Amare Flos (Demon Slayer)

The anxious wait for the start of their first mission never seemed to flee from their minds, a mixture of anxiety and excitement, a dash of worry mixed too. Asumi reached the village near the time of sunset, a village right next to a river. Her hand brushed over the new and polished handle of her sword, the sword's cross guard flashing a nice deep purple colour, matching the sheath's dark colour, however her blade in contrast was a light pink. People of the town bustled in the streets, roaming around the street food stalls and shopping. Asumi watched from a rather isolated area, the Demon Slayer Corps were a secret organisation, so she tried to not bring too much attention to herself, which was pretty hard when you wore a white and pink outfit with a sword on your waist.

She sat on a bench, waiting for the sun to fully set, and the time of demons to start. While she watched the sparkling river that surrounded the village, she had time to think, a fact that Asumi couldn't get over is how they trained the Kasugai Crows to talk. Although her crow had left halfway through her journey to rest, she couldn't get it off her mind. Did they have to breed a special type of crow? Was it a difficult process or could they just grab any crow? She felt safe lost in her thoughts, it was a calm atmosphere, putting ease to her stress, nothing like the Final Selection. The sun still peeked over the horizon a bit, the last sun rays reaching out before it would completely sink, the shimmering river of the town danced in warm orange colours as it reflected the light. Asumi was soothed by the light slowly disappearing, she found it oddly calming.

"It's beautiful huh?" Asumi jolted as someone's voice suddenly filled her ears. Asumi turned around quite quickly to see Eira standing there, Asumi was relieved and gave a rare smile. They both had rather light-coloured haoris that draped over their bodies. Asumi found herself admiring the mix of light blue and white on Eira's haori. The bold orange lighting of the sunset illuminated their light colours and gave them an orange tint. The wind slowly blew, the night sky was slowly trickling down the sky, the deep blue replaced the warm orange.

"You're here for the mission right?" Asumi asked Eira.

Eira nodded and smiled softly. Eira stepped forward and watched the orange sky slowly get swallowed by the lake. It was hard to not get lost in the sights you would encounter on the missions. But, it was also dangerous, now that the sun had disappeared and darkness crawled into every corner of the country, demons had the opportunity to attack.

"6 demons." Asumi sighed and gulped, it was a tough mission, especially to give to two newly enrolled Demon Slayers. The mission was quite simple away from the fact that there were 6 demons. In the usually calm village, 6 demons would constantly come at night and destroy things. Stalls. Banners. Fences. There were constant complaints about them, and although no victims had been taken yet, there were close calls. There were brief descriptions of these demons by the residents and victims. 4 of the demons were quite skinny and fast, the other 2 were renowned for their bulkiness and strength.

Eira and Asumi both knew that the two demons that would pose the most threat were the bigger demons. If they could take them out first, it would prove beneficial to them. This does not mean they would underestimate the smaller demons however, in the end, the demons had the advantage in numbers. As the village lost all its light, and people went inside their homes, Eira and Asumi both started to scout the town in the now silent town.

The town was intricate, houses had a 3-metre gap in all directions, there were a lot of turns and twists, and it was easy to get lost in the dark, the only light being the rare streetlight. The best-case scenario would be they found the demons first, and they would be able to stealthily attack the demons quickly and effectively. It would be easy to remain in a low profile with two people. Eira and Asumi both glanced at each other when they heard a loud sound, sounding like a loud groan, they both snuck and put their backs on a wall, peeking out into the wide road, in the centre they both saw a tall figure. Eira found it hard to sense this figure's aura. It was a weird... grey? Eira's eyes widened and she realised who it was. Asumi slowly pulled her sword out of the sheath, Eira grabbed Asumi's shoulder to stop her.

"That's not a demon." Eira sighed and she walked out into the dirt road. The figure turned around.

"Oh hey!" Ali excitedly waved and jogged over. Eira saw that Ali's outfit had changed from Final Selection. It was darker now, a dark green striped pattern repeating on a short jacket like top. It was illuminated in the streetlight. Eira couldn't help but notice that he had not got a sword yet. Still sporting the wooden sword. She cringed a bit as she got sight of this. Either he had not got a sword, or he chose to keep the wooden sword. She looked up at Ali with a rather fake smile. Asumi was the opposite, Asumi saw Ali and couldn't help but give in to the urge to smile.

"So what's the mission?" Ali smiled innocently. Eira and Asumi both looked at each other with a look of confusion. A thought crossed both of their minds at the exact same time.

"He has to be joking," They both thought, in force of habit, of course, it was rare to come to a mission and know nothing about it. Asumi sighed and was about to explain when...

Eira's face went pale as she stepped back. She felt danger approaching, 6 powerful auras, all gruesome and gruel colours. Eira tried to focus on the auras, and locate them. Eira tugged at Asumi's sleeve and pointed to behind them.

"What's…" Ali squinted his eyes as the shadows seemed to reveal something, no, not something, someone.

6 figures stood in the shadows. All in some sort of horizontal line. Unlike the description, there were no big or small ones.

They all seemed about average, with a height of about 160 centimetres, they walked in sync, slowly yet efficiently, looking like normal humans, until they got closer, the horns and bloodshot eyes gave away their identity however. The demons stopped in their tracks as they got sight of the three Demon Slayers. In a heartbeat, the demons all ran in the direction of the young Demon Slayers.

"Split up!" Asumi shouted and started running, taking a random turn, she went one way. Eira went into another. Ali gulped and started to run away too, taking the first left he saw. This spread them all out. With the village being complex, it would be easy to trick the demons and lose them in the chase, however, it was also likely to run straight into a demon. The demons seemed to have good observation skills, with just a glance they automatically made a strength hierarchy in their minds. Taking into account the weird sword Ali had.

Knowing the two girls were harder opponents, two followed Eira, three went in Asumi's direction. And only a single went behind Ali. Their speed was no joke. In a matter of seconds, each of the demon slayers realised that the demons were catching up with most of them.

The demon that followed Ali had a harder time however, Ali was fast and making quick and unpredictable turns, even going in a circle at one point. Asumi panted, she had wasted a lot of energy sprinting away, she skidded on the dirt stopping in her track, and facing the demons. She unsheathed her sword and gritted her teeth, the three demons all grinned like animals. They wore silver bracelets, which shone in the moonlight, their awful-looking teeth, decaying, and brown, their eyes wide with malice, no one moved. Asumi took a deep breath and analysed the battlefield carefully. She would have to plan her attacks with caution if she wanted to defeat them. The demons seemed to be enjoying this, heavily outnumbering her, they knew that she had little chance to defeat them.

"Three. Go get her." One of the demons snarled. Presumably, they had named themselves after numbers. Common, but efficient.

Three dashed forward in a flash and jumped high, swirling into a kick, aimed at Asumi's torso. Asumi raised the blade of her sword to the foot of the demon, the sword impaled through the leg of the crude demon, and almost immediately, Three retreated limping away.

Asumi was so distracted by the attack of Three that she hadn't realised the other two had disappeared. Asumi's reflexes kicked in at just the right time, the other two demons had tried to sneak up behind her. Asumi turned and looked behind her quickly.

"Four Six punch!" They shouted both dashing. Asumi was blown away by a combined punch by both the demons, her body was slammed right into Three. Even if their attack names were corny and stupid, they worked. Three held her body tightly against him, making sure she wouldn't escape. The demons started laughing, cracking their knuckles, their nails sharp. Asumi elbowed Three in the rib, as his grip on her loosened, Asumi slipped away and swung her blade at Three's head.

"Second form!" She shouted in her mind and exhaled air to put strength into her swing. In a moment of rushed adrenaline, her eyes sharpened and her sword swung through the demon's head. Three screamed in agony, his head rolling to Four and Six as it decayed to ash slowly.

Four and Six stared at Asumi with rage. She had just killed their brother. Asumi was exhausted by the battle, the battle had not been long, but it had her constantly moving. She was not used to it just yet, even though she had been building up her stamina, she had not focused on conditioning her body and being able to take hits often. The powerful attacks had drained all energy from her body. Asumi cursed under her breath and held her sword with both hands. Her mind flooded with techniques to utilize.

The demon's both ran at her, with their arms extended, ready to kill Asumi. She wasn't sure if she could fight them both of at the same time.

Asumi positioned the tip of her sword behind her ankle.

"Second form…" Asumi struggled to tense her body, she couldn't unleash a swing that would take care of both of them at the same time. The demons didn't stop their advance. Asumi felt a chill run down her spine, a chilling feeling of danger. No, the chill wasn't from the danger they posed, it was from the atmosphere, it had gotten cold.

In the split second she had lost focus, Four and Six both tumbled to the floor, their legs falling off as if they were unscrewed. Eira stood behind them both, light fog emitted from her sword. She held her sword up high in the air and swung down quickly.

Their necks were met with an icy reminder of who was behind them. Four and Six screamed as they disintegrated. Eira panted in tiredness, she looked over at Asumi. Asumi nodded and thanked, Eira let out a deep sigh. Eira had already killed the two demons that had chased her, they had just eliminated the three that chased Asumi. That only left... A piercing scream ran through the paths of the village. It was Ali.

"Shit..." Asumi swears under her breath and started to sprint, ignoring her hurting body.