We leave at dawn. The location of the real mission is a half day southwest of here, on the very edge of Shimabara Bay. I'll brief you on the way, don't keep me waiting.
-Kari
This was the note Shinobu found on her door when she was to head to sleep, and the instant she saw it, she tore it up.
She wouldn't dare speak to him after what he said about her sister.
"E-Erm, Lady Kocho?"
As she was about to head into her bedroom, she heard a new, feminine voice come from behind. She turned around and Umiki stood before her. The woman was much more well-kept than her husband, but the bags under her eyes were still apparent. She was as basic as they come, just like Sadao, with black hair tied up in a ponytail, standing only a few inches taller than the petite Insect Hashira.
"Yes, Umiki?" Shinobu replied. She wasn't in the mood for speaking in all honesty, she was still livid about Sakusa's statements about her sister, but she figured she could spare some words for the keeper of the house she was staying at.
"U-Uhm, we know we put your quarters right next to Master Kari's," The woman sputtered, "But we couldn't help but overhear your conversation with him, and we are more than happy to prepare another room for you if you'd like."
"Oh, no, no, that would be too much of a hassle for you two, please, enjoy the rest of your night~!" Shinobu replied with a smile. In reality though, she really wanted to be as far away from him as possible.
She thanked the tired woman for the offer, and bid her adieu, closing herself off in her room, alone with her thoughts.
She had a nightmare that night, the first in a long time.
Shinobu was back to her 14-year old self, holding her blade in her hands with her sister standing a dozen feet away from her, covered in cuts and scrapes, her butterfly haori torn to shreds.
She knew this moment all too well.
N-No!
In a split second, a silhouette shoved a bright golden fan right through her sister's chest, Kanae spewing blood out of her mouth as she stared at the young girl, her eyes wide open, refusing to blink.
Shinobu begged, pleaded, screamed for her legs to move, but they could not.
She tried to raise her sword, but her arms wouldn't budge either.
She had to watch as her sister collapsed to the ground before the figure, her clothes stained red and her face frozen in place as her life withered away.
STOP, STOP THIS, STOP SHOWING ME THIS, PLEASE!
Tears stung the young girl's eyes as her bottom lip quivered and her knees shook, mortified from the murder of her sister.
It was only when the figure turned to face her that she was pulled away from the horror, but the girl was left with an even more disturbing image in her mind,
The image of a grinning Sakusa, licking the blood of her sister off of a golden fan in his hand.
"-NO!"
Shinobu jolted upright, panting and sweating, her face contorted in terror. What....why did I dream that....I haven't had nightmares like that in forever.....
She tried to calm her breathing, but rather than calming herself down, the opposite happened. The butterfly girl felt tears crawl down her cheeks and she wept into her hands, whispering for Kanae.
"....sister.....w-why did you have to go......y-you know I miss you...."
"Bad dream, I'm assuming?"
"EEEP!" Shinobu yelped in fright when she saw the figure in the corner of her room, and when she turned on her bedside lantern, she felt a frown creep up onto her cheeks.
Sakusa was standing with his back against the wall, spinning a dagger in his hand with a large bag beside him, a scowl still on his face. "I said dawn, remember?" He groaned, "We're gone in ten, get dressed."
Shinobu had completely forgotten she was in nothing but a nightgown and instantly flushed red, covering herself with the covers with a whimper.
She took a glance back at the corner where she saw the crimson-tipped man, but was surprised when there was nobody there anymore. She hadn't even heard the door close, nor did she pick up on any presence around her.
Huh, that's odd....did I dream that too?
Deciding not to tempt fate and anger Sakusa even more, Shinobu got out of her bed, wrote a note of thanks for Sadao and Umiki, and got herself ready for more walking, her oh-so favorite passtime.
"Let's stop here."
Sakusa stopped his running abruptly alongside Shinobu at a clearing in the side road they were running on, and brought his hand across the shorter girl's chest, forcing her to a halt.
"I'll explain to you what I know as of now, got it?" The Rage Hashira said bluntly.
Shinobu put on her best smile and nodded, "Alright, Kari-san!"
Don't order me around like I'm your Tsuguko.....
She followed Sakusa as he took a seat down on the ground, and she knelt down herself in front of him with a blank expression.
She was caught off guard, however, when the crimson-tipped man with the eyepatch ruffled in his bag for a bit, and pulled out a bundle wrapped up by some thread, and handed it over to her.
"What is this, Kari-san?"
"Open it." He simply said.
Complying, Shinobu unraveled the thread and within the cloth was a sliver of meat, some bread, and a rice ball.
"Eat up. I didn't give you a chance to eat breakfast. I don't want a hungry understudy."
UNDERSTUDY?!
"With all due respect, Kari-san," Shinobu said with a vein popping out of her forehead, "I am most definitely not your understudy."
"But you are a liar."
"Huh??"
Sakusa refused to speak any more about his bold statement, instead unraveling a map that Shinobu didn't recognize.
Sensing her confusion, Sakusa rolled his eyes and groaned, "This is a map of the area surrounding Mt. Unzen, where the demons I discovered are."
"O-Oh, I see." She replied, feeling a little sheepish for not guessing that right away.
"All around this area, there are demons that I think are special." Sakusa continued, "They don't resemble like any others, and they're not as animalistic as the others tend to be."
"What do you think it could be then?" Shinobu tilted her head.
Sakusa, however, only shrugged. "I've got no idea." He pointed to the bay and said, "The trail goes cold right in this region."
Shinobu only made an "oh" sound in reply, completely unsure of what to make of this barren information.
"But, here's the thing as well."
Sakusa pulled out three other maps and lined them all up, all of them Shinobu could recognize. "These are all southern parts of Japan. Kagoshima, Miyazaki coast and- Hiroshima?"
"Yeah, but look here."
Sakusa pointed to different regions of the maps which were marked in red. "Each and every point I placed is where I managed to kill one of these different demons."
Shinobu furrowed her eyebrows as the boy continued, "These demons stretch all the way from Shimabara Bay, right up to the city of Oita. They've gone from Nagasaki, all the way up to Hiroshima. I've only been trailing these things for a week, how could they have gone so far in such little time?"
"It's not like demons to migrate," Shinobu agreed, "However, they can be pushed to move closer to major cities in search of food."
"Yeah, but the thing is, I don't think that it's the demons searching for food."
"What do you mean?"
Before Shinobu could resist, Sakusa grabbed her by the wrist, snatched his bag, and ran into the treeline beside their pathways.
Who does this guy think he is?! Shinobu scowled to herself, Let go of me, you pervert!
Just as Shinobu was about to pull back, however, Sakusa stopped.
"This looks like a good enough place."
He turned to face the young girl with a serious expression, and said, "What I'm about to show you stays between us. You understand me, brat?"
Don't call me brat, I'm only two years younger than you....
"I understand, Kari-san." Shinobu replied simply.
Reaching back into a pocket of his bag, he pulled out four more bundles tied by threads, each about the size of a fist.
"Now, listen to me very carefully." Sakusa said with a harsh tone, "I marked these things by the location I got them."
Shinobu was handed them, and on the bundles was a certain insignia corresponding with the rough sketch of the maps she had just seen.
"So, this one would be Kagoshima, this one would be Miyazaki coast, this one's Hiroshima and this one's Nagasaki?"
"Good, you're not completely hopeless." Sakusa scoffed. Shinobu was getting tired of his backhanded comments at this point, and it showed through the veins on her forehead.
"Open them."
Shinobu did as she was told, but when she did, her heart stopped.
She knew what she was holding in her hands.
In her hands were mounds of black flesh, unmistakably that of a demon's. They were all gaping mouths, lined with scarily human-like teeth, with puffy, purple lips and a black, abyssal cavern hidden behind the mouths.
W-....What are these.....
"I had to yank you away from the sunlight," Sakusa pointed up to the trees above, "These trees are stopping those from disintegrating."
Shinobu's eyes shot open.
What.....what is this.....
"I found these exact same organs on four different demons, in completely different areas across southern Japan." Sakusa spat, "The demons' appearances were all different, but after every encounter with them, I found this exact same organ somewhere on their body. They didn't look the same, but their genetics were identical."
No way......Shinobu gasped.
"Kari-san, could this be...."
The crimson-tipped man nodded his head grimly, his eyebrows furrowing and his scowl growing in size. "Either that piece of shit Muzan is getting less creative with his Blood Demon Arts, or...."
"We've got our first ever case of a widespread colony of demons across the nation."
Four hours later, Shinobu and Sakusa had arrived.
"Here we are, brat. Shimabara Bay."
It was a sight to behold for the butterfly girl beside him.
Not the largest of cities, nothing like Tokyo, but even still, the midday glow of the sun on the city of Shimabara was breathtaking. Rows upon rows of buildings, homes and statues alike surrounded the coastline, with the residents and children all spending their time having fun down at the bay. The water itself was glistening under the sunlight, casting a beautiful shine across the city. The springtime weather blew the trees surrounding the city in many varying ways, the leaves and branches swaying like a dance in the breeze. In the distance within the water she could see a gorgeous archipelago of five smaller islands within the bay, each one about the size of Shimabara itself, lined with thick trees, luscious vines and unique colours of flowers sprinkled across the land.
The city itself reminded Shinobu of a mixture between Tokyo and the Red Light District, but the bay water was unlike anything she had ever had the blessing of witnessing.
It brought a genuine smile to her face, unlike the false ones she loved to put on.
Until, Sakusa decided to ruin it by beginning to strip himself down in front of her.
"H-Huh? Kari-san, what are you doing?" Shinobu blurted out, covering her eyes immediately.
"Shimabara doesn't have a wisteria house, and I don't want any homeless shits coming at me, asking for money." Sakusa bluntly replied as he shoved his haori into his bag and unbuckled his belts, "Which is why I'm putting my blades away and keeping my expensive clothes out of view."
He motioned towards a bush behind her with his chin and said, "Go do the same back there, brat."
I am not stripping down when you could easily peek over the bush, you sick pervert!
"E-Erm, I think I'll just hide my blade, thank you." Shinobu replied in actuality, "I'd rather not undress in the company of another man~."
"Tch, whatever...." Sakusa turned himself around, mumbling under his breath, "It's not like there's anything to show....."
EXCUSE ME?!
Shinobu was handed a beige haori to replace with her elegant patterned one, and Sakusa simply wrapped himself in a cloth and tucked it into his pants. The butterfly girl did notice, however, that he took extra precautions to conceal the tattoos around his arms, wrapping bandages around them both.
"Uhm, Kari-san?" She tapped on the boy's shoulder as they walked down towards the city, "Why did you bandage up the stripes around your arm."
"Because they're recognizable, obviously." Sakusa replied coldly, "They're a trademark way to tell if someone's a Kari family member, and because the Kari are closely related to demon slayers, we'd get caught out."
"Wait, Kari-san, are we concealing our identities?" Shinobu tilted her head.
"Ugh, obviously, it's in case the demons are hiding in broad daylight in abandoned houses. They can watch us from there without exposing themselves to sunlight."
Sakusa refused to speak any longer to Shinobu, instead walking faster away from her, shaking his head.
Tch, this guy's completely different to Rengoku, Tomioka and Himejima, Shinobu grumbled to herself, How can one boy be so irritating, I expected cocky, arrogant and headstrong from a Hashira not even 20 years old already having over 250 demons killed, but this man is infuriating to be around....
Shinobu kept her distance from the boy as they walked, shooting daggers and firing unspeakable insults at his head as they walked down the hill towards the rest of the village.
A few dozen minutes passed, and as the duo walked through the streets of Shimabara, Shinobu couldn't help but feel like there were eyes all around her peering into her soul.
What is this feeling......I feel so cold.....
She snook glances all around her, and sure enough, she found the source of her chills.
Eyes, dozens of pairs, belonging to every person on the street, in their homes, peering through windows, were all concentrated on her, their pupils as small as could be.
Tch, the hell are they all looking at...
She tried to act unbothered, but when she walked by a mother and her baby, and the little infant darted its head right towards her in a split second, she got spooked.
The butterfly girl, even if she didn't want to, ended up jogging up right next to Sakusa. She could feel herself growing flustered just from their close proximity, something she cursed herself for.
S-Stop getting hot, Shinobu, you have no reason to be embarrassed, you're just sticking close to your partner.....
"Kari-san," Shinobu tapped the boy's shoulder with an innocent smile, "Where are we going~?
"A hotel, if I can fucking find it! This stupid map is completely useless!"
The butterfly girl flinched in surprise when the boy let out a frustrated growl and tore up the map he was holding in his hands, before screaming like an animal and stomping on the shreds of paper like a child having a tantrum.
Shinobu couldn't help let out a giggle. "Kari-san, it's just a paper~"
"Shut up, brat, or I'll tear your tits off!"
Oi. You tell me I have no breasts, and then threaten to rip them off. Pick a side, asshole.
"My, my, someone's cranky~!" Shinobu chimed back sarcastically, relishing the shocked look on Sakusa's face when he jerked his head towards her.
"The fuck you say to me?!"
"Oh, I was just commenting on your temper, Kari-san, I meant no harm at all~"
Shinobu's cocky smile wider and wider as they bickered back and forth in the middle of the street, until they were stopped by a voice from her right.
"Hello, are you looking for a place to stay?"
Two Hashira turned their heads in unison towards the owner of a voice, a medium-sized old woman with big hair poofing up on her head, with horrifyingly shitty makeup done on her face.
That woman looks like a sandbag with lipstick on.....
Shinobu cleared her throat and replied, "Yes, we are, actually!"
"Ah, I see, might I ask why you two are bickering so?" The woman asked, "It's not right for young ones such as yourself to envelop yourselves in petty disputes at such an age, you'll get wrinkles before you've even found a husband!"
"Speaking of husbands...."
Shinobu's eyes shot open when she felt a pair of hands wrap around her waist, as the Rage Hashira she was mentally screaming at plopped his chin on the top of her head with a smile, and said,
"I'm actually her own! This is my fiancée, Shinobu Kocho!"
W H A A A A A A A T ? !