I Spy

Chapter 10: Calm Before the Long Night

Date: September 25, 2024
Time: 8:45 PM
Location: Butterfly Mansion
Weather: Mostly Cloudy

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"So what did you call me for nee-san?" Aoi said as she follows Kanae to her room, "Master calls you and the others for a mission," Kanae replied, Aoi nodded and followed Kanae as she opened to door to her room. "I already joined the call, so we start from there," Kanae says as she and Aoi walk to her computer, and on the computer was an online call with Ubuyashiki, Nezuko, Inosuke (who had to visit Zenitsu because he doesn't have a computer), Zenitsu, and Genya. 

"Is everybody here?" Ubuyashiki calmly stated, "Should I call Kanao here nee-san?" Aoi said to Kanae, Kanae nodded and Aoi immediately went to her room to get her. "Hello Master, hello everyone!" Kanae cheerfully said, "Hello my child." Ubuyashiki replied, and the others also replied hello. Aoi came through the door with Kanao, "Nee-san, I got her." She said as she sat down next to her older sister, Kanao also stood next to them to hear what their master has for them.

"Is everybody here now?" Ubuyahsiki said once again. "Yes, Master." The others replied, "Good, let's move on to business now," he said, the others started to listen in to hear what their leader has to say. "Tomorrow on Friday night, there will be two deliveries that will be taken, both of their final destinations will be in Tokyo, but they will be across from each other," Ubuyashiki said. The others began to catch onto what he was saying already, "Will you be calling us to escort them, Master?" Kanae asked, "Yes my child, but one of the deliveries is larger than the other, we are thinking that the man will come for the larger one first so we ask Nezuko and her squad to escort said delivery," Ubuyahsiki explained. "Yes Master, and where will we meet up with the group?" Nezuko asked, "About 5 miles from the South of Tokyo, the crows will guide you to the meet-up location when the time arrives." Ubuyahsiki stated, "Ok, Master," Nezuko replied. "But, Master, what if the man will attack the other convoy first, then goes for us?" Genya asked, "It's highly unlikely due to the other convoy's package weighing only 8 kgs and ours weighing 15 kgs, and if he were to get both of them, his speed won't be able to catch up in time to get both parcels as they are both located across from each other and if he were to get one parcel, he won't be able to get the other as the ore package will already be buried by the time he gets there, if not already collected." Ubuyashiki says. Genya nods, "But if he does attack the other convoy, will there be other slayers escorting it?" Zenitsu asks with Inosuke breathing right next to him, "Stop breathing on my neck," he says to Inosuke and backs away a little bit. Ubuyashiki and the others chuckle a little bit, "There will be slayers put on standby if he does attack the other convoy instead of ours, we will also send in one of our slayers as an escort too just in case." Ubuyashiki firmly stated, "Yes, Master." Zenitsu said. "Also, I forgot to add, you won't directly be escorting the convoy, but rather escorting them in the shadows." Ubuyashiki added, "So does that mean that we will travel behind the convoy in secret?" Aoi questioned, "Yes, my child, instead of taking the direct assault, we will wait until he appears, then we will try to ambush him, and at least capture him." Ubuyashiki explained. The others nod, "Also Mater, who will we send as an escort for the other convoy?" Kanae asks.

"We will send Emiko, and I believe, she already knows about the mission details, so she will be fine for now." Ubuyashiki states, "Yes, Master," the others say. "Will we have Kakushi on standby in case one of us gets injured?" Kanao asks, Ubuyashiki replies, "Yes, we will have our assets on standby as we normally do on normal missions," Kanao gives an approving grunt. "Also, we won't have to worry about any demons so far because of the lack of reported sightings near our drop-off locations," Ubuyahsiki said. "But, if demons do come, then you must protect the convoy from the threat." He added, the others nodded and replied, "Yes, Master." 

"It seems that we now understand our roles in this mission?" Ubuyashiki questioned, "Yes, Master we will try to not fail you." The others replied. Ubuyashiki smiled, "Very well, meeting dismissed, good luck my children." he says as the others leave.

Aoi and Kanao sighed, "Now we know what we have to do for tomorrow," Kanao said, "Yep," Aoi replied back.

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Meanwhile, the three in the basement were having a good time with Emiko and Akira laughing and Isamu just smiling at the two girls, "So Emiko-chan you got any new missions lately?" Akira said, "Yep, Master told me about it before I got here, he told me something about escorting a convoy," Emiko replied. "What are the details?" Isamu asked, looking a bit worried. "The convoy heads out tomorrow along with another convoy, my duty is to protect the convoy from that masked man," she stated, "Is that other convoy being escorted too?" Akira asked, "Yes, in fact, Kanao, Nezuko, Inosuke, Genya, and Zenitsu will escort the other convoy, the reason why there are more people escorting the other convoy, is because the package is bigger for the other convoy than mines," Emiko explained. "They are also expecting the masked man to go for the other convoy first since we deduced that he won't be likely to reach my convoy first." She added.

"Ok Emiko-chan, but please stay safe out there," Akira added, "Don't worry, I will." Emiko stated with a smile while patting Akira's head, "She's being serious Emiko, you saw how we are now, we were no match for him, and you are just as strong as the both of us, so we ask you to please be safe." Isamu stated a bit seriously, "Don't worry Isamu-kun, I'll be safe, you don't need to worry..."She said in a reassuring tone. 

Emiko then checks the clock in the basement, "Oh, my! Look at the time, I guess I have to go, my house is kind of far away from here and I have school in the morning." Emiko says as she prepares to leave, "Bye, Emiko-chan!" Akira says as Emiko begins to walk up the stairs, "Bye, Akira-chan!" She says, "Hey, Emiko." Isamu says as Emiko turns around, "Stay safe and goodbye for now," he says as a soft smile appears on his face, Emiko blushes a little bit and replies, "Bye Isamu-kun!" She then turns around and walks up the stairs and closes the basement door behind her.

"Bye Aoi-chan, I'm leaving!" She yells from the bottom of the stairs to the second floor, "Bye Emiko!" Aoi yells from her room. Emiko then opens the front door and leaves down the road.

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"So boss, why did you gather us here?" A man said while standing in a circle along with 5 other men, "I have gathered you here because our lord has assigned me a mission," one of the men said, "What did he say?" one of the men in the circle replied. "He asked me to capture the masked man and bring him to him," he stated. "And what does this have to do with us?" One of the men stated, "Watch your tone, anyways, I have deduced that this man will only target ore deliveries for the slayers. And as luck will have it, two are heading out tomorrow night on Friday, both heading to downtown Tokyo." The man stated. 

"What do you want us to do?" One of the men stated, "Simple, I want you guys to ambush the convoys and claim the packages, so that way we can draw him toward us and capture him." The man said. "Very well boss, but how will we know which convoy he will attack first?" One of his men stated, "One of the convoys is large than the other, so I will suspect that he will attack that one first, but just in case, I will send one of you to intercept the other convoy," the man said. 

"Ok, boss," the men said in unison. "Good, you may leave, but you must report back here tomorrow night." The man said, "Yes, boss." The other men said as they left the area. The man just chuckles into the night and leaves the area soon after.

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Date: September 27, 2024
Time: 13:30 PM
Location: Kimetsu High School
Weather: Sunny

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As Tanjiro was sitting down with his friends, he was eating along with writing down ideas for what he can dress up for the dance. "The dance was first mentioned a few weeks ago via the poster on the school bulletin board," he thought as wrote and ate at the same time, "Though it's only been up there for a few weeks, it spread like wildfire, many students already had their costumes for the dance, including most of my friends and the teachers too." He thought. 

"Meanwhile me, who hasn't been able to think up one good idea for a costume, maybe I shouldn't go to the dan-" he thinks as his thoughts are interrupted by someone poking him, "Yo! Tanjiro! You there?" Zenitsu says as he starts to poke a Tanjiro that has a dazed expression on his face and is facing toward the piece of paper on his lap. Tanjiro finally snaps out of it and looks at Zenitsu, "Y-yeah?" He says, "What's gotten into you? You haven't talked to us in a while." He says as the others start to look at Tanjiro, Tanjiro simply chuckles and puts on a goofy smile, "I haven't been able to decide on a costume for the dance, so I am trying to think of one before the dance starts," Tanjiro said. "You still haven't decided yet?" Genya says, Tanjiro sighs and nodded. The group starts thinking of a costume idea for Tanjiro, "Why don't you dress up as an animal or something? Like a wolf." Genya says, "Because that's what I and nemi are going to dress up as during the dance." He adds, "What about a food item?" Inosuke adds Zenitsu looks at him like he was up to something, "Right... Anyways, speaking of food items, I am dressing up as a pumpkin." Zenitsu says. Tanjiro begins to write down the ideas on a new piece of paper since he discarded his old one. "I'm dressing up as a nurse for Halloween," Aoi said, "Why?" Tanjiro questioned, "At first I was thinking of dressing up as something else, but the idea wasn't so good when it was put on paper, so I just decided to dress up as my fallback costume, which was a nurse." She replied. "Nice," Tanjiro said as he wrote down "Jobs" on his paper. "What about you Kanao?" Tanjiro asked, Kanao jumped a bit at this since she was also a bit in a trance, "S-so far I have two options, either an ice princess or a ghost," she says while looking at Tanjiro, "Those sound nice!" Tanjiro said with a wide smile which made Kanao blush (again). Tanjiro then looks at his paper and writes down "Fantasy," he looks up again and faces Inosuke and Nezuko, "What about you two?" He says to them, "The great lord will dress up as himself!" Inosuke proudly said which left the group dumbfounded, "What?!" He says, "Inosuke you can't dress up as yourself for Halloween." Zenitsu says. 

"Let me choose what I want to be Monitsu!" He says as he starts chasing Zenitsu, "F*ck, not again!" Zenitsu thinks as he starts running from the boar. Aoi sighs, "I'll try to help that boar head make a costume other than himself," she says as she begins to run towards the two boys in order to defuse the situation. "Anyways... What about you Nezuko?" Tanjiro asks as she turns to Nezuko, "For me, I decided to go as a cat!" She happily said, "That's nice." Tanjiro said as he starts to eat again.

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*RING*

"Well, that's the bell, see you guys next period!" Tanjiro says as he starts to leave, the others also said their goodbyes and left for their respective classes. As Tanjiro walks down the hall he looks at his paper, "Maybe I should ask the teachers for their suggestions," he thinks as he sits in his class.

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*RING*

The last bell of the day had rung and Tanjiro leaves his class, he grabs his paper out of the bag and a pencil and begins to walk to every teacher that he knows of. 

While walking, he notices Rengoku and Tengen in the hallways talking to each other, "Rengoku-sensei, Tengen-sensei!" He shouts as he gains the attention of both teachers, "Kamado! My young boy, what do you need?" Rengoku says, "Is it about my flamboyant ness?!" Tengen says as he assumes a "flashy" pose. Tanjiro and Rengoku look at him like he is an idiot, Tengen senses the atmosphere and stops. "Anyways... I can't decide about what to wear at the dance, so I decided to ask the teachers what they recommend me to dress up as." Tanjiro says, "Ah! For me, I will be dressing up as a zombie to the dance along with my younger brother!" Rengoku proudly says, "For me, I shall be dressing up as a flamboyant pirate!" Tengen says, Tanjiro writes the idea down. "Alright, thanks for the ideas! See you next week!" He says as he leaves the two teachers.

"Next one is Iguro-sensei," he thinks, as he is tapping his pencil on his paper. After a few minutes, he reaches the teacher's class and sees him at the door on his phone, "Iguro-sensei?" Tanjiro says as he slowly approaches him since he didn't want to disturb him, "What do you want brat?" Iguro replies, "Cold..." Tanjiro thinks, "Anyways... I want to ask you what you are going to wear to the dance." Tanjiro asks. Iguro scoffs, "If you really want to know that I'll be dressing up as a Serpent Master," Iguro says, Tanjiro is confused about what that is. "What's that?" He asks, "You'll just have to find out at the dance kid, now leave." He sternly says as Tanjiro leaves while looking a little scared.

While walking down the hall, he sees Shinbou and Kanae, he decides to go up to them and ask for their opinions. "Shinobu-sensei, Kanae-sensei!" He says, the two sisters turn their attention to the young boy, "Hello Tanjiro-kun!" Kanae cheerfully says, "Nice to meet you here Tanjiro-san." Shinbou states. "Nice to meet you two here too, I actually wanted to ask you both a question regarding the dance a month from now," Tanjiro explains. "Ask away, but we need to find Kanao and Aoi after this, so please be quick." Kanae says, "Kanao and Aoi should be at the gates right now due to school being over, but anyways, I wanted to ask what you two are wearing to the dance." Tanjiro asks. Shinobu was about to speak but was interrupted by Kanae, "I'm going to be a flower!" She screams, startling both Tanjiro and Shinobu, "Th-that's nice..." Tanjiro says as he calms down, "What about you Shinobu-sensei?" He asks the lady, "I was thinking of being a witch to fit the Halloween spirit." She says, "Nice, thanks for your ideas you two, bye for now!" Tanjiro says as he walks away from the two women while waving back. The two sisters wave back at him and start to walk to the exit of the school.

Tanjiro soon meets up with Gyomei and Mitsuri and he sees them talking to each while walking down the hall. "Gyomei-sensei! Mitsuri-sensei!" He yells as he catches both of their attention. "Tanjiro-kun!" Mitsuri yells as she runs up to Tanjiro and pulls him into a very tight hug, "Can't breath!!" Tanjiro thinks. As Mitsuri keeps hugging Tanjiro, Gyomei walks up to the two, "Mitsuri-san, I think you will choke Tanjiro if you don't let go of the hug." He says, Mitsuri lets go of the hug and sees Tanjiro fumble back and gasp for air. "Kyaaa! Tanjiro-kun I'm sorry!" She worriedly says, "No problem, Mitsuri-sensei." He says as he breathes in deeply one last time. "What did you need us for my young child?" Gyomei says, "Well, I was about to ask you about what you were going to wear to the dance since I am a bit dry on ideas." Tanjiro said as he fixed his posture, "I'm so glad you asked!" Mitsuri says loudly, "I'm going to be dressed up as a kitsune (nine-tailed fox)!" She adds, "That's nice!" Tanjiro replies with a large smile. "What about you Gyomei-sensei?" He asks Gyomei, "I will be dressing up as a mummy," Gyomei says, "That's interesting!" Tanjiro says as he writes down their choices. "Thanks for the recommendation you two, I'll be on my way now, sorry for bothering you!" Tanjiro says as he turns around and begins to walk down the hallway, "Bye Tanjiro-kun!" Mitsuri says as she waves to him, Gyomei just stands there idly praying (like he always does).

A few minutes pass by as Tanjiro is looking for someone, "Where is Tomioka-sensei? He should be around here somewhere." He thinks as he looks for the man in a blue gym suit, as he keeps looking he sees a man turn the corner, he is carrying a kendo around as he uses it to whack students who are not supposed to be on school property, "Tanjiro, what are you doing here? School is over for the day, you should be at home." Giyu then swings his kendo, but Tanjiro dodges it. "I'm sorry Tomioka-sensei, I'll promise to leave after I ask this question!" He says as he dodges Tomioka's swings. Giyu stops swinging for a moment before finally talking, "Fine, but you need to leave, if I catch you walking around the school after this, then you will be in trouble." He says, "Yes, Tomioka-sensei, I promise to leave after I ask you this question." Tanjiro replies. "Fine, what is your question?" Giyu asks blandly. "For the school dance, I don't have a costume idea right now, I've asked other teachers about their ideas. I also wanted to ask you about this too." Tanjiro says, "I don't have a costume idea either, but I do have a few suggestions." Giyu says, "Can I hear them?" Tanjiro asks, "Costumes can be based on many things such as how the person is feeling or what they like." Giyu says, "Basically what I am saying is that if you ever want to pick your costume, you should think about what you want to be, what you like, and what you are," He says. "That's pretty inspirational Tomioka-sensei!" Tanjiro says, "The question has already been answered, what are you still doing here?" Giyu immediately replies back, Tanjiro gets a little chill down his spine and starts to speed walk down the hall, "Thanks for the advice Tomioka-sensei!" He says as he takes a left down another hall.

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Date: September 27, 2024
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: Tanjiro's House
Weather: Clear

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As Tanjiro opens the door to his house, he is carrying his school bag and a few groceries with him. He places the groceries on the counter of his kitchen and walks upstairs to change. 

After he reaches his room he takes his school bag off his back and throws it near his bed, he then reaches into his pocket and grabbed the paper from earlier, he then reaches for a drawer and puts the paper inside, and closes it, "Won't have to worry about the dance for a while, anyway, I have more important work to do." He thinks as he sighs and starts to change. 

After he changes he heads down into the kitchen to put the groceries away and prepare some lunch. After he puts the groceries away and places a pot on the stove, he goes to his TV and turns and turns it on, he then selects a random show and it starts playing, he leaves the remote on the side and returns to the kitchen to prepare his lunch. 

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Tanjiro sits on his bed and finishes his last piece of weekend homework, he had already eaten lunch, done the laundry, and taken a shower all in a matter of a few hours. He then puts his homework aside for now as he stands up from his bed, he then pulls open his nightstand drawer and takes out his earpiece. He then quickly moves downstairs to get ready for tonight's mission.

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Tanjiro sits on top of his house with his mask, a black tuxedo with a black tie, a red undershirt, and a silver tie clip. He has his usual weapons with his blade and pistol in his suit holster and two detachable handles. He touches his earpiece and begins a call, "Yo, Minato, you there?" He speaks, "Yep, you ready for today's mission?" A voice replies. "Yep," he says as he stands up and prepares to start running. "I have uploaded the locations of the two groups to your mask, so you should be able to guide yourself from here," Minato says, "Good...

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Let the night begin..." Tanjiro says as he smiles under his mask and starts running from roof to roof of nearby houses.

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And now, it's time for another entry of "High School Gossip," brought to you by Tanjiro and Giyu!

Tanjiro: This school is very unique because you can switch electives at any time during the year, which is a bit weird for me but ok!

Giyu: Yes, Ubuyashiki-sama created this because he wanted students to be happy with the electives they chose, and if they are not, they always have the opportunity to switch.

Tanjiro: I'm glad he created this system because students can participate in a wider variety of activities, and they can also find which one they like the most out of the electives they were offered.

Giyu: Anyway, join us next time in "The Long Night Part 1," where Tanjiro and his friends begin their fateful mission.