Pausing, having heard her name called, she looked back around the demon to Seiji and Nerine. “Seiji?!” It took a moment for it all to fully click with them. The processing almost seemed to appear visibly before she ran over to him, dragging her demon companion with her. “Seiji!” She quickly grabbed him to see that he was real and then hugged him tightly happy finally to find more of her friends.

Nerine cleared her throat as the two hugged out their reunion trying to get them to pay attention to the surroundings. Though they didn’t seem to do anything to stop them or even alert them. After a minute she managed to get their notice enough to have them separate. “Is it just you Yumi?” she asked first.

Wiping away some tears, Yumi looked over at Nerine. “Nerine!” She then proceeded to hug her tightly, completely disregarding the question. Seeing the crowd around looking at everything happening only made her face turn red. She looked at Seiji for help, who only encouraged it with a look like why she wasn’t hugging Yumi back. Looking over at Yumi’s traveling companion he merely shrugged to her looking rather amused by the scene.

Another minute had to pass before she got free from Yumi and could get an answer from her. “Oh right, you asked that before didn’t you! Yuki’s with us as well. He’s resting right now.” Yumi poked around the two of them looking for anyone else that might be with them. “Is it just you two?”

Seiji popped in for the answer. “No, Saki’s with us too! Though I’m not really sure where the hell she is right now…”

“Behind you all,” she muttered, having managed to keep out of the excitement by not entering the crowd. Though that didn’t stop Yumi from charging after her to give her a hug as well happy to see more friends. Saki embarrassingly gave her a pat on the head.

“Is my brother with you as well?”

“No, we haven’t seen him yet.”

“Oh.” Suddenly, very cheerful, a bit of a contrast from what they remembered the last time they saw her almost like she was channeling a little Yuki, she casually pointed over to her tall companion. “This is Manekamaru, he’s a demon.”

Chapter 417 – Complicated Companions

“Wha?!” the three yelled, not really sure how she was dropping that so simply. Though she didn’t even seem fazed by it. The rest of the villagers that gathered just started to disperse for some reason losing any interest in what was happening.

Seiji slid in on Yumi’s free left side to whisper to her in the least discrete looking manner possible. “Are you being serious, Yumi?”

“Yup,” she replied flatly with the energy she had starting to drain. “I’m stuck with him for now until one of us kills the other.”

Slipping back around, Seiji checked with the so-called demon. “She’s correct, young man.”

“It’s Seiji,” he corrected as though that was the thing wrong with what came out of either of them.

Pushing Seiji down out of frame, Saki jumped up trying to get something straight, since he failed to do so. “This man’s a demon and you’re planning to kill each other and you’re fine with that?”

“Fine might be overstating it.”

Now that the crowd left fully, Manekamaru stepped to the side with an invitation. “Might we move this to a different, more private location?”

“Yeah…” Saki still had trouble following it all. Nothing really made much sense at the moment and she just hoped that she was dreaming it all. Though none of that would happen. She could only agree and follow with great curiosity to what was going on now. “You’re going to need to fill things in Yumi.”

“I will.”

Back at the far end of the village, Yumi directed them inside an empty house that looked about ready to fall apart. Likely abandoned a while ago, which probably made it easy for them to just move in for a break. Back in the corner, Yuki laid propped up against the wall. “Hey everyone! Welcome to our little nest egg!”

“Yuki!” complained Yumi at his teasing. Ever since he noticed her taking it better he had been toying with her more frequently. She started picking up on it lately with this attitude change.

“Well don’t sound excited to see us or anything,” Saki threw back at his less than enthusiastic reaction to them finally finding each other after being apart for about two weeks.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I’d stand up and hug you, Saki, if I wasn’t sore from all of the walking.”

“Sore from a little walk? We walked all of Atlantis, what’s a little walk for you?”

“Yuki’s recovering from some injuries,” Yumi quietly inserted.

Nerine quickly rushed over to his side to check on him. “Are you in need of healing, Majesty?”

“Nerine, titles…”

“Sorry…Y-yuki…”

Pulling up a seat next to Yuki, Saki settled in for what she expected to be a very long story. Their new demon companion needed an explanation among other things. “So who’s doing the talking?”

“I will explain things,” Yumi offered as she sat down opposite of her. Everyone slowly pulled in around Yuki with the story time starting up. She went over their arrival as well as the village next to the demon forest. The battles she went through and the gauntlet up to the Cleaved Mountain. It ended on their journey away with Manekamaru in tow. “And so he’s tied to me.”

“Sounds rough.”

“You have no idea… He keeps bugging me to fight him. And I tried to get him to leave, but he refuses. So I’ve just sort of accepted him now because it’s just easier for me now.”

“I’m pretty sure any of us here could knock your shit around for you,” Seiji bluntly stated to the demon.

“No, he’s really strong. We fought to a tie, he’s not a pushover.”

“So I’m waiting for our next fight,” he affirmed with eagerness that looked familiar to Saki.

Not knowing when to stop, Seiji pointed out the obvious fact to him. “Well Yuki or Nerine could sure as hell do it.”

That seemed to ruffle his pride a little at the thought that either of them could be a challenge for him. He crossed his arms covering up much of his indignant reaction to Seiji. “I don’t fight the injured or normal humans.”

“They aren’t—“

“Seiji, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to give him the sort of fight he wants. You understand what he’s wanting.”

Reluctantly, Seiji folded on trying to defend his friend further. Even though he knew that Yuki could definitely beat the demon even as he was now. “If you say so…”

Their exchange however left Manekamaru even more curious and insulted. The implication that either of them could be a real challenge to him would have turned up his feathers, if he had them. “The way you act makes it seem like you’re hiding a vast amount of power. All you’ve displayed is the ability to heal.”

“I’m not the sort of fight you want. You won’t be satisfied.”

“Let me be the judge of that!” He reached out and grabbed Yuki by his collar, seeing him making light of his strength. An insult of power wouldn’t be ignored by him.

Yumi and Saki rose up in aid of Yuki, but he lifted his hand to stop them. A ripple spread out from behind him and he touched the demon’s forearm. He then squeezed tightly as a snap and pop came from within in a grossly painful sound.

Manekamaru recoiled his hand freeing Yuki and groaning in pain as he clutched his shattered arm. His eyes widened in surprise to see that Yuki managed to effortlessly crush bone. “What did you do?! You’re not that strong.”

“It’s my power. Like I said, it’s not suited to give you the fight that you want, an honest brawl of strength against strength.” He quickly dropped the Field and changed it out, healing his forearm quickly. Yuki then leaned back, sighing, wishing to have avoided the whole scene. “I’m a normal human, but I also have powers that make me an impossibly broken character as well.” Smiling to the demon, there was a bit of darkness behind his eyes shown to him. “You should be glad that I’m an honorable man or I could be very cruel.”

The sight of the presence that Yuki managed to push forth with merely that mask with a smile unnerved even Manekamaru. He swallowed his pride and didn’t push the subject further. Crossing his arms, he pushed the subject back to a new topic. “I see you finally purified the demon blood on you.”

“Demon blood?” Yumi asked, not really certain what that was about.

“I took care of that,” inserted Nerine, guessing that she didn’t know about it. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“You two are interesting…”

“Going to explain things?”

Seiji jumped in for that answer, since the others were slow. “I can answer that. Apparent demon blood allows any demon to pick that shit up on you within a radius and it can’t be removed without purifying it. Or you have Nerine do her thing.”

“I see…that does explain some things.”

Saki stood up and went through her bag to find a few coins. She walked back to Yumi and handed them over. “Do you mind getting us some food? We’ve been going non-stop since we found a trail for you and Nerine’s exhaust.” Running her hand through her hair and sighing heavily for more effect. “Honestly, I’m a little tired myself.”

“Sure! Coming all the way from the east can’t have been easy.” She skipped out of the house leaving everyone behind.

Confused by Saki’s action, Seiji looked up at her. “You’re sure as shit not tired. You hardly even managed to work up a slight increase in your heartbeat.”

She sat back down and stared directly at Yuki. “Yes, but I had to get her out of the room with a reasonable excuse.” There was one thing that she needed to confirm from him. It bothered her since she listened to him. “No lying, Yuki. You’re not injured still are you?”

“What the hell are you talking about, Saki? He got messed up by that demon he said.”

“You’ve been faking your injuries for a while now, right?”

A sigh came out of his lips as an opening omission to her question. “I am sore from the walk.”

“Yuki?”

“Saki’s right, Seiji. I’m fully healed. Have been since I took that walk to see the Demon Lord.”

Manekamaru raised an eyebrow to the revelation as well. He never really heard why or how they came by Yuki. They just captured him and brought him to his Lord one day. His Lord seemed to greatly enjoy his company so he didn’t question it too much. “What’s your goal?”

“You’ve already figured it all out haven’t you?”

“Now you give me too much credit, Saki. No, nothing like that.” Yuki looked over at the door where Yumi left. His mind thought back to seeing her in the village. He could see the path that she was proceeding now. “Yumi needs independence, this is her problem and I don’t want her relying on me to solve her problems or any one of you. This is her problem and she needs to stumble and fall down to find it. We just need to make sure to keep her in the general right direction. So I’m asking you now all to yield decision making to Yumi, no taking command now that you’ve joined us. This is Yumi’s fight.”