Amare Flos (Demon Slayer)

Chapter 22: Awakening

A loud boom echoed through the isolated mountain. Birds flying out their nests, as the sound travelled in a loud wave. Splinters dug into Ali's back as he collided with a tree. The thin tree wailed a bit as its trunk cracked before completely breaking. The long tree came crashing down. Ali stood up and threw the tree off his shoulder. He felt the splinters pop out his back as his skin slowly repaired itself.

His eyes gazed at the demon. The demon's whole appearance was horrid, Its eyes were dark, its yellow toothy grin never disappeared. It was a light colour, it was very short standing at about 1.3 metres tall. A singular horn on its head, poking out like a disappointing bump. It looked weak, looked frail, however, it had a big punch. Ali felt the residue of pain in his chest, it was nothing too bad though. Ali sighed at the sight of the demon begging for a fight with Akaza.

"Come back tomorrow. He isn't here today." Ali restrained himself from fighting and slowly walked back up to the door of the dojo. Ali turned around to look at the demon

"But... I'm Akaza's eternal rival." The demon looked sad, its back hunched and tears fell out of its eyes. It started to wail, it dropped to its knees. As if it had just got the worst news ever. Ali cringed at the sight. He felt the need to reply.

"You're not even an Upper Moon. You sure you're Akaza's rival?" Ali asked, fully facing the demon, who seemed to stop sulking once it heard Ali speak.

"You rip off... Don't speak to me that way!" Its face all scrunched up in anger, it grabbed at the floor and leapt forward, covering a surprising amount of distance with its leap off the floor, it winded its arm back mid air aiming to hit Ali. There was one issue, the demon was very slow, Ali took a step backwards and hooked his fist right at the demon's face. The demon flew backwards. Its pride was hurt, a red lump had formed on its face. It touched the lump, immediately wincing at the pain. It looked up at Ali who still stood at the door, a glare looking down at the demon. The demon scrunched its face again.

"Rip off! Rip off! Just a rip off!" The demon screamed as it picked itself up and stomped its feet.

Ali was annoyed at the immaturity this demon showed. He hated how it was working too. The demon continued its sad chant, calling Ali a rip off. Everytime the demon opened it's mouth and let out its raspy voice, Ali's head hurt more and more with unbearable anger. He ignored it, he didn't want to let anger get to him. Ali turned the opposite way, turning the cold knob of the dojo. He looked back at the demon one last time. There was a silence of a moment, as if the demon had given up trying to anger Ali.

As Ali took his first step into the dojo, he heard the demon giggling. Turning back with an unamused look on his face, Ali stared at the demon.

"I get it now. You're weak. That's why you don't want to fight me. Right?" The demon cackled at Ali. This boiled Ali's blood even more, his entire body feeling hot. He desperately wanted to dash forward and smash the demon's head into the ground.

"Sun's about to come up. Wouldn't stay out for long." Ali thought as he ignored him and opened the door of the small house. As Ali closed the door, he was met with the interior. Ali punched the air so hard wind flowed throughout the room, moving the idle pages of books lying around. He took a deep breath, then the demon started it's chant again.
"Rip off! Rip off!"

There was one thing stopping him, fighting the demon at this very moment would come with no benefit, the demon would just run away and continue living. Ali didn't want that, the pages of the book he read stayed in his mind. He wanted to learn how to absorb demons like Upper Moon 1.

Ali went straight back to Muzan's book on demons, trying to find the page again. He was forced to look through the horrid amount of detail that Muzan put into this book. The topics varied, some were on Evolution as Demons, some were on Blood Demon Art. Lines and lines of useless information tormented Ali's eyes. Ali switched his strategy, and just closed the book and flipped to random pages.