𝙆𝙉𝙔 𝙭 𝘿𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙣! 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

Chapter Twelve

"A train? Seriously? I hope I'm not too late." You thought as you made your way to the nearest train station in the city.

Looking around you, you started feeling dizzy and faint in the middle of the crowded areas as you weren't really used to them.

"There you are!" You felt a tap on your shoulder, so you turned around to see a man with cyan eyes and a kanji written in one of them.

"You must be... Lower moon one." You said in a rather quiet tone in order to avoid unwanted attention from others who might be eavesdropping.

"That's correct." He said proudly. "And you're the girl who ruined my chances of getting killed by the master."

You stared at him blankly unable to process what he'd just said, and trying to convince yourself that you've probably misheard that due to the excessive chatter around you.

"Let's go, I don't know if I can stand crowded places for any longer." You let out a heavy sigh, trying to find a quiet place to be in.

"Crowded places mean more food." He explained as he followed you to a quiet corner. "You should be happy, shouldn't you?"

You shook your head 'no', pinching the bridge of your nose as you let out a heavy sigh.

Once you opened your eyes again, he was out of sight - much to your horror. You were left all alone in the middle of a crowd, and to make matters worse, the train was beginning to leave to its next destination.

"Wait!" You yelled, chasing after the train with a weird feeling of déjà vu. "I'm going to kill that lower moon!" You thought, as you finally got onto the train.

"Found you again!" He said, landing perfectly on his feet right next to you.

"How dare you leave without a warning?!" You snapped, feeling your face heat up. "Just who do you think you are?!"

"Enmu, lower moon one." He said, with a smug grin on his face. "Pleasure to meet you, lower rank five."

"I wish I could say the same about you." You scoffed, crossing your arms defensively.

"Now, I'll prove to you that I deserve my rank." He chuckled, gesturing you to follow him as he made his way to the first compartment.

To your surprise, the compartment was empty. "You're a weird one, you know?" You muttered, observing him as he detached his hand which started moving away on its own.

Moments later, a group of humans walked in, their faces looking unnaturally pale as they fixated their dull eyes on the ground.

"It's truly a blessing to die while dreaming... How lucky you are." Enmu told them with a strangely calm tone and a hint of excitement in his voice. "I'll show you happy dreams as per your wish, but that comes for a cost."

"Understood." They all said in unison, with their heads still hanging low.

"You, I'll need you to punch the tickets." He told one of the train's conductors. "I promise, I'll show you a dream where you reunite with your deceased loved ones."

"And you... I need you to secure the engine." He ordered another. "Make sure no one enters, especially if they have swords on them."

"And the rest of you... take these." He said, handing the remaining passengers sharp weapons and ropes. "I'll see how you can be useful to me, await my orders."

"Alright..."

Once they left, you turned to your partner in disbelief, utterly surprised by his ability to boss those humans around. "How... how did you do that?" You asked. "I have to admit... that's quite impressive."

"Impressive?" He said as he turned to you with a sly smile. "Well... that's not my real ability... I just took advantage of their weak souls."

"That reminds me of..." You trailed off, deeply thinking about Douma and his followers. "I wonder what Douma-sama is doing at the moment... He's probably just enjoying some midnight snacks." You thought, smiling to yourself.

"Hey lower moon five! Hey Yuki-san!" Enmu called for you, snapping you back to reality. "Are you listening? Did you get lost in your daydreams?"

"Yes- No- I mean-" There was a long pause as stared at him blankly trying to say something meaningful. "I was listening and there are no daydreams that could possibly distract me from my duties." You said after some time, regaining your composure.

"Your face says otherwise..." He muttered, mostly to himself.

"Now, allow me to explain how I've been killing passengers for the past couple of days!" He added as his face flushed with excitement. "Once the conductor punches the tickets, the spell activates, and everyone on this train goes into deep sleep and see happy dreams."

"Understood... What do you want me to do about that?"

"The demon slayer corps have been sending their forces to investigate the demonic presence on this train, and I want you to kill as many of them as you can find."

"So do you predict they might send a strong demon hunter? A hashira?"

"Oh I know they will."

At that moment, you started feeling the panic arising and tried your best to stay calm and collected. "Oh? Are you scared?" He asked playfully as he observed your pallor increasing. "Don't worry, everyone will be asleep like a baby in no time, even the strongest hashira is unable to withstand my blood art."

"I'll be on the train's roof if you need me, please don't hurt our human allies yet." Saying that, he vanished into thin air, leaving you alone in the compartment.

-

After a while, the passengers were all sound asleep, not even snoring or breathing loudly; everything was too quiet that the slightest whisper could be heard.

"I did what you asked me for! Take me to my wife and daughter!" A helpless cry coming out of the blue in the middle of such silence made you jolt up from your seat and go to check where it came from.

Once you arrived to the compartment where the sound came from, you saw the conductor lying limp on the floor.

"Is he dead?" You asked Enmu as soon as you saw his detached hand.

"Just dreaming about his little family!" He said cheerfully, then turned to the humans who were waiting for the demon's orders.

"What should we do?" One of them asked.

"See those swordsmen? I need you to tie one end of these ropes to their wrists, and the other end to your wrists, but make sure that you don't touch them." He explained. "Count to ten and go to sleep, and once you enter their dream, you'll be able to destroy their spiritual cores."

"The dreams I show them aren't infinite, find the end of the dream you enter and once you reach it, destroy the barrier that separates the person's dream and subconscious mind." He added. "The spiritual core is within the person's subconscious mind."

"Okay..."

As soon as they took the orders, they left to the compartment where the demon hunters were at, and you followed them without a second thought as you really didn't want them to mess the plan.

"Who are you?" One of them asked, giving you a skeptical look. "Are you here too under his orders?"

"Oh don't mind me, I'm one of his subordinates." You said, forcing a friendly smile. "Now, please do what he's asked you for."

Once you reached the compartment, you were shocked to see the same boy with hanafuda earrings sound asleep with tears streaming down his face.

This was your chance to kill him, but just as you remembered his kind eyes, you couldn't muster up the courage to kill him. "Not just yet..." You thought, stepping away from him.

Soon enough, the humans connected their wrists to the swordsmen, and at the count of ten, every human was once again asleep.

─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───

Word count: 1324 words

-',✎ A/n: This took way too long to post sorry </3 I'll update again as soon as possible!