My Sun and Moon (Akaza x OC)

Chapter 3: The Game of Chase Begins

Being back home, things had finally become busy in comparison to the south for Nagano. The population of demons had been a hundred times more congested in comparison, and she enjoyed it immensely. No longer would she have to sit in silence throughout the night in hopes of one coming across her path, no longer would her weeks spread out in an agonizingly slow pace. Here the combat was thriving, being named a Hashira had helped that especially so. With the higher title came the large list of missions to accomplish, one being more difficult than the one before.

Not all of them were finished alone either, there had been a few where both Giyu and herself worked side by side, his help had been appreciated. Without him, the more dangerous missions would have turned incredibly downsided if she did not have him beside her. She was skilled with her weapon, but it was Giyu who surpassed her tenfold, in both sword technique and breathing style. Always have. She doubted there was anyone else that could at the current moment surpass him, she had been proud. Their schedules a large majority of the time had not worked well in their favor, especially when in the beginning the two of them had hoped that they'd be able to join each other on their missions. The destinations too many times had been too great of a distance from one another, sometimes in complete opposite directions.

Rolling her shoulders, Nagano gently placed her sword back into its hilt waiting off to the side, the rustling of the wind through the village's trees rushing through the air. The two of them had just finished one of Giyu's current missions. A nearby watchtower had grown silent, its gaze watched over the nearby village on any oncoming demonic attacks. Upon arrival regrettably, the low ranking slayers had been found dead, the culprits had been two demons that had roamed the area and had attacked the town once it was no longer defensible. They hadn't been the typical demon we had come across, nor were they of high rank like the upper moons, they weren't physically strong at all, honestly it was simply their intelligence.

Based on the information the two of them had gathered when inspecting the tower, these two had slowly weakened the slayers. The storage at the base of the tower had been ripped open and destroyed, any sack or box that had once held food was now destroyed and left to the elements. What had been left of the dead bodies of the slayers, their bodies had grown sallow from malnourishment. They had been starving them out.

Taking care of them had been the easy part, they had not anticipated their short response, let alone the arrival of two Hashira. They were dismantled swiftly and turned to burning ash as they died. The hard part had been comforting the families, while it was only a small moment of time between the deaths of the slayers and their attack, multiple families had suffered incredible losses. The next step would be to speak with the current head of the village, work out some sort of plan for new slayers to be sent over to this village; Giyu had taken it upon himself to be the one to speak with the elder.

Leaning against the base of the tree, Nagano waited for Giyu to finish his talk with the head of the village. The sun was beginning to rise as the dark blue purples slowly began to turn into soft shades of orange and red. It was going to be a long walk home. Groaning tiredly to herself, she let out a long sigh. She couldn't wait to get back home, to her warm cot. The work was plenty over in this section of Japan, but her body had slowly gotten back to being used to it once more. The aches in her legs and shoulders had been relevant enough. She closed her eyes for just a moment of rest, even if it would mean only a few minutes.

After finishing up their conversation, Giyu slowly made his way back to Nagano, tilting his head he suggested, "There might not be too many places to stay, but we could stay here for one more day to rest up."

Jolting awake, Nagano lurched forwards from the trunk of the tree startled. "Huh?" she turned to Giyu, still trying to process what he had asked her moments ago.