Locked Hunter

Yumi immediately went on guard, her eyes focused on their movements. ‘They actually came into demon control lands just to find me!’ She scanned the exits again trying to see if there were any openings. Like what Saki taught her, she could see hints of what she talked about. The experience of fighting and killing, the disguise and feints. They were ready for her.

Only one question remained for her, could they actually stop her?

Did they have the power to do it?

Chapter 425 – Locked Hunter

Staring at the leader, she refrained from taking action. Being in a town gave her pause to do anything dramatic. ‘They’re using the town against me, aren’t they?’ Yumi glanced around the road past her pursuers. ‘I’d feel better if Saki or anyone was nearby.’

Her mind kept trying to find out. She had several ideas for an escape, but it came down to the biggest uncertainty that she had. ‘Manekamaru said all of the humans are weaker than they used to be. Masa seems an exception to that. If they’re that weak, but still battle demons, they must have other ways of doing that. They wouldn’t knowingly face down someone that they couldn’t beat.’ It worried her about what sort of tricks that they had for fighting demons. She knew nothing about how the real Demon Hunters fought.

Any sort of speculation that she had previously came from her ideas dreamed up from media. She imagined them being like herself or the demons, possessing special abilities or powers to battle the demons.

“I didn’t know saving people was a crime,” she replied finally, starting to stall. Yumi just needed one of her friends to find her to give her the opening that she needed.

“Falsely claimed to be a Demon Hunter is however.”

‘He’s not really taking the bait. I’m not going to be able to delay this for long.’ She had to keep things going though for as long as possible. Getting captured at this point would only waste her time. “Do you even have proof of your claim? Not to mention, I’m supposed to just take the word of a stranger that they’re an actual Demon Hunter?”

“You would dare to mock our sacred Order?” Yumi kept her grin hidden, seeing that touched a nerve with him. Poking into the man’s pride worked well in her favor. But she had to keep it up.

“I’ll leave right now since you have nothing but words.”

Her stalling however ended as she forced the man to show his hand before he wanted. Pulling out his hand from under his cloak, the scarred man opened his palm flat to Yumi. “I’ve got proof spoken directly from you.”

“What?!” Yumi leaned back a bit, caught off guard by the man. She was only trying to stall him, she didn’t expect for him to show evidence. All she thought that they had on her was rumors. ‘What did they find?’

Light formed in the man’s hand becoming an orb of semi-transparent energy. Yumi had yet to see anything like it in this world. She had no idea what it did. “Are you the Demon Hunter?” a voice asked.

Yumi immediately recognized the question. ‘The boy from earlier!’

“There’s no Demon Hunters out here.”

“But you’re one.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because you kill demons!”

She stared over at the man brimming with confidence. The entire conversation she had with the boy was recorded. Her hands clenched up. ‘They used that boy to get a confession out of me! Of all of the low things to sink to…’

“I kill demons? Did someone tell you that?”

“You do, don’t you?”

“I do.”

The man closed his hand and returned it back under his cloak. “That’s all the proof we need.”

A bit of relief came out of Yumi. She couldn’t remember the exact phrasing of the conversation. She just remembered letting the boy know that she did what he believed her to do. “All you’ve got is proof of me saying I kill demons, not claiming to be a Demon Hunter, which I’m not. And unless you’ve got a problem with that, you might want to take it up with the few bounty hunters that kill demons too.”

He no longer seemed willing to entertain Yumi. A look from his eyes seemed to be the signal for his men to start moving in on her. “Killing bounties isn’t the same as slaughtering countless demons. There is an order to this world and those that refuse to follow it will be punished.”

“And letting innocent humans live in fear of death, torture and worse? I’m content with the side of order I’m on.” Suddenly, there were mumblings from the two cloaked figures that stalked her. Yumi went fully into a defensive stance prepared for whatever attack they were chanting. ‘It can’t be too powerful, I doubt they want any attention. I’ll be able to break it and escape in the shock.’

However, rather than an attack, gold chains leapt out of the ground all around her. They wrapped quickly around her legs and arms pinning stakes into the earth. More chains wrapped around her waist and neck as they pulled her towards the ground. Yumi fought against the power with all her strength. ‘These are more powerful than they look… I don’t know if I can break these…’

“Your strength is impressive, but these can restrain even a Lord class demon. You will be coming with us.”

“Dammit…” Yumi dropped to one knee unable to keep her legs from buckling under the power.

Across the town, Saki and Seiji met back up, returning to the meet up. “Anything?”

“Just the same shit we’ve already heard. Slayings in the east. She moves quickly.”

“Yeah, we might never catch up to her.” They passed by a few houses making it back to the center. Saki sat down against the well waiting for the others to return. “Though I think there might be something more going on.”

Seiji stood next to her watching the road for their friends. “The swordswoman? She does feel off.”

“If we assume the world has a purpose to Yumi, she might be it. Though for all we know that purpose is to kill Yumi.”

“We sure as hell can’t stop her if it comes to that. Other than Nerine or Yuki.”

“Yes and I’m not sure that’ll work. They do control this world probably. We may be doing something futile.”

Seiji crossed his arms, not happy with the suggestion. “We’ll make this shit work somehow. This isn’t the first time the odds were against us.”

“Yes, but this is the first time someone literally controls those odds.”

“Yeah, but we—“ A clearly suspicious looking figure appeared in the middle of the street. Seiji didn’t need them to tell him that as they started to stare at him. His battle sense told him enough. Looking over at Saki to give her the warning, he saw that she already went on alert. “Think it’s another demon?”

Tilting her head back in the other direction of the road, Saki found another similarly appearing individual. “Maybe, but I doubt it. They haven’t been ones for subtlety.”

“So who’d you think we pissed off to get this attention?”

“Likely the Association.”

“How the hell did they manage to get inside?”

“It’s not really going to be the matter right now…”

Appearing out of the shadows a third figure stepped out walking towards Saki. They walked up to Saki keeping cloaked, while stared down at her. “Saki Furukawa, how surprising to find you out here. I don’t believe bounties are put on demons in the West.”

Her eyes narrowed immediately as they knew more about her than she expected. Then it all clicked for her as she recognized the shadowy voice. “Shuichi Raikatuji, should have known the Association would send you.”

Seiji stepped next to Saki trying to figure out what was going on. “Someone you know, Saki?”

“Unfortunately. We had run-ins when I first arrived.”

“Order and laws are there to protect the citizens.”

“Except for when it allows you to shun innocent lives.”

“Everything we do is an absolute necessity for peace. Sacrifice is needed in times like this.”

“You’re just interested in maintaining your power, peace and sacrifice are just gold painted shit, it’s still shit.”

It surprised Seiji how much the man seemed to get under her skin. Seeing Saki so emotional was a rare sight. ‘What sort of history do they have? What happened before we met?’ However, there was no room to ask questions. Saki threw barbed words out of character for her while the man kept an oily nature almost completely unaffected by her assault.

Eventually, in what was definitely the most hostile way to catch up, Saki crossed her arms and stepped straight into his personal space nearly inside his cloak. It was enough to get the attention of the two with him, though Shuichi motioned them down. “You’re not here to rub your self-righteous ego in my face, so what do you want?”

“I would have thought you would have figured it out. I’m working, like in all of our encounters.”

“You have such an admirable work ethic. No, why is your stench in my nose today?”

Finally removing the hood revealing the countless scars on his face, he looked over at the figure to his left. “I’ve come to request that you join me in my return to the Capital.” He motioned with an open hand in the direction of the cloaked figure and out of the town. “Now I know you’ll have plenty of well chosen words for me. But bounty hunting is illegal in the West. But you already know that. So I’ll make it even easier for you. I’ve got that lying Demon Hunter in custody already as well as her lover. And if you’re considering your other two traveling companions, the man and woman are also in our hands as well. They came along quietly, as I imagine you will too.” A dark smirk came over his lips as he towered over Saki with his presence and arrogance. He held every card against her.

‘Dammit…he’s got everyone as a hostage. I’ve heard how skilled he is at capturing… I’m not sure I could break them free that easily. Worse, Yuki just gave himself up.’ She knew well enough from his powers, that he could have easily defeated them all. And they didn’t know that they would need to knock him out. Which only left her with one conclusion. ‘He must be doing this because he’s either got a plan or retaining his support role in leaving things up to Yumi… I can’t imagine that she’s going to be willing to sit this out.’

Regardless of the future though, Saki saw she had no options at the moment. She could only follow along with things as they progressed. It was just hard to swallow knowing that it was Shuichi that tracked them down. ‘At worst, we can break out later with Yuki’s power if needed. Though I doubt Yumi will be happy about losing any trace of Masa.’ Lowering her arms to her said, she relinquished her defense. “Fine, since you were so gracious to send me an invitation.”

“Good. I’ll be sure to give you the best accommodations.”