Chapter 3: Shadowed Heart
Aiya had waited for almost a whole week for Hisui to come back. He was on a trip that she wasn't allowed to go on.
Hisui didn't invite her to go with him but she didn't think that she was unwelcomed to go with him if she really wanted to so she had simply just asked her father for permission and at first her father had agreed to let her go with him at first but then after Hisui warned her father about the dangers of traveling that far when it came to demons potentially being out there her father had immediately revoked his permission.
Normally Aiya wouldn't have even wanted to travel so far just to look at bugs but Hisui was away with the girl that he loved. Aiya's fist clenched at that thought. As she sat in her room by the window reading one of the many books she was supposed to read to prepare for her wedding.
She looked up at the trees outside and placed the book down, unable to focus on reading now as thoughts of how her engagement was going crossed her mind.
From the moment that Princess Aiya became engaged to Hisui she knew that he was in love with someone else. Aiya knew this but she couldn't help but still want to be with him. She still loved him despite that fact.
The first time that Hisui had saved her on the night of last year's summer festival he had looked like a prince from a fairy tale and the more that she got to know him the more that she fell in love with him. It wasn't just love at first sight.
Hisui was kinder than most of the noble boys her age. He was smarter too. He had been able to solve all kinds of puzzles that she'd made for him every time that she would stage a kidnapping or whenever she would willingly track down demons so that he would have to come save her. He was great at solving the clues that she'd leave behind for him to find and he always came to save her.
But the last time that Hisui had saved Aiya, right before they became engaged she noticed something.
There was a female demon slayer with him that he acted differently towards. From where Aiya was standing it had looked as though there might have been something more between the two of them, at least on Hisui's end but the other girl acted as if she didn't care.
Aiya would never treat him like that.
She had to show Hisui how much better she could be to him but she had no choice in the matter because she was a princess and he wasn't a noble.
Aiya needed her father's permission or she'd never be able to be with Hisui. If she couldn't be with Hisui and no acceptable match came around then one day she would no doubtably be forced to marry some boring noble.
She had to find a way to be with who she wanted.
Aiya then started talking about the demon slayers guild more and more and what an alliance with them could do for their house before describing Hisui to her father as her perfect match.
A marriage with Hisui would not only be good for her but for their family as well, she told her father. Though he didn't hold any titles his father was an esteemed monk and his Uncle was the head of the demon slayers guild in the village next to theirs.
Marrying Hisui would be an alliance that was worthwhile if only her father would just allow it and after considering him for a long time. Her father agreed and sent a letter to Hisui's family.
When Hisui had agreed to marry her. Princess Aiya was ecstatic this was finally her chance to get him to love her as much as she loved him.
She dressed beautifully the day that he came over with a reply. Putting on her best silks and her most expensive makeup and perfumes but she could tell that his head wasn't turned.
He treated her just as he always had, exchanging pleasantries and being polite. He still didn't feel the spark that she did.
On the second day that they were able to spend some time together Princess Aiya tried getting to know him more. Maybe she'd be able to gain his affections if she took an interest in what he liked. She had thought.
She asked if she could see the slayer guild for herself. The slayers guild had meant so much to him that his parents were sure that he'd refuse to marry and become a lord if he couldn't remain its heir.
The guild had always interested her but she also wanted to find out what made it so special to Hisui. She was sure that this would make him like her more but then all of a sudden the name Setsuna was spoken from his lips over and over again in relation to the slayers guild and it was obvious.
Her fiancé was in love with someone else and she was sure that the other woman hadn't returned his feelings because if Setsuna had felt the same, Aiya could tell that he never would have chosen to marry her.
From the day that Aiya had met Setsuna at the slayers guild she has tried desperately to get Hisui to look at her the way that he looks at Setsuna but nothing that she did on her own was working.
They had been spending a lot more time together since the engagement had been made official so it should have been easy but through all the conversations and games that they played it only became more and more apparent that Hisui didn't hate her company but he wasn't in love with her.
Each time they were alone together he was always incredibly sweet, always taking her feelings into consideration and taking the time to listen and learn things about her. He genuinely was making an effort to get to know her.
Their time together always made Aiya's heart soar but at the end of each one of their meetings no matter how sincere Hisui was in trying to be a good partner he had always felt detached like he wasn't her's even though they were engaged.
This hadn't been at all how Aiya had imagined things would go between didn't want to be in love alone. She would have to try harder if she truly wanted Hisui to love her the way that she loved him.
She was a princess, she was beautiful and wealthy and could offer him so much if he would just love her.
So why did he choose to love someone who couldn't offer him those things?
Princess Aiya stood abruptly from her place by the window. Hisui would be back in the village today and they were supposed to meet again today as well. She needed to get ready.
With Hisui's absence came all sorts of boredom. Her days were back to the typical monotony of being a Princess save for a few new lessons here and there to prepare her for the wedding.
It had been almost a whole week since Aiya had last seen him. So she wanted their reunion to be perfect. This would be the day where he would start to love her. Aiya was sure of it.
On the day that Hisui finally did return, Aiya was ready to enact her new plan. She had decided to change her style to something that she knew would get Hisui to notice her more.
The day that Hisu came back the two of them met near a bridge that connected the two villages and the look of surprise on his face said it all. She smiled in response.
Aiya was sure that she had won this time.
Princess Aiya was dressed more plainly than usual in attire that was reminiscent to how Setsuna would typically dress at the slayers guild and she was wearing her hair up in a ponytail in the exact same style that Setsuna typically wore.
Dressed like this plus adding a few of her own personal touches to the look with how her makeup was done. Aiya was sure that now Hisui would like her more.
She was proud of herself.
"Hisui I missed you so much did you bring me back a sea shell like you promised?" Aiya asked.
"I.. I did." Hisui said before handing her his gift and a big smile graced her face as she held the pretty pink seashell in her hands.
"This is so pretty! I wish that I could have gone with you there, maybe next year once we're finally married." She smiled at him.
"Yeah, maybe." He said and Aiya continued with the small talk and catching him up on what she had been up to in his absence before he finally just asked her outright.
"Hey what's up with the new look?"
"Do you like it?" She asked confidently.
"Hmm it definitely is different." He said trying his best not to offend her.
"Different good?" She asked.
"This just doesn't seem like you." He said seriously. "I think I just prefer how you usually dress. This doesn't look like it's your style." He said honestly.
Aiya's confidence was immediately snuffed out in that moment. As her eyes turned down and her smile faded. "Oh.. I see." She said sadly.
He doesn't like me when I'm me or when I'm trying to be the person he likes. What am I going to do? Aiya thought.
"I just like you the way that you are. You don't need to try and change to be someone else. If you do that then you wouldn't be you Aiya. You shouldn't change just to fit what you think I might like. Most demon slayers aren't even half as pretty as you anyway. So you don't have to try and dress that way. I much prefer you to those guy's." Hisui told her.
He thought that she was trying to dress like a demon slayer to impress him, not trying to copy Setsuna. He thought that he had been discrete with his feelings. He had no idea that she knew.
His attempt to reassure her did little to calm her concerns. She wasn't trying to look better than the other demon slayers. Only one.
"I feel like every time I try to get close to you, you push me away. I can't go on a trip with you, you don't want me to dress like the people at the slayers guild. It just keeps going on." She confessed how she was feeling.
"I hate to admit it but you've got me stumped and I don't know how to get you to be happy with me." Aiya admitted sadly.
"Princess." Hisui gasped.
"I am very happy with you. You're fun and you're funny and even though you can come off a little strong at times, I don't think that you're a bad person and you're very beautiful as well. You're fine just the way that you are. We just don't know each other well enough yet but give us time and I'm sure that things will work out. I know we could be happy together if we try." Hisui said, reassuring her that she didn't need to be anyone other than herself.
He was going to be marrying Princess Aiya so he didn't want her to think that she needed to change herself for him. He would simply just learn to love her one day, the real her that way they could both find happiness.
Aiya was on the verge of tears now. She didn't know what else to say to him, so she just hugged him. Falling into his arms and holding him tight, clinging to him as she silently begged him to love her because she didn't know what else to do and after a moment of hesitation he held her close as well.
His reassurance had been sweet. If he had really loved her his words would have made her feel as though she was being painted golden. He said that he only wanted her to be herself and that they would be happy together one day but she knew that he wasn't hers not really.
She wondered if he would ever be capable of loving her if really given time like he said or if one day he'd hate her for pushing for this marriage.
XXXX
Setsuna had done her best to act normal and to not think too much about the fact that she was in love with Hisui during the rest of their time at the beach and the firefly forest but that had been incredibly hard for her to do when Hisui kept being himself around her and kept talking to her the way that he always did which made it impossible for her to even try to deny her own feelings and she did try but that became increasingly more hard as his everyday actions, little things that she hadn't even realized she noticed kept making her want him more and more which was crushing.
When all of them finally did come home Setsuna had come to the conclusion that it would just be best if she left Hisui alone from now on. He was already engaged and plus he had never even shown any signs of being interested in her.
None at all.
Unless…
"Setsuna, How do you see me, what am I to you?" His words from before echoed in her mind.
He couldn't have been trying to tell her then that wasn't possible. She quickly shooed the thought away.
Why would he not have just told her that he had feelings for her that were not platonic in nature? If he really did feel that way about her. This had to just be in her head. There was no way that she could have missed it if it were true.
Her being in love with Hisui would do nothing but cause the both of them problems and ruin their friendship if he ever found out. So she made herself scarce around him once they came back home and as the days went on Hisui definitely did notice.
On missions Setsuna was never the one to be carrying their group conversations but now she barely spoke at all during their demon slaying jobs. She usually just reacted to whatever her sister or cousin would say anyway and acted as the level headed one out of the four of them, but now she acted as though demon slaying was just work to her.
She wasn't acting like herself anymore and then she suddenly was no longer available to run errands for the guild with Hisui each time that he asked if it would just be the two of them.
Setsuna thought that she was being strategic in the way that she was withdrawing from Hisui but the four of them knew each other too well. To anyone else she seemed normal. Everything was fine but Hisui, Towa and Moroha all knew that she was acting strange and it was beginning to get frustrating.
Setsuna had returned to giving lessons to the new recruits at the slayers guild. Hisui had been engaged for a whole month now so the time that he had been able to train new recruits with her had been much smaller than before and she was getting used to doing this alone now or with the help of one of the other slayers if necessary.
Setsuna had been in the middle of teaching the new recruits how to strategically fight against beast demons that were bigger than you and how to fight as a unit to get the upper hand when her sister interrupted her. Right in the middle of the lesson too.
Towa walked straight to Setsuna's side and called out. "It's time for a water break!"
The new recruits paused and looked to Setsuna, who looked beyond annoyed at her sister's interruption and the new slayers didn't dare to move from the training yard.
"What have you all accomplished to earn a break? Continue on." Setsuna said coldly.
"Setsunaaaa, I need to talk to you please dismiss them for a moment." Towa complained and Setsuna rolled her eyes before allowing the recruits to take a brief break.
"If this is something that could wait, I'm going to kill you Towa." She said coldly.
"How could you threaten your own sister like that? Of course it can't wait. I wouldn't be here if it could." Towa said and Setsuna rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"We'll then what is it?"
"You're needed in the briefing room, come on." Towa said, turning to go inside.
"The briefing room?" Kohaku must need her to go on a mission right away if he was interrupting her in the middle of lessons like this.
"Everyone's dismissed for the day, be back here Monday at 4 am to make up for lost time." Setsuna stated before following her sister to the briefing room.
Once Setsuna got there she realized that her initial assumption had been horribly wrong.
Setsuna had entered the briefing room behind Towa and Moroha was sitting at the head of the table with her elbows bent and her fingers laced together with Kilala sitting cute on her shoulder.
"You're late." Moroha told her.
"The two of you did not just make me end my lessons that could be life saving for the new recruits just to play meeting?" Setsuna asked ominously.
"I only said to give them a water break, you choose to end the lesson on your own." Towa said and Setsuna only glared at her sister. She wasn't going to let this slide from her or her cousin.
The door behind them opened a moment later and in came Hisui.
"Moroha I needed Kilala to go run some errands with me. You can't just swipe her and leave a note behind. You need to ask first." Hisui said.
"Oh, my bad." She smiled and she and Towa exchanged glances as their plan had finally come together.
"Now that we're all here let's get to it". Towa said. "Please take a seat, you two." She said as she took a seat herself.
"I'm leaving, I have better things to do than this." Setsuna said coolly.
"Moroha, seriously I need Kilala back." Hisui told her.
"No! Neither of you are going anywhere until we've talked this through. Ever since we came back from the beach you two have been acting differently. Everything was fine at the beach so what changed between then and now?" Moroha asked.
"Seriously guys, what's going on? Before I always knew that if my sister wasn't home she was with you Hisui but now the two of you have barely been speaking to each other even when we're on missions it's like you only just work together. What's going on?" Towa asked.
Neither of them had been expecting this not at all.
"Setsuna I have noticed that you no longer like to be in my company as of lately. I had just assumed that maybe you viewed my absence as incompetence since I can't deem as much time as I used to to the slayers guild. I figured that's why you were not talking to me as much anymore because I've been neglecting my duties at the slayers guild and as a demon slayer. I was just waiting until you were ready to talk to me on your own." Hisui said.
Setsuna stood there quietly for a long moment. She had thought that no one would notice if she slowly withdrew but the three of them had noticed because they were always together.
Setsuna sighed. "I was simply just trying to cover what you couldn't in your absence by taking on more work, so that you could focus on your engagement. I don't see you as someone incompetent and I wasn't acting intentionally." she lied and Towa could tell but she didn't call her sister out.
If Setsuna had wanted to talk about whatever was really bothering her, she would have. Especially now, the four of them didn't have many secrets between them and normally this kind of thing would have settled any qualms that they might have with each other but Setsuna didn't want to talk not really and it wasn't Towa's place to try and push her more.
"Setsuna you don't have to stretch yourself thin like that." Hisui sighed in response. "I'm still going to inherit the slayers guild one day. I just need to learn how to balance this along with being a lord at the same time. I appreciate what you were trying to do for me but you no longer have to do that. I mean it everything will still get done without you trying to cover for me. Uncle and the others have been doing more around here since I've become engaged. They can handle a little extra work you don't have to take on so much alone." Hisui said sincerely.
"I suppose you're right." Setsuna agreed easily, not wanting the conversation to drag more.
"Let's not dwell on this and get back to normal now." She said with her normal stone face and Hisui couldn't tell what she was thinking.
"Can we really go back to how we were before?" Hisui asked as he stared her down. There was no way that she was telling him the truth right now but the two of them didn't need an audience to discuss a personal problem between the two of them.
"I don't see why not." Setsuna said and both Moroha and Towa bought what she was saying.
Towa knew that Setsuna wasn't telling the whole truth but she at least believed that her sister had wanted the issue to pass and Moroha didn't think that Setsuna was lying to them as she just trusted her to tell the truth.
But despite that both Towa and Moroha were proud that they were able to bring the group back together.
After that everyone went back to what they had been doing earlier. Moroha and Towa had gone off to cause trouble somewhere else, while Hisui got Kilala back and was able to finish the last of his errands for the day.
Setsuna returned to the training yard alone and caught up on some of her own training until Kohaku stopped her after Hisui had returned to the slayers guild that evening and asked her if she would be able to accompany Hisui to check on one of his informants an old man named Kit that had been quiet for a few days now.
Kohaku had many informants across the surrounding areas that let him know of nearby demon sightings and troubles.
Kit was one of his oldest informants and he had been unusually quiet for the past two weeks now. Kohaku only wanted the two of them to make sure that the old man that lived alone was alright and Kohaku always felt better when the two of them went on missions together so he had asked Setsuna to accompany Hisui.
Of course Setsuna agreed and the two set out a little after sunset. Much later than Setsuna would have wanted given what night it was but she was sure that things would most likely be fine.
Even if she did end up having to fight, which they most likely would not, she was sure that she would still be able to hold her own. Both her and Hisui wore their demon slayer gear as well so they would be ready should the need to fight arise.
If she didn't want her friends to be worried she'd have to learn how to be normal around Hisui again. Maybe then she could get over these stupid feelings that were only getting in her way. She had always gone with him alone before. Why should this time be any different?
"Thanks for coming with me even though you probably didn't want to. For what it's worth I've really missed going on supply runs with you." Hisui said as they walked.
"I never mind going anywhere with you and I don't mind now." She said.
"You know, you can tell me the real reason why you've been avoiding me all this time. I was going to ask you privately before Moroha and Towa decided that we needed an intervention but there was never a good time and then you wouldn't be alone with me so I didn't know when to ask you to talk. I didn't think that we needed an audience so I kept quiet back there but can you please tell me now what's actually wrong, Setsuna?"
"Nothing, we already talked about this." She said nonchalantly.
Hisui looked at her seriously now or at least he tried to, she could tell that he was trying not to look betrayed and that made her pause.
"Is that what we do now? Lie to each other, can you really not tell me why you've been avoiding me?"
"Hisui, you're not the only one who has been going through changes lately." She said calmly and it was frustrating to watch her act as if everything was fine when he knew it was not.
"I'm sorry if that's made me unavailable to be by your side like usual. but I just don't want to talk about it right now. Maybe later but not right now." She lied. "Please just drop this. As far as I'm concerned we're good so why are you trying to get me to say things that I don't want to?" She asked and they stared at each other for a long time.
It felt like she had built a wall between them, one that he could no longer break through even if he tried. He clenched his left hand tight. If she would just talk to him he'd do anything to make things with her good again.
"Fine then." He huffed, "You asked me to talk to you when I need to but you refuse to do the same with me. I understand Setsuna. I hear you loud and clear. The two of us just aren't as close as I thought we were." He said before turning his back to her and going on his way.
She wanted to say something to him. She wanted to tell him the truth but she couldn't. The real reason was way worse than he could imagine. So she simply just did what she alway had and put on a stone face as the sun went down and she followed silently behind him.
Kilala had ran errands with Hisui all day so he had given her a break and left her behind to rest this time so he and Setsuna had to walk all the way to the informant's house.
They didn't speak to each other for nearly two hours as they walked to the informant's home only being brought back into reality once a loud bone chilling scream rang through the air.
The two of them heard the loud scream ring through the air and a man ran straight into Hisui. Bumping into him and making them both fall down which caused the man to drop his half dead friend who he had been carrying across his back.
"A demon! A demon just killed my friend. He was wearing his face but he wasn't him!" The man said hysterically.
"Calm down." Setsuna said. "Let me look at his wounds." She demanded as the man wailed.
Both the man and his friend were covered in blood and it was clear to her once she saw his injuries that the friend wasn't going to make it. He had lost way too much blood for any human to handle.
Setsuna and Hisui looked at eachother and Hisui now noticed something.
"Brown eyes?" Hisui said in response as he looked at Setsuna.
He immediately looked up at the sky now and saw that tonight was a moonless night and his brows drew down.
"Setsuna, Why didn't you tell me?!" He immediately reacted.
"It was of no concern." She said seriously.
"But the moonless night.."
"You're human and you always do fine, so will I. We don't have time to discuss trivial matters right now." She said.
His mouth set into a thin line. "This is not a trivial matter. Had I known I would have never agreed to go with you tonight."
"That's all past now. We need to focus on finding this demon before it kills more people." She said.
The man was still sobbing over his dying friend and Setsuna pulled out some strong medicines that all of the demon slayers carried on them in the case that someone dying needed to no longer feel the pain of their wounds.
She pushed the small bottle to his friend's mouth and he drank it. "He won't feel any more pain now." She said.
"Listen, we're demon slayers from the slayers guild that's not too far from here. Go to our village and tell them what's happened. They'll help you. You do that and Setsuna and I will kill the demon that killed your friend." Hisui told him.
"Can you recall any details about the demon?" Setsuna asked him and the man nodded, pulling himself together enough so that he could tell them what he knew.
"The demon once it drinks your blood can wear your face and even adapt some of your mannerisms. It.. It knew things about my friend that only he would know. If I hadn't stumbled upon my friend's body. That thing, it would have killed me too." The man said.
It didn't seem like much but the description was more than enough for both Hisui and Setsuna to know exactly what kind of demon they were dealing with.
A blood Chamaeleon demon. These demons feed on the blood of their prey and can change their faces into their victims for a time depending on how much blood that they drink. Strong chameleon demons are even able to receive memories from their victims through the blood that they drink from their host. So they often keep their victims alive for a long time in order to help maintain their masquerades.
It was possible that Kohaku's informant had been taken out by this very demon that they were talking about. After the man's explanation Hisui gave him directions to the demons slayers guild and the man went on his way.
"If the demon ends up drinking one of our blood things won't be easy for us. We need to make sure that we don't get split up." Hisui said seriously.
"Agreed." Setsuna said before sighing. "I hate to admit it but I'm at a disadvantage here. Normally I wouldn't worry about a demon like this potentially changing into you because that would never work on me usually, because I know how you smell but during the moonless night I can't smell anything the way that I normally do." Setsuna started clearly frustrated with her circumstances and Hisui didn't want her to feel down on herself. That would only stray her focus from their task.
"Like you said that's all past now no need to dwell on things we can't change. Just keep your guard up and we'll kill this demon. I still believe in you to watch my back just like on any other night. So keep a straight head." Hisui said.
Setsuna nodded.
"What should we do to make sure that we don't get confused if the demon does take one of our forms?" Setsuna asked.
"Well just ask each other to prove themselves by saying the word that only the two of us will know."
"Which will be?"
"Hmmm." Hisui placed his hand on his chin. "The word will be foxfire." He said proudly with the snap of his fingers as the words came to him. "That's something that we would never typically say. Just in this case."
Setsuna looked at him deadpan.
"Towa and Moroha would have loved that." Hisui said under his breath and Setsuna only rolled her eyes.
"Fine, the word will be foxfire." She agreed.
"The man said that the demon was lurking in the forest. We might be able to track it down." Hisui said and Setsuna nodded.
The two of them had pushed everything that they had initially been fighting about to the side inorder to fully focus on finding the Chamaeleon demon.
They walked through the woods thoroughly checking for any signs of fight or struggle within the forest from the direction that the man had run from.
Had Setsuna been her usual self she would have been able to follow the smell of blood easily. Human blood always smelled the worst, especially large amounts of it. Normally this would've been easy but it was a moonless night so she was forced to have to rely solely on her observational skills.
"Just be patient. It may take longer but we'll find the demon, don't be so hard on yourself." Hisui said.
He knew when something was bothering her and not being able to act to her best ability was something that would definitely mess with Setsuna even if she pretended that it didn't.
"I shouldn't have agreed to come with you in the first place since I can't properly assist you. I can barely track anything in this state. I should have insisted that another slayer accompany you instead." She said and he could really hear the frustration in her voice now.
"It's okay, how were you supposed to know that we'd end up fighting a demon? The way that you are is how I am every day. We're just the same when you're human. You're not weighing us down at all. It just takes a little longer." Hisui reassured her as if they hadn't been fighting at all earlier.
Her face softened and they continued investigating the forest. Maybe she should come clean to him at least then he'd understand why she was acting so weird.
If he were to lie and hide things from her the way that she was she would be upset too. She liked to think that she knew Hisui well and she did but he also knew her just as well as she knew him so she should have known all along that he would notice if she changed.
She clenched her fist as she continued looking onward. She hated moonless nights for this exact reason. Emotions always hit harder when she was human. If she really was going to come clean it needed to be in the morning when she'd have more control of her feelings.
"Hisui." She said after a long while.
"Yes."
"I'm sorry for lying to you." She said low in the quiet of the forest.
He sighed. "It's okay. I hadn't considered that you might be going through something that I didn't know about. I'm just not used to things being like this between us and I'm not used to you having secrets that you don't want to share with me. You can have your privacy if you really want but I don't know if I can keep doing this minimal contact thing." He said seriously. "You don't have to be available to go everywhere with me anytime I want. I'm not asking for that, I just want to be able to enjoy your company like I always have, even if it's just for a few minutes. You're my best friend Setsuna and I don't want to lose you." Hisui said.
"After we kill the Chamaeleon demon let's really talk okay and I promise to tell you the truth this time." Setsuna said and Hisui could tell that she ment it this time.
"Okay, Let's get this job done then." Hisui said just as they finally found a lead after searching for nearly two hours they found a trail of dried blood leading to what looked like an underground hole.
"I told you that we'd find where the demon was." Hisui smiled.
They unearthed a large hole in the earth before the both of them crawled through it and into the large underground tunnels.
The demon might not have been working alone. Setsuna and Hisui immediately exchanged silent glance's. They both would not be talking much from this point on not wanting to alert the demon to their presence.
The two of them stealthily went about the tunnels, unable to rely on Setsuna to sniff the demon out so they just followed where Hisui thought he sensed a demonic aura.
They kept going until they came across a large room that reeked heavily of blood and Setsuna was actually glad for the moonless night now as she couldn't imagine what this place would have actually smelled like if her normal senses were intact.
The room was mostly plain. There was minimal furniture in the room save for the multiple jars that lined the dirt walls that no doubtably had to be filled with blood. That would be the only explanation for the strong stench that both Setsuna and Hisui were both smelling. There also appeared to be some kind of tub in the middle of the room.
The tub was large and rounded like a small bath that one might sit animals in and as they got closer they saw that the bath was half filled with blood but that wasn't all. Hisui recognized the man in the tub. It was Kit, Kohaku's informant.
"Kit are you okay!" Hisu rushed to the old man's side. His clothes were all tattered and bloodstained and he could barely stand as Hisui helped him out of the tub. This is what chameleon demons did, they kept their victims until they could no longer drink from them.
"Hisui, keep your guard up. We have no idea if we're being watched." Setsuna reminded him as she held her weapon firm.
"Don't worry Set, my head's on straight." He reassured her.
"The demon, he's compromised our communication so that no demon slayers will venture out this way." The man mumbled.
"Hang in there Kit. We're going to get you out of here." Hisui said.
"Let's get the old man out of here and then we'll come back. It's too dangerous for him." Setsuna said and Hisui nodded.
"Can you climb onto my back, old man?" Hisui asked and the man nodded before gingerly climbing onto Hisui's back and the two demon slayers made their way through the halls with Setsuna keeping guard over them as Hisui carried the old man through the dirt hallways.
"It's going to be hard to hull him through the way we entered." Hisui commented.
The old man now smirked. "Don't bother." The man said suddenly and in that moment the ground sank from under Hisui and the old man sank his teeth into his back as a tail now appeared from behind him, and both he and Hisui fell into the earth beneath them.
Setsuna reached for him fast in response but she was too late and the ground closed up around her wrist burying her first in the tight dirt. She quickly pulled her fist up from the dirt. Leaving a sizable hole in her wake before trying to dig down.
The real Kit was most likely long dead by now. She slammed her first hard on the ground.
"Damn."
Hisui hadn't even sensed a demonic aura coming from the man who she assumed held a lot of Kit's memories now as well.
Had she been at full strength she would have never let this demon slip by. The smell of a demon is hard to miss even when they're masquerading. She stood up now. Her digging efforts were getting her nowhere so she ran down the earth halls as fast as she could. There had to be another way to get down to them.
XXXX
Hisui hit the ground hard as the Chamaeleon demon sank his teeth into him and drained him of a lot of blood. The demon landed right on top of him and he was pinned under the weight of the demon as he continued to drink his blood.
He was beginning to feel light headed but he couldn't allow himself to be put in a daze. If he passed out now Setsuna would be alone down here.
He needed to stay sharp or he'd lose too much blood and pass out.
Hisui mustered all of his strength and flipped himself over now crushing the demon who was still latched on to him with Hiraikotsu as he pushed his shoulders back, pushing all of his weight onto the demon
The demon didn't budge its grip so he then acted fast, pulling out the sword at his hip and stabbing back at the demon who saw his attack coming and let go of Hisui before he could hit him.
"Interrupting my bath is the last thing that you and your girlfriend will ever do." The demon snarled as Hisui staggered to stand up.
Lucky for Hisui the demon's fangs weren't poisonous but that didn't mean that being bit didn't hurt like hell. He looked up as he found his footing and could fully see the lizard-like demon now.
The demon had scaled skin and quails all over his body and was no bigger than your average human though in this case the demon looked to be a few inches taller. Other than that the demon fit the descriptions of chameleon demons that he had always been taught.
The demon laughed. "I can feel your memories flowing into my brain. How fun this will be now that I've got the blood of the heir to the demon slayers guild. I can actually Infiltrate that stupid place and rid us all of those troublesome humans. I just have to make sure that you and the girl die here and then I'll be able to get close to the leader no problem." The demon smiled crookedly.
"Like hell that will happen." Hisui steadied himself enough to throw Hiraikotsu and it almost hit the demon. He then followed through with his sword slashing fast and intentionally at the demon who was adapting quickly to Hisui's moves, it must have been because of the memories that the demon gained.
"The more I see of this Setsuna in your memories. The more I want to taste her blood. I think that I've fallen in love with her too." The demon mocked.
"Touch her and you're dead." Hisui said scarily.
"I need you alive for the time being in order to fully receive all of your memories and get more blood to maintain your form long term, so I'm afraid that we'll have to end this here for now." The demon said before spitting fire Hisui's way but Setsuna came crashing into him just in time tackling Hisui out of the way before he could be hit.
"The lovely Setsuna. You look even better than in the memories of your lover. How strange. It's usually the opposite."
Something was wrong in the way that the chameleon demon interpreted memories. Hisui. Thought.
The demon could gain the memories of others and know how people felt but it didn't seem like the demon fully understood how to interpret the memories that he gained. Not right away.
The demon smiled before leaping to attack Setsuna and she held him off with her weapon as he pressed hard with the quail's of his tail that was now in front of him being used like a weapon.
His strength wouldn't have been too much for her to handle normally but it was taking everything that she had in her human state just to hold him back. The quails of his tail suddenly split off and cut her multiple times as she tried to keep fending off the demon with only her human strength.
Hisui then threw Hiraikotsu at the demon again and the demon hastily jumped away from Setsuna. The quails all returned to the demon as he moved back and he licked the blood off of one.
"Even better than I imagined. The blood of two lovers always tastes sweeter when combined. Setsuna you really do love him just as much as he loves you." The chameleon demon smiled.
"Those are strange last words. Do you want me to write them down for you?" She asked cold and the demon did sweat in response to her cold tone and expression.
"I need time to think." Was all that the demon said before. Sinking into the walls and Hisui fell down to his knees as he caught his breath.
"Hisui!" Setsuna turned to him. He had lost a lot of blood. Too much blood she tore at her own clothing and nealed next to him doing her best to cover his wounds. She wasn't as good at this as Moroha but it was better than nothing.
"The bleedings stopped. I'll be okay." Hisui said.
"Our worst case scenario is pretty probable now that the demon has your blood." Setsuna said seriously.
"It's okay we planned for this. He's only had a big amount of my blood, not yours so he'll most likely try to finish me off now. He most likely won't attack us together and I don't think that either of us has a chance against him alone." Hisui said intentionally giving away their plan when in fact both he and Setsuna knew that the demon would most likely target her first while wearing his face.
"Our best bet now is to act like we're splitting apart to try and draw him out but we need to not be too far from each other." Hisui whispered low. "That way we can easily get back to each other to help. I say we split for 5 minutes at a time and then turn around if we don't meet up at exactly 10 minutes we know that the other has been targeted. Whichever one of us that is will hold the demon off until the other comes in to land the final blow. We just need to make sure that we can hold him off until one of us can finish him off."
Setsuna nodded. "Understood." She whispered back before she stood up. "Don't die while you're waiting for me." She said to him and he smiled.
"Same to you."
Hisui had made a point of making it look like he believed that he would be targeted first but they both knew that it would most likely be her since the demon had drunk a lot of Hisui's blood.
Setsuna walked through the dirt tunnels as though she believed the opposite. Seemingly lowering guard in her posture as if she was not concerned and that's why when the demon did inevitably show himself to her she was ready.
She turned fast when she heard footsteps behind her only stopping when she saw that it was Hisui on the other end of her blade that she had stopped right underneath his chin.
She was sure that this wasn't Hisui. He would have never approached her like that, but the resemblance was indistinguishable so she still had to be sure before she attacked.
"Sneaking up on me like that is the best way to get killed. Did you find the demon?" She asked.
"I'm sorry." He said as concern took over his features "I was just worried about you. It's the moonless night after all. How could I leave my fiancé to walk alone in a cave with that sort of demon crawling around."
Setsuna smiled. "You're always thinking of me aren't you?"
"More than you—-" The demon started to say but was cut off when Setsuna stabbed him straight through his chest.
She moved without hesitation once she was sure. Stabbing the demon straight through its chest. His transformation started to slip in and out of his control.
"Seems your memories are foggy. I'm not Hisui's fiance." She stated coldly as blood spilled from the large wound in it's chest.
The demon spat up blood before speaking weakly. "But how I'm sure that he…"
I must have been too hasty when recalling all of his memories with Setsuna. The demon thought.
The demon hadn't given himself enough time to analyze the memories properly. He had just assumed that since he had seen love from the both of them after tasting their blood that they were engaged since he had seen engagement briefly in Hisui's memory.
The demon thought quickly as he was in a dire state now that Setsuna had wounded him like this.
The boy shouldn't be too far behind her.
He needed to act fast or he'd be dead. The demon quickly changed his appearance to Setsuna and screamed loudly for help. This form wouldn't hold for long so he only had one chance at this if he wanted to kill them both and stay alive.
Setsuna looked disgusted at him. "You really have no shame." Setsuna said. As she went to cut the demon's head off.
But was stopped in the process by Hisui blocking her blow and making her have to split from the demon that had now taken her form.
HIsui couldn't tell who was who just from looking at them. He had no choice but to stop them since he didn't know if that was the real Setsuna on the ground.
"Hisui what the hell." The real Setsuna glared at him.
"Hisui." The other Setsuna spat up blood. And he froze, unable to speak. Real or not seeing her with a wound that bad was horrifying.
"Hisui.. I don't have much time left." The fake said now with tears stained eyes. "Please kill the demon and hold me one last time before I die. I.. I wanted to tell you that I love you before I go. Please kill the demon that's my dying wish." The fake cried and Hisui squeezed his eyes shut as he let out a deep breath.
"Setsuna, I'm sorry." Hisui said now in a low voice as he turned to the real Setsuna.
"This is creeping me out. I should have just let you kill that thing right away." He shivered.
"No need to ask twice." She said.
"I just couldn't tell who was who just by looking. You two look so identical it's scary." He admitted.
The fake Hisui crossed Setsuna's mind as he spoke and she understood what he meant. Even she had hesitated briefly to kill the demon when it looked exactly like him. She had to be sure before she acted too.
Chamaeleon demons could not regenerate so fatal wounds to vital organs were critical when fighting them.
The demon tried crawling away in its final sad moments but Setsuna slashed down hard on his neck and the demon's skin and flesh evaporated leaving only bones in its wake.
Silence filled the air between Hisui and Setsuna for a long moment before Setsuna felt Hisui's arms around her taking her by surprise as he pulled her close.
"Shit that really scared me for a minute. Even if it was fake I never want to see you like that again in my life. I don't think that I could ever bare seeing you in a state like that again." He said and she felt his arms tighten around her.
She held him back, careful not to touch the wound on his back as she felt him in her arms and was filled with warmth.
"How did you know that wasn't me, without me saying our words?" She asked. She could tell that he had been shaken up the moment that he had seen the demon that looked like her with its chest stabbed through so she wondered how he had been able to keep a cool head and realize that it was all fake.
"Well it was easy." Hisui said. He had been so shocked to see her in that state that he had forgotten to ask the word.
Hisui let go of Setsuna now and they faced each other in the dark earthy hall.
"I know that you don't love me. Not in the way that I do you." He said it was all out in the open now anyway thanks to the demon so it didn't much matter anymore.
"Hisui." She gasped. "You.. you love me, as in more than the way we are now?" She asked. With a rare look of surprise written all over her face.
He sighed. "Setsuna for a long time now from when I wake up to when I fall asleep all I can think of is you. I'm sorry, I've really tried to get over this. I even got engaged because I knew that you'd never feel the same way and getting engaged would make my family happy but I just can't bring myself to love anyone other than you. I understand if you no longer wish to be around me now. It's despicable for me to feel this way about you while being engaged to someone else. "
"Hisui no, not at all I.. I never knew. I only just realized after that stupid trip and I haven't known how to be around you ever since but when I think about forever all I can see is you." She said and her brown eyes shaded back to their usual violet color again as she spoke the last few words.
The sun must have been up now, they must have been out all night.
His heart stopped at her words. "Setsuna I—."
"Hisui!" Their heads turned as his uncle called his name. "Thank goodness the two of you are alright." Kohaku said as he ran to them fast. "We heard from the man that you sent to the guild that Kit may have been compromised. It completely escaped me what night it was so I brought back up as soon as I heard. Are you two alright?" Kohaku asked.
"I'm fine uncle we both are." Hisui said.
4 more demon slayers arrived with Kohaku and Hisui wounds were able to be properly treated now. The Kohaku and the demon slayers even found Kit and two people unconscious but alive within the dirt walls of the tunnel just in varying states of woundedness. Hisui and Setsuna didn't get much time to talk after that but Hisui caught her before she could go home.
"I think that we both should think about what happened today for a little while. We didn't get to finish our conversation back there so let's meet again tonight at the bone eaters well." He said to her privately.
He had asked to meet at the bone eaters well. It wasn't likely that they would find the privacy that they wanted at either of their homes and even at the slayers guild sometimes the walls seemed to have ears so Hisui figured that the best place to meet would be the bone eaters well where most no longer dared to go and with a heavy heart Setsuna agreed.
A.N:
Thank you for reading. The last chapter will be up on Saturday but I might post it earlier on Friday instead. The next chapter is titled Brighter Than The Sun.
Next Chapter:
"Can we talk alone for a while?" He asked and Aiya nodded, ordering everyone in the room to leave them alone.
"My dear Hisui please tell me what's got you looking so down today." She said as she stepped closer to him and reached out to hold his face in her hand. He had only ever seemed happy to see her before.
His attitude now was such a stark contrast and she didn't know what to think.
