a snake in the flames

Sora looks around in the blank void, he then sees Kichi wander towards him "Sora if that man reports to the other slayers, you and I are going to be hunted down." "well, why don't you just detach and leave?" Sora asked, "because they would just hunt me down and probably execute you for working with a demon." Sora wakes up to see Kei and Dai both asleep "Kichi, how about we kill all the lower ranks and then find you a new host?" Kichi smiles "I'd like that Sora." as Sora sits down with Kichi the two talk for what seems to be an eternity.

the sound of screams can be heard, waking up Sora and the others "what was that!?" Dai asked nervously "I don't know but if it's a demon I'm killing it!" Sora busts down the door with Kei alongside and with Dai begrudgingly following along "Kichi do you sense anything?" "no, not yet at least." an idea springs to Kei's mind (thunder breathing, 1st form: thunderclap and flash!) she utilizes the speed of thunder breathing and seemingly teleports down the hall to where the scream came from. she kicks down the door to see a demon with four arms, jaw unhinged like a snake, fangs like a snake, lustrously long hair, red eyes that read lower rank 5, hands that looked dainty and dangerous at the same time, clothes that were fashionable and old-timey. "oh, hello." the demon had their hand and its fingers dug into the man's throat, blood leaking, Sora and Dai rush to Kei with their blades at the ready "so this is lower rank 5? a lot more beautiful than I expected." Dai said flattering the demon "oh why thank you, but I'm afraid flattery will get you nowhere, to me you're all just cattle." the demon tears their hand out of the man's neck and licks the blood, sucking his fingers "tasty, such viscous blood." he smiles pervertedly "tell me, is that another demon I sense?" Kichi opened a mouth on Sora to speak "yeah, what of it you pervert!" suddenly the lower ranks neck extends out and hits Sora, knocking him back, the lower rank then opens their mouth and fires tiny little spikes out, jabbing into Sora's body "ah!" the lower then retracts their neck back to their body "you think you mere slayers can take the Mieko Hebi? you make me laugh." Mieko said staring at the two still standing slayers, "my neck is as tough as your blades themselves." he boasted, Kei looks over at Dai to see he's shaking, Dai looks at Kei "whatcha looking at? let's get him!" they look at Mieko sitting on the windowsill, taunting them, "blood demon art: slithering slave!" the man that was laying on the floor stands up, his neck contorting, scales growing throughout his body, fangs sharpening, eyes turning pale and their tongue turning forked "you wouldn't kill a human would you?" Mieko falls backwards through the window and walks away. The snake man stands tall with their neck slithering side to side "Dai, you make sure this man is immobilized..." Kei stops talking as she watches Sora stand up at the snake abomination (Flame breathing, 1st form: unknowing fire) Sora slashes at the creature's neck, decapitating him, bringing the once-human creature peace. Sora bows at the head of the monster "thank... you." he muttered from his scaly lips "Sora! we could have cured him!" Dai shouts "no Dai, he was suffering and I had to put an end to it." Sora then jumped out the window following Mieko, Dai and Kei following behind.

Mieko arrived back at home in his rundown room with snake abominations roaming the place "evening." he said to a creature and then he goes deeper into his house, entering the cellar.

he walks down the stairs to see a skeleton in bed, Mieko has a bowl filled with stew and he starts to feed the skeleton the stew, he then washes the skeleton and then sets the demon in bed, he kisses the skeleton on the head "I'll be back don't worry." he then walks back outside to be met with Sora, Dai and Kei. Sora unleashes the wraps holding Kichi, Kichi fires blood at Mieko but he easily heals it "oh my, a demon and a slayer working together, the master would not like this." Sora then seemingly teleports in front of Mieko and gets ready to slash his blade through his neck, but Mieko's neck was too tough (he wasn't lying, I can barely budge it) Sora keeps trying to dig the blade deeper and deeper but Mieko grabs the blade with his fingers turning to snakes and he had them biting at the sword "oh watching you try is like watching a child try to be scary." he then elongates the snakes to have them wrap around the sword "a very puny child." he's ready to break the sword but then Dai slices Mieko's arm in half with the snakes losing grip and disintegrating with the arm "Ah! you bastard." he the jumps away from them and quickly regenerates his arm. Sora looks at Kei preparing the fifth form "oh wait, I know you." he pointed at Sora "I was with Kaori and he saw your house," Sora's determined look turns to hate "then he saw your house and only one person was there," Kei and Dai look at Sora, Dai confused but Kei worried for Sora "And then he and I killed your wife, your weak, ugly, disgusting wife." Sora's eyes glare at Mieko with infinite amounts of hatred "she tasted awful but Kaori liked her taste, oh how he slit her stomach open pulling out all her entrails "Kei what's with Sora?" "I don't know." the two slowly stand back and watch from afar, "her screams were music to my ears, but oh if I knew that she was your wife," Mieko walks up to the still Sora and then looks down on him "I would've made her suffer for longer." Mieko chuckles as he boasts about how he killed Sora's wife, "let's end this now." he then quickly jabs his hand towards Sora's head, ready to pull his brains out until his arm is slashed into four slices, causing him to jump back but he's grabbed by the arm of Kichi "stop." he pulls him back to him like a spring being compressed "what the fuck!?" Sora looked like a maniac with Kichi's arm growing blades "you're more than scum, more than trash, you're filth that I need to clean off this earth." Sora grows more frustrated as he thinks of the things Mieko said, thinking of his wife screaming for help, begging for it to stop.

Mieko extends his neck and uses it like a whip, striking Sora's body repeatedly but Sora doesn't react "you dare call me trash!" Mieko said as he strikes Sora even more "I called you filth, failure." Sora grabs Mieko's neck and slices his sword clean through Mieko's neck (burn) Sora thought as Mieko's head flies off "No! I've got so many things to do before I die!" he starts spouting out "just die already." Mieko then grows another long head and reattached the severed one "huh?" Sora is confused with what's currently happening but he still holds the handle of his blade with great animosity "Oh my, seems you failed to cut my head off, now look." the two heads mock Sora but Sora doesn't care at all, Sora looks the demon up and down "not much of a challenge." Sora mutters before rushing Mieko, but Mieko hits Sora with his tough neck which ends up knocking him back. (dawn breathing, 5th form: blood-red rise!) Dai runs under Mieko and then slashes his swords upwards in a crossed horizontal position, that was like the sun itself was rising in front of them, "surprised?" Dai says but then another neck grows and the heads reattach.

Mieko then attacked the two with one head mouthing off at them "you think you can kill me, you'd be lucky to even see the sunrise!" Kei rushes in, seemingly flying over them (thunder breathing, 2nd form: rice spirit) she releases five arched slashes with such speed it could be considered like she took her sword out and just placed it back in its scabbard. "you think that the three off you can hurt me? it would take someone of hashira level to kill me!" he then swings all his heads, sending all of them back "if you all just became demons you'd be spared." as the three of them try to catch their breath they all also try to think of how to take this demon down.

as Mieko laughs he hears the sound of wind chimes and as he looks up he sees the masked man "I heard you called for a hashira, ask and you will receive." the hashira looks at Mieko and sheaths his sword with their wooden scabbard "I won't be needing to use my blade for this, a mere lower rank doesn't deserve to die by my steel." Mieko's heads all look at the hashira and laugh "how cocky, well nonetheless I'll kill you and them eat you by starting with your legs." Mieko runs towards the hashira and turns the two heads into snakes and then they spewed poison at the hashira but he dodges it (water breathing, 7th form: drop ripple thrust) he lunged his sword forward like a raindrop splashing in a puddle, he plunged the wooden sword into the snakes neck and then turns the sword with ease whilst it lays in the neck (water breathing 1st form: water surface slash) he then with ease cuts the three heads off, watching them flop to the ground "tch." Mieko smiles knowing he'll grow more heads and reattach them, but they don't. "what...." Mieko looks up at the hashira's scabbard to see it had a thin lining of steel "well it was nice while it lasted." Mieko sees a tall woman in bed, her skin was pale, her hair a lustrous dark black, blue eyes, pink kimono with stripes and a begging look "Etsuko, I feel better now, can we finally go outside together." she coughs continually, Mieko sweeps his wife off her feet "yes Kanna, we can go now and I'm sorry to keep you waiting. Kanna kissed Mieko and he began to tear up as the two of them walk into the fire.

the hashira watched the demon turn to ash, a Kusanagi crow comes down and rests on his shoulder "tell everyone that lower rank 5 has been killed." the hashira holsters their sword and the crow flies off to spread the news "well that's my job done." he then walks away as the sun slowly starts to rise but then Kei looks over to a sakura tree to see a samurai one a horse, their horse had horns, one eye red and the other black, but the samurai had a cloak made of straw, samurai gear, bow and a samurai's katana, earrings that held Ruby's, eyes that were a charming pink and they read 'lower rank 6' he grabbed his horses reins and untied them from the tree, he looks at Kei and bowed down at her in respect since they lived after fighting a lower rank.

Sora had Dai pick him up "nice job idiot, first you work with a demon and now just because he made you angry we nearly lost you." Kei snapped back to reality and dusts herself off "you four, come with me to my place." they all walk back with the hashira to his home to rest up.