“Just Masa?” asked Seiji, sort of hoping for a little more from the mysterious woman.

  “That’s right. And who are you?”

  “I’m Seiji Tsuji, that’s Saki Furukawa and Nerine.” With introdus out of the way, Seiji boldly pushed forward as though he already made friends with the woman. Saki and Nerine remained cautious and watchful ouation, though also a little relieved that Seiji seemed to be having luck with her. “We’re looking for our friends. You wouldn’t happen to have seen ahat was especially powerful or anything would you?”

  “I only retly arrived in this nd. So I ’t say that I have met anyone else that was strong. Though perhaps the ones you’re looking for are the ohat came through here before me.”

  “You weren’t the only one here?”

  “No, most of the demons in the area were already killed before I came. This is the only ohat I killed.”

  He looked back at the others for their thoughts. It gave them hope that they might have found them or a clue at least, sihey were not present. “I wonder how long it might have been…”

  “Roughly a day based on the corpses.”

  Seiji turned back around to thank the woman, but she already started to depart, having sensed her o answer questions ended. He found it a little strahat she didn’t give any sort of further notibsp; “Thank you, Miss Masa!” he shouted out to her as she faded away into the shadows.

  Saki held her arms crossed thinking about what they learned. “So there were two different people, but they left already…” She tried to put the images of the battle sites in her mind, but they were a little foggy. It all seemed too vague to make aainty that it was Yumi. Nothing further was going to be gained from here.

  “We should look for another vilge nearby. The two we already went to knew nothing, so whoever was the other mystery person didn’t visit those.” Nerine looked around the horizon with any idea of a new course to take. Unfortunately, they had no new dires to take from.

  Kig around the dirt, Seiji looked about as lost as them ohey should go . None of them khe area and even if they did it would be no guarahat it lined up with any reasonable degree with the real world. “It’s a damn shame none of us are trackers. We could try to find their footprints or something…”

  The idea drew Nerine’s attention and then a heavy sigh. Her mind had been too focused on rumors and clues rather than something practical. “We . I use my power to s for tracks. Though it could take a while to find something that could be them.”

  “Yumi also fly,” added Saki. She got a slightly annoyed look from Seiji as though she was trying to rain on their parade. Passing a shrug off, Saki deferred to Nerine. “I’m just saying. Hopefully, they walked away from here.”

  Chapter 416 – On Friendly Steps

  For more than an hour they searched. Nerine pushed her Field out to the limit that she could manage, already fatigued. Spread out, they realized that trag would be harder thahought. The area was home to a powerful demon and a vast group of low css demons. There were more than a few footprints to find. Add on top that there was fighting that destroyed much of the area, they had their work cut out for them.

  Seiji moved around through the rumble and trees that remained. An popped up for him between a few trees. Thanks to the way Nerine created the Field, it projected like a holographic augmented reality in the world to anything of i. It did all of the work for them just leaving them to search, sort of being like a game. A liuck up in the air alerting him to the clue. “Too heavy…” The read out gave the size of the feet, estimated height a based on what it found. It was enough to work from, sidering they were looking for someone human it made it easy to quickly s the data and move on to the .

  Further ahead though he found ahat went alongside the tracks. This came with a pair this time with something within the range of being human. “This could be them! It’s all abht!” Pulling out a fre that Nerine made for them, he tossed it into the air to igh a trail of smoke down to him.

  Almost immediately, he felt a dispt of air as Saki appeared at his side. It nearly made him jump, still not used to how quick she could be when she wanted. She looked over at the marks that he found. “This would fit with being Yuki from what I could guess. We might have found their trail finally!”

  “But there’s ohing.” He poio the other footprints that followed after theirs. “It looks human, but seems a little too damn heavy.”

  “Demons shift forms into a human figure. They could have a demon trag them, but given it's just one of them to the rest of the demons and the area I’m not sure we have too much to be ed about.”

  “If they don’t get their shit jumped.”

  “Right…”

  Sound of leaves brushing together came from behind them. Nerine finally caught up to them to join them with the clue. “Found them?”

  “We think so. It goes off this way to the northeast.”

  They quickly discussed the possibility and agreed to follow the tracks. Nerine gave them a path to follow for a bit before she needed a rest from her powers. It was enough though to get them out of the demon’s domain. The ohing that worried them all was the time behind them. If the woman they met was correct, they were a day behind them. It was a lot of time to make up.

  Seated around a hastily crafted fire, they munched on some packed food. Nerine was nearly asleep having oen a little and looking the worst out of them. Saki felt bad about how much they relied on her and pushed her. If they weren’t under such a time sensitive mission they could take it easy. And even before they met up it sounded like from Seiji that she kept herself very busy just keeping a normal appearance.

  She looked down the hill they sat on at the road, a dirt path, they discovered. Likely Yumi or Yuki took that to the end. Without knowing where another vilge would be it made the most sense. “We’ve got a ce at least sihey’re on foot still.”

  “Yeah, if Yuki’s with them he could have made a damn vehicle of some sort shit.”

  “Knowing him, he prefers the leisurely walk.”

  “Yeah, he’d probably want to see the area.” Seiji finished up his small bit of food from what Saki threw together for their trip. It wouldn’t st for too many more days, but they would be able to get to a vilge or town to find something. “What the hell do you think they're trying to do?”

  “Survive if I had to guess. This isn’t like some game where there is a defined goal id out for us or some story that’s just going t us along a path.”

  “Maybe we missed it or some shit?”

  “It’s not wise to think of it like that.”

  “But you believe there’s a purpose to all this shit.”

  “Yes, but that purpose doesn’t mean there is a destination we o reach oal to win.”

  “I guess so…”

  “We’ll catch up to them soon enough and we find out in person.”

  An hour of rest was all Nerine gave herself before she stood up. She stubbornly insisted on moving out while they still had a track to follow. Employirag Field bined with the horse and cart, they made good time in trag the three sets of footprints. There didn’t seem to be any ge with them. They tinued uninterrupted down the road.

  It only took them a few hours to catch up with what they guessed was where they stopped, a new vilge. Though given what they found, it might be more like a town than a vilge. It didn’t have the dense and wide popution that they might have expected from a town, but there were too many huts and homes to be just a small vilge.

  Falling into that middle grouween didn’t mean too much for naming purposes, it did however mean a lot to find them. There were a lot of humans and the tracks they made stopped being sistently straight. It only left them with ohing, searg the entire spatil they found them.

  “We should just yell, if it’s Yumi she’ll sure as shit hear us,” suggested Seiji.

  “I’d prefer to avoid making too much attention. It might be slower, but I don’t want to put a big sign on our back.”

  “Alright…” A bit of a disappointed sigh came from him. With them being so close already to their friends possibly, he didn’t want to have to wait any longer. But he agreed to split up and began their search through the vilge in the hopes that they were still somewhere inside. And finding out if there was a demon trag them. It was somewhere in the vilge as well.

  Knowing that something dangerous potentially lurked around any of the ers made their search a little desperate. They knew nothing about the i of the demon. If it po attack the vilge or just wanted Yumi. It may want revenge for all of the demons she killed. There were a lot of unknowns and they o find them quickly.

  Nerine immediately went in search of any pce that travelers might gather. She fortunately came across something like a tavern and inn. It seemed that the vilge was rge enough to support trade and business. “Excuse me, I’m looking for someone. Have there been any new faces today?”

  The old woman behind the bar rubbed down a mug as she thought. It took her a moment and then so attention. “Yes, there was a young man that sat in the er for a while. He left though.”

  “No one else?”

  “No.”

  ‘His Majesty maybe?’ It wasn’t a lot for her to work from. She had to keep searg in the hopes of finding more.

  She walked back out into the street searg around for something more to call to her. Before she could do that though, she heard some raised voices tht. There looked to be a small little gathering. ‘A fight?’ Then she realized who she was traveling with and hurried over praying that he didn’t let his eagerness overe his senses. And then she remembered who she was talking about.

  ‘Please don’t be him…someone else…please…’ Nerine pushed around the few people in the back to break through the gathering. It felt like most of the vilge was all around them. And then she popped out into the opening, finding two men staring each other down. “Of course it is…” she moaned, reizing Seiji as one of them.

  Pulling herself together, she marched out to Seiji grabbing his arm. “What are you doing? We’re looking for Yumi you idiot!”

  “Yeah, but he asked me if I was strong.” Seiji pointed over to the man that found some i in him.

  She looked up at the stranger, finding him a little odd, if not a very attractive man. There was just something that she couldn’t put her finger on that made him seem just not quite human, even though he was pletely so.

  The man politely nodded in agreement with Seiji. “That’s right, young miss. I happeo feel a curious energy in the air that seemed to e from this young man. So I was simply making an inquiry.”

  “A simple inquiry…” Nerine looked around at the crowd that gathered. “I don’t think it’s very simple when you have this much attention.”

  “The young man did offer to give me a demonstration. He’s been very aodating.”

  “Yes, I would imagine so…” she said gring at him.

  Seiji recoiled slightly with a slightly blue sheepish expression ing across his fabsp; “What?! It was him asking!”

  “And you didn’t say no.”

  Suddenly, dropping in from the air a shadoeared whag the tall gentleman in the head hard enough to bend him over a little, though he seemed unfazed by it all the same. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?! What happeo low profile? Geez, I ’t leave you for one minute on your own! e on, we’re going!” They started t the man away.

  “Yumi?!” Seiji mao utter in shoot really sure what the se was that they just saw py out.