Sorry this chapter is a little short, but I felt like it was a good place to end the chapter. Going to try to make my next one a bit longer. Now to the story!

Chapter 35

Umi and Kirara woke everyone up early that morning. Nobody liked it, but they knew that they had to do it in order to make good progress that day. After a quick breakfast, they were back on the road. Sai was glad to see that Nami had kept her word. Nobody else seemed to know about the night before. She was grateful for that and so was Kaze.

"So," Umi said after a while of traveling in mostly silence, "do you guys think that we're actually going to get to stay in a village tonight?"

"Possibly." Sai told her, "This road seems to be well used by merchants. The wind is at our backs, though, so I can't smell if we're getting close to one."

"Do you think we'll even be allowed in a village now?" Akage asked.

"What do you mean?" Nami questioned, confused.

"Well, now the number of half-demons outnumber the number of humans in the group. It looks kinda strange for three half-demons and a cat demon to be traveling with two human girls." Akage explained.

"Oh, I guess you're right. That could be a problem." Nami admitted.

"Maybe not." Sai said, "Mageru taught me a little something before we left. I guess this is what he wanted us to use it for."

"What did he teach you?" Kaze asked.

"How to conceal our demonic side." Sai told him. Everyone gave her a confused look. "I know. I didn't know it was possible either."

"How do you do it?" Kaze asked.

"We have to use our spiritual power to temporarily overwhelm our demonic aura and essentially hide it. It would make us appear human, though we would still have heightened senses and abilities. Not as strong as normal, but still better than most humans." Sai explained.

"That sounds great, but we've got one problem." Akage pointed out, "I don't have spiritual energy."

"Mageru thought about that." Sai told him, "He said that one of us can use our energy to hide you. Thing is that you'll need to stay close to whoever is hiding you. Otherwise, anyone with any experience with spiritual energy will pick up on it. That's why I think Nami should be the one to hide you."

"I could do that." Nami said, perking up at the idea.

"Not a bad idea, Sai." Akage told her, smiling.

"How close do we have to be?" Nami asked suggestively.

"The closer the better, but stay at least within a few steps of each other." Sai said.

"I like closer." Nami said, winking at Akage.

"You guys are crazy." Kaze commented to himself. Only Sai heard it and it made her chuckle.

Suddenly, the wind changed the direction. Sai and Kaze took the opportunity to sniff the air for any signs of a village. They weren't met with a scent they wanted. Both of their faces quickly became serious. Umi was the first to notice.

"What is it guys?" She asked.

"This isn't a village scent." Kaze said, almost absent mindedly.

"What is it then?" Akage questioned.

"Blood." Sai growled, "Blood and smoke."

"You mean..." Akage trailed off. Sai nodded. The demon purge had reached this area.

"Dammit!" Akage cursed, "I'm going to kill every single one of them!"

"No." Kaze said suddenly, "We won't kill them unless we absolutely have to."

"Why the hell not?" Akage demanded.

"They've been deceived. They think that we are the enemy. Konton has exploited their fears and is using them for his purposes. Killing them won't hurt him, it will save him the trouble of doing it later." Kaze explained.

"So you're just going to let them go and kill more innocent people?" Akage accused.

"No, I've got a plan." Kaze told him.

"What's your plan Kaze?" Sai asked.

"It involves a lot on your part Sai." He told her, "Are you up to it?"

"Of course." She assured him.

"Good. So, if they have been deceived by a demon, then obviously their senses are being dulled or their minds are being taken advantage of by Konton's powerful demonic aura." Kaze explained, "So to bring them back to reality and make them realize what it is that they are doing, we need to purify their minds."

"That's going to take a lot of spiritual energy." Nami pointed out. Kaze nodded.

"We're going to need to work fast. Otherwise, we may end up having to fight and it could turn into a bloodbath like it did at our village." He said. Sai shivered from the memory.

"I really don't want to have to do that again. It made me feel dirty." She said. Kaze nodded before continuing.

"I think our best bet would be the purify the air around them before having Sai rush through the ranks and sending out bursts of energy to purify the soldiers." He explained.

"Sounds good to me." Sai said. Akage clearly didn't agree, but he kept his mouth shut. Even he realized that murdering a bunch of murderers wouldn't make the situation any better.

It was about noon by the time they reached the place where the army had set up a camp. They hid in the nearby woods while they worked out the last few details of their plan. Luckily for them, the army didn't seem to be marching today. There were tents everywhere along with a massive one in the center. Sai assumed that it was the command station for the camp. It didn't take long for this assumption to be confirmed. The general followed by several advisors exited the tent and began to make rounds around the rest of the camp.

"So that's the commander, eh?" Akage commented, sounding a little disappointed.

"Were you expecting Konton?" Kaze asked, laughing a bit.

"Not really. Just hoping so that I give him a little shock." He said sparking lighting between his fingers.

"I can understand that." Sai said, coming over and taking a seat by them. Nami and Umi followed shortly after.

"So everybody got the plan?" Nami asked, looking at her friends.

"Yeah." Akage said, "Kaze and I will create a distraction while Sai gets into position the purify the air. You girls will be running guard for her." Everyone else nodded in agreement that they understood what was expected of them.

"Alright then." Nami said, standing, "Let's get it done." Kaze and Akage immediately ran off. Sai summoned her priestess blade and stood next to the twins.

"You ready?" Umi asked. Sai smirked confidently.

"I've faced worse." She said. At that moment, they heard a massive crack of thunder followed shouts and taunts.

"Well, I guess that's our cue." Nami said, "Let's go." And with that, they ran off towards the tent camp as well.

Sai found the army in disarray. It was just as they had planned. She raised her blade into the air and began to twirl it around while it built up spiritual energy in the air spinning above it. After it had built up enough, Sai let the wind loose and allowed it to consume the entire camp. The second the purified air touched the soldiers, most stopped moving while others dropped to their knees clutching their heads. Sai didn't waste any time. She used her superhuman speed and began to run through the camp, sending out bursts of spiritual energy to purify what ever remained of the demonic influence over the soldiers. It was working very well. The men didn't seem to know what was going on, but Sai could feel the demonic presence in them be purified.

It didn't take Sai long to reach the center of the camp. However, the moment the command tent came clearly into view, a smell filled Sai's lungs that she hadn't been expecting. She stopped dead in her tracks and uttered a low, murderous growl. The flap to the tent opened. Sai immediately raised her sword to the ready and increased the volume of her growl so that anyone in the vicinity could have heard it.

"How impolite my dear Saiai. We are just going to have to teach you some manners, now aren't we." Came the familiar, hateful voice that had haunted Sai's dreams as its owner exited the tent.

"I'm going to kill you." Sai threatened, meaning every word, "I'm going to rip out your damn throat Konton."