As Things Should Be

- 29 - Rage

(gore warning from here on and out. Demons are going to be fighting and they get creative with their attacks)

If it was anyone's fault, blame the crow. 

Akaza and the weird kid of a hashira, Muichiro Tokito had finished up their missions pretty easily. The ex-Upper-Three couldn't lie, the kid was incredible. His form was flawless, and his technique refines; his scathing judgments kind of sealed the deal. He was Akaza's third favorite hashira. Kyojuro and Kanae still took the top spots, but Muichiro was definitely more than first impressions.

The glares? The snicker? The dead-pan look on the kid's face when he killed those demons, what had he said? Something along the lines of; "Damn, you really are all boring."

Priceless. Akaza would pay for the chance to know what those demons' final thoughts had been. He'd be impressed if the kid's victims felt anything other than complete shame as their ego was eradicated by a forgetful fourteen-year-old with a sword and an attitude.

So, to digress, the mission had been great. They walked in silence, Akaza's face curled into a smug grin as he replayed the sass he'd witnessed over and over in his mind. Muichiro had that far-off look as he walked, completely zoned out, occasionally kicking a stone down the road.

It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, just a natural one. Then a crow screamed above them and their peaceful night ended abruptly.

"Emergency! Emergency!!" Its voice grated against the silence and set every muscle in Akaza's body tensing. 

Muichiro looked up slowly, expressionless as the crow dove for them.

"Is that yours?" Akaza asked.

"I don't remember," Muichiro shrugged and Akaza couldn't help but chuckle.

"Zekka reporting! The stone pillar Gyomei and the demon Doma have been trapped! Emergency! Emergency!!" He flapped around their heads like an insect and Akaza swallowed his instinct to smack the thing out of the air.

"Doma? Trapped? In what, a moral crisis?" Akaza snickered. 

"Hurry! Hurry!" Zekka pulled on his hair and something settled uncomfortably in Akaza's gut.

"What's happened?" he asked as he gently batted the ball of feathers off his already messy hair. Just because he couldn't feel the pain didn't mean he liked the idea of some bird pulling his pink strands out.

"Emergency! They are trapped! Require immediate assistance!" the crow cried desperately, flapping in Akaza's face. The demon felt his throat grow a bit dryer.

"What happened?" He asked, his voice snapping against the air.

"Follow! Follow!" Zekka cried as he took off into the night skies.

"Come on, kid," Akaza murmured. "Something's off."

"No shit," Muichiro muttered evenly. Akaza would've laughed if his gut wasn't coiling uncomfortably.

That was how his relatively easy mission turned into hell. That was how he found himself stumbling on an abandoned village, finding a pathetic demon writhing on a very familiar pillar of ice.

"What happened here?" Akaza would admit it, he growled as he towered over the insect of a demon who was skewered through her torso, the ice on the other side stained a hideous red. She was quivering at his presence, her bloodless skin growing somehow paler as she realized she was completely powerless.

"You - I didn't... please -" she begged. "I don't want to die! This is unfair!"

"Where the hell is Ex-Upper Two?" Akaza snarled, leaning in closer.