Chapter Text
Yua's skin was burning a lot more than usual, it didn't take a genius to know that her constant daily torture was doubled solely because of the beautiful purple flowers surrounding her.
Beautiful but deadly.
She had to withstand the urge to reach out and touch one. What would happen if I did? She thought, stopping on her tracks to gaze at the wisteria hanging elegantly from a branch. Would she die? Would her cover as a regular aspiring Demon slayer be blown?
She probably have done it due to her insatiable curiosity, just to see what would happen but the thought of her reasons for being here in this flowery hell made her walk away.
The plan was simple, get in to Mount Fujikasane, maintain a low profile and blend in, survive what ever assignment that was given and get her nichirin blades.
Although simple, unelaborate plans like those tend to end in disaster, but Yua couldn't come up with a better strategy.
Frankly that wasn't really what she was worried about. She had to pass this test or what she had been training and preparing for would go up in flames.
Killing your own kind, Yua? The voice in her head taunted. Awfully hypocritical of you, those demons are your own species.
"I'm nothing like them," Yua whispers, "I'm not even a pure demon, so shut up."
Not physically, I suppose. But those same urges exist do they not? For the last time turn around, girl. The demon Slayer corps is no place for you.
"I said shut up!" Yua snapped, she probably shouldn't had said that out loud, because to a passerby, she would seem to be a mad woman talking to herself (which she was). But the voice had been annoying her more so than usual, she was fed up. Besides no one was around–
"Um... But I...I didn't say anything."
She turned her head around so fast she got whiplash. The boy behind her who had over heard her senseless whispers had burgundy coloured hair, with eyes to match and a scar on the side of his forehead. His eyes, mind you, had grown to the size of saucers.
She was supposed to be blending in gods' sake.
"Your breathing." She blurted without thinking. "You breathe too loud, stop."
The voice chuckled. Nice save, genius. The sarcasm was no doubt evident in it's words.
The boy blinked and scratched the back of his neck, "Sorry, it's just... I need to breathe to survive. But I'll try and do it silently, now."
Yua narrowed her eyes. Was he mocking her? The strange part of it was that he sounded quite genuine. Would other people try to pick a fight over what she'd said? Yua wasn't sure how humans behaved these days.
"...See to it that you do." Yua said and went ahead rather quickly.
The longer she stood listening to the rule of the trial, the more she wanted to crawl out her skin. As if the sun and the wisteria surrounding her wasn't enough, the faint scent of blood from not one but many other potential demon Slayers plagued her senses, making it a lot harder to concentrate. It didn't help that the voice kept saying things like.
That one with dark hair, the one on your left, i bet his blood will taste great.
Won't you corner him later and take a sip? He doesn't seem strong enough to fight you off.
You'll attack him in your demon form, and vanish without a trace before he realizes what happened.
Or... You'd could drink every last drop. No one will know, they'll think he perished at the hands of one of the demons trapped here.
Yua bit her lip and looked away from the boy, the sad part of it was that she actually considered it for a split second.
This is why she kept away from crowds, the voice would tempt her with foolish thoughts and she'd nearly fall for it.
The crowd dispersed suddenly, leaving Yua standing there stunned for a second, she'd gotten distracted and didn't listen to the final part of the strange twins' speech. Cursing at herself, she took off too, already behind of the others.
The voice laughed at her as it normally would in such situations.
Safe from the eyes of other people Yua proceeded to remove her black mask with protected her face from the sun and the eyes of humans. It was already midnight and she hadn't come in contact with a demon. She figured that it was because of her peculiar blood, in her years of life she figured that it's smell was repulsive to demons, she was the opposite of a marechi.
It was a disadvantage rather than an advantage, she needed to test her strength against lesser demons, and how could she do such without even managing to attract one.
It was nearly three in the morning when she came in contact with her first demon. After hours of aimlessly wondering the forest she almost jumped for joy. What stopped her from doing such was the fact that the demon which had taken the form of a human sized scorpion with a human head was feeding on a boy.
It had torn into the stomach of the boy, red organs and blood spilled out of the massive gash. What truly horrified Yua was the boys face, his mouth open in a silent scream, purple veins creeping all over his face, poison Yua concluded, no doubt from from the beasts stinger. The veins made the corpse face nearly unrecognizable, but she could tell that it was the boy who the voice had almost convinced her to kill.
Well fuck, guess the scorpion demon got to him first. The voice chuckled.
The boy didn't stand a chance. While she was wondering the woods without a clue what she should do, someone was getting eaten.
She couldn't save him.
This is what demons do.
They kill and devour.
Without remorse.
Just like her.
The demon turned around catching the sight a trembling person, gender unidentifiable due to her large hooded cloak.
And it laughed.
"Aww!" It yelled, in a frenzy from getting it's first kill in probably years. "Another human has come to me! What a lucky night this is!"
Yua clenched her fist, still staring at the large amount blood which stained the ground.
"Not even going to fight me?" Drawled the demon. "Then I shall make your death less painful."
"You see, this human fought so hard, it got annoying. Even managed to slice off one of my legs. So I stung him just so he'd shut up." It continues. "Hope you won't be the same. You'll make this easy for me, won't you?"
Yua snapped out of her trance and glared at the demon.
"Make this easy for you?" Yua questioned, tilting her head while loosening the knot at her chest which held the leather cloak in pace. She also took off her straw hat. "You're wrong in two areas, beast."
"Oh?" The demon slowly crawled towards her, licking the blood off its chin. "And what's that?"
Yua grabbed a small vile of blood she'd kept in her pocket, she opened it slowly as well careful not to drop it because of her shaking hands and took a small sip.
She could already feel the raw energy building up inside of her.
"First off, I'm not entirely a human. I like to call myself a hybrid." Yua replied, putting cap in place and throwing her cloak and the bottle on the ground beside her.
"And the second is... you'll die when the sun rises."
It probably wasn't a good idea to agitate a demon seemingly stronger than her. But wasn't the worse thing she done in her twenty eight years of living.