Iced

The roar of starved demons shortly plagued the Market District of Sattokotta, the people had already scattered to safety with the authorities as two demon slayers were defending their very lives. Most of the demons couldn't even break the sweat of one demon slayer in particular. Blood spatters painted the walls, and the white blanket of snow, the demons were being slaughtered.

Yukina had just finished swirling her thick blade into the nape of a demon. Blood had already thickened on the scent of her lightly tinted nichirin that the moon reflected in a faint teal shade. The Demon quickly dissipates into ashes as she retracts her blade from it. Her eyes were emotionless, and she had little regard for the lives of the demons she had slaughtered. Several unsettling grunts deprived with desperation followed more of the child demons charging from her left. She swiftly raised her nichirin blade and slashed diagonally to her right; the demon's neck was sliced clean, and the body fell rapidly as it dissipated. The next demon in line received the forefront of her tip, cruising into the weak interior of the demon's flesh, lines of blood zip from it as she flicked her forearm to decapitate it, the blood now splashed into the shape of a snowflake then converging itself to the snow that fell from above. With one more demon about to reach her left shin, she stomped its fragile knee inside, causing the demon to limp forward, stumbling into the freezing earth. The demon twisted its body in order to recover from the blow quickly, but a freezing icicle had already punctured its chest.

"WHA-WHATS HAPPE!" the demon creaks as its chest begins to harden into ice, slowing it to the likeness of paralysis. The ice field veins, freezing the demon in place as Yukina's blade completely obliterates the demon into the snow. Her eyes were still the same, emotionless, as she sheathed her nichirin blade. She displayed superiority, and the demons were inferior. Her white cloak was splattered with lines of red blood from the demons, but she wasn't bothered by it; she let go of some sort of mechanism by her guard.

'Frost Breathing: Fourth Form: Frostbite…..' she swung the steamingly cold wind from her blade.

'The plan has worked well.' claimed Yukina in her thoughts.

"Otani-san!" the vulgar voice of the man Arashi rushed to her.

There were two demons rushing to his right. Noticing this, he shifts his footing to one of the demons launching its talons to claw Arashi, but Arashi rapidly attacks with the blunt force of his sheathe into the nose of the demon, completely tightening its face as it coughs blood, and with another successfully flowing motion, he slashes the following demon's neck with his fiery blade.

Arashi then snaps his blade into the neck of the demon whose face was caved in and pushes the blade, cleaning the neck from the body. Both of the bodies completely dissipate.

With the last two demons handled, Arashi, still holding his nichirin blade, approaches Yukina with cold pants.

Observing the surrounding environment, he quickly assumes that she has handled her situation just fine. 'Expected of someone of her status.' thought Arashi.

Behind Yukina were pools of blood and the frozen bits and pieces of her enemies. Her short cloak flapped softly in the cold air, and the snowy specks melted in her brown hair and dripped from her entire attire. Her boots were scuffed by the muddy earth underneath the snow. Yukina was clean yet vicious to the demons, she looked for the quick and most humiliating death for her enemies, but she knew something that others might not know yet. She trusts her perception more than anything else as of right now.

Arashi had handled about five to four of the child demons. However, Yukina had handled at least fifteen of them at once.

"Well, are most of the villagers in this district well-protected as of now?" Yukina sharply shifted her gaze to Arashi.

"As of now, everyone is safe, and the demons are gunning for us for the most part." Arashi scratches the back of his spiked head in confusion as to why.

"The Demons are deprived, hungry; they will desire a source of food that is much richer than just any other human." Yukina flicks her wrist to wipe off the blood from her thick nichirin blade.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Arashi boldly replied roughly, the cords of his voice staggered.

"You didn't realize?" Yukina tilted her head back and expressed inscrutability along her eyes, "The Demons are deprived and hungry, they are looking for a meal that will empower them quickly, and so we offer them a banquet." Yukina crosses her arms now.

Arashi realizes now why the demons have been focusing on them so much, and he showcases a widening look at the snow that he did think of the possibility since the demons were primarily attacking the two; it was obvious.

"How did you get Haruka-kun to agree to this?" Arashi was almost shocked. Not because of how she got Ketsueki to agree to this idea but to the nature of the plan working as intended. Although Arashi was a vulgar man full of rough edges, he wouldn't resort to such tactics.

"Haruka-sama has the blood of a Marechi, and with these demons not consuming anything for such a long time, they will be looking for blood that is rich and "nutritious" for them to consume. So Jasumin and I were able to coordinate a plan to have us all at different districts with the scent of a potent Marechi." Yukina adjusts her gaze into the blood-splattered snow being enveloped by the next wave of snowflakes.

Arashi appeared disgusted with the term "nutritious" as if they were actually healthy food for the demons, this bothered him greatly. "You've practically devised a plan that sieged the demons here."

'That's almost a sickening strategy, but….do demons really care about how they treat humans at the end of the day.' Arashi refrained from his thoughts.

He couldn't believe that even Jasumin would agree to the idea. However, he was pretty sure that she may have been uncomfortable about the decision she had to make. 'This girl is too clever.' He felt anxious by her presence as she returned her hazel eyes to him.

"Is there a problem…. we are saving lives here." Yukina instantly begins to walk towards where the civilians would be held together in the market district.

Arashi said nothing else and followed her from behind. He understood that this was necessary for the village.

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Yukina and Arashi arrived at a one-entrance wooden market, and it was perhaps the largest and most modern complex in the market district, where at least fifteen government authorities stood on guard. Jasumin exited the grand building at the perfect moment to rendezvous with each other.

"Jasumin-san." Arashi greeted and bowed.

"It seems that the onslaught of demons has been laid to rest for now." Jasumin also returned a bow.

��It's bizarre to think that there were so many demons living in this village." Arashi shook his head.

"With the growing number of victims growing day by day, the number of demons must've surely grown. However, that isn't the case." Jasumin had other thoughts.

Yukina stood with arms behind her back, holding with her hands holding palm to palm. She stared from the direction from whence she and Arashi had just come. She then raised her index finger,

"It is impossible to believe that these were multiple demons," she stated; Jasumin practically nodded.

"It makes sense, demons do not typically work together, and if they were this starved to the point, they could've eaten each other, they would have resorted to cannibalism." Jasumin softly pinched her chin with a new thought.

"Meaning that if they ate each other, they would have been a single force. Instead they chose to be a multitude—"

"That Mother Demon chose to conjure multiple demons for a chance to consume as many humans as possible." Yukina interrupted.

"And thankfully, we had a very potent Marechi-blooded human," Jasumin added wearily.

"She conjured the demons, hmm," Arashi whispered, then he observed Jasumin.

Jasumin appeared to look regretful; Arashi was right. Using and asking Haruka-kun must've been a difficult choice for her, but as a demon slayer, her priority is to save the lives of those innocent. Even with the sacrifice of a fellow slayer, for Arashi it felt dishonorable; it almost sickened him. He held his stomach, and this went against his teachings. He didn't want to sacrifice his companions, and he didn't want to be like Haruka-kun.

"HEY, YOU ALL!" A man shouts from behind the group.

Arashi and Jasumin face the voices, and there is a group of authorities and civilians arriving. The fifteen or so authorities began to rush toward a group of individuals. Injured authorities were being guided by civilians, with some authorities leading through the front and guarding behind. Within that group were Kawamura and Yuno-san, who were also helping the injured authorities.

The two demon slayers who turned rushed toward the group to ask questions. They stomped their way through the snow breaking apart the rebuilt snow holes from civilians of the market district. Reaching the group alongside the authorities that were with them, there was much chatter about their wellness of each other's being.

"You!" It was the specific government authority that Kagero and Utazo encountered,

"You also wear those same outfits, so were the other two in the industrial district!" He panted intense clouds of hot air.

"That's where Utazo and Warau-kun were placed." Jasumin molded into a serious glare now,

"What is the situation over there?" ordered Jasumin.

"There were these monsters, demons attacking us—," the government authority said.

"Kagero-kun and his friend were defending for us to escape!�� Kawamura bursts into the conversation.

"They are bravely helping others!" Yuno added with tears trailing from her eyes.

'Warau and Utazo…' Jasumin's mind eases at the sign that they are alive and fighting.

Arashi continued on to find more answers from the government authority, "Was there any demons that trailed you from behind?" he asked.

"No, no, there weren't any demons that were trying to attack us; those acquaintances of yours kept them at bay." replied the government authority.

"Why are some of you injured?" then asked Arashi, who had noticed the injured officers.

"Because we tried to engage the creatures." The government authority lowered his head in disappointment.

"Keep your guard up, and you may have a chance to prove yourself to these people," Arashi said. The statement felt awkward, though, but his sense of vulgar honor had kicked in, something that didn't correlate or make sense because he would actively be a hypocrite to his own ideals.

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Yukina, who waited a long distance away, guarded the way she and Arashi both came still. The cold winds blew fiercely,

'The mother demon must've not been strong enough to make further demons…. this was really…. futile.'

"This still doesn't explain the many buildings that were being constructed here overnight the other night, however I thought it would make sense that this mother demon can conjure demons from herself, could it also manage to conjure demonic buildings entirely?"

Her curiosity then peaked back to that one demon slayer, Faolan. Someone who she had never known about from the start of the mission, there was something her perception could not put into pieces, it was almost too natural, perhaps she shouldn't worry about it too much, or just keep it in mind, yet the image of his character continued to borough inside of her.

"He and Ketsueki must be facing the progenitor of all these conjourings. However, we need to make sure that these people are safe for a little bit longer," she spoke out her thoughts, the snow again blew fiercely, but it could not tumble this mighty iceberg. The sprinkles of snow continued to fly past her eyes,

"Kagero and Utazo-kun must be pushing ahead to help—,"

"OUUUUUUMPH"

Yukina froze her palms onto the hilt of her nichirin blade, "What's happening?"

There was a powerful presence emanating where the Residential District was. There were gasps of shocks from behind her, meaning that they felt it too.

Yukina knew that they needed to move now, before something terrible happens, she won't let that happen. There was something not according to plan occurring, her fellow slayers.

—"A third party to explain the buildings….. no…. it shouldn't have enough strength to even use more power…a monster.." Yukina's gaze grew dark, a shadowy force infested her heart, her following thoughts sickened her. A vein displayed across her neck showed a sharp level of disgust as she exhaled the burning ice from within her.

Leaving the civilians behind with some of the authorities, the demon slayers were accompanied by some participating government authorities willing to help civilians they find on the way to the residential district. Including the government authority Kagero and Utazo had met.

"We all felt that right?" a question Arashi made particularly for Yukina. Arashi wanted to ensure that she most definitely out of all of them felt that presence as well.

"We have to go now, there might be something terrible happening in the other district." Yukina unsheathed her nichirin blade along with Arashi and Jasumin, she led the way to the Residential district with some of the authorities following behind.