BUTTERFLY : SHINOBU KOCHO (PART ONE)

Part 1: Chapter 14; The Archangels

The sun had set, and the moon replaced it.

Night had arrived.

As the tides crashed against the beaches of Shimabara bay, and the docks housed the various trade and fishing boats within its borders, there was a ripple in the waters, one barely noticeable among the crashing waves, yet it was still carrying more power behind it than any other naturally-occurring phenomena,

All because of the two reasons behind it.

Irire and Razel had come.

The first to break the surface was the more cheerful one, with the young(ish) woman leaping out of the water like a whale and flopping back in, laughing as she did so.

Irire, on the other hand, simply floated up to the surface, with only his bright gold eyes poking above the water, grumbling to himself as they swam towards the beach.

"Hey, Irire, we're here a day early, aren't we?!" Razel called out as she splashed through the waves.

The old demon wished he could simply ignored her, but twenty years of servitude with her frequently at his side made him see that responding was the best way of keeping her from turning him insane.

"Ugh, we would have been earlier, had you not decided to haul around those disgusting bodies with you." The demon spat.

"Oh, don't be so meannnn!" Razel whined. She leapt out of the water once more, only this time, the three black wings attached to her back sprung out from behind her, flapping once and soaring into the sky with a long sigh of relief.

"Ahhh~, I missed spreading my wings like this~!" The raven-haired demon twirled in the air as she soared through the sky, a stark contrast from the old demon swimming through the water like a crocodile, with his eyes darting in every direction, looking out for anything of concern.

"You know, Irire," Razel's wings suddenly went limp and she fell from the sky, crashing right into the water, before popping right out like a buoy with a goofy grin on her face. "We could have gone faster, if you just decided to actually have some of the snacks I brought along for the ride, instead of starving yourself like that~"

"Oh, please, like I'd eat the disgusting carcasses you dragged behind us the whole time," Irire rolled his eyes, "The sharks were chewing those things up before we were even halfway here."

"That being said, though....."

Aa if on cue, a young couple walking across the long Shimabara coastline with their toes in the sand came into view, holding their lover's hand with a bright smile on their faces.

It brought a chilling smile to the two Archangels' faces.

"I'm pretty hungry, now that you mention it~"

Shinobu's eyes shot open, and she jolted upright out of her bedding.

The Insect Hashira felt as though something was wrong. Even in her sleep, she could feel out and sense when danger was approaching, and her sense was even more refined when it came to demons.

In long missions without a place to stay, an ambush should always be anticipated, as she would say.

Right now, though, she was feeling something else entirely.

There's a demon somewhere, I just know it.....

Shinobu reached for her needle blade to her right, and was thankful that it remained by her side, exactly where she had left it.