"Welcome! What do you want to order?"
Giyuu and I is greeted by the restaurant owner. We take a seat side by side before ordering.
"Salmon daikon for me please," Giyuu said.
"You are eating that too often, Giyuu," I chuckled lightly. "Ramen for me please."
"Right away!"
I hold my chin on my palm, exhaustedly sighing because of our last mission last night.
"What's wrong?" Giyuu asked me.
"That last mission was exhausting. I hope my next mission won't be that annoying," I sighed.
The servant served us a cup of ocha, and I muttered thanks.
"It is normal to encountered a strong demon like that. We are Kinoe now afterall," Giyuu commented while sipping his ocha. "We have different mission in the next one, right?"
"Yup. Seems like I will have a partner in my next one," I said, glancing up at him, seeing his eyebrow twitched a bit.
"Here is your Salmon Daikon and Ramen!" And with that, Giyuu's face turned into a rare cheerful one.
"Thank you!" I thanked him before digging in. "Ittadakimasu!"
We both eat silently. When I was half-finished, Giyuu already put down his chopsticks.
"Thank you for the food," he muttered.
"That's fast," I sweat dropped.
"You are taking too long."
"Hey, I am enjoying every drop of my ramen here. Don't judge me," I pouted while keep eating my ramen.
I noticed there's an intense glare from my side, making me uncomfortable while eating. "Giyuu, don't stare at me."
"...why?"
"I can't enjoyed my ramen fully."
He stayed silent and keep staring at me, refusing my request earlier. I decided to ignore his stare and finished my ramen quickly.
"Thank you for the food!" I said, putting down my chopsticks. I gulped my ocha quickly and paid for the food.
We both get out from the restaurant. My Kasugaigarasu, Tengu, flying down to my shoulder.
"Caw! To the east! The east! There are missing babies there!"
"Alright, thank you, Tengu," I patted Tengu's head and he fly away. "Seems like we are parting away now," I turned myself towards Giyuu, smiling sadly.
He looked at me and I stare into his deep blue ocean eyes. He draw closer to me and enwrapped his arms around my body. I startled for a bit before returning the hug. We stay like that for a moment.
"I will see you tomorrow, okay?" He whispered to my ears.
"Okay," I replied with a smile. We pulled away from each other's embrace. "Take care. I will see you tomorrow."
He nodded before taking his leave. I watched his mismatched haori is getting far away from me with a sad smile, remembering the memory behind the mismatched haori.
✾✾✾
"You wanted to put your Haori and Sabito's together?" I asked him while he is holding Sabito's patterned haori.
He keep silent for a moment before replying. "Sabito always wanted to be a demon hunter," he said as he stare at Sabito's haori, "so I thought in bringing him along with me with his haori attached to my sister's."
'Ah, right. The red haori is his late sister's.'
"All right, give it to me. I will sew them together," I said as I lifted my hand to ask the haori in his hand.
His face lighten up when I accepted his request. He gave it to me with a small smile.
"Thank you."
'I haven't seen that bright smile for so long,' I thought in surprise before giving back a smile to him.
"You're welcome."
✾✾✾
"Caw! The mission! To the east!"
I wake up from my daydreaming when Tengu snapped me out of it.
'Right, the mission.' I turned my heels and headed to the east.
❃❃❃
"Caw! It's near! Caw!" Tengu said while flying on my head.
I'm starting to jog so I can reached the village faster. I finally saw some houses and some people. I change my jog into a walk. It is a large village here. I wandered around in the village, looking at the shop and houses. I stopped when I saw a fuss at the one of the shop. Curious, I entered the shop.
"Huh!? What do mean suspicious? I, the most flamboyant of the flamboyance is suspicious!? The one who should asked that is me towards you. You are always hide the way you mixed those drinks. Aren't suspicious?" There stand a white haired man with ponytail. He wears a white kimono and a pair of sandals.
'Uzui-san?' I raised an eyebrow while staring at the man. Despite his clothing, there's no doubt, that is Uzui-san. Who else have a white hair, tall as hell, and have a unique choice of words. That is definitely him. 'Shall I lend a hand?'
"You! You are new to this village right!? All the village people knows me here, so don't wish that they will help you out!" The seems-like bartender is mad right now as he pointed his index finger at Uzui-san.
Before Uzui-san can talk back, I interrupted them. "Uzui-san! Here you are! I am so sorry. He is my relative, and he is not feeling well since morning. Now, let's go Uzui-san." I dragged him out of the shop. It is hell to dragged this titan with my own strength. His weight probably two times than mine.
"You can let go of me now, we are already outside," he said. I turned around, facing him.
"What were you thinking? Having an argument with someone from the villages. You can get yourself kicked out from here!" I shouted at him. He covered his ears.
"Yeah, yeah. Why are you here though? Are you in the same flamboyant mission as me?" He looked at me curiously.
"Seems like it. Well, let's do our best then, Uzui-san."
"Well, at the very least, I am glad it's not some useless brat being my partner."
"Oh? Is that a compliment? Thank you very much."
He ruffled my hair hardly. "Don't get too cocky yet, you brat. I am not softening towards you."
"Yeah, I don't actually hope you will get soft or anything. Now, do you have any clue on how this demon kidnapped children?" I released his hand from my head.
"No, people here don't want to talk about it. They think it is taboo. Seems like, we need to flamboyantly wait untill night comes."
"Well, we may get some information about it before dawn," I shifted my gaze around.
"And how do we do that?"
I smirked. "I am a woman, Uzui-san," I placed my hand on my chest, "let me do the talking. First, we have to asked wether the victim's or the old women."
"And why the old women?"
"Because they tend to like to gossips." I smiled sneakily at him.
❃❃❃
I changed into a kimono and put on my haori. I approached one of woman in a small shop. She looks like she is in her 50's.
"Excuse me, miss. Do you know where can we find an inn to stay?" Uzui-san stayed behind me.
"Ohh, young couples. How nice. There is an inn besides the bakery shop over there," she pointed at a bakery.
"Ah, no. He's my brother-in-law. We are checking an inn first before my sister and the rest of family headed here. We are currently traveling to moved to the east. Is that inn is a good inn here? There is a baby within our family, so I hope their facilities are good enough."
"Ahh, I see. If that's the case, I suggested an inn in the middle of the village. But young lady, let me tell you something," she lean closer to me and raise her hand around her mouth. "There are some rumours in this village, that the babies are missing at night's, and their lower part of the body was found on the next morning. There are rumors that there is a kidnapper that do those horrible things, but those parents said it was monster that take their baby away."
I widened my eyes. I turned to Uzui-san and he noded. 'This is it!'
"Ah, how horrible. The rumors are pretty scary. How are the parents?"
"The parents are going insane. Some of the babies didn't leave a trace in the next morning, so their parents are looking for them. Even one of them are demanding to inspect every house in the village. Look, that's him." The lady pointed a man that is now get kicked by someone in front of a house. "Even though we sympathize him, he can't just wandering around people's houses."
I looked at him which is now sulking on the ground. I turned to the Lady and put my hand on face, covering my mouth.
"How sad. It must be hard for him." I put a smile and bow at her. "Thank you for sharing these information, miss. You helped us a lot."
"Oho~ I am not that young you know. It is nothing after all." She flushed a bit while holding her cheek. "Be save you two." She bid us good bye.
"Uzui-san, should we go ask that man?" I keep my gaze at the said man that is now walking on the street while keeping his gaze down.
"Yeah, we should. It is definitely a demon, but the fact that it left a trace in the next morning is odd. Why didn't it finish them off?"
"Maybe their blood didn't satisfied their appetite?" I said playfully.
"Hmph, what a shitty demon. My flamboyant-self is disgusted."
We approached the man before, and touched his shoulder. He flinched.
"Excuse me, sir. Can we have your time?" I asked him with a smile.
"Who are you guys?" His eyebags are visible. His gaze indicated that he doesn't trust us.
"We are people that can exterminate the demon that kidnapped you baby. Can you tell us your story?"
"Uhh..." he hesitated. He gulped down and finally give us a cue. "Follow me."
We arrived in front of a house. He entered the house. "Come in," we entered and he told his wife to bring some drinks. We sat on a tatami and his wife come in, delivering the drinks and sat beside him.
"My name is Hirokuda Masato, and this is my wife, Hirokuda Yukina. You may not believe what will we tell you, but this is the truth from us."
I nodded at him and he continued.
"It is a usual night. We sleep with each other on a futon with our baby in the middle. I wake up because I sense something in the room, even though there is no sound. When I looked around, our baby has gone. We searched for him around the house but there is no result. The door is locked and the window is closed. There is no footprint nor sound. It is as if he disappeared just like that," he lowered his gaze.
I shifted my gaze to Usui-san. He seems like he's thinking right now.
"There are rumors about this incident. One of them said that monster kidnapped their children. Does that ring you any bell?" I looked at them in the eyes.
"No, that statement was said by Kuromodama-san, he lives two blocks from here. His child was returned with only their lower body part. I think that is the reason why he thinks that it is a monster fault."
"Alright. First we thanked you for your story. Next one, I am sorry to tell you this, but there is a low chance that your baby will be survived, I am truly sorry," I looked at them apologetically.
The man widened his eyes and he hugged his wife and they both crying. Uzui and I stayed in silent. After a while, we bid farewell to Hirokuda-san.
❃❃❃
The night enveloped the village. The moonlight appeared, replacing the sunlight. People in the village started to headed back to their own house while I and Uzui-san watched them on one of the highest roof.
"I will go checked around, you go to the opposite direction. I flamboyantly hope we can get a flamboyant catch tonight," he smirked.
I nodded and go to the opposite direction from him. Making as less sound as possible so it won't disturbed people.
I go around the village but found nothing. I get back to Uzui-san.
"I don't find anything suspicious nor I feel demon's presence," I reported.
"If they can hide their presence this flamboyantly, they must be a high ranked one."
"This will be troublesome. They can take the children away but we won't noticed. Let's keep guarding the house that have baby's inside," Uzui-san nodded and left.
'Let's just keep alert at my surroundings. The night is still long.'
I keep patrolling, then I saw someone walking on the street. No, it's a demon. It's not even walked, it floating, and it carrying a baby.
'Shit, how can it has no presence?' I rushed to that demon and it shrieked when it sense me coming closer. By any second, it fled.
"Wait, you shit head!" I chased after it. It run to the forest. I cursed internally because can't catched up to it. It run to a lady. Not, it is a demon.
"Stop!" I shouted.
Nature Breath: First Form; Growth of the Trees.
I attacked the floating demon, but the lady demon block my attack.
I fixed my gaze at her. She have a light-green skin with tendrils coming from her back. She walked with her trendils grasping the trees and use it to hold her from the ground.
"Fufu, what do we have here~?" She snicker. "You are quite a beauty, but you aren't that young, not my preference but it's fine," she attacked me with one of her trendils. I dodged. "How do you prefer to be digested honey? Die first? Or get eaten alive?"
❃❃❃
Giyuu's POV.
I headed to west after parting away with Hanabi. And somehow, my head is filled with her.
'What if there's something happened to her? What if her partner isn't reliable? What if....' I shake my head. 'No, she is strong. She can handle things by herself and we will meet tomorrow morning.'
I snapped back from my thoughts when I heard a scream and started running to the source of the scream. There is three demons surrounded two people. I rushed there and unsheated my sword.
Water Breath: Fourth form; Striking Tide.
I jumped and slashed those demons. I landed safely on the ground. I sheated my sword.
"Thank...thank you...."
"Please...help the others. They got attacked by demons...."
I widened my eyes. 'There's more?' "Where are they?"
One of them pointed to north-west. I rushed up there. I saw a huge demon eating humans in front of me. I frowned at this scenery. I inhale and rushed to where the demon is.
Water Breath: Sixth Form; Twisting Whirlpool.
The demon dodged and I only hit its chest. I clicked my tongue. I prepared my next attack.
Water Breath: Third Form; Dance of the Rapid Current.
I cutted its head and sheathed my sword.
'Seems like this is all.' Moonlight shone the demon's body until it disappeared completely. I sigh.
'I hope she is alright.' I patrolled for some hours, slaying some demons, and headed back to my house.
❃❃❃
A/n: Heyho. I referred to a demon as 'it' there because Hanabi don't know if it is a male or female. But I will referred it as 'he' 'she' or 'they' more.
I used another POV here, but next chapter will be from Hanabi's POV.
If you are confused by the ranking in Demon Slayer Corps, here it is from weakest-strongest :
Mizunoto
Mizunoe
Kanoto
Kanoe
Tsuchinoto
Tsuchinoe
Hinoto
Hinoe
Kinoto
Kinoe
Hashira (Pillar)
Anyway, how do you think?