Akuma examined her finished armor with satisfaction.
She lifted her arm to test how far she would be able to move, and the gleaming bronze plates lifted easily with her, gliding through the air like a well-oiled machine. She walked in a circle, testing the balance. She stomped her feet, did jumping jacks, sat down, stood up, and was about to reach for her kyoketsu shoge to try training in it when Kasai walked in.
"Hey, that doesn't look to bad," Kasai admitted. "Can you move around?"
"So far, I haven't come across any problems," Akuma said, "but I think the real test will be wearing it on a mission."
"True, true . . ." Kasai walked closer, and carefully touched the metal on Akuma's shoulder. "Wow. You sure this is your first time forging? 'Cause, seriously, this is good." She added the last part with a hint of jealousy.
"Yeah, it is," Akuma lied. Honestly, she didn't remember ever learning to forge, didn't remember forging even once in her life. But when she said that she didn't, it felt like a lie. And still, when she was forging, she felt like she knew how to forge, though she shouldn't have - she couldn't have.
"You must have magical powers or something," Kasai added sulkily. "You know what happened to my first armor? It fell apart when I tried to put it on . . ." She was talking more to herself, now, walking slowly away, stroking her katana for comfort.
Suddenly Akuma had an idea. "I know how to test this! You want to spar with me, Kasai?"
Kasai spun around, a grin on her face. "Do I?"
"Is that I yes or a no?"
"A no."
"But -"
"Kidding," Kasai sang. "It's a yes. C'mon, let's get there before Yuri decides it's time to train."
Akuma narrowed her eyes. "What's wrong with Yuri training with us?"
"You've never seen her train?" Kasai asked. "Well, let's just say . . . there's custard involved. And all her stuffed animals like to watch."
"Um . . . okay?" Akuma decided not to press for details as they headed off towards the arena.
~~~
"Sureiyazu!" Aya called from the front room. Three girls came dashing down the stairs.
"Ooh - ooh - is there a demon to slay?" Yuri asked perkily.
"I think so," Aya replied, nodding. "This young woman was telling me about what has been happening in her village, which is a few days from here." She gestured to a teenager standing next to her, who was looking awkwardly around the room.
"So what's happening?" Akuma asked.
Aya continued, "There have been strings of mysterious disappearances in her area. One of them was her brother, who she cares very deeply about."
"Seems like something a demon would do," Kasai agreed. "But why do we have to do it? It's so far away -"
"That would be because, as she explained, the other demonslayers who tried to find the source of the disappearances disappeared mysteriously as well. That would include this girl's brother." Aya frowned a little.
"Hm . . ." Akuma frowned too. Somehow, mysterious disappearances didn't seem like a demonslayer's job to investigate. It didn't seem like something a demon would do - they usually preferred to do things more chaotic, more as a show of power. Still, according to Master Shi, there were demons in Jufuku, the world of the demons, that were much more powerful than any they had seen in Sekai so far, and they were probably more cunning as well.
"Let's go and get some supplies," Aya said, jerking Akuma from her thoughts. "It'll be a while before we get there."
Mizuki poked her head out of an adjacent room. "Can I come too?"
Aya blinked hard multiple times. "Well, I suppose. Then again, we can't ensure your safety if you do. You had probably better stay here."
Yuri's lower lip popped out in a sad puppy face. "But she can fight - right Mizuki? She'll be okay!"
"I can fight," Mizuki admitted, biting her lip. "But I don't have any weapons - do you?"
Aya furrowed her eyebrows. "Kasai, go with Mizuki to get her a weapon. Mizuki" - Mizuki looked up sharply at Aya - "You're coming with us at your own risk. There is no guarantee we'll be able to protect you."
Mizuki swallowed hard, but followed Kasai into a room similar to the armor room, only with weapons lining the walls.
Yuri cheered. "Yay! Mizuki's coming!"
"Yes, she is," Aya replied worriedly, "but I don't like that she decided to come on such a dangerous mission. We'll need to watch her."
Kasai and Mizuki came back in a minute later, Mizuki holding a dagger. Aya looked skeptically at it, but decided not to say anything.
"Where's everyone going?" Heishi, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, asked.
"A super-scary mysterious demonslaying mission," Yuri said casually.
"Mizuki's going too?" he asked, but didn't wait for an answer before adding, "You take the girl who lives on the streets, but not the head guard of one of the world's most heavily guarded kingdoms? How does that make any sense?"
"Ex-head guard," Kasai muttered.
"Are you asking to come along?" Was it Akuma's imagination, or did Aya fuss less over him coming with them?
"Well, no," Heishi said too quickly. "All right, yes, but what kind of demon is it?"
"If it even is a demon," Akuma explained, "it's taking people hostage. Or killing them. Or . . . something like that."
"There have been a lot of disappearances in a certain area." Aya, as always, seemed to be infinitely better at explaining the situation. "It hasn't been proved yet, though I have a feeling that it is a demon doing this."
"Woah, everyone," Heishi said suddenly. "Aya has a feeling. It's probably true then."
Before Aya turned away, Akuma thought she saw her cheeks turn pink. "Akuma, get some more rations. Then we can be on our way."
Akuma hurried into the kitchen for some food.
"You have a weapon?" Kasai asked. Heishi opened and closed his mouth a few times, then shook his head no. "Follow me, then."
After Akuma had packed extra rations, and Heishi had been equipped with a great sword like the one he had used in Hana Firudo, the group could finally be on their way.
Akuma was half grateful that there were no more people in the castle with them. Otherwise, it might have taken a lot longer.
~~~
It was four miserable days to the village. It rained nearly every day and all through the night, and during the one night that it didn't, it was so cold that, even under the blankets in the beds of the inn they were currently staying at, most of the party stayed awake for half the night, teeth chattering.
Everyone felt so drained after the trip that Akuma wasn't sure that they would be able to slay any demon, no matter how weak.
Kasai yawned loudly. "Are we there yet?"
"Yes, actually," said Akuma. "We've been in the village for ten minutes already. You haven't noticed?"
Kasai rubbed her eyes. "Wha - oh yeah!" She stood up straighter, and her energy seemed to be restored instantly. "Hey, we are there!"
Mizuki and Aya facepalmed simultaneously.
The teen the demonslayers were following stopped suddenly. "This is my house."
"Well," Aya told her teammates (and Heishi and Mizuki), "let's go in."
There wasn't much to the house. It only had two rooms: a main room, used for cooking, with some dishes, a small table, and some cushions; and a bedroom that contained three beds. Even so, the team searched the entire house for any clue that a demon had been there - odd scorch marks, sudden temperature drops, things that moved when they shouldn't - but found nothing.
"That's weird," Kasai stated for all of the group. "You think it maybe wasn't a demon . . . ?"
"Or," Aya thought out loud, "her brother wasn't here when the demon came down on him."
"I guess we'll have to look elsewhere around the town," Akuma added, turning to the teenage girl they had been following. "Where else did he like to go?"
She thought for a moment. "Well, he usually went into the market to get us food every day, and he liked to the old dojo on top of the hill to practice his technique . . . other than that, he just mostly stayed home and tended to the garden. It's award-winning, you know."
Kasai looked like she couldn't care less about an award-winning garden. "Yeah . . . well, the demon couldn't have taken him in the middle of the day in the center of town without anyone noticing, so we should check the dojo."
"Maybe we could split up?"suggested Mizuki. "Some of us could go to the dojo, and some of us could look for other clues around the town and maybe visit the relatives of some of the other people who disappeared."
Aya considered this. But before she could open her mouth, Yuri cheered, "I'm on Mizuki's team!"
"Alright, fine," Aya agreed. "Akuma, you join Yuri and Mizuki and I'll go with Kasai and Heishi."
Akuma shrugged. "Okay. Fine with me."
"Okay, Oh Great Leader Aya, where are we going?" Heishi asked jokingly.
Aya seemed suddenly embarrassed at having ordered everyone onto a team. "Um . . . well . . . where do you want to go?"
"I don't know, it doesn't matter to me."
"I'd feel bad if I decided everything -"
"Would you two quit being to polite and just make a decision?!" Kasai growled.
"How about you guys go investigate the dojo and we'll stick around here and see what we can find out," Akuma offered. Everyone made noises of assent. "Oh, and tell me if there's a demon, because I want to test my armor out."
~~~
And even after the entire dojo had been searched three times over, they had found nothing.
Aya sat down on the floor with a sigh. "One would think we could have found anything by now . . ."
"I know, right?" Kasai said, kicking a piece of the crumbling walls away and sitting down next to her. "You'd figure the demon would have left anything behind."
"Unless it isn't a demon . . ." Heishi pointed out.
"True," Aya agreed, "but if that's the case, then where are the people going?"
"Maybe whoever's doing it killed them and is really, really good at hiding bodies," Heishi offered halfheartedly.
"No, maybe they're using some kind of spell," said Kasai. "Like the kind like Yuri uses so she doesn't have to carry around that huge tetsubo of hers everywhere."
"They would have to have immense spiritual energy for that, though," Aya told her. "So much that demons would be drawn to them, in hopes of taking it for themselves."
"Okay, so what could it be then, Smarty Pants?" Kasai asked.
"Something . . . that we wouldn't think of," Aya replied wistfully.
"Oh, that helps," Kasai snarled sarcastically.
"Well, it has to be something that we'd think of eventually," Heishi reasoned. "Maybe we'll just have to do some research or something like that. Wait - do you do that usually?"
"Not usually," Aya said, shaking her head. "Normally we deal with demons, not murder mysteries."
"Technically," Kasai pointed out, "it's not a murder mystery yet until we find a body. The whatever-it-is could just be taking hostages."
"In any case, we won't be doing any good sitting around here," Aya said, standing. "Even if it is a demon, we haven't found anything here. And if it isn't -"
"Don't tell me," Kasai moaned, "we have to read things. For information."
"Exactly, Kasai," Aya replied smugly. "It seems I've taught you well."
~~~
"Nothing?" Akuma repeated. "You can't think of one other possibility than a demon attacking people?"
It was the fourth villager that she had talked to. It seemed none of them knew of any nearby bandit camps, assassins' guilds, or anything else that could cause people to mysteriously vanish into thin air. She was starting to realize that none of the people in the small town seemed to care about the disappearances unless they had been very close to one of the victims. The farther they distanced themselves from the problem, it seemed, the less likely they thought it would be that it would happen to them.
The man shook his head. "No, I don't know really anything about the disappearances; well, I didn't know any of the people who vanished . . ."
"No, that's okay," Akuma sighed. She wasn't really expecting anyone to know anything by now - the only thing that made her keep asking around, even after the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth person she asked gave her the same answer, was the fact that she had agreed to meet back up with Yuri and Mizuki at sunset, and the sun was only nearing the horizon - in no way was it setting yet.
Just when it seemed hopeless, when it seemed to her that she had asked nearly everyone in the small town about the disappearances, and when she had sat down sulkily at a tavern to rest, her question was answered.
"You're the girl looking for info, right?" a male voice next to her asked, making her jump. Looking to her right, she saw that the source of the voice, although this was not very reassuring, was a young man in a hooded cloak, clutching a full mug of a strong-smelling liquid.
Akuma nodded slowly, not sure if she could trust this stranger but at the same time wanting to see what he would say.
"Thought so," he nodded. "Follow me." Without waiting for Akuma, he walked out the door. Highly intrigued, she followed him to the back of the tiny building, where he pulled her into the shadows of the rapidly darkening dusk.
Akuma found her voice. "What is it? Do you have information? You could have told me inside the -"
"Shh!" the stranger hissed. "Yes, I have information, but . . . well, let's say it's not public."
"I don't even know who you are!" Akuma exclaimed.
"I told you be quiet!" he whispered. "And it's irrelevant who I am. I'm a demonslayer - that's all you need to know. No, I'm not one of the ones who went missing; I'm not that good."
"Alright, then what do you know?"
"Don't rush me, I'll tell you. I have knowledge that a secret organization is at work here - a guild, if you will. I don't know how many members it has, but I know there aren't many. I also know that these people are very highly trained assassins, and extremely good actors - meaning, you could stumble across one of these people any moment and have no idea it was one of them."
"Which explains why you wouldn't tell me about it inside," said Akuma.
"Exactly. They specialize in blending in and going in for the kill when no one would expect it. If they found out I'd said any of this . . ." He glanced over his shoulder as if expecting there to be a killer behind him, and Akuma glimpsed a head of flaming crimson hair under his hood.
"So," Akuma said, lowering her voice even more that it already was, "you think they're responsible for the disappearances?"
"Yes."
"Are they killing the victims, or . . . what?"
"I'm not sure, but whatever they're doing, it's not good."
"How do you know?"
"You think they want to use these people for playmates?" He laughed a little, but it was without humor. "No, there's something sinister going on. And besides, this certain group has a kind of history of trouble."
"One more thing," Akuma told him. "What's this group called?"
"The Order of Karasu," the stranger said, his voice barely more that a breath. "Remember that - but never, ever, tell anyone that name. Just in case they're a member." He stepped back, turning. "But I've got to run. Remember what I told you. Remember it. But never repeat it."
"Wait!" Akuma cried, accidentally using a louder voice than she had meant to. "W-why are you telling me this?"
The stranger turned around one last time. "I know who you are. Akuma, from the Sureiyazu. I know you have good intentions. But next time - piece of advice - when you're looking for info, stick to the shadows. Much easier." He walked away then, seemingly melting into the shadows.
Akuma wasn't sure what to do after that.
And Mizuki, who had watched this scene unfold from the rooftop, watched her walk back into the streets. She would have to watch her a lot more closely from now on.