"Woah..! Mother..! Mother..! Look! It's a teddy bear..! But.. Why does it have a big tail??"
The seven year-old girl cheered, observing the adorable creature in the distance with glimmering eyes.
A slight chuckle came from behind her as she kneeled down. Soft rustling of the dried leaves on the ground can be heard as well.
"(Y/N) dear, that's not a teddy bear. It's true it has a brown color, but it doesn't mean every animal with brown-colored fur is a bear!" A gentle voice overcame the little girl's ears, which made her flinch and pout in embarrassment.
"I-I know that! I was just testing y-you..!" She cried out in defense. Her mother chuckled once again seeing the adorable expression her daughter make.
It was yet another beautiful day where usually the lovely child and her dear mother went outside the village to get some herbs from the nearest forest. After all, her family is a merchant who used natural ingredients. Sometimes, the little girl travels with her father, but right now, her father isn't feeling well because of his sickness.
"Well then.. This animal is called a squirrel, (Y/N) sweetheart. They usually loves to collect nuts and keeps them well hidden inside their houses."
"Ooh! I know! So that it won't be stolen by other animals, right??"
Her mother smiled gracefully, stroking her daughter's hair in a soothing feel, making the excited girl relaxed a bit.
"Who knows? Or maybe the squirrel collects the nuts for their family that are still waiting back home?" The eyes of her daughter are still filled with excitement and curiosity. The woman knew that her child has entered the age of where she is very curious to know about the wonders of the world.
..But some things, are better left to be unknown.
---
"Ow.. Ow..!! My foot!" You winced at the sudden pain coming from your stomach and your feet. It seems that you accidentally twisted your ankle again as your body tripped itself into a new room. While looking to your surroundings, you noticed something really odd.
The room somehow looked different than the time before the ground shook that made you loose your balance.
'What the.. How did..?'
You hold back the aching pain from your ankle as you stood up. Determined to at least find one of your allies inside of this mansion, you slide the wooden door open. You scan the area first, just to make sure no demon is near. Even so, it's pretty useless because the hallway of the mansion is pretty dark to the point where you need to squint your eyes to get a better look.
"Where did everyone go?"
There are only silence as your voice echoed through the darkness. It took you a while to realize that you're all alone at the moment, somehow got separated from the others.
Although you hate to admit it, you were nervous. How can you not? You're currently inside of a mansion full of demons without anyone you knew are close to you. With that being said, you're not in a great shape at all. Despite of loosing the bruises on your face, the sprained ankle and the pain on your stomach from being thrown away multiple times from your last mission just makes the situation worse.
"Ah! No time to downgrading yourself, (Y/N)!" Shaking your head rather fast, you took out your sword.
"I need to find everyone before getting out of here!"
---
It really felt like you've been walking for decades by the endless hallway. You tend to open each door you've encountered while finding your way out, but most of the rooms were either locked or empty with nothing or no one inside. You didn't give up though. Finding and making sure your companions are okay is your current priority.
'Urk.. The pain just got worse than before.. I should take a rest whether I like or not..'
Conveniently, you found a new room to explore. You then noticed the door of the room was already opened slightly, wide enough for someone to peek in. Even so, you didn't thought about it too much. Without thinking twice, you approached the room to take a rest before any demons get in your way to escape.
The door creaked loudly, you assume that it has been a while since the last time it worked properly without creating the piercing noise. You squinted your eyes to scan the room, hands in the hilt of your blade, preparing yourself if any demon was inside.
But, your body immediately froze as you saw a silhouette in the distance of the room.
Someone was standing there.
You couldn't see its face clearly because the figure was gazing at the walls, their back facing your way. But with just the soft light coming from outside, it is obvious that the figure standing there is a male.
Eventually, you sigh in relief as you realized it was just a fellow demon slayer, whom you assume is currently doing his mission in this mansion too.
Although, you can't help but feel something was a bit.. Off about this slayer. He wasn't wearing any proper uniforms, as it seemed like his clothes were torn apart, leaving only his pants beneath a beast's coat. Though, one thing that really stood out to you was his big, boar mask and two Nichirin swords he's currently holding.
All of a sudden, something like steam came from the male in the distance, which made you flinched. Even with all of these darkness surrounding the room, you could feel the slayer in front of you finally decided to turn around. Surprisingly, both of his swords were jagged up.
Two, big bulbous blue eyes can be seen attached to his mask.
"Who in their right mind dare to challenge me?"
Questions filled your mind for a moment, processing the male's words. His face is masked under the big boar head, which made the slayer's voice a bit unclear.
"..Excuse me?"
Silence took over until you can hear the mysterious slayer's odd laugh. The sound of his maniac laughter echoed throughout the whole corners of the room.
But then a thought quickly occured to you.
The person that was standing in the corner of the room wasn't a demon slayer. It was a demon wearing a boar mask, hiding itself as if he's one of your fellow Mizunoto to probably lure someone like you onto his traps.
'But is he really..? No.. No. I can't jump into conclusions so quickly.'
Before you could manage to comprehend the situation, you were immediately interrupted by the said 'demon' you assumed.
Thanks to your fast reflexes, you managed to dodge one of the swords that was thrown by him in time, resulting it to be stuck on the wall. Observing the curve and the design of the sword, it was no doubt that it supposed to belong to a demon slayer.
You whipped your head to glare at the masked figure, "if you're actually a demon slayer, you can't just go out of your ways to kill someone!"
Seeing your widening eyes made him cackle. But after processing your words for a slight moment, his laughter stopped as he abruptly pointed one of his fingers at you.
"HUH?! ARE YOU DOUBTING ME, WOMAN?!"
He raised his voice in annoyance, actually angry with how you see him as. The masked male prepared his fighting stance, charging his way towards you in a fast rate.
"FIGHT ME, WEAKLING!"
Repositioning your foot, you jumped as fast as possible in order to avoid the male who was trying to straight up headbutt your body. Fortunately, you managed and now the two of your positions are swaped.
You were rushing to get a few breaths of air in the corner of the dark room whilst he is still laughing seeing your weak condition, taking pride for the things he did earlier that made you feel exhausted.
The truth is, you aren't feeling too tired as much as he thought you were. You're just not careful enough as you jumped earlier that it almost caused a rough landing, mainly because the way you jumped triggered the pain in your ankles slightly.
"For a barbaric being, I admit you have quite the reflex." You admitted, catching the figure in front of you by surprise.
Though he quickly gain his composure back before putting both of his hands on his hips, acting all mighty, "hmph! That's right!! I am better than anything you could do! So you should praise me more!"
He then prepared himself to attack you again. This time, he didn't threw one of his swords, instead, he's going to strike for your figure again, now knowing that you have quite the reflex to dodge as well.
'This guy..!'
An irk mark appeared on your forehead as you hold the hilt of your sword tightly in your hand.
'..Well then, he left me no other choice.'
Before the male could have the chance to lend the tip of his blades to your skin, you pull out your own sword in defense until it clashed itself towards his blades.
He didn't give up yet, he kept adding his strength onto his grips to corner you. But before he could do anything further, you kicked his chest with your uninjured foot using the remaining strength you had. As you do so, you went out of your way to hit his nape with your hand quickly, making him unconscious.
Your kick sent him flying outside of the room until his body hit itself pretty hard against the wall, and you could've sworn the floor was shaking a little. Although not sure whether you got too far or not, at least for now, you're okay.
"What.. The.." Abruptly, you gasped for air a few times.
'I was so glad I didn't continue to think that he's a demon. That could've gone wrong so bad..'
Towering over the unconscious male, you tried to observe his surprisingly muscular body and his boar head. For someone who's barbaric enough to ask for a fight, you admitted that he has quite the skills. Though, you still have your doubts whether if he's a part of the Demon Slayer Corps or not.
'..I can't just leave him here.'
For a moment, you were confused about the weird way he fought with you earlier. He violently charged towards you without a second thought, as if he's not aware of the rules to not kill each other. Though, both of his feet surprisingly grew an unusual amount of fur that caught your attention pretty quickly too.
'This demon slayer is a weird one. And what's with the mask anyway?'
Sighing in disbelief, you grabbed both of his foot before giving it your all to pull his body along, getting him back inside of the room earlier.
'I didn't think my medicine would infect my eyesight this badly.'
At least, the male will be safe from demons if you left him inside, knowing the fact that the rooms just somehow shifts places overtime.
Lucky for you, walking now is not as difficult as before.
Slowly closing the door, you stare at the room for a few seconds and finally continued your journey to find your comrades.
"Damn, he was heavy." You murmured as you kept on walking.
---
After getting pretty far from that previous room, you stopped your tracks as two silhouettes are visible around the corner of the hallway you're currently at. You took out your sword once again, preparing for any demons who dares to get in your way.
But, the attack you've been waiting for never came, as the two silhouettes smiled when their eyes met with yours.
"Ah! (Y-Y/N)-CHAAAAANNN!!!!"
You knew well who might the loud screech belonged to.
Not even a minute passed, Zenitsu's figure is now coming to your way in a fast rate, probably faster than the blink of your eyes. He immediately clings onto your lower part as tears flowed down drastically from his eyes.
He kept on rambling about his condition, mentioning about his injuries and such, even though he doesn't seem to have any scratch on his face whatsoever. Trailing behind him is Shoichi, who's very relieved to see you in one piece.
"Shoichi! Agatsuma-san!" You uttered, "I'm glad you two are okay." In an instant, Zenitsu whipped his head to face you, his eyes now seems to be filled with glittering stars.
"WAAHHH!? (Y/N)-CHAN WAS WORRIED ABOUT ME?! YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT ME, AREN'T YOU?"
Shoichi was completely speechless by the sight he get to see about the yellow-haired male.
Putting your index finger close to your lips, you whispered, "Agatsuma-san, please don't make any more loud noises. We're still inside of a demon's territory," the said male blinked a few times, but is surprisingly obedient and stopped with his whining. He then let go of your feet and immediately stood up as he wipe his face with the sleeves of his yellow haori until it is pretty much clean.
"Miss.." Hearing Shoichi calling out, you quickly avert your gaze towards the young boy.
"Are you okay? You seems to be quite injured.." He asked worriedly, tugging your haori from the side as you flinch slightly because of it.
"I'm fine, Shoichi, thank you for worrying," you tapped both of his shoulders. "I'm just glad I could find you two here-!"
Your eyes immediately widened before you managed to complete your sentences. Shoichi got confused of what happened to your sudden change of expression, though he knew something frightening is standing in the distance.
But just before he's able to turn his head around, a heavy yet somewhat intimidating voice caught the boy off-guard.
"Well.. Well.. Well.. What do we have here~? Ohh.. What are three humans doing in my territory, eh~?"
It took you a few seconds to realize that all three of you are standing at the wrong place, as the demon in the distance, showed his wicked smile with his tongue licking out, his saliva as if acting like an acid, burned the wooden floor below him.
"..Looks like I'm going to have a feast tonight!"
-._-._-._- Tidbits -_.-_.-_.-
(1.) The last words from the demon was something that sent the chills down your spine.
(2.) Tanjirou is still out there, somewhere. He won't forgive himself if he couldn't able to get you all out of here.
__________ __________
~ Here Ends Chapter 14 : Boar.. Demon?.. ~
~ Next Up - Chapter 15 : His True Potential ~