Resumed Harsh Life

It was night and they were still recovering. So Yumi's call to action sort of fell a little flat on delivery. They had to wait. Sleep and rest came first before anything else. Yumi felt better, though only her body. At the moment, that was all she could really ask for.

At the dawn of the morning, Yumi awoke to the sun crawling over the open lands that she created. It gave her the first real sign of what the Capital looked like after the fight. The sight of destruction made it seem a miracle that Yuki managed to even find any sort of evidence of their friends. She would have just assumed that they escaped, since she had no doubt that they would have been able to survive. But reality here wasn’t what she hoped for.

The sight of the Capital made for a painful reminder of that reality. She found herself staring into the distance at it, which her mind pondered the possibility of Yuki being wrong. He used his powers to locate them, so he was thorough. Yet maybe he had missed a search method. But he did find evidence of them. The only way for that to be wrong would be for him to have created evidence subconsciously for him to find. Such a possibility seemed unlikely to happen.

No, Yumi had to accept what the devastation presented. Her friends were dead in an unknown state within this virtual world. It did at least give her more drive to see the end and as soon as possible. She had no idea if time was running out for them, but she didn’t want to make assumptions to the contrary.

Once Yuki was awake they concluded their small meal and stared out to the Capital once more. “What about the citizens and rebuilding?”

“While you were out, a messenger from the Council came. They’re heading south. With the majority of the demons dead now, Japan is mostly theirs again. So they’re going to try to reunite the halves.”

“What about the Hunters?”

“Most of them died in the defense of the Capital with that meteor attack. There’s not enough of them to be a threat, but enough to protect them as they were meant to do.”

“So everything’s just fixed? Like that?” It felt a little incredulous to even think it would just be so simple. Reality told her nothing was ever so simple and easy. When things seemed like they were fixed, there was something that they were forgetting. The problems never ended, new ones just surfaced because of things being fixed.

Yuki lifted up his pack made from his power. They had a new change of clothes with something more understated than the more flamboyant kimonos that they received from the Lord. Keeping attention away from them was more important now. “I wouldn’t say fixed. The major issues with the demons and Hunters are resolved. But the fallout from that is going to persist for a while. Since we don’t know how people might react, keeping our identities secret will be for the best.”

She nodded to him bringing her pack along with her as they started to walk away from their camp site. “Do you think any of the regular people even know us by name let alone appearance?”

“By appearance no, but you are one of the strongest people in the world now with the demons gone. And with there being so few Hunters, reputation alone will make people assume that you’re the one from the rumors.”

“I guess that’s probably true.” She pulled the hood forward a little more letting the shadows hang over her face. They probably looked even more questionable going around fully cloaked hiding their identity. But if pressed, their appearance meant very little. Yuki didn’t seem to be so cautious keeping the hood drawn back. Yumi marched along his side to wherever it was that they could go.

Chapter 466 – Resumed Harsh Life

The path of Masa had a little more help for them than last time. Yuki knew what direction that she left in and she had this force of nature sort of presence. So she was less about trying to hide her tracks or take long ways to get where she wants. She just took the quickest path and ignored whatever obstacles that came into her sights.

That made it easier for Yuki to use his power to track her. Though even that eventually lost the path as they crossed into harder terrain where things were destroyed. The wasteland that they had to cross didn’t give them much to go with in following Masa. They only had a direction to go by and that was all that they could follow.

In the end, they had to take a rest as Yuki couldn’t keep up the tracking with his powers. He tried to keep it as passive as possible to watch out for any hints of Masa even in their empty dead lands, but it wasn’t enough. He tired out, sitting down to rest.

Yumi took to preparing the meal with him in no shape to do anything. Everything that he prepared for the trip came in handy. She didn’t have to rely on him to create things, since he already did so to stock them. He could just rest without worry.

While things cooked over the fire, she glanced over at Yuki. He looked surprisingly pale for the little amount of work that he did. ‘He seems more out of it than I usually see him…’ Her hearing could pick up on his shortness of breath and pounding heart, things that he clearly tried to keep hidden from her. Down playing it for her benefit and going to keep pushing himself for her sake. ‘Why is he more tired than normal?’

After their meal, Yumi started to practice her breathing and exercises that Saki tried to teach her. Though it wasn’t nearly as refined as what Saki showed her. She only had a week to learn it and the focus was more on practical combat skills rather than maintenance.

Yuki turned his head up to see Yumi moving around the camp going from different stances practicing her breathing. “Saki taught you that?”

Not breaking from the rhythm that she started to find, she tried to answer him while paying attention to her body. “Yes…though this is all that I can remember.”

He stood up with a subtle groan that he suppressed the best that he could. Yuki walked over to stand next to her, matching her stance. Then he slowly transitioned over into the next in the routine. Yumi watched him, feeling the familiarity that Saki had shown her. She matched his movements restraining all of her urges to move too quickly. Control was the key that Saki pressed into her about it, not the speed.

A small smile came over her lips as she continued tracking with Yuki. They remained the same quarter meter distance apart close enough to follow and guide, but still far away. She found her eyes watching him a little too closely breaking her rhythm that she had found. Slipping up, she stumbled forward trying to regain her balance.

Yuki patiently stopped and then waited for her. He guided her back into the pace of their martial dance. All of the pain and sorrow that she felt started to drip away. The world stripped from her leaving only the two of them in concert together.

The night faded away into morning for their trek to resume. A distance that they covered quickly during the fight she had with Hokuren now took well more than a day to cross at Yuki’s pace. With their packs up and ready to start, Yumi stopped Yuki before he activated his powers. “Let’s just walk.”

“Yumi? We have to find Masa.”

“We will, but there are other things. I was thinking about it while I was practicing last night. I’m still weaker than her and if she forces it I won’t be able to stop her in a fight.”

“What are you wanting to do?”

“At night before we sleep, I want you to train me.”

“I don’t have the speed to keep up with you.”

“Just make some sort of clone that I can fight. I need to keep improving. So save your power for training me. If it takes a little longer to find Masa it’s fine.” Yumi was being honest about it, but it didn’t go without an ulterior motive as well. ‘Hopefully he doesn’t realize why…’

The walk out of the wastelands and back into nature gave them a welcome relief. They avoided the giant miasma clouds that started to spread out over the land caused by the Demon Lords. An early sign of what was to come before things could start to recover. Yumi remembered that the village head had said that it took several days for the demonic energy to leach out. However, she wondered if it would be different with Demon Lords. They had significantly more power than most demons, the potent power that they possessed would have a significantly worse effect on the environment.

It was something that she could only hope to ignore. She had already asked Yuki to do something about it, but he refused. The death of the Demon Lords had to be proof for everyone else and if he erased them it would only raise more questions that broke with their natural laws. They had to accept the consequences of what it meant, whatever it would be.

Arriving in a village gave Yuki some time to rest while Yumi went around to speak with anyone. It took a little bit to find someone that was willing to talk to her. They were all busy trying to maintain their daily life. “Sir, I’m looking for someone and they might have passed through here. Myself and my companion are servants and I’m sad to say we’ve been separated from our mistress. She carries a katana at her side and she was wearing a simple white and blue hakama.”

“Your mistress sounds like a warrior.”

“She is very strong. She’s been trained since a young age to protect our town as the Hunters were too far away.”

“Sounds like you are more fortunate than others.”

“Yes, I thank the gods everyday for being able to serve her.” Yumi laid it on a little thick, though the middle aged villager didn’t seem to take notice of her over acting. It was at least better than her pretending to be a Demon Hunter again. “My mistress has a noble heart that wishes to protect everyone that she can. She would have been easily spotted if she came through.”

“Afraid there hasn’t been anyone like that. Ever since the demon army was wiped out along with the Demon Lords things have been quiet. The only thing we fear now is the miasma that we’ve seen spreading over the mountains.”

“Yes, that was very terrifying. So you haven’t heard anything about my mistress?”

“No, nothing miss.”

“Thank you, sir.” She bowed and turned away to return to Yuki. The results were about what she expected to happen, but it was still disappointing. This wasn’t the first time that they tried to hunt down Masa chasing rumors. Though with so many demons gone, it seemed like it was going to be more difficult to find rumors of a demon slayer.

Yumi sat down next to Yuki with a bit of a sigh. “No luck,” he deduced from her reaction.

“Nope. They haven’t seen her. Though this is only our first try. So it’s not that surprising. Once we’re out of sight, I’ll fly up to see where the next village is that we can head to.” She looked back at the mountains seeing far beyond them the eerie haze that the village spoke of. This village was on the frontline of what might be a coming disaster. It at least didn’t seem to be moving quickly. So they would be able to escape in time, but their homes would be gone until it passed.

She pushed around her pack to get it back into position. “You need more time to rest?”

“No, I’m good. Since I’m not mentally fatigued, my body can keep up better.” Yuki stood up showing his sign that he was ready to resume their search for the mysterious Masa.

Near the edge of the village before they fully made it clear of the last house, Yumi noticed that someone was following them. She kept walking, not changing her pace to alert them. But her ears easily picked up the footsteps, though they tried to hide it themselves. ‘They’re skilled with the way they're trying to move silently…but I can hear the subtle scraps against the ground.’

She kept them going out of the village to see if they followed. If they stopped, then it was someone from the village that felt a little insecure about strangers. And she could ward off her paranoia. However, they continued even out of the village beyond. Someone stalked them with intent. ‘Who is it? The village didn’t know about me or even expect me. Who would want to follow me?’

Once they fully put the village behind them, Yumi glanced around to see what sort of environment that she had to work with against whoever followed them. “We’re being followed,” she warned Yuki.

Not reacting, he kept up the walk the same as her. “Ideas of who?”

“None, but they’re getting closer.”

“I’ll make a projection of you, slip away and get our tail.” As they continued their walk, ripples came out of Yuki’s feet. Yumi matched the timing of his powers with ease leaving a flawless illusion behind as she disappeared.

Appearing behind their target, Yumi grabbed their shoulder, but then immediately recognized them the moment that she got a clear look of them. “You survived, Manekamaru…” she said with a little bit of a disappointment in her voice, not really wanting to see this demon again.