I Spy

Chapter 15: The Long Night Part 5

Date: September 27, 2024
Time: 9:25 PM
Location: Forest around Tokyo
Weather: Partly Cloudy

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A man in a black tuxedo is seen running at lightning speeds toward a certain area, "You got the location of the package?" He asked into his earpiece, "Affirmative, the escorts and the group all left the area and are nowhere to be seen near the package." A voice said, "Apparently you created a distraction for the escorts because the moment you attacked, they started to head in your direction." Minato added. "What happened to the group escorting the package?" Tanjiro asked, "I saw the entire thing from a bird's eye view..." Minato replied. "Continue," Tanjiro asks as he continues to run in the forest, "The group who was carrying the package all ran as soon as they saw a humanoid figure tear one of the men's head apart." Minato replied, "Brutal," Tanjiro said out loud, "What happened next?" Tanjiro added. "The escorts fought the thing of course, but the unknown entity did express some unique abilities, such as being able to summon glass and mirrors out of nowhere." Minato stated, "Also there was another fight, as the escort group split up before the fight started, which only god knows why they did that." Minato added, "Did they also have to fight a similar entity?" Tanjiro asked, "Affirmative, two of them actually, one of them having to summon spikes and one having abilities that revolve around rocks." Minato answered, "Interesting, I also saw similar entities with my encounter too." Tanjiro exclaimed, "I already saw it, I put the info on a data table, I'll report this to HR after you complete this mission, then we'll see what we do about it." Minato said, "Also, Tanjiro, did you notice something weird with these things, other than the supernatural powers that they have?" Minto questioned, "Supernatural regeneration powers? I saw one of the things heal a large wound like this..." He says as he snaps his fingers, "Exactly, another entity with superhuman regeneration." Minato said as he sighs.

"How did they kill them?" Tanjiro asks, "I saw all three fights, the "slayers" won them all, but they only aimed for one part of the entity's body, the neck." Minato says, "Hmmm, pretty similar to what we had to deal with, I guess it would make sense to severe the connection from their brain to their body in order to kill them, as the brain can't order wounds to heal if it is decapitated from their body..." Tanjiro says, "Most likely the case, but in the meantime, we need to focus on getting the box for now since that is our priority." Minato says, "Maybe after we get all 50 kgs of that ore, I could ask HR to approve our side mission." He adds, "Thanks Minato, anyways how long until I reach the box?" Tanjiro asks, "Just a few miles straight, and you should be there in no time..." Minato says as he tracks Tanjiro's location and the boxes. "Aight' thanks," Tanjiro says as he disconnects the call from his earpiece and continues to run straight.

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After a few minutes of running, Tanjiro reached an empty patch of forest that was once peaceful, but as he got there, he saw a headless body, small craters, and smoking tree, and spots of blood and some glass shards. As Tanjiro walked up to the headless body he silently prayed for it, "I hope you rest in peace." He thought as he moved towards the package that was sitting peacefully on the ground, "Only thing that seems untouched here." Tanjiro thought as he moved his hands to pick up the package, but before his hands even touched the package, he felt a presence and quickly ignited his heat blade and slashed several vines that were mere inches from reaching his body. 

"Looks like I have to fight now..." Tanjiro thought as he relaxed and met the person who attack him eye to eye as he was walking out of the darkness of the forest, "Impressive," the demon said with an evil grin, "I know right?" Tanjiro said with a smirk behind his mask, "Tsk." The demon thought, "Your cocky, you don't know who you are dealing with." The demon said with a little anger in his tone, "Dealt with guys like you before, so you shouldn't be a problem," Tanjiro said casually, "What does he mean by that?! He doesn't look like a slayer." The demon thought as he just shook it off and prepared to attack, "Blood Demon Art: Winding Vines!" The demon said as vines appeared from behind him and started to approach Tanjiro at alarming speeds, "Blood Demon Art huh? Kind of similar to those "Slayers" breathing styles." Tanjiro thought as he dodged every one of the vines without breaking a sweat, "Quit it man, let me just get the package and leave." Tanjiro said to serve as a first warning, "My lord said to bring you in, I do what he says and there is no exception to that." The demon sternly said as he released another attack, "Blood Demon Art: Devilish Trees!" The demon said as the trees in the surrounding area start to bend towards Tanjiro, "So they don't just summon things out of nowhere, they can also manipulate their surroundings..." He thought as he started the cut every tree in half with his heat weapon. "Absolute ease... I'll have to amp things up if I intend to capture him," the demon thought as he looks at his foe with a little surprise. "I can sense that you are surprised, it seems that I have impressed you." Tanjiro said with a little chuckle in his voice, the demon frowned and took a stance, "Blood Demon Art: Constricting Vines!" The demon said as another set of vines start to approach Tanjiro. 

Tanjiro just stood there as the vines started to wrap around his limbs, he also noticed that the vines had small little thorns on them. "Interesting..." Tanjiro thought as the vines dragged him up in the air and held him there, "Looks like you were too slow to evade my attack," the demon said overconfidently, "And I'm the cocky one?" Tanjiro thought as he rolled his eyes, "Now I can teleport you to my lord, and he will give me my reward." The demon said, "Would love to see this beloved "lord" of yours, but I am running on a pretty tight schedule, so can we cut this short and cut me out of these vines?" Tanjiro said as he chuckled a bit at the little pun he made, "No can do bud, my lord asked me to capture you, and my lord is the greatest, there is no way I would disobey him." The demon said, "I would happily agree to go with you, but I have other things to do other than be captive to a bunch of random supernatural humans." Tanjiro said with a little sigh, "Random?! How dare you! We are the greatest species to ever exist on Earth!" The demon exclaimed, "Oh boy, here we go again with the cockiness..." Tanjiro thought, "That's what they all say until they get curb stomped by regular "puny" humans like me." Tanjiro said with a smirk, "Tch... This guy is annoying, I better bring him in before he drives me crazy..." The demon thought as he started to move the vines with his hands, "Hey, where are you taking me?" Tanjiro causally said, "My lord." The demon sternly replied back, "Actually I have something else in mind." Tanjiro said as he spun himself around, overwhelming the strength of the vines and cutting each and every one of the vines that were keeping him hostage, he then jumped back and dusted off his suit, the demon looked at him with an annoyed but surprised look. "One thing you should know about me is that I never go down without a fight," Tanjiro said as he waved his hand in a way that motioned the demon to attack him

"Dam it." The demon thought as he began to attack Tanjiro, "Blood Demon Art: Sharp Cutting Leaves!" He said as the leaves of nearby trees started to stand up as if they were coming to life and launched towards Tanjiro at blinding speeds, Tanjiro managed to weave around the leaves with moves that only a divine being could've accomplished. After the attack finished, Tanjiro stood there again with his heat blade spinning around in his hand, "Got any more, or are you done?" Tanjiro said, the demon was pissed at this point and decided to unleash another attack, "Blood Demon Art: Nature's Wrath!" The demon said as he raised his hand and clenched it into a fist, the entire forest around the two people then begins to shake tremendously, the trees curled towards Tanjiro and began to spit razor-sharp leaves at him, the skies turn black with clouds and lightning starts to crash down near Tanjiro as he dodges and weaves every lightning strike. The wind speed increased and began to rip apart trees and rocks.

Tanjiro noticed a few pieces of tree trunks and large rocks flying at him, so he jumped over the debris and landed with absolute ease. After he landed, he noticed the wind circling around him with large pieces of debris flailing around, he also noticed that it was slowly closing up on him. He looked around for a second and looked straight at the demon who was controlling the attack. 

As the circle of wind finally closed up on the man, there was a large sound produced from the crashing debris, and a large dust cloud was formed, after the dust cleared, the demon expected to see the man he was attacking on the ground unconscious, but to his surprise, he wasn't there. "Where did he-" the demon thought as he was soon interrupted by a voice, "Over here," Tanjiro said as he causally sat on a tree behind the demon while checking his watch, the demon turned around and was astonished at how this man managed to evade his attack that only a highly-skilled person can evade. Tanjiro jumped down from the tree and held his blade in his hand, "I told you that I don't have time." Tanjiro said as he spun his blade around in his hand, "And now that I saw what you could do, it's now time to see what I can do," he added as he charged the demon in a flash.

His blade appeared mere inches away from the demon's face, his blade was so close that the demon could feel the heat emitted from the blade, "So fast!" The demon thought as he barely dodged the attack, the demon then went in for a punch but Tanjiro quickly backflipped over the attack and moved behind him, all in a sudden blink of an eye. Tanjiro then swung his blade, which was aimed at the demon's neck and almost decapitated him until the demon ducked under the attack at the last second and quickly moved away.

The demon then stood across from Tanjiro while covering his neck with his hand, "Shit! He's fast!" He thought as he prepared to launch an attack, "Blood Demon Art: Trunk Destruction!" He said as dead tree trunks started to rise out of the ground and move toward the man in the tuxedo. Tanjiro jumped over the trunks and soon noticed that there we more coming at him from above, so he changed his momentum and ducked under the trunks. He then began to charge the demon as he was still trying to hit him with dead tree trunks. 

Tanjiro managed to reach about a few yards from the demon as the demon launched another attack, this time there were two sets of trunks, one on the ground and one right above the first set. This only left a small gap between the trunks, but Tanjiro managed to thread the needle and leapt through the small gap, he then appeared behind the demon and finally cut off his head. The demon's head fell to the ground but to the demon's surprise, he was not disintegrating, "My head!" He thought as the demon's body began to attack Tanjiro, "So those swords do serve a special purpose." Tanjiro thought as he blocked the demon's attack with his bare hands, he then noticed something was off as his nose started to twitch underneath his mask, "someone's coming." He thought as he grabbed the demon's body and his head, which was still on the ground, and kicked both the demon's body and head with such force that it sent them out of the man's sight.

He retracted his heat blade and quickly turned around to see that the box he was supposed to capture a while ago was now on the ground with scratch marks and a few cracks. "Must've gotten damaged by the fight," Tanjiro thought as he rushed over to the box and quickly took out his handle, he then placed the handle on the box and tapped his earpiece, "Send a drone over quickly, I don't have time," Tanjiro said as Minato agreed. A drone then appeared in front of Tanjiro in a matter of seconds and he attached the package to the drone and sent it on its way.

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While Tanjiro was retrieving the package, the demon who was launched a considerable distance from Tanjiro, landed with a loud crash as his head and body collided with something, the demon then looked around to see what he crashed into and saw a young girl in a pink hoodie and a pink sword right underneath him, the girl quickly pushed him off and stood back up again, "Out of my way demon, I'm on a serious mission," she said to the demon who had just gotten back up with his head reattached to his body. "Listen here little girl, don't treat me like this, I'm currently occupied right now, and I don't need little scruggs like you to interfere in my plan, so get out of my way." The demon said, only to be decapitated on the spot by the girl as she continued running towards her objective, "Hey! How dare you!" The demon said as he finally turned into dust.

Kanao kept running towards her objective and ignored the demon she just killed, "Faster!" She thought as she started to pick up speed.

She then reached the area where the package is or was supposed to be, but to her surprise and dismay, he already saw the man in the tuxedo there with the package gone. "You!" She said, which caused to man to look in her direction, "Yes?" The man said, "Where is it?" She questioned with a serious tone, "Where is what?" The man asked, "The package!" She exclaimed, "Oh that!" The man said, "I already claimed it," he added. "Where is it?" Kanao asked again as she prepared her guard, "Far away, out of reach from both of us," Tanjiro said, "In other words young lady, you're too late." He said, "Tsk, do you know how vital those packages are to our cause?!" Kanao said with an angered tone, "Nope, but I was ordered to do so, plus I believe you guys have plenty more where that came from." Tanjiro replied. Kanao was a bit ticked off at this point, "Why are you here, and who are you?" She asked, "I can tell you one thing young lady, I am here for revenge, but I will never tell you who I am, not on my life." Tanjiro answered with a serious tone, "Well it looks like we will find out who you are right here!" She said as she attacked Tanjiro, she then ended up on the other side of Tanjiro, expecting him to fall on the ground, but to her surprise, she fell on the ground as she felt a sharp pain in her knees and noticed that her sword was taken from her. "Whe-" she said as she looked up in front of her and sees the unknown man holding her sword and looking down at her, "As I told you, you will never find out who I am." He said as he began to walk away, "Where are you going?!" Kanao asked as she tried to get up, "Don't bother to get back up, I'll just put you down immediately, and I'll be taking this sword with me since my bosses want to examine it." Tanjiro answered as he began to walk away, but he soon turned around as he noticed a few more scents he picked up and ignited his heat blade once again.

"Hey!" Someone said as they appeared out of the bushes along with a few other people, "Where do you think you are going?!" She said, "Home..." Tanjiro blatantly answered, "You can't just hurt our friend and leave, how dare you!" Another person said, "Well if you want to attack me then fine, come at me." He said as he prepared his guard, the group then attacked Tanjiro in a combined attack, "Water Breathing: First Form: Water Surface Slash! Thunder Breathing: First Form: Thunder Clap and Flash! Beast Breathing: Fourth Fang: Slice 'n' Dice!" They said with their respective breathing form, Tanjiro just looked at the group as he noticed one of them was in the back and was firing a gun at him, he dodged the buckshot being shot at him from Genya's shotgun and attacked the group that was charging at him in one clean strike.

They all fell to the ground unconscious and Tanjiro moved behind Genya and knocked him out with a neck shop, leaving only Kanao as the only one conscious. Kanao was very shocked at his speed and looked at him with surprise, Tanjiro on the other hand was taking the blades of the unconscious slayers and snapping them in half one by one, he then took the blade part of the swords that he snapped in half and kept them in his coat pocket, he put the other part of the swords on the ground along with Kanao's as he began to walk away, "Wh-where are you going?" She questioned with a stutter as she was still surprised at the man's speed, "My mission is done for the day, and don't worry about your friends, they are only unconscious for the time being, they will wake up in a few hours so you don't have to worry about them being knocked out for the entire night." He said, "Wait-" Kanao said as she was then interrupted by the man disappearing out of her sight in a second.

"He's fast..." She thought as she looked at her unconscious comrades, she then reached for her earpiece and started talking, "Hey Aoi, can you send some Kakushi here to come to pick us up?" Kanao said, "What happened?" Aoi replied, "That man knocked us all out except for me." Kanao replied, Aoi was astonished by this and asked Kanao about it, "How did manage to knock them all out?" She said, "He was just too fast." Kanao replied, "This man really is a threat..." Aoi said to her, "Yeah." Kanao replied back, "Anyways, I'll send some Kakushi over to your location, in fact, they should be heading over there right now because of your crows." Aoi said, "Yeah, thanks Aoi." Kanao stated, "No problem sis," Aoi replied.

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After half an hour of waiting the Kakushi finally arrived to pick up the group, they picked up the group and held them on their backs, and began navigating towards the Butterfly Mansion.

"I have to report this to Master." Kanao thought as she got on the back of the Kakushi.

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Welcome back to another entry of The Slayer's Creed brought to you by Kanao!

Kanao: The Demon Slayers have been around for about 1000 to 900 or so years, they have existed for as long as demons have. We, slayers, take our duty very seriously since we know the faith of humanity rests in our hands with every mission we take, but sometimes some of our missions go awry and some slayers never make it back. In order to honor the fallen slayers, retired or not, we would dig a grave for every one of the fallen inside a secret graveyard that is only known to slayers, our tradition for the fallen has been like this ever since the corps was first founded. We would, of course, ask the families of the slayers for their permission to bury them inside the slayer graveyard if the slayer's family is still alive. If they decline then we create a fake grave to honor that slayer's legacy, while the actual body of the slayer rests in a separate grave. But there was one slayer who was never buried in our graveyard even though we believed he died, in fact, not much is known about this slayer since all of his records for the slayer's database have been eradicated, the only people who know about this mysterious man is Master, and even he wouldn't tell us about him, not even to the hashira.

Kanao: But that would be enough of what we slayers do to the dead for today, but for now, you can go ahead and read the next chapter, "The Meeting and Recovery" where me and Aoi go to a hashira meeting to relay our information to the other hashira about this mysterious man who attacked us.