“Just Masa?” asked Seiji, sort of hoping for a little more from the mysterious woman.

“That’s right. And who are you?”

“I’m Seiji Tsuji, that’s Saki Furukawa and Nerine.” With introductions out of the way, Seiji boldly pushed forward as though he already made friends with the woman. Saki and Nerine remained cautious and watchful on the situation, though also a little relieved that Seiji seemed to be having luck with her. “We’re looking for our friends. You wouldn’t happen to have seen anyone that was especially powerful or anything would you?”

“I only recently arrived in this land. So I can’t say that I have met anyone else that was strong. Though perhaps the ones you’re looking for are the ones that came through here before me.”

“You weren’t the only one here?”

“No, most of the demons in the area were already killed before I came. This is the only one that I killed.”

He looked back at the others for their thoughts. It gave them hope that they might have found them or a clue at least, since they were not present. “I wonder how long it might have been…”

“Roughly a day based on the corpses.”

Seiji turned back around to thank the woman, but she already started to depart, having sensed her need to answer questions ended. He found it a little strange that she didn’t give any sort of further notice. “Thank you, Miss Masa!” he shouted out to her as she faded away into the shadows.

Saki held her arms crossed thinking about what they learned. “So there were two different people, but they left already…” She tried to put the images of the battle sites in her mind, but they were a little foggy. It all seemed too vague to make any certainty that it was Yumi. Nothing further was going to be gained from here.

“We should look for another village nearby. The two we already went to knew nothing, so whoever was the other mystery person didn’t visit those.” Nerine looked around the horizon with any idea of a new course to take. Unfortunately, they had no new directions to take from.

Kicking around the dirt, Seiji looked about as lost as them on where they should go next. None of them knew the area and even if they did it would be no guarantee that it lined up with any reasonable degree with the real world. “It’s a damn shame none of us are trackers. We could try to find their footprints or something…”

The idea drew Nerine’s attention and then a heavy sigh. Her mind had been too focused on rumors and clues rather than something practical. “We can. I can use my power to scan for tracks. Though it could take a while to find something that could be them.”

“Yumi can also fly,” added Saki. She got a slightly annoyed look from Seiji as though she was trying to rain on their parade. Passing a shrug off, Saki deferred to Nerine. “I’m just saying. Hopefully, they walked away from here.”

Chapter 416 – On Friendly Steps

For more than an hour they searched. Nerine pushed her Field out to the limit that she could manage, already fatigued. Spread out, they realized that tracking would be harder than they thought. The area was home to a powerful demon and a vast group of low class demons. There were more than a few footprints to find. Add on top that there was fighting that destroyed much of the area, they had their work cut out for them.

Seiji moved around through the rumble and trees that remained. Another flag popped up for him between a few trees. Thanks to the way Nerine created the Field, it projected like a holographic augmented reality in the world to anything of interest. It did all of the work for them just leaving them to search, sort of becoming like a game. A line stuck up in the air alerting him to the clue. “Too heavy…” The read out gave the size of the feet, estimated height and weight based on what it found. It was enough to work from, considering they were looking for someone human it made it easy to quickly scan the data and move on to the next.

Further ahead though he found another that went alongside the tracks. This came with a pair this time with something within the range of being human. “This could be them! It’s all about right!” Pulling out a flare that Nerine made for them, he tossed it into the air to ignite with a trail of smoke down to him.

Almost immediately, he felt a displacement of air as Saki appeared at his side. It nearly made him jump, still not used to how quick she could be when she wanted. She looked over at the marks that he found. “This would fit with being Yuki from what I could guess. We might have found their trail finally!”

“But there’s one thing.” He pointed to the other footprints that followed after theirs. “It looks human, but seems a little too damn heavy.”

“Demons can shift forms into a human figure. They could have a demon tracking them, but given it's just one of them to the rest of the demons and the area I’m not sure we have too much to be concerned about.”

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“If they don’t get their shit jumped.”

“Right…”

Sound of leaves brushing together came from behind them. Nerine finally caught up to them to join them with the clue. “Found them?”

“We think so. It goes off this way to the northeast.”

They quickly discussed the possibility and agreed to follow the tracks. Nerine gave them a path to follow for a bit before she needed a rest from her powers. It was enough though to get them out of the demon’s domain. The one thing that worried them all was the time behind them. If the woman they met was correct, they were a day behind them. It was a lot of time to make up.

Seated around a hastily crafted fire, they munched on some packed food. Nerine was nearly asleep having only eaten a little and looking the worst out of them. Saki felt bad about how much they relied on her and pushed her. If they weren’t under such a time sensitive mission they could take it easy. And even before they met up it sounded like from Seiji that she kept herself very busy just keeping a normal appearance.

She looked down the hill they sat on at the road, a dirt path, they discovered. Likely Yumi or Yuki took that to the end. Without knowing where another village would be it made the most sense. “We’ve got a chance at least since they’re on foot still.”

“Yeah, if Yuki’s with them he could have made a damn vehicle of some sort shit.”

“Knowing him, he prefers the leisurely walk.”

“Yeah, he’d probably want to see the area.” Seiji finished up his small bit of food from what Saki threw together for their trip. It wouldn’t last for too many more days, but they would be able to get to a village or town to find something. “What the hell do you think they're trying to do?”

“Survive if I had to guess. This isn’t like some game where there is a defined goal laid out for us or some story that’s just going to drag us along a path.”

“Maybe we missed it or some shit?”

“It’s not wise to think of it like that.”

“But you believe there’s a purpose to all this shit.”

“Yes, but that purpose doesn’t mean there is a destination we need to reach or a goal to win.”

“I guess so…”

“We’ll catch up to them soon enough and we can find out in person.”

An hour of rest was all Nerine gave herself before she stood up. She stubbornly insisted on moving out while they still had a track to follow. Employing her tracking Field combined with the horse and cart, they made good time in tracking the three sets of footprints. There didn’t seem to be any change with them. They continued uninterrupted down the road.

It only took them a few hours to catch up with what they guessed was where they stopped, a new village. Though given what they found, it might be more like a town than a village. It didn’t have the dense and wide population that they might have expected from a town, but there were too many huts and homes to be just a small village.

Falling into that middle ground between didn’t mean too much for naming purposes, it did however mean a lot to find them. There were a lot of humans and the tracks they made stopped being consistently straight. It only left them with one thing, searching the entire space until they found them.

“We should just yell, if it’s Yumi she’ll sure as shit hear us,” suggested Seiji.

“I’d prefer to avoid making too much attention. It might be slower, but I don’t want to put a big sign on our back.”

“Alright…” A bit of a disappointed sigh came from him. With them being so close already to their friends possibly, he didn’t want to have to wait any longer. But he agreed to split up and began their search through the village in the hopes that they were still somewhere inside. And finding out if there was a demon tracking them. It was somewhere in the village as well.

Knowing that something dangerous potentially lurked around any of the corners made their search a little desperate. They knew nothing about the intent of the demon. If it planned to attack the village or just wanted Yumi. It may want revenge for all of the demons she killed. There were a lot of unknowns and they needed to find them quickly.

Nerine immediately went in search of any place that travelers might gather. She fortunately came across something like a tavern and inn. It seemed that the village was large enough to support trade and business. “Excuse me, I’m looking for someone. Have there been any new faces today?”

The old woman behind the bar rubbed down a mug as she thought. It took her a moment and then snapped to attention. “Yes, there was a young man that sat in the corner for a while. He left though.”

“No one else?”

“No.”

‘His Majesty maybe?’ It wasn’t a lot for her to work from. She had to keep searching in the hopes of finding more.

She walked back out into the street searching around for something more to call to her. Before she could do that though, she heard some raised voices to her right. There looked to be a small little gathering. ‘A fight?’ Then she realized who she was traveling with and hurried over praying that he didn’t let his eagerness overcome his senses. And then she remembered who she was talking about.

‘Please don’t be him…someone else…please…’ Nerine pushed around the few people in the back to break through the gathering. It felt like most of the village was all around them. And then she popped out into the opening, finding two men staring each other down. “Of course it is…” she moaned, recognizing Seiji as one of them.

Pulling herself together, she marched out to Seiji grabbing his arm. “What are you doing? We’re looking for Yumi you idiot!”

“Yeah, but he asked me if I was strong.” Seiji pointed over to the man that found some interest in him.

She looked up at the stranger, finding him a little odd, if not a very attractive man. There was just something that she couldn’t put her finger on that made him seem just not quite human, even though he was completely so.

The man politely nodded in agreement with Seiji. “That’s right, young miss. I happened to feel a curious energy in the air that seemed to come from this young man. So I was simply making an inquiry.”

“A simple inquiry…” Nerine looked around at the crowd that gathered. “I don’t think it’s very simple when you have this much attention.”

“The young man did offer to give me a demonstration. He’s been very accommodating.”

“Yes, I would imagine so…” she said glaring at him.

Seiji recoiled slightly with a slightly blue sheepish expression coming across his face. “What?! It was him asking!”

“And you didn’t say no.”

Suddenly, dropping in from the air a shadow appeared whacking the tall gentleman in the head hard enough to bend him over a little, though he seemed unfazed by it all the same. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?! What happened to low profile? Geez, I can’t leave you for one minute on your own! Come on, we’re going!” They started to drag the man away.

“Yumi?!” Seiji managed to utter in shock, not really sure what the scene was that they just saw play out.