Chapter Text
The mountain was covered in a dense layer of towering bristling trees with ancient trunks, with most paths through the hill being wildlife or hunter lanes. The road from the nearby village finished at the very base of the mountain, with a small rickety shrine signalling the end of civilization.
Kanao and Ozaki arrived in the early morning, with fireflies still fluttering over the rice paddies and streaks of orange in the sky. The shrine was in a neglected state and Kanao absentmindedly thought of how to clean it up properly, remembering her year-long sojourn as a makeshift miko.
The mountain meanwhile held a dense, unfriendly aura to it. One that would spark folklore and scary stories for generations for any traveler to share. The shadows and lack of birds, instead a hunger clung to the hills and seemed to slither through the trunks of the trees like miasma.
Very much a demon nesting ground, ridiculously obvious with no finesse whatsoever. At Douma made Paradise Faith look approachable, instead of flouting his presence so brazenly. They might as well put a sign at the edge of the path citing 'Man-eating demons beyond'.
So it was safe to say Kanao was not impressed. It was as if the demons were actively inviting Slayers to investigate their hunting grounds. Even Douma had more decorum and her father didn't really have much subtlety in the first place.
Maybe they were just stupid? A possibility. She also wasn't surprised the Hashira hadn't dealt with the obvious malicious mountain. Both due to the limited human resources, how the dozen had to patrol all of Japan, and the Corps in general not being too worried about the deaths of their members.
Ozaki just said she was being 'unkind' again when she voiced as such. Kanao didn't know why the other Slayer was so concerned about that. Life wasn't kind, humans even moreso.
The duo then made their way up into the mountain, Kanao not at all bothered by the gloomy visage of the forest. It was unlikely they would locate the demons in the daylight as they would have hidden themselves securely away, but it would give them a good chance to scout out the area for traps if there was an entire group of demons infesting the area. Which was odd in itself, as demons tended to be anti-social so it was possible this demon was forcing the others to obey it or even controlling them by proxy.
The forest of the mountain was incredibly dense so even in daylight there were very few bright clearings and beams of light able to make their way through the thick prickly leaves and ancient tree limbs. Kanao kept her movement light and cautious, knowing in desperate times demons would travel during overcast days and in a forest like this they could also be on alert due to how heavy the shadows were. Depending on the Blood Art they could also lay traps about on the trunks and roots.
Both girls agreed to this and so they began to move slowly and cautiously. Considering what Ozaki knew of the mountain a large amount of Slayers had died in the area already, so she did not protest Kanao's suggestion they focus largely upon reconnaissance and looking for traps and bait.
Kanao had lived in the mountains and she knew the natural signs of wildlife and the signs of people hunting. A lot of humans had died recently in the mountain, something Ozaki even picked up on even if Kanao scolded her for drawing her sword as they walked past a mummified corpse of a traveler slumped against a dark tree trunk.
"Only unsheathe your sword in a fight," she told the other girl, feeling as if she were lecturing her little brother. "Never out of fear or unease, only ever do so to engage an opponent."
Kokushibo would have smacked Ozaki about the ear for how undisciplined she was.
Ozaki at least looked abashed and sheathed her weapon at the scolding, even if Kanao remained annoyed with her tight anxious breathing that seemed overly loud in the still forest. Yet another thing, all native animals had fled the area due to the presence of multiple apex predators.
Perhaps a trap? Kanao would allow that if it were the case, the demons deliberately luring in people of the Corps to hunt them in a group. It was done haphazardly but did actually seem to be working for about half an hour of carefully scouting the area they came across dead Slayers.
There was a trio she didn't recognize, all in the basic dark uniforms and in various states of decay. She was unbothered by the smell, even if Ozaki was more concerned by it.
"The marrow has been sucked out," Kanao said as they inspected the shredded corpses.
Demons could have preferences after all. One looked freshly killed, within the last day at least, the others older, approaching a week.
Ozaki frowned, "Do you think it could be like the manju demon? How they were absorbing their blood in a non-violent manner?"
"Or one demon killed them first, ate the offal, and then the other came for scraps. If it is a group they most likely have a hierarchy. You can see the claw differences on the flesh. The one which ate the marrow had smaller claws. Most likely child sized."
Ozaki grimaced, obviously disliking the idea of a child demon. Or child sized one. Kanao just waited patiently for her to regain her composure then they continued.
Unfortunately the mountain was large and they only managed to hunt down one of the demons during daylight. Sleeping inside the hollow trunk of one of the ancient trees like an owl. It was one in the form of a young boy, pale from his hair to his kimono, with pale blue eyes and crimson dots on his face. Looking no older than seven but when Kanao tried to catch him with her chain his body burst into several dozen spiders and scurried about in an unnatural hissing swarm.
The fight was less threatening and more annoying that anything, with Ozaki slashing her blade at the spiders while Kanao swept her kusarigama back and forth like one wielding a scythe. The sunlight killed more, even with the sun setting there was enough a dozen went up in flames when they crossed the beams of light.
Even so it took them nearly ten minutes of running about to actually kill the demon, its body reverting back to a humanoid form when they killed enough of the spiders and Kanao then yanked it from the trunk with the chain of her weapon around its neck and beheading it.
"At least that is one less to bother people," Ozaki said, sheathing her sword as she checked the area.
"The rest will be on the hunt now," Kanao said, looking up to the dark skies. "It should make them easier to track down if they are coming out of hiding."
"Very well. Your eye sight is much keener than mine, Kanao-san, if you are comfortable in leading the way."
In the distance Kanao picked up extremely faint noises of combat but a sideways look at Ozaki let her know the other Slayer wasn't aware of it. Her senses most likely weren't as heightened as Kanao's own due to Concentration Breathing. Kanao felt no need to change their cautious pace and so said nothing.
They ended up passing some great silken cocoons hanging from a thick copse of trees, large enough a grown man could stand in them comfortably. Kanao's eyes narrowed as the duo looked up at the cluster, noting the texture and shape along with the webbing keeping them suspended. Kanao ended up jumping up to them in a single bound, severing the threads and letting one of the balls collapse onto the floor. It had a noticeably soft thud when it hit the ground.
Ozaki poked at it cautiously with her sword, before running her palm over it as they understood it wasn't a weapon itself. When they managed to open the cocoon, which had a spongy soft texture of threads that actually made it very good at absorbing blows, they found a half melted woman inside. Her body was started to liquefy in a gooey mess, the toxin having been secreted from the threads facing inward.
Kanao eyed the corpse while Ozaki struggled to keep her features even.
"That poor woman, she must have been alive when the fluids began to melt her," Ozaki muttered, looking up at the cluster high above. Nearly a dozen where hanging there like macabre fruit.
"There is nothing we can do here. The other cocoons are dead. Most likely for the demon to feed at its leisure."
"I...Hai, Kanao-san. We must move on. Perhaps we can find the one responsible."
As they continued their careful roaming of the mountain, heading more towards the mountain peak, they came across a river. In the night the water looked black, rushing fast and loud in the moon-lit clearing.
There was also evidence of a very recent fight, great gouges in the bank and several shattered trees that were still leaking sap. Kanao's sharp eyes followed the battle site, noting how the trees felled had been done by fists with the impacts still see in the cracked and splintered bark.
"We mustn't have been the only ones called in to aid," Ozaki observed. "It could be one of the Hashira"
Kanao didn't care enough to answer, instead she jumped over the river and followed the marks of fighting. Ozaki followed, occasionally muttering to herself as she speculated about the fight.
She was largely uninterested, until she went stiff as they found a large crater in the muddy bank. Kanao could tell a demon had been recently killed there, one particularly large and not quite humanoid, and had been responsible for broken trees. She also noted how they seemed to change size as the battle continued. An attempt to keep themselves alive? It clearly failed, whatever transformation it was.
But there was a glint in the moon light, next to the crater that got her attention. Scattered across the grass, left where it had shattered.
Broken sword blades, with the edges jagged like teeth.
"Those blades belong to my brother," Kanao said tersely as she stared down at them.
Ozaki winced, looking about the area quickly, "It's possible he broken them sawing through the demon head? If they're hooked like that...and the demon itself was large. If he's new to the Corps it's possible they broke because he lacked finesse in a true battle."
Logically Kanao knew Ozaki was correct. She also could not see any blood on the grass, regardless of how closely she looked around the area. Inosuke always treated his weapons hard, she simply assumed Corps weaponry would be more durable. Admittedly that wouldn't stop Inosuke from being capable of breaking them. Her brother was also strong even if he acted silly at times. It would make sense he would be brought here as well, if it was mission about reinforcements. They already could deduce he had killed the giant demon on his own, most likely getting over excited in fighting.
"You are most likely correct," Kanao allowed, ignoring the concerned way Ozaki was watching her.
"We'll find him," Ozaki said, going to touch Kanao's shoulder before thinking better of it.
They moved at a quicker pace after that, and shortly thereafter encountered two more of the demons. Both matching the overall look of the boy, even if they were both girls, being pale from hair to clothing with blue eyes and the crimson dots upon their faces.
The smaller one immediately transformed when the duo spotted the two Slayers, her limbs stretching unnaturally as her face split open into long sharp fangs. The older looking one jumped up into the trees, spitting poisoned darts at them from her tongue which was a blowpipe.
Kanao was trading blows with the transformed demon, which had her limbs split even more until it was nearly a dozen talons clawing at her as bristling white fur helped protect her back and neck from their slashes. Eventually Kanao managed to use her chain to bind the demon's limbs together like gathering rushes, and hacked at the neck with her sickle until she finally beheaded it. By then Ozaki had managed to jump up the tree, nearly falling off the branches including one that snapped under her weight, and grabbed the other demon by the leg and threw her down onto the ground.
The demon managed to scramble to her feet and dart out of the way as Ozaki landed where she had just been, but she wasn't quick enough to avoid Kanao's kusarigama and the blade slashed off her head in a blur of sunlit steel. The demon's head went bouncing even as she collapsed, beginning to sob and wail before her form vanished into flickers of ash.
Ozaki was breathing heavily, some of her hair having escaped her ponytail to flick over her sweaty forehead. She wiped at her brow before sheathing her sword, grimacing as she saw the various webs everywhere that housed dozens of human corpses in various states of decay. Many like the first trio they had found, torn open for the offal and marrow.
"They're spiders, or at least their abilities are," Ozaki muttered, expression pinched. "And they all look so similar...I wonder, is it possible for a demon to split itself into various individuals? Or have some type of hivemind? It could be why they look so similar."
"It is possible," Kanao allowed. "I have not seen a limit on demon Blood Art before."
"Either way we should continue, see if we can find your brother wherever he is here," she said.
Kanao nodded but then she looked over to Ozaki and frowned.
"You've been struck by the barbs," Kanao said, pointing to Ozaki's left arm.
The other Slayer cursed when she spotted it, the dart nearly the same length as her pinky finger jutting from the sleeve. When she pulled it out it immediately dissipated into smoke.
Kanao paused, even as Ozaki rolled up her arm sleeve and cursed at the mottled purple poison that was rapidly spreading from the puncture and already it was the size of her hand. Ozaki hissed through her teeth, quickly sitting down on the ground as she clenched her wrist tightly.
Kanao would rather be looking for Inosuke but had a feeling just killing Ozaki and moving on wouldn't be the wisest decision. There was still distant movements and faint noises of combat including the sound of trees toppling over, so the possibility of her being caught murdering a fellow Slayer was too high. She wasn't too sure what the rules were about abandoning them to their death. She hadn't really been given a rule book but figured it would be looked down upon.
Even so she went about helping Ozaki with her injury, as it seemed the poison worked as a paralytic. Ozaki also didn't know Concentration Breathing so Kanao found herself having to explain it tersely as the other girl tried to mimic her to help slow down the poison flow as Kanao cleaned the puncture area as it spread beneath Ozaki's skin. Kanao didn't know if the poison would stop her organs from functioning but it never hurt to be careful.
Of course she couldn't even aid one of her fellow Slayers without interference so Kanao slid one of the senbon from a pouch and flicked it across the area where it embedded into a tree trunk. Ozaki blinked, trying to follow Kanao's line of sight even with her movements growing ever more sluggish and slow as purple-tinted sweat slicked her brow.
Kanao just stared at the darkness of the trees before finally someone appeared from the shadows.
They were an incredibly petite woman, short and unassuming to anyone without knowledge, clad in the Slayer uniform yet with gold buttons and with a haori with crack-like patterns over it and the hems edged in pink and greens. Her hair was pulled back, secured with a butterfly broach, and her eyes were large and purple. Her expression was set in a false smile.
Something about the woman poked at the edge of Kanao's mind and she had to stop her instinctive reaction to respond violently. The woman was strong, Kanao could tell from her body alone. It didn't matter how diminutive she looked, one only got such a musculature from years of extensive training. A Hashira, no doubt.
"Hello there," the Slayer greeted them in a soft voice, raising a hand as her eyes curved into crescents. "I'm glad to see you both not dying like so many others right now. But it seems your companion has been poisoned. I can administer an antidote if you let me close."
"Kochou-sama," Ozaki managed to slur out, her eyes unfocused as the woman approached them on silent footsteps.
Kanao moved out of the way, watching as the Hashira checked over Ozaki's arm and studying the spreading poison with an analytical stare.
"Ah, I remember. You had a sprained wrist last time we met, didn't you? Ah, seems like you've fallen into a little bit more of a hassle here but not to worry," the Hashira smiled, the expression becoming sincere for the first time since she appeared.
She drew a syringe from her haori sleeves, moving with brisk efficiency as she slid it into Ozaki's wounded arm. The other Slayer grimaced faintly, her expression struggling to move, before it shifted into someone more lax after Shinobu finished pushing down the plunger.
"There, the Kasugai will be here soon to help move you to the hospital to recover fully," Kochou said, wiping the injection site and then binding it.
"Thank you..." Ozaki managed to say before she fell asleep. Most likely a sedative in the vial, Kanao concluded.
The Hashira stowed away her syringe, getting to her feet and looking up at Kanao. Her false smile was fully in place as she said, "Hello! You are entirely unharmed, aren't you? That's good to see. I am Kochou Shinobu, the Insect Hashira. And who might you be?"
"You remind me of my father," Kanao replied instead.
"Oh?" the Hashira tilted her head to the side. "That's strange. I've never had anyone compare me to their father before. How are we similar?"
"You both wear false smiles like a performers mask."
At that the Hashira's smile completely vanished, expression becoming serious as Kanao stared blandly at her.
They just stared at each other in silence as the minutes stretched, Ozaki asleep on the ground between them, before the harsh grating caw of a Kasugai crow caught their attention.
