Much Snow

It has been two days since the clash with the Demons in the residential district. The warm sun rested its light across the chilly Sattokotta, the previous night had a massive snowfall that blanketed the village and thicker coat of white. Faolan sat around the now ash campfire reading his mother's book that she kept so close. He seemed to struggle to comprehend the message of the book with a wobbled expression that displayed confusion. He sighed and shook his head, he always disliked it when he couldn't understand, but he eventually made a 'maybe next time' gesture to signify that the battle is over but the war rages on.

"Perhaps another time," Faolan sighed and placed the book back into his pouch. He shifted his palms over to his shoulder, he had a massive sore that made his face sort of flinch, this was due to the damage he received when he zapped into the rooftops of the residential district. His mind now wandered to the situation from days ago. The Child Demon, pictured clearly, his remarkable eyes captured every piece of detail of it, from its hideous look, to its scratchy voice, to it's horrid talons..

After Faolan saved Utazo from the Talon attack, Faolan only had a few seconds before he went out cold, the impact of the crash had affected his head as well. From that day forward, Faolan awoke to the news that there was actually more than one Child Demon. Kagero mostly informed Faolan of what happened he and Utazo have witnessed, he recalled the conversation in his mind.

"Oiiiii Faolan! You've awoken!" Kagero's eyes were bright, Faolan sat up from the tent he was placed in near the campfire, he had bandages wrapped around his shoulder and head.

"Were you watching me the entire time?" Faolan felt a bit uncomfortable at the highly energetic Kagero watching over him.

"Huuuuuh! What do you take me for? You'd honestly believe I'd be doing something such as strange as staring at your completely unconscious body? It's not like I'm staring into your soul, inspecting every single fiber of your being but now that I think about it, it's a pretty crazy coincidence that you wake up when I have to watch over you for an hour. There's just some things in life that really want to take advantage of me huh? Maybe I do need to rethink the purpose of cards I've been dealt " Kagero's expression suddenly shifted from his usually excited personality into a serious character with an enhanced vocabulary speaking about some kind of philosophy, it seemed unreal to Faolan as Kagero removed his hat to flip it right back onto his head.

"What happened last night then, was Utazo-kun able to protect the village?" Faolan recalls the moment he shouted out to Utazo to 'Protect The Village'.

"We most definitely did, however it turns out that there were more Demons involved than we thought." Kagero flicks his hat from tilting too low on his forehead.

"There was more," Faolan glances at his blade and his mother's blade that laid neatly beside where he rested.

"Yup, it turns out there were many of those children looking demons and there was another demon who they called mother who came outta nowhere and vanished into the ground! It was surely some creepy stuff," Kagero crosses his arms and yawns.

Faolan returned to his thoughts on the situation, he had a freezing punch in his mind and a pressuring wind circulating his chest. 'That explains the mass disappearances of people, there wasn't any way for one demon to be causing this much dread in just one district. Yet something still feels off. ' Faolan quietly stared into his palms, his eyes gleaned for a tiny instant. For some particular reason Kagero felt that sudden change of energy, causing him to stop crossing his arms, yet acted like he didn't notice.

"Even after the information Utazo and I have gained from the encounter, ahhhhhhhhh it proved nonetheless except for one thing." Kagero releases a whimper, the statement confuses Faolan capturing his attention from his scruffed palms.

"Huh, why?" replied Faolan who gave a curious look.

"Yukina-san had gained the majority of the information at some point," Kagero eyes pointed upwards in wonder.

"She did?" Faolan asked.

"Yeaaaa, when we came back to camp carrying you she was already there!" Kagero's eyes exploded along with his arms. "And so when we were telling the higher rank Slayers about the multiple demons and a main demon, they were already informed and we just confirmed it!"

Faolan thought about Yukina, he knew that Yukina was a mysterious character, but he didn't expect her to gather almost everything they have found all by herself.

'Yet there's still something off.'

"By the way, that edgy higher rank Ketsueki watched over you the most," Kagero added.

Breaking from his train of thought Faolan replied, "I'll be sure to thank him."

"HUUUUUUH? SO YOU QUESTION ME FOR LOOKING OVER YOU BUT NOT THAT GROWN GUY, THAT GUY WAS ON TOP OF YOU?" Kagero's eyes exploded once more and his voice grew somewhat intellectual for some reason.

'Ketsueki-kun he means then.' thought Faolan

Faolan slowly raised his arms in caution, "I'm very sorry Kagero-kun, I should be thanking you," Faolan's eyes met with his palms once again.

Kagero for a split second viewed Faolan's blade sheathed in his wild ranting behavior, he nearly cluttered at the sight and sound of the darkly blade that was underneath.

"No problem, I was just kidding around," Kagero raised himself as he adjusted his hat, ready to depart from the tent for the moment.

It was hard for Faolan to comprehend Kagero's sudden changes of character, but Faolan's eyes knew that Kagero was being genuine. Kagero leaves after saying goodbye to Faolan in the tent. He continued to sit there in his thoughts wondering about the mystery of the demons in Sattokotta.

——————

Finishing his thinking about the conversation with Kagero in his mind from previous days ago. He continued on recalling to once he left the tent to announce to the Demon Slayers Corps. members that he's up and running, at least to the higher ups. He met with Ketsueki and denied him to continue since Faolan's head experienced a very light concussion, so he recommended to Jasumin that he needed to stay at camp for an extra day, Arashi didn't want to make an input because he felt that he wasn't responsible for bringing him to the mission. Jasumin asked Faolan for complete confirmation that he was ready, but Faolan denied that he was, following Ketsueki's wishes and he thought that an extra day would be a lot better for him.

However, Faolan wanted to speak to Ketsueki to discuss what he felt was missing about the investigation. But Ketsueki, denied to converse until he recovered.

Now he sits on the log around the campire from the previous nights, he had now caught up with his thoughts and returned to read the book his mother treasured again. Flipping to a random page he started reading something along the lines stating:

"I will give them a heart to know me."

Faolan now thinks about the meaning, and how he could apply it, but the idea seems more complex than just applying it than the last statement he read so he shut his eyes and merely sighed.

"Oh my, oh my," a very teasy voice approached.

Faolan looked to his right and Yukina stood with her palms being held behind her back. She again brought a mysterious wave of energy that Faolan couldn't understand.

"Are you just going to be silent the entire time? Or did I freeze you?" Yukina tilted her head in question. Faolan realized that he was just staring at her because his eyes were trying to configure her energy, and so he looked to the now ashed campfire.

"I was just looking into my book," Faolan replied, his hands were holding the book with his fingers still holding the same page.

"I see, do you care to tell me about what you were looking into?" Yukina had already decided to sit next to Faolan on the log.

"Uh well… sure," Faolan replied, Yukina gestured her attention to him without a word.

"So basically what I'm reading says that "I will give them a heart to know me… but that's all I get at the moment."

"Who are you trying to give your heart too?" Yukina's eyes were mischievously curious, Faolan peered at his book.

"I don't think that's what it meant," Faolan was nearly stunned at that statement she made, he shut his eyes and quietly shook his head.

"Well did you read the rest of the sentence?" Yukina added as she somewhat giggled.

"Yea.. there's more but, I want to figure this sentence out," Faolan replied.

"Perhaps you're making it difficult by not reading the rest," Yukina confusedly tilted her head again.

"My mother had told me that every word here has a certain meaning, so I don't want to skip over anything," Faolan added.

"Oh I see," Yukina curiously noticed how Faolan really wanted to figure this one sentence, 'He could just figure out the first sentence by reading the rest of the sentences, without technically skipping it,'she giggled with a soft fist silently covering herself.

Faolan was brought back to the conversation he had with Kagero, Yukina had already informed the higher ranked members of the mission about the investigation all by herself. Faolan, now seeing her, was very curious about how she found out so much. There was a small breeze of refreshing air between the two, and the snow glittered over each other in its own blanket, the warmth of the sun provided such refreshment especially to the trees that could be seen afar.

"How did you figure out so much about the demons?" Faolan asked, still looking into his book.

"Ahh, was it that difficult? Tell me you didn't expect that there was just going to be one demon causing this much chaos," Yukina places her palms on the log.

"I did expect there to be more than one demon at some point, that for sure… but what did you find out when we separated?" Faolan now casted an eye onto her.

"Well, when we were at the sheds I picked up a clue that led me to the local residential tea shop, and at this tea shop, I discussed with the owner about the situation and I rationalized with what I learned. I learned that there are multiple sights of disappearances all happening at different times, and I could confirm that because of what we're doing of course, also the fact that there wasn't just one demon making moves all the time, so I assumed that there were multiple demons, and you guys confirmed it in that clash. I just happened to report my findings before you guys finished with your little adventure," Yukina finishes with a slight giggle.

"Hmm," Faolan holds his chin in silence.

"Are you disappointed?" she giggles again.

"No, I'm just thinking of something else now," he replied.

"And what is that?" she replied.

"I feel like there's something off about those sheds," Faolan finally brought out his suspicions. Yukina tilted her head with his thought, she grew curious about what he may be thinking.

"Kagero-kun did report about many buildings being built in a matter of nights, the store owner also said the same thing, but we don't know if that is demon-related activity or just the government's doing, or both. Either way, it isn't negatively affecting the community, but that is suspicious; the others feel the same way, but I don't believe our code allows us to meddle with human businesses because the government does not technically recognize us, and if we did something to upset them, we as an organization could end up being in a whole lot of trouble," Yukina fixes her gloves, she now protruded a curious look to her expression, Faolan saw that she was suddenly analyzing deeply, at such a remarkable pace to be exact, it sort of amazed him.

He sat silently observing back into his book, yet at the same time the same thoughts of the shed took hold of him, and with Yukina further emphasizing about the buildings being rebuilt in an instant, he had learned of the buildings being made extremely fast on the day prior. It brought him back to his home,

'Could this be the work of one of those demons? Another kind at work? Living among humans? Making the village a better place? It just doesn't make sense; it could literally just be the government….. I could blow everything if I tried to get involved without permission, but maybe Ketsueki would have an opinion when he wants to speak to me.' Faolan sighed, hoping he could fully recover by the end of the week, however, he still desired to speak with him as soon as possible.

"I believe that we will continue our investigations tonight hence very soon; lately there has been little activity since that night… the demons know we're onto them," Yukina's expression was soft, but with an aggressive tone, Faolan felt like she was almost like she was frustrated when he glimpsed at her, but she it didn't seem like she was, he couldn't understand. "Well, I should get going then, I'll let the others know you're doing alright, farewell," Yukina stood to her shoes, placing her palms around her lower back once again.

Faolan quietly nodded, he observed back into his own palms, they were still extremely rough, and the small scars on his palms were disfiguring, yet there still was strong warmth to them. With much more snow to come, the freezing chill would try to regain its hold on the trees again.