arrange them next to Kanae’s. Then, she turned her back to her older sister and waltzed to the kitchen.
Kanae for a moment didn’t know what to say before her eyes widened, “W-Wait, I have to properly ask if she’ll accept me with you here–”
“Well, aren’t you a sweet young girl,” Ms. Okaguchi said, kneeling down to look Shinobu in the eyes as she worked on cooking two fish. She chuckled and looked up to see Kanae walking over.
“I’m very sorry.” Kanae muttered and bowed her head. “I should’ve asked if you would allow me to stay here with my sister.”
To her surprise, Ms. Okaguchi just waved her off and shook her head. “Yes, it’s alright. I’ll have to cook her extra food then.” She said and moved to the nearby ice box where she kept the foods like fish and other meats.Then she paused and turned to Kanae, “And.. where exactly did you keep her? I didn’t see her with you.”
Kanae blanked for a moment, her eyes widening and her jaw going slack.
For a moment, the room was silent.
Kanae was frozen, looking clueless as if wondering if she should tell the truth.
Ms. Okaguchi was staring at her with suspicion in her narrowed eyes.
Shinobu was cryptically looking between the two and gesturing before running to the living room for a moment. Kanae didn’t even realize until Shinobu came back with.. The box Kyamu had made them. The box Kanae had put her in.
The demon slayer sweat dropped as she witnessed Shinobu crawl into the box, curl up, and then crawl back out. The demon gestured wildly at the wooden box before bowing and shaking her head, as if to say ‘look what she does to me.’
The reaction was quick, “Y-You put her in a box?!” Ms. Okaguchi yelled, and Kanae swore she heard birds fly away from their trees outside.
The young girl’s eyes widened and she put her hands up in surrender, “Well.. Well look, you see, my sister here–”
“You put your sister in a box?!”
“She has a..” Kanae panicked as she worriedly stepped away, how did she explain that she was keeping a girl the size of a four year old in a box because that girl was secretly a demon she was harboring? “A skin condition."
Okaguchi paused, brows furrowing in confusion. “A skin condition?” She inquired gently, her lips tugging downwards into a frown. Shit, now Kanae made her feel bad! But she couldn’t just take it back and say that her sister was a demon, so she continued.
“You see, she’s very sensitive to sunlight, it’s a terrible allergy she’s had since birth.” Kanae said, glancing at Shinobu with a panicked look to urge her to agree. Shinobu just shrugged and nodded, and as she passed Ms. Okaguchi opened up the ice box, picking up raw fishing and slowly but quietly chewing.
Luckily, Ms. Okaguchi didn’t seem to notice yet, lest she freak out about a young girl eating raw meat. Ms. Okaguchi’s face looked grim at the thought of Shinobu having an illness, the look on her face caused an ache in Kanae’s chest. Ms. Okaguchi exhaled and shook her head, “I see. Well, at least add some breath holes in it, she could’ve suffocated in there!”
Letting out a light hearted chuckle, the teenage girl nodded, “Yes, I’m sorry for the panic it must’ve caused you. And, no need to make another meal for ‘Nobu, I already fed her on the way here.” She assured the woman softly. ‘Lying to her face for the second time, how honorable of you, Kanae.’ She thought to herself sarcastically, a deadpan expression forming on her face. But in her defense, she couldn’t just make it seem like she was starving a child.
Kanae watched Shinobu shut the icebox, now munching on a naked fish bone as she moved back over to her elder sister. She felt Shinobu tuck it into the pocket of her plum colored uniform and almost groaned. “Alright, Shinobu.” She grumbled exhaustedly.
Dinner was light but filling. A bowl of rice, a bowl of soup, fish, and diced vegetables. It was a good meal and had been enough to energize Kanae again. Between the journey just making it to this village, and the whole trying to find information thing, she’d grown quite exhausted. She bowed her head, resting her chopsticks down on the napkin she’d been given them on. “Thank you very much for housing me and my sister today.” She glanced over to see Shinobu just.. Staring at the woman, Kanae swiftly moved her hand to gently push her sister’s head down.
Ms. Okaguchi seemed amused by the sight and smiled, “You’re welcome. Please.. Please end this demon, I beg of you.” She gripped the fabric of her red kimono as she bowed her head.
“Of course.” Kanae assured her as she stood up. Shinobu, who had been sitting beside her, stood up with her older sister and dusted off her kimono. She grabbed Kanae’s arm and dragged her over to the door before kneeling down to put on her sandals. “Alright, I get you wanna go now, calm down.” Kanae told her younger sister. She put on her own sandals and then grabbed her haori from the coat rack, and, after pulling the straps of Shinobu’s box over her shoulders, left the house.
“Alright, can you smell this and try to find where the lady disappeared?” Kanae asked, looking down to Shinobu. She pulled out the hairpin that the man had given her earlier and handed it to her sister, though she blinked when she saw the girl begin to grow back to her normal size of a fourteen year old. “Oh, I forgot you could do that.”
Shinobu rolled her eyes and waved her off before lifting the hairpin to her nose and sniffing it. Her brows furrowed in frustrated confusion and her lips curled into an irritated snarl, she pointed down the dirt road and began running down.
“You did it?” Kanae excitedly asked, running after her younger sister. “Amazing! You being a demon must’ve enhanced your senses even more!” She followed her down the dirt path and put a hand on the hilt of her sword, looking around frantically. She wasn’t sure why, it wasn’t like this demon was very stealthy, it literally shot out a blinding light. She’d most definitely be able to see it. “Is it in the woods?” Kanae looked in front of where they’d stopped. In front of a forest.
Shinobu looked around, and then huffed and shrugged. She pointed to Kanae, then to her eyes.
It took a moment for her to even realize what she was asking. “Oh, do I see anything?” She looked down the dark forest and frowned, “No.”
And that was when it happened. Blindly light came from behind her, streaming in from past her body. Oh. Oh no. Now that she fully thought about it, how would she fight a demon with light abilities when her eyes were so sensitive? Maybe.. Shinobu could do it. Still she had to try.
She heard footsteps behind her and swallowed nervously when she heard the demon quietly whisper, “Another slayer..” Still, she took that as her chance to jump in, she turned around to face the light, keeping her head down, and ran straight ahead of her. Even with her head bowed, the light was a nuisance. How the hell was she supposed to cut this thing's head?!
She unsheathed her sword and swung blindly, she could already imagine Kyamu shaking his head in disappointment at her actions but she had to! She couldn’t risk being blinded.
She made contact with a thick chunk of demon flesh and forced her blade down deeper, the action causing a grotesque wet sound to ring out. She felt something warm begin to coat the hilt of her sword and her hands, it was warm and awfully sticky. She looked up just slightly, ignoring the sting of her eyes as she did, and realized it was the demon's blood. Though just as she was about to slice through what she could only assume to be the demon’s arm, it twisted and used its free hand to grab her by the hair that was pooled around her upper spine and yanked down.
Her head jerked back and she yelped in surprise, tightening her grip on her sword and she stumbled back. In her shock, her eyes widened and she got an eyeful of blazing bright white light. It was as sudden as a flashbang and suddenly, she collapsed to her knees on the dirt road and dropped her sword.
Fuck, fuck! That hurt, that really really hurt. Kanae tried to open her eyes that had squeezed shut and saw.. A hyper bright, fuzzy world. Despite it being night, it looked like everything was glowing bright and just opening her eyes hurt. She let out a choked cry as painful tears began to well up in her now stinging red eyes. She brought up bloody hands in an attempt to cover them and somehow try to wipe away the pain searing through her sockets.
She couldn’t see what was happening in front of her, but she heard a loud and angry shout and knew exactly who it was. Shinobu. Whatever was happening, it was loud and she could hear the sound of flesh hitting flesh.
Standing up and trying to ignore the brightness of the world, she gripped her sword again and ran straight towards the noise. “Shinobu, down!” Kanae quietly said, though she knew even if she did whisper the demon could likely hear her as well. Demons had enhanced senses after all. She could vaguely see a small, bright figure move down and that was all it took for her to swing her sword diagonal. It wisped through the air with a crisp sound, though she could tell she hadn’t connect with anything.
Something wet had begun to drip and run down Kanae’s cheeks and she paused as she tried to think about what it was. Oh, she was crying. She didn’t know what she’d expected, she’d always cried from lights that were too bright, but still. Now was not the time, because it was blurring her already too bright and messed up vision. She blinked away the tears as she blearily watched two figures punch and kick each other.
Then she steeled herself with a deep breath, “Flower breathing, fifth form: Peonies of Futility.”
Though she couldn’t see it, Shinobu’s eyes widened and she jumped back out of the way. The demon gave chase, trying to grab onto Shinobu. Though, this luckily caused the demon to be directly in Kanae’s path. Flowers bloomed all around them, slowly fluttering in the air. She swung her blade to make the first slice and felt the metal connect with flesh, the light pink stream following her sword wide had sakura’s littered inside of it as she delivered a firm slice to the demon’s arm.
The pale monster grit its teeth and moved back, looking up to make eye contact with Kanae. “That girl you’re with is a demon.”
“Really? I wasn’t aware.” She softly but sarcastically said. She quickly looked downwards to the dirt on the ground. If she could find a way to cut this demon’s head without having to lift her gaze, she’d win. That much was obvious. The harsh part was figuring out how to do such a thing. Shinobu was helping her already, fighting the monster while Kanae recovered from her temporary blindness. Maybe she could..
The demon’s eye twitched and he focused his attention on Shinobu, “You should be killing the human, you stupid girl!” He snarled at the younger monster, baring his sharp fangs and beginning to charge at the small girl.
Kanae’s head, stupidly, snapped up, her sensitive eyes attempting to scan the fuzzy scene in front of her. “What’s happening?” She couldn’t see, yes, but she could definitely hear movement. And she could hear that the movement was not coming towards her. “Where are you going?!” She stumbled after him, internally cursing herself. If she hadn’t been so stupid as to open her eyes from a minor pain such as her hair being pulled, then she would be able to see! “Wherever you’re going, come back!” She yelled and immediately began to give chase, she could faintly see his pale skin farther away in the forest, and could clearly see his bright eyes even with her blinded state.
She squinted, was that Shinobu? He was chasing Shinobu. She quickened her step the moment she saw that, her grainy vision slowly beginning to heal and go back to normal just as Shinobu kicked the light demon in the stomach, sending him ragdolling into a tree back first. “Shinobu!” Kanae gasped in amazement as she made her way over, looking over her sister to see that she was okay. Shinobu just bared her small fangs and jumped in front of Kanae just as the demon tried to scratch her in the face. Shinobu practically hissed at the monster and jabbed her hand into his neck, collapsing onto the ground on top of him.
Kanae took a breath, swallowing, she should’ve cut that demon’s neck when Shinobu had thrust it into the tree! So, as her sister held the struggling demon down, Kanae lifted her blade and–
“You stupid demon! You idiotic girl! How dare you betray our lord, he will deal with you! He will kill you the moment he finds out what you’ve done!” He raised a fish and punched off Shinobu’s jaw, splattering blood onto the dirt of the forest. Shinobu for her part, just turned her head away and rolled her eyes.
Kanae stared, his sudden outburst causing her to remember something she’d completely forgotten in the midst of her adrenaline rush while she fought him. “The girls.” Her eyes widened as she tried to avoid the light of his eyes, “What did you do to those missing girls?!” She yelled, slowly sinking to her knees. “Tell me, NOW!” She waited for a response. She waited for a long minute, listening to the silence as owls sounded in the distance and leaves rustled in the wind. She was seriously beginning to get agitated with this demon. She hadn’t even been fighting for too long and yet this demon had managed to irritate her to a strange extent. She didn’t usually get mad like this, didn’t usually even really yell like this, but having your eyes burned did something to a girl.
Then, slowly, the demon started to chuckle. And then those chuckles turned into giggles, which turned into loud, hollow laughter. It was humorless and it was clear he was just doing this to make her mad. She pressed the blade of her sword against his neck. “Tell me or I will have to kill you.” She attempted to force him.
“You’ll kill me anyway, little slayer. It’s your job.” His palms suddenly started to flicker, the blazing light beginning to flood from them like rivers of white. She managed to react quickly and stab the band that was headed for her eyes into the dirt below them, dark blood spilling out onto the ground. She wasn’t as lucky as to help Shinobu quick enough, as the girl let out a high pitched shriek as his palm covered her eyes and held on tight to the sides of her head as the demon desperately tried to claw his hand off.
Panic flooded Kanae’s system, she couldn’t have both of them be visually impaired right now. She didn’t exactly want to take her sword out of his other hand though and risk him trying to attack them with that one. Burned flesh slowly knifed up her nose and it took a second for her to realize that the light was burning through Shinobu’s flesh! “Oh gosh!” Her eyes widened, her once furrowed brows raised with shock and panic and she wrestled the demon's arm. He tried to take this moment to sit up and was quickly elbowed in the face by Shinobu, she dug her nails into the hand over her face and ripped it straight from where it was connected with his arm.
“I swear..” Kanae turned her attention to the monster below her, her shaking hands curling into fists. “TELL ME WHERE–” She was cut off by something that happened so quickly, she didn’t even have the time to react. Shinobu ripped the sword from the demon’s hand and swung at the demon’s neck, and in one quick, albeit clearly physically demanding, slice- she cut his head off and watched it roll on the ground.