The sky was dark, the moon was crescent, and there were a few stars shining within the sky. Everyone who is participating in this year's exams had quickly scattered. There was a energetic person with a boar hide on his head ran first through the starting line. Seconds after, dozens of participants, including Natsu himself had run past the starting line and into the mountain. Even though the participates had different point of view, everyone had the same goal within their minds.
Pass the Final Selection Exams.
Since the Exams had begun, Natsu ran and ran for two and a half hours towards east. While on the run, he would take three-minute breaks along the way, then would keep running towards east of the mountain.
After running for another fifteen minutes, Natsu decided to stop running and sat down next to a dark tree and panted, trying to catch his breath a bit. 'I've been running for hours, now. And I haven't seen a single demon, yet. I know that they could pop out of nowhere and try to kill me at any time...' Natsu kept his hand close to his hilt, in case a demon closed in. He looked up at the night sky and crescent moon. 'The sun won't be here for a while... I have to stay vigilante.'
Five minutes after resting, Natsu stood up and stretched his arms and legs a bit. "Okay, break's over. I have to continue heading east and-" Natsu's nose suddenly caught a stench of decay. It was awful. Natsu grunted and grabbed the hilt of his katana and prepared for the demon's arrival. 'There's a demon nearby! But where is it?'
Natsu moved his head left and right, looking at the dark trees all around him. The demon could be hiding, stalking, waiting, pouncing. 'Just calm down, Natsu. Remember what big bro taught you.' Natsu then closed his eyes, trying to pinpoint the demon's location by smell.
Flashback
Natsu and Kyojuro were standing within the training ground. Kyojuro was teaching Natsu a lesson about demons and how they might act.
"Remember, Natsu. Demons are like animals. They hunt for survival, and sometimes prey on the weak. They most likely strike their prey where they least expect."Kyojuro said as he raised a finger.
End Flashback
'Remember. Demons strike their prey where they would at least expect. That means the demon is going to strike me where I would at least expect.' Natsu rehearsed within his mind.
A gray-skinned humanoid demon with short black hair and dirty clothing had hidden itself within some dark bushes behind Natsu, ready to strike Natsu down. It had a strong urge to eat humans and its bloodlust was insane. Now that there was one human within its grasp, he could easily take him down.
'There it is. A human! And he looks tasty, too!' The demon grinned as he fantasized about eating Natsu slowly. It then jumped out the bushes and tried to aim for and attack Natsu from the back of his nape with one big jump. 'It's been a while since I've had human flesh, and now you're all mine to eat, human!' He thought while jumping.
Natsu's ears twitch, as they caught its sound. He had brought the demon out of hiding. Before the demon could land a scratching blow, Natsu opened his fiery eyes, quickly turned and encountered the demon, where his claws had met his katana.
The demon's claws clashed with Natsu's katana and was pushed back by the force Natsu used. The demon landed on his feet, a little shocked. 'This kid is strong.' It noted as Natsu pushed him back with such force.
Natsu stood sharp before the demon, putting his body in a natural stance of a swordsman, pointing the tip of his blade at the demon's heart. He looked at the demon's pale skin, large eyes, tiny black pupils, sharp fingernails. And could imagine a dark red aura of bloodlust surrounding it. Natsu could finally see what a demon really was. 'A demon. So that's what they look like. Almost what big brother described before.' Natsu cracked a smile.
The demon grunted out of irritation. "Tch! You knew that I was going to come out, didn't you, mongrel?"
"Yeah. I did. Your bloodlust gave it away." Natsu pointed out.
"Did it..."
"By the way... what's your name?" Natsu asked.
"W-what?" The demon before Natsu had paused, as Natsu asked the question. "Why would you want to know my name, when you're about to be eaten?"
"To be honest, you're the first demon I've ever met in the flesh." Natsu started talking. "So, I thought if I could just know your name, I could tell my family that I encountered a demon. Sounds cool, right?"
"Cool? Cool? COOL?!" The demon growled. "That's stupid! I don't gotta tell you anything!" He then charged towards Natsu, as the demon's claws and fangs in his mouth had sharpened.
'Aw man. I wanted to know its name, so I could tell big brother.' Natsu silently pouted, as he was rejected by the demon. He gripped his katana's hilt and raised his blade, ready to strike the lowlife demon from the neck down. 'I guess I have no choice, but to take care of him, before he could hurt anyone else.' Natsu was prepared to attack, but suddenly heard a noise from the soil below his feet with his ears. As Natsu had heard an extra noise come from the soil, he gasped and quickly back flipped in midair. 'Two more of them?' Natsu thought calmly after landing on both feet on the soil.
Two more lowlife demons, one with dark blue hair and the other with short black hair with horns in his head had emerged from the soil and glanced at Natsu. They both had the urge to kill and devour humans.
"A Human! He's mine!" One of the demons yelled, as his arm quickly shifted into a long blade and ran.
"No, he's mine! I haven't had one in forever!" Another demon yelled.
"Shut up you, guys! I saw the human first! He's, my kill!"
"No, mine!"
"The first one to kill him gets to eat!"
"Screw you, I'm not sharing!"
Natsu knew the three demons were coming at him quickly, so he had to prepare his next move. As they demons charged towards him with intent and hunger, Natsu saw a thin white thread, piercing their necks. 'There it is. The opening. Great...' Natsu smiles a bit and gripped his hilt. He sucked in some air to prepare for his breathing technique. 'I'm not as powerful as big brother. Not yet... but this should be enough to put them down.'
"He's about to be mine!" A demon yelled.
'Flame Breathing. First Form...' Natsu's blade had slowly coated itself with orange fire. As the demons had got within close range, Natsu had quickly slashed the demons with his fiery coated katana, by decapitation without the demon's knowledge. 'Flame Strike!' Natsu silently yelled.
First Form: Fire Strike. A technique developed by Natsu, almost as similar to Kyojuro's first breathing technique. Natsu had created a personal space between himself and his opponent. If the enemy happened to step within Natsu's boundaries less than eight feet, Natsu could easily decapitate his enemies in one or multiple slashes.
'What... the hell just happened?' One of the demon's blinked as his head almost hit the ground. The demon's bodies had collapsed like paperweight, after taking a fatal blow from the young flame breather.
"I did it. I actually took out a demon." Natsu muttered to himself. A moment later, Natsu was filled with joy and confidence. "Woohoo! I actually killed a demon! Not to mention three of them. I can't wait to tell big brother when I get home." As Natsu was celebrating with himself, all of the demon's bodies had slowly evaporated around him. Natsu heard a noise and turned to look at the now decapitated demons. He silently gasped as he noticed that their bodies evaporating. "Their bodies are... evaporating." Natsu noted as he watched them disappear. The demon's eyes were all focused on him, until one of the demons muttered something.
"Oda..." One of the demons muttered.
"Huh?" Natsu turned and bent down to the dying decapitated demon that he encountered first.
"You said... that you wanted to know my name... right?" The demon asked.
"Yeah." Natsu nodded.
"My name... is Oda." The demon answered.
"Take care... Oda." Natsu replied, as he watched the demon called Oda completely disappear from the face of the earth. Oda had vanished, leaving only their dirty clothing. "Oda. I won't ever forget that name." After a minute of glancing, the wind blown by south and Natsu looked at the crescent moon. "Time for me to move on."
After that short battle, Natsu continued on his quest to travel east of Mount Fujikasane, where the sun would rise first. At times less than an hour away, Natsu would encounter some lowlife demons like Oda along the way. To tell the truth, Natsu does not know how to navigate. He just followed the breeze blowing towards east. As he continued to run a down a road of dirt, he realized that he needed to find someone in the brink of dusk. 'I need to hurry and find someone, and fast!'
"AAAAAAIIIE!" yelled an unfamiliar masculine voice.
"Huh?" Natsu was thrown off by a nearby voice as he continued running.
"Ah!" A boy screamed a second before colliding with Natsu from his right.
"Oof!" Natsu grunted, as he fell down on his back. 'What was that...' Natsu groaned, as he slowly got up and grabbed his hilt. He rubbed his head slowly, as he glanced around. "Oh?" He spotted another boy in front of him.
There was a boy with short wavy blonde hair, dark golden-brown eyes. He had worn a white robe, under a yellow kimono with white triangles on it. Also, traditional black lined green pants, white socks, white cloth wrapped around his ankles and brown sandals. The boy's name was Zenitsu Agatsuma, and he was rubbing his head as well.
"Are you okay?" Natsu asked in concern as he offered the boy a hand up.
"Huh?" Zenitsu opened his eyes and glanced at Natsu. "Who are you?"
"I'm Natsu Rengouku." Natsu introduced himself.
"Zenitsu Agatsuma!" Zenitsu said in a quick yell.
Natsu looked all around at the dark trees and the night sky. "What's the rush? Why were you running so quick?"
Zenitsu paused, as he remembered something from earlier. His eyes had widened, and his body began to shudder, as he thought about what he was running from. His eyes slowly watered and his clenched his teeth as he's about to cry. He got on his knees and instantly latched himself onto Natsu's waste with his arms, as if he was a scared little kid.
"T-thank you so much! You saved me! I owe you, my life!"
"Saved you from what? To be honest, I don't know what I saved you from."
Zenitsu let go of Natsu's waist. "You saved me from dying alone in these exams! I was chasing a beautiful girl with the butterfly. She jumped through trees as I ran after her on foot. And the next thing I knew... I found myself being chased by demons! I could hear how they planned to devour me as they laughed, so I ran, and ran, and ran for my life!"
'The girl with the butterfly?' Natsu thought back moments before the Final Selection Exams had started. he did remember a single girl there. He then learned that Zenitsu was talking about Kanao Tsuyuri. 'That must be her. As far as I know, she's the only girl to take this Final Selection Exams.'
"Please! I'm incredibly week and I need someone to protect me until I get married..." Zenitsu sniffled and wiped his face with his own kimono sleeve.
"Um, not to be rude, but aren't you a swordsman, too? Can't you defend yourself?" Natsu asked trying to politely brush Zenitsu off of him.
"N-Not really..."
"Why not? Isn't that why you're taking the Final Selection exams... to become one?" Natsu questioned.
"Well, you see... A woman tricked me into raising money to pay all her bills and put me in deep debt! I learned that she took the money and ran away with another guy! My master, who I call "Gramps" had to step in and bail me out of that debt. So right now, I have to repay my grandpa by taking the exams and hoping to become a Demon Slayer." Zenitsu explained normally.
"I see." Natsu bent a knee to Zenitsu's level and put a thumb on his chin. "So, what you're saying is that if that woman hadn't trick you, you wouldn't be taking the Final Selections... am I right?"
"That's exactly right!" Zenitsu yelled as he grabbed his arms.
"Hm..." Natsu shook his head and stood up, removing Zenitsu's grasps. "Alright. I have an idea. Why don't you and I travel together?"
"You mean... team up?" Zenitsu slowly asked.
"Yeah, that's it. The Final Selection Exams ends in the next six days. I think we have a better chance of surviving if we work together. What do you think?"
Zenitsu gasped in relief. "That's a great idea!"
"While along the way, we should find other contestants, too." Natsu told Zenitsu.
"That's an even GREATER idea!" Zenitsu shook his head yes in a fast pace and hugged Natsu by his waist even tighter. 'I can't wait for us to find girls on our team. I just have to show them my bravery, then maybe I'll ask one to marry me!' Zenitsu thought, until he passed out and fell to the ground, due to blood rushing to his head, where he got really dizzy. His eyes rolled to the back of his head.
"Zenitsu?" Natsu asked, before bending down and trying to help him up.
Ten minutes right after Zenitsu passed out... demons had begun to approach the boys one at a time. Natsu easily took care of the demons while protecting the unconscious Zenitsu.
About an hour later, Zenitsu had awakened from his coma and started traveling towards east of Mount Fujikasane. Along the way, they had properly introduced themselves. They chatted and discovered that they have something in common. They both have family members that are respectable Hashira. They told each other some details about their families, and both would strive to become better people and swordsmen in life. The duo would encounter minor demons at a time. Though, Natsu would take care of and kill minor demons while Zenitsu would sometimes scream and hide until they're dead.