Chapter 7: The Village

It's a beautiful day….

Birds aren't singing….the sun is shining.

On days like these, demons like you…

Should be burning in pain.

MC POV

"Huh." I mumbled, my voice muffled due to falling down to the snowy ground. It seems like I stumbled because I was daydreaming and forgot to watch my steps.

'I tripped on a branch that is hidden by the snow.' I thought briefly as I stared at the cause of my fall while standing, dusting the snows off of myself and picking up my goods that fell before looking down and giving the branch a little kick.

"Stupid branch." I mutter softly. You can't blame me for daydreaming, you'll do it too if it means distracting you from your potential doom.

I'd raised my eyes to the sky and give the damn sun a glare. But then it'll backfire nicely and I'll probably get my eyes burned and myself blinded.

But then again…I'm an idiot.

"ARGH!!!" I yelled in pain. My eyes was burning, like, literally scorched.

I lowered my head as I fell on my knees but not before flipping the damn sun.

My hands were covering my eyes….Or what's left of it anyways. My luggage fell once more and the bear mask fell to my side cause I removed it before looking at the sun through the gaps of my cloth mask.

I can hear shouts laded with concern and hurried footsteps approaching me, seems like they're running towards me.

I kept crocking my body back and forth as I cover my eyes in pain while muttering to myself in order to ease the pain.

"1...2...3...4…" No, I'm not playing hide and seek, I'm counting how many seconds it'll took for me to heal myself if I got damaged by the sun. An experimentation of sorts if you will.

I just hope that I'll heal tho. Would be pretty stupid and crappy if I got blinded due to my reckless action.

The footsteps and voices already reached near me while I was thinking to myself. Seems like they're surrounding me in a semi-circle with me in the center.

"R-Ryu-san? w-what's wrong?", "What happened Ryu-san?", "Are you…", "okay Ryu-san?", "*grunt* can you go on? Do you need to rest?"

(Author-Can you guess who's who from their dialogues?)

With my left hand still covering my eyes, I waved my right hand in front of them to indicate that I'm fine.

I didn't say anything because I was still counting. That's right folks, I was thinking while counting at the same time, I can multitask, that's how cool I am.

"…13…14…15…" And that's a wrap, I can already feel my new eyes. I then slowly removed my eyes and squinted. Seems like it's still not used to seeing things right now, brain, do your work.

My eyes then relaxed a few moments later. Seems like it finally adjusted to seeing things.

It's kinda like when you're staring at the curtains in your dark room and getting comfy in the dark…before your crappy siblings yank the curtains wide open and you got hit by the sunlight.

Pain, pure pain. That must've been how Dracula felt when he got hit by the sun.

I shook my head as I removed the distracting thoughts from my mind before slowly standing up and brushing my knees before I lifted my gaze and look at all of them.

'Kibo looks nervous and anxious, Gudo looks worried, the twins seems likes a mixture between curious and concerned while Arai was stoic but his eyebrows was slightly furrowed from what I can see.'

I flashed them all a small smile, "Don't worry about it, I just stared at the sun for too long and got my eyes hurt a lil bit."

They all look like they don't believe me at all. Arai just nodded his and grunted before turning around and continued walking, the rest followed him after giving me a final glance.

I sigh before bending forward to pick my mask before putting it on and lifting my bags of meats once more. 'That's enough experimentation for now I suppose, for now, onwards to the village.' I then followed after them all.

Kimetsu~

We walked for a long long time, the sun is already on top of our heads which means its noontime already. Good thing it's getting cloudy as the clouds started to cover the sun.

Suddenly Arai stopped walking and just stood in his place. The other following his actions a moment later. They all just stood there and stared straight ahead of them.

I also stopped moving and looked at what they were looking at and I saw it.

The village.

"Looks like we've reached our village Ryu-kun" I glance at the source of the voice and saw Arai looking at me with a small smile etched on his face.

"Welcome, to our village." The others look back at me and gave me some smiles too. Even Kibo looks less anxious and nervous compared to before.

"Now come along, we're already near it, there's no point in standing here all day." Arai turns around and starts walking to the village, albeit at a faster pace. The others follow after him as well and it seems like they're all excited to be back home.

I chase after them while thinking, 'Home huh? I wonder if I can have something like that this time…the old world…I did't really found where I truly belong…even in the family it felt like I was an outsider.'

Our walk to the town didn't take a lot of time and we reached the village entrance a few minutes later.

The entrance was guarded by 2 man, one of them looks like a young adult and the other one looks like a middle-age man, they were wearing fur coats and holding spears of sort.

"Halt!" The younger one shouted at us as he moves his spear but the other guard held his shoulder and gave him a shake of his head. "It's okay, they're one of us and went out hunting yesterday."

The younger guard then nods his and went back to his previous posture. Standing straight with spears on their side, the classic guard stance but not before glancing at my baggage.

Arai and the others just nodded to the guards, they returned the nods back. Arai pointed at me over his shoulders with his thumb, "He's one of us, helped us hunt and we let him tag along with us, I vouch for him."

The older guard glance at me and my luggage before giving me a smile and a small nod which I returned. He then look back at Arai and nod his head, "Of course, as long as he doesn't cause any trouble he can come inside the village."

Arai gave a grunt of confirmation and start walking into the village and we followed after him.

I didn't miss the growls coming from both of the guard's stomach tho what with my super hearing and all that.

I was at the rear end of the group. I look to the left, I see rows of houses, seems like a classic japanese house with sliding doors and with thatched roofs albeit some of the houses seems a tad dilapidated. I turn my head to the right and saw the same thing.

But more than that, there's few people walking outside the streets but most of them seem like they haven't eaten for days and look quite hungry. That and with how they kept mumbling under their breath, 'so hungry', 'need food'.

This village is bigger than the village where I met that old lady. But its state is probably the worst I have seen so far after reincarnating into this world.

'It kinda feels like a ghost town. What with the rundown houses and few people out and about with the ones outside looking famished and hungry. Pair it with the snow and cloudy weather and voila, you get a classic horror story setup.'

I didn't pay attention in front of me and bump into someone. I step back not because I was weak but it's more on my instinctive movements. "Sorry" I said before looking at who I bumped into.

I saw Gudo laying flat on the ground moaning in pain while the twins were anxiously trying to help him stand up. Arai was looking at me stoically and Kibo was, well, being Kibo.

Gudo finally stood up with the help from twins before the two of them look at me with curiosity and a splash of annoyance.

I grin sheepishly, "Heh, sorry bout that Gudo-san, I wasn't paying attention. Was taking in the view of the village."

He turns around and gave me a pained smile, "I-Its fine Ryu-san."

Before we can continue our conversation, I heard a cough and look at the source, it seems like Arai wanted our attention, wonder what could it be?

After he got our attention he starts speaking, "Pay more attention while walking next time, let's move on, you can take in the sights later." He then turns around and starts walking as we follow him once more.

A few minutes later and after a few turns here and there, we reach a house that looks relatively better than most of the houses that I saw near the entrance of the village.

"Well Arai-san, best I go back home with my sons first, my wife and the kids must be worried." Kibo said to Arai which he just replied with a nod.

Kibo then turns around, looks at me and give me a small smile, "Ryu-san, we'll meet again later." He then swiftly turns around, "Let's go boys" to which the twins nod their heads before waving at us and walks away with their father to the house on our left.

'So they're just next to Arai's house.'

I then suddenly felt a hand on my shoulders. "Let's go Ryu-san, I'll introduce you to my family." Gudo was smiling brightly with his right hand on my shoulder. Arai just grunts before walking into the house.

Gudo then let go of my shoulder and follows behind his father while I followed a few steps behind him.

'Wonder what they'll say if they saw all this meat?' I wonder in my head before stopping as I can see Arai standing on the door of the house before knocking on it and shouting that he's back, wow, talk about a loud voice. He then retreats a few steps back and….opens his arms wide?

Then I heard the pitter patter of footsteps before the door slid open with a loud slam. I then saw a figure jumping into Arai's wide open arms.

A squeal then followed, "Husband!!!Thank the Gods that you're back safe and sound! I'm so happy!!!Ahahahaha!"

I walk over to Gudo's side and saw his exasperated look. He seems like he's used to this. He notice me staring at him so he looks at me with a helpless smile, "That's my mother, Hoemi. She's very energetic and full of energy…you'll get used to it, I just hope you won't resent her for it." He then sports a worried look on that last part.

I just smiled at him, "Don't worry, I won't hate someone for something like that." That seem to ease him a lil bit, I then hear footsteps running towards us.

"Oh my!!! Gudo!? What happened to you!?" That's what heard before I saw something slam Gudo into a hug.

I blink and saw that it's actually Arai's wife, Hoemi hugging her son before letting him go with a worried expression on her face as she stares at the wound on her son's left arm.

'Well, at least she has the common sense to not hug her son in a bear hug and instead avoided the left arm when she hugged him.'

I then saw her open her mouth, I bet she wanted to go on 'nagging mode' I swear all women in general have that mode where they just drone on and on about something. But maybe she saw me from the corner of her eyes cause she stopped whatever it was she wanted to say and turned to me instead, shit.

I then saw her profile. She was of a shorter height than me, maybe around 160-162 cm or something. She was wearing a pink kimono with flower patterns and had a red-brownish fur coat on top of it. Her hair was black colored and tied up into a bun. Her eye color was the same as her hair.

I saw her raise her hands before clapping them once, loudly. I jolted once outta instinct and blink before looking back at her and saw her smiling brightly….too brightly, my goodness.

"Hello there! You're a new face, did you just arrive to our humble village?" She then stop for a bit before looking back at my bag. "That's a large baggage you're carrying" She then glared at her husband, "Why didn't you help the poor boy carry some of his stuffs? They look very heavy!"

I cut her off, "Its okay miss, they're not that heavy. Besides, they offered to help me with it but I refused so the fault all lies on me."

She then smiled softly at me, "Well, alright then. At least they offered their help." She then turns back to Gudo.

"Now then young man, let's go inside and let me look at your wound and then we'll decide if we should bring you to the old healer or just put some our herbs on it allright? Come along now." She then walks into the house with Gudo trailing behind her.

She stops for a moment and glance at me once more, "Also, don't call me miss, my name is Hoemi okay? Now how about you come inside and make yourself at home? Would be quite rude of me to not let you in after you come all the way here." She then turns around once more and resumes her stride into the house.

Gudo gave me an embarrassed smile and hurriedly walk after her mother. Arai was just standing near the entrance and nods at me. "Come in Ryu-kun. Just leave the baggage outside for a bit."

I nodded before walking to the entrance, I then put down the goods and lean it against the wall entering the house via the sliding door. I found myself in a small room with a door on the left and right side of the room respectively.

This room has some baskets probably from bamboo or sumthin, some straw hats on top of the baskets, some fur coats hanging on the wall with one of them slightly crimson on its left side and then the weapons that Arai had with him was neatly leaning against the wall near the hanging coats.

I can hear some voices coming from the left side of the room so I went towards the left door and slid it open. The voices became even more louder.

"Big bro! This is not a laughing matter! You could've died!" Stern voice check.

"Ne,ne, big bro are you okay? will you die?" Worried curious voice check.

"How big was it!? What color was it!? Did you guys kill it!?" Excited hyper voice check.

"I'm hungry, did you guys brought some meat back home?" Pleading pitiful voice check.

I mentally check all those voices with their own characteristics and focus at was in the room.

In the middle of the room was a fireplace like in the hunter's hut, a fire was burning and near it were Gudo sitting wryly.

Couldn't blame him for it tho, he was being surrounded by 4 menace after all and as i stood there, 5 pairs of eyes look at me, a pair had pity and a certain mischief in them while the other 4 pairs had curiousity and excitement in them.

That's when I let out a groan involuntarily.

'Great, just my luck, children'