The Hidden Demon Slayer (DEMON SLAYER X OC)

Chapter 24: Preemptive Ghosts

Night clung to the forest like wet cloth. Heavy, suffocating, and near silent, save for the chitter of insects. Moonlight filtered through twisted pine branches as a shadow streaked past. It moved unnaturally fast. Then came the slash. Clean and effortless, bright like lightning.

The demon barely had time to hiss before its body collapsed in a crumbling mess of ash. Nariko stood still, her blade humming faintly with residual heat, her eyes narrowed.

"You're getting faster," Ritsuka's voice called from above. She dropped from the trees like a whisper, boots silent against the moss. Nariko wiped the blood from her cheek. "You say that every time."

"And I mean it every time." Ritsuka nodded toward the rising dust. "That one was Upper Six material. Or close to it."

"He got sloppy."

Ritsuka gave her a sidelong look. "You scared him. You're still glowing red and talking like a ghost."

"I'm a demon. It helps."

They moved to a clearing, small and quiet, ringed with stones and the faint smell of burned incense from a long-dead shrine nearby. Their camp was minimal. It was just enough to rest, disappear, and move again.

Ritsuka stirred the coals of their fire pit with the end of her scabbard. "Y'know, sometimes I forget you're not supposed to exist."

"I forget too," Nariko muttered, sinking to the ground beside the heat. "Then I get hungry and remember."

The air between them softened, the silence familiar now. They had spent the past few months like this. Moving at night, striking fast, disappearing just as quickly. They hunted demons the Corps hadn't found yet, the ones no Hashira had been assigned to. They picked off threats before official missions ever reached the crows. Ritsuka had started calling them "preemptive ghosts."

"Not bad," Nariko had said once. "We're saving lives, staying alive, and nobody knows we're breaking every rule in the book." Tonight, though, there was something heavier between them. A weight they hadn't talked about. Not since Kyoto. Ritsuka broke the silence. "They're going to notice soon."

Nariko glanced at her. "Who?"

"The Corps. This many demons dying off-pattern? Someone will figure out it isn't them doing it."

Nariko stared at the fire. "Let them. We're not taking credit."

"I'm not talking about credit." Ritsuka looked at her. "I'm talking about attention. Suspicion. You know what they'll do if they figure out a demon is somehow helping them."

"They'll kill me."

"And I'll kill them back," Ritsuka said flatly.

Nariko gave a short, bitter laugh. "That's a terrible plan. Aren't they our comrades?"

"Have you seen my plans? They're all terrible. But effective." Ritsuka tossed her scabbard beside her and leaned back on one arm. "Still, it's working for now. We're helping people."

Nariko tilted her head back, watching stars blink between the canopy. "It's strange. We're doing more now than I ever did when I wore the uniform. And yet..."

"You feel like a traitor."

Nariko nodded slowly. "Sometimes I think I should turn myself in. Let them decide what I'm worth now."

"No," Ritsuka said sharply, without hesitation. "You don't give your life away to people who can't see what you've become."

Nariko didn't answer. Just then, Ritsuka reached into her coat and tossed something into her lap. A rice ball.

"Yuki II," Ritsuka said. "Don't squish this one."

Nariko blinked, then smirked. "You keep naming your snacks?"

"They're part of the team."

Nariko broke the rice ball in half and handed it back. "You're insane."

"Yeah," Ritsuka said, biting into it. "But we're alive. So it's working."

In the cold dark woods where no one was supposed to see them, where ghosts hunted monsters, Nariko felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. She found purpose. Not redemption, nor forgiveness. Just a path that somehow felt right to her.