Chapter 17

The next morning, all five of them prepared to go hunting for this demon and slay it. Sai was the last to leave her room. She walked out into the main room and saw Kaze. He was talking to the innkeeper. She coughed loudly and he turned his head toward her. When their eyes met, she smiled at him, winked, and then kept walking. She noticed that his face had turned bright red before she exited the inn into the bright morning sunlight. Sai had that boy right where she wanted him.

Sai joined the group waiting outside the inn. Nami and Umi were in battle gear and were analyzing their weapons, Akage was amusing himself with fire that he had summoned to his fingertips, and Sai was staring out at the woods. If anyone had asked, she would have told them that she was trying to catch the demon's scent or feel its demonic aura, but that wasn't strictly true. She was actually thinking back to her first hunt, the one her father had taken her on. She remembered the rush of battle. She remembered the thrill of victory. She remembered the feeling of safety she had felt afterwards. All of that was different now. She no longer felt any rush from battle because she was forced to do it so often. The thrill from victory was gone because she wasn't killing evil demons for the most part, she was killing people with families. They may have been evil people that wanted nothing more than to see her dead, but they still had people at home that loved them and would mourn their loss. Safety, though, was the thing she missed most. Sai had always felt so safe with her parents. Nothing could hurt them. She missed them terribly, but knew that if she ever wanted to feel safe again, then she would have to take down the empire and make the world safe.

"Sai!" Kaze called, breaking her train of thought, "You alright?"

"Uh," She began, trying to compose herself, "Yeah, of course. You ready to go?"

"Yeah. Let's get moving." Kaze said. With that they set off into the woods.

Kaze was leading them in the direction that the innkeeper had just told him of. Apparently, the innkeeper had noticed that each night that an attack from the demon occurred, a strange light would emanate from this direction. They decided that they had no choice, but to check it out. The woods they were traveling through were thick, though, much thicker than Sai had expected. Progress was slow and arduous.

"You know, I can cut all of this down with my Dragon Wave." Sai said, wrenching a thick branch away from her face.

"Probably not the best idea Sai." Akage called to her from the back of the group, "A show of power like that might scare the demon off. Since it can obviously hide its demonic aura, that would make finding it even harder."

"Akage's right." Nami said, "Showing your strength to a demon before battle is one of the worst things you can do when you're trying to slay one."

"I just want all these damn plants out of my way!" Sai yelled as she used her claws to shred a thicket of thorns and vines.

"Don't worry Sai." Umi said, "You won't have to deal with it much longer. We're getting close."

"How do you know? I don't smell anything." Sai questioned.

"Look up." Umi said, pointing. There were scratches in the bark high on the trees. Some of the branches were even broken off.

"Great." Sai said sarcastically, "So this demon doesn't give off a scent, can hide its aura, and lives in the tops of trees. Awesome."

"I think it'll be fun." Nami chimed in, "I mean, when was the last time you had the chance to track down a demon that was this hard to find." Sai rolled her eyes and kept walking. She wanted to be done with this thing, so that they could get back on the road.

"What's up with her?" Akage whispered to Nami.

"She probably wants to get this over with soon." Nami whispered back, "I mean, her time is tomorrow."

"You're kidding!" Akage whispered forcefully, "The time she becomes a mortal is tomorrow! Why did she come with us then? This could take more than one day!"

"Well, it's just not like Sai to back down from anything." Nami said about her friend, "She never has and never will. Plus, it's just one night during the new moon and she'll still have her powers as a priestess. Even without her demon powers, she's still pretty powerful."

"I guess you're right. I certainly wouldn't want to get in her way even if she was just a normal mortal." Akage joked.

"You can say that again." Nami laughed. They continued trudging through the woods in the direction that the innkeeper had given them for a few more hours until they came upon a clearing.

"Hey guys, we should probably rest here for a little bit." Kaze suggested.

"Good idea." Akage agreed. However, Sai did not approve.

"We're stopping already?" Sai asked.

"Yeah." Umi answered, "All of us are pretty tired. I know you could probably keep going, but we need to stick together." Sai knew she was right. She didn't like it, but she sat down to take a break with them. Nami checked how much water they had left.

"We're almost out of water. I'm going to go see if I can find some nearby." She announced and got up and walked off.

"I think I should go with her." Akage said quickly, getting up and racing after her. Sai looked back and forth from Sai to Kaze.

"I'm going to go do... something." She said and left quickly.

"What was that all about?" Sai asked.

"They probably wanted to give us time to talk." Kaze said laughing.

"Oh." Sai said, realizing that he was probably right.

"Hey Sai?" Kaze said.

"Yeah?

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. You know, about yesterday." Kaze said, blushing slightly.

"Don't worry about it. It's fine." Sai assured him.

"No it's not." Kaze said, running his hands through his hair, "I should have knocked first. I just wanted to talk to you."

"Like I said, don't worry about. It's okay." She paused a moment and began blushing at her own thoughts. "Did you... like it?"

"Like what?" Kaze asked, confused.

"Like... me. Did you like me?" She clarified, her face turning bright red, "What did you think?"

"Oh... um... well..." Kaze stammered.

"You know, don't even worry about it." Sai said, speaking quickly, "It was a dumb question anyway."

"No it wasn't." Kaze said, suddenly serious, "And the answer is yes. It thought that you were... are... the most beautiful thing I've seen." Sai's breath caught in her throat. Her heart was pounding and she was sure that anything with ears for miles could have heard it. She turned her head to face Kaze and barely saw it coming. His lips locked with hers as he embraced her. He was kissing her! It was the greatest rush of adrenaline she'd ever felt before. No battle could have compared to this. This was pure ecstasy to her. Kaze held her for a few more seconds before breaking away.

"So," Kaze said softly, smiling at her, "What did you think?" Sai's only response was to smile back and kiss him again. Then they heard three sets of hands start clapping from the woods.

"That's my little brother!" Umi called out walking back into the clearing.

"Nice work Sai!" Nami followed up, "Perfectly played! Couldn't have done it better myself."

"You two are cute together." Was all Akage said.

"How long were you guys spying on us?!" Sai demanded.

"The whole time." Nami said, throwing a bottle full of water at her, "We're good on water by the way." This made Umi and Akage laugh.

"Not cool guys." Kaze said, glaring at his sisters.

"Hey, you must have enjoyed it. You're still all over each other!" Umi pointed out. Sai and Kaze looked down and realized that they were still each other's embrace. They broke away quickly, their faces burning red.

"Aww! Why'd you tell them Umi?" Nami complained, jokingly.

"They would have figured out eventually." Umi said, waving her off.

"Whatever." Kaze said as he and Sai stood up, "Break over." The two stormed off together, a couple to the end. It made the other three giggle. Sai wanted to surprise them, shock them with something, and she knew just what to do. As the two of them nearly the edge of the clearing, the other three not far behind, Sai grabbed Kaze, spun him around, brought him in close, and kissed him passionately. Kaze was surprised and didn't know what was going on at first, but it didn't take him long before he realized what Sai was trying to do. Kaze did exactly what Sai wanted him to do. He was undoing her clothes, messing up her hair, and overall, making it as awkward as possible for the three onlookers.

"Oh come on Sai! Really?" Umi called out.

"Please Kaze stop! That's weird! You're our little brother and she's our best friend!" Nami continued. It took a few more moments to realize what it would take to make them stop.

"OKAY! WE'RE SORRY!" All three of them yelled in unison. Sai and Kaze broke away from each other at once.

"Thank you." The pair said tersely. Sai began fixing her clothes and hair, while Kaze did the same.

"Let's get going then." Kaze said, once they had finished, and the two walked off, hand-in-hand.

When night came, the group found another clearing and built a fire. Akage pulled food out that the village leader had given to him for their hunt. They had enough to last for three days. That night, all of them sat arrayed around the fire. Umi, Nami, and Akage were all pretty evenly spaced apart, but Sai was with Kaze. She was sitting, snuggled up next him in her mortal form with his arm around her. It just felt right at that point. Maybe it was the fact that human emotions intensified when she became a mortal, but she chose to think that it was because they were in love. In all honesty, it was probably the latter.

Conversation was good that night. Sai and Kaze had agreed to forgive the rest of them for spying on them since they had enjoyed their time "alone" together. The group even joked about it over dinner. Sai fell asleep in Kaze's arms, so the group agreed that Nami, Umi, and Akage would be the ones alternating for the watch that night. Kaze had no problems with that and it didn't take him long to fall asleep next to Sai. His last thought before drifting was that he could get used to this.