I Spy

Chapter 16: The Meeting and Recovery

Date: September 28, 2024
Time: 9:30 PM
Location: Butterfly Mansion
Weather: Sunny

.
.
.

As Kanao opened her eyes she began to take in her surroundings, "Where am I?" She thought for a brief second as she then realized what happened last night and worked it from there, "Oh right, I'm at the Butterly Mansion." She thought as she stood up in her bed and began to look around.

She noticed that Nezuko and Zenitsu were on the beds right next to her, Inosuke and Zenitsu and the beds across from her, and Emiko was sitting along with Akira and Isamu on a bed right next to her with bandages wrapped around her body.

"Your finally awake Kanao." Genya said as he ate his tempura on his bed, "Your lunch should be on the nightstand right next to you," Nezuko said as she also ate her tempura. Inosuke and Zenitsu were fighting over a tempura and Isamu and Akira were comforting Emiko as she just woke up from her long slumber.

Kanao grabbed a tempura from her plate as she turned around and began to eat it, "It took a while for you to wake up," Nezuko said, "Maybe I was just tired I guess..." Kanao replied, "Do you remember what happened last night?" Nezuko questioned, Kanao nodded and gave a response, "After you guys were knocked out, he left with our swords, and then the Kakushi came and transported us here after half an hour of waiting." Kanao said as she took a bite of tempura, "How was he that fast..." Nezuko said, "I barely even saw him too, it was like as if he stood still for a second and appeared in another location in a second." Kanao replied, "Are you going to report this to Master?" Nezuko said, "Yeah, I was thinking of going with Aoi too since I don't like going alone..." Kanao stated as their conversation was soon interrupted by the commotion coming from Inosuke and Zentisu. "This is my tempura, get your own!" Zenitsu said as he was about to fall off the bed due to Inosuke tilting him to his side since he was trying to get the tempura that Zenitsu was keeping in his hand, "I am the Lord of the Mountains! I demand you that you give me your tempura or else I will make sure that you a punished severely!" Inosuke said as he tried to reach for Zenitsu's tempura.

The argument was soon stopped as Isamu raised his voice in order to keep them quiet, "Could you two stop arguing and just eat?!" Isamu said in a rather angered tone as Akira was talking to Emiko, Inosuke, and Zenitsu stopped arguing and began to eat as Isamu also released a dark aura which frightened the two. "Scary," Zenitsu thought as he began to eat from his plate and Inosuke was eating from his plate, meanwhile with the siblings and Emiko, they were trying to comfort Emiko from what happened last night, "Are you sure you are ok?" Akira said as she patted Emiko's back, "Y-yeah..." Emiko said as she stuttered, "I don't believe it," Isamu said as he turned to Akira and got off his bed to sit on her bed, "Wh-what do you mean?" Emiko said, "I said that I don't believe that you are ok." Isamu replied, "What actually happened last night?" Isamu questioned, "Please tell us what happened last night, or else we won't be able to help you." Akira said, Emiko looked at her lap and began talking.

"Last night when I fought those two demons, one of them had a Blood Demon Art that put in this empty, black void," Emiko said. Meanwhile, the siblings were listening closely to what she had to say. "In that black void I-I saw my parents and siblings..." Emiko said the siblings then moved closer to her as soon as she said that. "They said th-hings about me that I couldn't handle..." She said as a single tear dripped from her face, "And you two were there too." Emiko added as her single tear was soon followed by another, "I was hurt because they were true!" She finally said as she began to cry her tears out. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I should have been there!" She said as she covered her face and tears continued to trail down her face, Akira hugged Emiko and Isamu patted her back, the others heard her crying and decided to walk over to get despite some of their injuries.

They then began to comfort her by telling her to calm down and that whatever she has been through is not real, "It's ok Emiko-chan, you don't have to cry..." Nezuko said with a little sadness on her face, "Emiko-chan be strong, whatever happened is gone, it's now in the past." Kanao said.

"Emiko," Isamu said as Emiko looked up to meet his face, Isamu then grabbed Emiko's face with both of his hands and looked her dead in the eyes, "Whatever happened is fake, you saw nothing, you heard nothing." He said, "Whatever happens, I and Akira will always be by your side no matter what, and I am absolutely positive that your parents are proud of your right now," he added, "You are not the only one who lost their family in a demon attack Emiko, we know what it's like." Isamu said as he and Emiko both looked at Akira who only nodded, they then looked back at each other and Isamu spoke again, "We carry the guilt of our family's death, but the only thing that keeps us going is the will to avenge them." Isamu stated, "We need to keep living on, or else what they died for will be worth nothing!" Isamu said, Emiko was surprised at her friend's sudden rise in tone, "They will only way they will be disappointed is if we do not continue, do you want them to be mad at you?" Isamu questioned, Emiko shook her head. "Good, then stop crying and look up, your entire life is ahead of you, your parents wanted you to live your life to the fullest, even if they are not here," Isamu stated.

Isamu then let go of Emiko's face and backed away a little bit to let her talk, at this point, Emiko had stopped crying and wiped her dry tears, and began to speak. "Th-thank you Isamu, I really needed that..." Emiko said as she looked at her childhood friend, "I'm sorry for acting like this guys, I was just really hurt after what my parents said to me..." Emiko stated, "It's ok Emiko, we've all had that moment in time where we question whether all we are living for is worth it." Isamu said, "It's ok to cry Emiko, but you have to get back up one day..." Akira stated. "Thanks, you two, you're the best friends a girl to ever have," Emiko said as she looked at the group with a smile, the group then dispersed and sat down on their respective beds and began to talk again as soon as they heard footsteps coming from the staircase that led to the infirmary.


They all looked up to see Aoi, Shinobu, and Kanae entering the infirmary, "Hey, Aoi." Kanao said as she waved, Aoi waved back and began to start a checkup on the patients, meanwhile, Shinobu walked to Isamu and Akira to have a chat with them and Kanae walked up to Kanao to talk to her too. "Guess who's finally awake," Kanae said with a gleeful smile as she patted her younger sister's head, "Stop..." Kanao said as she tried to get her sister's hands off her, "Ara ara, why so serious?" Kanae questioned, "I'm growing up now nee-san, I can't have my sister head-pat me like I'm some 5-year-old kid..." Kanao said with a pout, "No matter what, you will always be my little sister!" Kanae said as she started tickling her. Kanao started laughing a bit as she tried to get Kanae's hand off her, "Ok, ok, what do you need me for?" Kanao said as she chuckled after her sister finally stopped tickling her, "Oh yeah, we would like for you to come with us to the hashira meeting because I heard that you guys met the man we were trying to find." Kanae said as she put her finger under her chin, "I was about to go to the next hashira meeting to tell you guys, about that, how convenient..." Kanao said, "Really? That's nice!" Kanae replied. "Also nee-san, can I bring Aoi along since I don't like to be alone, I get a bit nervous when I am alone in the spotlight..." Kanao stated, Kanae only nodded, "Sure you can, but first we need to do your checkups to see if you are doing fine, don't want to go to a hashira meeting while feeling unwell, right?" Kanae stated, Kanao only nodded as her sister began her checkup.

Meanwhile, with Shinobu, she had just finished giving Isamu and Akira their last checkup. "Fast..." Isamu thought as she looked at Shinobu who was writing on a clipboard, "Alright, that should be it for today, and what do you know? You guys are free to leave the Butterfly Mansion." Shinobu said with a smile. "Really?! Thanks Shinobu-sama!" Akira said with a smile, "No problem Akira-chan, just doing my job." Shinobu replied. "You two can head to your home now if you want, or you can stay for a little bit and chat with the others," Shinobu stated. "We can go home for now, but we will come back every day to visit Emiko." Isamu said as Akira nodded, "Fine by you." Shinobu said as she gave Akira and Isamu their slayer clothing.

"What time is the meeting?" Kanao asked Kanae, "A few hours from now, better tell Aoi to hurry up or else we are going to be late." Kanae replied, "Hey Aoi! Hurry up!" Kanao yelled, "In a bit!" Aoi replied back.

.
.
.
.

After 15 or so minutes, Kanao, Kanae, Shinobu, Aoi, Isamu, and Akira are standing at the front door of the mansion.

"Thank you for keeping us until we recover Kocho-sama!" Akira said as she and Isamu bowed to the sisters, "No problem! It's our job to help injured slayers until they recover!" Kanae said with a bright smile, "You two should also get going, you do live a considerable distance away from here right? Don't want to get attacked by demons after you just recovered." Shinobu said with a cheerful tone. Both Isamu and Akira nodded and opened the door and walked out, "Bye! See you on Monday Kanao and Aoi-chan!" Akira said as she turned around and waved and turned back to begin walking with her brother.

"Bye!" Aoi said back, Kanao waved at the two leaving siblings and then turned to their older sisters. "So are we going right now or..." Aoi said as she was interrupted by Kanae running out the door while cheering, "Yep! Come on!" Kanae said, the three looked at her with poker faces, but nevertheless followed their older sister.

As the four sisters were walking, they began to talk about the meeting they will soon attend. "So, how will we approach this?" Kanae said as she put one finger under her chin, "We'll just tell the others about what this man is capable of..." Kanao replied, "But how?" Kanae asked, "It's just our monthly hashira meeting, we're allowed to talk about anything that relates to the corps." Shinobu said, "Ok, but if you two need help, be sure to tell us!" Kanae said as she turned to her younger sisters, "Nee-san... We're not 5," Aoi said as she pouted along with Kanao, "Ok! If you say so!" Kanae cheerfully said as she turned around and began walking with a smile and a little "pip" in her step.

"She's happy..." Shinobu thought as she watched her older sister happily skip along to their destination. Shinobu smiled, "I'm glad to see my siblings happy." She thought as she turned around to see Aoi and Kanao who were chatting amongst each other, she then turned back and began walking again.

.
.
.
.
.

Date: September 28, 2024
Time: 12:03 AM
Location: Random Cave in a Forest
Weather: Sunny

.
.
.

As the sisters were walking up a slope, they came across a cave that they would soon enter, they then saw a few other people there doing god knows what to each other.

Rengoku was talking with Tengen, Muichiro was looking in the distance at something, Gyomei was praying, Iguro and Sanemi were also talking, Mitsuri was looking at every male in the cave, and Giyu was...

Sitting alone in the corner like he usually does. As the sisters walked in, Shinobu ran up to Giyu and started poking him, "Ara ara, why are you such a loner Tomioka-san?" Shinobu questioned, Giyu didn't answer, which annoyed Shinobu a little bit. "Ara ara Tomioka-san, don't you know that it's rude to ignore people? This is why no one likes you." She said as she started poking Giyu more, meanwhile, Kanae, Kanao, and Aoi walked up to the group as they sat down, and began to talk with each other.

"Hey, Kanae-chan!" Mitsuri said cheerfully, "Hello, Mitsuri-chan!" Kanae greeted back with the same tone. Kanae then turned to Sanemi who was a bit distracted with Iguro, so he didn't notice her, "Hello Sanemi-kun!" Kanae said as she began poking the white-hair man, "Oh hey Kanae-san..." Sanemi said as he turned around, "Ara ara, why so down?" Kanae asked, "I-im fine Kanae-san." Sanemi replied, "If you say so!" Kanae, "By the way, what are they doing here?" Sanemi asked as he pointed to Kanao and Aoi, "Don't be so rude Sanemi-kun, they are because they have something important to tell us." Kanae said in an innocent voice, Sanemi blushed a little and looked back due to Kanae's sudden change in tone, "V-very well..." Sanemi blatantly said as he turned around to continue his conversation with Iguro. Meanwhile, Kanae greeted the other hashiras and started talking with Mitsuri about school things after she greeted them.

.

A few minutes later, a voice rang out through the entire cave, "Ubuyashiki has arrived," a woman said as the hashira and the others immediately went silent and looked to where the voice was coming from. There they saw a young woman with white hair and purple eyes with white pupils, they all immediately began bowing as a tall man with pale skin, black hair, and a purple mark that spread all across his face walked in. "Master!" They all said while bowing, "Please stand up my children, you do not need to bow anymore." Kagaya said with a smile, the hashira quickly stood up and looked at the man as if he was going to say something.

"Welcome to the monthly hashira meeting my children, I hope you all are doing well and I pray for each and every one of your safety every day." Kagaya said, "Thank you, Master!" They all said in unison, "Now to start off this meeting, who would like to go first on reporting what they did for the past month." Kagaya said with a calm tone, some of the hashira raised their hands but Kagaya picked Tengen to go first, "Tengen, you may go first." He said as Tengen stood up and started talking, "I have flamboyantly killed some demons hiding out in the alleyway near the casino!" Tengen proudly stated, "What were you doing at the Casino...?" Iguro asked, Tengen then froze and immediately looked back at Iguro, "That is none of your concern!" He said as he said back down and yelled, "Next!" Tengen nervously said, Kagaya chuckled a bit as he called on the next person, "Muichiro, you are up." He said, Muichiro then stood up, "I was patrolling the neighborhood that I live in and killed a few demons lurking about all month." He blandly said as he sat back down, "Very good my child, now Gyomei, would you like to go next?" Kagaya asked, "Yes, Master." Gyomei said as he stood up, "I killed 5 demons in the span of this month." Gyomei said as he sat down, "Very good Gyomei." Kagaya replied, he then called on the Kocho's who had their hands raised the entire time, "Yes, Kanae, Shinobu, Aoi, and Kanao, you four may come up please." Kagaya said as the four sisters stood up, "We also killed some demons in the duration of this month, but we do have some important information to share about our new threat." Kanae said as Kanao and Aoi came forward.

"During my mission last night, I and my team met the man who has been disrupting our ore supplies." Kanao said, "Mhm, and we do have some new info on this man." Aoi added, the hashira except for Shinobu and Kanae focused on the two girls about what they were going to say next, "The man wears a tuxedo along with a cybernetic mask, he also possesses high agility and speed as he managed to knock me and my team to the ground in one clean strike." Kanao said. The other hashira were astonished as they knew that Kanao and her team were some of the most powerful slayers that they have and that a simple man in a tuxedo managed to knock them all out in one go. "Also, Kanao said she saw that the man took all of the Nichirin swords and snapped them in half, so we also figured that the man also possesses incredible strength because our swords our highly durable and extremely hard to break," Aoi said, the hashira looked at the two as if they were joking, "You're joking right?" Sanemi said. Aoi shook her head, "Dam it, looks like we have another strong opponent to deal with..." Iguro stated. "Unfortunately yes, we also might need to amp up security and forces responding if we ever meet this man again since he is clearly strong enough to take down a hashira." Aoi calmly replied, "I suggest sending a hashira to deal with this issue if one of our slayers ever encounters him again." Giyu replied, the others nodded and were a little stunned because the most distant and quietest person in the room had finally talked.

"Very well, I will personally send out the message to all the slayers about the new information about the man, thank you for sharing this information with us Aoi and Kanao," Kagaya said, the two sisters nodded and sat back down with their older sisters.

.
.
.

After an hour of presenting what they had done over the month, Kagaya finally dismissed the meeting and the hashiras exited the cave, Tengen and Rengoku went down the same path since they both live in neighborhoods right next to each other, Giyu went down with Iguro and Sanemi, and Muichiro went with Mitsuri and Gyomei. Meanwhile, the sisters headed down their own path and started to talk about current events.

"Great job guys!" Kanae said cheerfully, "Thanks nee-san." Kanao replied with a bit of a dull tone, "Why so serious Kanao?" Kanae said, "It's nothing nee-san I was just wondering who this man is since he won't tell us..." Kanao said, Kanae pats her sister's head and comforted her, "Don't worry, no matter who it is, we'll be sure that we bring him to justice for hurting our friends." Kanae said, "Thanks nee-san." Kanao replied, "Now come on, brighten up, it's the weekend and you don't have any homework assignments for the weekend so you are free to do whatever you want for now!" Kanae said, Kanao smiled a bit, "Thanks nee-san, maybe I should enjoy the time that I have for the weekend." Kanao said, "That's my little sister!" Kanae replied, the two just chuckled, with Aoi and Shinobu smiling back at them.

Though one thought still remained in Kanao's head at the time, "Who was he..." She thought as she walked along with her sisters back to their house.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Now it's time for another entry of The Slayer's Creed brought to you by Kanae!

Kanae: The Demon Slayer Corps is serious when it comes to tradition, we've been keeping several traditions alive ever since the corps was founded, such as being administered into the corp. The process has been kept the same ever since we first found the corps; New slayers take part in a selection process called "The Final Selection" in which they will attempt to survive one week with no food or water in a demon-infested forest after the seven days end, the slayers who survived will be brought back to the area in which they departed from, or in other words, return to where they started. And they will be given their Kasugai crow and will be able to pick an ore of their choosing from a selection box, after they have picked their ore, they will then be able to depart, thus ending the exam. But now since the corps has been evolving with technology, new slayers are also given earpieces that they can connect to their "Handler" or "Krells" as we like to call them in our business. We also have another sub-division called the "Communication Corps", but we'll focus on that later since we've just run out of time.

Kanae: Anyways, join us next time in "Anger and The Report" where we look at what the mysterious man was doing after he came back from his mission and how an unknown man reacts to his failed mission.