Wisteria

09

"Well, damn." Sumire stares up at the seemingly never-ending tree's at the entrance of Natagumo Mountain.

Tokito looks around for another way to enter. He knows that if they just walk in, if there are any demons, they will be aware of their presence. Sumire though, doesn't seem to care. She just walks right on into the entrance and into the mountain.

Tokito stares at her for a second before shaking his head in disbelief and following her.

"DEMONS?!"

The boys head snaps to her girl as she shouts into the trees. The boy brings up his hand and smacks her hard on the head.

"Do you want to kill us, Fuji?" Despite his words, Tokito doesn't sound very worried about her actions.

"Please Sensei, you are one of the almighty Hashira, you can't be defeated!" Sumire smirks as she feels the presences within the trees shift at the sound of Hashira.

She could feel them from even outside the mountain, they have high power levels, that's for sure. She's guessing four or five, but theirs a lot of mountain to cross. She smiles lightly at her Sensei before nodding, telling him they can leave now, they've got the information and none of the presences move towards the outside of the forest.

Like they are locked to the mountain. Tokito turns around and walks towards the entrance, they are less than a hundred meters past it. Sumire tries to step forward but her legs are frozen. She glances down, trying to figure out what shes got stuck on. She can't see anything but takes out her katana and slashes around them.

She steps forward and this time she can move, but it isn't long until she can something tugging lightly on her arm. She is quick to slash at it as well before glancing up at her Sensei to see if he has the same problem. But he is nowhere in sight. Her eyes widen.

'He's already made it out?'

She curses to herself, she can't feel any presences close enough to touch her, so it means that they are controlling something from far away. She walks forward, spinning her katana around her constantly and erratically to cut down anything aiming to impede her.

Just as she makes it to the entrance she freezes. A presence appeared right behind her as soon as she stood at the tree line. She steps into the sun before looking behind her. Standing silently and staring at her is what seems to be a young boy.

But she isn't dumb, she can tell he is a demon, and a strong one at that. Tokito looks behind him as well, wondering as to why she has stopped moving again.

"Lower Moon five," Sumire says to him, "am I right?"

The demon doesn't say anything, he just disappears into the trees again. Sumire gets a sudden shiver and steps further back into the sun, getting back vibes from the mountain. She turns around and walks up to her sensei, motioning that she will speak with him later.

They head to the nearest town for the night, knowing that tampering with demons and then travelling through the night is a death wish. Once they book a hotel room and lock all the doors and windows they sit down on opposing beds, ready to talk over the mission.

"They were right, the Lower Moon five is present, but he didn't attack directly," Sumire mumbles, trying to scrub the blood off her mask. "But when I was walking out I kept getting caught on things. Some sort of string I think. It's very strong, an untrained slayer could break their blade off it."

Tokito nods, "I didn't notice any large movement while we were in there. From what I can tell, they work from the background. They are most likely stronger in long-distance battles."