That wasn’t the ahat Saki expected from him. It only gave her more questions. And it didn’t align with what she knew about Seiji. “Why are ying that up now? You distance yourself from all of that.”
“I tolerate it, nothing more. It’s been bastardized and a part of me, but that doesn’t give you the right to use it. Never do that again, Saki! Only I use it.” He stepped toward her making his stand.
Still feeling the sting of Seiji’s punch, Saki paused for a moment to stare at him. She found a side of him that he never expected. ‘There’s moing on with him and his power than I gave him credit for. It’s not that he doesn’t know about the power, he’s actively avoiding them. He’s been iionally fighting with his arm tied because they insult his personal view? I never would have guessed that he cared that mubsp; We all thought he hated everything about the Shinto practices and training his grandfather shoved down his throat. Does this meaually wants to be like the man he ’t get along with?’ Saki had trouble stopping all the questions that this raised for her. Though with Seiji before her she wasn’t going to be getting any of those answers.
Worse, there were more troubling matters than dealing with this surprisiion about Seiji’s personal beliefs. “Fine. I’m sorry, I didn’t know that it meant so much to you. I won’t do it again.”
“Good, remember that.” He backed off quickly with that seemingly resolving his immediate issues.
Saki twitched, hearing the troubling sounds of demoing. They had been lucky that the demon was alone, but all of the deys gave them more than enough time to get the rest of the garrison moving on them. “Now that we’re settled these matters, we leave? We’re already overstayed and have new problems to deal with, like demons able to track our every movement…”
Chapter 414 – Demon’s Secret
Hidden in the bushes Seiji and Nerihought that they stayed out of sight, but a shift in the foliage made them turn as Saki broke the neck of a small demon that found them. At her feet, three more corpses sought the retly deceased’s pany. “Keep moving, we haven’t out run them yet and it’s only made easier for them.”
They jumped out sprinting over the pins deeper into demoory and even more that could find them. It was only made worse with the night cloaking most of the terrain. They couldn’t make any clear pns for an escape other than keep running.
Seiji looked behind them hearing the sounds of angry demons chasing after them. Way back they gave up letting Nerine run with them. Though she didn’t fully appreciate that Seiji hauled her around, it might have been slightly more desirable for it to be Saki. “Damn, they’re persistent bastards!”
“They’re trag you. I told you before about that.”
“Yeah, but I thought you meant just the damn demon we killed.”
“No, any demon track us now. That’s why we o get out of their range. That’s the only ce we have right now, since we don’t have enough time to try to fix the problem.”
“But we—“ Interrupted, Seiji spotted a disruption in the sky ing quickly towards them. “Above you Saki, there’s two!”
She disappeared with an afterimage left behind of her for the demons to strike in fusion. Dropping in from the air, she nded a deadly kito the back of one demon while grabbing the tail of the other and swinging them into the earth o the paralyzed demon. A swift double kill ended both of their lives and she sped up to her friends.
“The way we’re going, that damn war may happen anyway…” a frustrated Seiji replied, uo do anything. His acceptao pass off the fighting to Saki for this revealed how much he uood their crisis.
“As long as we don’t boast about being Demon Hunters, there still might be a ce.”
“Think that shit’ll viny of them?”
“That’s why I said might.”
“Sorry, Saki.”
An eyebrow raised for Saki seeing the back of Seiji running ahead of her. “It’s partly my fault as well. I was being a little self-tered. I guess running solo has been affeg me…” It felt a little weird having such a versation with Seiji. She jumped ahead of the two to break the moment. “Speed up, we o lose them.” Then she disappeared, taking advantage of her speed in full.
“Dammit, Saki,” he groaned knowing that he couldn’t keep up with the pace she set. They were nowhere parable, no one against Saki. And she expected him to keep up. He could only try his best.
It took a little bit, but it seemed to work actually. While none of them could actually sense demons in a way that would be ve, there was also no indication of sounds. But that only gave them so much range, ohat Saki felt was certain of beihan the demon’s trag ability.
But it seemed to be enough for now. No one came for more than ten minutes. Saki loosened up a little feelier about their odds. “Maybe this cave will make it harder for them to track us.” It was a small hope.
With Neriing to gather her strength, Seiji watched the tunnel opening. He remained deep inside given Saki’s insisten it. “So you going to expin in more detail what the hell’s going on with these demons and their shitty ability to track us?”
“It’s something I learned while being a bounty hunter. The first time I hunted a demon, I made the same mistake, leaving me ied to them. Those bastards are the reason I ended up being a bounty hunter. Though it did have its advantages, I inteo be more indepe, something I couldn’t avoid.”
Saki started to get to the point as she stretched out her hand tet the demon blood on Seiji. “There’s something unique about a demon’s blood. I don’t know what it is and I’m not fully ined to believe the Association at their word. But whether it's the smell or power, they track that. And I guess since all demons have the same blood, somehow, they all detect it. Even washing it off won’t remove the effects. Even if you ’t see it, it’s still w, hidden.”
Holding up his hand that had the blood on it, Seiji stared with wrinkles appearing in his brow as he got the bigger picture. “But there’s a way to remove this shit, correctly, right?”
“Yes, but only the Association knows how to do it. It’s why bounty hunters don’t fight demons. If you get blood on you, the Association will exile you from the city uhey purify you.”
“There some catch?”
“They charge high prices for it, in essence making it unprofitable fighting demons unless you’re highly skilled. They arely my biggest fans.”
A grimace came over his lips as he realized what that meant. “So they didn’t tell you shit on how to purify demon’s blood.”
“No, it’s a closely held secret that they use to help hold their power. As if they needed more reasons.”
Then he looked over at Nerine, rememberialents. “But we’ve got Nerine. She do it!”
Saki o Seiji. “That’s my hope. But we don’t know what it is. So I don’t know if that’s going to be enough.”
Both turo the resting Nerine for hopeful fidenbsp; She ended up being their only ce for esg the demon’s ly aing ba the trail of Yumi’s rumors. “Saki’s right. I don’t know much, but if I analyze it, I might be able to know. Knowing how it works is going to be the most important, the rest my power manage.”
There was little more that Saki could do other than provide guard over the cave while Nerine worked. Unlike Seiji, she didn’t have anything the demon’s could trabsp; So she could stand outside the cave looking for any ge in their security. Still, cover was important, there was a lot that she still didn’t know about the demons. She couldn’t take any ces of being spotted. ‘This hasn’t turned out as well as I hoped… Still demons and an a Japan, what exactly are these personalities of Yumi’s pying at? This isn’t for no reason and it seems like there would be better ways if they wao break her spirit or mind.’
After being dropped into the new virtual world, she didn’t end up with much time to remain thinking about matters. She focused more on survival and finding her friends. It felt like the first time she actually had a break from all of that. Thinking about the bigger problems at hand had to be sidelined.
Though after seeing more of the world and plexity it had to offer, she began to have doubts about her inal theory. ‘When I first arrived I wrote most of this off as some program that Phoibe had stored away. Giveting it made more sehat it came from Yuki, not Yumi. But I know that’s not true. The longer I’m here the more vinced I am that Yumi is defihe source of all of this in whatever strange way that makes any sense. And worse, I know she’s not going to have any answers for us when we find her. She’s likely just as fused by all of this.
‘But what is the goal of her personalities? They help her, but they also take her over as well. Something about all of this doesn’t fit. I know we’re missing pieces, but this feels like a lot more tha of information. There is something more plicated. I just wish I knew how this world fit into it, then we’d know how to escape at least.’ Her view probably sat close to the clusion Yuki arrived at as well, in her mind anyway. Yuki was smart enough to figure pieces out. And she felt there was a goal in this world and he likely had the same feeling. ‘I just hope that Yuki knows more about what’s going on. We’re going to need everyoo solve the riddle of its purpose.’
Unfortunately, Saki didn’t have any more time to think about what was happening. She had picked up a distant patrol on the move. ‘They haven’t given up. Figures, they know they just have to get in rao detect Seiji… I ’t let them get any closer…’ A few pebbles rolled away from Saki’s cover as she disappeared.
Seiji detected the familiar movement of Saki approag the cave. He tilted his head over while Nerine tinued her work. “Trouble?”
“Not anymore. Any luck?”
“She’s been silent as hell since she started.”
With good timing, Nerine’s head raised from its hung positiohe metal mess of a mae she created to do the job. “This is rather plex,” she spoke suddenly.
“But you do it?”
Neriood up letting the mae fade away into the ground. “I try, but the problem we face is that I don’t have a demon’s body to analyze as well. Then I might be certain what it is that they are trag in the blood.”
“I would have brought bae if I had known.”
“I was hoping that it would be more obvious and straightforward, but it’s not. I found several possibilities.”
“Then just do them all and we should be good.”
“That’s my pn, I just fear there is something I might have overlooked.”
Saki leaned back against the edge of the cave looking out cautiously. “How long do you need?”
“It’s already done.”
“Then we only o test it?”
Standing with fidence, Seiji felt ready to charge out once more. “The’s start looking for Yumi once more! She’s probably dealing with the same shitty issue and being hunted by demons wherever she goes. She needs help!”