As Things Should Be

-27- Fear

The first night was cold, not temperature-wise but just in how Doma felt. The outside world seemed to lose its shine when he had no one to share it with. Well, not no one but Gyomei wasn't exactly the warming presence Doma had grown used to. He was stoic, firm in his ways and his style; Doma was pretty sure he knew the type.

At first, it was nothing but each watching the other. Doma tried to get a feel for how far Gyomei wanted him to intervene, how comfortable he was with demon arts. It seemed he didn't have to intervene much at all. As the days went by, he grew used to the demon slayer's presence, his methods, and his terrifying efficiency.

The mission was to investigate a supposed 'nest' of demons. Four slayers had gone in; of high ranks, not yet hashira, but only two steps below. None had come back. The crows had vanished too which was also worrisome.

They were walking in blind. Doma wasn't necessarily concerned that they wouldn't be able to handle it, just off-put that there was no information. It could be a group on the same power level as Rui's family, in which case Doma could destroy them all with ease. Or...

Or it could be Upper Moons. It could be Muzan himself.

"You're unwell," Gyomei observed as the crow above them called out how close they were to their destination.

An abandoned town, just a bit off the road. It smelled of moss and organic decay. There was no suffocating assault of coppery blood and steel.

"Unwell?" Doma echoed, staring at the shadowed houses in the starry light. It was a new moon tonight and so the world was at its darkest, but the stars were brilliant.

"Tense." The stone Pillar looked at him with neither concern nor judgment, he was... for the lack of a better term, stone-faced.

"I'm... I don't know what I am," Doma answered honestly. Nervous? No, he was confident that whatever it was wouldn't be enough to kill him. Wary? of what? No... he was just unsettled. And he couldn't figure out why.

"It's normal before a conflict," Gypomei soothed. "I myself feel uneasy, especially since we know so little. It is that caution that keeps us alive, I assume it would be similar for a demon."

Doma managed a heartless laugh; "You'd be surprised."

"Are you not usually nervous?"

"Oh - no, I feel like I'm always nervous now," Doma denied, watching the crow above carefully as the bird flew ahead to scout. "It feels like I'm nothing but worried now. I never used to be."

"Is that a bad thing?" Gyomei asked it warily as he took heavier strides towards the town, readying his weapon.

"Not at all," Doma denied quickly. "It's just... never easy to get used to."

To that, Gyomei did laugh. "No... no, it doesn't."

Then, the stone pillar froze, tilting his head to better listen to something. Doma froze as well, moving nothing as he let the hashira listen. Without a heartbeat or the need to breathe, the silence around him stretched out wide and far. 

There was no wind. The crickets hummed at a distance... but nothing else disturbed the night. Gyomei's heartbeat echoed in Doma's ears as well as the controlled, deep breathing of the hashira, but the rest of the night was dead silent.

"Strange..." Gyomei murmured after a long moment.

"What?" Doma asked softly.

"I thought I heard someone playing an instrument," Gyomei explained. "A shamisen, perhaps? No... "

"Was it a demon?" Doma asked, the air growing frigid as it left his lungs, his body readying for a fight.

"I am not sure... I hear nothing now."