Confidence Blooming

“A Demon Hunter?!” Yuki yelped in surprise as he rose quickly only to regret it from the pain that spiked through his chest. He quickly fell back to the thin thatching used as his bedding.

Yumi leapt to his side worried over his injuries. “Yuki?! I thought you said you were feeling better!” She started to look for blood if he might have reopened a wound from the way he responded.

Slowly pushing her hand back, Yuki denied her fears. He shook his head and the pain eased out of his face. Recovery came quickly for him as he looked normal again. “I am, it was just as a surprise and my body wasn’t ready for me to make such movements. You don’t need to worry.”

“…but, Yuki…”

“I’m fine. More importantly, I can’t believe that you went and said that.”

“I couldn’t think of anything else to say and we needed their help. And it provides a good excuse for my abilities that wouldn’t make them think I’m a demon again.”

“But we don’t know enough about this world and what the rules are here. We don’t know what sort of expectations they have.”

Yumi stood up, relieved to see that Yuki no longer seemed to be in pain. The danger had passed. She felt more secure now. “What possible expectations could there be beyond killing demons? And so far there hasn’t been any demon that I can’t handle.”

“So far… There’s always someone stronger, Yumi.”

She smiled back at him confidently. “It’ll be fine, Yuki. I can handle whatever comes. It’s not even real anyway.”

Chapter 393 – Confidence Blooming

Outside the elder’s hut, Yumi watched as the villagers in a rather humorous effort tried to haul off the horns she brought back. ‘I wonder what they’ll do with them? Maybe they’re worth something?’ There had been no plan in what she did after killing the demons. It was merely the easiest thing she found as proof of her achievement, since they weren’t going to just take her word for it. It probably would have been easier for them if they did.

She stepped forward unwilling to watch them keep flailing about in their awkwardness. It wasn’t the sort of thing that any of them expected to be doing when they woke up. That much she could be certain about. Neither did she imagine that she would be pretending to be a Demon Hunter. It felt very out of character for her, but it was something that she could pull off thanks to what Yuki granted her. So while it was a lie that she spread to the villagers, she could at least look like a genuine liar. ‘Not sure if being genuine for a con-artist makes this any better or not… But it’s fake anyway, so I shouldn’t have to worry too much once Phoibe rescues us from this world.’

The elder had every single young male in the village struggling to pull a single horn away. They had managed to tie it up to get a grip and shared several ropes coming off of it. With the power of twenty men they made it only about half of the way out of the village with it and carved quite the trough through the dirt road that ran through their village. ‘I know I’m a bad judge of normalcy, but I didn’t think a demon horn was that heavy.’

Part of the problem was that the horn was larger than a human just in length. And then the circumference around at the base made it impossible to get an arm around it. But that wasn’t the only thing.

Yumi used her powers to levitate the entire pile into the air. This naturally drew everyone’s attention away from the men. Until she acted, her presence remained completely unnoticed. Once they saw everything moving, they stopped what they were doing and turned to Yumi. She hadn’t planned on making such a scene from just helping them. “Where are you taking them?”

“Master Yumi?!” exclaimed the elder, rushing over to her side. “You need not dirty your hands helping us.”

“I’m the one that troubled you by bringing something so unwieldy for you. I should help fix that.” There was definitely a part of her that enjoyed relishing in the payback that she got from all of the cold shoulders she got from everyone. But any of that had already been spent. She had no plans to dwell on it now.

Yumi could see that men pulling their own horn stared at her with slightly different eyes than the rest. It seemed to be a matter of pride for them. They had some face to save, even if it was already fairly meaningless, since they couldn’t compare to her. This much they knew, but they still insisted. So she released the one they hauled to allow them to keep what little remained of their pride as men.

She walked around the elder insisting still on helping them. “Please lead the way.”

“Y-yes…” There was some hesitation still, but he could tell that she had no intention of stopping. He was just going to have to deal with her help.

Stacked up just outside the village, a surprisingly far distance away, Yumi looked back at where they had come. “Are you sure you want them this far away? Someone might try to steal them.” She still didn’t know their value.

“A single thief could not steal them. Nor could a band hope to take them away.”

“Sure, it takes a lot of strength to haul these, but still…”

“It’s the demon’s power as you already know.”

It sounded confusing to Yumi. This world still had plenty of things that she didn’t understand. “I’m self taught. So I have no formalized training.”

“But everyone knows.”

Yumi rubbed the side of her cheek, having to keep her lie going even further. It was starting to feel like she was digging herself a hole rather than finding a tunnel. “I had a very sheltered life up until demons killed everyone I knew. So I’m afraid I’m very new to this whole thing still.”

“That means you’re seeking your own way to join them.”

She tilted her head not sure what he was going on about. “Huh?”

“I’m sorry, it’s not my place to pry into your matters. Still amazing, you’re so powerful and yet…” The elder hesitated to say what he actually meant to say. Yumi picked up easily enough on that. He was fairly transparent with his actions, which made it easier for Yumi. “Simply put, a demon’s power still persists for days after it is slain within its body. What that means is that no normal human can even touch it without being overcome by the effects.”

“Effects? A dead demon can still do things?”

“Yes, a demon’s power is a negative force in our world. It warps and distorts the natural world, acting like a disease.”

“A disease?!” Yumi looked back at the village where she had brought so many demon horns just to rest.

The elder nodded continuing his explanation. “Even the weakest of demons, the oni has the power to sap the strength and life from anything around it.”

“And I brought all of them that I killed into your village! I’m so sorry, I never would have—“

“Short exposure is not enough to cause permanent harm to us, but in such a large quantity we can’t keep it around the village.”

“I can reduce their size and send them far away from here if that would be best.”

“After three days the power will have fully been leached and be completely inert. Then we will be able to break it down for sale. Though with such a large amount of material it will take away while to sell, but you’ve given us quite the fortune.”

Yumi nodded, starting to piece things together from everything that the elder said. What she saw started to make sense now. ‘For a fake world, this is surprisingly deeply crafted in terms of rules. I hadn’t even considered the dead could still have some negative impact on the living. That would make truly powerful demons extremely lethal even dead…’ The notion of such a thing left Yumi to ponder how that managed. She had no doubt that there were more powerful demons than the snake that she fought. ‘How powerful are the other demon hunters?’ Images of a much bigger world began to be conjured up in her mind.

A bit of curiosity welled up in her chest. She wondered what else this world had to offer. Since it was a fantasy it had none of the same limits as the real world. So it could go on far beyond what she was used to experiencing. It was a compelling notion to her. She kind of wanted to see more. ‘I am stuck here in this world until Phoibe gets us out. Maybe after Yuki fully recovers we can see what this world has to offer.’

“Master Yumi, may I ask a question?”

“What is it?”

“Do you possess healing abilities as well?”

“Healing? No, why do you ask?” She gave them an honest look of confusion for such a random question. While she waited for an answer, her mind turned around thoughts. ‘Is that normal for demon hunters? Is that going to out me? Am I going to have to come up with another lie?’

“It’s just that all of your injuries have healed themselves.”

“All my injuries…” Yumi stared down at her arms and checked out her body. Any of the pain that she had before was gone. It wasn’t life threatening even before, just dull spikes poking annoyingly at her in her sides. So she never noticed when it disappeared.

She looked back at the village towards the elder’s hut putting it together quickly enough. ‘Yuki, it was his doing. He didn’t even tell me. I never noticed… Even though he disagrees with the way I’m handling things… Yuki…’

While she stared off in the distance, the elder looked confused as he had been left out of something. “Master Yumi?”

Shaking her head free from her thoughts, she looked back at the elder. “I’m fine. I just took some medicine that I picked up on my journey.”

“I see, I had no idea such medicine existed.”

“The world is a vast and mysterious place.”

“Yes, so it would seem.” The elder turned and motioned the villagers back to their normal work. He began slowly walking back. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you wish, Master Yumi.”

She hurried up alongside the elder. “I really wish you would stop calling me Master. I’m not that important.”

“It’s only right as a Demon Hunter, the least amount of respect we can show is such.”

Yumi sighed, finding their customs tiring and impossible to break. She was just going to have to live with them. “I’m not convincing you otherwise, am I?”

“No.” The old man tilted his head back at Yumi with a smile. “You are truly not like any other Demon Hunter, Master Yumi.”

“How many others have you met?”

“Three.”

“Were they all similar?”

“More or less. Each was different, but not like you.”

“What were they like?” The elder didn’t have a chance to reply when a loud roar pierced the air. Yumi came to an immediate halt as she turned towards the direction of the noise. ‘It came from the forest…’ It was far, but she could see slight movement from the trees. She already had a good idea of what was coming.

The elder turned pale as he seemed to have an idea of what it was behind the roar. All of the other villagers came to a stop rushing to him as though given orders. A heavy and dreadful atmosphere fell over the village instantly. It was as though the roar itself had sucked out any of the happiness that Yumi brought to them.

Yumi could guess well enough to what it was, but as she looked over at the others they seemed to know even more. “Do you know that roar? What demon is it?”

“Yes…it belongs to a powerful and well known demon. We’ve been haunted by its soldiers, the oni you fought. I’ve only heard its roar once before when I was a child, but it’s not something one could ever forget. That is the Demon Tokaromaru, leader of the demons of Kurohana Forest.”

“Tokaromaru…” Yumi stepped forward not instilled with fear like the villagers. ‘I didn’t imagine that I would have another fight so soon and against something much more powerful…’

“Tokaromaru is known as the Reaper among Demon Hunters. Most Demon Hunters that come into these lands are seeking him.”

“They wanted to kill him?”

“No, they seek their own death.”

“Huh? But why? That doesn’t make any sense! Well I’m not a death seeker! It’s only here because of me killing the oni, so I can’t turn my back. I must go!” The elder talked up the demon, but Yumi still had her doubts about the strength of the demon. She knew that she could handle it without trouble like the previous ones. ‘I’ll prove my strength to them!’