Chapter 5: Doing It Before Inosuke

The moon is partially hidden by the clouds and the lightly falling snows makes for a calm and serene picture.

The night was eerily silent except for the occasional sounds of owls hooting.

"who..who.."

…

….

Don't look at me, they do sound like that! I'm serious!

Dammit, now the calm and slightly eerie setting I prepared sounds silly.

"who..who"

Shut Up!

Urgh, anyways, our MC is currently following the hunters he saved back to their village.

Their journey was silent, no one even tried to make a conversation. However, the journey is still a far one. Descend the mountain and you still need half a day to reach the village.

Now, let's see where this will take our MC

MC POV

The descent from the mountain was a dangerous but fun one.

And by 'fun', I meant rolling down the mountain using the bear as a makeshift hamster ball.

The faces that the hunters made when they finally descended the mountain and caught up to me was a sight to behold.

Snake eyes looks worried and shocked, gruff beard raises a brow and gave a grunt, he seems exasperated?

While…The twins looks impressed and had and awed expression.

"Ryu-san..are..are you okay?" Kibo-san started.

"YES I AM!" I replied, albeit slightly louder than intended.

Not surprising since I'm still pumping with adrenaline from rolling down a mountain using a bear.

Though I still can't beat a certain Russian Wrestler who piledrived a bear into a tornado for breakfast, but for now? This'll do.

And I've finally know what it feels like when you roll down a hill and become a snowball like in those mangas and animes that I've enjoyed in my old world.

I look at them with an embarrassed face, like a brat that got caught doing something stupid by their elders.

"Um…ehe..can I get some help please?"

"Ah yes, of course!" Snake eyes said before walking over to me with his sons.

They started to scrape the snow off of me with small knives.

This….might take a while..ehe..

Kimetsu!~ (Just imagine konosuba's intermission and you get the gist of it)

After getting out of the snowball cage, I thanked snake eyes and his sons, snake eyes gave returned the pleasantries while panting a little bit.

"Well? Can we continue now?" Gruff beard asked us a bit roughly, he even seems like he's scowling a little bit..maybe I shouldn't have done that. He looks like he's a bit angry at me.

'Must be because I delayed our journey a bit and could potentially endanger his son's life, but he seems slightly less tense than before'

Snake eyes fumbled an apology and tells us to continue our walk. Thus we continued our journey towards the village.

'Gruff beard seems rough but he truly cares for his son and he didn't rush straight away and left us, he's still hanging back a little bit to make sure the others are okay and following him. Seems like a nice guy type.'

'I glance at snake eyes and saw that anxious look in his face. He seems worried and wary about bringing me back to their village. I caught that glimpse of calculation in his eyes when he looked at me tidying myself up. He seems like the cautious and careful type.'

'I looked at the twins and saw them walking close to each other silently. I know that they're the fun seeking type especially after seeing their eyes just then. But looks like they're holding back and put on a disciplined and silent act in front of their father.'

Alright, enough observations, this seems pointless anyway. The point of acting stupid and being childish is so that I can observe their reaction and to roughly determine their personalities and traits. It seems that they've somewhat let their guard down after seeing me act like that.

"We've arrived"

I heard snake eyes said that as I shook my thoughts away.

I turned my sight in front of me and saw a small hut.

"I thought the village is still a half day away from here?" I asked.

Snake eyes laughed a bit and scratch the back of his head.

"Yes, this is our hunter's hut. We usually use this hut when we came here to hunt. We should rest for a while and perhaps eat to restore our energy first before continuing our journey.

Besides, the blood has stopped and giving him some rest near a fire should be better for his recovery than being in the cold snow."

I nodded my head to his words. That seems reasonable.

"There's also.." Left scar started.

"Some herbs in the hut" Right scar finished.

'Ah, so the hut has some emergency medical herbs too, probably in case one the hunters got injured or something'

Snake eyes then went, took out something from his fur coat, perhaps a key of sorts and unlocked the door. He then looks at us and gestured us to enter the hut.

Gruff beard went inside first, followed by the twins, but their father stop them for a bit before telling them to lit up the fireplace inside the hut.

He then turned around and looked at me before giving me a small smile, "Please come in Ryu-san, we'll rest for the night before continuing the journey in the morning.

I gave him a small smile before it froze on my face, I looked at him before stuttering, "m-morning?"

He looks back at me and gave me a confused smile, "yes, we'll continue our walk to the village in the morning. It is dangerous to travel at night."

The first thing that came into my mind was, 'I'm fucked'

But I didn't show it on my face and gave a smile to him, "Oh, Very well then."

I then went into the hut, and as soon as I reached the door, I was assaulted by the warmth that came from the fire in the middle of a fireplace inside the hut.

'Warm'

I then gave a little smile and tried to enter the hut..but…it seems I'm stuck..

..What the..

I tried to enter once again…yup…I'm friggin stuck!

'Oh Shit! How!? WHY!? How can I get stuck on the door? And this goes against the norm, I'm a stepbrother myself in the old world so technically, I should've been the one helping sisters that are stuck, not the other way around!'

'..wait a second..'

I moved forward..I'm stuck..I tried moving backwards..and I managed to exit the hut. I looked at what I was holding and remembered that I was lifting a huge bear.

'Welp, that explains it.'

I released my hold on the bear and it fell to the ground with a loud thud. Leaving it outside under the cold weather and snowy ground will preserve it, much like how a meat rots slower inside a refrigerator.

'But the size is too big..it would be a pain to carry it to the village and will slow down our journey'

"Maybe I should cut it apart." I mumbled to myself before turning around and going inside the hut.

"Excuse me..um.." I hesitate as I speak with snake eyes.

"Yes Ryu-san, how can I help you?" He seems startled before he gave his trademark sheepish smile to me.

"I didn't quite catch your names" I exclaimed. 'I do know their names but I just gotta make sure about it'

He continued smiling before introducing themselves once more. Snake eyes is called Kibo, gruff beard is called Arai, the twin with left scar on his cheek is called Kin and the one with a right scar on his cheek is called Gin.

I nodded to show my understanding before asking him, "Can I borrow your knife?"

He seems to hesitate a little bit before smiling once more and after a small nod gave the knife that used to peel the snow off of me after rummaging his pockets.

"Thanks, I just want to cut the bear apart so that carrying its meat to the village would be easier" I explained as the growing tension in the room disappeared when I gave a reason I'm borrowing a knife.

'Geez, they're too jumpy, it seems they're still wary of me…that could be good and bad at the same time..'

I then ignored their stares and went back outside to finish my job. I went it front of the bear corpse and dragged it a bit further from the hut, a hundred meters away to be exact.

'This will ensure that no other wild animals like wolves will prowl around the hut if it smelt the blood from the bear after I start butchering it, if I let it prowl around the hut once it will keep coming back and the hunters will die if this keeps happening. Oh and I should roll the meat around in the snow to clean it, primitive but hey, it work..maybe….probably.'

'I can kill all the pests that come, but doing so is too much of a pain so I would like to avoid it if I could.'

I then started my work as a butcher as I started cutting the bear apart.

Kimetsu!~

In no time at all, the bear corpse is nowhere to be seen and only meat, fur, bones, organs and its whole head remains.

'That was easy, maybe because I've become a demon but cutting it seems easier than when I was still a human.'

In my previous life, I used to butcher chickens, cows, goats and fishes…does fishes count? I'm pretty sure they do..yeah, of course they count.

Cutting a cow apart is a lot of work and takes quite some time to butcher it if you did it alone, but cutting this bear apart was quite easy now, maybe because I have a demon strength in my repertoire now.

'Well, now how do I carry all this meat back to the hut? Burying it in the snow right here is an option as well, but not a good one, it's better to bury it near the hut...I might be able to use the bear's fur as a makeshift bag to carry the meats…yeah, that sounds like a good idea, let's go for it'

I started to put the meat on the fur before the folding it into the kind of packaging and knot that was classically used to tie on a stick as shown in cartoons and anime's when the mc runs away from home, like a certain boy with glasses who has a blue earless cat.

'All right, this should do it, the bones can be used as well, makeshift weapons, traps, fishing hooks, maybe even soup!'

Surprisingly, bones are quite the material, though they are usually called brittle, bones are quite sturdy actually and a bone can kill a living being if you hit the right spot.

'Now all that's left is…that' I muttered silently in my head as I stared at another head, the bear's head that is.'

I cut the bears head and left it aside so I can make a mask like inosuke's, but how the hell did he make one anyway? And those eyes of his, how did it moved? I hollowed the inside of the mask before wearing it the mask and miraculously I can see. The eyes even move with my own eyes when I wear it.

I took off the mask as I stared at it..huh, how mysterious..welp, no use in thinking about it.

I carry the bones and the meat while I was slowly trudging back to the hut. Yeah, I didn't wear the mask, wouldn't want to incite panic among them once again.

Imagine that you're in a forest, inside a hut and it is snowing outside in the night and something with a bear head but human body entered your hut suddenly. I would piss myself to death too or have a fight or flight instinct triggered. Hey, I'm quite impulsive in the heat of the moment y'know.

I reached the hut and started to make a huge pile of snow that's shaped like an anthill before carving it out and putting most of the meats inside and then covering it up with snow once again.

I then carried the leftover meats inside the hut to cook it with my bear mash bulging inside my clothes, yeah I stuck in inside my clothes, I've already picked up a few sticks of wood and managed to sharpen them up to stick some meats on it.

I entered the hut but not before knocking and announcing myself of course, that'll be a bad idea.

As I entered the hut, I saw them all looking at me or maybe the bear head that's sticking out of my clothes, so I closed the door, went to the fireplace and started to stick the meat into the stick.

I steadily do my work and soon have two dozen skewers of meat. And started to cook them using the fireplace by slowly spinning it on top of the fire.

Not long after, a delicious aroma of cooked meat spread across the small hut and filled it to the brim.

I can see clearly that they all have a hungry look in their eyes as they stare at the meat and…is that drool I'm seeing coming from the twins mouth? Ah, they wiped it away at least.

"Alright, looks like it's cooked enough, here eat some to restore our strength." I said to them all as hand the skewers of meat to each of them.

Everyone took a stick of the meat and gave an "Itadakimasu" before biting unto the meat. After chewing a bit, they swallowed the meat with a gulp.

The twins exclaimed "Delicious!" simultaneously.

"It is indeed quite good." Kibo muttered to himself while Arai just munch on his food silently.

I then remembered that I was quite hungry so I took a skewer of meat and started eating as well. 'It tastes like crap, not that I've ever eaten crap mind you, but beggars can't be choosers and having something to fill the stomach is already good enough..still taste like crap though, might be cause of my new demon taste? tounge? uhhh let's go with palate.'

While we were eating, a rustling sound alerted us, but when the hunters looked at the source of the sound, they clearly lost their tension. Arai especially look pleasantly surprised and happy.

The rustling sound actually came from behind Arai, a figure was seen lying there. Covered by a fur blanket I assume, maybe one of those blankets that are piled in the corner of the room? I hear the figure asking softly 'father?'

Arai turned around and tend to his son as the figure feebly lift his lying body to sit upright..with the help of his father despite him protesting that the figure should rest for a little bit more.

While the injured dude starts to talk with his father and taking in his surroundings, I gave Kibo a skewer of meat and told him to pass it to the injured dude.

The injured dude took the meat with a vacant look on his face and shook his head, perhaps to bring back his focus into the situation. He thanked Kibo for the food before looking at me.

"I've never seen you before, may I know your name?" He asked.

I can see Kibo had a slight panic look on his face but tried to put a calm façade. I introduce myself to the injured guy, I need to know his name, calling him 'injured dude' everytime is a pain in the ass.

"Name's Ryu, what's yours?"

"Oh my name is Gudo, nice to meet you." He gave me a small smile as he said that.

"As am I" I replied with my own grin.

He continued smiling before being told by his father to eat the meat that was given to him before going to rest for a while.

We continued to eat in silence and not long after, all the meat skewers were finished and our stomachs are filled for a bit at least. Me? Not so much, the meat was crappy, but that might just be my demon palate talking there.

"Why are you…"

"Holding a bear's head?"

The silence was broken by a question from the twins, it seems all of them are curious about the reason I am carrying a bear's head.

"Well, I wanted to make a bear mask so I made this to wear it, see?" I told them as I took out the mask before wearing it.

"That's…"

"So"

"COOL!" Both of them exclaimed with glittering eyes while looking at me wearing the bear mask.

Their father looks exasperated enough to sigh before telling them both to control themselves, the twins pouted a little but still replied with a 'yes father' simultaneously.

Kibo sigh before turning back to me,"Well, it seems like Gudo-kun is going to be alright but still, we'll have rest tonight before going back to the village, what are you going to do Ryu-san?"

"Hmmm…Well, I'll just follow you guys back to village then, I've got my own business there and someone needs to carry the leftover meats anyway." I had qualms about walking under the sun, but if I cover myself with the clothes and mask I should be safe from the sun..probably…maybe.'

Kibo just hummed before asking Arai if that's okay with him and Arai has no objection to the plan. Kibo then stood up before going to the corner and giving out fur blanket so that we can sleep a little bit warmer near the fire…

'Let's just hope the fur doesn't catch on fire instead' I mused and prayed silently in my heart before slowly entering dreamland.

The first thought that came unto me before dozing off is, 'Oh crap, I hope don't pull a Nezuko if I sleep, the last thing I need is sleeping and not waking up before getting carried outside to be buried under the sun cause they all thought I'm dead after saving them all. I don't wanna get my named passed on as some form of folk tale about a wandering servant of a deity that they believe in that went to save and help them before dying.'

..

…

'..actually, that doesn't sound like a bad plan, I might pull something like that once I can shape-shift. I wanna spread tales about me pranks, mischiefs and kindness towards people…muwahahaha, I look forward to the future'

Thus with a smirk and a not so evil mastermind/villain laugh, I start to drift off into slumber.