AN: Hello everyone, thank you all for taking a look at my story. I hope to keep writing for this but I do have other (SEVERLY NEGLECTED) stories I'd like to pick back up but with everyone practicing 'social distancing' (y'all know what I mean :[ ) I felt the time was right to start writing again. I have chapter two of this all but done, and I hope to TRY to do a chapter ever month, so please bear with me. If you're interested in another great story in this kind of Demon AU and can't wait (or hate mine lol), there's a good one called Scarlet Lighting here on but it only has 6 chapters as of now, but still worth a read.

Please, leave a comment, feedback and most of all please enjoy the story!

It would be dark soon. He wasn't anywhere near a external light source to know but he still somehow knew it would be.

Must be instincts.

He took in a deep breath and it came out as a shaky sigh. Zenitsu was on the verge of tears again, but he still had to be quiet as possible. He picked the worse hiding spot in all of existence. He just didn't have any other option at the time. He had traveled too far from any safe places the woods...too far from any cliffs to hide. (now he knew why demons weren't known to travel far from their nests, too risky) The remote house was his only choice. He squeezed into the crawlspace and from there stayed as still as possible. However, with a unsuspecting family that's only inches away from a starving demon, that was easier said than done.

He could hear everything above him; their heartbeats, blood rushing through their veins. Oh, how did that make his neglected stomach grumble and mouth salivate. But, he could also hear their laughter, the joyful song that sang throughout the day as they lived their peaceful lives out here. He just couldn't find it in his heart to destroy such a wonderful thing. He had tried to sleep the day away, but the constant noise of the family with the quite literal painful reminder of the unnatural hunger that plagued him relentlessly made that impossible.

'Zenitsu Agatsuma,' he thought to himself if only to distract himself for a little longer, 'not only the worst demon slayer in existence but now-' he shrank back when he heard and even felt running footsteps of children directly above him, '-probably worst demon of all time as well too.' The running footsteps didn't stop. They were going round and round directly above him. The children's muffled laughter were ringing in his ears mixed with what reminded him of ceramic wind chimes; gentle and serene. He smiled and tried to listen a little closer, ah...there's the mother coming to corral her children. She radiated sounds like that of a gentle wind on a spring meadow. There was another sound that he instantly listened too without meaning too; her heart as it beat within her chest.

'It sounds so nice and strong I could swallow it whole,' he swallowed hard as his mouth was flooded with saliva as he imagined her warm blood coating his tongue. His stomach rumbled so hard it cramped.

'What the hell am I thinking?!' he mentally berated himself as he clenched his jaw. He had to leave as soon as he could, light out or not. He began to crawl toward where he had first entered under the house when suddenly he heard the family talking to one another:

"W-What was that sound," asked the youngest boy, "is it a monster?!" Zenitsu heard the mother chuckle.

"No Eijiro," she said as he heard her stroke his hair, "it's probably just a wild animal." She sounded calm and reassuring, but he could hear her own fear and doubts.

"But, I heard shuffling and growling coming from beneath the floor," Eijiro cried, "something's under the house!"

"Maybe it's a demon come to eat us all~" teased the older sister.

"Don't talk lightly about such things," the mother said in such a raised voice that it even made Zenitsu jump slightly, "demons are very real! They are dangerous and will kill people given any opportunity. Both your father's brother and mother were killed by a demon when he was only a child. I have also seen them attack! You NEED to be afraid of them. However, I don't think there's any demons where we are." There was a heavy uneasy pause above him, any earlier sound of joy and calm was now gone.

'I told Kosuke that this house was too far from town. I'm just thankful we're moving soon,' the mother thought to herself, 'then we wont have to worry so much about forest demons.' Zenitsu heard her thoughts and felt bad. He didn't mean to disturb the family, besides he didn't make any noises, so how did they...oh. Was his stomach really that loud? He shook his head and started again toward the entrance. Soon he saw the dusk light peeking into the crawlspace, it wasn't much light so he felt it would be safe enough to emerge from the house. He reached his arms out of the opening and pulled himself out; it was surprising how he was even able to squeeze in there in the first place. He stood up and started to dust himself off when he noticed his sword wasn't at his side. Zenitsu looked in the crawlspace and saw it had been left behind. He bent down and reached back inside to retrieve it when he heard a startled gasp. He looked up and saw the father of the family looking down in pure horror at him though a window.

Zenitsu could hear the man's racing heartbeat and even hear his memories of his family being slaughtered so long ago. The screams of his dying family, the roar of the demon who took them from him. It was painful to listen too. Taking the opportunity of the father's frozen state, Zenitsu grabbed his sword and ran. He ran as fast as he possibly could away from the house and that horror stricken face that was burned into his mind. As soon as he thought he was far enough away he stopped to catch his breath. He looked back toward the house, but thankfully he couldn't see it anymore and he truly did not want to listen to the family's discussion about the mans' discovery of him; it'd probably would make him feel worse. He looked down at his sword in his hand; Gramps was so proud when he received it. He even let him stay one last night before sending him (more like evicting) on his way. He sighed and put the sword back into its spot at the side of his hip.

'I probably should take better care of my sword,' Zenitsu thought as he tried adjust the sword more comfortably by moving the belt around, 'damn shaky fingers and...'

"It doesn't matter anyway," he mumbled to himself, "it's not like I'm gonna use the sword anymore. Probably should just throw it away." He sighed and rubbed his face in frustration, only to accidentally cut his scalp. Yelping he pulled his hand away and looked at it.

Gramps had books about demons, in a matter of speaking he was somewhat of an expert in various 'kinds' of demons. He had tried to teach both Zenitsu and Kaigaku about them but both boys had been...difficult. Kaigaku just simply didn't care to learn and for Zenitsu, very much like his sword training, it seemed beyond his grasp and it simply didn't stick. Still he did remember something from the book: the pictures. Most of them were paintings or hand drawings, but with the modern times rapidly approaching there were very few photographs of demons. Out of all the pictures he saw of the demons hands, their claws looked relatively the same: long sharp nail-like claws. But his claws? They were like talons: long, thick and black; incredibly sharp. Like a hawks, or owls. He kept cutting himself with them by accident all the time. He didn't recall ever seeing anything like his in the book. He hated looking at his hands, it only reminded of his lost humanity.

A chirping sound pulled him from his miserable thoughts and he looked up. A sparrow was perched on top of his head and seemed to be somewhat irritated.

"Chuntaro," Zenitsu wailed as he snatched the bird and started to nuzzle it, soaking it at the same time with his tears, "there you are! Where have you been?! This is the second time you've disappeared on me! I was worried sick, it's been three days since I last saw you! Where did you gooo?~ You DO care about me, don't you!?" Finally Zenitsu let go and Chuntaro flew back up to the top of his head, if only to shake his feathers dry. Zenitsu for his part was still tearing up, but this time for the small joy that returned in his life. He wasn't completely alone anymore.

"It's been absolutely terrible Chuntaro, TERRIBLE I tell you," he wailed as he continued walking deeper into the woods, "It was somewhat bearable when you were by my side but when you left," he hiccuped and started to cry again, "I never had felt so alone before in all my life! I kept going in the direction you were leading us, but then the sun kept coming up. Oh, don't let me get started on THAT. I HATE having to hide from it, HATE IT! I..." He paused when he felt another hunger pang, strong enough that it caused his breath to hitch and his hand to fly up to cradle his stomach. Air hissed between his teeth as he rode out the worst of it. Finally the pain stopped and he lowered his hand, looking hard at the ground.

"I'm hungry," he mumbled quietly, "I-I wonder when was the last time I actually ate? How long has it actually been? There's nothing for me to eat Chuntaro! I don't want to eat people! That's disgusting, and unnatural! I couldn't live with myself if I hurt someone." He heard wings flapping and saw Chuntaro flying near his face so he reached out and let him land in his hands. The sparrow began to chirp directly to Zenitsu:

'You need to pull yourself together; go into the woods and hunt! If you continue to prolong the inevitable, the higher the possibility you consume a human and then all hope will be lost!' Zenitsu tilted his head.

"I have no idea what you're trying to say. I guess you don't understand my situation at all, huh?" He was immediately bitten on the hand by Chuntaro for his honest comment. He waved his hand to get the bird off of him and pointed his finger at his angry companion.

"What was that for?! You know what, you're not cute in the slightest! Not! At! All! You know what," he said as he turned away from the bird, "I pour my heart and soul out for you and what do you do? You throw it back in my face! Horrible bird! What I need to do is go find something to eat, but the question is...how? I've never hunted a day in my life, human or demon." He huffed and folded his arms in frustration, trying to think on what to do, "Now...if I were a wild animal on the hunt, how would I hunt for food? Hmm..."

He closed his eyes and pondered this and listened to the woods around him. The night air was crisp and sweet smelling, due to the rotting fallen trees near by. The undergrowth rustled in the wind and...he could hear something in the distance. Something he needed. He opened his eyes and quickly made his way toward the noises he heard. Chuntaro was confused in Zenitsu's sudden change in attitude and followed him from high up.

Zenitsu ran fast, faster than he had normally had ever done without using the Thunder Breathing techniques; yet he was also so silent. It was strange, but he only thought about it for barely a moment, he was too focused on the sound. When he was close, he removed his haori that Gramps had given him, as well as his sword...he didn't need it. He looked up the nearest tree, it was tall and large enough for his purposes. He jumped and with his long claws, latched onto the tree and started to climb up the tree with no issues at all. His claws sank into the tree as if it was made of tofu, he had never used them before so with this revelation he was slightly more afraid of his hands and feet now. Ah, yeah...he looked down at his feet and mumbled curse words at the ruined state of his tabi socks.

'If Gramps found out about my tabi socks he gave me, he'd hit me with his cane at least twenty times.'

Getting back on track of things, Zenitsu looked around the woods for his prey. It still amazed him that he could see SO clearly at night, especially a dark night like this. There they were, a sounder of wild boars, perfect. From his position, they were about two hundred feet away. He had to strike soon or they could potentially catch his sent and run. He leapt down from the tree and landed surprisingly lightly and silent. He made his way towards the sounder of boars and soon he was in striking distance. He looked at them and picked a target, his hunger wanted the largest one but he reasonably chose a mid sized juvenile boar.

Finally he made his move and ran out and made the attack, even surprising himself he pinned his target before any of the other boars knew what had happened. If this had been more of a relaxed moment for Zenitsu, he probably would have questioned his sudden hunting skills, or even complimented himself for his catch but his mind was too focused at the task at hand. The free boars all ran from Zenitsu while the boar he pined to the ground had began to screech and scream terribly. He wanted to end it's suffering soon but, he NEEDED something first, he could hear it coursing rapidly in it's veins. He took his index finger and where the sound matched the boars heartbeat, he punched a shallow hole with his claw. Blood started gushing out and Zenitsu quickly cupped his mouth over the wound and began to drink as quick and deeply as he could.

It was nearly instantaneous, but as soon as the blood entered his stomach he felt better, more alive. He even moaned in satisfaction as he paused to catch his breath from gulping the blood, causing some of it to run down his face. Zenitsu was too caught up in this act to notice that the boar had stopped crying out and had actually died from blood loss. He only noticed when no more blood was coming from the neck and it slightly irritated him. He licked his lips (running his tongue over teeth far too sharp) and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He was breathing hard, each breath sounding more and more like feral growls. He turned the boar over and easily slit it wide open with his claws, it's chest popping open; he needed more...now! He reached inside and ripped out the heart, shoving the whole thing into his mouth as fast as he could and bit down. The remaining blood inside burst into his mouth and leaked down the sides of his face. He hardly even chewed it properly, swallowing it nearly whole. The heart was even better than the blood, something heavy sitting inside his belly felt sooo good. He went back into the boar and began to rip chunks out of it, hardly chewing. It was more important to just get meat down his throat. Bite after bite after bite, it just didn't seem enough.

'My God boy, is this how you eat,' Zenitsu paused when a familiar voice from his past snapped him out of his feeding frenzy, 'I've seen demons eat more civilized than you do! No, I don't care if it's been several days since you've last ate, no student of Jigoro Kuwajima is going to eat like a starved dog! While you live here, you will have proper table manners! Now sit up right and eat like a human! *thwack*' Zenitsu flinched from the memory of the caning on top of the head. He looked down and saw the disheveled carcass of the boar, then his hands...God he looked and felt so gross. He felt the tears run down his face before he even knew he was crying, leaving streaks in the blood on his face.

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he bent down over the carcass, "I'm so sorry Gramps. I didn't mean too, please...forgive me. I'm trying but it's hard." He felt something shift on his shoulder and looked. It was Chuntaro, looking very small on his shoulder.

"Chuntaro," Zenitsu said in a near whisper, "how long have you-" but looking closer at him he could see small blood splatter spots on Chuntaro's feathers. Tears began rushing down his face again.

"I'm sorry. You deserve someone better than me," he said looking down but not really looking at anything, "you could have left me long ago but," he turned back to the bird, "here you are...putting up with...this," as he gestured at the carcass, "are you sure you want to stay with me?" There was a pause, Zenitsu wasn't sure what would happen. If the bird were to stay, he would be happy to have a companion of some sort in this new hell of his; if he left it would be more than understandable.

There was a chirp, and the bird nuzzled closer to his neck. He chose to stay. He couldn't help but smile.

There was a gurgling rumbling noise. Ah...that's right, he was still hungry even after all that. He looked down at the boar; this time he'd be more respectful and have some form of manners as he ate. He used his claws to cut into the meat, actually chewed the raw meat...now that he thought about it, it was kinda gross eating raw meat. Why couldn't he cook it? Damn his luck. As he slowly ate, he contemplated on how he even got into this situation in the first place: his first mission.

He had been summoned to Ikaho, seemed like a easy job at the time. He had even thought about going to the hot springs afterwards. (Chuntaro was so relentless in forcing him to walk faster.) He had seen bigger cities before so this was nothing new to him when he had arrived at Ikaho and in the inn.

He absentmindedly peeled the skin off of the skull of the boar (he didn't want fur down his throat) as he thought about the cute girl at the inn.

"She was really cute, that girl," he said as he brought the top of the skull to his mouth and bit into it like an apple, slurping the fluid that ran out of the skull while chewing the brains and skull, "I wonder what she's doing right now?"

'Don't talk with your mouth full! *thwack*' Zenitsu flinch from the memory with a small smile.

"Sorry Gramps, I forgot again."

After resting during the day, he...very reluctantly...set out to look for the supposed demon that was in town. He walked around and listened very carefully hoping that he wouldn't come across anything and that this whole thing was just a false alarm and he could just go on his merry way.

"If I had to rank this," Zenitsu mumbled to himself as he finished swallowing the last kidney, "I think I like the internal organs best, strange enough." He took the eyes that he had pulled out of the skull, looked at them and shuddered, quickly plopping them into his mouth and while he was originally going to swallow them whole he accidentally bit down into them. They 'popped' in his mouth and while human Zenitsu would have thrown up at the taste and texture, demon Zenitsu hummed and slurped up the nerves and vessel that still dangled out of his mouth. He barely noticed Chuntaro slowly rocking on his shoulder in silent horror.

He had searched half the night and still nothing. Finding nothing was still better than running into the demon...right? He kept listening, still...nothing. Well, he tried! Best tell headquarters that there was noth-

Oh damn. The demon was kinda close by now. Did it suddenly just appear? Zenitsu looked around, he was in the more desolate parts of town so that was better for...a fight...*sigh* why him? He was sweating bullets when he peaked around the alleyway when he saw the man standing near a udon noodle cart, presumably the owner, but Zenitsu could hear differently.

'Ohgodohgodohgod it's the demon.'

*snap*

Breaking bones was surprisingly easy now, like breaking a old twig. He took the boars' femur and had already stripped it clean of meat, but now? Like a dog, he bit right in the middle of it. His teeth easily cut right through the bone, the only comparison he had to describe the texture of it when he was human, the bone was as if it had been deep fried, or perhaps like those foreign sweets that his gramps had given him...chocolate truffles if he remembered right. He chewed the bone and...oh wow, he liked the middle a lot. No wonder dogs liked bones so much.

Zenitsu very slowly approached the udon cart demon (Perhaps not, it's silly for a demon to be a udon salesman...oh no, don't tell me he killed someone!) It didn't seem to be on a rampage...in fact it seemed to be...waiting for something. He did his best to look intimidating (hilarious in hindsight now) towards the demon but it simply didn't even notice him.

Kamanue was getting nervous, HE was coming soon and everything had to go perfectly or else he could wind up like Kyogai, but...Kyogai was one of the lucky ones. He lived. He didn't know why he wanted to meet up with him but...it must be of great importance, this was his territory after all so he must be getting a great task to handle.

'Um...excuses me...' Kamanue looked over at the shivering kid in the yellow haori that was only twenty feet away.

'Strange,' thought Kamanue, 'his hair is yellow too, is he a foreigner? Wait, that outfit. He's part of the Demon Slayer Corps! How did they find me!?' He had shifted all of his demon attributes away, and that was hard for him to do! Unless...this was a test that He was putting him though? Of course, it was. Kamanue smiled. He wanted to see how he would react and handle this demon slayer.

'A simple test like this should be easy.' Kamanue dropped his disguise and took a battle stance.

"Prepare yourself demon slayer, for you face one of the Twelve Demon Moons, and I will-" he paused and looked on in surprise.

'Did that guy just faint?'

Zenitsu looked down at what remained of the boar; not much to be fair, only the skin, hooves and the unwanted entrails and bones were left behind. He licked his lips and looked at his soiled hands, completely covered in dried blood. Hadn't he heard a brook near by? He picked himself up and walked toward the sound of running water. He soon came up to it, a nice little calm stream; perfect to wash himself up. He washed his hands first, scrubbing the best he could (without scratching himself) to get all the blood off. Then he cupped water in his hands and splashed it on his face and tried to wash where he felt it was sticky. When the water calmed again, he finally gathered the courage to look at himself for the first time since turning:

For the most part, he still looked like himself. Same golden hair that he had for the better part of three years. Same eyes...no wait. Leaning down towards the water, he didn't have the same eyes...the color was more or less the same, but the pupils weren't normal anymore...they were vertical slits. He opened his mouth to get a better look at his teeth, damn they were sharp, still somewhat human shaped but still very sharp especially those four long ones. He also noticed two large jagged golden markings on his cheeks. He tried to wipe them off, but apparently it was part of his skin, kind of like a tattoo.

"I thought I'd look worse, to be honest," he said mostly to himself. He looked over towards Chuntaro who was taking his own bath in a shallow part of the stream. He smiled at the charming scene, then looked back down at his reflection.

Zenitsu woke with a start, blinking furiously as he wondered what exactly happened. He looked at himself, a large gash in his uniform and his haori but none the worse for wear.

"Curse you, you fucking brat," he heard a voice yell out to him. He froze and turned around to see the demon that was totally going to kill him moments ago...beheaded and slowly fading away into ash.

"How the hell could a pathetic kid like you defeat me so utterly fast?! It's not possibi-" before he could even finish his sentence the head of the demon faded away. Zenitsu blinked several times in confusion. He had no idea what the hell happened either, but apparently it was dead so all's well that ends well so mission complete! All he had to do was go back to the inn and-

His heart froze. There was another demon. Too damn close. While the previous demon sounded scary in it's own way, this one sounded...quiet. Like a slow, quiet koto...the worlds most forbidding koto. He couldn't handle this one, no way.

"Thunder Breathing First Form: Thunderclap and Flash," Zenitsu said as calmly as he possibly could as he heard the demon reaching out for him, "Eight fold: Godspeed." and boom, in literally a flash he was gone, running away from whatever the hell was behind him. He could have sworn during the Thunderclap and Flash, he heard something moving with him, even reaching out to him. As soon as the Thunderclap and flash was over, he continued to run. He didn't care if he was taking the cowards way out, he could tell by listening to that demon, whatever that thing was it was WAY out of his league. He'd call for backup, maybe get several Kinoe's or maybe even Hashira's!

He ran and ran until he literally couldn't run anymore. He had run into a dead end alley. He figured he was far away enough now anyway. He leaned up against the wall to catch his breath. Man was that scary.

"Impressive, there are not many who can evade me so easily like that." Zenitsu's heart stopped and dropped to the bottom of his feet. He didn't even hear him approach! He felt the tears streaming down when he looked up. The demon was in a modern foreign black and white suit with white fedora hat. He'd seen them featured in Gramp's magazines, both local and foreign. He yelped and fell down and backed into the wall, there wasn't much else he could do. He was too frightened to even consider fighting back. The demon, still very deadpan walked up to him, knelt down on one knee and raised a finder and did his damned fingernail grow into a claw?!

"I think," the demon said, monotone as ever, "I will keep my eye on you," he gently placed his finger right in the middle of his forehead, Zenitsu knew for sure he was a dead man, he didn't care how much he was crying right now. He told Gramps he wasn't cut out for this line of work.

"Let's see what we come up with, shall we." There was a sick wet sound and then everything went black.

He rubbed the spot where the claw had gone in. Not even a scar or dimple, like it never even happened. He sighed, standing back up and stretching. All he knew right now that he felt much, much better now. As he walked back towards his haori and sword, he rubbed his belly, hoping that the large meal would be enough to get him to his destination, wherever that was exactly.

"Where am I going too exactly anyway," Zenitsu asked out loud, "it's not like I'm part of the Demon Slayer Corps anymore...right? I don't have anymore missions to do...so what am I doing and where am I going?" he asked Chuntaro who had resettled back on his head. The bird flew off and started circling him while twittering and chirping. Zenitsu tilted his head, not understanding any of it. Sometimes, he wished he had gotten a proper Kasugai Crow, just for the simple fact of understating it.

Traveling in the woods for little over an hour silently in the direction Chuntaro told him to go, Zenitsu started to think of where exactly he was possibly heading towards. He hoped, he wasn't going some weird rout back to his Gramps home.

"Well, I certainly can't go home," he said nervously, rubbing his arm, "there's no way I could make Gramps so disappointed in me...also," he said as he gently gripped his sword, "I don't think I could handle the look in his eyes. He was the only one who believed in me...and I let him down." He sighed and shook his head.

"At least I have you," he reached up and stroked Chuntaro's back, "I hope I haven't upset you too badly as well."

There was a grumbling noise that made Zenitsu stop dead in his tracks. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't. He felt his stomach, nothing felt any different. What gives? He felt another small pang and started to cry.

"It's only been an hour," he said between sobs, clutching his gakuran jacket, "I ate the whole damned thing and I'm already hungry again? Why?! It's not like it was small or anything," he started yelling out loud to nobody, "it was the size of like, a little kid! I just...I. Just," he sat down wallowing in self pity putting his head on top of his knees as he hugged his legs, "what the hell exactly am I?"

He sat there for some time just quietly thinking about life. Every now and again his stomach would rumble and he would press on it to try to stop it.

"I just fed you so shut up," he mumbled to himself, "if I ate anymore, I'd probably pop." He looked up at the sky, he wasn't sure what time it was, but he had a feeling it was time to start looking for a safe place to hide for the day. He picked his sorry self up and looked up at Chuntaro (who again had nestled on his head).

"I need to find a place to stay for the day," he said quietly, "maybe there's a hollow tree or something."

He wandered around looking for something suitable for him. Twenty minutes later, a little too close to dawn for his liking, he found a old badger den. He bent down and examined it and listened for anything inside, hearing and finding nothing he began to clear out the den to make it more suitable for himself, taking off his haori so it wouldn't get soiled. When the den was ready he crawled out one last time to look up at Chuntaro.

"I'm going to try to finally get some sleep," he said to the bird, "I don't think I've slept once since I've turned. Do you want to..." but when Chuntaro didn't move from his perch, he understood and didn't finish.

"Well," Zenitsu said turning back to his den, "I'll see you around sundown then, have a good day Chuntaro." He crawled deep inside the den and curled up. He used his haori as a makeshift pillow, hoping it wouldn't get that dirty in the den. He heard Chuntaro leave his perch and fly away. Where could that bird be flying away too? Perhaps he's just getting food for himself? Hopefully. He felt another hunger pang and cursed for even thinking about food...then cursed himself for being such a gluttonous thing. Maybe he was like this because he had starved himself for so long? Perhaps, perhaps if he just ate a few more animals...things would calm down and go back to normal. Thankfully, for the first time in weeks, he felt himself finally relax enough to begin to fall asleep.

"Just like Gramps use to say," he mumbled to himself right before he fell asleep, " 'tomorrow's another day to get it right', maybe things will start to turn around soon."

The evening air had brought a slight chill from the neighboring mountains, but Kagaya Ubuyashiki had always enjoyed this time of day best. Even though he lost his vision, he knew this evening was a splendid one indeed. His Kasugai Crow shifted on his shoulder, it seemed restless over something. This crow wore a dark lavender scarf around its neck, identifying it as his personal Kasugaigarasu and was known as the most intelligent out of all known Kasugai Crows. Kagaya heard the tiny wing flaps of an approaching bird so he simply raised his hand in offering a landing space and soon he felt the small body of a sparrow.

"You're back again, little Ukogi," Kagaya said while stroking the birds' head, "tell me, what has become of my unfortunate child." Kagaya listened to the erratic birdsong of Ukogi with a soft yet sad smile. When Ukogi finally fell silent, Kagaya stroked Ukogi's breast gently with the back of his finger.

"I see," he said in his usual calm demeanor, "you've done so well, despite your own fears. Such a loyal Kasugaigarasu." He turned towards where Hinaki and Nichika loyally waited for any commands.

"Hinaki," he spoke out with a gentle smile, "please retrieve the orders that were prepared for this occasion."

"Yes Master," Hinaki said while bowing, then she entered the estate to do her task. Soon she had the small letter in hand and handed it to Kagaya. He then reached out his open hand for Ukogi to land in it, which he promptly did.

"It pleases me," Kagaya said while handing the small letter over to Ukogi, "that this is the path we are traveling down, I just pray that we continue down it. Now, continue being the example of what all Kasugaigarasu should be, and report anything noteworthy." With that, Ukogi leapt off his hand and flew away. After a small pause, Kagaya turned his head toward his own Kasugai Crow.

"I want you to follow them for a little while," he said stroking its neck gently, "though I do believe Ukogi, there is such a thing as being too loyal. And considering Muzan is directly involved in this, I will not take this matter lightly." The crow cawed and took off and flew in the direction that Ukogi left. Kagaya sat silently for a moment in troubled thought.

"Muzan Kibutsuji, you've taken so many of my children away from me," he said closing his blind eyes, "how many more must suffer before you are defeated? I will find a way to defeat you."