•All Coiled Up• {KnY Oc}

•Chapter 1•

"Serpent breathing, second form: Venom Fangs of the Narrow Head!"

Yumei moved swiftly, appearing behind her demon opponent and quickly decapitating the monster with one clean, precise slice. She watched as its head gradually slid off its body, hitting the stone path with a thud. It began to disintegrate, soon reducing to dust in the soft breeze.

The young slayer let out a quiet sigh of relief, proud of what she'd just accomplished. She had fought and killed two demons by herself that night. But her pride was short lived, because the pain from the battle had finally started to catch up to her.

Yumei examined her visible wounds, taking each cut and bruise into account for later. Afterward, she used the sleeve of her torn haori to wipe the blood and sweat off her face. Luckily, she had about half a flask of water left, which was more than enough to partially soothe her dry throat.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted her little white python, Chichi, creep out of his custom made pocket on the front of Yumeis uniform. "Rough day, huh?" She asked her companion as she gently pat his little head. A few quiet moments passed before Yumei caught sight of a familiar crow perched on a branch above her, sitting extremely still, as if it were in a haze.

"Kumo! Is that you? Why haven't you said anything?" Yumei raised her voice enough for the bird to hear and waved to get it's attention. She was still fairly close to the village where the majority of the fight took place, so she didn't want to disturb the people nearby.

The crow seemed to snap back to reality once it heard Yumeis voice. "CAW!" It screeched as it flew down to the girl, landing on her arm, "NEW MISSION NORTHEAST! NEW MISSION NORTHEAST!"

"I thought this was my northeast mission..I've got another one already?" The slayer looked at her crow in confusion, but it quickly shook its head. "NO, SORRY! TIME FOR REST! THE NEAREST WISTERIA HOUSE IS WEST! WEST!"

"Alright, alright. Quiet down, Kumo," Yumei searched her pockets for the few wild berries she had wrapped in cloth. She pulled the small bundle out and gently unwrapped the sweet red berries, popping one into her mouth before offering one to her crow, "Here, for actually remembering what you were going to say instead of completely zoning out."

Kumo happily took the berry and soon began to lead Yumei through the night and toward the wisteria house. It wasn't awfully far, but with the injuries she sustained, Yumei was having a harder time keeping up with the bird.

"THE WISTERIA HOUSE IS UP AHEAD!" Kumo announced, making Yumei wince at the sudden change in volume, but she was relieved overall.

"Thank the stars," she muttered to herself as the house came into view. Yumei picked up her paced suddenly, as if the thought of a meal and place to rest had given her an adrenaline boost.

The girl knocked on the gates of the house, waiting patiently for only a minute or two before the gates slowly opened, revealing a young woman. She immediately recognized Yumei as a demon slayer and invited her in.

"Welcome. Please follow me to where you'll be staying," the woman gave Yumei a warm, welcoming smile, "Unfortunately, the doctor that tends to our guests recently left after taking care of another slayer, who arrived a couple hours before you did. The doctor won't be back until dawn."

"Ah, that's alright. It doesn't seem to be anything major." Yumei reassured. There's another demon slayer here..? Hm.. She thought to herself, wondering if it was anyone she'd recognize.

The woman continued to explain a few things to Yumei, saying that she'd be bringing out a meal and a change of clothes soon, and that she would need a few minutes to prepare a futon. Yumei nodded, making sure to express her gratitude towards the woman and apologizing for bothering her at such a late hour.

The woman lead Yumei down a hall, opening one of the doors to reveal an empty room. "I'll be right back with the change of clothes, as well as  your food."

"Thank you," Yumei nodded with a smile. The woman ended up being back in far less time than Yumei would've expected, but she accepted the clothes and food gratefully. She quickly got cleaned up and changed out of her dirty uniform before putting on the clothes the woman provided.

Soon after, she began eating, and by the stars, the food was delicious. It was definitely worth getting a little beat up for. Her mind constantly wandered back to the thought of another demon slayer being close-by. Could it be Kanao? I'd love to see her again.. Whoever is it must be sleeping by now, though..

The woman had gotten Yumei's futon ready while she ate, and she promptly got herself comfortable. Chichi slithered over toward the futon, curling up into a ball beside Yumeis pillow. "Goodnight, Chichi," she whispered, falling asleep shortly after.

~^•{A/N}•^~

So, I haven't touched this in literally forever (a little over a year) but I recently got back into Demon Slayer so I decided I'd try to actually write as much of this I can.

Also, I lied. I don't like writing in first person anymore, so it's in third person now! Yay!

One other thing, I will be rewriting all of the backstory chapter because I don't like how it's written anymore and I wanna change a few small things. I probably should've done that before I published this, but whatever.

Thank you to the very few people who are gonna read this!

Wren, out.