𝙁𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙧

53

"How long are we going to train like this?" You winced. Your left eye squinting as you watched the gashes and cuts on your body heal, blood dripped onto the cold pebbles below your feet "Until you can heal as fast as your mother or as fast as one of the upper ranks"  Marione responded as she wiped the blade of the knife in her hands.

"Who can regenerate faster, them or my mom?" You asked "Your mother" Marione replies.

The white rag she used, staining with blood "We'll have to burn this rag now" Marione says "It's littered in your blood" she added as she tossed the rag onto her engawa. Marione furrowed her brows as she saw the blood scattered onto her pebbles.

"What a mess" she frowns.

"That wouldn't of happened if we didn't have to train so violently" you commented, your tone laced with attitude. Marione side-eyed you as she gave you a frown "Well... There is another way to help with your regeneration and everything else you need training with" Marione said as she looked towards the setting sun. 

"Change into your corps uniform and get your katana, we're going to seek demons" Marione says.

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"What're we doing?" You ask. The two of you sat at the top of a tree, Marione a few branches higher "Do you hear it?" Marione asked "Hear what?" You replied "The sound of a demon ripping its meal apart" Marione says. 

For a moment you felt heavy, you couldn't help but imagine it and how she had said it so casually bothered you. 

"I can hear it now but only faintly" you say, hearing the soft and fleshy noises after you began to focus your ears. "It's disgusting" you frown. Marione let out a forced sigh as she stood up, balancing her weight onto the branch she stood upon. 

"Let's go" Marione says "Alright" you say as you too stood up and balanced your weight on the branch. You looked down at your belt as you adjusted it, waiting to hear her move but after a few seconds you still hadn't heard her leave.

"Are we going?" You ask as you look up at where she stood only for her to be gone "Marione?" You say your ear twitch as you heard ruffles and footsteps in the distance. You looked in that direction as you adjusted and focused your attention onto your eyes you saw Marione an incredible distance away.

Your eyes widened as you let you a groan, you began to leap tree to tree trying to catch up to the women before you. You had moved for quite sometime in the distance you saw you swing to the ground, once you got to that point you too swung down.

You were met with a small home, the outside paths and gardens littered with blood "Oh God" you say as you scrunched and covered your nose with your arm. You could sense that Marione was inside the home.

"Marione" you call out as you walked into the already opened door, the horrendous scent of rotting bodies and blood hit you, your eyes began to water as you pressed your arm harder against your nose. Around a corner Marione stood in her hand was the head of a fading demon.

Marione dropped the head onto the bloodied floor she then wiped the dagger she held with a cloth "Tch, that was useless" Marione says as the blood on the cloth soon vanished. "Are you just going to stand there?" Marione says as she side-eyed you.

You frown and furrow your brows as you walk into the home, your eyes adjusting every step you took. The light colored walls painted with blood, pools of blood laid upon the hard floors. Your eyes met with the dead bodies of the demons victims as you walked around the corner. 

Despite the horrible seen you weren't too surprised as it wasn't your first time seeing a massacre . "Why're we still here? The kakushi will come and clean this up" you say still having your arm against your nose "You wanted another way to become stronger, right?" Marione says in a low tone.

"I wouldn't mind another way but what's us staying here got to do with it" you say. Marione looked at you giving you a restless stare before she knelt down infront of the pile of bodies.

She reached out her hand and pulled off the mangled arm of a middle aged man "What the hell are you doing!?" You yell as you took a step forward, removing your arm from your face as you clenched your fist, upset that she would mess the body of a passed person.

"Eat it" 

Marione says as she held the arm towards "What?..." You say with wide eyes as you stepped back. 

"You said you wanted to grow your strength differently to surpass that of your mother and that of an upper rank much quicker then this will do it, of course you'll have to consume human flesh more than once" Marione says.

You stared at Marione, trembling. 

"Why do you look so surprised? You, the keeper are the finished product of a demon" Marione says.

After some time the kakushi arrived to the scene it was then you and Marione would take your leave.

You couldn't stop but think about Marione's words it bugged you so much. The two of you walked through the woods, heading for Marione's estate, you kicked a pebble of stuck every opportunity you got.

"Marione" you call out.

"Hmm?" She hummed in response.

"Did my mom eat human meat?" You ask.

"... She did" Marione responded.

"Hm" you hum.

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This chapter is not proofread.