ACT 15

At midnight, around the outskirts of the forest where there was less settlement of people, less building and facilities unlike the big city. It's the area of localness, where people still live among nature. The Hill village. Long history, ancient tradition and deep family-line. People live under the protection of the forest and the goddess of earth.

It is supposed to be only silence that prevails throughout the deep forest like everyday. The villagers must go back home and get a good sleep for tomorrow's work on the barn or farm. Several domestic animals also took a nap. However, for unknown reason, they also never knew a horde of demons also plotted for the attack for a long time.

And today was their strike. Long plan with much expectation for a sweeping feast time.

They could have slaughtered a number of villagers and had a big feast. Altogether, they would be a gang of demons who would be powered up with this much flesh.

Today was different. Tonight marked the dissimilar tale. It was filled with the hollow, cry and scream all over the place. The picture along the forest should be an indicator of beautiful nature for the sublime but now it was a mess. The crater of surface, splinters of wood, slicing trace over the trees.

The dark red blood splashed, showered the ground but the body, falling down turned into dust as if there was a mechanic of the body to burn itself after being beheaded.

"Why were there two Hashira today! They shouldn't be here" One eerie voice spatted in haste, hiding himself behind a big husk of a tree, propping its horned head out to see if any men followed it.

"Damn hashira! damn demon slayer!" The demon gritted his teeth in the fume of anger.

He exhaled in relief. A pair of dark red eyes glowed in fury which was in contrast to a white moon of today. This was a place that should e a large ceremony to lessen their hunger and to get what they wanted- a need to be more powerful by feeding on human flesh. Who said a life of demons would be easy . It was totally not at all. They need to eat human or else they would be stripped out from a gang and the father of the demon would annihilate when there's no improvement. Whilst the growth of demon slayers was proved to be their obstacle, a pain in the ass, the eyesore one.

"Everything's wrong! Akasa-sama should not lie to us. That damn demon slayer ruined our meal" It was a demon, in the form of a human but it only had one horn, long fang and big red eyes while its body was pale green. "How can we get rid of them..yes..yes...telepathy to Akasa-sama for back up! Yes! They will fear our Upper Moon even for that bastard Hashira. Yes Upper Moon will defeat them"

Trying to consolidate the power, It flinched when one body was sent flying across its head and it pressed at the tree with a splash of ombre liquid. That the companion had a body of blue-they had different colors but appearance was the same. It urged the fury as well as the demand to fight them head on.

Popping its head out, It was alarmed, checked left to right one more time before concentrating into meditation. It was hard in this risky situation like this but fighting an eyes to eye with Hashira was not an easy ons for a lower gang of demons like them.

I have to contact Akaza-sama. Report! Report! Akasa-sama! We need your help! Oni demon thought but not faster than the dance of one Pillar casting a twirling shadow over the tree and looming this demon who now gaped in the mixture of fear and fury.

It ran out to another massive tree for the hiding. Akaza-sama report! We encounter two hashira and their group at Hill village. Another receiver was going to reply however it was cut short.

"I see you! I won't let you harm any men here!" That Pillar attacked some of his companions and then jumped into the air, very high and went higher than normal human or ordinary demon rank like him could do. The blade was noticeable and differentiated from every Hashira.

He trailed his eyes up in the air; full moon was a background, he never heard a report that one Pillar could have a potential to do something extraordinary like this, punched his companion with bare hand and sent that body flew backward almost a kilo or two and that strange sword, which could not be called a sword but it's long and flexible like a whip. Now it laced around her body like a parade of fireflies in the dark.

She cartwheeled down to land a finished strike on one demon gracefully, landing on a ground with her tiptoe. She also swung her sword, making a long and flexible sword curling around herself, creating a barrier when Oni demon sent a ball of flame toward her in an exchange.

She reflexed all flames and again as well as cried like a child when lots of flame sending to her but she dodged all well with no burned damage, flinged a sword into circle motion so the sharp whip weapon moved freely but distinctively very fast. She had them stunned by free motion and had them killed in a fast instant. With her one swing, she mutilated several oni demons. Some survived, took damage but that sword slided backward to them and cut their upper half body easily. Unreadable movement had them cough into a whirl of her ribbon sword. Even though she cried out like a child.

Leader oni demon who tried to contact Akaza was stunned, ran from its hiding again. But the aftereffect of her impact also cut a lot of trees and it blocked his path unfortunately. She noticed him and jumped up with one fling. He cried, didn't know when her sword reached him. Faster than expect and no room to prepare, she slashed his body with multiple cuts and motioned her wrist to slash nearby oni demon, exclaiming her love breathing style to finish this demon gracefully and also she landed on the ground beautifully, a bit strample.

With the cheering squad of demon slayers, they clapped their hand, wooing and weeing her. She regained her composure, scratching her cheek in shyness to have their appreciation for her fighting.

While at some points, several oni demons slipped through her wide range attack. They ran out of her area for their dear life. Who could have thought of all demons, there was the hashira with the unique ability like this in the history of their war. Hesitant, they looked back to see getting out of her stance as much as possible.

They turned back, decided to get into the nearby cave which could be their best option to hide because inside the cave, it's like a labyrinth. They ran forward at the cave, the entrance was not that far from their feet while their body was moving forward yet their head was falling backward. A sight of white metallic sword radiated in the moon. It moved very fast, spinned and curled every neck in utmost accuracy and sharp. It writhed one by one and took them life in a row furiously like the snake craving for the pray.

Obanai channelled agility to the max, using his wrist to lunge to trying-to-escape demons, bending his wave-like sword and rotating it and knocking them down in fastness. His Snake Breathing worked really effectively in this situation. For the purpose of assasination with one shot kill.

Obanai turned to the direction of another group, his face twitched. "you fucking disgrace! Gaddamnit found something useful to do it! Don't disturb Kanroji! Or else I should cut your eyes out" they all were intimidated by his aura of killing intent so they all stopped. "Do something useful, use your big head! Don't distract Kanroji! You idiot! Oi you hear me?" Pretending to do something else to avoid looking at his murderous eyes.

"Iguro-san" Her voice hung low like a whisper.

"Hai! sorry" Lower slayers need to bow to show the apology.

It became a custom that they should not show much affection toward this popular and lovable Love Pillar in front of this man much or else their neck would meet the coldness and sharpness of his blade. Strangely enough, a girl seemed not to be disturbed by his interference as she seemed to like it when he showed his overprotective side like this. Her face and eyes gleamed dreamy.

"Kanroji, no need to worry, they will not distract you again. I will keep an eye to discipline them" Every slayer shouted inside 'it's a big lie'

"Iguro-san worried about me? It's so nice!" She giggled and it warmed his heart even in the midst of battle. It added extra morale to him.

Yet the fact is she always had this same reaction toward everyone showing affection to everyone. He swore everyone must feel the same way as he did, if not those would be considered as cold hearts to the core of their bones. So it made this Snake Pillar to be more feisty toward them because the way they woo and wee her made him want to throw a punch to each of them.

"H-hmm..I want to make sure you can do your work properly" Obanai said, still collected in his own posture.

"You're a considerate man, Iguro-san" He thought she would scream inside like she always trying to stifle her girly squeak.

Mitsuri did, she screamed inside as she always did, it drove her to jump higher and higher as her adrenaline pumped out her heart-beating power. She rushed toward a group of demons approaching her with a wild squeak.

Obanai in turn watched her in awe for her beauty and strength with a pink flush over her cheek. She managed to deal with a number of demon at once. He muttered she's so good and has a good potential. Even now her jump and slash got rid of demons trying to circle her then it was her who were showered by their bloor instead, nearly soaking. It made her off-guard. Her concentration went off the circuit.

"Hah?..." Obanai narrowed his eyes to focus on her being floated and nosedived eventually. What's that expression? He thought and heard her scream kyaaaaaa very loud.

She overdid it again - from her jump and her out of focus on blood soaking her. He sighed. Her jump was over a normal level, anyone can tell it is too much even though she's strong and flexible. When she jumped, stepped on the branch to attack demons from the height but the problem was how to get down then her mind also wondered off from a pool of blood.

He flicked down and saw a bunch of oni demons waiting for her downward "Kanroji!" He shouted and knew she's distracted because of a pool of blood over her hair and clothes. She cannot concentrate on landing.

With his steadfast decision, Obanai lunged forward, past several demons.

"Uwww! Whaooo! Iguro-san! Move! I can't .." Mitsuri worried as seeing his body closed to her. She still had time left to worry someone else, even though she may not land safe and hurted by her overperformance. Her eyes reflected the ground and a group of demons waiting for her to fail.

At the right second, she knew she's busted now. Mitusri gave a whelp, a cry of surrender and angry for her miscalculation and overdoing.

My god..my god my god! Kami-sama! please please hel-p

"Get your dirty hand out of her!" She heard him. That's Iguro-san she thought and then she got the feeling of enveloping over her body.

Mitsuri opened her eyes and saw his face at the side of her face. He looked determined, focused and manly. She screamed loudly inside, not to disturb him.

Why would he look more manly like this? His angry voice and the furious heart was swept by his aid and hold. She never thought his small arm and lean body(leaner than her) could hold her. His grip around her torso was firm, likely it could squeeze her heart as well. His solid expression and strong vein took over his facade. Faint but sure, she can smell his body in this nearness. Clean and mild. Unlike her, stinct by blood.

He was able to catch her, carry her with one hand and wielded his sword to get the demon away from them before landing on the ground.

He landed on the ground, performed Snake breathing in an instant blink of eyes. It's fast and still accurate enough to kill one demon. Obanai balanced his hand on her and another hand holding his sword perfectly.

Obanai exhaled. Calm his body while several demon slayers came to their aid gradually after hearing his yell on her.

"Are you okay? Kanroji?" Obanai asked, very worried.

She blinked a few times before realised he asked her a question.

"Hai, hai Iguro-san" Mitsuri hid her face on her palm to scream "thank you very much" sneaked a glance to him and had an Ba Dum Ba Dum onto her heart again.

The rest of the slayers had to restrain themselves from throwing out. They pretended to turn their face in another direction to not interfere with their precious moment.

"I think.. next time we should fight with well planned or else.. I'm afraid you might get hurted" Obanai said, averting from her eyes as it's hard to explain you should plan on fighting, no reckless or getting hurt from acidence. "You should be more careful next time, Kanroji" He said, lowering his voice so as to not sadden her.

"Hai...Hai I understood…" She shunned her face away, he did too. Embarrassed, Mitsuri felt small suddenly when he warned her.

Everything went well during the mission. There's no possible threat after exterminating a gang of oni demons around here. No back up of them. A group of slayers were divided to do their job for the cleaning.

Mitsuri sat sadly because her rope, received as a gift from her mentor, was not in a good shape to use. It should be put in a big cleaning and drying but the off-white could be faded. Folding on her lap, she moaned in sad.

"Kanroji, I think you want to take a bath. The Villagers offer it to us and there's an onsen behind the village. What do you say?" Obanai came up with some news. And it was great news for her. Her lift resumed to shine again and it dissipated his exhaustion at the same time.

However, Love Hashira went to take a bath and took a chance for bathing in onsen afterward alone because she didn't want to bother anyone: everyone had done a great deal last night and they deserved to take a break here, she in fact was not the only presence here at the bath house.

Bath house was a small building made up from the entire strong wooden material. It sectioned into 2 separate rooms. One is for the bathing area and another room is for the onsen area.

Her voice hummed lively inside the onsen, her melody danced around the vapor. Without realizing it, Obanai sat at the wooden chair in front of the bath house. Resting his face on his hand, propping up his elbow on the table. He let his mind trailing off to her sound, also sent a warning glare, so as Kaburamaru, to every slayer to get away from taking a bath.

For a while, Obanai was greeted by her again, she was newly fresh and clean, some drop of water hanging around her strand like an accessory.

"Iguro-san why don't you take a bath?"

"I will" He stood up and checked on her wellness again. Mitsuri cleaned all of demon's blood from her hair and body. Luckily she had a spare set of her uniform but she didn't bring her spare robe.

"When do we get back?"

"Soon, now they're gathering things and clearing our temporary post"

"I see..then I will head back and help them pack things" Mitsuri said and fisted her hand up in the air. "I took so much time for bathing now I want to do my part"

"Hmm" was all his answer

"Then see you around,Iguro-san" Mitsuru waved him cheerfully. A second later, her pace halted abd she scooted toward him very fast. His hand also halted in the air from waving back to her.

"W-what's it?" He asked nervously as her new scent tickled his nose and lured his mind to drift away playfully.

Her eyes showed the seriousness. Mitsuri held his arm "Iguro-san"

Oh no.. Obanai swallowed a hard and large chunk of saliva. The screen was like a soap opera when he laid eyes past it yet, the position was switched because she took the dominance.

"Yes?" He simply voiced. Struggling.

"I will say one more thing" her grip was harder but he's also pleased to let her do it more.

"Alright.. what's it, hn?" Mitsuri leaned her face toward his left side suddenly, nonetheless the closeness between them, Obanai switched into a stoic mode to recompose himself.

"The onsen's really great. You should take your time there" Mitsuri whispered secretly while his expectation dived and his mind shuttered due to the prediction was not the same like he expected. "I will not tell them you took a bath so long okay?" She winked and ran toward a group of slayers. Left the hopeless man dealt with the racing heart and unruly bashfulness.

Obanai grunted in despair.

Why she had to make his heart beat this bad?

Upon several minutes, Obanai came out, newly bathed and fresh before getting back to the corps. He cannot see Kaburamaru at the front of the table.

Anxious, they never parted from each other. Obanai crouched down to see if his friend was below table but none was found. In fact, they stayed closely since his youth, nonetheless, he also cannot bear to see the world without Kaburamaru.

"Hey" called to one slayer "Have you seen Kaburamaru?" He shook his head, and offered to help in order to find it.

Sighed, two of them could not get a glimpse of an ivory snake. Stress building up, Obanai looked upon trees and asked another one. "You see Kaburamaru, don't you?"

"I saw it, Snake Hashira" this answer gained his relief. "Where about?"

"Kanroji-san is taking care now" with this lead, Obanai thanked him and followed a pointed direction toward a girl and his pet. A few minutes later, he found Mitsuri running and giggling while helping slayers packed things in the box, her shoulder was wrapped by an ivory snake which shooed and grr quietly when it saw someone rather than his owner approach her without its consent.

"Kanroji"

"Aah Iguro-san, over here" She waved to him as well as Kaburamaru. "I saw Kaburamaru-kun on table. I'm afraid he would be lonely so I took him with me" She offered the snake back to its owner. Joyous.

"Hmm thanks and..what's about your rope?" He saw her only wear her black uniform.

"I forgot to bring a spare one" her voice saddened. "I don't know my mentor will be sad or not because it's his gift to me when I became hashira"

"It was accident though"

"Yeah and I accidentally wore that one he had bought for me" her voice turned more saddened. "I should have thought more when I prepared things and stuff before going on a mission" She sighed, her lip flattened like a sad kid, reaching her finger to Kaburamaru as if to find some console.

"Mnn…" Obanai cleared his throat to attract her focus "it can't be helped, right? So here you'd better wear it" he took his haori off, folded and handed to her nonchalantly even his face started burning by his own attempt.

"I mean it's windy here and you may catch a cold. We'd better take care of our health" his hand reached to her slightly.

Mitsuru thanked him and draped it over herself. "Your haori is warm and good" while hmm was only his response.

A while, a couple broke from an invisible wall of shyness as the squeak of crow prevailed loudly. It startled a couple and drew their attention completely. Obanai huffed from the dissatisfaction to lose the quality private time to her and in the right time when he was be able to offer something to her. Rolling his eyes before boring into the crow.

It squeaked one more time and landed.

"Kanroji back back. New mission awaits you. New mission Kanroji. Back for new missions. Finish this one and back for new mission"

Obanai swore this was maybe the unsatisfactory announcement from a crow since he became hashira because he just want to delay the return one more day as he wanted to take her tour around this village, to spend time with her at the very least.

However, he sighed and ordered everyone to be ready for the abrupt return.

"Awww we have to return suddenly. I'm so sad, Iguro-san. I want to take a tour around thw village first and I want to take an onsen again" He turned to her dumbfoundingly, she stared back with a smile. Then he turned away and left her with the question or answer from him.

Why do we have to think in the same way? God…why….

"What's it Iguro-san? Something on my face?" She wrinkled her face and tried to palmed her face. He signaled none on her face.

"Nothing" Obanai thought how it would be to have a time with her here because at very least, she had a same vision like him. How it would be fun and happy between them. He groned one more time and left Mitsuri with questionable look on her face.

"Look now I'm Snake Hashira"

"No no it's not complete. You have to take Kaburamaru too. There Iguro-san, please hand her Kaburamaru" why did he have to follow her order? but his pet moved to Shinobu and placed itself on Mitsuri's shoulder obediently.

"What are you doing?"

"What? You can't see? We are with new Snake Hashira" Shinobu gave in and giggled with Mitsuri.

They were eventually back at the demon slayer corps, faster than expected. Now what he witnessed was Mitsuri presented herself as a new Snake Hashira because she had his haori while Shinibu also played in with her. It's joking to see Insect Pillar doing this kind of stuff. Mostly she would play when she's around Mitsuri only or else she would be a completely different person.

When they bid farewell, Mitsuri felt obliged to return his haori as well as his friend.

"Thank you for your offer," She said.

"Nothing much" Obanai replied and took his belongings. Picturing her on his haori in his vision one more time. He could smell her scent on his haori faintly but strikingly.

Stopping in front of him, Mitsuri begun "Then I think I have to say goodbye to you Iguro-san". He hummed back and his breath hatched when she laced her fingers into his, holding a gentle hand. "It was very fun to go on mission with you. If we have a spare time, I would like us to take a train and go sightseeing together again" She withdrew her hand, left the warm sensation tinkled a man and she patted his shoulder "thanks for your shoulder too for being my pillow on the train ha-ha it's hard to get a good sleep on a train without your shoulder" Mitsuri smiled sheepishly.

"Mnn nothing much" Obanai said nonchalantly, looking her step backward while her eyes on him.

Mitsuri took back 3 steps backward and stood. "Goodbye Iguro-san. I think I will be back as soon as possible" She waved then he did as well.

"Ah…and don't be reckless Kanroji, be careful on your way" Obanai found it's hard to struggle to pick up a word to her. He felt empty to see her saying goodbye like this. Ah okay, duty call of her. What he could do was to give her advice and suggestions, mind making his sound like not to warn her directly.

"Okie-dokie! See you Iguro-san"

"Ah" they both waved a few times.

Mitsuri turned away first, stepping out but was stopped her a call of her name.

"Kan-ro-ji!" Obanai, within range, searched for the speaker. It's none other than Ninja. He goes where he pleases and then whoop, he disappears and a second he appears on the tree above her.

Frowning, Obanai grunted what the f to do with him here. His hatch told him it would not be just an ordinary greeting. That mischief sparkling eyes of Uzui explained this to him.

"Prepare yourself and be hold the most flamboyant thing you will experience" He appeared again in front of her.

"Let's go on the mission!" The world went silent in Obanai's ears, his senses were shut a second. What he was supposed to fear the most happened now.

Because of what? Isn't it obvious, when it came to this Ninja and his extreme, weird and sly personality.

"We are gonna rock and roll together. You're exciting, aren't ya? Go take a good bath now! we're running out of time! We should not waste time here! Go go Kanroji!" He even monopolized the conversation, leaving no room for a girl. In slightly, her voice was covered by him totally. Processing the situation, Mitsuri was pushed by Sound Pillar like a doll, she just followed his lead and could not protest anything.