Chapter 16

It had been a few days since the strange events at the inn. Sai had returned to her normal self. Though she was still troubled by what the old man had said, she decided that it was best to move on. She thought that if they were meant to find out what the man had talked about, then they would, but if they weren't, then they wouldn't. The other option was that the man was crazy and involved with some strange demon and she shouldn't put any stock at all into what he said. At this point, it really didn't matter to her. She was going to take down the empire, whether she found this "embodiment of love" or not. It was a matter of pride for her now.

"You guys feel that?" Nami said, interrupting Sai's thoughts.

"Yeah." Kaze answered, "It was brief, but a strong demonic aura just passed over us."

"Any idea what it could be?" Sai asked.

"No idea." Kaze admitted, "But whatever it is, I don't think it's a good demon. Did you catch its scent?"

"No." Sai said, embarrassed. She'd been too wrapped up in her own thoughts. She hadn't even noticed the presence of a demonic aura.

"Damn." Kaze cursed.

"You want to try and find it?" Akage asked, "Something like that might know something."

"He might, but how would we go about finding him?" Umi asked, "If Sai didn't catch the scent, then how are we supposed to track him down?" This made Sai feel even worse about missing the scent. Her lack of attention could have cost them more than they could afford.

"It doesn't matter." Kaze said, noticing Sai's face, "We don't have time to chase every demon that we come across. There just isn't enough time for that. Instead, we should be focusing on getting to the next village and finding allies. We haven't come across a populated one in days. It's obvious that the empire is expanding its power, so we've got to respond and increase our own."

"Alright," Akage said, "Sai, can you pick up the scent of a village from here?" Sai sniffed the air looking for the tell tale scent of a village.

"There is one about a day's journey from here." She said. "I'm not sure how big it is, though, or even if it has people in it. I don't smell any smoke or blood, but we can't be sure of anything until we get there."

"Well, I don't think we have much choice, but to check it out." Nami pointed out, "We don't have anywhere else to go."

"Let's get moving then." Umi said in her typical cheery voice.

The group arrived at the village early the next day. It was populated, though it was fairly small. There had been no signs of the demonic aura that the group had sensed and they were starting to think that they had just been imagining things, especially since Sai hadn't caught anything. It wasn't long before the group caught the attention of the village leader. He came running out to greet them.

"Hello and welcome to our village." The man said when he reached the group.

"Thank you." Kaze began, "We're glad to see a village still standing. This is the first populated village that we've come across in days."

"I know." The man said, becoming serious, "It seems as though we're too small and insignificant to draw the attention of the empire."

"Well, I guess that's something to be glad about, right?" Nami said happily, "You're going to be safe!"

"I'm sad to say that that is not the case." The man said.

"What do you mean?" Sai asked.

"Since the empire has no plans of coming and wiping us out, an evil demon has been terrorizing us. It has been stealing our livestock and has even begun to demand our young women." The man explained.

"I see." Kaze said, pondering the situation. He turned to Akage. "Could that have been the demon we sensed on the road yesterday?"

"It's always possible." Akage told him, "Demons have mostly been in hiding recently. If they came across a place that was mostly being ignored by the empire, then it's likely that they would attack it." Kaze nodded and turned back to the village leader.

"Worry not, my good man." Kaze assured him, "We'll take care of this demon for you and, if we can, bring back the village women."

"That's wonderful!" The man said, "Please, rest from your travels here today and begin your search tomorrow."

"I'm okay with that." Umi chimed in.

"Me too." Nami agreed.

"Definitely." Akage said.

"Sai, are you okay with that?" Kaze asked.

"Yeah. I could use some time to relax." She was telling the truth. Sai hadn't slept in a real bed in days and was in desperate need of a bath.

"Alright. That settles it then." Kaze said, facing the village leader, "We'll take you up on your offer and begin our search tomorrow."

"Very good!" The man said happily, "I shall have your rooms prepared at once."

It wasn't long before the rooms were prepared and they were led to them. There was one for the guys and one for the girls. The rooms weren't much, but they were better than sleeping outside again. As soon as the group had settled into their rooms, Kaze left to ask around the village about the demon. Nami and Umi also left, probably to flirt with the guys in the village. Sai stayed behind in order to clean and sharpen her swords. It had been a while since she'd done so and they had started to smell heavily of blood. She pulled them out and found that the blades were also much duller than she had expected.

"Damn." She thought, "I need to take better care of these swords. Constant travel and fighting isn't good for them." She thought back to her angry time in the woods a few days earlier. "Cutting down trees with them probably didn't help either." She thought, laughing to herself. The she heard a knock on the door, interrupting her thoughts.

"Yeah?" She called out, "Who is it?"

"It's me." Akage said from behind the door, "Can I come in?"

"Yeah sure." Sai said, wondering what he wanted. "You alright?" She asked once he had closed the door behind him.

"Yeah, I just wanted to talk to you about something." He said.

"What about?"

"Um... I uh... I wanted to talk about Nami." Akage said, his face starting to turn red. Sai smiled.

"Oh. I see. You like her don't you?" Sai questioned.

"What? Uh... h-how did you know that?" Akage stammered.

"C'mon." Sai said, rolling her eyes, "It's pretty obvious. It's written all over your face."

"Fine, fine. You got me." Akage conceded, "I just don't know how to talk to her. She's always flirting with other guys and doesn't really seem to pay much attention to me."

"Trust me," Sai laughed, "that's a sign that she likes you too."

"What?" he said, stunned, "That doesn't make any sense."

"Teenage girls never make sense, Akage. That's just something that you've got to learn. We can be pretty strange." Sai admitted.

"Well, how do I impress her or get her to pay attention to me?" Akage asked desperately.

"Nami is a demon slayer. She values strength and she knows you have it. You're going to have to display it somehow. Just make sure that you respect hers." Sai warned, "She's proud and will hate it if you get in the way of her kill."

"You'll probably have to take down some powerful demon. It won't stop her from flirting, though." Sai said, thinking about her friend.

"What would it take to make her stop that?" Akage asked, hopefully.

"You'd probably have to marry the girl."

"I'm okay with that." Akage said, quickly.

"Good luck getting that girl to settle down." Sai laughed, "But hey, if anyone can do it, you can. She really likes you. More so than I've ever seen from her before."

"Really?"Akage asked.

"Yeah." Sai told him, "Now get out of here and get some rest or something. I need to finish my swords and get a bath." Akage thanked her and left pretty quickly after that.

"Damn. That guy's probably going to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out how to get Nami to marry him." She thought to herself, "Kinda hope he gets her, though. They'd be cute together." She sighed and went back to sharpening her blades and told a worker that walked by her room to prepare a bath for her.

Meanwhile, Kaze wasn't having much luck in the village. The villagers had never seen the demon and had no idea where it came from. This was going to prove to be a difficult hunt. The demon could obviously mask its demonic aura if it wanted to and was clearly hostile. Kaze figure that he wasn't going to find anything out from the villagers and decided to head back to the inn. What he really wanted to do was talk to Sai. She'd mostly returned to normal, but it was still clear to him that what the old man had said still bothered her. He hated that. The girl he loved shouldn't have to be bothered by the words of some senile old man. Plus they hadn't had any time alone in a long time. It wasn't that he didn't like having his sisters or Akage, who had essentially become his best friend in the short time that they had traveled together, but he wanted some time to speak freely with Sai.

It didn't take him long to get back to the inn. The village wasn't that big, after all. Kaze walked to Sai's door and knocked. No one answered. He knocked again, this time a bit harder. Still no answer.

"Did she go somewhere?" He wondered to himself. Kaze decided to check for himself. He opened the door and looked inside. There was no one inside, but he did hear humming coming from behind a door at the back of the room. He'd found her. Kaze walked to the door and opened it.

"Hey S-" His voice caught in his throat as he realized what he'd walked in on. Sai was naked and taking a bath. She looked up at him her eyes wide with surprise. Then she screamed.

"GET OUT!" She yelled at him, throwing a towel at his head. Kaze ducked and ran out of the room closing the door behind him. He continued all the way out into the hall.

"Dammit." He cursed at himself, "That did not go the way that I planned." Then he saw Akage racing down the hall.

"What's going on Kaze?" Akage asked, worry evident in his voice, "I heard Sai scream and came as fast as I could."

"Everything's... fine..." Kaze said, his face turning red, "Sort of..."

"What do you mean?"

"I.. uh... I walked in on Sai..." Kaze began, "taking a bath..." Akage roared with laughter.

"Oh look at you, you little pervert you!" He said, tears coming to his from how hard he was laughing, "Trying to help out the dog in the bath!"

"I didn't mean to!" Kaze yelled at him, "I didn't even know she was in there!"

"Of course you didn't." Akage said, still laughing, "C'mon, let's go back to our room. You don't want to still be around when she gets out." Kaze nodded and followed Akage back to their room. He thought back to the scene he had just left.

"Damn that girl is beautiful." He thought, sighing.

At the same time, Sai was still sitting in her bath. She didn't know whether to be angry, flattered, or maybe some of both. Then another thought occurred to her.

"Maybe I overreacted." Sai thought to herself, "He might not have even known that I was in here taking a bath." Now she felt bad. She realized that he'd probably just wanted to talk to her. They hadn't had much time to talk privately in recent days. She did know one thing, though. Kaze liked what he'd seen. She saw it in his eyes and could still smell the amount of pheromones that his body was producing. At least she could take solace in that. She smiled, sank further down into the water, and went back to relaxing.

When Sai finally finished her bath, she wrapped herself in a towel, and walked out into her room. She was met by the knowing stares and dubious smiles of Nami and Umi, who were sitting on the floor and had clearly been waiting for her to come out.

"Hey there Sai..." Umi said

"How's it goin'?" Nami asked, giggling.

"Did you enjoy your bath?" Umi followed. Sai sighed.

"Who told you?" She asked in a defeated voice.

"Akage." Nami said.

"Dammit." she sighed, "He knows too?"

"Yup." Umi said, clearly trying to hold back laughter.

"Who else knows?" Sai asked, getting dressed.

"Just us." Nami assured her, "So... did you like it?"

"What?!" Sai asked, her head bolting up in surprise and her face turning red, "Why would you even ask me that?"

"Cuz we know what the answer is." Umi giggled.

"A resounding yes!" Nami followed, dramatically.

"Alright fine." Sai gave in, "It wasn't the worst thing in the world."

"See there you go Sai!" Umi said, excitedly, "You're finally learning to accept your feelings!"

"Hey," Sai said, smiling sarcastically, "I think he enjoyed it just a little bit more than I did." This made all three of them roar with laughter. That night, they were just normal teenage girls gossiping about boys. They forgot all about demons and the empire. Sleep came easily that night and was better than any sleep they'd had in months.