Demon Slayer 3
The Plan
Dawn came quicker than expected for the taijiya, Sango, as she mounted her motorcycle with a bag clinging to her back, and sped off into the early morning sunrise. Sleep didn’t come easy the night before, and for good reason. That small engraving of the letter ‘N’ had been plaguing her thoughts ever since she picked up the broken-off piece of machinery that fell from the demon the other day.
She rode into the city, whizzing past the sign reading ‘Welcome to Greyson City’. Sango praised herself on waking up in time to beat early morning traffic of workers going in for their first shift; there was a still a sense of urgency in the air. Her destination was fast approaching, just one more turn around a corner and she would make it within the next few moments. As her Kirara roared to a stop, Sango gazed up into the window that was located at the fifth story of the building. Just as the woman expected, the blinds were shut and a smile crossed her face.
‘The lazy bastard is still in bed…’
She thought.
Inside the apartment complex, Sango began walking up the steps to her dear friend, Miroku’s, apartment door. A faster set of pattering footsteps indicated that someone was running, but before she could asses from where the person was coming, a girl accidentally bumped into the taijiya sending the two crashing to the bottom floor. The mechanical piece flew out of Sango’s knapsack and hit the floor with a loud clang, alerting the slayer. After she scrambled to pick it back up, Sango looked up with concern for the other person involved in the accident. She found that it was a woman with bright red hair.
"Are you ok?" Sango asked while helping up the girl. Out the corner of the slayer’s eye she found a pair of sunglasses and went to pick them up. "Here you go. It’s a good thing they aren’t cracked." She said giggling as she passed back the eyewear.
The girl furrowed her scarlet brows as she snatched away the shades and covered her crimson eyes. She dusted herself of any dirt and proceeded to walk past Sango in a huff.
"Watch where you’re going next time…" The woman said disdainfully.
Sango placed both hands on her hips and snorted angrily; the nerve of city dwellers sometimes! Brushing off the rude woman, Sango restarted her climb up the stairwell, surprised to see that Miroku was staring down at her from the very top.
With a yawn and a scratch of his head, Miroku gave Sango a sleepy smile as he greeted her. "Quite the commotion down there; is everything alright?" he asked.
The slayer rubbed her behind in hopes of easing a bit of pain and returned a smile, "Oh yeah! Aside from that chick that irritated me a bit, I’m perfectly fine."
Sango was suddenly greeted by second hand, not her own, that was rubbing on her backside as well. In a fit of rage, she promptly let her palm come harshly into contact with the man’s face. Unsurprisingly, he sighed in defeat and walked after the storming slayer into his home.
"Jeez, first you wake a man from his sleep, then strike him, and now you’re barging into his home. I thought better of you Sangs." Miroku joked, only to be met with a harsh glare and a piece of metal pressed against his chest.
"I came here in hopes you can help me solve this mystery." Sango began. "Yesterday, I had the honor of fighting off a demon with various places of its body covered in mechanical pieces. I defeated the monster, but this part of the beast fell off and engraved in it is the letter ‘N’. I was wondering if you know of any big name manufacturers whose owners have this initial."
Miroku quirked an eyebrow questioningly as he observed the foreign object before shaking his head in the negative. Miroku was famously known as a know-it-all, so it shocked the slayer that even he couldn’t give her the answers she needed. However, Miroku was a man of science. He made a beeline to his study, which was covered in a mess of opened books and loose papers blanketing the wooden floors, and placed the mechanical piece under a microscope.
Sango looked over the scientist’s shoulder and huffed, "What’s that going to prove?" She asked.
"No need to be skeptical my dear. You said that this thing fell off of a demon correct? Well if I search for any signs of DNA, we can trace this directly to a specific type of demon. Who knows, maybe that half machine, half beast was a one time-"
Miroku was cut short an explosion was heard coming from outside. The man and woman instantly scrambled to the window overlooking Greyson City and saw a thin line of smoke emitting from an area a few miles from their current location. A fierce roaring echoed throughout the air and Sango immediately ran into action.
"I guess we’ll continue this later, I have a demon to take care of!" She shouted as she ran out the door.
Miroku stayed by the window observing the commotion going on, or what little of it he could see. Suddenly, he heard a faint, yet clearly identifiable whirring noise before being followed by a loud crash and an explosion. Knowing that Sango was already long gone, Miroku threw on some clothes and was out the door in a flash; getting in his car and driving off soon after.
…The Night Before…
"The plan is simple Reijiko… I’ll send out another demon-droid to wreak havoc within the city."
"But sir, wouldn’t that just attract even more slayers?" The red-head inquired.
"Ah, but only one of them knows how to stop my little creation. Once you’ve found the slayer who has the knowledge, capture him or her and bring our prisoner back to me."
Reijiko scoffed, capturing the boss’s attention. Naraku narrowed his eyes before questioning his subordinate.
"Is there a problem?" He asked, danger present in his voice.
"Chk, yeah… what if the slayer relayed his or her information back to the others? They’ll all know how to kill the beast."
"Then that should make your job a little easier shouldn’t it? Capture ‘the one’ or ‘any-damn-one’ who knows how to bring down the droids so I may administer the proper method of getting them to talk!"
Admittedly, Reijiko felt a little stupid asking such a question, but she felt that such inquiries were necessary when executing such an essential plan to ensure her boss’s victory. The red-head bowed down in respect before going off to unleash the demon-droid Naraku had prepared for her.
…Now…
Reijiko leaned against a nearby building, watching the mindless destruction before her. The droid was just brutish bait; just a brainless pawn in this mad scheme for complete and total control over the city. In fact, the crimson-haired woman had just witnessed the fall of many slayers trying to take on the challenge of taking down the beast. She was beginning to think that the first demon-droid was defeated on pure fluke, rather than being killed by a skilled warrior. She reached in her pocket to pull out a smoke, but stopped when something caught her eye.
A familiar woman rode in on the scene atop a motorcycle. She was carrying two pistols. Reijiko rolled her eyes feeling deeply skeptical that mere bullets would stop this powerhouse of genetic engineering, but her doubt immediately washed away when the first shots were fired and came into contact with the skin. Reijiko watched intently as the flesh of the monster began to sizzle and practically disintegrate. It then hit the red-head; this slayer must have been the one to defeat the previous demon-droid.
Just as she noticed the slayer end the battle with a giant blast from an even bigger gun, Reijiko figured the time was right to bring in her findings. Literally. The red-head positioned her hand in Sango’s direction and hurled a net made of a strong spider’s webbing towards her at break-neck speeds. The taijiya jumped out of the way and looked up to see her newest attacker emerge from the cloud of dust.
As Sango pulled herself to her feet, she gasped when she saw who it was before her. It was the same woman from her accident on the stairs.
"Well well." Reijiko started, "Looks like I’ve found my target…"