Saki fought with Seiji trying to keep him from ruining the deal by saying anything. She mao stop him from doing much more than muttering random words. Though the information broker took amusement from the se. A swift elbow silenced him long enough for Saki to get back to the matter at hand. “If there’s truth to this rumor I find it elsewhere with someone willing to be reasonable.”

  A sly smirk came across the man’s face to see Saki still willing to py. She hadn’t left the table yet. “Oh I am being reasonable. I know the worth of what I have.” He shuffled around his empty gss between his hands measuring out his iation. “But you find someohat knows the exact location they were st spotted?”

  “You know where he is?!” shouted Seiji before Saki could shut him up.

  She focused ba the shady man. “Fifty or I walk.”

  The man ughed a bit as though he heard a joke. “Now, now, a hundred or you’ll be getting some exercise. I know the bounty you just turned in, you’re more than good for it.”

  Grindieeth together, Saki hated the feeling of being strung up and pyed. ‘I know with enough time I find clues on my own. But it could be out of date by the time I find them. And this is a world that is hostile to all of us, especially Yumi. We don’t know what those personalities have in store for her. I ’t waste time…damnit!’

  Saki pulled s from her bag and dropped them oable. “Seventy-five. If the rumor actually is accurate, I’ll give the same when I return.” She could see the bit of glow in the eyes of the man as he put together the increase to his profits. It was enough to get him loosening the gears on his lips. Though she had to wait as he weighed the options.

  “I make your life hell if you double e.”

  “Oh trust me, like you said. I’m good for it. You just better hope your information is good or else I’ll be making your life hell. I don’t like cheats.”

  “We’ve had a very goement, you trust me.”

  “I also don’t like nosy people that like to py me.” She pushed over the s to his side of the table. “Don’t fet I’m the only bounty huhat likes killing demons. I’m not to be trifled with.”

  He gave an oily smirk to Saki knowing her power, but uanding there was more than strength. As he fingered over the s mentally ting, he began to spill his information. “The rumor is that a stranger appeared in the Chemana region g to be a Demon Hunter.”

  “Chemana…why does that sound familiar?”

  “It’s part of Chigo Ward, otherwise known as the Occupied Ward, it's where the demons first appeared turies ago and the stronghold for most of the demonic armies. Only those seekih gh. The Hunter Association strictly forbids their order from entering. We only have this type of peace because we don’t stir up the .”

  “So no true Hunter would actually be there.”

  “Only Ronin go there looking for meaningless honor ih.”

  “A Hunter in the demon nds, what sort of reputation do they have?”

  “For mercilessly killing every demon that they e across.”

  Saki ched her hands together. ‘Damn, Yumi you’re making too big of a se. This is going to be bad…’ She stood up sharply from the table and dragged out Seiji, but not before the man’s hand came across the table.

  He whispered to her out of notice of the others in the room. “This bit is free. Word is the Association is on the move.”

  She groueeth together with a low growl. “Why tell me this?”

  “It’s just good for business if you resolve it and not them.”

  “Right…”

  With the st bit, Saki pulled on Seiji to get him moving towards the exit. She wasn’t liking the feeling that she was getting from the whole setup. Things rapidly turned south faster than she imagined. “, Yumi’s about to start a new war.”

  Chapter 411 – Sparks of War

  Saki said nothing more to Seiji until they returo her room. Inside, Neriill rested, but quickly sat up with Saki throwing around a few things from her chest on the floor. She pulled out quite a few things for someoaking a long trip. “What’s going on?” Nerine asked, immediately being ed by the atmosphere that Saki brought.

  Frustrated and annoyed, he sat down in the chair o the door. “The hell if I know, Saki refuses to tell me. All I got was that she’s vinced we’ve got a location for Yumi. Though, I think it’s more likely that it’s Yuki.”

  Sighing aloud, Saki stopped grabbing things out. She looked betweewo of them. It had to be something they both heard anyway. “It’s Yumi. Not Yuki.”

  “How the hell you be sure of that?”

  “Because Yuki’s not going to do something so reckless as killing tons of demons and pretending to be a Demon Hunter. He’s got too much awareo make that mistake. Knowing him, he knows more about what’s going on than any of us. No, it’s Yumi. She’s not used to anything of this and apart from Yori, the most likely right now not to be thinking about what her as could be doing to the wider world at rge. Yuki knows this is a fake world, but that this also has rules to follow and he’ll py within those rules. You think Yumi would sider the same thing?”

  Seiji stood up in defense of her. “I think you’re selling Yumi a little short. She might not be a fighter like us, but she’s smart.”

  “You’re wrong there. She is a fighter and that’s something you’re fetting. Besides, Nerine, what was Seiji’s first rea when he heard about demons?”

  “He wao fight them.”

  He quickly recoiled with the target turned on him. “That’s my point. You didn’t think of this as a real world with rules to follow.”

  “Because it’s not, it’s just a thing in Yumi’s mind. We’re here to help her figure out what’s up with her weird ass personalities.”

  “But you ’t think of this as a fake world or something that’ll just go away. It’s real enough for us right now and so we o follow the rules. If we don’t we will have a harder time when it does e to fag Yumi’s true demons.” Saki finished pag everything that she had stored away and loaded it up on her babsp; “We don’t have time to waste anymore. Sorry, Nerine, you'll have to recover on the road.”

  “Is it that bad?” she asked, standing sensing the dread in her voice.

  Seiji still wasirely vinced. He still followed Saki out the door, not pnning oi behind. Saki didn’t wait for either of them to linger around. “I don’t know, Saki’s saying things about war and stuff. I don’t know a damn thing that's going on.”

  A war sounded worse than she expected for just Yumi being reckless. There was moing on that she didn’t see. Nerine had only a small picture of what the world was like from her time in the vilge. Merts didn’t give up much to her to help her get a clear sense of things. Thankfully, Saki seemed to have more time to be filled in on all of the details.

  Ign the fatigue, Nerine hurried up along Saki’s side as they walked through the crowded main streets. “What’s this about a war?”

  “I’ll expin on the road. We ’t talk here.”

  Outside the city and with it far to their baone of them expected it to be such a short visit. And worse, the tension ran thick as Saki left things vague and ominous. Something that only frustrated Seiji more not knowing anything. He eventually exploded on Saki, no longer able to hold babsp; “When the hell are you going to start making sense now?”

  Saki slowed her pad gnced back at the city. Far out of sight now for anyone else, she felt more fortable getting into details. “This world is in an uneasy truce with the major demon s to the west. So I didn’t want t up war for any passing ears to hear. The Association has been doing everything to keep the fa?ade of peace.”

  “How the hell do you know all of this?” pined Seiji, gng over at Nerine who ended up learning none of this. And they all had been in the world for the same amount of time. Which was hardly very long, a little more than two weeks and Saki looked like she fit into the world.

  “I got lucky and was dumped off hat city. Which is more or less the capital of this version of Japan. So I was able to get a lot of questions answered by being there.”

  “So what’s this about a damn war?”

  “Like I said, the Association, the Demon Hunter Association, is trying to keep up the illusion of peace.”

  “They’re just people that fight demht? They’re not the damn gover, but you make it sound like they’re running the damn pce.”

  “Which is more or less true. Yes, there is a Lord, but he’s pretty much useless. I mean this is a world of demons with the only ohat fight them being the Demon Hunters. They hold nearly all of the power and the Lord just goes along with it.”

  “There’s people that fight demons, where the hell’s problem?”

  “They are both too few and too weak. And they know it. It’s why where we’re going is forbidden, they don’t want to risk losing what few hey have.”

  “If it’s that bad, why aren’t demons all over the damn pce?”

  “That wasn’t something I was able to find out. At least, an ahat I felt was true. The reality is that most of the demoo be stig to the western half of Japan. There are few that are around here and they are mostly trolled by ohe Demon Lord of the East. He’s kept things quiet, but there are regur tributes that they pay to the demons to keep them happy.”

  Pointing out the pile that was smoke rising up from the city, Saki called their attention to the dead demons. “Those are the rogue demons that follow no Lord and do whatever they want. Sihey don’t follow the truce, the Association is able to issue bounties for them.”

  Neriurned back around in the dire that Saki led them. Things finally started to fall into pce for her. “That means, if this is Yumi killing demons within their trolled territory, it could stir up a new flict, because she’s g to be part of the group that agreed to follow the peace agreements.”

  “Yes, without her knowing it, she could be plunging this entire try into a war that it ’t win. But even worse, is that the Association I doubt will sit and do nothing about this.”

  Now she uood the urgency that Saki had. A ripple spread out from her feet as a horse and cart materialized o them. “We travel faster this way without drawing attention.” They all hopped up to the cart with Seiji sitting in the back.

  Even as the horse started to move, Seiji leaned his head back towards the two girls. “Are you okay, Nerine? You’ve been using your powers almost without rest for two damn weeks now.”

  “We don’t have a choi the matter. We o hurry and we don’t have any other option.”

  “Saki’s pretty loaded. She could have just bought one for us.”

  Staring over at Saki, she silently questioned her if she had made a mistake and they let her do it. But Saki waved her hand at Nerine. “I’m not that well off. My bounty money went to colleg enough for everyoo survive once I found everyone. So I’m actually short on cash.”

  “What about the sketchy man?”

  “I pnned on pig up some side jobs on the way back to pay him.”

  “You didn’t piss off the yakuza did you?”

  “I haven’t pissed anyone off yet and he’s nothing like that. Just a well ected man.” Saki looked out ahead of them on the road. A new journey hurriedly came together for them and still some of their friends remained unknown out there. “We’ve got bigger problems for now. Stopping Yumi frering a war that’ll kill every human in the try!” If things could only get worse. ‘Where the hell are you Yuki?’