Till The Sun Rises

EPISODE-2: GRATITUDE

All the situations seem to become back to normal for now, at least. The remaining pillars are back to their missions as usual. The Kasugai crows flying in the sky, eager to see the first ray of the rising sun in a few hours. While roaming and resting the whole night in the forest, the Love pillar; Mitsuri Kanroji and Mist pillar; Muichiro Tokito, who were on their separate missions receive information about the lingering two demons, who were easily equivalent to the level of a lower moon. 

Both Mitsuri and Muichiro make their way to North-East and South respectively, but since the destination was at a subtle distance it took them time to reach. But they were at least relieved that there is no human population around this area so the demons might not do any harm. 

After an hour they finally reached their spots but to their surprise, the demons at both of the locations were turning into ashes. Even the sun hasn't risen completely, so there's no way they got burned up in the sun. And something adding up to their confusion was that the demon's heads were decapitated. 

They just reached there, how was it even possible? they thought to themselves. Isn't it weird how Mitsuri and Muichiro are in entirely different directions, they don't even know about each other's presence, yet their mind asks them the same question...

Before they could come to any conclusion their respective crows ask them to take some rest at the nearby village, which was none other than the hidden village of swordsmiths who forge swords for the demon hunters.

When they reach the village, the sun was already up.  Both of the pillars reach there almost at the same time and greet each other, then they proceed to meet the chief of the village, Tecchin Tecchikawahara, who addresses them both with welcoming words and advice them to spend some time at the hot spring at their village and asks their respective swordsmiths to renovate their swords.  

Muichiro goes off to somewhere else and Mitsuri proceeds towards the hot spring. 

On her way, as she reaches the central crossroad of the village, her sight meets with a monument. A ten feet tall statue of a lady, beautifully dressed, with a sword in her hands, seeming to be some kind of goddess that the villagers have been worshipping for ages. 

She was admiring the beauty of the monument until she spots a mark. A mark which they forgot about for a while, but it seems like crossing roads with it is the fate of the demon hunters of this era. 

The eclipse mark that made someone as abrasive and hot-blooded person as Sanemi lose his reflexes for a while, that eclipse mark, was at the same spot at the statue as Sanemi had informed them, below the pit of the neck. 

Mitsuri knew demon hunters have always been asked to stay away from that sign, despite this she asks a kid about the statue who was passing by her. This brings a big smile to the kid's face and he says, "She is the guardian angel of our village, you know when you demon hunters aren't here Miss Tenshi protects us from demons!" More than the information received, Mitsuri was happy to see the big smile on that beautiful kid's face, after all, that is her personality, the Love pillar loves almost everyone. She even compliments the kid for his beautiful smile and thanks him for the provided information until some adult passing by claims that it's all a myth created by the villagers to make themselves feel protected, no angel guards them but the demon slayers inspect the village time to time to check up on the swordsmith village and recently an elite swordsman was here and he left just yesterday. 

"His name was Murata! I loved his hair!' the kid says and Mitsuri laughs again. 'I just loved whatever the kid said, whether it was true or not, I loved it. Grown-ups are just so boring, they always want to stick to facts and what they see. Kids live in their fantasy and hence they stay happy.' Mitsuri thinks to herself.