Chapter Two: Walking and Great, Now it's Nighttime

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Kaminari and Sero had been traveling all day. The village was far behind them, but the Apex Talon still seemed just as far away.

Sero frowned slightly as he walked at Kaminari's side. The sun was sinking in the sky, and they didn't exactly have shelter. He didn't want this journey to end before it had even started.

Sero ran his fingers lightly over the top of his kusarigama. It was enchanted to be as long or as short as he needed it to be at any time, and immediately trap an enemy in it's inescapable grasp if need be. Not only that, but it was deadly sharp, and Sero knew how to use it.

Although, if Sero was going to be honest with himself, he would much rather use the kursarigama to capture villains and swing around the village; which he was very good at, by the way; than actually kill anything.

Except, well, evil stuff, he supposed.

"Kaminari", Sero spoke up, turning to the side to look at his friend,"We should find some place to stop. I'm sure you've heard by now that there are more monsters everywhere, dude."

Kaminari just sighed and turned to him,"Just a little farther?"

Sero's heart practically melted at the sight of Kaminari's infamous puppy-dog eyes. Since they had grown up in the same village together and known each other practically their whole lives, Sero should have expected this.

"Fine", he groaned,"But if I hear one twig snap, we stop."

Kaminari nodded and the two continued on.

The sky above them rapidly darkened, reds fading to purples, purples fading to blues, blues fading to an even darker shade of such. Stars painted the sky as an astronomical map unfolded overhead; and though neither of them could understand it, they both recognized it's stunning beauty.

"Damn", Kaminari spoke up,"That's pretty lit."

Sero only rolled his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips, and replied,"Do you have to reply to literally everything, even nature, with your ridiculousness?"

"Nani?!!", Kaminari looked at Sero with an expression of pure disbelief,"Ridiculous? Me? Never!!"

Sero rolled his eyes again.

Kaminari shoved him playfully and the two nearly doubled over laughing.

Kaminari smiled to himself once they'd stopped; even if he didn't want Sero to come along for fear that he would be injured, it was kinda great to have a friend in tow for the ride; and what a chaotic, unpredictable ride it would be.

That was when a twig snapped.

Sero nearly screamed; he knew what was out there at night. His hand flew to his kursarigama, taking it out and preparing to use it.

Kaminari pulled one of the normal knives out of his coat- jacket? Kaminari could never remember which was which.

"We should probably take shelter now", Sero reminded him, his eyes frantically darting from left to right in search of the source of the sound, yet finding nothing in the darkness.

"Yeah...", this time Kaminari didn't argue at all, but began to look around for somewhere they could stay. His eyes, of course, landed on a cave. The only shelter in the entire area. A dark, dark, spooky cave. Fantastic.

"There", he sighed, and when he noticed Sero about to object,"Do you see anywhere else?"

Sero paused a moment to look around, and shook his head in defeat when he saw nothing. "Fine", he mumbled,"Guess I'll die in my sleep at the claws of some cave monster."

"Sero", Kaminari began to explain,"It's either die out here, or only possibly die in there; and I'm pretty sure neither of us want to be out here."

"Yeah, yeah", he agreed, and the two began to walk towards the cave. As it drew nearer and nearer, they both began to hear more noises growing behind them; twigs snapping, the crunch of dead leaves from the scattered trees around them, the rustle of shrubs or bushes.

Kaminari and Sero began to walk faster and faster until they were flat out sprinting towards the cave. "GO, GO, GO!!!", Sero yelled,"DON'T LOOK BACK IT'LL SLOW YOU DOWN!!!"

Finally, the two launched themselves into the cave, the entrance about a foot taller than Sero, and hid behind the largest boulder they could find.

They peeked out from the darkness, watching, waiting, their frightened eyes scanning for whatever had been chasing them.

However, they found nothing. Once they had entered the cave, it seemed, the sounds had stopped.

"Did we lose it?", Kaminari whispered, his voice barely audible on the count that he was trying to be as quiet as possible and was also out of breath.

"We ran across plains...I don't think so; whatever that was would have to be blind not to see us...but it's not chasing us inside...so maybe?", Sero replied, and then after a short pause,"Did you see it?"

"No, you told me to run and not look back."

"Oh, right."

"I say we go a little deeper into the cave", Kaminari suggested,"So whatever that was can't hear or see us."

"Are you sure nothing else is back there?", Sero asked, looking back and forth between the rest of the cave and the empty, almost eerie plains that they'd left behind. Anything could be hiding in those scattered trees and shrubs, but at the same time, anything could be creeping in the darkness of the cave.

"The cave or the plains?", Kaminari joked,"C'mon, dude...we don't want anything to catch sight of us."

"I know, but-"

"I'll hold your hand while we walk."

"That's gay."

"You're gay."

"I know."

Kaminari scoffed, but turned on Sero and gave him, once again, puppy-dog eyes. Ah, his secret weapon. It was still yet to fail him.

"Fine, fine, fine; but I'm taking you up on that hand holding offer", Sero muttered, sounding halfway between scared and irritated.

Kaminari shrugged and took Sero's hand in his own as the two made their way down into the cave. Slowly, the entrance disappeared; as did the little moonlight it provided.

They were in complete darkness.

That was, until they saw the light up ahead.

"What's that?", Sero whispered, squeezing Kaminari's hand a little tighter.

"I don't know, broskie", Kaminari answered, making sure to keep up on his humor in these dark times,"But I say we go towards it."

"You know", Sero retaliated,"Most people say not to go into the light."

"Whatever, dude", Kaminari murmured,"If it's something scary, we'll just go around it or circle back or whatever. It's fine. Let's go."

Sero was pretty much helpless as Kaminari dragged him along towards the light at the presumed back of the cave. He was starting to regret having held Kaminari's hand.

"Kaminari, if we get eaten by anything, I will perso-"

That was when they saw the demon.

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