Hello there, everyone!
Sorry for the lack of uploads for this story, and I guess for all the others, I'm just making sure that every chapter I write is the best it can be, I wouldn't want to write half-assed chapters for you wonderful people.
I hope you enjoy this one! This is where things start to get a little more interesting, I had lots of fun writing so I hope you have lots of fun reading it.
Don't be afraid to be completely honest with your opinion for this chapter in the comments, I would love to improve even more!
Kisses!
I'll see you in the next one!
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"Have you found what I asked for?" Questioned Muzan, heading straight to the point.
"As per your request, Master Muzan, I contacted your 'associate' and secured a sample of the Legion's Blue Cornflower." Aikyou pulled the flower from her beautiful, deep purple, flowery kimono. Even after a few days since she acquired the flower, it seemed to be in perfect condition, not at all damaged by time. She handed the flower over to Muzan, who despite his cold demeanor, he could see the flower had something special about it.
"Did my associate tell you anything about it? How this 'Legion' uses it?" He wondered as he looked at the flower.
"Only one thing, Master Muzan." Aikyou continued as she bowed down addressing the Demon. "They used the flower in order to fight the Vampires. He said the flower has some sort of 'power' which gives them an advantage over the Vampires. He also said the Vampires often use the flower as some sort of 'camouflage' from the sun, if only for a limited time."
"Hmm." Hummed Muzan. "That remains to be seen. I will start my research on it immediately. You did a good job."
"Thank you, Master Muzan." She added a little finesse as she bowed yet again.
"You didn't run into any trouble I hope?"
For a second, she hesitated. But as the certainty that the only "trouble" she went through was already dead by now from the wounds, she had nothing to fear.
"Nothing I couldn't handle. The mission went smoothly."
"Are you sure... Aikyou?"
Muzan's words sent a chilling sensation down her spine as she stiffened almost immediately out of fear.
"I've been informed a 'strangely dressed' foreigner armed with a sword has just yesterday. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it, would you?"
"M-Master Muzan, I-" Aikyou tried to voice her words, but she knew they were irrelevant.
"It shouldn't matter." Muzan continued. "I'm sure that won't hinder my plans." He got up from his comfy chair. "Besides... I already have someone making sure it doesn't."
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It took a while to get used to the new place. Ulrich knew his land like the back of his hand from all the training, all the years of hunting Vampires everywhere. At the dead of the night was when he walked around, searching for clues, as he knew better than anyone that it is during the night that the Vampires, or now Demons, come out to fight.
Knowing he wouldn't find much in the city, since the busy streets would lower the chances of an attack severely, he walked through back roads, alleys, places where an ambush would be perfect, and still he found nothing.
It has been a few days since he started searching for thay symbol, but he couldn't find it anywhere, the city looked like a maze in his eyes. It was time to try something new.
Ulrich walked away from the city, into the dirt roads within the darkness of the forest, he may as well wear a sign over his head saying "attack me", but that was exactly the point of his plan. Since he can't find his enemies, he'll make his enemies find him instead.
It was an eerie ambient, he could barely hear the sounds of the crickets and the noises of the forest, only the sound of his steps hitting the dirt.
Something watched him from afar, white shining eyes within the darkness, every step he took, every movement of his body. He was prey in their eyes.
Ulrich reached what seemed to be an abandoned home, much like the other buildings he saw in the city, it seemed to his eyes to be made of paper. He opened the sliding door and made his way in. It looked completely empty, devoid of any signs of life from the amount of dust it had gathered.
Suddenly, he looked straight ahead, feeling those old goosebumps from his special sense yelling about the incoming danger.
Finally, the silence was broken by his voice.
"You think you're the first one sent to kill me, or the hundredth?"
The figure in the darkness gasped in surprise.
"Demon Blood Art - Grasping Thorns!"
Suddenly, the house was pierced by a dozen spiked thorns surrounding Ulrich.
In a swift move, he brandished his sword, slicing the thorns while turning around to face his opponent.
A pale skinned, short, white-haired Demon, with a pair of white horns protruding from her forehead, two red, horizontal lines below each eye. Dark red sclera surround ber white-gray eyes with the kanji written "lower four." She wears a plain, red kimono with a black fur collar.
She proceeded to attack Ulrich with a blade made of the same thorns that once tried to kill him, but Ulrich had no trouble blocking her attack using his sword.
"I'm glad you found me. I'm new here, so I'd like to ask some questions!" said Ulrich as he stared into her eyes.
Gritting her teeth, doing her best to overpower the hunter, she didn't answer. Trying another sneak attack with her thorns, this time from a blind spot, there was no way a mere commoner with no Demon Slayer training could avoid it. It was an easy kill, an easy meal.
When Ulrich dodged the incoming thorns in the last second, breaking away from the Demon.
She was taken back, gaping in surprise. That guy had nothing special about him. He was no Hashira, yet he was more than a match to her physical prowess as well as her Blood Demon Art.
After all those years of using such technique, nobody had ever avoided her Grasping Thorns, much less in a confined space, with only a SINGLE move of his sword. And now he avoided an attack from a point where she considered a blind spot.
Just who is this guy? She thought.
Every other hunt was so much easier. Her prey never fought back. All the sweet people from the villages who never even lifted a hand to defend themselves.
"I'm in a bad mood tonight, so I'm gonna take it easy with you." Ulrich cracked his neck menacingly, under the light of the full moon behind his back, peeping through the cracks in the walls.
His blue eye looked like something out of this world. She could see that from where his other eye used to be, it was almost like a flame burned through it as he approached.
"Are you going to talk?"
"T-This is no ordinary man!" She thought. "He's... he can't be a Demon Slayer? Just who is this freak?! I have to run!"
Quickly, she got up, ready to run away. But with a quick bolt from his crossbow, Ulrich hit her left hand, sticking it to the wall. He jumped straight to it, piercing her arm with his blade, keeping the Demon from running away.
She screamed in fear as she saw her arm stuck to the wall, and the hunter glared, almost through her.
"If you're not gonna talk, then allow me to introduce myself! Tell your Master or whomever you serve that they face a HUNTER, not prey! Tell them to remember my name! Ulrich. Von. Liechtenstein!"
Ulrich slammed the door shut, chopping the Demon's arm off.
The Demon immediately ran away, sweating buckets out of fear alone, it even delayed her regeneration, for when she glanced back even if for a second, all she could see was her own, gruesome death at the hands of that man. He was no Hashira, but for her, he sure felt like one.
Back in the abandoned house, Ulrich reached into his pocket, grabbing a small glass tube, which he used to collect the blood from his blade and crossbow bolt.
"Hmm." He looked at it closely. "This might be useful."
After that, he walked back to the city, to once more try and find that symbol.
It took a while longer to return, since he also tried to track down the Demon that ran away, but if there was one thing she was good at, it was running away, leaving little to no clues to follow.
As he returned, it was already late at night, most people were already either home or getting there.
He walked through the now empty streets, making a little easier to look around for the symbol on the doors and walls.
When suddenly, he heard a woman screaming in the distance, something he unfortunately had heard before in his line of work. Brandishing his sword and running toward the screams he ran.
He reached a back alley, a little far from the residential area of the city. There he found the girl wearing a simple geay kimono. She had black hair tied in a bun, green eyes. She screamed as a tall, muscular man dragged her. He had a weird hair, mangled in what looked like lumps of flesh.
"Hey, you! Let her go!" Demanded the hunter, pointing his blade at the monster.
As the Demon looked back, his face was distorted, literally upside down. The Demon growled at him, dashing towards the hunters with rage in his orange eyes.
"Flame Blessing -" Ulrich whispered as the monster used his free hand to attack.
Ulrich ducked, avoiding his punch, bringing his sword in a upwards slice, cutting the Demon's arm and freeing the girl.
"Get outta here! Go!" He ordered, and the girl ran away.
Ulrich turned back to face the Demon again. The Demon tried to punch him again, this time Ulrich deflected his attack downward with one hand, and with his free hand he sliced the head of the monster clean off.
Sure of his victory, he didn't even look back. He simply lit up one of his oil bombs and threw it at the body of the monster.
Only then it hit him, it wasn't a Vampire he was fighting!
He dodged the attack in the nick of the time, the Demon only managed to snatch a piece of his cape.
"Son of a-" Ulrich brandished his sword again as the Demon roared. It simply grabbed its head from the ground and attached it again. "How do I kill one of these things?"
"Strange Looking Man! We meet again!" Said a voice. "Nice job!"
A voice Ulrich heard a few days ago, from that food stand.
He looked back, and there he stood, the man with the yellow-orange hair and the flaming cape.
"Flame Breathing - First Form!" The man dashed forward with an incredible speed, passing by Ulrich and aiming his sword at the Demon, straight to his neck. "Unknowing Fire!"
The Demon's head was chopped off in an instant, and this time, it stayed dead, as its body literally exploded in a magnificent show of swordsmanship.
The man elegantly swung his sword to the side to get rid of the blood in his blade, then elegantly, almost in a ceremonial way, sheathed his sword again. He then looked back, a big, tense smile on his face, staring at Ulrich.
Ulrich had no words besides...
"Who...what are you?"
<====TO BE CONTINUED ====