It was late at night, around 3-3:30 AM.
The sky was dark and there were no sounds.
No sounds other than the faint footsteps of one thing.
A strange humanoid creature with blades for arms was walking through a vast forest on the mountainside, lurking around in case anyone was out this late.
And funnily enough, someone was out this late.
The demon's eyes narrowed as it inspected a nearby lake.
It saw a young man with medium length rusty hair washing what seemed to be his haori in a river.
The demon grinned to itself, prey finally in its sight.
Tokinari, the person at the river, stood alone.
His breathing was slow and shallow. His axe was sitting next to him. His body was aching from hours of work—setting this all up. Hauling logs, finding ropes and wire for Kaoru, digging with his bare hands. 3 loops after the initial one and now… it was showtime.
The demon stepped out from the tree line. Filthy arms glinting like obsidian in the moonlight.
"What do we have here…"
Tokinari didn't freak out, he can't afford to lose composure here.
"Nothing much." Tokinari replied, staring the demon dead in the eye.
The demon suddenly darted at him.
And Tokinari responded in kind by swerving around and sprinting along the rivers edge, kicking up sand behind him.
Behind him, the demon was quickly catching up.
The second loop, he realised that the demon isn't as fast as it seems, it's combat speed is the strong point, sprinting speed isn't great due to its small legs.
He reached a marker. Two stones stacked on top of eachother in between two trees. This was it.
He suddenly veered left and leapt over a carpet of leaves.
It was a pit he and Kaoru had set up. It was eight feet deep. This was because six feet didn't work when they tried it, the demon just climbed out before they could keep him inside.
The instant Tokinari cleared it, the demon lunged after him, roaring—
—and vanished into the earth with a sudden crash.
*WHAM!*
Dirt and leaves flew up. The demon shrieked in rage, its blades clawing into the dirt as it made its attempt to climb out.
Tokinari skidded to a stop, whipping around and signaling Kaoru with a sharp whistle.
He leaped from a tree above the pit.
In one swift motion, he cut a release rope and just like that… a series of logs, balanced and rigged for a controlled fall, all dropped like meteors into the pit.
*BOOM!*
*BOOM!*
*CRACK!*
Log after log crashed into the pit just as the demon was about to get out, the final one wedging crosswise to pin the demon between the pit walls.
It's blades were trapped, body crushed, it snarled and howled in fury—but it was stuck.
Kaoru landed down next to Tokinari, crouched low, panting, his forehead drenched in sweat.
"Damn! I guess you weren't lying after all."
Tokinari didn't reply. He just stared into the pit, his eyes wide. It had only taken 3 deaths to figure this out.
'The first loop, I was genuinely just trying to wash my clothes so it caught me off guard and I ended up dying.
The second loop, we started setting up the traps, the only issue was that the demon climbed out of the six feet deep hole and we had no way of keeping him in there.
The third loop, I gathered some logs and rope. Kaoru tied the ropes and set the traps while I once again lured the demon over.
Only issue was, the demon once again climbed out before the traps had time to keep him in.
And that's where we are now. The pit was two feet deeper, keeping him in there longer, giving us more time to drop the logs on him.'
Kaoru looked at Tokinari, "Now what do we do? He's gonna get out eventually, right?"
Tokinari thought for a minute and then he looked at Kaoru dead in the eye, "Can you run to my house? There should be some alcohol and matches in the kitchen, please get them fast."
Kaoru tilted his head, a little startled, "Why?"
"We burn the pit and then throw more logs in to keep him in there, just in case he's finding a way out. If we keep doing this until sunrise, by the time he gets out, the sun will be out and he will burn." Tokinari replied.
Kaoru just nodded a little confusedly but he ran off anyways.
Tokinari shouted after him, "If you're not back in half an hour I'll kill myself, okay?"
"Okay!" He shouted back.
…
Well he didn't need to kill himself because Kaoru was back.
It only took him twenty minutes, which was pretty good considering the distance between here and Tokinari's house.
"Alright when should I pour it?"
Tokinari hummed in thought before replying, "Let's say when we see a log shake or move."
And just like that, a log shook.
"Can he not hear us? Why would he do that?" Kaoru said with a cocky grin as he poured the alcohol all over the logs.
*FWIP!*
He lit the match and threw it into the pit, watching as the flames erupted up.
They heard the demon scream in agony, but there wasn't any remorse in either of their gazes.
"That's what you get for killing my mother." Tokinari spat as he looked down at the bright orange flames, his face illuminated.
Kaoru didn't say anything, he just looked at the fire.
"It should be sunrise in about an hour and a half." Tokinari said with a sigh, fully ready to wait all that time.
…
An hour and ten minutes had passed and they were starting to run out of logs to throw.
The demon hadn't made a sound in a while. Maybe he was unconscious?
Kaoru exhaled slowly as his shoulders dropped in relief. "Think it's dead?"
Tokinari shook his head, "They can't die unless exposed to sunlight, I think."
He wanted to believe it was dead, but something in his gut was screaming at him.
*CRUNCH.*
A sound came from behind them.
The ground shook and then it shattered.
The ground exploded behind them as the demon tore itself free, bursting from a tunnel it had dug beneath the pit.
Its body was way different now, it looked like a wreck. It was burnt, broken and covered in mud. One of its blade arms were snapped and slowly regenerating.
"Cheeky bastard!" Kaoru spat, pointing at the demon in surprise.
Tokinari moved first, not even thinking, just moving instinctively.
He lunged forward, swinging his axe from below. The demon swerved, but the axe grazed its ribs, splattering black blood across the forest ground.
Kaoru moved next, intercepting the demons attempt at countering. With a flick of his wrist, he parried a slash aimed for Tokinari's throat and sprang back just as quick as he arrived.
"Yeah, you're right. It seems sunlight really is the only thing that'll kill it." Kaoru muttered, grinning through grit teeth. "So we just have to hold it off until then, right?"
Tokinari pushed the demon away and charged straight in, swinging his axe from above this time, aimed to split the demons head in half. His muscles screamed in pain, still stiff from moving all of those logs, but he kept his pace.
The demon deflected the blow, but Tokinari kept the momentum and slashed down again, wedging the axe between the demons kneecap.
Kaoru darted around him.
Every time the demon attempted to strike Tokinari, Kaoru would perfectly parry the blow right before contact. this would knock the blades off course long enough for Tokinari to step in and deliver another blow.
Tokinari aimed for the parts that would disorient the demon, knees, shoulders, wrists, joints, ligaments etc.
They both moved perfectly in sync, as if they were one singular force of nature.
Tokinari landed a solid blow to the demons thigh, splitting flesh to bone. It staggered. Kaoru slid behind it and slashed its nape, dodging a wild slash by a hair.
The demon shrieked, stumbling back, dragging its leg like dead weight. It couldn't help but stare at the two in shock, he was expecting them to slow down, waiting for an opportunity when they'd gloat, to get cocky.
But they didn't.
He couldn't even see their eyes clearly.
They moved without hesitation, unlike any regular untrained human. There wasn't even any coordination, no signals or commands. One struck, the other defended. One pressed forward and the other stalked from the shadows.
The demon felt something deep in its gut twist.
"You…" it rasped. "You're… demon slayers, aren't you? Undercover… that's why you're not using those fancy breathing techniques or nichirin swords right?"
It stumbled back again, making up excuses for being put in this position by two mere civilians.
Tokinari turned his axe around and slammed the blunt end of it into the demons chest, cracking ribs and knocking it back into Kaoru's path. Without a word, Kaoru carved a slash across its side, leapt back and then rushed again before it could recover.
The demons panic broke loose.
It screamed, voice shredded with rage and underlying fear, and started swinging wildly.
He swung massive, blind arcs with his bladed arms, slashing through the air like a cornered animal of sorts.
Tokinari dove under the first swing—it was too slow to hit him.
But the next attack wasn't as slow and it was aimed at someone else.
*SLASH!*
The second swing caught Kaoru across the bridge of his nose, a quick flash of pain and blood. He jerked sideways, and then the third strike caught him again. A deeper slash running from his jaw to his glabellar.
He hit the ground, rolled and got back up without a sound.
He didn't cry.
He didn't even curse.
Just that same hollow calm in his eyes.
Tokinari glanced at Kaoru but he didn't speak, if Kaoru were to die, he could always just go back and stop it.
They kept going.
They hit the demon again. And again. And again.
The demon could barely even stand now. It's body was trembling, swaying like a dead tree in the wind. It collapsed once, tried to rise, only for Tokinari's axe to meet its shoulder with a crunch. Kaoru followed by cutting the demons head clean off with his machete.
It shrieked.
And then—
The first rays of sunlight broke through the tree line.
A thin line of gold broke through the trees.
The demons head rolled into the spot of sunlight.
It's screams became gurgles. Skin cracked, bubbled, flaked.
The boys stepped back, panting heavily, watching the demon burn to ash in the cold morning sun.
"Ha… haha… ha… ha." Tokinari couldn't help but start laughing.
Kaoru grinned, ignoring the searing pain on his nose.
"We did it Tokinari, we killed a demon! Oh wow! That was so thrilling!" He said, jumping in place like an excited toddler.
Tokinari dropped to his knees, breathing heavily. "I'm beat… I have zero energy left after that."
Kaoru couldn't help but agree, he stretched his back and yawned.
It wasn't ridiculous, Kaoru had been awake for 23 hours and Tokinari had been working all night long on an empty stomach. The two were hungry, dehydrated, sweaty, tried, overworked and exhausted.
But they didn't feel bad, for they had just killed their first of many demons.
Tokinari had somewhat avenged his family. There was only one more demon he had to kill for his revenge to be complete.
Mukorozan.
But that could wait. Right now, he deserves a rest.
He'd earned it.
Going back to the river, Tokinari grabbed his dark brown haori that he had washed and with Kaoru, they both walked back to the cave.
And fell fast asleep.