To The Source

The demon slayers and government authorities plowed their way through the empty streets of Sattokotta. Yukina, leading the group, was unfazed by the danger ahead. She radiated an icier chill than the winds that gusted between her cheeks, eyes frozen in focus and a grudge gorging within her neck. She despised this change of events,

'Ketsueki, Faolan…..' the thought of her fellow Demon Slayers tightened her grip on her hilt.

Arashi and Jasumin were jumbled up with the government authorities behind Yukina,

"Ken, right?" Arashi asks the government authority who encountered the other Demon Slayers, Kagero and Utazo.

Panting puffs of hot air from his mouth, he replies, "Right!"

"If you find any citizens, direct your men to retrieve them and get them as far away from the Residential District as possible!" Jasumin ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am!" Ken replied.

"Jasumin! What do you think is going on with the others?" Shouted Arashi.

"Well, we know that there's no way that Kagero and Utazo were at the blast location, the only slayers we know that were there were Ketsueki and Faolan." Jasumin made a worried look.

"That bastard Ketsueki and the Mizunoto!" Arashi sighed, yet it wasn't out of disappointment but for the worry of his fellow comrades.

There was now a moment of silence between the group, with only the smear of the snowmaking conversation with every single person heading into the Residential District. Approaching closer to the Residential District, the redness from the explosion eminently discolored the normal hue of a hard snowy night. Yukina, still ahead, did not consult her thoughts to anybody; it was hers alone. As it always was.

'This is my responsibility; if this demon is one of the Twelve Kizuki demons, one of them may be in complete danger. With that, the explosion, the both of them may be injured.' Yukina now trickled with the mechanism within her hilt.

This was indeed her plan, and if her plan cost the potential lives of her fellow Demon Slayers, she would be held responsible for it. She didn't care about the position she was in but about the lives that were at stake. With each and every stomp through the snow, her frustration encapsulated her mind with frozen precision. The red hue of the district meant nothing to her, and it was mere blood of the demon she would pour open with the quick slice of her blade.

Her mind suddenly drifted. The snow did not feel like snow; the frigid air no longer felt frigid, and the sharp vein bulging within her neck softened. She stopped. The red hue had disappeared. It was a normal day, blue skies, bright sun.

"I need to get to Ketsueki and Faolan!" Yukina shouted to herself.

"I won't fail them, and I don't have time for this!!" Yukina quickly removed her glove and clicked on the mechanism on her hilt, releasing a freezing compound on the palm of her hands. The pulsing chill infused her veins, immediately causing an immense chill to tear her from this sunny landscape. The violent hue of red returned, and the icy air returned to fly across her cheeks. She rapidly placed her glove back on, much more furious than before.

The others behind her could feel a growing tension, and there was a grand mystery in this bloody hue. Yukina hated this mystery, and she hated the fact that her perception may cause the death of another member. Her thoughts would replay like the daily labor of an ordinary person within her head. Yukina unfocused her vision from everything and only envisioned what was ahead,

'That boy Faolan.' she thought.

She reminisces about the moment when they first met, the moment when he handed her the lost red ribbon that now wraps around her bun along with a red butterfly clip. 'Why would he just pick up a red string from this dirty ground?' Her eyes refocused, not to the red hue caused by the explosion, but into the deep frozen snow.'What prompted him to just do so? He seems to be so different from everyone else, and I can't place my eyes on just what. He literally carries a book into a battle and another weapon on his back. He's the bigger mystery than anything else here.' Yukina smirked and instantly hid it.

They were approaching a dual residential intersection, and now there appeared more civilians coming out from their homes; people were stacked together tightly inside. When they exited, some were crying to the government authorities, and some thanked them for taking them somewhere safe.

'Although these people never saw death happening around here, the demon had caused mental reckoning on the everyday lives of the people.'

"OIIIIIIIII!" a loud and rambunctious noise shouted.

The demon slayers and the government authorities slowed down, and the freezing figure of Kagero appeared with his arms within his haori, his teeth chattering at an unnatural pace. The cool-headed Utazo also appeared soon after Kagero. A sigh of relief entered both Jasumin and Arashi, who felt at ease seeing some of their comrades healthy and alive. The two Slayers joined the group and jogged beside them.

"Kagero! Utazo!" Jasumin announced, "It's amazing that you two are okay!"

"I'M NOT OKAY. DO YOU SEE THAT I'M DYING?" Kagero opened his haori to reveal the splinters of ice forming from his uniform.

"HEEEEH?" Arashi slapped Kagero's back, shattering the ice from his entire outfit. "You fight demons and survived through the Final Selection. Is a little cold going to really end your life?" Arashi disappointedly reacted.

"IT'S NOT THAT; ITS THAT MY UNIFORM IS BUGGING!" Kagero shouted.

"What does that even mean?" Arashi shook his head.

"He believes that his uniform is defected," Utazo answered.

"When we complete the mission, you will have to ask your Pillar about that," Jasumin replied, tilting her head in an expression of shrugging.

"I suppose there are more fates worse than just dying." Kagero dramatically gasps and shifts his gaze upwards, allowing the snow to strike his face and become one within his flesh.

"Hey, you two!" called Ken.

Utazo and Kagero both shifted their head and saw that it was the government authority who took Kawamura and Uno to safety. Kagero's expression changed to worry for the girls. Utazo and the others again notice that sudden change.

"Were you able to take Kawamura and Uno san to safety?" Kagero asked.

"Yea, we successfully found the other companions that you have, and they are in a much safer place, and you can call me Ken," replied Ken.

"Okay, Ken, so are you and the others now going to assist us in completing our goals?" Utazo sharply questions, since previously Ken had a hard time believing in the threat.

"Yes, I've realized the duty I have here, and I was a hindrance to the people here." Ken lowered his eyes in shame.

"Well, there's still time to help us," stated Yukina.

Everyone's ears perked towards Yukina, who had said little since the explosion. "There is a discrepancy here, in Sattokotta," she added.

"Well, yes, there have been strange business within our system," Ken replied.

"So you're telling me that there has been corruption within the village? I'm not surprised since there have been so many cases of disappearances." Jasumin disappointingly stated, "Tell us something we don't know." she adds.

Ken, panting in his run, thinks deeply, finding the most suspicious occurrence during his time documenting reports he was assigned to. He couldn't pinpoint one moment but there was something that came up when—

"Let's not focus on that mystery right now," Yukina interjects.

"Why?" Jasumin replies.

"We have to focus on saving the lives of our fellow Demon Slayers." answers Yukina, "This Demon could be one of the Twelve Kizuki. We don't know which number it may be since the lower the number, the more powerful it is, so this threat could be much more serious than anything we've ever faced." Yukina flips her blade, letting out a sigh of thought.

"She's right. When Kagero and I experienced the explosion, that isn't something a typical Demon would be able to cause, and it was indeed powerful." Utazo adds, "Our mission is to save the lives that are in danger right now."

"Right." Arashi interjects, "Though Ketsueki may be a bastard, he is still our comrade. I won't allow another to throw away the life of others." Arashi reminds himself of his insensitive remarks toward Ketuseki. "I'm an asshole, I know."

"We already know that," Kagero interrupts to lighten his mood as Jasumin laughs, and Utazo shakes his head. Arashi holds in his disgust to the smart reply that Kagero slaps him with, so he lets out a steam of anger from his nose.

Little by little, the government authorities had almost diminished to about three or four officers remaining since the rest were guiding people who continued to come out for help. The air only grows colder, but it only affects Kagero as his attire frosts once again each time he slaps himself. Utazo dragged his massive nichirin odachi into the snow, ready for any more potential threats. Jasumin concentrated on her breathing, and she wanted to ensure the flow within the entire group was nominal for the threat ahead. Arashi withered his blade from the melting snow, and he needed to ensure that his strikes were thick and powerful so that they would burn away any more spawns that the demon may conjure.

The group closed in on the source of the explosion, yet it still felt so far; that bloody hue was much fiercer now. Yukina's eyes froze ahead. That image of Faolan now replayed in her mind. His strange character and his abnormal decision making based on the report of Utazo. He was an absolute anomaly, but she respected Faolan. She can feel the authenticity of his character, 'There is a grand brightness within him, some sort of moonlight. Where the warmth was only cool and refreshing, that's not to say she didn't think the others were compassionate in their own respective manner, but something about Faolan makes him stand out, she would think.

For Yukina, it was almost familiar.

A reminder of a time when there was a refreshing hope. A hope for the future beyond pain and suffering, one for opportunity and success. Yet it still was now a distant past, but could it ever be a future? In a world where the beings in power are controlling and deteriorating the lives of people for their own ideals or greed. It reminds her teacher, the one who taught her the way of Frost Breathing. He was no Demon Slayer, for he belonged to an entirely different organization, one that works for the greed of humanity. Humanity had always felt like the main conflict to her, and it always had been a conflict. Yet she still hopes, because of that moonlight she's had before, a cool light that allowed her to rest, hoping for a better future.

'When he gave me my ribbon, he reminded me of that hope, the hope that I once destroyed. Why has that hope come back now? Who is this boy? What is this light that gives me this desire to understand it?'

Her mind swallowed the questions, hoping for the answer to come in a swift yet precise thought, but there was none. No answer could be processed with her perception. Faolan, who Ketsueki brought, was a mystery, 'Why did Ketsueki bring Faolan? Perhaps Ketsueki felt something similar when he met Faolan. I should consult with Ketsueki since he was the one who brought him along on this mission, the only one who wasn't mentioned to me prior.' Yukina finalized her thoughts, so she could now perceive the kind of threat that lay before her and the others.

'When it comes to battling a powerful demon, even a powerfully adept Hashira will have trouble.' Yukina did not want to underestimate the abilities of the demon now as she did prior.

"Everyone, listen! When we reach the source, at all costs, if the demon makes a sign of another powerful explosion, we must retreat. A certain sign that I can infer is that the blood on the ground was seemingly sapped." announced Yukina.

"Yea, I believe we witnessed something similar in the Industrial District," Utazo added. Kagero nodded and made a loud hm as in an expression of agreement.

"We will do our best not to be caught in the immediate crossfire, right men?" Ken subliminally ordered the tiny unit they had now.

"Right, Sir!

"Of course!" they replied.

Jasumin and Arashi both nodded,

"We will stop the terror happening here once and for all." Jasumin declared.

"Right!" Arashi hyped himself for the powerful fight ahead.

"Okay then." Yukina lastly said.

As the group peddled on, the tension grew, the worry for their lives intensified, and they all had something to fight for. They all have a mission to complete. To bring justice and tranquility to lives that have been suffering for so long.

To fight a powerful fight, for this is what they decided to become, warriors to save.

In Yukina's own mind, she hadn't worried in a long time, perhaps because it's been so long since that moonlight appeared to her.