A/N: The moment I noticed a review on this story I was so excited that I got right to work on this chapter. Unfortunately I didn't finish it till just now but I've been trying to work on it since that day! Reviews make me believe someone cares about the story rather than its just a way to kill time, and since I now have so many ongoing stories I don't work on what gets no reviews.

So leave a review on what you liked in this chapter(or didn't like) and I'll get back to it soon!

Chapter 5 – The Second Clue

It was late into the afternoon and the crowd in the main square had thinned out somewhat. Those that were left were shopkeeps, or the occasional person looking for a good deal on an expiring scroll.

"I guess there's not much we can do for now. If we want to get to Renes, we'll need to charter a ship to Iria."

The Demon Slayer rested his mace over his shoulder. "I recall you mentioning this Iria place as a different continent. Exactly how long of a trip is it to get there?

Josh thought about it for a minute. He'd never actually gone to Iria himself but he'd heard plenty of stories from Heart. It's not that long of a trip across the sea, 5 hours at most, from what Heart's told me. The problem is getting around once we're there." He touched his hand to his chin, deep in thought.

"Why? Are there many strong monsters?"

"Huh?" Josh looked up at the Slayer, noting that he seemed excited by the idea of strong monsters. He's so battle thirsty… "Well no. Not in the majority of the land. The problem is the size of the land itself. Iria is a vast continent," he explained, "There are five main sections and each takes a few days to cross, and that's with a horse or eagle."

The Demon Slayer's eyes widened. He could scale the mountains of El Nath, and descend into the depths of Zakum's cave, in a matter of minutes. Surely time could not be so different in this world. Then again… It had taken them the entire night simply to move from one town to the other. There's no Six-path Crossways here. Of course it would take longer. This is not the Maple World. The Demon Slayer sighed at the reminder of how far from his world he was.

He felt a hard pat on his shoulder and looked up to see Josh's smiling face.

"Don't let it get you down. We'll see about getting a boat in the morning. For now, I'm starving and I'll bet you haven't eaten in a while either." Josh put his arm around the Demon Slayer's shoulder in a manner far too friendly for the Slayer's liking. Josh laughed as the Demon Slayer took his arm by the sleeve and removed it. "Okay okay, but seriously come on. We'll get some food then head up to the church. They'll give us shelter for the night.

XXX

After a quick meal, and Josh acquainting himself with Glenis, the food shop's owner, the two of them headed up the stairs to the Dunbarton Church. There were only two people in Dunbarton that Josh knew well; the first was Stewart, while the second was the priestess Krystal. He had been there with Heart the day that Krystal had told them of her feelings for the sage Tarlach, and of her existence as one of the dreaded Succubae of Rabbie Dungeon.

Krystal was normally such a kind soul; the thing she feared most was that other Fomors would come to take their revenge for her betrayal. Because of this, the moment she saw the Demon Slayer, she went nuts. It took all of Josh's strength to keep the two of them from duking it out right there (The Demon Slayer had been all too eager to accept the fight that he said "she clearly wants").

"You say he's not an Incubus and yet I can feel the hate coming from his very soul!" Krystal yelled at the top of her lungs. Her arms reached to claw at the Demon Slayer; it was all Josh could do to hold her back.

"I'm telling you Krystal! You've got it all wrong!"

"Why not just let her come at me?" The Demon Slayer said smugly. He stood just out of arms reach with his arms folded in a self-assured, yet well-guarded, posture. "She'll learn soon enough not to trifle with me." His obvious cockiness only served to further infuriate Krystal as she made another lunge at him.

"Shut Up Dude! You are NOT Helping this Situation!" Josh yelled. The Demon Slayer shrugged.

"I don't care what Josh says!" Krystal yelled at the Demon Slayer. "I've seen your type! You would kill your own family if it got you more power! You're a monster!"

"Krystal that's enough!" Josh pushed her back again, gritting his teeth with the effort.

The air around them froze. Krystal noticed it first. All that anger she had felt a minute ago dropped into the pit of her stomach as an overwhelming aura of hate pressed down upon her. Looking up she saw red flames flowing around the body of the Demon Slayer. She had done the one thing he would never forgive; she had blamed him for the death of his family.

An immense wind churned around them as the Demon Slayer's Boundless Rage welled up inside of him. His blood red eyes bore down on Krystal. Her voice failed her and she stepped back nervously. The Demon Slayer moved towards her, but stopped when Josh stepped in between them.

"Out of the way human." Despite his enormous power and obvious anger, the Demon Slayer's voice was calm. He was reluctant to kill the boy but if he did, he certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

"Let's just calm down a second, alright?" Josh forced the calm into his voice, even though he knew if the Slayer was determined there would be no way to stop him. Not if it's just me at any rate… Josh stared into the Demon Slayer's eyes. There's anger but something else… pain? Sadness? What did Crystal comment? 'You'd kill your own family for more power'

"I will ask you one last time to step aside."

"And I'll refuse one last time."

A fight between the two seemed imminent. Until, THUNK! the hilt of a fishing pole collided with Josh's forehead, and the human fell to the ground. The randomness of the moment caused the Demon Slayer to lose hold on his Boundless Rage. He turned, with eyebrows raised, to find the source of the flying weapon.

A girl stood not far off covering her mouth with her hands. She rushed forward, issuing apologies for hitting the wrong person. A young girl, maybe 16 years of age. Shining brown hair was pulled back into a messy bun that hung down on the side of her head. The light blue accents on her black robe really brought out the color of her eyes, which seemed to have a playfulness about them.

"I am Sooo Sorry! I meant to hit the incubus, not you." She said as she helped Josh to his feet.

"Hey..." The Demon Slayer reached forward toward the girl but she didn't even hear him and kept talking.

"I was so shocked to see fomor just standing there that I reacted before even thinking it through."

"girl... hey!"

"I mean seriously, what's an incubus even doing in Dunbarton? Ab Neigh and Dugal castles are a days walk away and going that far from," she reached down for her fishing pole, "the safety of their dungeons is..."

"Girl!" The Demon Slayer stomped down hard on the pole, snapping it in half. "For the last time, I am a Demon not an Incubus!" His wings extended to full length and beat the air menacingly. The girl stared at her broken fishing rod. In an instant, came the second time in a single day that someone had gotten in the Slayer's face before he could react.

"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR!? THAT WAS MY FAVORITE FISHING POLE!" The bone colored rod, with a sharkfin-like protrusion jutting from the wood above the break, lay sadly on the ground. "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU ARE! YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO DO THAT! IT TOOK ME MONTHS TO GATHER ALL THE FISH SPECIES TO WIN THAT ROD!"

The Demon Slayer was forced backward by the girl's advances; her sudden reaction had caught him off guard. A relatively frequent occurrence since his arrival in the new world. The girl kept yelling obsceneties at him, backing him all the way up to the stairs. Soon as he felt his retreating foot miss a step and hit air, the Demon Slayer leapt back and gave a mighty heave with his wings, pulling himself safely into the sky above the now shocked elf.

"Crazy elf..." He muttered under his breath. Her attitude was a bit too similar to Mersedes for his liking. The elf queen had also shown a distinct lack of fear of him.

"Whoa... That's cool."

Josh took the break in yelling to step in and talk to the elf while the Demon Slayer hovered above them. "Thanks for your help miss..."

"Fantasia, but call me Fanny." She kept her eyes on the Demon as she answered, "the Seductive leader of the Statuesque Guild," she added with a smile.

"Oh, hey I've heard of you from Heart!"

Fanny turned and surveyed Josh. "You know Kathy?" Josh nodded. "Have you seen her? We've been trying to find her for ages. We won't be able to assist in the Scathach forest purification without her."

"Well actually..."

"We are searching for her as well." The Demon Slayer landed a few feet away from them on the side away from the stairs. Better to have a defendable position, he thought.

"And why would an incubus be looking for our guild healer? Or a Sage at all for that matter, isn't magic a weakness of your fomor defenses?"

"I have no idea for as I have stated previously, I am not an Incubus."

"Now now you two. Let's calm down and talk. We can go into the Church where there is some light and discuss thing. Right Krystal?... Krystal?" The terrified priestess had fled into the church and barred the door. They made their way to Simon's Clothing shop instead.

"ah mi, Fantasja mon sheri. And what have you got for me to repair today hmm?"

"Nothing today, Simon. It alright for us to go up to the work room to talk?"

"But of course. I shall bring some tea up for you and your guests when the shop clears out a bit more." Simon swung around to berate a young boy attempting to pilfer a small seeing kit, while the group headed up the stairs.

Simon came up with a pot of Thyme Tea, a half an hour later. Fanny stared at her cup without drinking any as her mind tried to absorb the fact that her friend was involved in some mysterious power struggle with another world.

Simon shook his head when Josh finished the summery of events since the DemonSlayers arrival. "Tsk tsk, Zat is most unfortunate to hear that sherri Katzerine is missing. She always took such good care of her Adonis dress. Most unfortunate, indeed."

"She always talked about another world but I never imagined it was anything like this. I thought it was just her imagination," Fanny said with shock evident in her voice."

The Demon Slayer leaned against the wall next to the door. "Well I assure you, the Maple world is quite real." Fanny shook her head.

"But it makes no sense! What would whoever brought you here be trying to gain by capturing her? I mean sure she was a Great Sage but she's not nearly the most powerful out there. What could they gain?"

"I've been thinking about that." Josh glanced to the Demon Slayer. "What if whoever took Heart doesnt know that you're here?"

"I don't follow..."

"Well, back in Tir Chonail you mentioned being in your world one moment then the next thing you could remember was a white room and a black dress. What if that was Nao?"

"But Nao only appears to Militeans." Fanny reminded him.

"But before that she appears to Souls lost in the Adelia Stream. If his soul somehow was drawn out of his world it could have found its way to her, then she would bring him here."

"I guess that's possible..."

whith the knowledge we currently possess, anything is possible. I would only wonder who it was that pulled my soul from Maple world. Was it your friend or someone else?"

Josh shrugged. "We won't know until we find her."

"You mentioned you found a message that said Renes. Can you show me?"Josh pulled out the wand, unwrapped the leather then rewound it like before. Fanny examined the message; the Demon Slayer pointed to where it said Renes in his language. Fan nodded. Well I'll see who I can gather in the guild to gather information on Kathy. Maybe if we can figure out what happened before she disapeared we can figure out who's behind this mess."

"Oui, Zis is a lovely plan, did I mention young Katzerine came to my shop ze day you claim she vanished?"

Fanny rolled her eyes, "why didn't you mention this sooner?"

"And interupt zis thrilling tale? Not likely." Simon smiled the bustled out of the room. He returned a moment later with a Broad-brimmed Feather Hat. "Zis is what she left wis me. It has ze most marvolous Mana-usage reduction sewn into each stitch she always watched when I repaired it. So afraid my hand vould slip." Simon shrugged his shoulders and placed a hand worriedly on his cheek. "But zen zis last time she said she has to drop somezing off wiz monsuer Steward. 'twas very peculiar, No?"

"and after that she never came back?" Simon shook his head. While the others discussed possible reasons for Heart's sudden abandonment of her most prized items, the Demon Slayer stared long and hard at the white hat.

"Is this hat changing colors?"

Simon's face brightened considerably, "You, sir, have a good eye. In fact zis is one of my favorite examples of a magical dye job. Note the very subtle shift from pure white to a shining silver. Absolutely marvilous!"

"and this dye covers the entire hat?"

"But of course only the poorest of tailors would have any item partially dyed."

"So then why is this area not flashing?"

"What?!" Simon, Josh and Fanny leaned in. Sure enough there was a 3 inch strip along the brim that remained a pale off white. Josh jumped to his feet and turned out the lights. As their eyes adjusted a glow came from the small strip, Siren.