"Dude, that's gross!" A loud laugh broke the silence.
A group of three demon slayers, Kaito, Arata and Chiyo. All walked together towards their appointed mission, deep in the forest. This mission was high above their rank, and meant for at least a Tsuchinoe. However, numbers were scarce, many higher ranks were travelling to Eira's Upper Moon Hunt mission. Therefore, lower-ranking Corps members were forced to take missions above their skill level, the lower skill was compensated with numbers, often groups of two or three would take upon missions one Tsuchinoe could handle.
No negative incidents have occurred thus far.
Arata laughed as he smacked Kaito's hand away, in which he held a worm wiggling it in front of Arata's face. Chiyo looked at the two boys, about to burst with laughter herself when she came to a halt. Amidst the trees swaying, there was a noise.
"You sure you're cut out for this mission if you can't handle a wor-" Kaito laughed before Chiyo unsheathed her sword, the quiet ring of her blade put both of them on alert.
"Do you hear that?" Chiyo narrowed her eyes, goosebumps sprouting on her pale skin. Kaito and Arata unsheathed their swords in unison, anxiety crept up their neck, but they found focus as their fingers wrapped around the sword hilts. Their sharpened hearing, honed by endless training, carefully focused on any sounds of danger in the middle of the brushing leaves, howling wind and scattering critters.
Winged silhouettes flew out of trees against the night sky, squawks alerting their fellow avian allies, they clustered in groups and sought shelter. The sound became more distinct, a loud rumble, travelling both as noise and as a vibration through the air and ground.
With a hint of hesitation, they all dashed in the direction of the noise. It was in a constant pattern, with five or so seconds between every rumble. The vibrant haori colours were a blur as they zoomed past. As they got closer to the epicentre, loose dirt would jump up in unison with the sound.
"How big does the demon have to be rattling the whole damn forest?" Kaito spoke with haste, under his words was a clear outline of fear. The comment on size was enough to paint a vivid image in each of their minds, a large hulking demon, killing humans with a single punch. Probably weighed several tons.
The noise stopped. The three friends slowed down, their sprints turning into slow jogs as they approached an area populated by small saplings, sparse and open.
"As long as we stay together, we should be fine," Arata turned around to analyse their surroundings, brushing a hand through his dark hair, "If it was that big… Surely we would've seen it by now."
Chiyo sighed and nodded in agreement, just an hour ago they were enjoying miso soup together. Their mission was supposed to be to track down a demon that had been killing humans who used the forest as a path between two towns at night. She gripped her sword tightly in anticipation of the next sign.
Without warning, beneath Arata came a massive roar-like quake. Their eyes immediately shot down, and their stomachs dropped as they witnessed the terrifying sight. A veiny hand had pierced through the ground and was clawing upwards like those zombie films. It was only visible up til the forearm, but it didn't make it any less horrifying when it grabbed on tightly to Arata's ankle.
Chiyo reacted swiftly, she lunged and cleaved the hand at the wrist area. She could feel the toughness of the flesh just from her slash. Arata quickly leapt backwards, his face covered in a cold sweat. The severed hand wriggled freely on the floor for a few seconds before becoming motionless. Kaito glanced at Chiyo, his gaze asking a thousand questions.
In an instant, the ground exploded, a large chunk of dirt being launched into the air. And while a large portion fell back down, smaller particles remained floating. The cloud of dirt hindered their vision, the only visible thing was the silhouette of a figure emerging from the recently made crater.
Arata twisted his blade in his hands and dashed, followed by the other two in almost perfect sync. Their blades resonated at the same vibration as all of them swung pinpoint at the figure's neck. What they didn't know was that their swings would be completely useless even if they landed.
In the millisecond that Kaito caught a glimpse of the figure's face, his entire body shuddered with utter horror, a single message transferred throughout his nervous system at light speed, "RUN". His instincts forcefully slammed the brakes on his strike.
"Fall back!" He screamed out as he jumped backwards, his skin crawling with fear-induced tingles. His heart pounded against his chest, breaths becoming short in anxiety as he stared at his two teammates who were too late into their swings to evade.
He was sure of what he had seen. The eyes… They read Upper Moon Three.
Ali's body tensed, and both of his arms rocketed upwards, fists colliding with the incoming blades. The swords wailed under the powerful impact, Chiyo's sword went flying away, while Arata's completely broke in half. The impact was followed by a large gust of wind, which cleared the dust, putting Ali on full display.
No words could describe the full extent of the fear that stabbed at all three of their hearts. Their souls were petrified by fear, and a dark shadow of inevitable doom covered their morale. Time was completely slowed as they saw Upper Moon Three in the flesh.
Kaito felt a rush of urgency slam at his back, almost forcing him to move forward. He slammed his foot into the ground and charged towards Ali.
He was the only one with a means of offence, he had to hold Ali off while Chiyo and Arata gained time to escape. His throat tightened with a strong urge to scream. He flowed through the air at the highest speed he had ever travelled, fuelled by pure adrenaline and willpower. He let out a loud cry of battle, straight from his core, both to fuel his motivation and to signal the two others to move out of the area. His veins surged with the purest form of courage.
Flame Breathing. First Form: Unknowing Fire.
His legs moved at a pace they had never moved before, his speed increased ten-fold. All the veins in his body felt like they were about to burst with heat. The air rushed past him, and his dash spiralled with flames. His entire body flexed with sheer tenacity, he rotated his body to add power to his swing, he poured all of his energy into this slice. This was it. Both of his friends had scrambled backwards, finding cover behind trees. This fight was between Kaito and Ali.
Kaito's high momentum was put to an immediate halt, Ali caught his sword mid-strike and put a palm on Kaito's chest to stop his charge. Kaito's world seemed to collapse into dozens of fragmented puzzle pieces, the moment he felt unstoppable, he was stopped. He reluctantly stared upwards at the terrifying Upper Moon, only being able to see the glowing eyes, Ali's other features darkened by the bright moon directly behind him. Kaito gambled his luck and attempted to tug his blade, it was no avail only causing a small tremble in Ali's wrist.
Kaito knew. This was the end for him.
"Sorry about your swords, I don't want to fight," Ali released the sword from his grip and patted Kaito on the back, lifting his hand off the petrified boy's chest. His voice was much more friendly than the three demon slayers had anticipated, throwing them completely off guard. Just in that moment, the truckload of exhaustion and agony that was held off by adrenaline came crashing down on Ali. The toll of the day-long Douma battle, and the consistent four-hour-long digging concentrated into every fibre of his.
Every muscle throbbed with an unbelievable soreness, he felt as if he was seconds away from collapse. He needed energy. His vision was spinning, he glanced around at the frozen demon slayers. Perhaps he could eat them, his mouth began to salivate.
The trio flinched as Ali slapped himself, the loud noise echoed through the forest. The slap successfully cleared both stupid thoughts, and some of the dizziness off of Ali. He needed a demon to absorb, as well as sleep. A lightbulb formed over his head.
"You guys are here for a mission right?" Ali snapped his fingers and turned his head towards each of the humans with a smile on his face. The smile quickly faded off his face as he was subjected to an awkward silence as a reply.
"Get away from him," Chiyo exclaimed with a slight stutter, slowly etching towards her fallen sword, half buried in the dirt about five metres away from her. Her glare switched from Ali to Kaito.
"I'm not a threat," Ali stepped away from Kaito and put his hands up, his heart hurt a bit having to repeat this every time he met a human, "I know it's against everything you've experienced and been taught, but I mean no harm"
"Just let me join the mission," Ali made his desire clear, he could provide help, and absorb the demon at the end of the fight. It was mutually beneficial.
The entire sequence felt like a horrendous fever dream.
Ali thought of his wish to be totally reasonable, but as soon as he turned to Kaito, who was mumbling, all hope was drained out of his eyes.
"What the… hell is happening? Am I dead?" Kaito stared at his trembling hands, his sword sliding out of his palm and hitting the ground. He blinked several times hoping he'd wake up back in his comfy bed. His head buzzed with combined confusion and disbelief. The second Ali's gaze averted to Kaito, Chiyo's feet dug into the dirt, she launched herself at the sword and subsequently dashed at Ali the very second she was reunited with her weapon.
Ali sighed as he watched the girl spin and swing her blade, he purposefully allowed her strike to land at his neck. The blade only cut a centimetre deep into his skin. She grunted as she attempted to slice deeper, but the flesh was far too tough.
The continuous hacking by Chiyo only felt like a sting to Ali, her desperate attempts to try to decapitate him useless. He could feel frustration bubble up, but he knew he couldn't blame them. They were terrified, and it wasn't out of a demon's nature to pretend to be friendly. He just wished they could see differently.
"You can join us," Arata's shaky voice travelled loud and clear, hitting Ali's ears like a smooth song that drowned out a jackhammer. Kaito and Chiyo's jaws dropped, their eyes bulging out of their heads, their necks snapping to look at Arata. Before they could retaliate, Arata spoke again.
"We can't kill him if we try, we can't outrun him, we can't do anything," Arata stepped forward talking to his friends, still fearful for his life. He redirected his gaze to Ali.
"If you allow us to die nobly by finishing our last mission before killing us, I invite you to join," Arata bowed, shuddering. A single tear trailed down his face and dropped to the dirt below. He had well and truly given up on any hope that he would make it out of his predicament alive. As soon as his blade had shattered, he had accepted death with open arms, practically cuddling with it at this point.
"Thank you… Wait what?! I'm not killing anyone," Ali slapped a hand over his furrowed brows. He stared at Arata, who was only going into a deeper bow.
"Stop bowing to me!" Ali exclaimed at the state of Arata, the depressed expression on his face, his soul was already halfway to heaven, prancing and dancing with the angels. Ali couldn't help but let out a stifled laugh as Arata bowed deeper, quickly covering it up, they seemed completely serious and he didn't want to make it seem like he was laughing at them. They weren't much younger than Ali, only two or three years, but they were less mature by a large margin.
"We're tasked to kill a demon in this forest," Kaito gained some of his sanity back, he bent down to grab his sword and joined Arata's side bowing, not a second went by when his skin wasn't crawling with a sense of danger. But seeing his friend's defense and courage to at least finish more missions before death, he bowed in solidarity. He attempted to appear fearless, but his trembling hands gave it all away.
"Guys… Seriously, stop bowing," Ali had given up on his pleas at this point. These kids had to be stupid or something, did they come out of a comedy comic strip? Or did they think this was a dream?
Chiyo felt insane in this situation, her blade still dislodged in Ali's neck, her eyes squinted at the two friends she had travelled with for this mission, making sure they were still human. Her heart was strongly opposed to this betrayal of Corps' values.
"Are you guys serious? I am not fighting alongside a demon," Chiyo's voice was the only one with logical reason, her heart opposed to this blatant betrayal of Corps values. Her jaw clenched as she pointed the tip of her sword at Ali's face, her beliefs stern and stubborn.
It was clear nothing could change her mind.
"I can fight on your terms and conditions, you can relax while I fight," Ali extended an unrefusable offer, basically saying he would do their work for them.
Ali blinked and Chiyo was gone. His eyes darted back to the boys, Chiyo had joined them in the bow to Ali. Her hands even clasped together in a praying sign.
"Please finish the mission quickly, and neatly" Chiyo spoke in a tone completely different to the one before, one that was honourable and respectful.
Ali was silent for a moment before he burst out in laughter at the stupidity of the trio, how had they even made it this far? He walked over and put a hand on Arata's shoulder, to which Arata jumped and screamed like a startled cat.
"You guys are seriously hilarious," Ali let out another small giggle, "Show me the way,"
Their mission resumed.