Stone Cold | Tanjirou Kamado (old version)

13. Your true resolve

The darkness of the night wasn't a problem for Ayaka's eyes, that avidly followed the figure of the demon between the trees and the blackness of the forest.

There was something in the demon, something dark and abysmal that came out of him like a deadly mist, soaked in antiqueness. Ayaka knew the demon was ancient, those like him, that had been decades or even hundreds of years living in that world like unnatural creatures, gave off a very specific kind of aura, a certain way they carried themselves, and Ayaka could only see dark and bubbling darkness in the place his heart was supposed to be.

There wasn't light anywhere, that demon was the very embodiment of a piece of hell, with his flames dark as twilight and the wickedness that roamed free there. All of that, or at least a small piece, filled the demon's body, that didn't appear to be more than a twelve year old boy. But she could see it, the sins exceeded the weight of his soul. He wasn't like Nezuko, there was no possible salvation for him.

"You are quite insistent, don't you think so?" The demon looked at her from above, on the threads high up in the threes. He was tired of playing child games, an underlying annoyance on his voice. She was tired, too. They must have spent quite some time like this, Ayaka wasn't sure, but what she was sure about was that by then Tanjirou, Inosuke and Murata (was that his name?) would have defeated the demon of the threads and would be on their way down the mountain.

She had dedicated all that time to run after the demon, he was sly and Ayaka could suppose his strategy was one of a despicable person, sliding in between the shadows and not showing itself enough so someone could notice he was there. He had tried to sneak away from her a few times in the time they had been playing that stupid tag game, but he hadn't taken into account Ayaka's eyes, as far away as he tried to run, he would always be on their range.

This time it wasn't like the thread' s demon, that had put hundreds of meters between them. The demon didn't take into account she could see more and believed that with seventy, eighty meters away would make her lose sight of him.

It was a pity it didn't work, both of them were tired of playing and the demon had finally decided to come out of the shadows. It would be decided right there and then, no more child games, with a battle that wouldn't end until either one of them died or the Sun rose above the horizon. And few hours were still away for that to happen, so it was sure one of them would die, full moon watching over them to witness. And Ayaka wasn't planning on dying, not at least without a reason to.

"And you're quite sneaky, don't you think so?" Ayaka replied in a mocking tone.

She took out her sword out of its sheath, taking out a handkerchief to briefly clean the shining gray blade. Once she finished she threw the handkerchief over her shoulder without worry.

"Now that you've decided to make yourself known I can finally cut off your neck," Ayaka said, eyes fixed on the demon and a relaxed smile on her face. "I thank you for coming out and not making me lose my time more than I already have, running after you was starting to become annoying."

The demon threw a killer look at her, and that was the least that could be said about it. It shined brightly, filled in with poison. That kind of gaze reminded Ayaka to one of a deadly spider, its fangs out and jaws open reading to bit and inject the final toxic that would end the life of its prey.

But she was no prey nor was she a bug that had been trapped on a spiderweb, she was the mountain that would crash the spider under the overwhelming weight of winter.

"You talk too much," the demon sentenced, throwing at her many different threads that flew around her, making on their speed for the strands that usually framed Ayaka's hair to fly as well.