Sunset came, and with it, Zenitsu woke up. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, feeling quite refreshed all things considered. Perhaps all he really needed was a good night's...er, day's sleep. He peaked out of the den's entrance and looked around. He didn't see or hear any threats so he crawled out. Feeling stiff, he stretched his back and looked around for Chuntaro.
"Chuntaro! Hey, Chuntaro," he called out for the sparrow, "where are you? I'm up! We can go now, so come out!" He looked around but didn't see any sparrow of any kind, he sighed in irritation.
"Don't tell me you've left me alone again," he whined to himself, "I don't like being by myself in these creepy dark woods. What if I run into another demon here?! What then?!" He looked around for a moment, then sat down, hugging his knees.
'So what do I do now? Should I wait here for him to return, or should I keep going?' He rested his chin on top of his knees.
'Things sure have gotten complicated recently, haven't they?' He rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Maybe I'll get something to eat again," he muttered to himself, then paused, "you know what, this sucks! I hate this! I hate living like some stupid animal in the stupid woods! I want to go home, dammit!" He stood back up and marched in a random direction as he continued to internally bemoan his situation.
Eventually, he came upon a small herd of sika deer, and he hunted them much like he did the boars the previous night. He picked out a larger female deer because he just didn't want to be skewered by the male antlers as he was more than positive that would happen. However this time the deers were approaching his position, so he simply waited for them to get close. As the herd passed underneath him, he dropped down and caught them by surprise. Much like the boars, the deer scattered and left the one caught by Zenitsu to its fate. The deer kept struggling and kicking trying to get away, but Zenitsu held firm...a little too firm and accidentally broke its back.
"Oh," he gasped as the deer instantly stopped kicking but was still panting, "I...I'm sorry." He looked down at the deer and was feeling extremely guilty. It's not like he wanted to torture it. "I should just snap its neck...but," he picked it up and like the previous night, found where its artery was and prepared to open it; he looked at the deer, "It'll be over soon." He opened the artery and the blood began to spurt out in a fast pulsating jet due to the deer's high blood pressure. He had a hard time keeping up with the flow of blood that ran out and some of it ended up on the ground.
'Strange,' Zenitsu thought as he drank, 'it doesn't feel or taste as nice as it did last night.' He pushed the thought away and once the deer died, he started the task of field dressing the deer. Once done, he began eating but he also noticed that the meat wasn't nearly as nice or filling either.
"I wonder why?" he mumbled to himself as he looked a bit of flesh over. The deer didn't appear to be sick. Regardless, he was determined to be 'properly' full tonight, even if it meant gorging himself to the point of being uncomfortable. Gramps wouldn't have ever allowed him to do such things.
'If Gramps were here,' Zenitsu thought, 'he'd probably have killed me from the number of times he'd have hit me with his cane.' Soon, he got to the point where he thought if he took another bite, he'd probably vomit. He looked at the remaining carcass of the deer and was surprised that he was able to consume nearly half of it in the first place.
"God I'm gross," Zenitsu said standing back up and walking away to find the same brook to clean up, "I better not get fat from all this! Do demons get fat? I don't know...I should have listened to Gramps better." As he was cleaning up the blood off his hands and face, he froze: he could hear something in the distance. It was something human.
'Who would be out this far in the woods this late at night,' Zenitsu wondered, 'are they insane?!' Every fiber of his being told him to run in the opposite direction. He didn't want any trouble, and the most likely persons out in the woods this late would be fellow Demon Slayers out hunting demons. Demons like himself. But he could also hear that whoever it was, was probably more frightened than he was. His kindness was getting the better of him.
'Fine! FINE! I'll just check it out to see what's going on, then if it's alright, It'll be goodbye spooky forest for me! I'm so done with this!' He made his way towards the noise and as he got closer and closer, he could hear how distressed this person was. Soon he was close enough to see what exactly was going on. He was near what appeared to be the main road through the woods, and traveling on the roads was a young girl with a walking stick, maybe only a few years older than he was.
'She can't be older than twenty-five,' Zenitsu thought, 'she looks frightened. But, this is weird: why is she traveling alone at night with no lights? She's definitely human, but even with the stars out,' he looked up at the night sky, 'it's still too dark to see the road properly...for a human that is.' He didn't quite know what to do, but the gentleman in him couldn't let a lady wander in the woods alone at night.
"Are you alright?" Zenitsu called out when he was about ten feet from her, still within the surrounding trees so she couldn't see him. She jumped and looked in his general direction, holding her walking stick up as if it was a weapon.
"Who's there?" the woman called out, her voice thick with anxiety, "Please leave me alone!"
"It's alright," Zenitsu said as he got slightly closer to her, "I just wanted to see if you were okay. You looked scared, and it just seemed odd that you were walking down the road at night without a light." The woman still had her stick held up high, trying to look and sound intimidating but Zenitsu could hear her fear only increase.
"I don't need it," she flatly said. Zenitsu went to say something but when he looked at her face, he could see that her eyes were clouded over: the woman was blind. This made Zenitsu relieved, sad and worried at the same time.
"Oh," he blankly said, then he fully approached her knowing she'd have no fear of his appearance, "look...um...I'm Zenitsu Agatsuma, with the Demon Slayer Corps," saying that the woman's sound of fear lowered a bit, "and if you'd like I could walk with you to your destination." There was a long pause, and Zenitsu could tell that the woman didn't fully trust him. There was a quiet noise of doubt coming from her.
"I would like that," she finally said slowly, "thank you."
"No problem," Zenitsu said blushing. He couldn't help but notice how pretty the woman was, even though she was older than he was. As they walked, he noticed that she used the walking stick to guide herself along the roadway. The air between the two of them was...uncomfortable. He could tell that she still didn't fully trust him and was still scared. Kinda understandable...a stranger walks up to you in the middle of the night offering to take you home; you're a blind lady all alone, kind of a bad situation all around for her.
"Ma'am," Zenitsu finally said, just to break up the thick tension, "if I may ask, why are you traveling by yourself so late at night if you...can't see?" He clenched his jaw hoping he didn't offend her too much by asking such a personal question. She tensed up a bit, but then seemed to realize it was rather obvious.
"I was supposed to be living with my fiance in the town south of us," she said a bit sadly, "but I've been sick and eventually the illness took my vision. When he found out that I had gone blind, he didn't want to marry me anymore, so I've been trying to return to my hometown alone since then."
"Wait, what," Zenitsu said flabbergasted, "he left you over something that petty, and you've been walking home BY YOURSELF?! That's terrible! So many things could have happened to you! SO MANY! Did nobody offer you help or even a ride home? HORRIBLE PEOPLE! Did you try telephoning your parents or someone you know?" She gave him a funny look, then for the first time gave a small smile.
"There are only a few telephones in my village, and they're in the rich families' homes." Zenitsu mentally smacked himself, he forgot that living with Gramps, not everyone was going to be rich enough to have the latest and greatest of things like telephones.
"So um," he asked, "do you still plan on getting married then? Not to that loser of course," he said looking over at her, "but maybe you can find someone else." She smiled, but she had a sad look on her face.
"I think marriage is no longer in my future, after all, how could anyone find me attractive or useful blind?" Zenitsu stopped walking and turned to her.
"Eh?! How could you say that about yourself?! Any man would be insane too not want to marry you! Just because you can't see anymore, doesn't diminish your value as a person." She looked at him with shock at his (admittedly overly passionate) speech.
"I have a dream of getting married to a beautiful girl myself one day," Zenitsu sighed happily, "and I..." he paused and his mood fell. For a moment, he forgot he was a demon now. Who'd in their right mind want to get married to a disgusting demon? He cleared his throat.
"Well, anyway," he said trying to fix the awkward pause, "I'm sure you'll find someone who will see and love you for who you are." She still had a strange look on her face, but it then softened to a genuine smile.
"Thank you." was all she said quietly. There was another quiet moment between them as they continued their way down the dark road. Zenitsu kept his ears open for the town, hoping he could hear it soon.
"I'm glad you found me," she finally said, "I was worried about this forest, there have been sightings of a demon lurking in it lately," Zenitsu's breath caught in his throat, "I suppose that's why you're here, isn't it?"
"YEP-THAT'S-WHY," Zenitsu yelled out too quickly in his panicked state causing her to jump a bit, "BUT...um, but that won't stop me from helping such a beautiful woman such as yourself in need." He looked over and saw that even though she was blind, she was giving him quite the look.
The air between them was awkward again, so Zenitsu tried to break it up.
"So ma'am," he asked a bit more respectfully, "what is your name? I can't believe I haven't asked yet, how rude of me." She acted like she didn't want to give this stranger her name, but she quietly replied:
"Hiroko Kimiko."
"It's nice to properly meet you." was all he said, fighting the urge to sing praises on how both names completely fit her. He had received several beatings from other women for doing similar things in the past and finally learned his lesson. After about an hour of walking, they came up to the house that Zenitsu hid underneath to get away from the sun. At first, Zenitsu internally bemoaned the fact that he had just backtracked and lost all progress, but then he noticed something was wrong. He didn't hear any noises coming from the house. Not one noise: not a breath, nor a heartbeat...nothing.
'Is it possible they just left and abandoned the house?' Zenitsu wondered, 'I did probably scare them enough to do so.'
"There's a house up ahead," Zenitsu said to Hiroko, "but something seems wrong. I'm going to check it out real quick."
'Ack! What am I saying!? What if everything's fine and I'm committing breaking and entering!? What if they have a gun!? They'll shoot my face off! I'm gonna die, aren't I?' Zenitsu walked up to the house but still didn't hear anything inside...then he could smell a faint trace of something. Only then did he notice that the front door was broken. He cautiously went inside and the faint smell of dried blood hit him. He looked around and saw dry blood trails and claw markings on the floors and walls.
"What happened here?" he whispered to himself in disbelief. He went in deeper into the house, to where he believed the bedroom was, where he had been hiding below the previous night. When he opened the door he wanted to cry, the room was completely disheveled with more blood smears and claw markings in the wood and walls. He left the house quickly and looked around, and to the side of the house were three quickly put together graves.
'Three graves,' Zenitsu wondered, 'but there were four family members. What happened to the fourth?' He looked at the graves and noticed that one was adult-sized and two were child-sized. He felt the tears running down his cheeks, he wiped them away with his hands and only scratched himself twice.
"Is everything alright?" asked Hiroko who was sounding a bit nervous.
"The house has dry blood and claw marks inside. It looks like whoever was living here was attacked by something," Zenitsu said to her in a hushed voice, "and there are recently dug graves by the house. I'm not sure who dug the graves though."
"Oh, this must be the house that was attacked by the demon," Hiroko said with a nod, not picking up his distress, "people were speaking about it in town before I left. Only one family member managed to survive to get help. Perhaps your fellow Corps members are the ones who buried the dead?" Zenitsu only hummed in reply. He knew it wasn't his fault they were dead, but he still couldn't help but feel partially responsible.
"I'm going to quickly pay my respects," he said to Hiroko, "then we'll continue on our way." She tilted her head and was questioning why he would want to. 'It's not as if he knew the family.' He could hear her thoughts quite clearly. No, he didn't know them well, but he did know them for one day, and when you can practically hear someone's soul...it gets kinda personal. He silently said his prayer and the two continued on their way down the road.
The next half hour was tense, the mood had been dampened tremendously. Zenitsu was twice as stressed. Not only did he have to worry about other Demon Slayers here that would kill him without any hesitation, but there was also some random demon that could be lurking in the dark waiting to strike at them at any moment. He was doing all he could to keep it together for Hiroko, he didn't want to make her scared too. Suddenly he heard Hiroko gasp and the sound of a body falling to the ground. Zenitsu's heart nearly flew out of his mouth as he turned around expecting some huge demon on her back that he somehow missed hearing, but he saw that she had simply tripped on something.
"Ah! Ms. Kimiko," he said rushing over to her, "are you alright?!" He knelt by her to help her up.
"I think I tripped on a root," she replied, her voice had a hint of pain in it, "and I twisted my ankle." She started to sit back up when Zenitsu could smell something...something good. It started making him salivate almost instantly. He swallowed hard when he saw the huge gash in her forearm; it was bleeding. It wasn't bleeding excessively, but the real danger came from any possible infections...and...
He swallowed again. He couldn't take his eyes off her arm. The smell of her blood was intoxicating. Like he was smelling his favorite food after not having it for months. He was fighting the urge to grab her arm and lick the blood...or better yet...
'Nononono,' he closed his eyes and grabbed the sides of his head, 'bad thoughts! Bad thoughts!'
"Y-You have a really bad cut on your arm," Zenitsu said lowering his shaking hands, his voice also had a slight waver in it, "we need to—to cover it."
"I have some silk handkerchiefs," Hiroko said a bit sadly, "they were wedding gifts from my friends. They were some of the only things I could bring with me." She reached into her pockets and pulled out several very beautiful silk handkerchiefs. Zenitsu took a red one and used it as the main dressing for the wound. He was still salivating and was swallowing so often that he hoped Hiroko didn't notice, but as he was using the other handkerchiefs as a compression, he could hear new doubt and fear rise in her. Why? Then he looked down and wanted to die on the spot. His claws were lightly touching her skin. Oh. Fuck. He looked at her face, but she didn't look like she was frightened. If anything, she looked very calm and collected about the situation at hand. She was obviously someone who knew how to hide things well from people. When he was done, he had some of her blood on his hands. It took everything he had to not lick his hands, so he simply wiped them on his hakama pants.
"Uh, that should hold till we get to town," Zenitsu said, "but you'll need to see a doctor and get stitches. Is your ankle okay enough to walk on?" She turned her head towards her leg and went to move her ankle but it barely moved.
"No, I don't think so," she said, this time she was less confident-sounding, "it hurts just to move it."
"My Gramps used to say that sprains can hurt worse than a break. Here," he started to gather her up, "I can carry you back to town. It's no trouble, really." As he picked her up, he noticed how stiff she was, like she didn't want to be picked up but once she was in his arms, she relaxed slightly...just slightly. If the walk was tense before, it was simply unbearable now. As he walked with Hiroko in his arms, he could clearly hear her thoughts:
She knew. She knew he was a demon. She had her doubts originally about him because even though she wasn't near the same level of heightened senses as he was, she could tell something was 'off' about him. Then when he held her arm to bandage it, he had been careless. His hands had been trembling from his whetted appetite, and he kept brushing her skin with his claws. It was only lucky he didn't cut her. But that wasn't what cemented her mind about him. It was when he picked her up and walked with her. She could hear and feel his heart. It didn't sound or feel human...not anymore. (Even he knew that; he hated his new sound.) But she didn't want to give her hand away.
He could hear her jumbled thoughts about her situation:
'What should I do? I can't make it to town on my own now with a twisted ankle, and I'm at the demon's mercy. Is it actually taking me to town or is it lying? Do I call out for help and hope the real Demon Slayers hear me? Will that only make it mad and drop the act? Is it just acting? It did sound concerned though, I don't know what to believe.'
He felt like he was going to cry again. Just another reminder of his—
"What's this?" Zenitsu's thoughts were snapped back to attention when he saw that Hiroko was feeling his Katana's handle.
"Oh, that's my Nichirin Blade," he answered, "it's a special kind of katana to slay demons with. All Demon Slayers have them." Hiroko didn't reply to his answer. Zenitsu decided against listening to her thoughts. He was already feeling depressed. However, he did hear something in the distance that made him stop walking.
"Why are we—"
"Shhh," Zenitsu hushed, trying not to shout and sound scared as best he could, "I hear something coming this way." Hiroko for the first time wrapped her arms around Zenitsu's neck to get a better hold of him.
"I-I don't think it's human," Zenitsu whispered lower, her grip tightened on him, "I think it already knows we're here."
"What do we do?" she whispered. She was frightened, more so than she had been before, but nowhere near the same level of panic he was currently at.
"I—" Zenitsu began to say when suddenly, it happened. He looked up and saw it approaching from the air, he only knew because he could hear the whistling wind as the attacker dived down towards them. Thankfully his cowardly instincts were razor-sharp, and he was able to jump backward in ample time before the hit came. Hiroko yelped in surprise and buried her face into his neck. (If this had been any other time, Zenitsu probably would have melted.) He didn't even have to let the dust settle to know what attacked them, the noise it produced was like a mix of dry-and-wet-cicadas and nails scraping on a chalkboard.
"It's a d-demon," he said, horribly failing to hide his fear, "and a really big one too!" The demon was double his size, gray-skinned with swirling markings all over his arms and legs. It also had two curved horns on its head, but what bothered him the most was his eyes: they looked like what goat eyes looked like, but more warped looking.
'So creepy looking!'
The demon tilted his head while looking at them, then smiled and started to laugh.
'Gah! Even his laugh is creepy!' Zenitsu thought.
"What are you doing here?" he said pointing right at Zenitsu, "This is my territory runt. Go find your own hunting grounds! However, I'm feeling generous tonight," he said smiling down at the trembling demon holding the woman in his arms, "so for toll to pass through my territory, hand over your catch." Hiroko tensed up.
"I'm not handing anything over," Zenitsu yelled at the demon, unfortunately, his voice cracked a bit, "we're both passing through whether you like it or not." The demon looked down at him, then laughed hard. The cicada and nail sounds made Zenitsu grind his teeth.
"You've got some nerve thinking you can just walk in MY woods, and act as you can just do and say as you please." The large demon started advancing towards them, "Give me your meal and I might just forget I even saw you." There was a deep rumbling growl that suddenly cut in the air. Hiroko dug her nails into Zenitsu's back, a reaction out of fear. At first, Zenitsu thought it was the other demon who was growling at him, but when the demon frowned and took a step back he realized that he was the one who was growling. He didn't like the sound of his growl...it sounded way too savage and scary.
"You little punk," the demon said, but not as confidently, "now I'm just going to rip off your limbs!" He reached out to grab him but Zenitsu jumped over the attack and went to spring off the top of the demon's head but he misjudged the height and ended up slipping. To compensate for it, his feet claws dug into the demon's face and as he pushed off, it cut straight through the skull and down the face. The demon screamed in pain, giving Zenitsu time to run.
"What did you do?" asked Hiroko.
"I think I just pissed it off, that's what I did!" yelled Zenitsu in a panic. He could hear the demon running behind him and that terrified him.
'Oh my God, now what,' Zenitsu thought as he ran at full force, 'I can't fight back, not with Ms. Kimiko here! I also can't run to town, it'll just bring the demon to it! Oh man, I'm no good at making quick decisions!' He looked behind him, the demon was fast, but he had to get him off his tail to hide Hiroko or there was no way he could properly fight back. There was one thing he could do but he wasn't particularly thrilled about doing it but he didn't have a choice.
"Hang on tight to me Ms. Kimiko," he said to her, "I need both hands for something." She did as told and wrapped her arms as tight as she possibly could around his torso like a chest strap. Slightly whimpering, he turned around and charged at the demon. Then he jumped up and latched onto its chest with his lower claws. The demon seemed surprised at not only the speed of Zenitsu's sudden attack but how bold it had been. Zenitsu took the small window of opportunity this presented and with his freed hands, gouged out the demon's eyes with his thumbs, then twisted his head clean off and tossed the head as far as he could. Before he could even process what he just did, he jumped down and ran into the woods in the opposite direction.
"What did you do?!" cried out Hiroko, who was frightened from all of the screaming and bone snapping noises she'd heard.
"I-I bought us some time," said Zenitsu, who himself was slightly disgusted with what he did, "but it's not down. It'll regenerate. I got to get you to a safe hiding spot." They came up to a thicket with several fallen trees, it was their best option. He placed her within a dense bush and quickly gathered up several fallen branches.
"Lay down here and no matter what you do or whatever you hear, don't move or make a sound," Zenitsu said. She did as she was told and laid face down on the ground and he placed the branches on top of her to help hide the part of her that the bush did not cover. Once she was properly hidden, he started to move away from her so she would be out of danger. He was hoping to have a greater distance from her but before he knew it, something hit him and he went flying into a tree. If he had been human, the hit alone probably would have killed him. He looked up and saw that the demon's head wasn't fully reattached yet, but his eyes were shooting daggers at him.
"I'm going to break every bone in your body eight dozen times!" it roared at him while taking another swing at him. Zenitsu didn't think, just reacted: he grabbed his sword and performed an Iaijutsu strike and sliced off the demons' hands and sidestepping out of the way before taking a blow. The demon paused, then turned to face Zenitsu who was slightly quivering in fear of him. For the first time, he took a good look at him, his sword and outfit.
"Wait a minute," said the demon as he grew back the lost limbs, "I've seen that uniform you're wearing before, and that kind of blade. Don't tell me you're with those damned Demon Slayers Corps!" He paused while thinking about it, then smiled and started to laugh.
"Oh, I get it now," he purred as he pointed at him, "you were a weakling Demon Slayer who got turned into a demon! Isn't that ironic! Do they even know?! What would happen if your precious little Corps found out about you? Do you think you'll be given fair treatment? Do you want to find out? You know," said the demon with a smile," there are other Demon Slayers in this forest that were hunting me, but if you somehow manage to kill me with that blade of yours, I'm sure you'll only be setting yourself up to take my place on the chopping block. I think I'll just let you take my place, what do you think about that?"
'He's right,' Zenitsu thought, 'the other Slayers are only looking for one demon after all, and they'll kill me if given the chance...but,' he paused and listened deep into the woods, 'all I have to do is stall a little longer.'
"Answer me you little blond brat!" the demon yelled out, taking another swing at him. Zenitsu for his part just dodged the swing and put his sword back into the scabbard. This action enraged the other demon.
"Oh you don't think I'm worth fighting with your sword now, do you?! You've made the biggest mistake of your damned life!" The demon went wild, and started swinging at him left and right. Zenitsu, on the other hand, kept dodging each attack. It would have looked amazing if he weren't whimpering so loudly.
"Stay still you damn cricket!" the demon roared out in frustration. He kept hitting the ground and trees and making such a ruckus, exactly what Zenitsu wanted. Zenitsu kept an ear out, and soon he could hear the Demon Slayers coming and fast.
"Well," said Zenitsu, trying to sound cool but his voice cracked due to fear so the effect was lost, "time's up. See you later." He jumped up as high as he could onto a tree and started to jump from tree to tree away from the demon as fast as he could. The demon looked on as he watched Zenitsu make a hasty retreat.
"Hey, we're not done yet," he called out, "get back here!" He went to chase after the demon runt, but then he felt something slice his leg clean off. He grunted in pain and collapsed to the ground. Looking up, he saw that a Demon Slayer had cut off his leg. He tried to regenerate his missing limb and make a run for it, but he saw that he was already surrounded by eight other Demon Slayers. He was good as dead. Meanwhile, Zenitsu came up to where Hiroko was hiding, just as promised she hadn't moved an inch.
"I'm back Ms. Kimiko," Zenitsu quietly said, taking the branches off of her. She slowly sat up and was shaking, still clearly affected by the adrenaline rush and fear.
"Is the other demon dead?" she asked quietly.
"It is," Zenitsu said, "I can hear the other Slayers praising themselves for killing it. Look," he said more sadly, "I know you're scared of me. I won't make you be with me any longer. You're scared, I can hear that. I've got really good hearing you see, that's how I knew the other Slayers were close by to help out. Now all you have to do is call out to them and they'll hear you and take you home." Hiroko seemed shocked.
"But what about you?" she asked.
"I'll be nearby, up in this tree to make sure they do it," he said, he took her hand and gently squeezed it, "I...I hope things work out for you. Take care, Ms. Kimiko." With that, he let go of her hand and climbed the tree. Hiroko blinked several times then finally started to call out for help. Zenitsu listened for the other Demon Slayers, thankfully they did hear her and started running towards her. As they came over, he saw that they were higher-ranking members, Tsuchinoes and older members to boot. Normally, Demon Slayers die young, but these members were nearing their thirties.
"She's over here," called out one of them, he leaned down and was examining her over, "are you alright?"
"Not exactly," Hiroko said, her voice started to waver; it sounded like she was on the verge of tears, "I've twisted my ankle and can't walk."
"Damned demon," said another Slayer, "probably dragged her out here. How did you escape it?" he asked her directly. There was a brief pause, but then Hiroko said calmly:
"It wasn't hard tricking it, but as I ran away I twisted my ankle. I hid in the undergrowth; I was very lucky." That answer seemed to satisfy the Slayers.
"Well," said the group leader, "we'll split up. You three take her back to town while the rest of us hunt down the second demon it spoke about." Zenitsu froze. That dirty demon ratted him out.
"There is no other demon," Hiroko said flatly, "it told me it would tell that lie to confuse and split you up; making it easier to take you down." Zenitsu looked down at her and was shocked, she wasn't saying that out of fear. Was she trying to cover for him?
"Tch, should have known it was lying," said a female Slayer, "it did say that this 'other' demon had our uniform on and wielding our blade. Probably just to spite us."
"If that were the case," said the Slayer who picked up Hiroko in his arms, "I would have spat on the damned thing before slicing its head off. Could you imagine, what a reprehensible creature to pose as one of us?" The group laughed and began to walk away, leaving Zenitsu to shiver in the tree. It made it official: he was a disgrace to not only his Gramps but to the Corps and would be shown no mercy if ever caught. It made it all the worse that the other demon had been right. He watched as Ms. Kimiko was getting farther and farther away, but right before she was out of sight, he heard something so soft that he almost didn't hear it:
"Take care yourself as well, Zenitsu."
A small smile formed on his face. For him, that made everything worth it. He waited for a bit before coming back down the tree, just in case, and made his way back to the main road. He looked up at the sky. It was still dark, but he somehow knew he only had a few hours left before dawn. He sighed, if he hurried he might make it back to the badger den before the sun came up. He didn't feel like running though, he was tired...but the sun was now a killer, and there were no second chances with it. Before he started back he heard something above him. He looked up and...
"CHUNTARO," he yelled out, "where have you been?! You keep disappearing on me! WHY! Where are you going that's so important that I—" he stopped when the bird dive-bombed his head, causing him to quickly duck down.
"Oi! Stop that!" he yelled, "What have I done to deserve such treatment?!" He let the sparrow land on his hand if only so he could continue to yell at it.
"And here I thought you liked me, instead you're trying to—" Zenitsu finally noticed the letter that Chuntaro had, "eh, a letter? Why didn't you say so in the first place, silly bird." he took the small letter from the bird and carefully examined it.
"Who would be writing me a letter?" he asked opening it. He read the following:
'Zenitsu Agatsuma,
You are ordered to go to the region of Iruma as soon as possible, there you will wait for further instructions.'
"That's it," he said flipping the order over to see if anything else was written on it, "no order to kill a demon or anything? That's weird." He put the order in his front pocket and let Chuntaro land on his hand.
"You know the way to Iruma, don't you? I've never been and I don't even know where we are right now." Chuntaro chirped brightly.
"I take that as a 'yes'?" asked Zenitsu, Chuntaro chirped again, "I wonder what's so important about Iruma? Well, I guess we'll start first thing in the evening. I need to get back to the den first, that's going to take time...I'm tired, it's been a long night Chuntaro, let me tell you."
The rest of the night was Zenitsu recapping the night's events, and generally complaining multiple times about all the negative aspects of the night and his life in general. If either one had paid close attention to their surroundings, they would have noticed the crow with the lavender scarf watching and listening carefully.