Travels

The next night Makomo and Susamaru could be seen walking downstairs before the moon could fully come out. When they got down they saw their master was already down laying on the couch.

"You two ready to go?" Shin asked.

They nodded their heads. Seeing this, he stood from his spot and left the house with them following behind.

They would be gone for the next couple of days to handle some things, mostly it was just a trip the two wanted to go on and what caught his interest.

Last night Susamaru decided to tell one of her stories of how she and Yahaba had been to a lot of places. 

To Shin it seemed as if she missed the guy a little even if she was always having fun. 

He thought back to last night after his and Makomo's claws were upgraded.

***

Makomo was chasing Susamaru around the room after the temari demon called her something called a loli. Shin and Makomo didn't know what she meant until she explained it.

Shin was in a corner watching the two's antics while thinking over what Susamaru had explained to them. 'Could she be considered a loli?'

He took a glance at the short demon chasing Susamaru. He didn't know what to describe her, she was short but other than her chest her other assets made up for it over the years.

He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts. 'Why am I even thinking about this?'

Susamaru was finally caught and beaten by Makomo. Once the injuries Makomo gave her had fully healed she asked a question. "You guys want to hear about this one place me and Yahaba went to?"

Makomo seemed interested and Shin only nodded his head with his same ol' expressionless look.

"Well me and Yahaba were sent out by 'that man' to kill a woman that messed up. Yahaba was a really good tracker! We found most of our targets thanks to him and it didn't take long for us to find this one either, but weirdly enough we were led to some spooky looking mountain that screamed 'stay away or die!'" Susamaru made movements with her hands to demonstrate how everything went.

"I was about to head in but Yahaba tried stopping me, like I said before nobody ever put him in charge! I walked in without taking another look back, heh." Susamaru lightly chuckled towards the end.

Her face became slightly uneasy after a moment. "I explored the mountain for a bit and it was really unnerving even for a strong demon like me. I kept hearing yelling and a crying voice begging for mercy. 'I'm sorry son, I promise I'll be a better mother!'" Susamaru mimicked the voice she had heard and visibly shivered while doing so.

"The person's scream was so loud that Yahaba heard it from outside the forest. Don't get me started on the amount of spiders that were around.."

"That sounds more like a horror story than anything else." Makomo voiced.

"I never said it was a good story you l- amazing powerful demon!" Susamaru was about to call Makomo the 'L' word but one good glare from her made the temari demon reconsider.

"What do you think about this master?" Makomo turned towards Shin, she wanted to know his opinion before doing anything.

Shin thought for a moment and nodded his head. "It's demons of course, I wonder why one is calling the other son, demon's don't usually group up unless it's a special case."

"Do you want to check it out?" Makomo asked.

"It would be a lie if I said I wasn't interested. Susamaru do you remember where this mountain is?" He said.

"Mn. I believe so, Yahaba had told me the name when we arrived, it was Matarumo? No, Ratasumo!" 

Makomo stared blankly at the girl once she recognized the name Susamaru was referring to. "Natagumo, it's Natagumo Susamaru."

"Right!" Susamaru playfully yelled.

Shin made sure he would remember Susamaru trying to remember the mountain's name. She was quite cute at that moment.

"Alright, we'll head out tomorrow night, remember to bring your umbrella or you'll be stuck." He stood up and walked off to his room.

***

So now they were running towards the horror mountain Natagumo. Before they left Shin found a demon who 'volunteered' to test out the umbrellas they brought back from Asakusa for them.

Surprisingly the demon managed to survive. Still, it wasn't perfect as the demon had to change the angle every now and then to fight for his life.

It took them four nights to reach the mountain due to the two girls exploring new places that they came by during the night. Susamaru continued calling Makomo the now forbidden word and dashing away.

They sometimes ran through the day but not much. 

Even though it was confirmed that they would be fine as long as they had the umbrellas blocking the sun, It didn't prevent them from feeling uneasy when all it took was a single mistake to turn to ash.

On the first night they ran and ate people from the towns they came by. Some homes may have 'mysteriously' gotten destroyed during the time thanks to the destructive Susamaru.

During the second night the girls beat the hell out of a demon for trying to scare them. He ended up like the last one who tried that.

The third night Shin decided to fight the girls so they'd get used to their new strength. 

He fought Makomo first without any breathing styles. She was extremely quick and agile and would switch up from her sword to her claws from time to time, eventually, she was defeated due to Shin breaking her guard when she tried blocking.

Next was Susamaru. She wasn't as fast as Makomo but she was quick nonetheless. She would throw her temari at him with so much strength that it would tear up some of the earth as it traveled.

Whenever Shin got within her range she would throw out swift jabs and jump back.

Her footwork wasn't as good as it should've been, he was a swordsman but he still learned some martial arts from his relative though they weren't much since he preferred the sword as well.

He decided to try something Makomo was doing earlier. He fainted a sword swing to her neck, she quickly prepared to block it but the attack she waited for never came, instead, her heart dropped when she felt something sharp poking her side.

When she checked what was there she saw Shin's sword. Susamaru promised herself she wouldn't fall for something like that again.

Shin decided to make them fight each other which they agreed to, he wanted to see who would come out on top. Makomo was stronger yet Susamaru had more experience as a demon compared to her.

When the fight began, Makomo dashed towards Susamaru. She took a deep breath and blood colored water shot out from her sword.

She began to swing and bend her sword in a winding motion while dancing towards Susamaru in a flowing pattern.

This was a stronger version of the form Tanjiro used when he sliced Susamaru's arms off.

Susamaru suddenly moved in a flowing motion along with Makomo, it wasn't perfect yet she somehow managed to dodge the attacks.

Susamaru threw a punch at Makomo but the girl seemed to have vanished when her fist was about to land.

Makomo appeared behind Susamaru and started to thrust her sword towards her in a piercing motion. Susamaru quickly summoned a temari ball and threw it at the ground making it shatter underneath them and removing Makomo's foothold.

Makomo quickly leaped forward and swiped her claws towards Susamaru who only slapped Makomo's hand away once it was close enough.

Susamaru rapidly threw her temari balls as Makomo ran towards her and hopped around them.

When she was close enough she quickly turned her blade away and hit Susamaru in the stomach with the grip of her sword, causing the demon to lose the air in her lungs.

With that Shin decided to end the battle. If it wasn't just a spar then Susamaru would have died. 

He walked over and took care of the demon, they had fast regeneration so she would've been fine but he knew she would like it if he came to help her.

Once the girls felt like they could control their power better they went back to traveling.

On the fourth night the trio finally reached outside the mountain Susamaru had spoken of. Though, when they arrived there were three slayers ahead of them making a ruckus.