|| This Realm || Giyuu x reader

Chapter 22

I felt a gentle shake at my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Cheesestick curled up in front of me. Yawning i sat up and looked around. It was dark out with the exception of the lantern's soft light.

Turning over i see Giyu standing up by my side, looking down at me with a soft expression.

"We're starting patrol soon, i bought some food right now to eat before we head out." He put the bowl of soup in my hands, a spoon rested on top of it. In his own hands was another bowl of soup, presumably for himself. I wasn't sure if Cheesestick could eat this as i didn't even know what was in the soup so i'd buy him some raw fish and vegetables later.

I smiled at Giyu, "Thank you Tomioka."

He nodded and sat next to me on the bed. We ate our soup in silence. It was pretty fucking good to be honest. Could've probably used a bit more salt but it was fine. Plus this wasn't America so i didn't have to worry about some mystery meat surprise in the food.

Once we finished our food we set the bowls on the night stand and got up. I grabbed my sword and clipped it onto my belt. Giyu was waiting at the door for me.

We left the room and walked down the halls of the hotel. "Did you see any activity outside? In terms of the people not demons." I said to Giyu.

"Not much, mainly just drunks hopping bars or going home."

"Alright good. Either way let's try to keep a low profile." Giyu nodded in agreement. We reached a side exit for tenants of the hotel and decided it was best to leave through that way. Walking through the lobby with our swords would not be a good idea and we'd draw more attention to ourselves.

We exited onto an alley way and started walking down a random street. We didn't bother splitting up considering the lack of evidence for any sort of demon feasting here. Either way though we kept our guard up as we walked down the lit streets.

Just as Giyu had said, there were a few groups of people here and there that looked clearly drunk. The bars were lively though unlike the rest of the buildings. Lanterns lit the streets for those stumbling around. As we passed each bar, loud music could be heard from inside. It would be muffled till some patron opened the doors to exit.

Strangely though it was relaxing. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. A lot of happy drunks, some sad drunks and very few angry drunks. Their friends kept them in line though thankfully. If we had been here under different circumstances i would've invited Giyu to a drink. Getting drunk on the job is shitty though, i'm not about to pull a Shinjuro.

"Everything seems fine. I don't think we need to patrol much longer. If a demon wanted to eat someone it would've happened already."

Giyu nodded, "Agreed, i've been listening in on conversations we've passed since arriving and there's no talk of disappearances."

"I guess this town is clear then." I looked around at the surroundings, double checking to be in the clear.

"Let's head a bit farther out, if we find nothing then we can go back."

"Alright good, i don't feel very comfortable leaving Cheesestick alone like that."

We walled down darker alleyways and reached neighborhoods further from the main festivities. The streets were dimly lit now and it was mostly silent with the exception of crickets. We heard some voices in the distance to our left and decided to go check on it.

The voices grew louder as we walked and soon we could make out slurred words coming from a group of men. They were clearly drunk, their faces red from the alcohol. They were stumbling over each other, daring to trip and fall on their faces.