KOROSU-HITO: the one who kills

No. I'm not a demon slayer. Never was and positive that never will be. But last night, I did slay a demon. And it was way easier than I thought.

Today is a very hot and sunny day. For some reason I find it a bit ironic. The sun that was burning a demon just a couple of hours ago was now mercilessly doing the same to me. And I didn't even grab a hat in the middle of summer. I guess my thoughts were too occupied by the demon I to had slay that night. Won't repeat that mistake again. Not that I was planning on slaying any more demons in the summer heat, but who knows where my path will take me in the future. It did take me here, didn't it?

I sighed, wiping the sweat off my forehead. My skin was boiling to the touch. Bad sign. Also, the fact that my hair and clothes were jet-black didn't help at all.

God, I thought I was going to die while fighting a demon, not on the way back. Well, that actually could be just my luck.

I should probably tell a bit about myself, even though I don't do that often, and how I ended up face to face with a demon. My name is Akari Kamiyama, but I go by Korosu-Hito – the one who kills. That's how they address me at work. I'm pretty sure no one knows my real name besides myself. I often repeat it in my head, so I won't forget it by accident.

As I mentioned earlier, my hair is black. It's cut short like a boys' hair. That way they take me more seriously. No one knows my gender, but they all assume I'm a man, which gives me somewhat of an advantage. My height and quite a muscular body help a lot in that department. My eyes are a greenish-yellow colour and for that reason some people call me Hebi – snake.

I wouldn't say have a lot of scars, but compared to a normal person who has none – I do have quite many. None on my face, though, which I even find a bit upsetting. That would instantly make me look less feminine.

Sorry, I've been teasing and hinting about my mysterious job but still haven't fully introduced myself. I'm sort of a... well, why "sort of"? I am I hitwoman. I've been one for the past six and I half years. Since I was sixteen. And today, well, yesterday I was to kill my first none-human. A demon. Not gonna lie, I was scared shitless, but it wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe that specific demon was weak, or maybe people exaggerate their strength. The only thing I had to do was dismember it, pin it to a tree and wait till dawn. Easy. I sweat then less than now, in the burning sun.

Speaking of, why is it so hot? At first, I thought it's just a heated day, but this isn't normal, is it? I feel like I'm about to faint. My blood is pumping so loud in my ears, I can hear nothing but ringing.

Suddenly, I felt an abrupt pain in my head, which gradually started spreading throughout my whole body. My limbs began to feel weak.

What's... happening?..

I automatically reached for my sward but couldn't even touch it before falling to the ground and losing consciousness.

****

"Oh my god! What if he's dead? What are we going to do then? I can't hear his heartbeat! They're gonna think we did it and lock us up! Oh, what do we do? We gotta get away from here before someone finds us, or we're do-o-omed!"

"Hold on, Zenitsu, we have to try waking him up first. I can sense a faded smell of a demon, though not a strong one. Could it be the demon we're looking for? He probably got poisoned, since there aren't any big visible wounds, which checks out."

"Oh, come on, I don't have time for this. We have an actual demon to slay, why waste time on some weird man lying in the woods? If you really want to try and wake him up, I have a much more effective way."

"No, Inosuke, wait..."

I wasn't even fully awake, yet my body moved so fast and swift. I, without even fully realising, dodged a kick right into my side, spinning around on my back. The person kicking me didn't expect that at all and collapsed on the ground right beside me.

Finally, I opened my eyes. A weird looking face appeared before me. His eyes were on his chin, mouth on the forehead. He was bold and had a red beard. Also, he had a weird-shaped scar or birthmark on his chin besides his eyes. Then I realised, that his face was upside down. The boy smiled at me from above. He looked very young.

My head still felt light, so it took me a couple of seconds to realise what was happening.

"Hey, get back here you cheater! Get back and fight me without your sly moves!"

I moved my foggy gaze to the left, to see a... boar-headed someone without a shirt but with two weird-looking swards in each hand. He seemed really pissed.

"Excuse me?" At first, I thought my poisoned brain started creating preternatural images, presenting them as reality, but it looked too legitimate.

"You heard me, random man in black! Fi..." to everybody's great disappointment, the boar-headed guy got rudely and very unreasonably interrupted.

"Inosuke! No one is fighting anyone. We've talked through this already. You..." but now it was my turn to interrupt rudely and very unreasonably. I stood up quickly, picking up my sward, and turned to the boy with the scar.

"Look, it's very cute how you care for me and stuff, and I am grateful in a way, but I need to be somewhere right now. Money is on stake, so I'm going to head ou..." Karma really is a bitch. This time – I was the one rudely and very unreasonably interrupted. By a strong wave of sickness.

Quickly turning away from the boy, I vomited right on the boar head, who's owner was just about to punch me. Turned out, that the guy wasn't that tall either. Approximately the same size as the red boy. The boar head added a couple of inches, but I was still half-a-head taller than him.

There was a second of silence while I was trying to get myself together and the boar-head was processing what just happened.

"How dare you!?" the guy practically squealed.

He quickly took off the boar head, but the only thing I could make out was something blue.

Does he have blue hair? Why do these kids have such weird hair colours?

My vision became blurry, and I felt even dizzier than before. All the sounds got drowned out by this weird noise and ringing inside my head. As I started falling, pointlessly trying to grasp on to air with my free hand, I felt someone's arms around me. From the unclear shape above me I assumed that the boy with red hair caught me just in time.

Wow. He's quite fast and strong for a twelve-year-old.

This was the last thought that ran through my mind before blacking out again.