𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬𝓪𝓵 𝓓𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮 (ᴋɴʏ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀxᴛᴘɴ)

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟠

(Y/N)'s POV

"This is Carol, one of your new siblings." I looked at Carol with a smile. Another sibling I have to save. But with Sister Krome here, things have become much more complicated. I heard Norman and Ray whispering so I decided to listen in. "Now we have 16 kids under the age of 3 to protect."

"And our current enemy is no longer Mama alone." I sighed and looked at Emma. Her face held a look of fear mixed with desperation. One I've seen one too many times. It was exactly what the other demon slayers I had to work with looked when they knew they were about to die. My facade faltered a bit, remembering that look and the ones that came after. All the pleading faces of the other demon slayers rushed through my head. The look in their eyes, directed to me, pleading for me to step in and save them. Yet I couldn't.

I didn't notice that I started to breathe faster, tears starting to form in my eyes. I only noticed when Ray put his hand on my shoulder, asking me if I was okay. Broken out of my thoughts, I looked him in the eye and nodded. I put on a smile once again.

"Okay children, time to go outside and play!" One by one the kids ran through the door, eager to play. The four of us also went out, running to a tree far away from the house. I ran ahead of them, jumping up the tree and onto a tree branch, laying there. It always helped me calm down, feeling the slight breeze rustling my hair, looking up at the leaves and small patches of sunlight that peeked through them. I heard a thud and the tree shook a bit. "Rats!" I sat up and looked down at the three of them. Seeing Norman's clenched fist resting on the trunk of the tree, I assumed he punched it.

Ray was leaning his head on the tree, looking up at the branch I was on. I smiled at him while he just nodded. "Things aren't looking great for us." he started. "I also don't like the fact that she moved into that room."

My face fell, remembering the room we were tasked to clean. I can't believe I didn't notice sooner. Of course, Mama won't let us do chores that don't have meaning. It might be a way to take up our free time but there has to be a good reason for it or else it will just look like she's punishing us for no reason. That might make the kids lose some of their trust in her. And it doesn't help that it's in the middle of all our rooms. I looked at them again when Norman started talking.

"Re-organizing the food supply, checking the extra sheets for any defects... We've been tricked into preparing for welcoming a second enemy into our grounds. It was obvious from those hints... how did I not notice?"

"Well even if you did, it's not like we could've done anything to stop her from coming." Ray countered. "There's no need to-"

"That's not the point though. Mama was intentionally sprinkling hints in front of our faces the whole time! If she had wanted to truly catch us off guard, she wouldn't have made us do just those three chores." I looked at Emma and saw that she was feeling a bit out of place so I caught her attention and held my hand out to her. She took my hand and I pulled her up onto the branch I was on. Now both of us are sitting on it, our feet dangling below. She smiled at me thankfully while I just smiled back.

"If we truly want to escape, we have to overcome that mother of ours!" Norman continued.

"But we also have to remember that even us panicking like this may be part of Mama's plan. 'I am above you all in terms of strategic thinking. I know all of your plans so just give up.' The fact that she's leaving all kinds of hints for us proves that she's trying to intimidate us into submission." My face soured at the thought. It made me remember the tactics of some demons and demon slayers alike. Like how some lower demons pretend to be a part of the 12 Kizuki or how some demon slayers pretend to be a Hashira to scare their enemies.

"If that's the case, we shouldn't be backing down here. As long as we manage to get out of here, in the end, victory is still ours. So basically don't feel bad because that's what the enemy wants. In fact, we should be celebrating right now." Ray continued. "Huh?" Both Emma and I said aloud.