[Author-san: A remake... no... a restart, more like a respawn for this story. Floating in my head, might as well shoot it down and see if its good.]
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"Hmmm... need to get up."
Laying as a corpse, shrouded in darkness with no glimmer of light to be seen. The empty feeling was not akin to dread or something sinister, but gave the feeling of... peace. No, there was a underlined sense of danger within the shadows, but more a feeling of calm.
No sounds, no light to see the room for what it was, merely a quite space for the being to slumber.
"This is getting me nowhere." thought the creature, slowly shifting and lifting its body from the cold stone bed it has made for itself.
With a small quick movement, it dispersed the thin layer of dust covering its body. Opening its eyes with a slow metallic gesture, they were the only light source to be found. Two crimson points staring into the darkness around it. They shimmered as life came back to them, before they faded back to their original color of a bronze yellow shade.
"That nap was meaningless..." It thought with a hint of annoyance. "-and the clock didn't go off this time."
Reaching down at the floor, it picked up the copper instrument reminiscent of an old alarm clock. The small gadget having a theme of making one think it was powered by a mini steam engine, the clock looked old and somewhat rotten as the copper material had a green shade to it.
Not wasting time on the obviously broken tool, he threw it over his shoulder, shattering it as it hit the stone wall. Rising from his stone bed, his head almost connected with the roof, the pointed stalactites longer than when he came to rest. He was almost three meters tall, but with his drowsy state and hunched over body, he barely seemed to reach two meters in length.
With a lazy step, he made his way to the exit of this small room. In the silence, the clicking sound of a horse's hooves were almost deafening in how loud they were. The feet of the creature being more animalistic.
"[illuminate]" he commanded with a voice that could only belong to some abomination from the pits of hell. His words conjured several flames along the small tunnel he was moving true.
The flames were a sickly green color, resting on candles lodged into the walls. As the creature moved past, the green light reflected off the thick fur that covered him from head to toe, or in this case it was hooves. Being a mixture of a goat and a man, the creature looked demonic yet still had an air of class to it.
Covered in an old fashioned suit most prominent in the 1900's with a blood red rose over his left chest. Two wicked horns twisted with a bronze golden color, sprouting true his signature top hat along with a plague doctor's mask covering half of his face. The so-called man fitted the image of a demon searching for a lost soul to bargain with.
"Oh... the outside." he muttered to himself, gazing to the view of the night sky. From his words he realized something.
"My voice... I forgot that passive was still a thing." he lamented, forgetting that he had the skill of [Demonic Tongue] still active. From waking up, it automatically turns on along with a few of his other passives.
Looking around, he could see from that short phrase alone he already turned most of the surrounding trees into a red shade of their former color. The skill could merely add a weak corruption debuff to all surrounding entities, but after coming to this world, anything that could be seen as life would be effected.
"Sigh... Really a troubling thing." he said, his voice now more human in nature.
"I've wasted to much time here. The experiment was a failure, that's obvious to see." He spoke while looking down to his body. At the hopes of trying to go true a sort-of 'Hibernation' he thought that it could make him a achieve a racial change, or atleast some effect on his instinctual behavior.
"Instinctual..." He mused, thinking of his goat-like needs that he had to handle after becoming a demon. In his musing, his eyes drifted to the green grass below his feet.
"I wonder maybe... perhaps..."
Getting curious, he reached down for a handful of fresh grass and hesitantly opened his mouth, ready to receive the meal. The demon goat, unlike its more sheeply brothers, was not a herbivore. Instead of a mouth full of flat goat teeth, it had rows of sharp canines made for consuming flesh.
But even so... he ate it... and then regretted it.
"Ugh... that's fucking disgusting."
Spitting out the filthy treat, he has confirmed that nothing has changed. He was still, and most likely will forever be, a carnivor... and technically also a cannibal due to how demon nature worked, but that's not important.
"Making an entire village dissappear is gonna lead to all loads of trouble again. If only cows and sheeps were tastier."
Speaking to no one in particular, he merely walked down the hill, pretty soon the sun would rise so he needed to get moving.
Arriving to a Boulder he was familiar with, he could get the general direction of the nearest human settlement.
"If I remember correctly, the pointy side was north and the side with the crack was the way to a village."
Taking his wonderful directions, he would arrive at a village in roughly 600 to 700 steps. Considering his size, one step was pretty large, but even so, he won't make it before the sun rises.
"Time to get a robe change."
With a snap of his fingers, his former suit transformed to a more bagy cloth. His entire form was covered in a sandy yellow material one would usually see when traveling true a desert. The material had a few faded red and orange colors, but was mostly plane in its making. It was good for hiding his inhuman appearance without the need for magic.
"And the final touches..." he said, reaching out to the air with his gloved hand disappearing into a void. From the void he brought a neatly styled umbrella with golden ornaments along its edges and a giant Japanese straw hat akin to the the ones used by farmers. The hat was decorated with nine unique bells dangling from it, each different shapes and colors.
The umbrella magically unfolded, shielding him from the moonlight, but he instead brought it down and used it as a cane. The umbrella was a backup plan incase the hat were to be knocked off or blown away. But with the Enchantments it held, he doubted a small wind would be enough to disrupt its position.
"Time to start counting." he whispered to himself, sounding more as a complaint for his stupidity.
"Okay... one, two, three, four..."
With each step, a new number was added. From his memory the village was maybe, 634 steps away? Maybe 658.. not sure.
He has gotten use to walking from place to place, only in some rare occasions he used teleportation, but now he wanted to enjoy the view. Last time, his teleportation ended up taking him to a giant hole where his destination once was. It wouldn't auto correct one's position, instead it would merely just force you into that spot no matter what was currently there, or even if the current structure were to be gone.
So... best to walk.
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"Six-hundred and Twenty-four... six-hundred and twenty-five... six-hundred and-"
Numbers after numbers, he could feel the seconds passing by. The sun was peaking over the horizon and was almost fully into view. From his guess, it was probably around 8:00-AM, or atleast close to that number.
"The town, should be in the distance by now..."
Taking his eyes away from the dirt and gazing up to the horizon, he saw nothing. Usually it would have came into view when he reached 630, so why was there nothing? Did he count wrong? Off course not, he was excellent when it came to numbers. So where was it?!
"Sigh... best to just keep on walking, I guess."
Not caring for the lack of any civilization, he just kept on walking and kept on counting
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"Six-hundred and eighty-two.. six-hundred and eighty-three... six-hu-... wait what's that?"
His eyes still fixated onto the dirt path, he could see this odd line within the grass. Getting closer her saw more of them all over the place. The shapes they made were farely simple, such as squares some bigger, some smaller. All arranged in a unified way.
"Oh no... don't tell me."
Slowly drifting into the air with his magic, he saw the markings for what they were.
"Seems this is the right spot... To bad the village didn't last long enough for me to see it again." he said, a bit upset that his nap may have been longer than what he wanted it to be.
The dirt markings showed that their were once buildings here, but now they were long gone. Only leaving faded dirt paths and a few broken walls, barely noticeable from a distance.
"Idiot" He scolded himself, getting back on the dirt road and instead doing what he has always been doing, keep on moving.
He is sure he'll find civilization soon enough, so best to treat this as another experiment. How good is his patience?
"Well, time to find out."
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The sun...
Bright and radiant in its beauty, but also deadly. The trio of young swordsman could somewhat relate to demons in their fear for it. They felt as if it were to melt the skin from their flesh. Turning them into nothing but ash as they've seen done to demons, but they were not demons.
"As, The KING of the Mountain... I WILL NOT SURRENDER!" screamed Inosuke, pulling out one of his blades, pointed directly towards the sun.
"Hey, don't directly look at the-" before Zenitsu could warn the idiot, he started to feel the gaze of the heavens looking back.
"AHHH, BLOODY HELL!" rubbing his eyes and screaming from the sudden flare, the others just stared at how dumb he was.
Unlike Zenitsu who only commented saying he was an 'idiot', Tanjiro patted him on the shoulder speaking in a worried tone. "Are you alright?"
"IM FINE. Now let GO!"
"Oi shut it, you little brats. That Crying is not Flamboyant at all." interjected the adult in this situation.
Old enough to be a father, but young enough for a cool older brother. He was flashy and dazzling. Shinny and great. Walking a few meters ahead from the trio of idiots, was the Flamboyant sound Hashira, TENGEN UZUI.
"I was NOT CRYING" protested the boar, making the hashira only start walking once more. He has only been with them for a few hours, and he is already starting to hate it.
They were almost at the entertainment district within the next town up, but these idiots kept doing something to stall their trip.
"Wow, look at that guy, he must be cooking with all those clothes." commented Zenitsu, seeing the tall figure up ahead.
Walking down the same path, the tall man was headed their way. He was covered head to toe in a very middle eastern robe, the huge cloth blending with the warm atmosphere as it was the same color as that of desert sand.
The trio walked on, only giving a casual glance from the mans approach. They didn't notice the odd look Tengen gave the man as he passed him.
Zenitsu thought he may be a traveling merchant with the gold ornaments and the extravagant hat. While Inosuke only stromed past him, not caring if he may accidentally hit the man with his wild movements.
Tanjiro on the other hand was very perplexed by the individual. He could not see a spec of skin from underneath the clothes, only seeing more cloth. The face was covered with a red and orange scarf, along with the odd sensation he got from him. It took him a while but he eventually noticed, the man had no scent. He could not sense or smell anything to even tell him that someone was infront of him. If it wasn't for his eyes, he may have walk right into him.
"What is this feeling... this man, his not normal."
He wondered how someone could be so empty in their presence, but when the man eventually passed all the others, he seems to react to Tanjiro. Slowly he could feel the man's gaze landing directly on him. From that short glance, he felt something strange and dark. He subconsciously looked up, almost as if he was prepared for an attack, but no attack came.
He only stared at the cloth covering the mans face, a red rag that was lined with golden markings, a very unique simbal covering most of it. He could feel the gaze extending past him, the man was now only a few feet away and yet it felt like it would take ages before he would pass.
"Why is he focused on me? Wait, no... he isn't looking at me, his looking at... !"
Tanjiro suddenly realized the truth. The odd man was nor staring at him, but the box he was carrying.
"Did he notice Nezuko's presence?! If he was another demon slayer then-wait, Lord Tengen is here so I'm sure he wont try anything drastic..." Tanjiro thought, hoping that the news of Nezuko's safety has extended past just that of the Hashira, but even so he couldn't help but worry.
"Hey, kid." suddenly, with a lazily tone, the man pointed at Tanjiro and called out to him. The tone was casual, yet the man's voice was deep and rough.
"Uhm- uh yes?" Tanjiro said, he could feel the others looking at him with worry, especially the gaze of Tengen as he was fixated on the man infront of him.
"You might not by chance know where's the nearest settlement, won't ya?" With the same voice from before, the man asked the young swordsman, oblivious to the attention from the others.
"Know where's the nearest town?" parroted Tanjiro, first thinking of his answer. The man's gaze has yet to stray from the box he was carrying, but he could not smell any lies from his words.
"There is one roughly two kilometers back that way, I suggest maybe a cart... or" he suggested the cart as the man sounded to be atleast of similar age as Urokodaki, but now looking at him, he didn't apear weak in the slightest.
"Oh, two kilometers you say? That doesn't seem so far. Thanks young man, I'll be off then." He said, suddenly cutting the conversation and moving on.
Before Tanjiro could stop him or ask a question, the man was already a few meters away. Tengen called him out of his thoughts, making him look away from the retreating form of the odd man.
"Hey, brat. Let's get a move on!"
Moving on, he couldn't help but wondered who that guy was, and it seems he wasn't the only one.
"What the hell was up with that guy's Ki? His whole presence was just so weird." Zenitsu said, trying not to look back.
"HE kinda reminded me of the BIG bears on the Mountain. Strong." Inosuke simply said, acknowledging the fact that the man was definitely not some weakling.
From all their comments, it was Tengen's that interested him the most.
"Best to not pay attention to guys like that. You tend to encounter people like him from time to time. People that'll rather fight alone than get the help from the demon slayer core." he simply said, surprisingly not throwing a flashy comment in.
"Uh.. lord Tengen. I guess you must have encountered people like him before?" Tanjiro asked, very interested in who they were, and their goals.
"Doesn't matter now. We need to get moving and finish the mission. Time to make a Flashy entrance, for those un-flashy demons."
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Seeing he was far enough from them, the Demon Goat raised his left hand to his chest. From under the long cloth, something moved and turned as it tried to escape from the fabric. Eventually a small red fairy, akin to a mini-imp made it's way outside and onto his shoulder. With its red pitchfork and demon horns, it bowed to its lord atop his shoulder.
"What did you find?" Asked Ulbert bluntly, he wasn't in the mood for any pleasantries.
"It was true, as my lord predicted, the young boy with the scar appears to be housing a demon." it said, not once raising it head from its bowing position.
"Hmm..." hummed Ulbert, thinking over this new information. "Encountering a demon like this is very rare. I hope none of my shadows have been doing anything dumb while i was gone... I want you to tail them for now. Stay within your spirit form at all times."
From his words, the demon bowed low once more before disappearing into a red mist.
Ulbert brought up his hands, showing the fur underneath as he was checking his watch. A very old model, but still working.
"I guess I can spare a few hours for a quick snack. The hunger debuff seems to be increasing with this long-term sun exposure. Another thing to look into."
Covering his arm, and shielding it from the sun, he could see that his resistance to it has atleast gotten better over the years. Only seeing a red burn and a few of his hair turning to ash, he can safely say his nap was atleast Half a succes.
"Almost night, and almost time for dinner." he said, gazing to the village in the distance. Truly tonight would be a festive feast.
[Author-san: ... well... wow.]