Sureiyazu

Episode 45: Akuma's Village

When the team arrived at the village, it was immediately apparent that the people were readying themselves for a demon.

Some were preparing to leave the village, while others refused to believe that there was a demon at all. Some had reinforced their houses with extra wood and stone or put protective charms over their doors. Overall, the village was developing an uneven, cluttered look that was oddly unbalanced with the lack of people outside.

"It's so different from how I remember it," Akuma said sadly, almost to herself.

But Ryou heard her. "Been here before?"

"It's my home village," Akuma explained, looking at the ground as if she were speaking to it.

"Oh, I see. I left mine a long time ago too. Can't imagine what it's like now."

These words were meant to comfort her, but they only succeeded in making her feel worse. It was as if he had said, "Well, all things have to change, so when you left you were asking to come back to something different." Of course, he hadn't, and she knew it wasn't what he meant, but it was the underlying truth.

"How do we even know there's a demon coming?" Kasai asked.

"The few people in the village who can do something with their spiritual energy keep saying they can feel it," said Sayaka. 

"That helps," Kasai said sarcastically. "Good thing Mizuki's not here. Magic, magic, magic."

"She really does hate it," Heishi agreed.

Sayaka shrugged. "Lots of people hate magic. Some because they're jealous, some because they're afraid. It's all the same."

Taichi stayed silent at this.

"Boring," Yuri sang. "Where's this demon? I wanna slay it really bad!"

"I know, right?" Kasai said. "We travel for a day and we get there and there's not even a demon here. Lame."

"It's better than it being too late," said Heishi.

"Aren't you the optimistic one," Taichi said.

"I get it from Yuri," Heishi replied.

"Yaaaaay!" Yuri cheered.

But suddenly, from behind them came the scraping of boots against the dirt road, as if someone was running towards them. The group (consisting currently of Akuma, Yuri, Kasai, Taichi, Heishi, Ryou, and Sayaka), turned to see a familiar (to some, at least) man with crimson hair coming closer.

"Hey!" he shouted to them. "Sureiyazu!"

He caught up.

"I thought someone might call you in for this," he grinned. "But unfortunately for you, you're not the only demonslayers around here."

Kasai glared. "Well, good thing you're here, Hachirou. So glad you could do something useful for once."

Hachirou looked slightly taken aback. "So you figured it out. I thought you might."

"What?" asked Taichi and Sayaka.

"Long story," said Yuri happily. She added in a whisper, "He wouldn't tell her his name before, but she figured it out."

"I see you've made some adjustments to the group," Hachirou noted. "You kept the jerk and got rid of the leader. Classy."

"We didn't get rid of her," said Akuma awkwardly. "She's just . . . lost. We don't know where she is, and then Sayaka here didn't want to take the time to look for her.