Yankee
Cyadical
Cu Chulainn
Izurich
Eventua
AlteredTundra
6 P.M: Bright Sky, Hidden By Rainclouds
The boy demon and the student of the Storm Pillar were now surrounded by a six assailants in their immediate vicinity. The slayer took a stance, his right leg drawing forward with both hands fixed carefully on the handle of his blade. Spring rain began to pour down, the world was mourning this moment, ripples in the koi ponds causing the large fish to splash out from the water. This was indeed a beautiful scene for an execution. But for whom, exactly? The assailants drew closer, they were guised from head to toe in black and more importantly they were silent. Not all of them held katana, some with kama, one with a spear, and one even held a bow with a drawn arrow aimed directly at the swordsman. "Strange." The student thought, his brown hair stuck right above his brow as rain dripped through, eyes glancing between the many enemies. "They're looking at me." He muttered quietly to the demon at his side, which was bound and unable to do even if they were looking at him. "Perhaps they wish to dispose of you first, and then capture me" The boy demon grunted and began to shake his own head, inky black strains of hair falling past his vision.
The eight men stood at the ready, there was hesitation, a respect for the student's skill as if he were someone that should not be take lightly. "Whatever the case, they won't be taking you while I still breathe." The brown-haired student flared his nostrils as he took in deep-deep breaths of oxygen, filling his lungs to their maximum capacity and tensing the rest of his body as he prepared to utilize the training that a pillar had beaten into him over so many years. Veins protruded in his head, and then in his legs, the boy's small black boots dug into the mud below. The eight men reacted to this, those with the katanas and kamas charging in first. Though the moment they moved the boy would smile in response, his crooked teeth showing those who watched that he had felt relief. "First Form: Tenkiame." The student muttered quietly, with a humbling speed and precision his bronze-silver blade was drawn in an instant and he swiftly stepped through the charging men weaving through their poor for and technique to slash at non-vital spots upon their body, to wound them enough to fall to the soaked ground below. The spear-wielder and bowman watched with awe, though they were there for an obvious reason and there was no time to admire a Demon Slayer's swordsmanship. The archer quickly began to fire arrows, skillfully so, aimed for the student's head, torso, these projectiles had the intent to kill. The spearman also showed a degree of skill, atleast in comparison to the katana and kama-wielders from before. Were these simple mercenaries?
The student was struck by an arrow in the left shoulder as he blocked a strike from the spearman. Breath of the Storms was suited for multiple opponents, but definitely not for various ranges of multiple opponents. The student turned to the demon boy and sternly spoke to him as he remained still and silent. "Get to the Estate, wait for me at the entrance!" And obediently the demon stood up and swiftly ran to the entrance of the building, the large wooden doors eerily covered with dust and cobwebs. While the student defending against the remaining two opponents, the demon pressed himself closer to the door. It was silent within such a large, imposing building, was it abandoned or perhaps the denizen within didn't get many visitors often. Another arrow would catch the Demon Slayer's back just puncturing quite deep and allowing a small stream of blood to begin to flow out following the flow of water. He was only a student after all, and while he showed promise he had only just mastered the first form of Breath of Storms. His breathing became heavy, but his eyes narrowed down upon the archer who had continued to make a greater distance from the spearman. Another deep breath was taken, which the spearman reacted to and began to charge towards the student once again in an attempt to interrupt his technique, but the feign had drawn the final melee opponent close enough to have an opening. The student spun towards on his feels to face the spearman in an instant and utilized the same technique that had eliminated the other assailants, a brief swift advance with a drawn blade that equal so swiftly cut through the spearman's chest. Though upon his elimination of the final melee combatant, an arrow would have been fired aimed for the back of the student's head.
Instinctively the demon boy would sprint from the door of the building, leaping towards the arrow and catching it within his mouth. Sharp fangs bit down on the wood snapping it in two and staring aggressively at the archer with glossed amber eyes and predatory slit pupils. "If he won't kill you all, I will." The demon boy spat, backing up defensively towards the wounded Demon Slayer. "Well said! That is exactly what I was waiting to hear!" An incredibly short figure sitting upon the ledge of the River Pillar's estate yelled, his voice cracking as his tone raised. He'd then jump from his position landing square in front of the two, his odachi was hung horizontally at waist height and loosely flopped around with the boy's the movement. The sword was large than him, and it seemed to have weight to the thing too. The archer grunted in defiance, reaching into a black pouch at his side pulling a few small grey spheres and throwing the to the ground. As contact was made with the wet mud, the spheres ruptured and exhumed thick clouds of black smoke. The odachi bearing swordsman rolled his eyes and finally turned on on his heels to face the wounded student and the demon. "Now then- about defecting from the Demon Slayer Corps! How about it, are you interested?" The River Pillar asked the two, a confident toothy smile on the youth's expression.
The grizzled elder pillar stood in a large wooden council room with the other pillars, Kiyoura Saburou, Kikumi Mori, Itoshi Maria, and Fushigi Yuu. The traces of the demon and boy's scent would be noticeable to those with keen senses, and to those with a sharp mind they would notice other signs of evidence. Wet foot prints, traces of hair, threads from the demon's bindings. But what was more important were the reactions of these people who were the very pillars that supported the Demon Slaying Corps, the foundation that kept the very operation afloat. There was tension within the building, the sound of hard rain upon the soft wooden roof lightly audible just enough to break the silence almost melodically. Minatozaki Arashii the master of Breath of Storms and likely to most intimidating looking pillar among those attending glared out among his peers, his short gray hair marred only by the scar marks along his head, he wore an old-fashioned and plain looking black and brown haori, eyes a dull grey to almost give life to his bleak embodiment of his sword style. He was a harsh man, the Storm Pillar Estate ran the policing force of the Demon Slaying Corps known as the Executioner Squadron. They were hand-chosen swordsman that embodied the codes and law, by Arashii's view of course. These men and women were hardly free-willed beings anymore, wishing to simply be used as weapons without will in service to the Storm Pillar.
"I apologize for the short notice of this meeting, but it is of the utmost importance that this gathering is brief. Earlier this evening a student of mine came to this estate with a demon, his strength wasn't even that of a Lower Moon, but still I could smell that the damned thing had at least eaten ten-to-fifteen humans. Of my own mistake I didn't destroy it the moment it entered the premises, my student swore of innocence and wished to seek guidance from one of you on how to handle it without execution. Curious of what lessons he may learn, I dismissed my student to see what your impressions on the matter would be.
And now, the River Pillar whom was in charge of dispersing the Kasugai Crows and overall communication to Ubuyashiki has defected from the Demon Slayer Corps. The only reason I have caught wind of this first is because my student sent me a message from his own crow bearing Tamakawa's signature. The handwriting was unmistakably the little brats, and I should've known he was the traitor- but his ties to the Ubuyashiki made me doubt my own instincts. I have already dispatched my Executioner Squadron whom will undoubtedly track them down, but the River brat is quite strong so I simply asked them to notify me when their location is discovered. Now I assembled your council to discuss what our next steps shall be?"
His words were strained as he bellowed out to the figures who scattered themselves around the room. Each one having their own ideals they lived by, different perspectives and goals, the only thing that united them being their occupation and their status among the corps. Some of them got along, but not all, though few liked Arashii for his borderline immoral training methods. There were even rumors of him hiring his own men and women to the forces of Japan. Likely just rumors but still, the Storm Pillar was an ill-sight to most of those within the Corps in one way or another. At every exit was one of the Storm Pillar's students, sitting with their legs crossed and their head down as if to shut the meeting off from their minds and mentally disassociate from the location entirely. But what's more interesting is the lack of a training facility at the actual estate of the Storm Pillar, simply a large three story building in which only himself and his students could access any floor above the first. Curious entirely to those who were investigative, but that was not the matter in which they meant.
