⊱ ❅Clouded Judgement ❅⊰ | ❆ - • A Demon Slayer Story • - ❆

Chapter 6.

And with the starting words spoken, we all ran inside the depths of the thick and seemingly endless forest, each of us nervously yet firmly gripping our swords as our hearts rapidly thumped in anticipation.

We tried to remain as a singular group to make it easier for ourselves, however due to conflicting ideas of coordinates towards the end of the forest, we got more and more separated. Eventually, we were only five, however we were unfortunate enough to be stuck with two slayers who couldn't live under the increasing fear and stress building with every step deeper into the forest, so they both committed suicide on the spot. This was no place for emotions, so we continued going deeper. Luckily, we hadn't run into any demons in those first few hours, and decided to rest under a sunlit spot so there wasn't any risk of being attacked by surprise under the shadows of the forest. However, only Kiseki got actual rest, I was kept awake by Kaoru tossing and turning in his sleep.
Later that day, as the night breeze slowly started setting, Kaoru had already stopped moving that much and I was just about to fall asleep - until I heard movement behind a bush.

I immediately jumped up, gripped my sword and got into a defensive position, before paying closer attention to where the movement was coming from.

"Kaoru, Kiseki, we are surrounded by enemies, around five of them." I calmly informed them, ripping them both out of their sleep. They were not pleased but for obvious reasons didn't audibly complain and entered defensive stances.

"Noriyuki, where did you hear the movement come from-?"

I got ready to answer, but I picked up movement once more, and as I was waiting for the group of demons to slow down, one of the demons caught me off-guard by jumping out of a bush and directly going for my face. Kaoru reacted rather quickly and with a fast, almost lightning quick swing of his sword, he separated the demons head from his body and let it fall to the ground before disappearing into thin air. However, due to my lack of paying attention, his claws had already inflicted deep cut wounds on my face, trailing down across my eyebrows to below my eyes in an almost symmetrical alignment. Blood started spurting out of it, however the adrenaline pumping through my blood at that moment tanked the pain almost without trace. Kaoru let out a shocked gasp and turned around immediately, completely dropping his guard in an act of concern for a potential future colleague.

"N-Noriyuki, are you alright-? He got your eyes, are you sure you will be able to fight without se-"
Kiseki immediately interrupted him, almost sounding a little rude in doing so.
"We'll tend to our injuries once we are done here, and Noriyuki can't see anything to begin with."
"..Oh."

Kiseki immediately grabbed his sword and swung it at Kaorus direction, missing his face by enough to cut a strand of hair or two. Kaoru almost jumped, but was relieved to know he was only being helped since he wasn't paying attention to the demon creeping up behind him, who was immediately killed off on sight.

"Kaoru stay on your guard, they're going for surprise attacks. If we pay attention, they might give up and directly show themselves. If they don't tire us the fuck up, that is.."

Kiseki scoffed a little and went back into his unchanging stance. I can't read minds, but I like to think he was proud of how I had analysed the situation. Unlike kaoru, who was likely displeased that a technically less experienced but most definitely more mature slayer had to tell him what to do. Three demons left, and we patiently waited without moving a single inch from our positions. None of us had the courage to personally search through the bushes since we would be much more likely to get injured before even knowing that demons location. Eventually our stubbornness paid off, as a loud groaning came from the bushes, accompanied by three demons stepping out of hiding out of varying angles. We were standing in a circle, but they started circling around us in an attempt to confuse and trick us. However all three of us knew one of the demons would break that trick and go directly for one of us. As we waited, the female voice we heard groaning seconds ago started talking to us. Her words were a pain to catch as she was still circling around us, but her voice sounded raspy and gave the impression that it was about to turn into painful screaming with the next five words, which then took much longer than that.

"What makes humans like you think you get to choose who deserves to live and who doesn't? Do you know how much agony they put unfortunate victims like us through for the sole fact that we are forced to eat the likes of you humans? Locking us inside a forest for young swordsmen to try and kill us once a year.. don't you realise how cruel that is?! Cruel for us AND your kind, and yet you all eagerly buy into this sick, twisted shit.. you're all just as horrible as you frame us to be!!"

Her words stung deep, because I knew she was right in everything she just said. We are nowhere better than them, we only painted this image of a horrible, bloodthirsty monster and projected it onto them. It was never their decision to become a demon to begin with, and if it was, was it really driven by evil motives?

Her voice turned into a scream of agony, and she broke out of the circle movement to go for Kaoru. Right, it wasn't the right thing to just kill them like that, but it's a different story when they attack the person that had just saved me from dying myself mere moments ago. So I reacted quick, grabbed my blade and sharpened my breath until my lungs started gaining heat by the second, that temperature being spread across the rest of my limbs and body in direct succession.

"Wind Breathing; First Form: Dust Whirlwind Cutter."

I took off towards her by concentrating that enhanced strength  into my legs, releasing slashes in a continuous cyclone pattern. Wind breathing had a lot of destructive power, hard to tame, so her demise was not an unpainful one. My blade tore through her neck and she stopped screaming in agony before she quietly started fading into ash.
Kaoru, on the other hand, was not happy with the fact I 'thought he needed saving', put into his words. I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about, but I got a little salty, competitive even - and instead of ending the move midway through as I initially planned to, the moment my foot touched the ground, I took off a second time to perform a second strike on the demon that stopped circling around us aswell, for reasons I assume to be temporary fear.

But I didn't get to deliver that second strike, as I felt something bladed, sharp and long penetrate into my back from behind. I felt it move around and redirect inside me, getting just around my vital areas, before I passed out from sudden blood loss and fell to the ground. It was followed by silence, cold silence.